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!