Lotte's new scarf

Every year my Mum and I go to the knitting and stitching fair at Alexandra Palace. This year's was last weekend. At every show I buy myself some wool and some needles and knit myself a 'show scarf'. This year instead of knitting a scarf for myself I knit one for my little girl (She's 20 months old). I used the remnants to knit a matching scarf for her favourite teddy.

The finished articles look like this:

They were knitted using two balls of Sirdar Funky Fur Magic wool on five millimeter needles.

For the child's scarf cast on 30 stitches and knit in garter stitch until it's the length required. In this case I knitted 15 stripes with a couple of additional rows on either end.

For Lotte's scarf I cast on 10 stitches and also knit in garter stitch. Basically I just kept on going until it was long enough to tie around her neck.

The only took a couple of evenings to knit and I found the wool easy to knit with. I'm not sure that I'd like to work a more complicated pattern with it though as it was hard to count how many stitches you had on the needles due to the fur sticking out everywhere.

Easy Tandoori Style Chicken

Alan has asked me to write down some easy recipes that he can make while I'm away during the week. So here's the first.

2 skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 inch of ginger (optional)
2 tablespoons yogurt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon paprika

This is a double marinaded chicken dish. The first marinade is the lemon juice and salt. Sprinkle the salt liberally on both sides of the chicken breast. Then place it in an oven proof dish and sprinkle the lemon juice over it. Then put this to one side while you work on the second marinade.


The base of the second marinade is grated onion. Since I can't face the idea of grating onion I put it, the garlic and the ginger in a chopper (or a blender) and let it do all the work. Then add it and the rest of the ingredients to a bowl and give it a good stir. Once they are well combined spread the marinade on both sides of the chicken breasts and return them to their oven proof dish. This should be covered in cling film and put in the fridge for at least an hour, over night works better.

When you are ready to cook the chicken preheat the oven to 200C (Gas Mark 8). Place the chicken at the top of the oven and leave for 20 minutes. At the end of this time take the chicken out and check that it's cooked right through. If not pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes just to be sure.

I like to serve it with rice and a salad.


This method of marinating will work equally well with other cuts of chicken or with lamb chops or steaks. It's important that there is no skin between the marinade and the meat so make sure that you pick skinless chicken. If you use lamb chops then you could also cook them under the grill.