Cooking v. Knitting

Besides the lentils I cooked a pot of white beans. My recipe for these is just in my head. It comes from several recipes I read over the years, mostly the one I remember from Cooking From an Italian Garden.

I use cannellini beans. Any white bean will do, but cannellini have a more 'meaty' flavor than other white beans so they will make a difference.

I do the same 'rapid soak' method with the white beans. I put them in a large batter bowl, cover with hot water, and boil in the microwave for about five minutes. Then I let them sit while I get everything else ready.

Everything else includes a large onion and several cloves of garlic, mostly smushed in my mini-food processor, three or four big pinches of sage, less rosemary, a couple grinds of black pepper, and this many juniper berries cooked together in olive oil in the microwave and then boiled with some white wine. How much of each relates to my mood as much as my cooking experience.

After I stir in the beans I add enough liquid to almost cover. The white beans also need more liquid added during cooking. I use  a bit more wine but mostly water. They cook for a few hours on high in a slow cooker, then on low over night.

So, other than baking where the chance of experimental failure is high and my modifications are minimal, I don't cook from recipes, though I often base my cooking on ideas from recipes. Sometimes I write down my versions.

Actually, the first recipe I remember writing was for a cake. It turned out well enough that my family ate it. My father really liked it, or said he did. I liked it. I must have been about ten or eleven.

In high school  I taught myself to knit from a book, but I didn't use patterns. Not many were available there and then and those I remember seeing seemed way beyond me. I did buy a stitch pattern book and devise scarves. That was about it.

When I took up knitting back up seven or eight years ago, I went straight to sweaters, but altered the first pattern I knit. It went okay. The second thing I started was a simple-ish large shawl I designed. I love books that discuss design-it-yourself sweaters like Elizabeth Zimmerman or Barbara Walker. Lately, I've started knitting scarves and small shawls that I create myself again, using all of my stitch pattern books. I have lots of sweater ideas in my head and a few drawn in a notebook.

I don't really think of myself as an advanced knitter; more intermediate. There are lots of things I haven't done. For example, my current project will include my first button bands. I've only done small colorwork projects.

Not everything turns out like I want it. That doesn't bother me. I'd like to wear mostly hand knit sweaters, but some of the ones I've made get worn very little and just at home. Still, I learned something from every one of them. I'm definitely a process knitter.

I really should knit more things from patterns. They'd teach me a lot, too.

I've just never been one to follow the recipe. It's a good thing that I like my own cooking.