FO: Minecraft Animals

This was a two part gift that happens to be a set. My boyfriend's son is an avid fan of Minecraft, and when we first got together I asked Nik (the son) what he might like if I made him something. He specifically requested a Minecraft sheep. This started a bit of a deep dive into what patterns for Minecraft were available, and I landed on Sheep From Minecraft by Olga Novytska.

The basic shapes are fairly simple to construct, but I had to use different yarn than was recommended. The pattern is for fingering weight, but I just didn't want to crochet that tiny, plus I was working from stash, so I used sport weight yarn (Serenity Sport in White and Patons Astra in Medium Tan) with a size D hook. The pattern certainly came out, but I had one heck of a time keeping it square. 

The inspiration pic I was going by is definitely all rectangles and squares, but I find that translating right angles into crochet always leads to a more rounded look despite my best efforts. The only way I've found to reliably make amigurumi squared off is to add plastic inside, but I wanted this to be squishy and potentially washable.

So this sheep is a bit less "8-Bit angular" and a bit more "poofy like an actual sheep". That's ok because it's still obvious to any Minecraft player that this was meant to be a sheep.

The face is entirely cross-stitched onto the face piece, which was another interesting challenge. I cross stitched as a kid, but never on a crocheted (i.e. lumpy) background. I had to pull it out a few times to get all the stitches spaced evenly, but I'm happy with the results. I think it looks very close to the game.

So that was Nik's Christmas gift and it went down with great success. So much so that he made another request - could I make him a Minecraft chicken to go with it? His birthday is the very end of February, so I went back to the internet in hopes of finding a chicken pattern I could use. The problem is that no one has a Minecraft chicken pattern available :/  So I decided to freehand my own.

Since I wanted this chicken to be proportional in size to the sheep (and use the same size yarn), I decided to make the body using the sheep's leg pattern. I then just estimated the size of the head, attaching it the same way as the sheep.

The yellow parts were a challenge because I didn't have any sport weight yarn that was close to the right color, so I had to use worsted weight with the D size hook. The yellow is Vanna's Choice in Mustard and a scrap of Scarlet. The beak is just along oval and the feet are basically crocheted i-cord with fan stitches at the bottom. Is it perfect? Certainly not. But was Nik happy to have a chicken? Absolutely.

I went to visit the boyfriend in March and brought the chicken with me. Nik was thrilled to have a set and really liked how it came out, which is really all that matters.

So my slight foray into pattern design was a successful, and I'm just pleased that Nik was so happy. It's hard to connect with a young boy when you live so far away and hardly ever see him, you know? But this was a year ago that I made these things and he still loves them, so that's got to count for something. Yay for being able to make a kid feel happy and special :)

And with this, I've officially posted through 2021 lol. 2022 makes coming up next!

Summary:

Yarn: Sheep - Patons Astra in Medium Tan, Deborah Norville Serenity Sport Weight in White, Vanna's Choice in Mustard and Scarlet

Pattern: Sheep from Minecraft by Olka Novytska

Notions: Embroidery floss

Fantabulous Food! Honey Garlic Sesame Chicken

It has been a seriously long time since I last posted a Fantabulous Food! This doesn't mean I haven't been making many awesome dishes lately, just that I haven't been photographing the processes. I have had more of a desire to share of late, so I'm sure they will start becoming a regular post again :)

This week's Fantabulous Food! recipe is actually from Disney's EPCOT resort. One of my favorite recipe sites is AllEars.Net - a website devoted to everything Disney, mostly with park info, but they also have the recipes page :) I have no idea how they obtained these recipes, but they are no joke the exact recipes used to make the delicious creations around the Disney parks. They even have quite a few dishes that are from the Food and Wine Festival. I had a hankering to try something new in the kitchen for dinner, and this Chinese recipe struck  true :) This dish is served in the Nine Dragons Restaurant in the China area of Epcot. You're welcome :)

Honey Garlic Sesame Chicken:

• 10 - 12 oz chicken breasts, cut into cubes

Marinade:

• 1 tsp chicken base (not bouillon - it's a paste)
• dash of white pepper
• salt to taste
• sugar to taste
• 1/2 tsp cooking wine
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1. Mix all marinade ingredients, taste to see if you need more sugar or salt. The chicken base tends to already be a bit salty, so be sparing with the salt. The marinade should taste a bit salty (since it's so concentrated), but not too much so. Combine marinade with chicken cubes and stir to coat. Allow chicken to sit for 30 minutes in the fridge.

Batter: 

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp (heaping) baking powder
• 1/2 a beaten egg
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2/3 cup water
• pinch of salt

2. Combine all batter ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk until batter is mostly smooth and big lumps are gone. Set aside.

Honey Garlic Sauce:

• 3 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp minced garlic

3. Combine all sauce ingredients and stir until honey and sugar have dissolved into the vinegar. Set aside.

4. After you chicken has marinated for 30 minutes, heat about 1.5" - 2" of canola oil in a deep pan. You will want to maintain a temperature of about 320°F while cooking - if it's hotter then your batter will brown and burn before your chicken is cooked through. Arrange your bowls so the chicken and batter are close to the frying pot.

Using tongs, dip each piece of chicken into the batter, shake off excess,

and gently place it in the oil. Continue placing chicken pieces in the oil until your oil surface is about 2/3 full (this will ensure they all have enough room to expand and brown evenly). Cook the chicken for 3-5 minutes on each side.

Remove cooked chicken with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel covered plate. Repeat this process until all the chicken is cooked.

5. Once chicken is fried, heat your sauce mixture in a wok or rounded-edge pan.

When the sauce starts to bubble, turn the heat off. Add your fried chicken pieces and turn them in the sauce until they are coated on all sides.

6. Serve chicken immediately with steamed rice - Enjoy!

This recipe was seriously delicious. I've never really put in the effort to make real Chinese food at home before, but this recipe is the real deal and tastes like it came from PF Changs. It was a little more time consuming than I thought it would be, but that was because I made a double batch of the chicken so it took forever to fry it all. This batter is honestly my go-to recipe now - it's so light and crispy, not thick and heavy like a Southern style batter.

It's just enough of a batter to add a crunch and hold the sauce well. Also, it may seem silly to marinate the chicken in such a small amount of liquid, but it is so worth it. Do not be tempted to add more to the marinade - the sesame oil is a strong flavor and it is very noticeable in the finished dish. My husband could not stop complimenting this dinner and he seemed very excited that you could really eat the chicken without the sauce - it was that good. I love that you can make everything the same but change the sauce if you want, you could make this into sweet and sour or orange chicken with no additional work - heck, you could even use a bottled sauce if you really wanted to.

I'm so happy to have this recipe added to my repertoire :) I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!