All posts filed under: Eats

Recipes and ideas

December A-Z

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I did my first ‘a month of’ creative prompts supplied by Justb Australia this month. A letter a day, gives us the last week to figure out our own ideas!  Here are mine. Advent calendar/ Birdcage/ Christmas card/ Doll head/ Eccles cakes/ Flying / Gift/ Hat/ Indian food Jewelry/Kisses/L/Making pom poms/Nest/Outdoors/Power ball/Quality Street/Rosemary syrup Sewing a Stocking/Two bears/Underneath the ice/Vintage mystery (still don’t know what this is…)/White bear/ Xciting parcel/Yellow book cover postcards/Zommmmbie!

R is for Rosemary Syrup

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I love this rosemary syrup in my coffee with a spot of frothed up milk. I am sadly missing my Bodum milk frother as I broke the glass part last week. Yes I know, I am a clumsy klutz, but washing up liquid makes stuff slippy and easily dropped…. On a brighter note, here is the Rosemary syrup recipe to share. I have Kaldi’s to thank for the idea! Their rosemary and brown sugar latte is divine! Rosemary Syrup In a pan, add 1 cup water, 1 cup brown sugar, a dash of vanilla extract and about 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Simmer to dissolve the sugar and heat gently for about 10 minutes. Leave in the pan for about 15 minutes once the heat is off. Store in a jar you have emptied of jam or something else which leaves a pretty jar to refill. No point in buying jars when we can recycle a few. Hopefully my rosemary plants will soldier through the winter inside, looking out the back window into the garden. …

Writing with Es!

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E is for Eccles cakes, made with frozen puff pastry, I mean who makes puff pastry? Not me. I did make the mincemeat which I used to fill the Eccles cakes instead of the usual raisins. My only complaint is that I didn’t make them big enough! I am pleased I made mincemeat, followed a Delia Smith recipe and ta da, easy peasy squeeze a lemon. Two massive jars of mincemeat good stuff all ready for mince pies and I have a recipe for mincemeat cookies courtesy of Mr Jamie Oliver! It is going to be a sweet fruity fiesta!! E is also for eggs in a nest pendant I am currently making whilst trying not to poke out my eyes with the pingy wire which springs about as I make the nest! I think this is one of my favourites, the mother of pearl beads almost glow, lovely. E is for exhausted dog. Pablo the French bulldog of the house took a walk with me to make a jewelry delivery this morning and he …

November 2012 Photo A Day

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Day 1. Something beginning with C. Chrysanthemums in yellow. iPhone 4, Camera +. Day 2. Colour. Fire Hydrant on the way home from Target. Day 3. Breakfast. Loaf of bread, destined to be toast with Marmite. Day 4. TV. I did my first trail run this morning. Took this at the top of Castlewood State Park’s three hundred wooden steps. Day 5. 5 o clock Day 6. A favourite thing Day 7. Reflection Day 8. Something you do everyday Day 9. Small Day 10 Can’t (won’t live without) Day 11 Night Day 12 Drink Day 13 Where you slept Day 14 Man made Day 15 In Your Bag Day 16 The view from your window Day 17 Last thing you bought Day 18 Happened this weekend Day 19 Something awesome Day 20 Work/play Day 21 What you wore Day 22 Grateful Day 23 Black Day 24 A sound you heard Day 25 Sky Day 26 In the Cupboard Day 27 Tree Day 28 Vehicle Day 29 Big Day 30 On the wall

Kickboxing, zombie fighting, cookie baking ninja

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This morning I did my kickboxing/ninja/zombie defense class at the Y and I have to say, it totally flew by. I can’t believe how fast the time went. No doubt sore arms and legs tomorrow, but I love that!  Really, I do, I think it confirms I worked hard, I firmed up some wobbly bits  and now I can make and eat some cookies! Did someone say cookies? Look at what heavenly beast I found in Trader Joe’s this morning.  I only wonder why I didn’t buy a cart full. These should come with a stern warning along the lines of… ‘Do not open until you intend to bake with them. Not even just to try them. You will nibble and nibble and they will all be gone – forever. No cookies.’ They are so good straight out of the packet, forget fancy Christmas M&M’s, just get bags of these for everyone who needs sweets! Job done. You’re welcome. Leave some for me though. I just used all mine in cookies….and nibbling… I am going …

Eat curry, hunt treasure.

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This weekend was my birthday weekend as we wouldn’t all be here on my actual birthday to have cake and gasp at present opening! We went to House of India for a curry buffet extravaganza lunch. Bodhi ate his body weight in chicken Tikka Masala and I just wanted to eat the rice pudding, but tried to be an adult and had some actual food first. Onto Barnes and Noble to pick up a woefully old, Mollie Makes magazine,  out of date because it is a UK publication and I assume it takes ages for it to flap those magaziney pages over here. Not to worry though, there are no horoscopes to go out of date, no celeb gossip to age, just lovely crafty stuff for me to look at and plan to make. When I can knit and crochet effectively…..I can use a sewing machine and a needle and thread, so all is not lost!  I like the look of the itsy hedgehog on the cover, I can make him! After Indian lunch, we went off …

Cranberries float

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I spent the morning in my son’s second grade class doing experiments and explorations with cranberries.  Thanksgiving is on it’s way and cranberries are a main foodstuff to go with the essential turkey!   I was in charge of the ‘sink or float’ station. They float, in case you were wondering…even the smushy ones. While they all loved the experiments, the clear highlight was when a local police officer visited with our principal! He came to each station (excuse the pun!) and chatted with the kids, well,  they thought that was the coolest thing ever! I agree, I can’t imagine many schools where local law enforcement would show up for a quick chat to the kids. When I got home it was my turn for cranberry experimenting. I am making cranberry sauce, but I have no orange or juice which the recipe on the back of the cranberry bag calls for.   So,  I am using lemon juice and zest with water to make up the quantity. I think I will throw in a couple …

Ten on Saturday the tenth!

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We are on the way to Pere Marquette state park. I have my real camera as well as my iPhone, and of course a Milky Way/Mars bar. I always remember the pure joy of a Mars bar on hikes when I was a kid! Well, we went the wrong way to the park, but a potentially dangerous situation (wrong directions are never pretty, even when confidently spouted out of a phone which answers back) turned good when we stumbled upon Smartt Field where there is a aviation museum of tiny proportions. The Commemorative Air Force, Missouri Wing is a shambolic looking gathering of hangars with impressive planes, including the B25 Mitchell and the 1945 TBM 3, both WWII planes. Spectacularly exciting for the boys in my life! We toured the small airfield and the men who worked there couldn’t have been happier to answer all and any questions. Saturday 11am, here we were. A happy wrong turn indeed! I think Bodhi has this on his birthday list…. This however, is not on mine, but it …

October 2012 Photo A Day

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Day 1. Where You Stood. Chilly out, wet footprints on a skateboard ramp destined for the tri city yard sale on Saturday. Day 2. Lunch. Miso soup with pot stickers. This is something I will often have for lunch, but I did plan a little bit around the daily photo for this one. Check the chopsticks! I ate the soup with a spoon…. Day3. This happened today. I went to Trader Joes for pumpkin bread ingredients and to Target for socks for Bodhi and parchment paper. Day 4. What you read. I have either read these today, am reading them or am going to read them for bedtime stories.  ‘Mary Poppins’ is our bedtime read. You ‘Wouldn’t Want to be a World War II Pilot’ was last nights read, it is quite informative! Day 5. Shadow. Drink anyone? I took this on the iPhone 4 camera, added 1962 in Camera Bag, then into Camera+ to add clarity and color dodge. Love playing with photo apps! Day 6. I’m thankful for.   Amazing yard sale finds …

Pumpkin carving debut

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Confession time. I have never carved a pumpkin… I may have done the face bit before, but never the whole top off, pumpkin guts out bit.  Out came the knives, I lopped off the top.  We scraped and pulled out the seeds and flesh.  Lots of pumpkin for soup here. The orange inside glows with bright, insides smell sweet and fresh and shout ‘I want to be soup’. It is hollow and sounds empty,  in need of it’s Halloween look. Once the soup ingredients have been scraped and persuaded out, squash four cloves of garlic, cook for a minute or two in oil, add pumpkin flesh, stir to introduce the garlic to the pumpkin. Add enough stock to cover and boil until the pumpkin is cooked.  Stir the juice and zest of a lemon.  Smell to taste. Blend until smooth and eat with the most amazing bread you can make or find. Out come the markers and the face is drawn on then sliced into shape.  Eyes and teeth pop out willingly.  Orange glows right out.