She would merengue, and do the cha-cha

If it's Barry Manilow, it's got to be karaoke.

Last weekend, the Fort Greene/Cinton Hill Knit & Crochet Group held our 2nd annual Secret Santa gift exchange and holiday party at Duet 35, an AWESOME karaoke bar just north of Manhattan's 2-block Koreatown. Actually, it's a karaoke box, as they're called in Japan. You reserve a windowless private room for your party, pick up some Korean take-out (I got mine at Woorjip), settle in with a couple of microphones, songbooks (in English, Korean, Mandarin and Korean), possibly a few drinks and there you have it: instaparty.  We made our first visit there last year when we had our going away party for Brooke , and it was crazy fun, so we decided we to return.

The winter holidays can be stressful for crafters who make gifts, so we planned our exchange for after the holidays, thereby maximizing creativity and enthusiasm while minimizing burnout. The party was also scheduled very close to our girl Oiyi's birthday, so I made a cake to help her celebrate.

Red Velvet with toasted pecans.  Cream cheese frosting, yum! 

So the party was super fun, but that was no surpise. 

We ate and sang for a few hours before we got down to cake

and presents.  I've learned a couple of things since I first karaoked.  Here they are:

1. 
   
   No rap songs, unless you really know how to rap.  It's super hard to get the breathing right, and the singer always ends up huffing and puffing. You may love singing along to Kanye on the radio, but it's a bust in the karaoke box.
   
   
   
2. 
   
    If you don't know how a song begins, pass on it.  You'll start off awkwardly and never recover your sense of joy and excitement.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Ditto if all you know if the chorus.  Yes, it's fun to sing "I'm hot, sticky sweet, from my head to my feet," but there's more to Pour Some Sugar on Me than those lines.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   No one cares if you have a bad voice (you're not getting paid or anything), so no apologies, please.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Avoid songs that have looonnnnggg instrumental interludes, e.g. Sympathy for the Devil.
   
   
   
6. 
   
   Avoid songs that have repetitive endings, because you'll likely peter out.  I made this mistake once at a karaoke party when I elected to sing Turn Me Loose, by the Canadian rock band Loverboy. It was bad.
   
   
   
7. 
   
   I do much better with duets (thank you Judy, Lissa, Angela and Rima) than on my own.  Except for Berlin.  I can tear it up with The Metro sans assistance.
   
   
   
8. 
   
   Consider bringing a set list with you, because for the past few days, I keep thinking of songs that I wish I'd have sung.  Arrgh!
   
   
   

I drew Tomo's name in the Secret Santa exchange, and while she's a very easy-going, unfussy person, she's also a rather accomplished knitter (perhaps you've seen the room she helped to knit), and I was a little anxious about what to make for her. In the end, I decided to do something she wouldn't be able to do for herself: crochet.

Pattern: Improvised shell stitch from The Encyclopedia of Knitting and Crochet Patterns

Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic

Hook: 5.0mm/H

Started & Finished: January 2010

This was my first crochet project in quite a while, and I tried out a couple of awkward or poorly written patterns before deciding to try a little imrpov, which is unusual for me.  I tend to like guidelines, rules, patterns and precision, explains in part why I prefer baking to cooking.  It drives me batty when I read teh words "season to taste," because, really, what the hell does that tell me?  However, a little freewheeling action proved to be just what I needed, and once I decided to make like Stevie Nicks and go my own way, I was very happy with the results.  More importantly, so was Tomo (seen wearing the scarf below, with Okay Knits and Emily).

Cute!

I was very happy with the present Jessie made for me, and it was a decidedly spot on choice.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos yet, but those will come. Soon! Until then, let's pretend it's 1983, shall we:

Let Them Eat Cake

I love an excuse to bake. Any excuse will do, but a good excuse is the best. And when the planets align to create the perfect excuse, well, I'm over the moon.

A couple of years ago I started watching a cooking show called New Scandinavian Cooking, which featured a perky and able cook, Tina Nordstrom, who prepared meals in her portable out-of-doors kitchen every week in a different region of Sweden. On the very first episode I saw, she was preparing a meal for a Swedish midsummer celebration, and while the entire meal looked delicious, what really struck me was the dessert. It was a sponge cake, layered with strawberries and covered in whipped cream, and looked to be so light and delicious! I have been obsessing over that cake ever since, but had yet to find the right occasion for which to make it. Until this weekend.

An old and dear friend was in town for the week on his way to visit other old and dear friends in The Netherlands, and I decided to invite a few folks over for a little BBQ get-together in my backyard. On the top of the guest list was my friend Beth, who is soon to marry Niclas, who is Swedish (see where this is going?). The cake was the one and only thing I was certain I would serve.

I was a little nervous, as I'd never made a sponge cake before (traditional American butter cakes are my forte), and had no reliable go-to recipe, so I started researching. My investigation taught me that there are two basic kinds of sponge cakes: American and the somewhat drier European. As this was to be a Swedish cake, I opted for the European version, and followed the recipe in The Simple Art of Perfect Baking. For the remainder of the recipe, I followed Tina's instructions, to, I believe, delightful effect.

The cake was crazy delicious, so refreshing and light. I followed Tina's advice and assembled the cake day before the BBQ, so the custard and strawberries soaked in to the cake a bit, keeping it nicely moist. I whipped the cream and frosted the cake a couple of hours before company arrived, and topped with strawberries immediately before serving (to prevent the juice from the berries from bleeding onto the frosting, a creepy look, to say the least).

The cake was a hit, and I look forward to making it again. The rest of the food was also delicious. Peter made refrigerator pickles (so summery), pico de gallo and grilled scallions, Beth made a pasta salad that was tasty that night and even tastier the next day, Jeffrey brought the crowd pleasing sage sausage, and Laura, Amy and Paula came through on beverage patrol (wine spritzer, anyone?). It was a memorable Memorial Day weekend.