The Hidden Domestic

What to do with Pumpkin

2011-11-04T18:44:00.001Z

I hope everybody had a good pumpkin day!

Here are a few highlights from our Halloween:

It was our kitten Ben's first Halloween. He wasn't quite sure what to make of our Jack-O-Lanterns. It was also Preston's first Halloween. He ate pumpkin puree (he loved it, but I don't think he's tried a food he hasn't liked yet), tried eating pumpkins whole, and slept right through trick or treating.

I think he was watching for trick-or-treaters.

Remember how obsessed with Diggers my daughter Anya is? She drew the little red picture of a Digger on it (she did no-knife decorating first) and then I carved the Digger according to her instructions. Anya dressed up as a pumpkin because the only thing she loves more than diggers is the color orange.

This is one of the Harry Potter pumpkins my husband carved. Carving pumpkins is so much easier when we swipe his wood carving tools. Seriously, it would be worth getting some just for Halloween. I had big plans for a Gruffalo inspired jack-o-lantern, but ran out of time. Maybe next year.

This was Miriam's Hello Kitty jack-o-lantern. She drew on it first and then I carved it for her. I'm sorry that we didn't photograph this one straight away because you can't see any of the details in this photo, but it did have a cute face and everything. I particularly like the three tiny mice that she added to the side.

After having a fabulous Halloween, we were overflowing with pumpkin. We've had pumpkin lasagna, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie (both sweet and savoury), pumpkin in curry and chili and stew, and--the most popular pumpkin invention--pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Best pumpkin idea ever (except maybe jack-o-lanterns, but it's a close one to call).

For my recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, click here. These are seriously addictive and my whole family LOVES them. Plus you can feel a bit better about making cookies because they're vegetabley. (Just ignore all the butter and sugar and remember that the pumpkin is healthy.)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
They didn't last long.

Next up: Bonfire night. Don't you just love autumn holidays?

Halloween Trick or Treat Etsy Sale!

2011-10-28T16:04:00.000+01:00

Happy Halloween everybody!!!

We have a household full of pumpkins (which we've been slowly eating, so expect pumpkin recipes soon), multiple costume choices, and are just generally excited about Halloween.

I hope that y'all have a fantastic Halloween with lots of fun and good food and pumpkins. To celebrate Halloween, I'm giving you a special Halloween treat. You can use the code HAPPYHALLOWEEN2011 at our Etsy Shop to get 20% off of any order!

The newest item in the Hidden Domestic Etsy Shop.

Another Etsy Addition

2011-10-27T14:53:00.000+01:00

A little preview of another mobile I made. I think this one is my favourite so far because there's so much detailing on it. To see the rest of it on Etsy, click here.

My newest Etsy addition: Heart Mobile

2011-10-26T20:25:00.000+01:00

I've gone a bit crazy for mobiles lately, and not just because I have a baby. They make great household decorations (seriously) and I really enjoy making them. This hand-sewn heart is at the center of a mobile I just added to Etsy (more coming soon). You can see it (or order it) on Etsy here: http://etsy.me/veox3G
So there's my craftiness for the day.
We had a great day (including taking the kids swimming) so I hope you're all having a lovely autumn's day as well.

My Take on French Toast

2011-10-25T14:46:00.001+01:00

Brunch will never be the same again.

I love Chopped, but it seems like lately all the chefs can make is French Toast. The past several episodes that we've seen have had a dessert round where one of the chefs makes French Toast. (Usually the other chef makes a Neapolitan.) So to all chefs who consider going on Chopped, this is for you.

French Toast is not a dessert. It is a breakfast or brunch food. In fact, it's a rather delicious way to start the day.

So here's my take on French Toast.

1. Beat together eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla and powdered sugar with a whisk.

The better your ingredients are, the better your French Toast will be. For luxurious French Toast, use fresh, free-range, organic, local eggs (room temperature). Use organic and/or filtered milk (I've used vanilla soy milk before). You can really splurge with real vanilla that you scrape from the pods, or just make sure to get vanilla extract and not vanilla flavouring.

Using powdered (confectioner's) sugar means that you won't have any graininess from the sugar and can get a great melt-in-your-mouth consistency on the inside of your French Toast. Just sieve in a little to the batter.

2. Soak your bread in the wet mixture.

Slightly stale breads often work well in French Toast because they can suck up the moisture. I used a apple, walnut, and rye loaf that we had bought at the market from a local artisan baker.

3. Cook in a frying pan on medium heat. If you want extra yumminess, cook with some butter in the pan.

4. Serve with butter and syrup. We served by stacking two slices with cream cheese in the middle and topping with vanilla cream, strawberries and dark chocolate shavings.

5. Share and enjoy. We made it and then all piled back into bed for breakfast. Delicious, even if the kids got syrup on our bed ;)

Let them eat pie.

2011-10-10T10:33:00.001+01:00

Welcome to autumn! We had an unexpected end of summer heatwave. In fact, the hottest day of the year here was in late September! Now, though, the days are noticeably getting shorter and cooler. It's autumn and I have to admit to being a bit excited by it. I have always loved autumn, and we get some great autumn produce. We're getting loads of fresh apples, and the girls have settled into their new classes at school and preschool.

Cooler weather means that we can start enjoying all of the autumn food that we haven't eaten in awhile. Savoury pies are very popular in this house, and make a good warming dinner on a cool, dark evening. We spent a day making a whole big batch of pies together. We ate two over the next couple of days, and put the rest in the freezer to pull out later.

We started off by making several batches of pastry. I have naturally cold hands so I have an advantage at pastry making and am pretty proud of how well it turned out.
For my tips on making perfect pie pastry, click here.

Then we made several types of filling. We didn't follow any recipes, so I won't give you exact recipes here. We just made them up based on what we had and what sounded good.

Jared did make one pie with a meaty filling....any guesses what's in it?

The vegetarian pie that we ate first was a mushroom pie. It had big organic chestnut mushrooms in it along with some other veggies and a home-made gravy.

They were delicious, and the best part is that we still have more pies in the freezer (including a butternut squash pie and a broccoli cheese pie).

The Romsey Show

2011-09-30T14:31:00.000+01:00

the Romsey Show 2011

I don't know about you, but I love a good fair. I love the old-fashioned community atmosphere with farmers showing off their livestock, home-baked goodies, little rides for the kids, and entertainment. The Romsey Show takes place every year near us, and it's a lot of fun for the whole family.

the Romsey Show 2011
(picture taken by my husband)

There were so many things to look at and enjoy, and I think we all had our own favorites. Miriam loved getting to make a clay horse (it will be on display soon); Anya loved seeing live bats at the bat hospital and then making a bat puppet; Preston liked napping in the stroller as we walked around, and Jared says he liked all of it. My favorite was seeing all of the traditional crafts. It made me want to learn how to do things like spin and weave, make ceramics, and work with felt. I'm adding a whole list of these things to my list of things to try one day. Until then, I really enjoyed seeing other people's beautiful creations and the way that these traditional skills and art forms are being passed on and used.

Romsey Show 2011

Eiffel Tower Apron

2011-09-13T09:59:00.001+01:00

I love taking part in the Secret Post Club. You never know what you're going to get or what great new blogs you'll discover.

My last Secret Post Club swap introduced me to the great blog Blackbird has Spoken. On the blog, I noticed some references to cooking, and some pictures of an Eiffel Tower collection. So I decided to make her a apron with the Eiffel tower on it.

Not all of the stitches are even, and I really should have ironed it before taking a picture, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. In fact, I was a bit sad to part with it. Luckily I saw the pictures of the beautiful macarons that Max made (possible, of course, because of her new French apron), and that just made my day.

I'm thinking I may get started on some more aprons...maybe as Christmas gifts for people...

3 Cakes & a 3rd Birthday

2011-09-06T13:56:00.000+01:00

Strawberry & Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake for my sister-in-law's 17th birthday. Happy Birthday Bea!

Orange & Chocolate Cake (decorated with cars for my daughter Anya's 3rd birthday. I can't believe she's 3 and starting preschool this week!)

Orange & Chocolate Digger Cake (for my daughter's 3rd birthday party--it was Digger themed; She had a fantastic birthday!)

Orange Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cup plain (all purpose) flour

1 1/3 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp orange essence

1/2 tbsp orange food coloring

2 bars chopped chocolate or about 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth and well blended.

2. Pour into greased and floured cake tins (bakes best if you make multiple smaller cakes and stack rather than one large cake)

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 F/350 C for about 25 minutes (baking time depends on the size tins used, so check regularly. When a knife can be poked in and comes out clean, it's finished).

4. Let cool then decorate as desired

A Day Trip to the New Forest

2011-08-28T21:18:00.000+01:00

Since we're not going out of town anywhere this summer, we've been trying to make the most of day trips with the kids. It's actually been a lot of fun and requires a lot less packing.

We're lucky to live near the beautiful New Forest, so I recently enjoyed a day out there with the kids. We packed a picnic, put Indigo Girls on, and set off. I let Miriam navigate (no, she can't read maps yet or read fast enough for road signs as we drive past...she just picked whichever direction took her fancy). It turned out to be a good choice as we discovered the New Forest Reptile Centre. I had no idea that such a place existed, but it turned out to be good fun as we tried to spot the various frogs, lizards, and other animals.

There was also a RSPB centre there. We went in and learned about wildlife in the New Forest and the different types of birds that live in the area. Miriam made friends with all of the volunteers by telling them about the bird boxes at her school and our bird feeders at home. Soon she had them stroking her invisible unicorn ponies (her version of an imaginary friend) and letting them play with the wooden display birds.

We decided to try out the "reptile trail" as well. No, there weren't any reptiles (that we could see anyway). It was a nice hike to do with young children, though, as there was a flat, easy-to-follow trail. We found some little houses made out of sticks that the girls were thrilled about, and enjoyed spotting different plants and birds. Anya was good at finding logs to rest on and sticks to use as pretend phones. Even though it wasn't far from home, it really felt like we were enjoying nature and somewhere different. As Miriam summed up, "It's pretty in the New Forest, and sometimes it's important to be alone and just see the trees and things. It makes me feel happy."

Rainy Summer Days

2011-08-13T09:47:00.001+01:00

When I think of summer time, I usually think of sunny days, barbecues, and swimming pools. I think of the childhood summer feeling when you're free from school and feel like the warm weather can never end. Not all summer days are sunny though. In fact, I love a good thunderstorm, and even in the summer (especially here) you can get cooler rainy days. After a good day of rain the air just smells cleaner and everything looks a bit brighter and greener again.

Shopping on a recent rainy day, I found some celeriac (also known as celery root) reduced down to just a few pence. Not sure what I was going to do with it, I bought it and brought it home. Watching the rain trickle down the windows, it felt like a soup kind of a day. So here's my celeriac soup for a rainy summer day.

Celeriac Soup Recipe

1. Put a knob of butter and dash of olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.

2. Chop and add a shallot (you can substitute any variety of onion if you don't have shallot, or omit completely). Let it start to sweat.

3. Chop and add one celeriac (I peeled it first). Add any other root vegetables you want to include as well (I added several peeled and chopped potatoes and a couple carrots).

4. Stirring regularly, let the vegetables cook and soften. If they get dry, start adding a little stock (I used vegetable stock, but you could use chicken stock).

5. When the vegetables are getting soft, puree them (I used a hand blender and did it with them in the pan). Then add the rest of the stock (about 2 pints, but you can add more or less depending on how thick you want your soup).

6. Season to taste with salt and pepper (best with roughly ground black pepper and sea salt).

7. Serve and enjoy. If desired, finish off by adding a little creme fraiche or yogurt (or cream if you feel indulgent).

We ate the soup with home-made croutons. They are delicious and so easy to make.

Rosemary Croutons

1. Preheat oven to about 400F/200C.

2. Roughly chop up a loaf (not pre-sliced) of bread into cubes. I used a home-made loaf of bread (it was a mixture of white and wholemeal flour with added poppy seeds).

3. Put the bread and some sprigs of rosemary in a large pan. Coat lightly with olive oil.

4. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and black pepper.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes. They should be crispy and light.

6. Serve with soup or salad. Or just eat them. These turned out to be so delicious that my daughter Anya stole the bag of leftover croutons from the kitchen. She carried them around with her as her new favorite snack, and absolutely refused to let anyone else taste one. It took all of our parenting skills to convince her that she could not bring the bag of croutons to bed with her.

Recently I discovered two new blogs thanks to Secret Post Club. I love taking part in this gift swap. First off, it's always nice to get a surprise present. It's also kind of fun to be exposed to new blogs, make cyber friends, and snoop around people's blogs to try to figure out what the perfect gift would be for them that month.

Thank you to Living Abroad for the cute baby clothes. Preston's already gotten lots of wear out of them and they are a perfect fit. I like the mix of book reviews, pictures, and family tidbits in your blog.

I got to play elf for 'Cross the Pond. As you can see, I sent off a chocolate recipe book and some chocolate molds (because who doesn't like chocolate). I also included a cd mix. I'd put the mix together when in the kitchen, and called it Baking on a Rainy Day. If you want to know my rainy day playlist (and hopefully hers now too), here it is:

1. Fixing Her Hair, Ani DiFranco
2. Lady on the Water, Blitzen Trapper
3. You Still Hurt Me, William Fitzsimmons
4. Broken Telephone, The Be Good Tanyas
5. Bracket WI, Bon Iver
6. What Are We Gonna Do, Brenda Weiler
7. Such Great Heights, Iron & Wine
8. The Luckiest, Ben Folds
9. Beach Baby, Bon Iver
10. Original Sinsuality, Tori Amos
11. Judas, Antje Duvekot
12. Just Not Each Other, William Fitzsimmons
13. The Awakening, Jennifer Nettles Band
14. Dilate, Ani DiFranco
15. Pearls, Antje Duvekot
16. Human Thing, The Be Good Tanyas
17. Decide, April Messervy
18. Wish for the Sun, Brenda Weiler
19. Come Away With Me, Norah Jones
20. Lit Elephants, Madeline

PS- Don't forget to check out Hidden Domestic's Etsy page.

A long overdue post on brownies...

2011-08-03T12:49:00.000+01:00

Everyone has a stand-by recipe. You know the kind that I mean. A recipe that you know will turn out every time. The kind of recipe that you don't need any special ingredients for and that can be made at any time. If you need to bring a potluck item, this is the recipe you automatically turn to. For me, my most dependable stand-by is brownies. They are easy to make and turn out perfectly every time. Brownies are always popular and you can make a lot of variations on them (like cookie dough brownies). Somehow I've never gotten around to blogging my brownies recipe, so here it is. I hope your family loves it as much as mine does.

Brownies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (soft but not melted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Butter and flour the pan (about 6 x 6 is good, but be flexible--it just means thicker or thinner brownies if you use a different size).
2. Put all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Mix by hand until blended (don't over mix).
3. Bake for about 30 minutes. I like mine still gooey in the middle.

We last made brownies for a school fundraiser. My daughter's school has an annual summer fair as a fund raiser, and they have donated treats for a cake stand and prizes. We go to support her school, but it's actually a great community event. There's a different theme each year (this year was pirates), but there are always a wide variety of activities including pony rides, hot air balloon rides, bouncy castles, live music, barbecue, and much more. Even if you don't have kids, find out if your local schools have similar fundraising events (most primary schools do). They're a lot of fun and all of the proceeds go to a good cause.

Catching Up & Moving On

2011-07-26T12:47:00.000+01:00

First of all, Happy 100! This is my 100th post on Hidden Domestic! I started blogging two years ago (give or take a few weeks). A lot of recipes, craft projects, and rambling later, here we are. Post #100. Thanks to everybody for your visits to the site, feedback & comments, etc.

In 100 posts, the one thing that I've never had very good luck with is holding a contest. This last contest was no exception. I'm really excited about our new Etsy shop, and the prize was any of the baby items in the shop. Unfortunately nobody entered the competition, so there's no prize to announce.

Looking ahead to the future, that's one thing that I really want to accomplish: a popular contest on Hidden Domestic. I also look forward to trying out a lot more delicious recipes, making more crafts/art projects/sewing, more field trips, etc. Maybe I'll even try having a few guest bloggers...what do y'all think? I really am excited about the possibilities of Etsy, so more of the things we make and blog about might end up on there.

Even though I've made it up to 100 posts now (wow!), there are so many things that I mean to blog about and forget to photograph or just don't get around to actually posting. One of the things I've been meaning to blog about all month is the 4th of July. So here are a few thoughts on our 4th.

To me, the 4th of July calls for a picnic or --even better--a barbecue. There's nothing like a nice sunny Independence Day with spicy bbq smoke in the air, kids running around with watermelon slices and the red juice running down their arms, and sparklers. No matter where you live, you can find a great picnic or bbq spot. We bbq'd in the back yard and had all the great picnic food standards: cole-slaw, potato salad, green salad, watermelon, burgers & veggie burgers, hot dogs (Quorn), etc. The weather was perfect for it and the girls kept jumping in the paddling pool and then running back to the table for more food.

For dessert we made smores. We make smores every summer, and try out variations from the very simple to sophisticated desserts based on smores. This year we bought the cookies/crackers (we tried out a few different types) and chocolate, but used homemade marshmallow. In honor of the 4th of July, we made red, white, and blue marshmallow cream. We "browned" it with the kitchen blow torch (fabulous gadget similar to this one BonJour Creme Brulee Chef's Culinary Torch with Fuel Gauge, Brushed Aluminum).

The marshmallow cream is actually pretty easy to make and tastes way better than the store bought stuff. We used the recipe from Wren's Cottage and it turned out beautifully. I really love what a glossy finish the marshmallow cream gets. We just made plain vanilla marshmallows and then added food coloring for the patriotic effect, but you could experiment with different flavors too. Just don't add too much extra liquid as it will change the consistency.

I have to admit that the smores were pretty addictive. For several days after the 4th I didn't seem to make it through the kitchen without stopping for a little smore (or maybe just a spoonful of the marshmallow cream).

Baby Clothes Competition

2011-07-14T10:22:00.001+01:00

Don't forget about the Hidden Domestic competition going on now.

Here are the lovely prizes:

You can pick any one of the items in the Etsy shop, or I can make a new item especially for the winner (featuring your child's name, for example).

Here are the competition details:

To enter:
1) Look at Etsy and then comment on this post saying what you think of our new Etsy shop.
2) Place an order with us on Etsy.
3) Follow The Hidden Domestic.
4) Follow me on Twitter (@KeriWithington)
5) Tweet about the competition or shop (must include a link).
6) Like the Hidden Domestic on Facebook (click here)

You can do just one of these or all of them; I'll give you an entry each. Just leave a comment here and let me know which ones you've done so that I make sure to count all of your entries. Just to be fair, if you're already a follower you get an entry for that too as long as you let me know.

Good luck everybody!

Also, Thank You Thank You Thank You to Lisa for being my secret elf and sending me cooking magazines! I'm enjoying flipping through them and look forward to trying out some ideas I'm getting. Lisa's blog is Lisa's Adventures.

ETSY!!!!

2011-07-12T12:59:00.002+01:00

If you've been reading the Hidden Domestic for awhile, you know that we really like making things. When I was pregnant with our newborn son, Preston, I started sewing and customizing baby things for him. I enjoyed having a few minutes of quiet time every evening to sew. In fact, now I find myself often picking up a little sewing project after his big sisters have gone to bed and Preston's having his evening nap. Now that his wardrobe is overflowing with clothes, I've decided to branch out and make clothes for other kids too.

Enter Etsy. The Hidden Domestic has set up an Etsy shop! It's still small and only has baby clothes on it, but may branch out eventually into other things. Please visit and let us know what you think. I LOVE Etsy and all of the amazing home-made and vintage items on there, so make sure to have a browse around some other shops there too.

Click here to go to the Hidden Domestic on Etsy.

Also, I'm running a competition to celebrate the new Etsy shop. The winner will get a free baby item (decorated vest or sleepsuit similar to the ones in the shop).

To enter:
1) Look at Etsy and then comment on this post saying what you think of our new Etsy shop.
2) Place an order with us on Etsy.
3) Follow The Hidden Domestic.
4) Follow me on Twitter (@KeriWithington)
5) Tweet about the competition or shop (must include a link).
6) Like the Hidden Domestic on Facebook (click here)

You can do just one of these or all of them; I'll give you an entry each. Just leave a comment here and let me know which ones you've done so that I make sure to count all of your entries. Jus tto be fair, if you're already a follower you get an entry for that too as long as you let me know.

The deadline is Friday the 22nd of July.

Good luck everybody!

Happy June & Secret Post Club

2011-07-04T10:15:00.001+01:00

If you want to make any month happy, the first thing you should do is sign up for The Secret Post Club. Basically a group of bloggers (including me) gets paired up each month. I'm not sure which I like more: getting a surprise present each month or discovering new blogs and cyber friends and sending them presents.

For June I drew Pants With Names to send a gift to. I had looked at her blog before, so I was excited to send her a little package. I didn't have the time or budget this month to do anything big, but I sent her the book "Random Acts of Heroic Love" by Danny Scheinmann. I'd read it and enjoyed it, and it seemed like something she would enjoy as well.

Inspired by this blog post of hers, I decided to make her a CD as well. I made sure to include "Jerusalem", and then worked from there. (Dont' worry--the music is all legal.) I ended up with a CD that I called "A Little Patriotic".

Here's the cover I made for it:

If you're interested, here's the playlist for it:

1. "Penny Lane", The Beatles

2. "Dublin Boys", Antje Duvekot

3. "Pastures New", Nickel Creek

4. "From the New World", Dvorak

5. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", Sufjan Stevens

6. "Landslide", Glee

7. "Life is Wonderful", Jason Mraz

8. "Dance Tonight", Paul McCartney

9. "Rule Britannia", the Rangers

10. "Pomp & Circumstance", Elgar

11. "Is This the World We Created?", Queen

12. "Mad World", Tears for Fears

13. "Independence Day", Ani DiFranco

14. "Nimrod", Elgar

15. "Morning Has Broken", Cat Stevens

16. "Made in England", Elton John

17. "Sleepytime in the Western World", Blitzen Trapper

18. "Come on Home", Indigo Girls

19. "Muddy Hymnal", Iron & Wine

20. "Homeward Bound", Simon & Garfunkel

21. "Jerusalem", Elgar

I'm looking forward to getting my Secret Post Club gift for the month...

The Big Arrival

2011-06-09T13:30:00.000+01:00

Little Baby Feet

I'm very happy to let you all know that baby Preston was born on May 3rd. It was a planned c-section and the birth went really well. Preston is healthy and I'm recovering well. He's a happy baby and pretty much the handsomest little boy in the world. He's the perfect addition to our family.

Being a Proud Spouse...

2011-05-17T13:24:00.001+01:00

One of Jared's Carvings in Progress with Tools

I've mentioned a few times before in posts that my husband is a wood carver. He recently finished his work website. I know I'm biased, but I think his site looks good and I'm really proud of him for finishing it (especially right now when we're busy with a newborn).

If you're interested, feel free to visit his new site: www.jaredwithington.com .

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Me!

2011-05-14T20:59:00.001+01:00

After my last several posts, most of you are probably waiting for baby news. He was born, he's perfect, & I'll post more soon. For now, though, I'm backtracking a few weeks to say Happy Birthday to me. You can sing & send me presents if you want because it was my 30th!

Jared helped the girls to make me a birthday cake. Miriam was adamant that I wanted a butterfly cake, and since Anya was helping it had to involve both chocolate and sprinkles. They made a chocolate brownie cake in our fabulous silicone cake mold (similar to this one: Hamilton Beach Professional Silicone Butterfly Cake Pan). The girls did the mixing, measuring, and taste testing.

After it was baked, Jared rolled out marzipan & covered the cake with it. Then he melted dark chocolate (my favorite) and covered the marzipan with that. Then he let the girls go crazy with the sprinkles and edible glitter. They also added sparkler candles (they were pretty impressive mini indoor fireworks actually), although luckily they didn't try to fit on a full 30 candles. To make the butterfly complete they even made little antenna with chocolate covered marzipan balls.

I loved watching them work on it together, and the end result was delicious. The girls were very proud of their birthday cake for me.

I had a really nice birthday enjoying good food and having fun with my family.

Counting down...

2011-04-07T11:54:00.000+01:00

I'm now due in less than a month. This means that every time I go in public, random strangers ask how much longer I have left to go. I'm huge and I'm pretty sure I waddle instead of walk. Most of all, though, I'm getting really impatient to meet this little boy.

We've been getting things ready for him to be born. I know I've posted a few baby sewing projects on here before, and here are two more things that I customized for him.

Anya (our two-year-old) loves the band They Might Be Giants. She's particularly obsessed with the song "Robot Parade" (click here to listen to it). She requested that I make "robot parade" baby clothes, so that's what I added to this little sleepsuit. (The pictures aren't brilliant on these because Anya kept trying to grab the clothes and sing and dance with them.)

Both of the girls are really excited to have a baby brother, so I made this vest/onesie with a simple "Baby Brother" slogan. Miriam was particularly excited as she's learning to read and could figure out what it said on her own.

Mothering Sunday & Being Spoiled

2011-04-04T11:34:00.002+01:00

One of my bouquets

Card Miriam made for me

I always get extra spoiled when it comes to Mother's Day. The reason why is simple. In the UK, Mothering Sunday is celebrated on a different day than Mother's Day in the States. So I get not one, but two mother's days (although we usually put more emphasis on one than the other).

Yesterday was Mothering Sunday, or Mother's Day, and I definitely got spoiled. Jared and the girls got up early. While I slept in, they cleaned the kitchen and cooked breakfast. Then they brought me breakfast in bed, a whole stack of cards (I love the home-made ones from the girls), chocolates, and two flower arrangements. They all piled into bed with me and we enjoyed croissants, juice, hot chocolate, and fresh melon together. Both of the girls were very excited about Mother's Day and kept giving me hugs and kisses.

I had a really lovely day and felt very spoiled by all of them.

I hope all of you parents around the world who read my blog have a fantastic day for Mother's/Father's Day (no matter when you celebrate it).

Beautiful flowers & foliage from the garden

The New Forest

2011-03-21T11:00:00.002Z

We're lucky to live near the beautiful New Forest National Park. We love going there for family picnics and to explore. The girls especially love getting to see all of the deer and wild ponies. It's also a great place to go for a romantic getaway. My husband and I were lucky to get to go on a weekend trip to the great New Park Manor Hotel in the New Forest. I felt very pampered there, and it was great to get in some couple time before we have a newborn.

Here are just a few pictures from our recent visits to the New Forest. I have to confess that I think all of these pictures were actually taken by my husband, Jared, rather than me.

More Baby Sewing Projects

2011-03-11T14:16:00.001Z

In my last post I showed you the baby quilt that I recently made. Here are some more little baby sewing projects that I've been working on. Although I don't sew very often, I've been enjoying spending quiet time each evening to work on a little project. I'm also excited for my baby boy to have some customized clothing. After having two girls, a lot of the clothes we have for him are plain white things that were unisex and could be handed down (especially for vests/onesies). So it's been kind of fun to make them more boyish and add designs to them.

All of these are little hand-sewn things that I did using hand-me-down white vests and scraps of material/ribbon/thread that we happened to have. I didn't use any designs or anything, so they are a bit wonky in places and my stitching's not always even. I like the end results though and love that he'll have some clothes made (or at least decorated) specifially for him.

In addition to preparing for this new arrival, I've been busy with the girls and lots of writing. I've been able to review and write about several baby products lately, like these organic clothes companies.

"I'm as blue as a boy can be"

2011-03-04T11:01:00.002Z

Many of you know this already, but I'm pregnant! I'm very excited to be able to tell you that we're having a little boy in about 8 weeks!

Me from the side at 31 weeks. I always heard old wives' tales about boys carring higher than girls and disregarded them. My baby bump is definitely shaped differently with this little boy than it was with either of my girls though.

As we have two little girls, our loft space is overflowing with boxes of old baby things. The only problem is that they're all in pink. So I decided to make some baby things especially for this little boy we're expecting. This is my first attempt at sewing a baby blanket/quilt. I'm not a very good seamstress, but I think the end result is cute.

I was given the blue fabric (along with some other fabric and craft bits) from a lovely lady on Freecycle. The other material I bought at a charity shop. I found a vintage Disney bedding set with super cute material, and -best of all-it was only £3. I cut it up for the fabric for this and other sewing projects.

Again from the vintage Disney fabric, this is the material lining the back of the baby quilt.

I used some of the same material to applique a matching baby vest (onesie). I can't wait until he's born and I can dress him up in it. The girls are really excited about getting a baby brother. Miriam (she's 4) keeps telling me all the things that she'll do to help once he's born. She also wants to make a chain to count down the days until he's born (we haven't done it yet because she wants to make "a real metal chain, not just a paper chain"). Anya (she's 2) keeps asking to look at the baby's blanket, and then trying to find his bed (we'll set it up closer to when he's due). They'll both be great big sisters.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-13T19:31:00.000Z

Miriam decided that for Valentine's Day we needed to make chocolate biscuits with "all kinds of fruit, especially strawberries". So we spent a Sunday afternoon making cookie dough, rolling out and cutting shapes, baking & decorating...and doing a lot of taste testing on chocolate dipped strawberries and raspberries. Miriam's made a list of all the people we should give cookies to (basically everybody she knows), but at the rate they're disappearing, I'm not sure there will be any left to give away.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!
If you were here, I'd give you a cookie.

Crocheted Scarves

2011-02-10T13:14:00.000Z

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not actually great at crocheting. I've never tried anything too fancy, and I'm lazy about things like counting stitches. However, I do like to crochet. It's an especially good activity on a cold wet evening. I usually crochet while watching TV with family. My favorite things to make are scarves. They're relatively fast and easy to make, practical, easy to customize, and they make great gifts.

Here are two scarves that I've crocheted. The top one is a long skinny scarf (I made several similar ones, including matching ones for my daughters and myself), and the bottom is an enormous, snugly scarf I made for my husband.

If you're interested in crocheting scarves, click here for instructions on making the top scarf, and click here for instructions on making the bottom scarf.

Countdown to Valentine's Day

2011-01-19T12:03:00.001Z

Can you believe that Valentine's Day is coming up? I feel like we've only just finished Christmas--in fact, my boxes of Christmas decorations are still in boxes in the hallway because we haven't had a chance to put them away in the loft (attic) yet. Valentine's Day is just around the corner though, so it's a good time to start booking babysitters, making reservations, making cheesy cards, etc.

To begin the Valentine's season, here are some pictures of some cupcakes we recently made. We actually made the cupcakes for a bake sale at my daughter's school, and the girls helped to decorate. Well, Miriam helped to decorate and Anya ate lots of frosting and sprinkles. They did a few different styles, but here are the heart cupcakes that they were the most excited about.

We just made plain vanilla cupcakes, but added chopped up caramel and chocolate. (Good in theory, but I wouldn't recommend adding the caramels. When it melted as it baked, it left holes in the cakes rather than being gooey liked I hoped for.) The frosting is a mix of about half a pot of Elmlea (low-fat cream) whipped together with about a tablespoon of butter, about half a tablespoon of vanilla extract, about two tablespoons of cocoa powder, and enough powdered sugar to reach the right consistency (probably about a cup). The girls added heart sprinkles because if you're baking with kids (or my sister), you can never go wrong with sprinkles. We also sprinkled on edible glitter just because I love the stuff.

So happy early Valentine's Day everybody. No matter what your plans are, I hope you have a fantastic day.

Baking Biscotti

2011-01-17T10:41:00.000Z

I have good memories with biscotti. It's not something that I eat very often, but just tasting a crumb of biscotti is enough to bring back memories of rainy days in cafes or snugly winter days at home with hot chocolate. When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, I was would often go to a cafe after work and have a hot drink and biscotti.

This Christmas we made two types of biscotti: double chocolate almond biscotti and dried cranberry & white chocolate biscotti. Although both were delicious, I think I actually preferred the cranberry biscotti. I snacked on way too much of it over the holidays! Although it does take awhile to make biscotti (you have to double bake it, for one thing), it's actually not hard to get the knack of it.

Click here for my tips for making perfect biscotti.

If you put the biscotti in an air-tight container, it will keep for a couple of weeks without any problem. For a simple and stylish Christmas gift, we put biscotti in jars and gave them away.

Mistletoe Wreaths

2011-01-08T19:22:00.000Z

I love Christmas time and Christmas decorations of all varieties. Tacky tinsel to tasteful crystal and silver: I love it all. I also really like bringing greenery indoors at Christmas time with garland, wreaths, etc.

Every year we hang mistletoe for Christmas. This year instead of just hanging bunches of mistletoe, I made mistletoe wreaths. They only took a few minutes to make, but I really loved the results.

If you want to make your own mistletoe wreath for Christmas, click here for instructions how.

Snowman...without snow.

2011-01-08T19:01:00.000Z

Whether or not you have snow, you can enjoy edible snowmen. That's right: we made snowmen out of rice crispy treats. It was such a genius but simple idea that I can't believe we'd never thought of it before. We actually used a kit from Sainsbury's, which was nice because everything was included. You could just make rice crispy treats and shape them into snowmen and decorate them. My girls LOVED making, decorating, and eating them.

Making Marshmallows

2011-01-02T20:45:00.000Z

There are some foods that we normally just assume need to be store bought. It had never occurred to me, for example, to make marshmallows. When we were making Christmas goodies, though, my husband had the inspired idea that we should try making them. You can see the results.

We used a recipe we found online (click here for the recipe--we omitted the raspberries & white chocolate and added a little vanilla extract instead). It took awhile to make them...for one thing, expect to have to beat them for an eternity. Other than being a bit time consuming they weren't actually that difficult to make.

The results were perfect. They looked like marshmallows. We ended up with big, fluffy, perfectly textured, pure white marshmallows. They were a big hit and our four-year-old absolutely devoured them. It was also cold and snowy outside, and the marshmallows went perfectly in a cup of hot chocolate.

We gave away a lot of the home-made marshmallows along with jars of hot chocolate mix for Christmas.

Our Winter Tree

2010-12-29T17:50:00.000Z

I love Christmas decorations. This year we had several actual Christmas trees and other Christmas decorations, but we added a new addition to our winter decorations: a winter tree. Instead of a Christmas evergreen, it's a tree (a buddleia) that looks all wintry and branchy.

Instead of looking barren, though, it's really beautiful and inviting. We decorated it with simple white lights and natural ornaments (bundles of cinnamon sticks, wooden ornaments, etc.). Our girls love it (and moving ornaments back and forth between it and the traditional Christmas tree in the same room).

To find out more about decorative winter trees, click here.

Home-made Christmas Wreaths

2010-12-28T20:45:00.000Z

Every year we pick a sunny day in December and make our own Christmas wreath. They're different every year (click here for a picture of last year's wreath). We had a great time this year gathering our own supplies and making our wreath for our front door. Jared and I gathered foliage in a basket. The girls followed behind us emptying out the basket and forming patterns and decorations all over the front lawn. It makes a great family activity and really helps me to get into the festive spirit.

For instructions on how to make your own Christmas wreath, click here.

Spiced Apple Syrup

2010-12-22T20:31:00.000Z

Every year when we harvest our apples in the autumn, we make bottles of apple syrup. This spicy apple syrup is perfect for breakfasts, brunches, or desserts. I especially like it on pancakes. It's especially good at Christmas time (and we always give bottles of it away as Christmas gifts--some times with jars of pancake mix). This is surprisingly easy to make and so delicious.

For my apple syrup recipe, click here.

Merry Christmas everybody & hope you enjoy it.

Simple Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-12-12T15:54:00.002Z

It's always good to have a few recipes for home-made treats that are relatively quick and easy to make, and you know will turn out perfectly every time. One of the best treats is a chocolate cupcake. They're perfect for almost any occasion (including when you just need a chocolate fix).

My daughter wanted to visit her old preschool. She wanted them to be able to see how grown up she is in her school uniform, and to wish them a Merry Christmas. So the girls and I made chocolate cupcakes together. This is the kind of recipe that still turns out well when you're letting your kids do all of the measuring and mixing.

For my simple chocolate cupcake recipe, click here.

We gave them the cupcakes with a Christmas card. We wanted to individually wrap them so that all of the teachers and other workers could bring one home with them, and wanted to make them Christmasy. Here's what we did.

To add a Christmasy feel, we made a mint chocolate icing. I used a piping bag without a nozzle. To be even more festive, add some crushed candy canes into the icing and then sprinkle a little on the top. We sprinkled edible glitter on the top because it looked festive and reminded us of snow.

To individually wrap them, we used plastic sandwich bags. We put them in then tied around the bag with scraps of festive ribbon. This is great because you can use up any scraps you have leftover from wrapping presents or other festive activities. We had a mix of different red and gold ribbons.

These made a delicious and really simple Christmas gift.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

2010-12-10T09:54:00.001Z

Even though we live in an area that doesn't get very much snow (as in normally a flurry or two a year), I can't help but hope for snow each December. Thanks to all the Christmas cards, songs, and movies, we all idealize a White Christmas. It's not actually Christmas for a few more weeks, but we have enjoyed snow this year. We woke up one morning last week to discover that--overnight--our garden had been transformed into a winter wonderland. There was about six inches of beautiful powdery snow, and it kept snowing all day.

I'm not sure who was more excited--my husband and I or our kids. I think he was the first to go out in it (at like seven in the morning with his coat on over pajamas). Miriam thought that, since there was so much snow outside and she wasn't going to school, it must be Christmas. She was quite disappointed when she realized that Father Christmas hadn't come to fill her stocking during the night. We had to explain that it was Christmas time, but not Christmas day. Anya kept looking out the window and pointing out everything that was covered in snow. Her monologue went something like this: "Snow-car! Snow-tree! Snow-bike! Mummy, snow! Snow-grass! Snow-road! Daddy, look snow! Snow-car!".

We enjoyed going out to play in the snow. While Jared was lying down on the ground making a snow angel, the girls took advantage of his vulnerable position and started pelting him with snowballs. They really liked making tracks through the snow (and looking at the tracks left by a fox, birds, and other wildlife). It was a lot of fun, and was made even better because we kept going inside for a mug of home-made hot chocolate to warm up.

Almost all of the snow has melted now, and we probably won't have snow on Christmas day (although I'm keeping my fingers crossed), but it was a lot of fun and made us feel very festive. So Merry Christmas everybody! As the song says, "May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white."

Super Easy Dinner Idea

2010-11-23T13:27:00.000Z

Sometimes you need a dinner idea that is quick and easy to make, but also warm and delicious. Here's a meal perfect for when you don't have a lot of time to prepare.

Instructions:

1. Roll out puff pastry onto a greased baking sheet. (I used pre-made and pre-rolled pastry, so all I had to do was pull it out of the box.)

2. Leaving a little room around the edges for a nice crust, cover the pastry with whatever toppings you want. We added chopped sun-dried tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, and caramelized red onions.

3. Bake in pre-heated oven according to instructions for the pastry (usually about 15 minutes).

4. After removing from oven, add any extra toppings (we added rocket/arugula leaves and shredded mozzarella).

5. Serve hot and enjoy. We really liked it with a spinach side salad.

In unrelated topics, I'm excited for Thanksgiving. Pictures and recipes will--hopefully--be added soon.

Also, thank you so much to Ginger Bread House for sending me the book "Random Acts of Heroic Love." It arrived just in time for Remembrance Day.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T10:44:00.005Z

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Halloween!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween, especially with our pumpkins. Unfortunately we didn't have any pumpkins in the garden this year, but we bought them from a local farm. We've been driving by fields full of pumpkins lately and it really added to the Halloween feeling. I'm also reading Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" for the first time, and so feel really full of Halloween Spirit. (The book was a gift, so thanks Anne!)
.

My husband, Jared, brought home some of his woodcarving tools for us to use on our pumpkins. The two of us stayed up one night watching "Practical Magic" on TV and carving our pumpkins. It was a fun date at home, and I'm really happy with the results. Both of our pumpkins ended up more autumnal than Halloweeny, but I really like the look of them. Instead of carving all the way through, we just hollowed them out and carved thinner sections so that the light still shines through a layer of pumpkin.

Jared carved the one with the owl; mine has oak leaves and acorns.

The idea of our two-year-old helping to carve a pumpkin is more than a little terrifying, so we let them color on their pumpkins instead. They had a lot of fun picking out their pumpkins and then drawing on them.

Anya's is on the left with a cat face; Miriam's is the one on the right with "a funny face".

We were left with TONS of good pumpkin. We put the seeds in a pan with a little olive oil, salt, chili flakes, and pepper, and roasted them. Yum!

We used some of the pumpkin to make pumpkin soup on Halloween. I didn't follow an exact recipe, but here's the basic steps for our pumpkin soup.

1. In a large pan with a splash of olive oil and a knob of butter, cook the roughly chopped vegetables on medium heat. I used: one large zip-lock bag full of pumpkin, about 4 potatoes, 1/3 of a swede, 2 cloves garlic, 2 small shallots, 1 red onion, 4 carrots, and 1/2 of a yellow pepper. Stir regularly.

2. When the vegetables start to soften and the pan is getting dry, add vegetable stock (about 8 cups, but you can add more or less depending on how thick you want your soup to be). Let simmer for about 1/2 hour with the lid on the pan.

3. Puree the soup. (I use my little hand blender, but you could do it in a food processor or blender if you don't have one.)

4. Season to taste. I added a little sea salt, a mixture of cracked peppers, and paprika. I also tossed in several bay leaves and some sprigs of fresh herbs from my garden, including rosemary and thyme. ( I removed the sprigs and leaves before serving.)

5. As a final touch, I added about a cup of plain pouring yogurt.

Pumpkin cupcakes

With more of the leftover pumpkin we made pumpkin cupcakes. They were a big hit on Halloween.

I used this recipe, but instead of canned pumpkin we baked and pureed fresh pumpkin. I topped with cream cheese icing (I found that their recipe was a bit too runny, so I added extra icing sugar) and homemade praline. Delicious.

PS-I had made myself a goal to finish my new professional website by the end of the month, and I did it (barely). You can check out my new site with information on my day job by clicking here.

Thanksgiving Recipes: Pumpkin Pie!

2010-10-26T11:45:00.003+01:00

Pumpkin pie is, for me, one of those defining autumn flavors. Most pumpkin things make me think of Halloween, but pumpkin pie is usually a Thanksgiving standard. The smell of pumpkin and cinnamon accompanies the scarlets and golds on the trees outside. It's the kind of thing you smell as you pull your sweaters and gloves out of storage.

We had a pumpkin that we didn't think was going to last until Halloween, so we went ahead and cut it up for cooking with. I used the first half of the pumpkin to make pumpkin soup (one of my kindergartner's favorites...although she has a lot of favorite foods). My husband decided to make pumpkin pie with the second half. Plus we roasted the seeds--very easy, yummy, and nutritious. Just stick the seeds on a baking sheet, season lightly if desired, spray with a little olive oil, and then bake for about 20 minutes.

We more or less followed this pumpkin pie recipe.

To make the pumpkin puree, we cut, skinned and gutted the pumpkin and cut into segments. Then we sprayed with a little olive oil and sprinkled a little brown sugar on top. We baked them in a large glass dish for about 40 minutes at 350 F (180 C), until the pumpkin was very soft. Then he just tipped it out into the food processor. The pumpkin will probably release some juice as it bakes, so just puree the pieces first, and then add some of the juice back as needed to get the right consistency.

We also used a shortcrust pastry for the shell rather than a pre-made pie shell.

Other than that we followed the recipe, then served with whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon. The results were fantastic. I have to admit that, growing up, I only ate one slice of pumpkin pie a year (on Thanksgiving), and even then it was more out of the spirit of the holiday than because I really enjoyed it. This pumpkin pie, though, was delicious. I'm definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving and making another one.

Celebrating Harvest Time

2010-10-15T10:37:00.003+01:00

This morning I had the pleasure to go see my daughter's harvest festival at school. She's been practicing her harvest songs all week, so it was fun to get to go see her perform them with the other children. Next time, though, I'll get there earlier so I can get either a seat in the front two rows (where you can see) or the back row (where you can stand up to see), as most of the time I could only really see other parents. The kids sounded great though. I'm proud of her; she's adjusted really well to school and is loving it.

We've also enjoyed harvest time in our own garden. We've had apples (and apples and apples) and carrots and potatoes and the last of the tomatoes and pattipans (squash). I also picked the last of the rhubarb for an apple and rhubarb crumble, and some of the salad things have made a recurrence as we haven't had a frost yet. The girls have really enjoyed helping to dig through the dirt to find the potatoes and helping to pick apples from our trees.

If, like us, you are overflowing with apples right now, here's my apple recipe suggestion: Spiced Apple Cake. It's delicious and will make your house smell great.

I love this time of year and enjoying all of the fresh autumn flavors.

The Romsey Show

2010-10-02T09:21:00.001+01:00

Some of our goodies from the Romsey Show.

Our family enjoyed a fantastic day out at the Romsey Show held at the Broadlands Estate. It's kind of like a county fair. There were animals to see. The girls loved seeing the cows, especially since many of them had their little calves with them. We also enjoyed seeing horses, sheep, goats, peacocks, quail, rabbits, and more. There were plenty of children's activities, and the girls were very excited to go on some of the rides like the spinning teacups. I particularly enjoyed the large food area with countless stalls of local food. It would have been easy to spend a fortune, and we did buy a few things.

Although we stopped and got some delicious treats during the day (including goodies from a local bakery and fresh strawberries), we were all starving when we got home in the evening. So we used some of the things that we had boughten to make a delicious watercress, leek, and potato soup. It was easy to do and based on the recipe that the farmer gave us when we bought the fresh local bunches of watercress.

Romsey Show Soup:

Ingredients:
big bunch of watercress
knob butter
1 leek
2 potatoes
vegetable stock
salt & pepper
creme fraiche
good cheese

Instructions:

1. Chop all of the vegetables and put them in a pan with the butter and a splash of olive oil. Just put it on a medium or low heat. When the butter is melted and coating the veggies evenly, put the lid on the pan and let it cook until the vegetables are soft. Stir every few minutes so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

2. Add the vegetable stock. Leaving the pan uncovered, bring it up to the boil and let it cook for several minutes.

3. Puree the soup. (I use my hand-held mixture for this, but if you don't have one you could pour it into a blender or food processer and then return to the pan.)

4. Add a few spoonfuls of the creme fraiche and season to taste.

5. Serve with grated cheese on top (we used a delicious local mature cheddar). Enjoy.

(This recipe is just a foundation to work from. You could always add slightly different vegetables depending on what you have on hand, for example, or substitute cream cheese for creme fraiche--or just leave it out entirely. To make it vegan, just leave out the butter and cook with slightly more oil and a little stock, and then use vegan cheese or omit cheese at the end.)

It was a simple and delicious meal made with all local ingredients. A delicious end to a fantastic family day.

The vegetables cooking in butter.

A delicious bowl of watercress soup.

September Secret Post Club

2010-09-23T18:16:00.001+01:00

There's a group of bloggers from around the world that form the Secret Post Club. It's a lot of fun to do because you get to know people from around the world through their blogs and cards, and also you get a gift each month :) Basically, each month everyone picks a name and sends that person a present.

This month I received a fabulous gift from the lovely lady who writes the blog Cherished By Me. She's a mother of five with an adorable blog and recent adventures into the world of high fashion. She sent me the coolest retro style Union Jack tin. It's already being used around the house, although my husband keeps mentioning that he'd like to steal it to use for his lunch box... I have no idea where she found it, but you can see it in the picture. As if that wasn't cool enough, the tin was filled with delicious dark chocolates from Thorntons! I would have put them in the picture, but they seem to have evaporated (mysteriously the wrappers are still around my desk).

Thank you so much for my fab gift!

Cake Pops under construction

For September's Secret Post Club, I was lucky enough to draw the name of Deborah. I'd never seen her blog Messy Mummy before, but it's a good parenting blog. It made me want to arrange a play date for our kids. She mentioned that with two little boys, she likes (and doesn't always get) cute and girly types of things. I wanted to give her something cute and yummy and fun, so I decided to make some cake pops.

I made two different types: lavender cakes covered in white chocolate and rose cakes covered in dark chocolate.

To make the lavender cakes, I baked a lavender cake and let it cool. To get the recipe, click here. The rose cakes are actually the exact same recipe, only with rose sugar instead of lavender sugar. If you don't have rose sugar, you can add a few drops of rose water instead. Just be carefully not to add to much or else it will taste like soap.

After the cakes had cooled, I made a simple butter cream frosting and added a little pink food coloring. Then I crumbled up the cakes into bowls and added a little bit of the frosting. They were then easy to roll into balls. I stuck the popsicle sticks into the balls at this stage.

Then I melted a bowl of dark chocolate and dipped the rose cakes into the chocolate. After cooling for a few seconds on wax paper, I rolled them in sprinkles. Then I left them to cool so that the chocolate would harden. I repeated the process with the lavender cakes in white chocolate.

I'm hoping that Deborah liked them, because I thought they were cute.

Creative Writing Classes at Furzey Gardens

2010-09-14T15:12:00.003+01:00

Furzey Gardens, August 2010

I've mentioned how much I love Furzey Gardens before. It's an inspiring place to be, so I'm very excited about this announcement. I'm going to teach some creative writing workshops (and longer courses if there's enough interest) at

Furzey Gardens this autumn. The first one is on Friday the 15th of October from 10.00-12.00. The workshops should be of interest to anyone who writes or is interested in writing. The setting is amazing. Please don't miss this opportunity.

If you would like to find out more about creative writing classes at Furzey Gardens, please contact me.

If you would like to register for the class, please contact Furzey Gardens.

Thatching at Furzey Gardens, August 2010

Our Fine Doodle!

2010-09-13T09:09:00.002+01:00

A few months ago I mentioned Fine Doodles (click here for the original post). It took us a really long time to pick which of our daughter's drawings to have transformed into a Fine Doodle, but we finally chose her self-portrait with a rainbow. You can see a copy of her original drawing and the Fine Doodle reimagining of it. Unfortunately, both of these are cropped. You can see the full size images in the Fine Doodles gallery here, along with other great Fine Doodles.

Now we just need to choose where to hang our new picture up...

Chopped

2010-09-04T21:29:00.002+01:00

We recently visited my parents in the States. Both of my sisters were in town at the same time as well. Now, there were a lot of things that we could have done together. There's one thing, though, that we all love: food. We watched a fair amount of the Food Network together, and one night we did a great activity: Chopped. Chopped is a TV show where the competitors are given a basket of ingredients, and they have to use all of the ingredients in one cohesive dish. (Click here to find out more about Chopped.)

My dad and sister picked the ingredients and acted as judges.

Our baskets had: feta cheese, sprinkles, sparkling water, whipped cream (the squirty kind in a can), sweet potato, kiwi, grapefruit, peach (doughnut), plum, gluten free crackers, jabanero pepper, and spinach (fresh leaves). In addition we could use any items in their house/garden.

Rather than just having one dish, we actually cooked both an appetizer and a dessert. All of the items had to be used, but we could choose which items to use in which dish.

My husband and I (Away Team) competed against my mother and other sister (Home Team).

Team Home's Menu:

Appetizer: A selection of nibbles, including home-made chutney served on the crackers and stuffed spinach leaves.

Followed by a palate cleanser drink (sparkling water, grapefruit, kiwi, etc.).

Dessert: Mini sweet potato cream pies

Away Team's Menu:

Appetizer: Salad with a grapefruit vinaigrette served on a sweet potato flower

Dessert: Italian Cream Soda (Peach and vanilla flavour) with a plum, apple, and pecan crumble

After careful deliberation, the judges announced the results: both teams scored perfect 100's! So we tied.

My dad still maintains that, as judge, he won, as he got to pick ingredients he liked and then eat the food we all made :)

Looking forward to something special...

2010-08-08T18:20:00.003+01:00

A year or so ago, I met a lovely couple through Freecycle. Recently they found some bog oak when doing some landscaping. They remembered that my husband is a woodcarver, and kindly offered it to him. (If you read this, Thank You!)

Bogwood is normally found in Ireland, and it's a rare treasure to find some here. If you're not familiar with bog oak, the term basically refers to oak trees have been preserved under water and eventually under peat and other wet soil. It is common for pieces of bog oak to be 3,000 or more years old. To find out more about bog oak, click here. Bog oak is very unique and beautiful.

My husband still needs to assess how much of the wood is usable (there are some rotten sections), but there should be some great pieces of bog oak for him to carve and sculpt with. Looking at these fantastic pieces of wood, I know that the result is going to be something spectacular. So here's looking forward to something special.

To see some examples of bog oak sculpture that I really like, click here.

Gooseberry Jam

2010-08-04T20:07:00.000+01:00

Who doesn't love summertime? I love long warm evenings sitting on the patio, all of the vibrant colours and flowers, the more relaxed feeling, and especially all of the fantastic fresh produce. There are so many fantastic fruits and vegetables that are in season during the summer.

I don't remember ever eating gooseberries before moving to Britain. They're certainly a very British fruit, but I've grown to love them. It's a bit late for gooseberries really now, but you may still be able to find fresh ones. I have a gooseberry bush, but unfortunately didn't get any fruit off of it this year. (My gooseberry bush died from the extreme cold this winter and then my toddler repeatedly digging it up during the spring, so we recently bought a small new bush to replace it. Hopefully we'll have home-grown gooseberries again next summer.)

My family went to a nearby farm to pick our gooseberries. I love pick-your-own farms, and even if you don't garden yourself, it's really satisfying to pick your own fruit and veg. I promise it makes it taste better. I particularly love Ganger Farm. My husband and I started going there as newlyweds, and we've kept going over the years. Now our kids love picking (well, mostly eating) fruit there.

Gooseberries are funny little fruits. The bushes have big, hard thorns, and are--I think--always a bit scrubby looking. Most people will recommend wearing leather gloves when you pick gooseberries to protect yourself from prickles. I prefer doing it without the gloves and just being careful. It makes it easier to maneuver through the bush after the best fruit and to handle the fruit gently. The fruit itself is green and kind of hairy looking. Gooseberries taste quite tart on their own, and when ripe have an almost grape-like crunchiness to them.

My favourite way to eat gooseberries is to make gooseberry jam. These tart little berries make a fantastic jam than you can save to enjoy all year long. This is my daughter Miriam's favourite jam.

How To Make Gooseberry Jam

Before I begin making the jam, I get the jars ready. You can buy jam jars, or just reuse any glass jar with a metal screw-on lid (preferably the type with the pop down seal). You can also use Kilner style glass jars. It just needs to have a good air-tight seal. Always sterilize jars before using.

When you have your jam jars ready, prepare your fruit. Wash it well and remove any extra leaves, stems, etc. If desired, you can top and tail them. I usually just pinch off the stem.

Weigh the fruit, then add to a big pan. Always use a bigger pan then you think you'll need because it will bubble and splash. (If I followed my own advice on this, I'd save myself a lot of burnt fingers.) Because gooseberries are quite firm, part cook them first. Cook on high heat, stirring constantly. They will start to release juice and break down. You can use a potato masher to help break them down if you want to speed things along. Cook just the gooseberries for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, stick a couple of small plates into the freezer to cool. They'll later help you to test if the jam is set.

There's a simple truth that you have to accept about jam. It uses a lot of sugar. I've tried cutting down on the sugar content, and the results just weren't worth it. For gooseberry jam, use equal parts fruit and sugar by weight. This holds true no matter how many gooseberries you have. So if, for example, you have 1 kg of gooseberries, add 1 kg of sugar. You can buy fancy jamming sugars, but I just use plain white sugar.

Add the sugar to the fruit and continue to cook on high heat. Stir constantly. The sugar should melt and mix in with the fruit. You can adjust the heat as needed, but it should stay at a rolling boil. You'll notice a fantastic kind of alchemy as you make gooseberry jam. You started off with prickly green fruits. As they cook, though, the gooseberries turn a lovely pink and get a velvety texture. It becomes really lovely and appetizing. Cook until it starts to reduce. How long this takes will depend on how big of a batch of jam you're cooking at once and the heat of your hob.

You can test the jam by putting a spoonful on one of the cold plates. Run your finger through it. If it immediately rushes in to fill the gap, it's not ready yet. If it makes a puckery kind of line through the jam, it's ready. Don't wait until it's already perfectly set because it will set further after you turn off the heat and jar it.

When it's ready, you can jar it. I really recommend using a jam funnel. It will help to keep the edges of the jar clean so that you get a better seal, and just makes the whole process easier. You want to put the jam into the jars and then put on the lids as quickly as possible. If it cools too much, the jars won't seal. You can do it by yourself, but it's definitely easier if you have two people working on this stage. Your jam will look absolutely beautiful in the jar.

Then you're finished. Leave the jars to cool and just check that the jars have taken, or sealed, later in the day. You can make labels to add, and then stick in the cupboard for whenever you want some lovely jam. This will liven up any piece of toast.

And there you have it: gooseberry jam. This really is one of my favourite parts of the summer. It may seem crazy to make your own jam, but it really doesn't take as long as it seems, and the jam is so much better than anything store bought. It was a really lovely process picking the gooseberries together as a family, and then my husband and I made the jam together after the girls went to bed that evening.

Breaking in my new apron...

2010-07-23T09:27:00.004+01:00

I received a fantastic gift this week from another blogger. SnafflesMummy made me a beautiful apron that I absolutely love. Thank you! (Click here to see her cute blog.)

To break in my new apron, I wore it while we worked on a new kitchen project. My in-laws are involved with a cooperative farm, and they are responsible for the beetroot section of the farm. They recently harvested their beetroot crop, and gave us a bag of their freshly picked baby beetroot.

We really wanted to pickle some of it so that we could enjoy it throughout the year.

Here's our simple pickled beetroot process:

1. Sterilize storage jars. Fill with boiling water, then empty and put in the oven on a baking sheet until ready to use. Keep it on a low temperature. If you are using jars with seals, soften the seals.

2. Wash the beetroot. Cut off the leaves, but do not yet top and tail. Then boil the beetroot for about 30 minutes in heavily salted water. (Adjust cooking time according to the size of the beets; we had quite small beets.)

3. Remove and drain the beetroot. Rinse to remove excess salt. Then top and tail them using a small knife. This should make them quite easy to peel. Holding them in your hands, you should be able to just slide the beetroot out of its skin. Put the prepared beetroot into the storage jars.

4. Bring pickling vinegar to the boil. When it is boiling, remove from heat and pour directly into the jars over the beetroot. Put on the lids as quickly as possible so that they seal.

The beetroot pickled like this will keep for years. It's great to pull out later and slice into salads or cook with.

We didn't want to waste the rest of the beetroot that we didn't need for pickling. So we decided to make a vegetable stock. All of the washed beetroot leaves got tossed into a big pot with any other extra vegetable bits we had, including some garlic and onion offcuts, pea shells and shoots, carrot peels, some spinach, some bits of pepper, etc. We also tossed in big sprigs of fresh herbs from the garden, and a handful of peppercorns and coriander seeds. Add just enough water to cover, and then put on a lid and let simmer for a few hours. We poured the stock through a colander and then a sieve, and then poured into a storage jar (while still very hot) to seal.

We ended up with a very rich and earthy stock that will be great to use for gravy. All of the ingredients were either from the garden, or things that would have otherwise been thrown away.

A delicious thing of beauty

2010-07-13T19:49:00.004+01:00

Macarons always seemed to be a mythical type of food to me. I had heard of them in hushed, almost reverent tones from friends who had been to Paris, and seen them make or break aspiring chefs on TV shows. Macarons are resplendent on the pages of foodie books and magazines.

Until recently, it never occurred to me that I could actually make such a fancy dessert. However, my husband and I spent a night together making macarons. It was our first attempt, and I have to admit that I'm pretty proud of it. So here's our adventure making violet macarons.

First off, you should prepare in advance if you want to make macarons. One of the most important ingredients is egg whites, and for macarons it's better if they're old. Separate your eggs a couple of days before making the macarons. (For more explanation about using old egg whites and more tips for making perfect macarons, click here.) You'll want to make sure that you have the right ingredients in advance, too. The possibilities are endless when it comes to macarons, but I loved these violet flavored ones. Flower flavors tend to be dainty and elegant in a way that pairs really well with macarons.

I basically followed a recipe from the website Tartelette. Click here for the full recipe and Tarelette post. The instructions are really clear and easy to follow. I added purple food coloring to the macaron batter as it looked even prettier and worked perfectly with the violet flavouring.

When you've made the macaron shell batter, use a piping bag to put them out on baking parchment (not just greaseproof paper) or onto a silicone baking sheet. Then bash up some crystallized violet flowers and sprinkle over the top as desired.

Remember to let them sit for about half an hour before baking them. I forgot on one of the batches, and you could definitely tell the difference in the pastry afterwards. It is worth being patient and getting better results.

Either while the macaron shells are baking or cooling, you can make the butter cream (see photos above). Now most of the time I make a cheat's butter cream, but for macarons we did the proper filling. Just like on the Tartelette website, we did both a vanilla bean and a violet filling. It always amazes me how opulent fresh vanilla is, and how strongly you can smell it as you cut into a pod. The violet water turned the most fabulous bright blue colour. It was amazing how bright it was.

Then the fun part comes: assembling, serving, and eating. These are an absolute indulgence. They are both light and rich at the same time. The flavours and textures really are a delicious thing of beauty. They are time consuming, but if you have the time, these are a delicious treat.

Fairies in the Garden

2010-07-08T20:13:00.001+01:00

I love Furzey Gardens. My daughters love it at Furzey, and Miriam especially loves the fairy features around the garden. She was so excited about finding all of the little fairy homes that my husband decided that some fairies should move to our garden just in time for Miriam's birthday. On the morning of her 4th birthday, she woke up to find a tiny birthday card for her from the fairies, and discovered that a fairy house had shown up overnight. It's an adorable, natural little house complete with windows with curtains, a working mailbox, milk waiting by the door, a little well with a bucket, etc. Miriam is thrilled that there are fairies living in our garden now too, and she often goes to check on them.

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T20:38:00.002+01:00

Apple Pie

Happy 4th of July everybody!

Sneak Preview

2010-07-03T22:33:00.002+01:00

Just a quick sneak preview of great things to come. We made macarons and they were perfect. I'm so pleased with how they turned out and I can't wait to blog them for real.

Geranium Infused Chocolate Covered Pistachios

2010-06-19T22:29:00.005+01:00

In keeping with the floral theme of the menu we're planning, we decided to create a unique floral chocolate to serve with after dinner drinks. We had tried chocolate infused with geranium before, and it makes a surprisingly good combination. So we wanted to create something using geranium and chocolate.

We bought some Geranium Dainty Dollops from Montezuma's. These are great little milk chocolates with geranium oil. The chocolate is creamy and just melts on your tongue leaving the geranium aroma to fill your mouth. We thought they could be even better, though, if combined with another texture and taste. We brainstormed, and finally we came up with the perfect combination: geranium, chocolate, and pistachio nuts.

We bought salted and roasted pistachio nuts and shelled them, removing as much of the papery inside lining as possible. Then melt the dainty dollops (always double boil chocolate). Put the pistachio nuts into the chocolate, then spread out on greasproof paper and allow to cool. Then enjoy:) The smooth, creamy, sweet chocolate and the crunchy, salty pistachios are perfect together. This is a combination you haven't had before, but once you taste it you'll wonder why not.

Best Early Summer Starter Ever

2010-06-17T07:35:00.008+01:00

My husband and I are planning a small garden dinner party to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks. People keep asking me if I can believe it's really been five years. On one hand, it seems like a milestone type of anniversary, and I think Wow. 5 years already!. Usually, though, I can't believe that it hasn't been longer. We have two beautiful little girls together, and are so close, that when I think of things that happened before then, it's hard to believe that they weren't a part of it. As we're not normally overly social people, we decided it would be fun and throw a little party to celebrate. We're really enjoying planning it together, especially coming up with the menu.

We tested out our appetizer, and I am thrilled with how it turned out. I've decided this is the perfect starter for early summer, especially here where we can get fresh local asparagus. So here it is:

Steamed Asparagus with Poached Quails' Eggs and a Hollandaise Sauce, Garnished with Fresh Dill and Herb Flowers

You should allow four spears of asparagus and two quaills' eggs per person if serving as a starter.

The Asparagus

Buy the best freshest green asparagus spears you can find (local and/or organic if possible). Snap off the bottoms (the cut end will naturally snap off). Steam for about four minutes. They should still be vibrant green. A sharp knife should slice through them easily, but they should still stand up straight if you hold them up.

The Hollandaise

Hollandaise is one of those intimidating sounding French sauces. On chef programmes, you always see them whisking away and talking about all the things that can go wrong with a Hollandaise. Actually, Hollandaise can be pretty easy to make, plus it looks and tastes great. A home-made Hollandaise really adds a wow factor to dishes like this.

To make the Hollandaise, put two egg yolks (room temperature) and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice in your blender. Yes, your blender. It makes a really smooth sauce and is way faster and easier than using a whisk. Blend them until it makes a really smooth mixture. Then, with it still blending, slowly add a 200g of butter (use the real unsalted stuff and melt it first). Blend until it reaches a nice sauce consistency. Your Hollandaise should be smooth and creamy with a pretty yellow colour. Salt and pepper to taste.

The Eggs

I like using quails' eggs because they are so small and dainty. They really add an extra elegance to the dish, and taste perfect with it. If you can't find quails' eggs, though, you can use small chickens' eggs.

They should be poached and then placed on top of the asparagus. To poach the quails' eggs, let them reach room temperature first. Half-fill a large frying pan with water and a dash of vinegar, and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, find some small cups. Crack the eggs into the cups (one each). When the water is boiling steadily, slide the eggs from the cups into the water. Putting them into a cup first and then sliding them in helps them to stay together better, and avoids problems like the eggs sticking to the bottom of the pan. The quails' eggs are so small that they cook really quickly. It will only take a minute or two for them to be ready, so watch them closely. They're ready when the white is solid and cooked, but the yolk is still runny if you cut into it. Use a slotted spoon to take them from the pan so that excess water can drain off.

The Garnish

Not only do the fresh herbs and flowers look great, they really elevate the flavour of the dish as well. Tear up a little fresh dill over the top of the dish. (Dill is really easy to grow, and will grow well in pots--we used fresh dill from the garden.) We're having a floral theme to our party menu, so we're incorporating some type of edible blossoms with each course. We sprinkled just a few fresh herb blossoms (thyme and oregano) over the top of the dish. When you bite into them, you get a strong burst of the herbiness that makes it all taste fresh and summery.

This was possibly the most delicious savoury dish we've ever cooked at home. Delicious.

Birthday Cakes

2010-06-04T09:54:00.007+01:00

It seems like there have been a lot of birthdays lately, and so we made several birthday cakes in May. I always think that a cake makes a nice birthday gift that is home-made and yummy.

This cake was a gift for a student of mine for her 14th birthday. She likes doodling, and loves the way that I doodle, so I did some food coloring painting on her cake. The fondant work isn't as nice as I'd like, but she still loved it.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup vanilla sugar (if you don't have it, just use normal sugar)

2 Tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup milk (room temperature)

1 egg (room temperature)

1/4 cup butter (room temperature--it should be soft, but not melted)

1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Grease and flour a medium sized cake tin.

2. Sift in the dry ingredients, then stir lightly. Add the remaining ingredients and mix into a smooth batter.

3. Bake until a knife comes out clean (about 25 minutes).

To decorate:

1. Either make and roll out fondant icing, or roll out pre-made fondant.

2. Heat jam of choice in a saucepan, stirring constantly, until it starts to boil. (I used home-made rosehip and apple jam.)

3. Paint the jam over the cooled cake. I used a silicone pastry brush.

4. While the jam is still hot, lift the fondant over the cake and smooth.

5. Use a small paint brush or point (the point of a wooden skewer works well for details) to paint the cake with food colouring.

My daughter Miriam celebrated her 4th birthday in May! On one hand she seems so big and grown up, and on the other hand it's hard to believe that my little girl is already four. The only thing that she asked for was a pink bike with a pink helmet, so she was very excited to get a bike for her birthday. (We're still working on learning to ride it...unfortunately her little sister gets a bit jealous and tries to climb on with her, so it's hard for Miriam to really ride it. Also, she has a weird tendency to petal backwards.) She enjoyed some other goodies, like new art supplies, as well.

Miriam's favourite food in the world is strawberries. So it wasn't really a surprise that she asked for a strawberry birthday cake shaped like a butterfly.

Strawberry Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup strawberry milk powder (like strawberry nesquick, only I used Asda's brand)

2 Tsp baking powder

2/3 cup milk (room temperature)

1 egg (room temperature)

1/4 cup butter (room temperature)

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

(if desired: add a handful of chopped dried strawberries)

Instructions:

Follow the same instructions as for the chocolate cake above. (Sift dry ingredients, then blend all of the ingredients. Bake in a greased and floured pan at 350F/180C.)

To decorate:

1. Roll out fondant.

2. Boil strawberry jam. (Do not overboil because it will go too thick and sticky. Bring it to boiling point and then remove from heat.)

3. Paint the cake with the jam, and then cover with fondant.

4. Smooth and cut off any extra fondant.

5. Decorate! I cooked this in a butterfly shaped cake mold, so then I just decorated with coloured icing and candles.

Cupcakes

Miriam wanted to bring cupcakes to preschool to share with her friends. Here's a recipe for easy plain cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tsp baking powder

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup butter

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer to make a smooth batter.

2. Bake in paper or silicone cupcake cases at 350F/180C for about 17 minutes.

3. Decorate. I piped on a simple chocolate butter cream (butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract, a few drops of milk, and cocoa), and then Miriam added pink sprinkles.

All of the cake recipes are variations on my standard cake recipe that can be adapted to pretty much any flavour and always turns out perfectly. To see the full recipe (adapted for lavender cakes), click here.

Happy Birthday to anyone else who's celebrating birthdays right now!

Wildlife in the Garden

2010-05-23T21:12:00.006+01:00

I love seeing wildlife into the garden. We try to attract and support local wildlife, and put out birdfood, have a bird bath, etc. We've had a wide variety of birds (including an owl who was fond of sitting on our chimney pot and robins that are so friendly that they'll literally land on your shoe while you're gardening), hedge hogs, mice, a degu (very unexpected in this part of the world, but that's definitely what it was...we think it was an escaped pet.), rabbits, etc.

Right now, we have hundreds of tadpoles living in our paddling pool. It's been exciting seeing them grow from frogspawn into the large tadpoles they are now, and we're looking forward to seeing them turn into frogs. The girls have loved watching them grow and go check on them everyday. (You can hear Anya giggling in the background of the video of the tadpoles. She thinks they're funny, and both the girls like imitating the way they wiggle.)

There are also several frogs who are normally around the paddling pool enjoying the shade and water.

More artwork

2010-05-16T20:04:00.005+01:00

A lot of people have asked to see Jared's artwork, so when I did the last post on his wood carvings, I decided to go ahead and add some photos of his other recent work as well. For the past couple of weeks, he's been in a modelling class at school. He's sculpting a half-life size figure from clay working from a life model. He'd never done anything like this before, but I think he should be pleased with what he's managed to sculpt.

Here are some pictures of his sculpture taken in the studio.

Jared's Woodcarvings

2010-05-16T18:51:00.006+01:00

I think I've mentioned before that my husband is a very talented artist. Right now he's a postgraduate student at the City and Guilds of London Art School studying historic and ornamental woodcarving. I just wanted to show off a few of his recent projects.

This is a work-in-progress. It's a copy of a hand clutching a scroll carved by Donatello (he's working from a cast of the original). It's carved in yew, and the hand is slightly larger than life size. I'm excited to see this one when it's finished.

I really love this acanthus. Jared carved it in lime, and it's a really lovely decorative piece. I'm really lucky to have this decorating my kitchen right now! (He does take commissions and has carved a lot of gifts for people as well, so we don't get to keep many of his pieces. It's exciting to watch the process and then get to keep it.)

This is a piece of lettering practice (his initials) carved in beech.

These two pictures are both of a strapwork carving in English brown oak. This is a copy of a fragment of an early 16th century Flemish carving.

The Secret Post Club

2010-05-15T08:07:00.002+01:00

This month I joined a kind of cool group called The Post Secret Club. Basically it's a group of bloggers. Each month you send a present to somebody in the club, and you receive a present from somebody in the club. It's a fun idea and a good way to get to know more bloggers (and get a pressie every month).

This month I sent my present to Audrey at Audrey's Country Crafts. I'd never visited her blog before, so it was nice to get to know her a little through her blog. It's packed full of crafty things, and has some great giveaways that you can enter.

I was also excited to receive my package. A huge thank you goes out to Jo at Arctic-Mummy for my new goodies. She sent me some Willie's Dark Chocolate (this is good stuff if, like me, you love dark, rich chocolate...it's great for baking with, especially if you want desserts that are very chocolatey, but not too sweet.) and The Help Yourself (and others) Cook Book. All of the proceeds go to the Ghana Education Project, so it's a cookbook for a great cause.

Now I'm looking forward to next month's Post Secret Club....

Furzey Gardens

2010-05-10T15:17:00.006+01:00

Over the weekend we enjoyed a fantastic family day out at Furzey Gardens in the New Forest. It's a beautiful garden with breathtaking azaleas, wildlife, thatching projects, an art gallery, and a lake with lily pads. Goregous and very peaceful. What we really loved about Furzey, though, was that Furzey is a fairy land. That's right: fairies. All over the garden there's evidence of fairies: tiny doors in the sides of trees, miniature boats and bridges, fairy sized notic boards, etc.

The girls LOVED finding where all of the fairies live (and even got to see one up in the trees! They stayed very still and quiet so they wouldn't scare her off.). It was really exciting to go around Furzey Gardens finding all the secret little fairy spots. (Jared was by far the best at spotting them.) Miriam and Anya tried knocking at the doors, but most of the fairies were a bit shy. It was a lot of fun and Furzey really made a great family day out.

To see more pictures from Furzey Gardens, click here.

Fine Doodles!

2010-05-04T19:34:00.003+01:00

A lot of people think that they have cool families. In my case, it's actually true. On my dad's side of the family, the family "business" is the CIA. I'm not even joking. On my mom's side of the family, pretty much everybody is an artist of some type: musicians, sculptors, etc. Pretty much everybody has the type of career that really is interesting, rather than the type of career where you politely mutter "oh, how interesting", and then try to get away as they start talking about how fascinating accounting is. (No offense to any accountants out there. I'm sure you're really interesting people.)

My cousin, Summer, is an artist and young mother who has started a very cool new company called Fine Doodles. Basically she recreates your child's drawing(s) into an amazing new painting. It's your kid's drawing, but turned into a piece of artwork that is beautiful, unique, and will last until your kid has kids of their own to admire their work. In short, the things are dang adorable. (The collage above is of kids' drawings and their re-imaginings as Fine Doodles.)

The really cool part is that I'm going to get one! The hard part is picking which drawing to choose. My house is overflowing with my childrens' artwork, and Miriam's pictures especially are really good. So I have to pick which picture to have transformed into a Fine Doodle. Maybe I'll put some options on here and see what everybody thinks...

To find out more about Fine Doodles, click here.

Another Chance to Win Photography

2010-04-26T20:08:00.002+01:00

Here's another chance to win some artwork by up-and-coming photographer Christine Armbruster. Visit her site for a chance to win.

Fingers crossed that I'll win this time. It's my birthday this week & the beautiful girl in the green photo is, in fact, my little sister! So maybe this time I'll win. Here's hoping. Good luck to anybody else who enters too....but not too much good luck, because I want one of these pictures.

Redecorating the Kitchen & Inventing Cake

2010-04-13T17:14:00.003+01:00

We used our Easter break to redecorate the kitchen. It's a project that we've been wanting to do for the nearly three years that we've lived in this house, and we finally got to it. It was all horribly dated with browns and nicotine yellows. Now everything is bright and cheerful and clean and inviting. I love it.

We used a dulux custom mixed gloss paint on the cabinets and brackets, white tile paint on the tiles and white on the shelves, and pink (Dulux Rock Candy 5, to be precise) on the walls (in special kitchen paint so that it can be wiped clean without harming the paint). We also did general tidying up, reorganizing, etc., and replaced the lights.

Miriam is convinced that we redecorated just for her because "pink is MY Favourite colour!" We let both of the girls help us paint...even if most of Anya's paint ended up everywhere but the wall. It looks great now and just really changes the whole feeling of the room.

To break in the new kitchen, we did some baking. In fact, I invented a whole new recipe to go with my new kitchen. We're trying to detox, and so we're currently not eating sugar or artificial sweeteners, no caffeine, and we're trying to cut down on white flour, and have eliminated as many processed and junk foods as we can. So this is my fairly healthy cake.

New Kitchen Cake
Otherwise known as Sugar-free Spiced Apple & Date Cake

Ingredients:

heaped 1/4 cup butter (room temperature)

4 eggs (room temperature)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp Agave (This looks similar to honey, but comes from cacti. I bought it at Asda.)

2 tbsp honey

1 cup wholemeal flour

1/2 cup rye flour

1/2 cup plain flour

2 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp flaxseed (I use one of the powder mixes of flaxseed and goji berries)

1/2 cup dates (Roughly chopped. You can add more to taste.)

1/4 cup walnuts (roughly chopped)

1/2 cup apples (I used apples, with the liquid, that we had jarred from our garden. You could use apple sauce instead.)

1 tbsp cinammin

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp Caro powder

Instructions:

Butter & flour your cake tin.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Beat together the butter, eggs, vanilla, agave, and honey. Mix well until it is completely blended and smooth, and the mixture is light.

Sift together the flours and baking powder. Mix into the wet mixture. Then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

The cake is not super sweet, but is a fantastic tea cake with lots of spice and depth of flavour. I love biting into a bit of date or walnut and getting that extra taste. I served with a cup of Caro, which complimented the cake really well. So here's a cake that you can enjoy without feeling guilty. And if you don't tell people, they'll never know. Miriam has been nibbling away at it all day, convinced that she's sneaking in some junk food :)

Easter Cakes (Lavender Cupcakes)

2010-04-06T19:53:00.002+01:00

I hope that all of my lovely readers had a fantastic Easter. We really enjoyed our Easter. It was really nice for all of us to just have some time off and be at home together. We've enjoyed things like pancake brunches and crafts with the girls. We also redecorated our kitchen over Easter! (I'll try to post pictures of it later because it is so cute.)

We had some people coming over on Easter Monday for dinner, and Miriam really wanted to make "Easter Cakes". So we made some lavender cupcakes. The lavender just seemed appropriate for Easter--so light and delicate, the flowery taste just seems like spring and new life. Anya helped me to make the cake (she loves mixing), and Miriam helped to decorate them (she loves sprinkles). They are a great desert because they are so light that they are almost refreshing...except for the buttercream icing I put on top, obviously. I just did a simple buttercream with a splash of vanilla extract and food colouring to make it lavender coloured.

For my super easy recipe for lavender cake (or cupcakes), click here.

Last Chance

2010-03-31T19:45:00.001+01:00

This is your last chance to enter the Easter Recipe Competition. Please don't be shy--send me your favourite Easter recipes ASAP for a chance to win a great prize!!!

Let Them Eat Cake Pops...

2010-03-26T15:53:00.005Z

Probably about a year ago now, my sister sent me a link to the Bakerella website. The ideas were absolutely adorable, and there was one magical phrase that stuck with me: Cake Pop. The basic idea is that it looks like a lollipop, but is made out of cake. Adorable.

I remembered the cake pops, but didn't do anything about the idea until recently. My nephew's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day, so I helped my girls to bake him a birthday cake. They had great fun decorating it with LOTS of sprinkles. I sandwiched two layers
of cake with frosting in the middle as well as on top, so I leveled out the cakes by cutting off the excess cake (super easy by just cutting all of it to the height of the cake pan before removing it from the pan). This left us with some left over cake.

So I rcmembered cake pops, found some sticks, and started rolling the cake into balls. It worked well because the cake was still warm and so took its form easily. Also, the cake was very moist and kind of crumbly, so the consistency worked really well.

I worked loosely from a Betty Crocker recipe. It was easy and one-step though, so here's what I did.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup water (room temperature)
1/2 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1 tbsp vanilla
5 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled
2 eggs (room temperature)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease and flour 2 medium to large cake tins. (This recipe doesn't work well as "sandwich cakes"; it's better as a single, big, tall cake.)

2. Put all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until it is smooth. Pour into cake tin.

3. Bake until an inserted butter knife comes out clean. Let cool, then decorated as desired OR let cool only until it is comfortable to handle, and then shape pieces of cake into balls around lollipop sticks.

I frosted the cake pops with a pretty simple chocolate buttercream. I beat together about 1 cup butter, 4 cups sugar, 2 tbsp vanilla, 2 oz melted and cooled dark chocolate, and 2 tbsp cold water until it made a smooth frosting that was easy to spread (make sure to taste test it and adjust as desired).

After giving the frosting time to stiffen, I covered the cake pops in cling film and then tied securely with ribbon. And voila, cake pops. Bite sized cake on a stick. Fantastic for when you want to be cutesy.

Contest for Beautiful Artwork

2010-03-15T19:56:00.002Z

First of all, I should make clear that this is not my competition. This is a photo giveaway by Christine Armbruster. I've never actually met her or anything, but my sister (thanks Tonts) sent me the link to her blog and I LOVE her photography. So check her out. If you check her out soon-ish, you can enter this competition too. If you don't enter, cross your fingers for me that I'll win. Thanks.

Too Good For Pictures

2010-03-04T14:57:00.002Z

The problem with sugar cookies is that everyone likes to make them, and nobody really likes to eat them. It's fun to roll the dough out and cut out shapes and then decorate them. Normally, though, we're left with loads of cookies that look fantastic, but sit on the counter for weeks until some one puts them in the bird feeder.

The other Saturday I was preparing a lesson for church the next day (I teach Sunday School). Miriam thought that I should bring cookies for my class, and both of the girls love helping me bake, so after I finished my preparations we made cookies. They wanted to use the cookie cutters, so we made sugar cookies. I wanted to make them more exciting, though, so I decided to make lavender sugar cookies.

It's very simple, but the results are impressive. I used my normal sugar cookie recipe, but I substituted lavender sugar for half of the sugar. Then, when we were decorating them, I ground up dried lavender flowers using a pestle and mortar, and added them to the icing. I wasn't sure if you would really be able to taste the difference, but it definitely added a delicious twist to a familiar food.

This recipe turned out to be too good for pictures. We ended up with a huge tray of cookies stacked about 5 deep, all cut into little people shapes and decorated. I thought that I would have plenty of time to take some great pictures of them, but I was wrong. The cookies were devoured within a day. They just seemed to disappear in my Sunday School class. So I'm very sorry that there are no pictures, but it has to be a good sign about the recipe when it is eaten too quickly to photograph.

Planning Spring Planting

2010-02-24T21:19:00.005Z

The snowdrops and crocuses are in full bloom in our garden, and it's been raining for three days straight. This can only mean one thing...spring is on the way! This is the time to start planting & preparing your garden.

We've been busy planning, preparing the vegetable patch and flower beds, buying seeds, and planting. They're very messy and you may or may not be able to read my handwriting, but I've scanned in a couple of pages from my notebook with the list of the things we have to plant and a rough sketch of the vegetable patch and how we're organizing it this year. Not everything goes in the vegetable patch, though--I'm sticking my artichokes in with my flowers in front of the house. This is the first time we've tried artichokes, and we have two varieties to plant, so I'm really excited about those. We're starting a lot of things off in little pots in the convervatory.

So for everybody else out there who's busy weeding and planting and so forth, good luck! Happy spring everybody!

Competition Reminder

2010-02-21T14:43:00.004Z

I just wanted to remind everybody about the Easter Recipe Competition.

This competition is looking for the best Easter competition. It can be sweet or savoury, but must be vegetarian. Also, your chances of winning are better if you include pictures and an explanation of why it's an Easter recipe and not just a recipe.

The winner (and possibly runner-up) will be featured here on the website. Also, the winner will recieve a cookbook as a prize.

The deadline is April 1st.

Please either post your entries here on the site, or email them to liquid_trees@hotmail.com

Good luck to everyone and I look forward to your entries!

Our Most Delicious Idea Yet

2010-02-03T15:10:00.004Z

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Some of my ideas in the kitchen turn out better than others. Some days I have great ideas for something to cook or bake, and it just doesn't work. Every once in awhile, though, we have just the right ingredients and a sprinkling of inspiration, and make something truly, mouth-wateringly extraordinary.

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This humble-looking pie is, in my opinion, our most delicious idea yet. So here it is: Plum Crumble Pie.
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Ingredients:
Pie Shell (I cheated and used a pre-made one)
Plums (We used a nice dark purple variety with firm, sweet flesh)
Rochester Organic Mulled Berry Punch
Ground Almonds/Almond Flour
Flaked Almonds
Oats
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Butter (room temperature)
Vanilla Extract
Flour (You can use wheat or white flour, or even an alternative wheat-free flour)
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1. Wash the plums, then halve them and remove the stones (you can leave on the skins). Then cook on a medium heat with a splash of the punch until soft, stirring regularly. [The punch is a mixture of juices and spices that adds a really rich flavour to the plums, but if you can't find Rochester punch or something similar, you can try adding spices to taste and a little juice or water.]
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2. Make a crumble topping. You can find exact recipes for this or play with the proportions, but I tend to just start adding things to the food processor and taste testing it. Mixing it in the food processor blends the butter through it nicely without ruining the consistency by making it too smooth. Add about 3 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 tbsp vanilla extract, as well as a sprinkling of cinnamon. Blend. Taste, and add more liquid/dry ingredients, sugar, etc. if needed. Then hand mix in about 1/2 cup flaked almonds.
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3. Put the fruit in the pie shell, then spread the crumble topping evenly over the entire top. Bake at 180 C (350 F) for about 1/2 hour.
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4. Enjoy! This is delicious served hot with cream, ice cream, or custard, or eaten cold (perhaps with vanilla yogurt for an indulgently delicious breakfast).
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The mixture of the almonds in the crumble topping creates an almost marzipan-y sweetness, but it is offset by the spiciness of the fruit. This is heaven in a pie shell.
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Home-made Gift Set Ideas

2010-01-25T15:52:00.003Z

I love home-made presents. They are specialized for the individual, and show that you have put thought and effort into them.

Here are two home-made present sets that we gave away at Christmas time, but they would work well for birthdays, etc. as well.

This set has a jar of rose sugar. I love flavoured sugars as they are such an easy but impressive way of adding flavour to your baking. This rose sugar is made from caster sugar and dried pink rose petals (picked from our garden and dehydrated), and is stored in an air-tight jar (I bought it at Ikea). I also included some pink cupcake cases and a recipe for rose cupcakes. To tie it all together, we used pink ribbon to embellish everything. We wrapped it in tissue paper (the kind of hand-made paper with flower petals in it) and put it in a gift bag. Easy, and relatively cheap, to make, it still looks romantic and attractive. This is perfect for people who love to bake.

This was a garden oriented gift set. I grew lavender plants from seed, and included one of the little plants (it smells fantastic). We made a little sign to put in the pot from a cut down wooden skewer left over from last summer's barbecues, and some paper and a sticker from my scrapbooking supplies. We also included a nicer ceramic pot (bought in a multi-pack at Tescos and decorated with another scrapbooking sticker). The cool part of this present are the little paper envelopes. I harvested seeds from our garden and saved them. I included a selection of seeds for "cottage garden flowers", including poppies and daisies, and a packet of broccoli seeds. I saved seeds for my own garden, as well, so I'm excited to find out how well they grow this summer.

Baking Biscotti

2010-01-15T21:26:00.004Z

In case you haven't noticed, I love food. This little blog of mine tries to share my love of food with some recipes, pictures, and other musings. I am just an enthusiastic amateur. If you want a real food connoisseur, visit the website Cannelle et Vanille. It is my absolute favourite blog. The recipes are amazing, and the food styling and photography is absolutely stunning. I also love the small personal revelations and mentions of family. This blog is everything that I aspire to when I blog about food.

So when my husband felt like baking recently (I have to admit that he is the better baker in our kitchen), I suggested one of the recipes from Cannille et Vanille: Double Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger Biscotti. To visit the post with the recipe, click here. We had never tried baking biscotti before, and overall I was very pleased iwth the result. It was the perfect texture and looked great.

if you try it, I would recommend a few variations on the recipe though. We baked it exactly as the recipe instructed, and although the texture was perfect and they looked great, the taste could be perfected a bit more. The orange peel was overpowering, and the ginger taste became lost in the other strong flavours. If I were to make it again, I would halve the amount of orange zest, and double the amount of crystallized ginger.

I haven't bothered adding many photos this time around because Aran's photography is just so stunning that there' no way I could compete with her beautiful images. Just visit her website for yourself.

Home-made biscotti is a great sophisticated treat for a cold winter's day. The gingery, chocolatey, orangey aroma will fill your home, and make everything seem warm and delicious. They taste best when served with a hot drink.

Competitions

2010-01-09T10:10:00.006Z

So the bad news is, the first competition was kind of a dud. I know people are reading this little blogging expedition of mine, because I can look at how many page views I'm getting, but apparently nobody wants to participate. There was no winner for the first Hidden Domestic Competition (The Scrapbooking Challenge). Sadly, I didn't receive any entries for the scrapbooking competition. Not a single one.

The good news is, I got to keep the prize. It was a very cute set of wooden mini alphabet stamps and a stamp pad. They are absolutely adorable and we used them to print on gift tags for Christmas presents.

I'm not giving up on everybody yet though. So here's the new competition. Enter it. Tell your friends and family to enter it.

The Hidden Domestic Easter Competition

Entries will be accepted from now until Thursday the 1st of April, 2010. The winner will be announced by the 10th of April.

There will be a prize. It will not be a cash prize, but something fantastic and domesticy. Also, the winners and runners-up will--with permission--be published on the website.

I want your best Easter recipes. Please include pictures if you can, because presentation will be taken into account if applicable. There are a few catches: it must be a vegetarian recipe (because I'm vegetarian and want to be able to judge fairly by trying them out if needs be), and you must explain why it's an Easter recipe. Sweet or savoury is fine.

Entries should be emailed to liquid_trees@hotmail.com with "Hidden Domestic Easter Competition" in the subject line.

Good luck to everybody and I look forward to your recipes.

Making A Christmas Wreath

2009-12-23T21:49:00.003Z

Nothing adds a bit of Christmas cheer to a house like a wreath. The ones that you can buy, though, are often over-priced and, to be honest, not that great looking. Making your own wreath, though, is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

To start with, you need a base to hold your wreath in shape and give it structure. I have a woven wooden wreath that I bought for a few pounds at a craft store, but you could also use a floral foam ring, a shaped wire, etc. You just want a basis to work from to help hold everything together and keep it in a circle.

Then you can use whatever greenery you have available. My daughters and I went into the garden with a basket, and picked some holly, evergreen branches, rosemary, roses (including leaves, rose hips, and flowers), St. John's wort, ivy, etc. Pick a nice selection of green leaves from whatever you have growing around your home.

Then shape it around your ring. My base ring is woven twigs, so I can stick branches into it, and you can also use floral rings to push things directly into. However, you could also use twine, string, or wire to secure the foliage to the wreath. Experiment moving pieces of foliage around the ring until you find a shape that you're happy with, and add some "features": rose hips, holly berries, a twig of mistletoe, etc. If you want, you can add a nice bow out of ribbon, some cinnamon sticks, or other Christmas-y items.

When we finished the wreath and hung it on the front door, Miriam exclaimed, "Wow. The house looks all beautiful for Christmas. Good job mummy!" Then she insisted that we use the leftover greenery to decorate inside the house, so we now have beautiful leaves decorating our mantelpiece as well.

Christmas Treat Plates

2009-12-14T10:25:00.004Z

One of the great things about Christmas time is making Christmas treats. Even people who never venture near an oven feel the urge to make Christmas cookies or attempt a Christmas cake. Baked goods and other treats can make great Christmas gifts.

Everyone has people that they want to do more than just a card for, but don't really want to buy a gift for (for example, your children's teachers, neighbours, friends at church, etc.). Putting together little plates of treats is fun, easy, and relatively inexpensive, and makes a great home-made gift. We recently made up some plates of goodies for people that we go to church with and my daughter's preschool teachers.

It's traditional at Christmas (here in England at least) to have mince pies. The problem is, not very many people actually like mince pies. So we made mini apple pies instead. I cheated for the sake of time and used pre-made pastry, and just rolled it out myself. I put it in buttered and floured muffin tins, and blind baked the shell (to blind bake, line the uncooked pie shell/pastry with greaseproof paper, and put something like dried beans on top of that, and part bake in the oven. This makes sure the the bottom of the shell is properly cooked and doesn't go soggy when the filling is added). Then we filled it with the apple filling. Earlier in the year when we harvested our apples, we had jarred some apple butter: spiced apple sauce. I pulled that out, and added some chopped crystallized ginger and mixed dried fruit (mostly raisins and candied orange peel). If you don't have apple butter, you could use plain apple sauce, and add cinnamon, and a dash of cloves and nutmeg, as well as some brown sugar and dried fruit. We filled the mini pie shells.

For the top of the pies, we wanted something that was easy and seasonal. So we rolled out the pie crust, and then with the kitchen scissors we cut out shapes like stars and hearts that we placed on top of the pies.

After that we baked them for about 20 minutes. The result was adorable. Single serving size, delicious mini pies that looked Christmasy.

We also made rice crispy treats (your standard butter, melted marshmallows or marshmallow cream, and rice crispies ones with sprinkles on top). The girls loved it because they could do almost all of it by themselves.

We also made mini brownies (in paper cupcake cases), with white chocolate drizzled on top, and several varieties of sugar cookies (I'll try to do a separate post on those, including recipes).

Feed the Birds

2009-12-05T09:55:00.003Z

This time of year, many of us are busy decorating our homes and gardens for Christmas. This week, we put up Christmas lights in our front yard. We've wanted icicle lights for the front of the house for years, and finally treated ourselves to a set :)

When we decorate our garden for the winter, we try to make it look festive and remember the local wildlife. Winter is often a difficult time for birds and other wildlife because food is scarce.

We recently juiced some apples (the last of this year's apples from our trees). We were left with all of the apple pulp in the juicer, and didn't want to just throw it away. So we used it to make our own bird feeder balls. Here's how.

1. You will need apple pulp, peanuts and/or bird seeds, and string/ribbon/twine. You also need an oven.
2. Take the apple pulp (this would also work with pear or another similar fruit), and a piece of string at least 8 inches long. Form the pulp into a ball with the string running through the middle of it.
3. Push peanuts and birdseeds into the pulp--push about halfway in so that they are easily visible and accessible, but are still firmly attached to the ball. The birds will be more interested in eating the nuts and seeds than the dried fruit, so be generous in how many you add.
4. Bake the balls. I put them directly on the bottom tray of the oven while dinner was cooking. Ideally you want them to cook for about an hour (until firm) at a low heat.
5. Use the ribbon to tie the balls onto branches of trees, bushes, gates, etc.

Not only are these fun, cheap, and easy to make, they look great out, and help to feed the birds. It's really cheerful on a winter's day to look out and see birds gathered in your garden because you've provided them with a snack. If you want to make them more festive looking, use green or red string, or a Christmasy ribbon.

For more ideas on decorating your garden in wildlife-friendly ways, click here.

Being Spoiled

2009-11-16T08:23:00.003Z

Saturday was just one of those days. When Jared called me from work (yes, he works Saturdays), he thought I sounded stressed. So he came home from work with a big bouquet of flowers and a box of Maison Blanc Macarons Parisiens for me, and then proceeded to cook dinner. After we put the girls to bed, he ran me a hot bath.

It was very relaxing, romantic, and rejuvenating. So here's to being spoiled sometimes. Thanks hun xxx

Poppies, Poppy Seed Muffins, and Paying Tribute

2009-11-14T11:37:00.011Z

I've been meaning to write a post for Veteran's Day for over a week, and finally have the time to actually do it. I'm sorry for the delay. I can only say that although the message is belated, it is no less sincere.

At 11:00 on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, World War I officially ended and peace was declared. Remembrance Day, also known in different areas as Veteran's Day or Armistice Day, began to commemorate this establishment of peace, and to honour the sacrifice and service of the war veterans and the many men and women who lost their lives during the war. The first World War, or the Great War, was considered 'the war to end all wars.

Unfortunately, the peace founded in 1918 did not last for long. We now have many more veterans to honour and remember, including those involved with WWII, the men and women currently serving in the Middle East, and those involved with all of the wars in between. War has touched all of us in some way, no matter how indirectly. My grandparents were involved with WWII: one of my grandfathers was in the airforce, the other in the navy, and my grandmother was in the women's forces until she was discharged when she admitted that she was under-age. There were many involved with the Korean War, Vietnam War, First Gulf War, Falklands War, and other modern conflicts. There are now thousands of soldiers serving in the Middle East, many of them in Afghanistan. These are men and women with families and communities back at home.

Whether or not you agree with the politics of the war, whether you are a pacifist or a military general, regardless of nationality or political affiliation, you must feel something when you think of the many many people who have been involved with these wars. I would love to imagine a world at peace without the need for military. Unfortunately, history has shown that nations are often compelled to fight, and I am thankful for the people who are willing to do so on our behalf.

Poppies have become a symbol of Remembrance Day. In Flanders, where the landscape was devastated by WWI, poppies now blanket the country side in shocking swathes of color and life. These beautiful wild flowers grow best in disturbed ground, and so the battlefields that had been bathed in blood were soon red with blossoms. One of the most famous poems from WWI centres on the image of the poppy. John McCrae, serving with the Canadian military, wrote the poem In Flanders Fields after his best friend died in battle in WWI:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarell with the foe.

To you from failing hands we throw

the torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

[I copied this from First World War Poems.]

In the UK, everyone wears red paper poppies on their coats and collars around Remembrance Day. The money donated to charity for them is used to care for Veterans and their families.

It seemed only fitting for Remembrance Day to do something with poppies. I decided on poppy seed muffins. They are easy to make, easy to share, and have a mixture of sweet and tart flavours perfect for an introspective day like this one.

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Rememberance Muffins Recipe

Ingredients:

3 oz butter (room temperature)

3 oz sugar

1 egg (room temperature)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

8 oz plain flour

1/2 cup poppy seeds

1/2 cup cranberries (I used dried, but you could use fresh)

120 ml (1/2 cup) milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Cream together the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat well (preferably with an electric mixer).

2. Sift in the flour and baking powder, and fold into the wet mixture.

3. Stir in 1/4 cup of the poppy seeds, 1/4 cup of cranberries, the milk, and lemon juice.

4. Put into either greased and floured or paper-lined muffin tins. Fill each muffin about 1/2 to 3/4 full. Use the remaining cranberries and poppy seeds to sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.

5. Bake at 180 C (350 F) for about 20 minutes (until a butter knife comes out mostly clean).

These are delicious hot with a little butter on them (stick in the microwave for 20 seconds to reheat if needed). They will also keep for several days, and are good cold as a snack or stuck into lunchboxes.

(A special thank you goes out to the kind Freecycler who gave me the beautiful poppy design dishes.)

The Closure of the Women's Research Institute at Brigham Young University

2009-11-05T13:25:00.004Z

Normally this is a feel-good blog. I write about my projects at home and in my garden. You hear about my kids. However, I feel compelled to write a post that is different. There are times when you hear news that forces you into some type of action because you are so dismayed by what you hear that you have to try to make a difference. This is one of those times.

A few days ago (on the 29th of October 2009), Brigham Young University (BYU) gave a very discrete statement. It wasn't widely spoken about or really announced. You can find the announcement hidden away on the BYU website news page, next to links to stories like Cleanliness IS next to godliness:new research shows clean smells unconsciously promote moral behaviour. The story I'm interested in is titled BYU reorganized women's study program. When you read the story, you realize that the title is misleading. BYU is not just reorganizing a program. In fact, they are discontinuing the Women's Research Institute.

The director of the program, Dr Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, is being moved to the psychology faculty. It gets worse. The women's studies minor, instead of being under the jurisdiction of the Women's Research Institute, is being allotted to the College of Home, Family, and Social Sciences. The implications of this move are seriously disturbing. As the Women's Research Institute, women's studies has it's rightful place as a serious academic area that researches the special issues pertaining to women, including the role of women in history, current issues specifically related to women, etc. This approach respects and validates the role of women both in the world now and in history, by showing that they are worthy of serious research, and by viewing them as part of the larger world as they contribute to and are affected by larger environmental, social, political, religious, and other issues.

If women's studies becomes part of the College of Home, Family, and Social Sciences--as it will in January 2010--BYU is implying that the study of women is not a serious independent pursuit and that women's studies and research is an inferior area. Within the same college as home and family, women' studies will be relegated to the position that it had before the feminist movement, and we will be back in the suffragette type position of being forced to fight for the right to be viewed outside of our familial roles. It is a subtle statement that the correct position of women is in the home and family, and it automatically creates a dichotomy seperating women in the home and family from women in the world and workplace. It implies that women's studies is not necessary as an independent study because it is included in home and family studies. In short, in one fell swoop BYU has completely negated everything that the Women's Research Institute faculty and students have worked so hard to establish since it was founded in the 1970s.

What is truly infuriating about this decision is the lack of communication associated with it. I understand that sometimes programs will be changed and reorganized, or even cut out altogether. However, this has been done in a secret way, as though it was either something that they wanted to hide, or something that wasn't important enough to bother mentioning. (To view the news release, click here.) BYU has not communicated with students or staff, and so there are lecturers left unsure whether they will still have their job or not, or still be teaching the same courses or not, or whether conferences that they were scheduled to speak at will still occur. There are students unsure of whether their funding, which came from the WRI, will continute past January. There are students unsure about whether they can continute their studies as they have planned. And they are not getting any answers.

There are a lot of good things that I could say about BYU. For example, they have a mind-blowingly amazing library and special collection. They offer an excellent education at low prices. Yet this decision, to me, undermines their academic credibility as well as limiting the freedom of ideas and respect that is necessary for excellent scholarship. I don't think that BYU has realized yet the ramifications of this decision.

I don't know if there's anything that we can do to save the Women's Research Institute. I hope that if enough people are concerned, they will reconsider, or at least discuss their reasoning behind the decision and their plans for how to move forward with women's studies. There is a Facebook group devoted to trying to save the WRI.

Here are some thoughts by other people on the dissolution of the Women's Research Institute:
Deseret News
Weightier Matters of the Law
The Universe (BYU's newspaper)
Feminist Mormon Housewives

Rosehip and Apple Jam

2009-11-01T15:48:00.007Z

Both rosehips and apples are in season from about September through November, varying slightly depending on the weather and plant varieties. Roses and apples are actually related plants, and so the flavours and textures compliment each other really well.

I gathered rose hips (each variety of roses will have slightly different rose hips that vary some in size, taste, and colour---although some varieties are better than others, you can eat any of them; I used rose hips from several different types of roses that happened to be growing either in my garden or nearby) and apples (this is a good way to use up windfall apples if you have an apple tree) and made jam.

Rosehip & Apple Jam

1. Pick the rosehips. You can tell they're ripe when they turn a nice red or orange colour instead of green. As you'll cook them, you don't need to be too picky about how ripe they are--I used a range of very firm and mushier rosehips. Then you need to prepare them for use. Cut off any stalks and dried up flower bits and then wash them off. (Remove unwanted bits before washing or else the shrivelled up flower bits will cling to the rosehips and be difficult to remove)

2. In a large saucepan, cook the rosehips. Add enough water to cover them and keep them from catching on the bottom of the pan. You may need to add more water as they cook. You want the rosehips to simmer until they are all soft and pulpy and broken up. If you want to help speed up the process, you can either make cuts in the rosehips before adding them to the pan, or use a masher on them while they're cooking to help them break down. Exact cooking times will vary depending on how many you're cooking at a time, how ripe they are, etc. Generally, a colander full of rosehips will need about 6 cups of water and about half an hour.

3. When the rosehips are fully cooked, then you need to separate the good pulp from the waste (seeds, etc.). There are several ways you can do this. I cut up an old, clean pair of tights, and lined the inside of a sieve. With the sieve placed over a bowl to collect the juice, I put the pulp into it. I left it to drip, and then gathered the tights into a ball around the pulp and squeezed it to get out as much of the useful pulp and juice as possible. Keep that pulp/juice, and discard the seeds that are left behind.

4. Next I prepared the apples. I peeled and cored the apples (I kept those bits for juicing to make syrup with) and cut out any bruised or bitten bits. Then I chopped the apples into small pieces (the size you want them to be in the jam, so it's a matter of personal preference--I like them to be small enough pieces that they don't make the jam lumpy, but distinct pieces as opposed to apple sauce). Cook them with just a little water and a splash of lemon juice until they are soft.

5. Combine the rosehips and apples. You want about equal parts fruit to sugar; the easiest way to do this is to weigh it. Add the fruit and plain white granulated sugar to a large saucepan. You don't need to use special sugar or add pectin. (In fact, both apples and rosehips have high levels of pectin in them naturally, so you need to be careful not to over-set the jam).

6. Bring the fruit and sugar to the boil and--stirring regularly--boil vigorously for about twenty minutes or until set. Test for a set by pouring a little jam on a cold plate as you would for any jam.

7. While cooking the fruit, you need to have sterilized jars to put the jam in. An easy way to do this is to fill clean jars and lids with boiled water, and then pour out the water and put them in the oven on a low heat to dry.

8. Jar the jam. You can put some in the fridge to eat now, or save sealed jars for a couple of years. I particularly like rosehip and apple jam spread on wholemeal toast, and my daughters love it in peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

Late Season & Autumn Planting

2009-10-30T08:36:00.002Z

Thanks to the beautiful warm weather that we've been having, I'm enjoying late season crops. The unseasonably mild temperatures mean that I'm still getting food from my summer crops in addition to the things I normally harvest in the autumn! My raspberries and strawberries have had a new crop in October when they would normally be finished for the year in August! I'm also still picking courgettes--the yellow ones seem to be doing especially well, physalis, runner beans, and spinach. So make sure and check your plants to make sure they haven't surprised you with some delicious new fruit and vegetables for you!

Also, we've been enjoying the beautiful weather as we've been clearing out the garden some and planting new crops. Although most plants like being planted in the spring, there are some things that you can over-winter. We just planted two varieties of onion (a red variety and a white spring onion variety), cauliflower (not all varieties are suitable for planting in the autumn, but some are, so check the seed packet), and yellow radishes (I've never had yellow radishes before, so I'm excited to try this out). All of these were planted directly outside in the vegetable patch. Cross your fingers that we'll have lovely crops from them in the spring and summer.

Spicy Rice Balls & Stir-Fry

2009-10-22T16:58:00.007+01:00

This recipe is based on one by Betty Crocker from her book easy everyday Vegetarian. However, she makes rice balls as a meatball substitute, which didn't seem to work to me (carbs on carbs instead of a protein...). However, I thought rice balls would be a great spin to an Asian-inspired meal.

The spicy rice balls:

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice (that's about 1 cup precooked of just ordinary white rice)

1/2 cup oats (I used standard porridge oats--non instant)

1 onion, chopped finely (or you can use any combination of onion, shallot, and green onion)

1 slice of bread, broken into breadcrumbs

1/4 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

seasoning to taste (I added liberal sprinklings of black pepper, chilli powder, dried chillies, and paprika. I also added a pinch of cumin and ginger. It takes a lot more spices than you would think to make them spicy. You can also add a dash of soy sauce.)

outside topping (Betty says to use 1/2 cup of wheat germ, but I felt like it could be better. Instead, try a mixture of wheat germ, fine bread crumbs, and crushed peanuts.)

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients except for the outside topping. Form into balls.

2. Put the outside topping in a shallow bowl or other dish with sides. Roll the balls in it until they are lightly but evently coated.

3. Shallow fry the balls until the coating is golden coloured and they are piping hot through.

I served them on a vegetable stir fry.

Vegetable Stir Fry:

Ingredients:

Courgette/Zuchinni cut into ribbons (I use a vegetable peeler to slice it)

Carrot (I like julienne type thin strips, but you can cut it in standard circles if you prefer. It needs to be cut quite finely though, or else it will take a lot longer to cook than the other ingredients.)

Spring onions, finely chopped

Peanuts, about a handful

Any other suitable vegetable you have on hand that needs using (peppers, mushrooms, etc.); you could also add chopped firm tofu

Spices (I used a pre-mixed seasoning mix that included lemon grass and coriander)

1 dash of lime juice

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in wok until it is steaming hot, or items sizzle when added. For extra flavour, use some sesame oil.

2. Add all of the vegetables and peanuts. Cook, stirring constantly, until the vegetables reach the desired level of tenderness.

3. Add the dash of lime juice and spices, stir in well.

I surrounded the whole thing with a peanut sauce that helped add some extra flavour and moistness and unify the dish.

My peanut sauce:

I can't give you exact amounts because I never measure it. Here's my guesstimates.

Ingredients:

A generous glob of ketchup

A spoonful of honey

A dash of soy sauce

A dash of vinegar (I use malt, but you could also use rice vinegar or white wine vinegar)

A heaped spoonful of peanut butter (you can use smooth or chunky--it depends on what consistency you want your sauce to be)

A few drops of lemon juice

A glug of sweet chili sauce (chili and ginger relish also works well)

Instructions:

Taste it and make modifications according to taste. Mix well (I use a hand blender).

To serve:

Dish up the stir fry in the middle of the plate first, top with rice balls, and garnish with the sauce.

Collecting Seeds

2009-10-21T10:40:00.002+01:00

This month lots of plants are going to seed. Many things will self-seed, and so you can leave them to scatter their own seeds and enjoy the new plants next year (many wild flowers are particularly good at this). However, gathering the seeds means that you can plant them more selectively (losing less to rotting and birds, and also choosing where to put them), or you can even give them away (a home-made packet of seeds, perhaps with other produce from the garden or gardening tools can make a lovely Christmas present).

My sunflowers have finished blooming, but the heads are heavy with the seeds. I snipped off the flower heads and hung them inside to dry. During the winter I'll hang them outside on trees to make home-made bird feeders. I did this last year, too, and our garden was full of little birds all winter long.

My broccoli plants also went to seed this year. I've never tried gathering broccoli seeds before, but I gathered all the seed pods and hung them to dry inside as well. When they're all dried, I'll collect the seeds in an envelope and store them for the spring. Make sure that the seeds are completely dry so that you don't have problems with mould. We'll find out next summer how the home-harvested seeds have done, but I'm excited to try it.

October Means Pumpkins!

2009-10-18T15:56:00.002+01:00

One of my favourite things about October is--you guessed it--pumpkins! I love them. They look so autumnal, you can carve them for Halloween, and, best of all, you can eat them! During October I tend to use a little pumpkin in almost everything I cook.

This particular pumpkin is from my garden. It's vine shrivelled up and died, so we had to pick it a bit early. It's a variety that is white when fully ripe, and never grows very big. Unfortunately, it never completely ripened, but it was still delicious.

Here's my first pumpkin recipe for this autumn.

Pumpkin Lasagna

Pumpkin is delicious in lasagna. Make lasagna as usual, but add an extra pumpkin layer, or use this to replace the cheesey layer of lasagna.

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

Peel and core pumpkin (remember to keep and bake the seeds!). Dice the pumpkin. Put on a large baking sheet.

I liberally sprinkled it with chillies. I LOVE The English Provender Co. Very Lazy Red Chillies. They have a rich, almost sweet flavour as well as adding some warmth and spice. I spooned it over the pumpkin, including some of the liquid from the jar. I also added ground black pepper. Then use an olive oil spray to coat the pumpkin evenly, and then drizzle lightly with some good olive oil.

Bake 20 to 45 minutes depending on how ripe the pumpkin is and how big the pieces are. When it is finished, it should be cooked through and slice easily.

Mush the pumpkin. I used a hand blender, but you could also use a potato masher or food processor.

For a super super easy, but delicious pumpkin cheese lasagna layer, mix the pumpkin puree with creme fraiche (I used low fat and it still turned out delicious). Season to taste with more red chillies, salt and pepper, etc. I added a spoonful of wholegrain English mustard as well. It wasn't enough to make it taste mustardy, just to add a little edge to it.

Then use it as a lasagna layer, and cook lasagna as usual. I like mixing it with other flavours. For example, alternate pumpkin layers and traditional tomato sauce & mince layers (particularly good with grated courgette--zucchini--in it).

The Scrapbooking Challenge Deadline Extension

2009-10-08T17:15:00.004+01:00

In August, I launched the first Hidden Domestic Competition. The Scrapbooking Challenge (with a prize of scrapbooking supplies) was to create a page for free, using no store-bought scrapbooking embellishments. The deadline was the 1st of October. However, the deadline has come and gone, and I am sadly lacking in entries. So I'm being optimistic and trying again.

The Challenge: Create a scrapbooking page for free (things you already have around the house are fine to use). Either post it as a comment on the blog, add it to our Facebook page, or email it to me.

The Prize: The best entries will be posted on The Hidden Domestic website (with the creator's permission), and the winner will receive some great scrapbooking supplies.

The New Deadline: You've got a month. The new deadline is the 8th of November.

The pictures are of simple examples of free scrapbooking pages. Using ink pads that we had around the house from a former craft, I took hand and foot prints of my daughters. Then I used multicoloured pens to write down information about them at this age (for example, what size clothes they wear and what their favourite toys are). I figured that these kind of details are often forgotten over time, and it makes a nice, simple page with good memories.

Blackberries: The Last Lingering Mouthfuls of Summer

2009-10-04T10:08:00.003+01:00

I've been meaning to blog about blackberries for awhile, and somehow I just haven't gotten to it until now. Depending on where you live, blackberries are in season mid-summer to early autumn. We're just at the end of the season now, but if you're willing to go look for them, most brambles will still have some good berries on them. I love blackberries. They're delicious, and they grow like a weed in many places around the world, meaning that you can go pick them for free.

My daughters loved going blackberry picking with me. I brought a bucket for the berries to come home, and their bucket was for the berries that they picked and ate while we were out. There are lots of ways to store blackberries so that you can enjoy a taste of summer all year long: make blackberry jam (particularly good is blackberry and apple jam), blackberry compote (good with some lavender), dry them (nice added to cereal), make pies (blackberry and apple pies can be made and then frozen), or freeze them (make sure they're clean and dry before freezing).

We did a lot of cooking with blackberries this summer. Here's a picture of the blackberry muffins we made. I just made a basic muffin, but used half white and half wheat flour, and added fresh blackberries.

I also made pancakes with wholemeal flour, fresh blackberries, and oats. They were denser than normal pancakes, but so yummy (and healthier)!

So enjoy a last mouthful of summer. Go out for a nice autumn walk, and watch out for brambles (blackberry canes) along the way. Stop and pick the last few berries, enjoy the juicy pulp melting on your tongue, and feel the autumn breeze on your face. Or bring them home with you to make a last summery treat.

Corn on the Cob

2009-10-04T08:05:00.002+01:00

With the summer sun lingering into a beautiful autumn, we harvested this year's corn crop on a dry day. Miriam held my basket for me and counted the ears of corn as we picked them, and Anya tried eating them raw. A few bugs had wriggled their way into some of the ears, but the birds hadn't touched them yet, and so on the whole they were in pretty good shape.

The girls love eating simple corn on the cob. I also used the corn, especially the smaller ears, to make corn chowder. You can find my basic recipe here, and I have actually mentioned corn chowder here on the blog before, but it's a little bit different every time I make it. This time I used shallots instead of onions, a large yam instead of potatoes, and the fresh corn from the garden. Delicious!

A Whale of a Tale

2009-09-24T16:22:00.004+01:00

I am a firm believer in having artwork--both reproductions and original pieces--in the home. My husband is a wood carver, and uses traditional techniques and hand tools to make beautiful carvings and other wooden objects (clocks, decorative frames, etc.) I just wanted to show off a piece that he just finished. This carving was a commission, so sadly it didn't get to stay on our mantel. It's called A Whale of a Tale and is carved in local yew. My photography doesn't do the piece justice, but it's a lovely little carving.

Sensational Sticky Figs

2009-09-23T16:37:00.003+01:00

For a quick and simple dessert that is delicious and impressive, try spiced sticky figs. For the basic recipe, click here. They are super easy to make. Get the best figs that you can (they're in season right now so they will have the best flavour this month), cut a cross in the top and peel back so that they are partially opened but still connected, and fill with honey, butter, and cinnamon. Sprinkle flaked almonds over the whole thing, and bake until the figs are melt-in-your-mouth soft and the butter and honey makes a sticky syrup.

Serve it with mascarpone cream. Whip together mascarpone cheese and cream with a dash of vanilla and a spoonful of honey.

The result is simple ecstasy. The figs are still earthy, the honey adds a sweetness to it, but the dessert is not overall sweet, the cinnamon adds a depth of flavour, and the macarpone cream adds a richness to it and balances out the other strong flavours.

Sunflowers

2009-09-23T11:31:00.004+01:00

We planted a variety of sunflowers this year. My daughters loved planting and caring for them. Sunflowers are really good for little kids because the big seeds are easy to plant, and then the plants are fairly sturdy. None of them grew very big, but the different varieties produced some beautiful unusual colours.

When the flowers are finished, we snip them off and then hang them to dry. Then save them for the winter, when you can hang them out in trees to make instant natural bird-feeders. It's a fun family project and supports local wildlife too.