Bits and pieces and Food Traditions

Crochet

This week I have continued to make washcloths.  I like using two stitches for the cloths depending on their use.  For the kitchen I like the ‘v’ stitch done in hdc as it has a slightly open texture for scrubbing those dishes and wiping the benches clean. For the bathroom, I like a stitch that creates a closer weave and is smoother.

 

Here I have used Drops Paris and a 4.5 hook I like my cloths to be about 20-25 cm wide I use American terms.

Hdc Shell washcloth 

  

Make a chain of desired length ending with an even number.

Row 1: (Hdc, ch 1, hdc) in second ch from hook, (sk next ch, (hdc, ch 1, hdc) in next ch) repeat across.

Row 2: Ch 1, turn, ((hdc, ch 1, hdc) in each ch 1 space across.

Repeat Row 2 until your washcloth is square.

Bathroom washcloth

 Chain desired width ending with an even number.

Row 1: (Dc, sc) in second ch from hook, (sk next ch, (dc,

sc) in next ch) repeat across.

Row 2: Ch 1, turn, ((dc, sc) in next sc, sk next dc) repeat across.

Repeat Row 2 until your washcloth is a square.

 

Food Traditions

 A blog I follow was writing about her family’s New Year traditions.  It set me thinking about mine and from there I got quite nostalgic about the food we ate in our family. So, this post is about those family memories and the traditions we have hung on to.

My Mum was during our childhood a plain cook, she became more adventurous after we all left home, (perhaps she had more money to spend on food when we had left, or society had changed, and different foods were available?).  By the day of the week, we knew what was for dinner! I can still recite it – Sunday Roast usually Hogget (Lamb) and all the trimmings: roast potato, kumara, pumpkin, parsnip and peas all smothered in mint sauce and gravy. Monday Shepherd Pie made with the remains of the roast, peas and carrots and as the oven was on, we always had rice pudding for dessert. Tuesday Sausages in some form sausage curry, devilled sausages or just plain fried with fried onions. Wednesday Either lamb chops or mince (beef rissoles) Thursday Lamb or beef stew sometimes turned into curry. Friday was always Fish and Chips because we always went to a movie as a family and Dad would buy them on the way home and if he was flush, we would have battered oysters as well. Saturday was a day for savoury meals for example fritters, macaroni cheese, Bacon and Egg Pie.  Puddings were usually stewed fruit and something like custard, jelly, instant pudding (for non-kiwis it is sort of a light mousse).

 Looking back, it was a healthy diet if a bit meat heavy by today’s standards.  But NZ was a firmly Meat and Two Vege diet. Vegetarians were considered odd!  When I first was married, I followed this pattern. My first job after leaving Uni was in a bookshop and cookbooks were starting to be popular so I started to experiment. My first job in Britain was with a magazine that reviewed books and my editor used to pass out the books to all the staff at Christmas, As I was her secretary, I got first dibs and always chose cookbooks, the start of my massive cookbook collection.

This massive collection has dwindled over the last year as I have been decluttering but there are a couple of books I just can’t get rid of, they both come from the same source, my grandmother as a wedding gift in 1975 – Popular French Cookery by Mary Berry, it must have been one of her first books as it was published in 1972 and she is still going strong! The other was Suppers and Buffets by Marguerite Patten (1973). My goodness nearly 50 years old they have held up well.

 

I was going to post the Ottolenghi recipes I did this week, but I will now leave that to next week.  Instead, I will show pictures of my favourite recipe from each of the books.

Popular French Cookery   Cherry Pie (Clafoutis aux cerises)

 

It is cherry season here, so of course, I must use cherries, but in fact you can use whatever fruit you desire, after cherries rhubarb is my fave.

Suppers & Buffets   Cauliflower Basket

 

This dish used to be my husband’s favourite savoury meal. Its basically a whole cauliflower cooked the centre spooned out, green beans put in and covered with good old fashioned cheese sauce and baked till golden. I always have added a boiled egg or bacon bits or ham to make it more substantial. 

Ive realized while writing this I still roughly follow the pattern of my childhood.  Do you have a traditon around food.  Do eat the food of your childhood or have your eating patterns change radically?

Pantry challenge

One of the things I want to do this year is to eat more mindfully and I need to make a more concentrated effort on meal planning, as I am joining a U Tuber Becky from Acre Homestead in a Pantry challenge. In this you set aside a small amount of money for perishable goods such as eggs and fruit and veg and you then live of what you have in your stores for whatever period you set yourself.  Becky is doing two months; I have decided on 3 months and a sum of $200 for perishables over that period.  I have a deep pantry, but I suspect I have lots of stuff that is not necessary, and this will be a good opportunity to see what I do use the most of and adjust accordingly. So, a meal plan will be helpful and that is my goal for next week.

Oh dear, I have been quite wordy well done if you have got this far, lol! So, I will say bye for now and see you next week.

Think I will join Lucy on the couch and catch up on some of your posts.

 

 

Welcome 2022

 Goodbye 2021!

 

 Hello 2022!

My goodness, I haven't been here for well over a year! Where did 2021 go?  I can make all sorts of excuses,  but the reality of it was that I got lazy, first of all I was seduced by Instagram then got fed up with it and then sort of did nothing..... However, it is a new year, and full of good intentions I shall put my best foot forward and start blogging and reading blogs again. 

When I look back over the last year I have been just coasting, I suppose its the pandemic but I just hunkered down in my little world, quite happy, except for the loss of one of my cats, Zana, whom this blog was named after.

ZANA (2006 -2021)

 

I never talked about her much as she was quite a shy cat and didn't like her photo taken! I rescued her from a abusive home and she was timid throughout her 15 years.  I miss her a lot as she had a big personality and the house feels empty without her.  I still have Lucy, her daughter a gentle moggy and we muddle along together.

 

Lucy (in front) with Zana and Ambrose

As you can  see Lucy loves the camera! Despite being nearly 15 herself she is very fit and active and adores being the sole centre of attention, lol.

One thing that has been taking up a lot of my time is that I have decided to self publish a book of my art.  I love drawing and painting our native birds and was asked to do a series of cards for my church, I loved doing that and have decided to take it one step further and do a small book, Amazon have a great program  for self publishing. Below is the fantail (Piwakawaka), So far I have completed 6, another 12 or so to go!  I am finding the verse harder than the painting!
 

 I am still crocheting away, but not as obsessively as before, over the last week or two I have been doing washcloths as I had totally run out,  I would have had more to show but gave a couple away yesterday.  My crochet these days is quite simple as I tend to crochet in the evening when I am tired and don't want too much mental exercise haha. I have a huge stash of yarn and so am doing simple grannie blankets for the elderly in our community and children's beanies etc for a local charity.

 

The garden is a riot of colour at the moment, we have a lot of rain and it has kept everything very green and fresh, but now that summer has kicked in it will start to fade and dry out. 

 The vegetable garden is flourishing, and yesterday picked beetroot, lettuce, spring onions and the last of the broad beans, tomatoes are still green and the potatoes will be ready soon.

Plans for 2022?

More of the same but more focused.  This is where this blog will help, I am hoping by committing to blogging once a week, it will stop me procrastinating!  I am the biggest procrastinator ever.  I lose so much time and time is flying, I am still thinking where did 2021 go?!  Also I want this blog is be a tool for my family and friends to see what I am up to as I am the world's worst "stay in touch" person. Part of being a procrastinator I think - my head goes I'll phone tomorrow, next week comes, I think I'll phone tonight, I wake up in the middle of the night, oh I forgot to phone, oh well I'll definitely phone tomorrow............ (sorry Lynlee, Shelly, Julie et al!)

Every year I try and develop another skill or activity, stops then brain matter from dying! This year I want to concentrate on my cooking skills, I want to make the food I eat exciting and fresh and healthy.  More vegetables and less stodge (cheese sandwiches and pasta) There is nothing wrong with either, but when your diet consist mainly of these it is not good for the old waistline  and so on. 

 

 So.... I have all these cookbooks that adorn my bookshelves that I slaver over and then go and make a sandwich, lol! The dangers of living alone. So I have decided to devote a month to each of my favourite books and cook at least 2 dishes a week from them.  The cookbook for January is Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. He is my favourite cookbook writer ever, he cooks the food I like to eat and as it is summer his salads and vege dishes are just the thing.

 

 This Burger is not one of his recipes, but a recipe I have made for years.

Lentil Burgers

Lentil Burger

Tin of brown lentils

frozen spinach or fresh cooked about a tablespoon or two and chopped finely

grated sweet potato 1 cupish 

salt and pepper perhaps some smoked paprika or cumin whatever you fancy.

breadcrumbs to stiffen the mix

Mash the lentils leave some whole for texture,  add spinach (Make sure you have squeezed all the water out.) and sweet potato and seasonings, Mix add breadcrumbs to stiffen and form patties to fit your bun size. Fry them in olive oil for 10 minutes or so for each side.  Make the burger buns up with lettuce leaves, grated carrot and tomato and a dressing of your choice (a citrus one is very good), add burger and top with avocado or cheese.

Sorry, the  recipe is not more precise but really its more of a method than anything, but I assure you they are delish!  I love them made with black beans too.

While I have been writing this I realize what my theme for 2022 is!  I have plenty, I don't need more, I just need to use it! 

Well that's it for now, I will be back next Sunday 

Sharon and Lucy 

Cal and Cake!

Finally I am catching up with my Mini Rings of Change Cal that Kate is hosting.  Above is last week’s rounds 15 – 19.

This week’s rounds were very simple and enabled me to catch up quickly.  However it is starting to get quite sizeable and heavy to handle.  I can now see it as a rug for my bathroom.  I am very pleased with it.  It is really interesting to see how colour affects how the design looks.  Even though we are all using the same pattern they all look so different because if our colour choices.  Head over to Kate and see!

It was a national holiday yesterday – Waitangi Day.  I was going to the park to watch the celebrations but I wimped out as it was stormy strong gale force winds, eek! I felt bad for the people that organized things, especially as by middle afternoon the weather had cleared and blue skies prevailed.

So, instead I spent time in the kitchen and prepared vegetables for pickles and did a big batch of freezing beans and tomatoes.  To celebrate my housewifely skills I treated myself to some baking, one of my favourites  -  Muesli Slice.

It is an old Edmonds cookbook recipe (for those outside NZ the book is a national treasure and I wouldn't be surprised if every home had one!)  Originally published by Edmonds in 1907 to promote their Baking products.  For many years I think till the 1960s every newly married couple was given a copy by the company.  It is being constantly revised and recipes change as trends in food change.  My first one I got from my grandmother when I married is very fragile and falling to pieces, but I keep it as there are some old favourites that are not in my current copy err pub in 1994! I will need a new one again soon as pages are starting to come out and are rather brown! I wonder what recipes are in the current edition.

There that is my input for celebrating NZ!

Anyways I spent the afternoon doing my patchwork, sipping tea from my favourite china, really girly pink afternoon and all!  The patchwork is nearly finished and I have decided on the crochet panel but will tell all next time.

The Muesli Slice was yummy, I changed the recipe a bit,  its meant to have chocolate icing but I don’t like icing (yeah really).  But I needed my chocolate fix so I added chocolate buttons to the mix, divine!  Here’s the recipe if you are interested.

Muesli Slice

50g butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup s/r flour or use plain and add Baking Powder 1tsp

1 cup muesli

2 tsp grated lemon rind

½ cup chopped mixed peel (I don’t add this as my muesli has flavours that would clash!)

¼ to ½ cup of chocolate buttons or chips.

(I make up my own muesli by adding dried fruit, such as figs, currants, raisins, apricots, cranberries, nuts such as almonds walnuts and coconut flakes to rolled oats)

Cream butter and sugar, Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.  Sift flour and add BP if using.  Fold in the rest of ingredients to mix.  Spread into tin and bake at 180 C for 25 minutes or till golden.  Add icing if you want.

Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting and I will see you next time.

My Week

It has been a typical spring week, one day a taste of summer and the next a reminder of winter.  One thing I love about spring is the elderflower trees in blossom.  Elderflower cordial making is the top of list.  I love it with its musky flavour.  I have never made elderberry cordial, I mean to but the birds get the berries before I do.  May be I will have to camp beside the tree!

This week I have been busy with the blanket for my niece it has to be finished before Thursday!!!  I am busy sewing it up, hopefully tomorrow I can start on the border.  However I have done some other crochet to lighten the load.  One was a little cowl, as it still can be cold in the early morning when I leave the house and I wanted something to keep my neck warm.

I used V stitch it was super quick to do an hour or so.  I have worn it most mornings, and soon as it is warm enough I slip it off and put it in my bag.

Pretty colours!

I have also done some work on my Painted Rose cushion and it is now ready to sew to the back

I am using the curtain material leftover from when I made new ones earlier in the year.  I just love this pattern from Cherry Heart.  I cant wait to get started on the blanket.  But it will have to wait as I have other projects that require my attention.

For a change I decided to try my hand at making embroidered brooches.  I had seen some on Pinterest and thought they would make great gifts.

So here is my first attempt.

Think I will keep this one for myself as it has a few errors in it!  But I love it anyway.

So that has been my week, I will leave you with my recipe for Elderberry cordial.

Elderflower Cordial

Ingredients

25 - 30 elderflower heads

1.7litres/3 pints boiling water

900g/2lb caster sugar

50g/2oz citric acid

3 lemons, sliced

Preparation method

Gently rinse over the elderflowers to remove any dirt or little creatures.

Pour the boiling water over the sugar in a very large mixing bowl. Stir well and leave to cool.

Add the citric acid, the orange and lemon slices, and then the flowers.

Leave in a cool place for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.

Strain through some muslin and transfer to sterilised bottles.

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.

Mandalas and Shortbread

I haven’t had much time to crochet this week, but all my plans for what time I had went out the window when I saw Zooty Owls new mandala- starflower.  Oh my word it is glorious, of course I had to get going…..straight away!  She is so generous with her designs.

Perhaps it is fortunate that I didn’t have enough colours in cotton to do the pattern as I was forced to use what I had.  In doing so I have a wonderful new use for a Mandala – yep the mandala shawl!

left to right
firebird, rhapsody,  and magic

I went to my trusty variegated 4 ply wool (Patons Fantasias range) and used 3 colour ways – magic, firebird and rhapsody).

To create this beautiful mandala!  (I did have to break off the wool in places to avoid some colours I didn't want creeping in.)  I haven’t done the last few rows as I am not yet sure I want them in the shawl.

While I was crocheting away I kept thinking this would make a wonderful centre point for a shawl, thus the idea was born.

So out came the colour pencils and I have sketched out I want it to look.  2 – 4 more mandalas, two probably up to row 6 or 7 and 2 up to row 4.  With the surrounds a lacy stitch in the ‘magic’ colour way.  I don't know how to do the joining and lacy bits, but I am sure I will figure it out!

I am linking this post to Cosmos and Cottons Monthly Mand-a-Long  I will probably link the finished shawl to next month’s Mand- a- Long.

I have just realized that I have been blogging for 3 months and crocheting for 6 months, doesn’t time fly.   I had started this blog to talk about my crochet and crafts along with my other passions cooking and gardening.  Um… crochet seems to be taking the upper hand, and the cooking and gardening have been neglected.

So without further ado here is a recipe for yummy lemon shortbread.

Lemon Shortbread

Ingredients

200 gm (7oz) butter,

½ cup (4oz) castor sugar,

grated rind of 1 lemon (NB lime is nice too, or a mix.)

2 cups (8oz) plain flour sifted,

½ cup desiccated coconut.

Method

Beat butter and castor sugar and rind till light, Work in flour and coconut, but not over work!  Roll out to 1cm (¼ inch) thick and cut into shapes of your fancy.  Bake 20 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius , cool on tray. (the coconut gives it a lovely taste and is not quite the same without it)

I love Shortbread, in all its forms.  I started to bake it when  I was about 13 for my father as he loved it so much, then it was plain shortbread, now I have a tendency to add other flavours, such as this lemon  one or sometimes in summer I like to add English lavender flower seeds, or sometimes I like to add ground coffee.

The gardening bit, Lemons are one of my favourite flavours and would choose it over chocolate any day!  So of course I have to have lemon trees, I have two a Meyer and a Lemonade which you can eat as is!  They are starting to ripen up nicely and this year I planted a lime and I noticed that it has a dozen limes, Yay!

To finish this rather long post (I must try and blog twice a week so posts are not so long!)I have a photo of a flower that is by my front door, it has been blooming all summer and autumn, I have no idea of its name but I just love the green and wine colour of the flowers.

Thanks for visiting and I wish you all a wonderful week!