Food glorious food!

As an interesting aside, I was one of the workhouse boys when my primary school did Oliver – I had to sing a line of food glorious food all by myself, I’m still proud today!

We’ve got quite a nice week of food ahead of us:

Yesterday was Mushroom Wellington (excellent veggie option for Christmas Day!)

Today is Gnocchi with garlic bread which I’m really looking forward to.

Tomorrow is Herby Polenta which works well as a two half meal; we’ll make the polenta tonight then I’ll have mine with veggies and beans when I get home from work then the boy will have his with bacon and veggies when he gets home from his gym induction (we both joined the gym this weekend – scary stuff!)

Wednesday is eating on the run before I go off to help at  a youth club; probably something out the freezer.

Thursday is eating on the run as I’m hopefully going to see Toy Story 3!

Friday is Pizza!

Saturday is Open Lasagna which has become a firm favourite with the boy.

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In terms of craft – I’ve got as far as cutting out pieces for a mock up of the dress in blue flowery material (it’s the only fabric I have which I have enough of and don’t mind wasting as it was £5 for vast amounts many many years ago – it’s been kicking around my parents house unused most of my life!).  Hopefully I’ll manage to sew that up this week so I can start seriously looking for fabric to make it out of.

I would also like to finish the kitty cross-stitch.  I should have finished it last week but I had a run in with a peeler on Thursday which left me unable to stitch!  Instead I made a few button rings.

Ooh, and this weekend I finally made to a Hands On session at Pulse!  Except I chose the week that wasn’t really crafty as various people were at craft fairs!  Still had a lovely cup of tea, a natter and a play with a gorgeous kitten called Adobe!  Next week I think it might be decorating mugs which gives me a week to learn how to draw…

And the week ahead…

We had some really nice food towards the end of last week which I shall come to shortly.  First though, this coming week…

Tonight is steamed fish with new potatoes (sadly not yet homegrown ones)

Tomorrow is undecided

Thursday is eating on the run

Friday is mushroom and coriander gratin

Saturday is gnocchi and garlic bread.

Open ravioli with squash and porcini mushrooms

Sadly ours didn't look like this...

… but it still tasted pretty good!  We followed the recipe almost entirely, the only changes we made were using lactofree soft cheese instead of parmesan in the butternut squash mash and we missed out the saffron.  It was a really lovely combination of textures and flavours (just don’t accidently put in twice the amount of vinegar…!) and was fairly easy despite the unnecessarily complicated instructions.  Basically you cook the squash in butter and water then mash, adding some cheese and nutmeg.  Whilst the squash is cooking you prepare the dressing by combining chopped porcini mushrooms, soy sauce and vinegar.  Then whilst the lasagna sheets are cooking fry the chestnut mushrooms, whilst the spinach and serve.  you prepare the dressing by combining chopped porcini mushrooms, soy sauce and vinegar.

Herbed Polenta with Beans

Again this was a lovely recipe.  The herbed polenta can be made in advance and was apparently really easy to do (I was out all day Saturday so the boy did this).  When it came to getting it ready to eat we fried the polenta (you could grill it instead) in one pan and in another pan we fried some garlic, peppers and mushrooms, then added some stock followed by some kidney beans (although I wonder about butter beans instead) and the seasoning et voila!  The herbed polenta would be a great base for any number of toppings.

This weekend we went to stay with my partners family (the death was on their side).  This involves a couple of hours on a train either way so I thought I might try sewing the time away.  Meaning that hurriedly on Friday I made this bag so that I could take my sewing with me one the train.  I absolutely adore the fabric it’s made from!  Whilst I was at the station and embroidering away I did get a few strange looks…

I also squeezed in time to make a pins and needle case (my first project with a press stud!):

Then over the weekend I managed to buy a zip so I could make this purse using a tutorial from the lovely paper-and-string (my first project with a zip!):

It was really easy to make and the tutorial was wonderfully clear and straightforward!  I’ve got lots of ideas running round my head for ways to develop and modify the idea – I just need to buy some more zips!!

Then when we finally arrived back to our lovely home this was waiting for me:

Containing this beautiful necklace from this etsy shop which unfortunately is currently not selling things (I think the seller is moving house!) but should be up and running in May!

So overall the weekend was productive but tiring.

Foodwise:

Friday was pizza

Saturday was meal out

Sunday was steamed potatoes with steamed salmon and parsley sauce

Tonight is beanburgers and chilli garlic roast potatoes using the left over potatoes from yesterday

Tomorrow night is sweet potato curry (do you sense we get stuck in a rut with our food?)

Shopping, crafting and pasta making!

This weekend I discovered a fantastic little craft shop – Craft Basics – in York.  From the outside it doesn’t look that exciting or that big but when you get through the door it’s packed to the ceiling with supplies for every sort of craft you can think of and lots of gorgeous colours.  There was glass paint, mosaic tiles, ribbons, beads, wool, stamps, beautiful paper… It was so inspiring!  I managed to restrain myself and only came away with one pot of ceramic paint (in an almost petrol green), some christmassy ribbons, a ribbon to complete my partners fabric box and some purple ribbon because it was cheap and pretty.

I’ve made a break from the cute little felt animals I’ve been making as keyrings and fridge magnets.  I embroidered this to make into a card at some point:

I finished off my partners fabric box so he has somewhere to pin his badges:

And I made my very own fabric box to put my make up in.  The fabric I used to line this is so beautiful.  It’s batik style butterflies and part of a range of similar fabrics which I’m lusting after:

We also made ravioli this weekend.  It took us a while to get the hang of making the pasta but we got there in the end!  My ravioli was filled with lactose free cheese and spinach (my partners was goats cheese and spinach) and served with a basil and rosemary oil dressing.  It was really nice although I think I sealed them a bit too cautiously (I built up the edges a bit much and they were quite thick…) and we should have been better about squeezing the air out of them but there were no major disastors!  I think it’s something we’d definetely try again particularly as they can be frozen:  Freeze before cooking and initally freeze them laid out on a baking tray then transfer to a tub or bag as this way they won’t stick together.

I don’t think we’re trying much new food this week:

Monday – sweet potato thai curry (we seem to have curry at least once a week!)

Tuesday – Fish pie (yummy!!)

Wednesday – I’m off to ASK

Thursday – quick food on the go before college

Friday – beanburgers with curly fries

Saturday – steamed salmon with steamed potatoes

The week ahead

Food for the week

(Recipes where relevant will appear throughout the week)

Dinner

Tonight will be homemade pizza (dough made in the breadmaker) with homemade chips.

Tuesday is Thai prawn curry.

Wednesday is eating on the run so will probably be herby bread with lacto-free cream cheese.

Thursday I’m only cooking for me and it will depend on energy levels although right now the idea of homemade gnocci in a garlic chilli dressing sounds divine.

Friday, hmm… I can’t remember what we have planned for Friday!

Lunch

Today lunch is gorgeous crunchy homemade bread with salmon and lacto-free cream cheese.

Tomorrow it will be left over pizza.

Wednesday I’m currently thinking will be more homemade bread.

Thursday, herby bread with lacto-free cheese.

Friday will very much depend on what’s left and looks interesting in our kitchen!

Craft for the week

Craft is currently keeping me sane.  My day job is temping and isn’t engaging me at all so I end up dreaming about craft projects to do when I get home.  This week I’d like to finish off the hungry caterpillar (he’s almost there, just needs a few finishing touches like a mouth otherwise he’ll be even hungrier!) as well as the sock penguin.  And I’d like to make a ladybird keyring.  There’s so many other things I want to do but I think I need to try and maintain some focus…!

Weekend roundup

Fuel for body

Saturday we had Thai takeaway – instead of going down the route of a Thai curry we decided to get a few starters and bulk  them out with rice.  I quite enjoy doing that – it means the meal isn’t as heavy and you get more variety as well.

On Sunday we went for roast potatoes, steamed salmon and parsley sauce.  It’s the first time we’ve steamed salmon and I don’t think we’re ever likely to cook it a different way again.  It was cooked so perfectly, it was beautifully tender and it’s much healthier than frying it!

The weekend also saw me bake a lovely Yorkshire Parkin:

Parkin

7oz self raising flour

3-4oz oatmeal

3oz caster sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg

200ml oat milk

2oz sunflower butter

4 1/2 oz golden syrup

• Preheat the oven to 150C and line a tin.
• Mix flour, oats, sugar, ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
• In a small pan gently heat the butter and syrup until melted.
• Beat the egg into the milk.
• Gradually pour the butter and syrup into the flour and stir. The mixture will be thick.
• Pour in the egg and milk and stir until smooth and pour into the tin.
• Bake for 40mins to an hour

Fuel for soul

A very exciting trip to town resulted in many more craft related items being bought including some gorgeous blue fabric with purple butterflies on.  I’m hoping I can find a really nice project to make use of it.  I also, out of necessity, bought a box to store some of my craft bits in (at the moment they are all over the floor!).

The main priority of the weekend was to make a thank you card which didn’t turn out as well as hoped, partly I think, due to a lack of sharp knife.  But as it’s for a relative it’s the thought that counts!

I finally finished of my (somewhat incorrect) quilt.  But it was nice to finish it and the main point of the quilt was to get used to the new sewing machine.

I also finished off a few magnets:

Finished a cat keyring:

Got round to photographing my rose keyring (tutorial from The Purl Bee)

I also made a stripy sock owl, mentioned in my previous post and have started a sock penguin for my partner who loves penguins!

With some of the fabric I bought I’m making a hungry caterpillar although the sewing machine keeps jamming making this much harder than it should be!

“I saw this and thought of you…”

“I saw this and thought of you…”

Don’t you think it’s nice when people think of you, I do.

Tuesday night a variety of lovely little felt creations were sent off in the post to friends and family, partly because I think it’s nice to recieve something handmade through the post – it shows someone is thinking of you – but also because the house was becoming overrun with little felt flowers and creatures!  The quilt I’m working on will hopefully be finished by the weekend – it’s only a little one (about 1mx1m) but it was mostly for getting used to the new sewing machine.  It’s looking good except I made a major mistake and the pattern is wrong but it’s still fun to create things.

Foodwise, this week is a bit of a write off really on account of having very little food in the house and me and the other half being out various nights this week.  However tonight we are both in so we’re going to try some steamed seabass (not from the back of the cupboard but from the shop on the way home!) with ginger and spring onions served with rice.  Or at least I think that’s the recipe the other half settled on!  We bought an asian cook book a couple of weeks ago which has a few really good looking steamed seabass recipes in.  I’m quite excited about tomorrow night as the other half is out so I get to cook things he doesn’t like, although it’s proving a challenge to decide what I want – all ideas welcome!

Sock Owl from Whimsy Loft

In terms of new ideas I’m loving this sock owl from Whimsy Loft and I have so many odd socks that I could start my own little owl army if I wanted!

Gorgeous Easter weekend food

This bank holiday will be a time for lots of yummy food, eating out and at home:

Sushi from Yo Sushi as mentioned in my previous post

Indian Restaurant because we love Indian food.  I love being able to have lots of little bits of different food, for example I’ll probably have popadoms, veggie samosas, rice and pakora.  I love all the different flavours and textures in one meal.  We make curry alot at home and have attempted some of the other Indian dishes we are partial to but I think we need to venture out and try making more of our own.  It’s so much more fulfilling!

Fish Pie is such a comforting meal and is really filling as well.  Perfect for the cold weather which seems to have hit us!

1 puff pastry sheet

some fish

some prawns

a couple of eggs

potatoes

oat milk

sunflower margarine

lactose free cheese

flour

salt and pepper

• Peel the potatoes then slice and boil them until cooked then layer in the bottom of an oven proof dish
• Hard boil the eggs then peel and quarter them
• Make cheese sauce (am a bit sketchy about how to do this as my partner always makes it…)
• Stir the fish, prawns and eggs into the cheese sauce and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes
• Pour the cheese sauce, fish, prawns and eggs over the potatoes
• Cover with pastry, cover with a bit of grated cheese adn pierce the pastry a couple of times
• Cook for approximately 30-40 mins
• Enjoy!

Yummy Fish Pie

Homemade Pizza is so much better than shop bought.  Although being lactose intolerant and not like tomatoes I would say that wouldn’t I!  We normally use a breadmaker to make the dough for our bases (we used to use shop bought bases but this is much nicer).  For my pizza I use lactose free cheese and go crazy with the mixed herbs and red pepper.  I also find it tastes that bit better if you drizzle a little olive oil over it before putting it in the oven; I’ve been using chilli oil to give it an extra tang!