Saturday 23 July 2011

Fabric party

I don't really have anything to say! I just wanted to show you my fabrics, all lined up, a visual list. They represent six months of sewing and an inordinate amount of time on the internet looking at fabric when I should've been doing housework! Now I'm off to turn on my sewing machine in a last grabbed moment of stitching before we go on holiday for a week. See you soon!

Thursday 21 July 2011

A little art, please

This is not the first time I've admitted to being 'slowly efficient', but here I go again, showing you our decorated window from May (yes, again, I know it's July!). It was for our village's childrens' books themed May Queen celebration. Recognise her? It's Matilda. I so enjoyed painting her. I wish I'd had a little help, but the Big One thinks he's too old for this sort of creative venture, and the Little One is still at the stage of (very artistic) scribbling. Matilda is close to my heart - I was always a little bookworm, and liked to fancy myself as a potential intellectual genius when I was reading the book (I was an eight-year-old with delusions of grandeur).

I wish I could tell you I look at this picture only with pride, but all I can see right now are my depressingly under-loved window boxes. I'm just about keeping my head above water with the mothering, housework and sewing/blogging/baking adventures. There is no time for my poor neglected garden! I have dreams of tumbling nasturtiums but that will have to wait til next year.

And yes, I know, the windows and ledge need painting too. You should see my list of things to do. I think I shall rename it my 'list of things that will never get done'.

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Eating the week - Nigella Bites

Last week we ate from 'Nigella Bites'. It's much shorter than Nigella's other books and there's less to choose from, but there are some real gems. Here's what we ate and what we thought...
  • Soft-boiled Eggs with Asparagus Soldiers (p.157) - Yes, it's true that asparagus and egg go together like - well, like any other perfect flavour combination. But the problem is, you can't get a lot of soft-boiled egg to stick to a stem of asparagus. So it was nice, but the egg/asparagus ratio was off.
  • Chicken with Chorizo & Cannellini (p.60) - Oh yum. And easy. And quick. My only 'but' was that there was a bit too much chorizo for my palette. We used spinach to bed it all on instead of kale - we get enough kale in our vegetable box without voluntarily buying more! Also, this is my go-to recipe for poaching a chicken breast. I love a bit of poached protein, but there are so few recipes for it. It's also easier to clean a poached-chicken saucepan than a griddle, frying or baking pan!
  • American Pancakes with Wafer-bacon & Maple Syrup (p.10) - A tasty, unusual, filling lunch. But we didn't do enough streaky bacon to go with them, and they are a little bit too decadent for much repetition. And better for brunch I think.
  • Salmon Fishcakes (p.34) - These are the best fishcakes I've made, and I've made a lot. Most fall apart on cooking; these don't. Most don't have quite the flavour of a good shop-bought version; these do. I coat them in breadcrumbs instead of matzo meal as I can't get hold of it.
  • Italian Sausages with Lentils (p.154) - Another really good, hearty, family meal. I made it for my parents who came to stay and we were all very satisfied! Very filling, and there are usually leftover lentils to pick at the next day.
As there are less recipes in this book, we also dipped into Nigella's 'How to Eat' and had...
  • Chicken Patties (p.487) - They were in the children's section but they made for a great family meal, with two sausages adding lots of flavour to what was otherwise a plainish batch of chicken cakes. I'd make them more often but we can't get free-range chicken thighs off the bone up here, so my poor husband spent half an hour de-boning and de-skinning the meat first. Why is it so hard to get free-range chicken portions outside of Greater-London-Foodie-Land?
  • leftover hummus from Hummous with Seared Lamb & Toasted Pine Nuts (p.262) - Ha, ha, I made this recipe as it said, as the meat didn't look much for serving four. Big BUT - I failed to read that it was part of a mezze feast for three times as many! Hence a glut of hoummus that had to be gifted to neighbours as well as eaten constantly here. But it was SO good. As good as good shop-bought hoummous. And I was so proud of myself: usually a good meal shows a good reader (it's simply accurate instruction following), but I kept tasting and tweaking to get the lemon/chickpea juice/seasoning combination right, so it felt like a little less Nigella, a little more me.
More weekly menu news next week! Do tell me if it's dull/unhelpful, and I'll stop.

Monday 18 July 2011

Floral undertones

When we were a two-income family living in London, my little treat to myself was a weekly bunch of flowers sat on my kitchen table, cheering me and the house up.
We are now a one-income family living up north. I've spent a long time looking at my bare table, diligently reminding myself that staying at home and looking after my family is much more important than working to afford little treats like that. And obviously, easily, it is a price worth paying.

But there are free treats! And I did say, when I set myself this challenge of living a year of making, baking, wandering and wondering, that I would have flowers on my table again. Nowadays they come from the garden or the hedgerow, but I think I like that better.

A jug from a special friend, chives planted by the house's previous owner, some 'weeds' that I adore, and I have a vase of cheer on my table again. Plus this sort of thrown-together garden harvest is just what my mum always has, sat nonchalantly on tables, shelves and mantelpieces at her house. It's nice to feel I'm connecting to her as I cut, arrange and enjoy.

Sunday 17 July 2011

Card carrying over

 Here are the cards I made in May. Yes, I know it's July - but I'm what my husband calls 'slowly efficient'! 

I experimented with a few new things: torn paper, metallic pens, abstract designs, backgrounds. I like them but I have to admit I could do better - as usual, time and I have been at war again and, as usual, time won. My favourite is the cupcake design. I quite like the fire engine too - nice and simple. The Little One is crazy about ladders so, once he saw the fire engine I had to make him his own paper ladder stuck to a square of paper. He was too lovely to resist. As I said in my last post, it's the little things!

Saturday 16 July 2011

A few words

I feel I am holding something back from you. All my primary-school years I wanted to be an artist. All my secondary-school years I wanted to be a writer. All my adult years I've thought the writer in me was a dream, and I had to live in reality.

This year I've been dreaming. Who says your work has to be a 9-5 that pays the bills and slowly drips on the fizzling-out fire of your hopes? That work stays in one box, and your talent, your joys and interests go in another? I want to have a vocation. I want to find the things I love to do, get better at them, and then find a way for them to sustain me through life - and not just financially.

So I ought to tell you that when I write this blog I'm letting the writer out of me. She's a little rusty. She's a little war-torn. But she's a dreamer.

Post-script: I have to say though, I read quite a lot of other blogs (see list, right), and they're all talented word-smiths. The writers field is as crowded as the flower meadows at this time of year, and I'm not sure if I'll ever grow tall enough to show my head at the height these other blogs reach. Still, I have to be true to myself and so I'm going to keep typing and see where it takes me.
Photo courtesy of my lovely brother

It's the little things

It's the little things that get me. A wild strawberry wiggling its roots into the lichen-covered ruins of a home, bursting with sweetness promised. A pair of foxgloves growing tall together, standing competitively back-to-back to see who's highest.
My day can rise out of the doldrums at the sight of the first yellow poppy of the season on a familiar walk, at the smell of lemon balm on an unfamiliar one. My little boys laughing at something - one in unaffected joy, little as he is; the other dressing his laugh in all the drama he can muster, to show how big he's getting.
The eldest boy making scrambled eggs for breakfast by himself today, and making extra for his little brother. My husband holding me yesterday, telling me I'm good enough, when I had been secretly feeling I wasn't up to scratch, when I had secretly been feeling alone.

I've always been about the little things in life. The older we get the more we pass them by unnoticed, looking for the Next Big Thing. I like the simple pleasures, the things cynicism turns its back on. I like to keep my child's eyes on.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Quilt-envy

There is a lot of quilting going on in the blogosphere. I'm sure there are other bloggers with three-month old babies who can manage to quilt too, but I am not one of them. I try to be glad of the little things I can do, rather than bemoan the things time will not allow me to accomplish.

But oh, how I wish I had time, sense and skill to do so! If you have time, do look at the farmer's wife quilting on 'Quilt while you're ahead' and 'Dragonfly'. It's a level of quilting far beyond my previous regular-square attempts, but I'm hoping it's within me. And if you have money, buy me this Jane Brocket book! One day I will have the time. One day.

Lastly, this is one of my all-time favourite quilts, from one of my all-time favourite colour-masters. Enjoy!
Anna Maria Horner's 'Wildflower' quilt

Cooking the books

How do you feed your family? Some people feed them off the supermarket shelves, straight into the oven then into the mouth - minimal cooking required. Some people have more-or-less the same shopping list each week: fish on a Friday, mince on a Tuesday - minimal planning required. I am not very minimal.
I have some laudable motivations: health of the family, health of my purse, variety of diet, foods in season, throwing little away, planning around my weekly organic vegetable box (my only remaining monetary treat since our income was squeezed by three boys, a new house and my stay-at-home-mummy dreams).

I also have some selfish motivations: an obsession with gorging myself on recipe books - the reading of, rather than the eating out of (though I do that too), being a bit obsessive with planning and listing things (luckily I'm not the only list-crazy lady around), and that lovely smug feeling you get from pretending to be selfless and feeding your family healthy, hearty, yummy food.
Here's what I do: I see what's coming in the vegetable box each Wednesday and then I plan a week of meals based on that and what's in season. I try to stick to it to avoid chucking once-edible things away. But behind this weekly activity is a longer-term, very self-indulgently selfless one: I go through every recipe in every recipe book I have. I check for what we'll like, what I'll cook, and what will feed us all. I write each recipe down in a list. I keep all my recipe books in an order (alphabetised by author; dated within each author - I know, OCD). And then each week I move on to a new recipe book to choose my menu from. I try new recipes as far as I can, before recycling old favourites (after cooking, the recipe gets a little rating/comment). So I aim to one day have cooked every recipe we'd like to eat from every recipe book we own!

Today is shopping list writing day. Last week we were on Nigella Bites, this week we're onto her 'Feast' book, and next week it's her 'Kitchen' before we move on to another cook. I really like 'Feast'. It's a good read, a novel approach, and it suits our tummies.

A lot of my blog so far has been sewing-related, as that's my new crush. But cooking the books is my long-term love, and I really ought to include more of it here. I thought I'd try to do a weekly round-up of what I've cooked and what we thought. What do you think?

Thursday 7 July 2011

A sewing frenzy

I've been on a sewing frenzy. I can't tell you how lovely it has felt to feel the fabric under my fingers again, passing rhythmically through the sewing machine's foot as it stamps and dances down the bags I have made. The parallel lines, the carefully chosen colours, the 'hmmm, what can I do with this?' feeling... I'm so lucky that my selfless present-making is really such a selfish indulgence.

The Little One met six other little friends when they were all babies at postnatal group. We still meet once a week, and they all have their birthdays within 2-3 months of each other. This is what started my little sewing frenzy. And these are the first of seven little bags I will be making (four down, three to go), each with the child's initial on them, each edged in Eleanor Grosch's beautiful Zoo Menagerie fabric, and each with the straps sewn stiffly into the sides to hold the bags slightly open (to make it easier for little hands to delve in and out, rather than the usual struggling to separate sides).

Bags 1-4 gratefully received so far. I still have my own little man's bag to make - he's a bit bonkers about yellow at the moment, and I don't have any yellow fabric to hand. Excuse for another few hours spent perusing the long list of fabrics on Ebay perchance?!