My First Crochet- Baby's Blanket

About halfway through my pregnancy I started feeling like I needed to make something for the little guy. I was also on a rather extended vacation and needing something to fill the time!

If I was in the states I'm sure I'd have gone to Hobby Lobby and started a thousand different baby projects. Being in Morocco and without a sewing machine, my options were slightly limited.

Being an avid Pinterest user, one day I stumbled upon to this link to The Curious Pig. In this particular post, she links to YouTube videos and other resources that she used to learn how to crochet. After watching a few of the videos I decided to go for it!

I started by watching this lady's videos on how to make granny squares (about a thousand times). After making and undoing a few times, I got the hang of it and starting cranking out the squares.

Once the squares were coming together, I used a piece of paper and colored pencils to make my pattern. As the squares were finished, it was fun to lay them out and see how the blanket would unfold!

After many size changes and 120 individual squares, it was time to start linking them together.

This is where things got slightly complicated. There are about a million ways to link these squares together and I was a bit overwhelmed trying to choose my method! I originally planned to "sew" them together, but then I found this tutorial from Carina's Craft Blog.

With this method, you crochet the squares together using the same stitches as the squares themselves. I ended up mostly going with it because it adds some size to the blanket. The downside was that my pattern was altered- the diagonal lines no longer touched each other.

Being very much a beginner, I found the tutorial itself slightly confusing. You begin by sandwiching squares together and sort of working back and forth, but I found it really awkward and that I had to constantly flip pieces over and turn them to get the stitching in the right direction. This was fine for individual squares, but with the rows it became really cumbersome. She also doesn't explain how to finish once you reach the end of a row, so I kind of winged it. 

Once all the squares are in rows (see above), you put the rows together in the same way. At the end, I did basically a giant granny square around the outside to finish the edges.

Overall I'm so happy with how it turned out! Not sure if this will lead to a future in crocheting, but it was fun to learn and exciting to actually finish a project.

Now I just need a little baby to wrap in it!

Birthday Dinner- Chicken and Apricot Tajine

Mohamed loves trying new foods, but in the end he's a Moroccan food lover to the core. So, for his birthday I wanted to go Moroccan, but I also wanted to try something new. This chicken and apricot tajine was really good!

The recipe had a lot of liquid, so I was nervous about making it in the actual tajine. Instead, I went for the dutch oven. You start by heating 1/4 cup of oil over medium heat. Add chicken pieces, 1 large sliced onion, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp black pepper, a pinch of saffron and salt. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until chicken is browned.

Once the chicken is browned and the spices are fragrant, add 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 tablespoon of honey. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for around 20 minutes.

Once the chicken is cooked, add 1.5 cups of dried apricots and 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro. It's not in the original recipe, but also added a few potatoes, thickly sliced for some more savory substance.

Along with the apricots, add another 1/4 cup of stock, cover and cook for an additional 25-30 minutes. In the case of my potatoes, I think this cooking time was a bit too long (hence the mush looking photos), but I swear it was delicious!

Serve with bread and enjoy!

 Happy birthday Mohamed!

Room Revamp (the nursery)

Well, it's not just a nursery. As we don't hope to be living here for too much longer it didn't make sense to go all out and spend a lot of money to make a room where a tiny baby would maybe/sometimes sleep.

On the same token, I couldn't imagine not creating some kind of baby specific space (sad!) for my little guy and it seems like such a waste to have an entire second bedroom only being used to store junk.

A few before pictures.  I wish I was earning income for storing all of this stuff!

So, we turned our extra bedroom into a baby/guest room. It's already proven to be awesome to have a place for visitors to sleep that isn't the living room. They feel more comfortable and I don't have to tiptoe around in the mornings avoiding the main room of my apartment.

The first step was emptying and cleaning. It was A MESS and Mohamed did an amazing job. He scrubbed the floors, the windows, the balcony. This room is clean! (for now...)

Next, we (Mohamed) hung the curtains. The curtains were one of very few things that we actually bought for the room. It's a pretty massive jumble of colors and designs as for the most part we used what we already had in the apartment.

These are actually the third set of curtains that I bought. I just couldn't seem to find what I envisioned. So in the end, I just got what was most opposite of my original plan. It works!

Once the room was clean and the curtains were up, I couldn't help but insist on setting everything up immediately! What Mohamed wanted was a nap, but in the end he didn't like watching my dragging things in on my own ;-)

We went for a used pack n' play over a crib, toys are all from a used clothing market

Used changing table/bathtub that still needs a bit of love. New "closet."

These couches used to be in our living room.

The animal drawings were the final touch.  I was inspired by some nursery drawings that I found on Pinterest. They'd certainly look better framed, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They were so inexpensive and easy to do!

So, if you feel like coming for a visit, you'll have your own room!

Question of the day- Do you have a multi-functional room in your home? Does it work well for you?

Not Just a Cake- Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache

For Mohamed's 32nd birthday, I decided to go for the gold and make Bakerella's "Just a cake." Of course, the name can hardly be less fitting. This is not just a cake. This is an amazingly rich chocolate cake covered and filled with vanilla buttercream and topped with potent chocolate ganache.

This is not just a cake. Although all things considered, it was fairly straightforward to make.

First you mix the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Then add the wet (eggs, oil, vanilla, milk, hot water). Mix, pour, bake!

While the layers are baking, make the buttercream by beating together lots of butter and powdered sugar with a little vanilla and milk. I'm drooling.

Finally, make the chocolate ganache by heating butter and heavy cream. Pour the mixture over chunks of chocolate. Mix!

Once the cake layers have cooled, it's time to assemble! My layers were a bit flat, I think due to my oven being a bit too hot. 

Note that the buttercream for the filling is mixed with mini chocolate chips!

Sandwich and crumb coat (this was my first time crumb coating, this cake did not want to stay together).

More buttercream!

 Try to make it pretty...

 and pour the ganache!

 decorate as desired

If I make this again I think I'll make the cake layers in advance to break up the kitchen time. It was exhausting, but I think the birthday boy was happy. 

A word of warning. This cake is not for the faint of heart. It is extremely rich! Generally Mohamed and I could easily eat an entire cake in about 10 minutes. We could only handle one piece of this baby! It's meant to be savored and it held up really well in the refrigerator for a good 3 or 4 days.

For the full recipe, please see Bakerella!