Halloween round-up...not for the faint-hearted!

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post, I'm pleased to report that the second Halloween party was a screaming success! 

I cooked an early dinner so we could get out trick-or-treating (truth be told: I was trying to fill their stomachs before the candy feast commenced!). I made spaghetti bolognaise with my hidden-veggie tomato sauce (onion, garlic, carrot, peppers, courgette, whatever else is in the fridge cooked and pureed with tomatoes), so I knew they'd get a good dose of veg, carbs and protein. I topped it with mozzarella balls and black olive eyes, some strips of lasagna noodles, and baked it til the mummy was heated through. The goblins devoured it! 

Notice the change in tableware from the younger children's party in my last post...the older kids are into the blood reds and skulls now, very cool...

We went trick-or-treating for a good long time, lots of children and parents were out and about in the village and we all had terrific fun. The sleepover went well, I heard giggling waaaaaay into the night (Darling Husband was getting a bit grumpy about it, but I remember so clearly being 10 years old and staying up "all night" with my best friend, I told him to let it go!)

Of course one must have a Midnight Feast at a sleepover, especially if it's Halloween! So in addition to raiding their treat bags, I left a cauldron full of goodies in the kitchen and went to bed.

Surprisingly, the veggies were eaten too!

But there were still some shrieks to be heard the next morning, when the girls dined on pancakes with "blood" syrup...

eeewwww!

They loved it, I barely got a photo of a pancake before they were all devoured!

The "blood" is simply maple syrup with some red food colouring added

This looks remarkably like real blood, it's the consistency as well as the colour. My brother and I discovered this when we were children. 

My mother discovered this the hard way when we played a Halloween trick on her...

Now that I am a mother, I must state here, for all to read: Mom, I am *so so sorry* for subjecting you to our pranks! I don't know how you put up with (er...survived?) us! 

The gruesome decorations are being tucked away into their boxes until next year, but the fun memories will be fresh for a long time to come! 

Chrissie x

Spontaneous TLC

I’ve been feeling a bit delicate the past few days...perhaps it’s the Harvest Moon and the Autumn Equinox affecting me...perhaps it’s the fact that Bunny has gone on a school trip this morning until Friday (she is going to have a blast, but I miss her so much already!)...perhaps it’s Little Flower’s trials and tribulations being 3...and Darling Husband is away this weekend, too...

In any case, I’m a wee fragile at the moment, not sad or upset really, just full of emotions. So yesterday I found solace in some spontaneous TLC.

Thank you Sue for the link to the pattern!

I planned on doing a lot of errands and getting the house in order (Little Flower is in pre-school all day on a Tuesday), but instead I met a friend at our village community centre for an hour-and-a-half of crochet and chatter. A while back she had mentioned a village knitting group, so we met up to give it a go. We had some fun conversation and I met some lovely women who are all excellent knitters. They probably thought I was a bit of a folly, showing up with my crochet acorns! But hey, it made them smile, and I now have at least half a dozen knitting experts who will help me when I decide to take up the knitting needles again!

I returned home for a bite of lunch and some general chores, but soon I was stolen away once again by another friend who took me out for cake. I did have a library book to return, and I needed bread and milk, so we went into town with the intention of at least accomplishing a few things...but we thoroughly enjoyed some lovely cake first!

At this point I was feeling rather self-indulgent, taking all this time just for me. I set about making some sweet potato ginger soup and prepping some supper salad ingredients...but then Darling Husband rang to say he’d be home late.

I was about to put everything away until the next day, but then I wondered why? I was feeling much calmer after taking some time for myself – and I still managed to tick some items off my To-Do List – so instead of having some boring leftovers for dinner, I finished the soup and salad and sat down to this

And I savoured every bite! Sweet potato ginger soup and braised lentils with avocado, goat’s cheese, carmelised onions, roasted tomatoes and basil oil. Both recipes from my favourite cookbook ever

And those of you who remember this post know that I have a lot of cookbooks!

It’s funny, what I consider to be self-indulgent these days. Before children, when I was on my own working full-time, the thought of an afternoon snack break and a supper of soup and salad would be considered a natural, daily activity. The morning visit to the knit-and-natter group would be the only indulgence, as I do group activities in the evenings. How times have changed.

But now I’m going to indulge you – I will be announcing a new giveaway and a free pattern in my next post...I am so grateful you are here, and I appreciate each and every comment. Watch for a treat soon!

Chrissie x

Giveaway Winner and a Consolation Prize

My heartfelt thanks goes to all of you who entered and commented on my first giveaway – how lovely it is to meet new crafty folks!

Without further ado, the lucky winner of The Hand-Stitched Home and craft kit is:

Laura Tyler! Laura wrote:

Laura Tyler11:03 pm BST

I am very new to blogging some hope I am doing this right :-). Please may I be entered. 

What a nice welcome to the blogging universe, eh? Congratulations, Laura! I’ll be in touch straight away to get your details to send you the prize.

I offer a consolation prize for everyone else, in the form of a delicious crumble topping recipe to take us into autumn. Everyone has a crumble recipe, and each one is a little bit different from the next, so I’m always happy to try out new versions – this one is a doozy, I do hope you’ll try it!

Greengage-Blackberry Crumble with vanilla ice cream

Yesterday afternoon a friend presented me with a small bag of very ripe greengages from her garden. I had a good handful of early ripened blackberries, picked during a family walk...the two fruits were just destined to be together!

This topping recipe is a family favourite, and it works well with any autumn fruit (or even the peaches, nectarines and raspberries of summertime). I baked the greengage-blackberry crumble for last night’s dessert. After two bites Bunny asked, “There’s more of this, right?” Little Flower wolfed down two helpings and was sad that it was all gone!

Oat Crumble Topping

* Make a batch (or double batch!) of this topping and store it in the freezer for an instant weeknight dessert! *

120g/ ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

220g/1 cup light brown sugar

120g/ ¾ cup plain flour

75g/ ¾ cup porridge or rolled oats

Pinch of cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180◦C/350◦F. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. With a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

I can hear my mother: "You could've ironed that tea towel, Christine..."

Prepare your fruit of choice – here I just cut the greengages into bite-sized pieces and sprinkled over the blackberries. I had to use a very small Pirex dish, as there were just enough fruits for a small portion each.

Sprinkle over the crumble topping

Then pop into a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your dish and pieces of fruit. Remove from oven when golden brown, then try to contain the family’s excitement until it cools enough to eat.

(Serving it with ice cream helps the cooling process...)

The topping makes a lovely gift, presented in a glass jar tied with twine and a little recipe card.

We’ve been invited to a new home party on Saturday, and I plan to give this to the hostess, rather than the usual flowers or candles.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and welcome to all my new followers!

Chrissie x

The edible bouquet

I see plenty of beautiful flowers in the florist’s window. Supermarkets now stock an abundance of bouquets, and even petrol stations stock enough blooms to cover an emergency hostess gift. But my favourite posy to give is an edible one, picked straight from my herb garden.

 

All you see here is can be eaten! I love picking an array of pretty blooms and leaves and arranging them in a wildflower-style bunch tied with twine.

These posies make me happy, even happier when the recipient discovers that they can snip various leaves and blooms throughout the week to flavour dinners!

The variety of herbs varies week to week – the little purple orbs of chive flowers always look pretty (be careful, though, or the bouquet will smell entirely of onion!) but they died out last week. The soft green sage leaves haven’t grown high enough yet. So what culinary treats are in this particular bouquet? Let’s see...

Start with one perfect rose...

 

Add some more floral colour with bronze fennel flower, lavender and marsh mallow

 

 

The liquid resulting from boiling the marsh mallow plant can be used like egg whites.

Then we need some background greenery. The ferny fronds of sweet cicely and the bold bay leaf work well...

 

 

Need some architectural interest - some arching, frothy bronze fennel leaves

And the dainty white-dotted stems of oregano and savoury

Just caught the oregano flowers before they completely fade

The savoury stems curve up nicely...

I usually give a posy to a fellow foodie friend. To make the offering even more of a ‘proper’ gift, add a little recipe card featuring one or more of the plants in the herbal bouquet – a soup, a salad dressing, even sugared rose petals for cake decorating...

Happy crafting and bon appétit!

Chrissie x

An edible garden

What a glorious weekend! As so many in Blogland seems to be posting about the beautiful blooms in their gardens, I feel obliged to show a bit of our garden.

The combination of sunny weather and Grandma here to play with the girls gave me, finally, some time to catch up and clear up in the back garden. Just when I was about to campaign to make Ground Elder a garden feature, the temperature and sunshine cooperated to allow me to weed it out!

Growing up in a distinctly non-gardening family, I have no experience with plants and flowers. I was eager to learn, but overwhelmed by the information, resources and choices available to the keen gardener. Where to begin?

So I decided the best way to start, and stay interested, was to be able to eat my garden! I focused on herbs, which fascinate me with their vast culinary uses and histories, and I transformed the raised border around our patio into a kitchen herb garden.

Chives about to burst into bloom

One of my great pleasures in life is to be cooking dinner and just pop out the back door to snip a few herbs to toss into the pot.

Robust bay in the sunshine

The raised border has a bushy bay at one end and some rosemary shrubs that are getting a bit out of hand and need a good haircut



Trailing rosemary peeking out of the shade

I use so many of these herbs year round, only a few actually die out in the winter.

Thyme in flower behind the chives

Thyme is my favourite herb. It is so versatile, I add it to everything – veg, meat, fish, chicken...I even have a recipe for sweet thyme cookies – and I have at least five varieties in the border. But at this point I’m not sure which thyme is which (“What thyme is it?” har dee har har), but they each flower at a different time, giving me a blooming season well into summer.

The raised border also houses oregano, savoury, sage...Sweet Woodruff in the shady bit

Sweet Woodruff with rosemary popping over from next door

This herb dries beautifully and makes a super natural closet freshener – it smells like fresh hay and lends a sweet, summery outdoor scent to dark closets.

And we have sweet wild strawberries that flower and ripen a few times a year

Next to the strawberries, and yet to pop up, is sorrel, Bunny’s favourite. It tastes like Granny Smith apples and is great in salads. Bunny loves the tart fresh flavour and nibbles it like...a bunny.

(Note that all my garden plantings are perennial – my life isn’t conducive to annual spring planting season and digging-up time in the autumn!)

Running parallel to the raised border, in the garden beyond the patio, is a second herb border. Here I have larger plants, like the frothy bronze fennel

Bronze fennel, which will grow to about five feet tall, with oregano plants to the left

Sweet cicely looks similar to cow parsley but has a light aniseed flavour. It is a terrific addition to cut down on sugar in certain recipes, like stewed fruits and crumbles.

Sweet cicely, and just peeping up at the left are leaves of marsh mallow

There’s also lavender, dwarf oregano, yarrow, marsh mallow, bee’s balm...and who could call themselves a herb gardener without those invasive, gorgeous mints and lemon balms?

Can you tell which is which?

These brazen, heady herbs make the most novice of gardeners feel like they have great green thumbs, it is impossible to kill them! And nothing is as lovely as a tea made from freshly-picked leaves...

So there you have it, a peek into my edible garden. There are some lovely “weeds” blooming in the lawn, too

 

Bunny picked a buttercup and held it under my chin, checking to see if I liked butter. Little Flower, who had never seen this age-old game before, picked this...

...held it under my chin, and said, “Mummy, let’s see if you like chicken pie.”

Now that it is raining again, we’re all indoors and my WIPs are calling to me...which first? I’d love to make progress on my first quilt, but the Dr. Seuss stitching is so fun...

Happy crafting!

Chrissie x

 

 

 

My other addiction, and crafting it up

In the years B.C. (Before Craft), before the closet was heaving with fabric bundles and countless balls of yarn...before crochet hooks were tucked in the same drawers as pens...before an embroidery hoop sat on the bedside table beside a novel...

There was, and still is, my cookbook collection.

This lovely Ikea bookcase is heaving with 128 cookbooks (at last count). I have been addicted to cooking and reading cookbooks since I was quite young. I remember my first children’s cookbook, the bright photos and simple recipes. I set up my own restaurant for my family, typed menus on the typewriter (remember that old piece of equipment?), and served the finest egg salad, chilli con carne and ice cream sundaes I’m sure my family ever ate!





'A Year in My Kitchen' by Skye Gyngell, on the top shelf just right of centre, is my favourite of them all!

As a teenager I perused cooking magazines, wondering where I could find a sun-dried tomato and wanting to live in a big city to try all the ‘exotic’ ingredients. I learned how to chop an onion after watching chefs on TV, slicing horizontally through onion tears after practicing all those vertical cuts... 


The old cheese cupboard now houses table linens and tea towels...

When I was in my 20s and had my own flat, I would host dinner parties for my friends, making notes in my cookbooks about successful menu combinations. I remember my first sushi meal and how enchanted I became by cuisines from different cultures, from Italian to Thai, Scandinavian to Ethiopian. I read cookbooks like novels – they are testimony to an ethnic pride, love letters to garden and market bounty.
Oh how I wax lyrical about cookbooks! Now I love, absolutely love, cooking and baking for my family, teaching my children to try new foods and really think about what they are eating and enjoy family meals.

I have two new acquisitions to squeeze in to my shelves, we're at 130 now

The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook was sent to me by a very dear friend in America, where the series has found a very devoted, passionate following (she is ever so jealous that I get to see the latest episodes first in the UK!). It promises to be a fun read. A great friend in my village has the other book, made me this recipe from it...

...and I went home and one-clicked it on Amazon straight away! Now we are doing a cook-a-long (similar to the quilt-a-longs and crochet-a-longs seen in blogland), where we try recipes from the book and share opinions and notes. This book promises to be a fave, packed full of seasonal recipes that are delicious, quick to prepare, actually fill a hungry appetite and still prove healthy. I will keep you updated, and feel free to join the cook-a-long!

But as I searched for a spot for these new books, I noticed the shelves look a bit tired. Hum drum. I have some crafty ideas swirling in my head, after seeing the gorgeous decoupage chair over at Ladybird Diaries...perhaps this bookcase would look sweet covered with floral paper? Wouldn’t the books seem even more enticing on a crafted-up shelf? What do you think?

Chrissie x