Changes

Wow, nearly a year and a half since I blogged!  I totally lost my crochet mojo.  I have done some but not blog worthy.  However I miss blogging and have decided to blog about my cooking which I am passionate about.  My cooking is mostly vegetarian with the very occasional chicken or fish dish.  Today I want to share some recipes using sorrel.

Sorrel is thriving in my autumn garden.  The cold doesn’t seem to have harmed it. What is sorrel may you ask?  Some books class it as a herb, but European cooks regard it as a vegetable, especially the French whose Sorrel soup is a classic.  The best way to describe it is similar to spinach but with a lemony flavor. 

I have been growing it for a couple of years and it has grown into a nice big clump.  I just break of the seed heads and it seems to grow and grow.  I often have it as part of a mixed salad, but a few weeks back thought it was time I was a little more adventurous.  So I googled it and came up with some interesting dishes and some new sources for vegetable recipes.  One in particular is: http://www.mariquita.com/recipes  there are recipes for almost any vegetable you can think of.  It is a farm in California that does weekly csa boxes of heirloom vegetables.

I am going to give two recipes that I have tried and in my usual manner I have adapted them to suit what was in my kitchen and to my taste. 

 N.B. One thing about cooking sorrel is that it melts down quickly even quicker than spinach.

The first is Mushroom and sorrel sauce with pasta.  It took two attempts to get it right; while it may not look colourful it is to die for.

Sorrel and Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients

2 cups dried pasta of choice (I used spiral)

2 cups of sliced button mushrooms, (the first time I used field mushrooms and the sauce was a little grey)

One large handful of sorrel well washed and sliced roughly.

1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon of butter (the mix stops the temp getting too hot)

2 shallots sliced thinly

½ cup sour cream

Method

Cook chosen pasta in your normal way.  While cooking, fry the shallots and mushrooms in the butter and oil.  Add the sour cream and when hot add the sorrel (it is important not to overcook the sorrel as it tends to go mushy very quickly.)  Heat and pour over the drained pasta and serve with some fresh shredded sorrel on top.  Simple but Yummy!

Serves 4.

The other recipe is my variation on a classic spinach quiche. There are a lot of recipes around for Sorrel, Leek and Goat Cheese Quiches, but to my mind I would think that the Sorrel and Goat cheese would fight each other for supremacy!  I could be wrong, if I am going to buy goats cheese I prefer to enjoy it as the star.

Leek, Feta and Sorrel Quiche

Make your favourite short crust pastry, today I used a whole meal one as I think the nutty flavor complements the filling.  If you would like to try a whole meal pastry the following recipe is always a success.

Whole Meal Short Crust Pastry.

4oz Whole meal flour

4oz plain flour

1 tsp. baking powder

4oz butter

1 tablespoon water

Soften butter, add flour and rub in till crumbly.  Add 1 tbsp. water and mix to a soft dough; you may need to add more depending on your flour.  Put in airtight bag and refrigerate for ½ hour.  Not too much longer or it will be difficult to roll out.  Roll out and line a quiche or flan dish.  Blind bake it for 20 minutes.

The Quiche

2 tablespoons butter

1 leek (small) or half large, thinly sliced

4 to 8 ounces sorrel leaves

3 medium eggs

½ cup cream and ½ cup sour cream, for a lighter result use 1 cup of yoghurt.

2 ounces Feta cheese, crumbled (or you could pull the boat out and use a goat cheese.

Pepper and salt, (taste before adding salt as the feta can be salty enough)

Method

Prepare the tart dough, partially prebake it, and set it aside.

Melt 1 tablespoons of the butter in a wide pan; add sliced leeks and the salt. Cover the pan, and stew slowly until the leeks are soft, about 10 minutes. Check it occasionally and give it a stir.

While it is cooking, cut off the stems of the sorrel leaves and roughly slice the leaves. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a pan, and add the sorrel by large handfuls. Although the amount of leaves will seem voluminous, they will quickly cook down to almost nothing. Cook over a low heat until they have wilted and turned a greyish-green colour, 3 to 4 minutes.  I tend to turn the heat off and let it cook with the residue heat, that way it doesn’t melt down too much.

Whisk the eggs with the cream and sour cream; then stir in the leeks, sorrel, and feta. Taste for salt, and season with freshly ground black pepper.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.; then pour the filling into the crust. Bake in the centre of the oven until the custard is set and well coloured, about 35 to 40 minutes. Serve the tart while it is hot. This is nice with a chardonnay wine! 

Although I have to say it is delicious the next day served with a salad.

ENJOY!

Happy New Year to All

2016!!! Phew, I am glad that it has arrived, the latter part of 2015 was a difficult time for me and to top it all I could not crochet or craft!  I had carpal tunnel ops on both wrists, and while the right wrist healed quickly the left had complications and so on.  But I am now back in the swing and should be able to crochet to my hearts content.

Over the last month I was able to crochet in small bursts and took the opportunity to make some Christmas gifts, mainly washcloths and scrubbies!

Bumpy Scrubbie

This one didn't make the gift pile I had to test it to see of the cotton die ran, It didn't but it made a wonderful scrubbie for my kitchen. Pattern here

Custard Pie dishcloth

This washcloth was quick and I made up the scrubbie to go with it. Pattern here

Happy Discloth

This was made out bamboo cotton and felt so luxurious that I gave it to my sister as a spa cloth and scrubbie, I made the scrubbie up by using rounds of popcorns and did a simple backing that I joined in the middle and edges.
Pattern for the cloth here.

I also started to knit for a change.  Dishcloths again!!

I made this one up and the back is rougher so I decided it would make a great face cloth.  I crochet the edges too, cant keep away from that hook!

This year I hope to concentrate on doilies and blankets, I've decided to join the block a month cal group on Ravelry and over the year I should hopefully complete 2 to 3 blankets.

So my dear friends have a great New Year and I hope all that you wish for comes.

Hello There!!!!

It has been a long time since I posted.  Life has got I the way.  However I feel that now I can have the time for me again.  I have lurked, reading your blogs from time to time and I apologies for not leaving comments.  Sometimes communication is difficult when you are in the thick of life.

I also haven’t had much time for crochet over the last 6 months, but  I managed from time to time snatch a little time to do some crochet mainly some baby stuff and I joined the Block a month group on ravelry.

The squares done so far.  I love this group as it is very friendly and the squares can be a challenge.  I have been doing the extra square also as I find two a month is suits me and I can keep up.  I have another 8 to do, as I started in June and so playing catch up.

The other crochet has been baby items for a friend’s new granddaughter and an new arrival in my family.

I have found the Lisha hat pattern by Linda of Crafty corner a great pattern and have used it a lot.

This lovey blankie was popular and have made three of them for various friends.

Now that I have more time I have started a CAL albeit rather late – Cherry Hearts sampler blanket, I am just finishing part 4 so about half way through.  I am using scraps of yarn and will donate to the Lions annual Christmas collection for families in need.  I am sure some child will love it.  Think I will make some more loveys to donate.  Maybe different animals.

I think that is enough for today!  Except I have to show you a photo of Peggy Sue on a cold winter day!

However, today she is sun bathing in the garden with Ambrose and Lucy as

Spring is well under-way - blue skies gentle breeze and to top it all it is a public holiday!

So  bye for now and see you soon.

Tea Time

I am in the process of moving house – downsizing!  My garden is too big for me to manage and as my R.A is playing havoc with my mobility I have decided to move to a smaller property.  My new place has a garden a quarter of the size of my present garden, however there is an upside, it is on the edge of town and will have an outlook of paddocks and the Tararua ranges.  My neighbours will be sheep and it will be interesting to see what the cats make of them!

I am in the process of getting rid of stuff!  Lots of stuff!  I have been here 10 years and my lordy I have heaps of stuff!  On Monday I took a large load to the local hospice.  Good, you would think, well I succumbed to the sight of some china.  I have a thing about china, especially teacups.  I walked out the shop with two sets.

This: 

And this:

I adore the green set, such an unusual colour, and I seem to have a thing about green at the moment.

Yesterday it rained, which is good as we desperately need it here.  But it meant I couldn't get out in the garden (I am in the process of tidying it up and potting up cuttings for my new place.)  I thought I would have a go at making a tea cozy that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I had it all planned in my head, but discovered to my dismay that the ivory cotton I thought I had was only remnants of a previous ball!  I didn't want to go out and buy some as I was nicely settled so I made this instead:

It was just big enough for my smallest teapot and I am rather pleased with it, I need to sort out the decreasing rounds when I make bigger ones.  I used popcorn stitch and it gives the cozy enough thickness to not have to line it.

I had to test it out this afternoon and it did keep the tea hot.  To celebrate my new cups and the cozy I decided to bake a cake, something I haven’t done for a while.  It is a really quick and easy recipe.  Pineapple Fruit Cake, very yummy.

Pineapple Fruit Cake

16 oz (450g) canned crushed pineapple

2 ½  cups dried mixed fruit

1 cup castor sugar

4oz (125g) butter

Pinch salt

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 cup plain flour sifted with 1 cup self-raising flour

Oven temp 160 C (360 F)

Mix the pineapple, butter sugar, spice, fruit, salt and bring to boilo and cook for 15 minutes. Add Baking Soda and cool.  When cold add eggs and flour.  Mix and put in a lined cake tin (20cm) and bake in lower half of oven for 2 – 2 ½ hours.   Allow to cool a bit before moving from tin.

I have realised that I have now been blogging here for just over a year!  Time flies.  I have enjoyed showing you all my makes over the last year and of course visiting you all.  However, over the next month or so I don’t know if I will have time to post with all that I have to do for the move.  So, bear with me, and hopefully normal service will resume at the end of April.  I will still be working on my blankets and be doing the odd doily when time and energy allows.

 Ambrose is finding this moving lark rather exhausting.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful weekend.

Beavering Away....

I have had an extremely busy fortnight, and my Cals have not advanced very much.  I realised  a couple of days ago why.  All my cals are complicated, I need to have the pattern in front of me and I need to count all the time.  When I finally get time to do crochet in the evenings I am too tired to do them.  So I needed a project  that did not require me to peer at the pattern. 

Now there is something about the word Cal that attracts me and when I read Sandra’s (Cherry Heart) post about her proposed Weekender Cal,  I was hooked so to speak.  While it can be any blanket, she and many others are doing a Hexagon blanket.  I looked at her pattern and knew I would get bored with plain hexagons so I decided to put a popcorn flower in the center of the hexagon and use some colours that I have been longing to use for a while. 

They are addictive and just the job for when I just want to sit in front of the TV and crochet.

The other Cals

Any way here is how far I got with the Sophie’sUniverse Cal.  I hope to do a few rows this weekend.

I am at a standstill with the Mini Rings Cal as it is really quite large already and if I follow the pattern it will be too large for my bathroom.  So I might just stop it where it is now and add my own edging of some sort.

And as I said the word Cal lures me, I have been keeping a close eye on another Cal from Yarn Inspirations.  I've been doing just one motif just to see what it is like and it is quite strange but interesting.  Goodness knows where it is going next week.

Doily

I do have a finished item to show – doily no 5 for my doily bedspread.  The last row took me ages!

Penny Lane 

Finally, Ambrose caught in the act! 

Every morning my lovely tidy pile of crochet projects are in a right mess.  I knew it was one of the cats. 

But which one.

Evidence!

sweet dreams!

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting.

Happy Valentine!

I have been making hearts today!  Well,  it is Valentine’s day.  I want some hearts for a tea cosy.  You see I want an elegant tea cosy for when I play at ladies!  Wool cosies are lovely, but you could never call them elegant.  So I had an idea of using cotton and some fancy stitch.  I thought of using hearts to embellish it and went looking on Pinterest and Ravelry, but amongst the hundreds I saw, nothing hit the spot.  I realized I wanted texture so thought of popcorns, so out came the hooks and cottons this morning and I experimented.

These were very nice and I think I will turn them into brooches.  However, I wanted something bigger to put on the side of the tea cosy and voila…..

It needs refining a bit as I think my sides are not even, but not too shabby for a prototype.

Last week I feel in love…… with Sophie’s Universe Cal, I had been keeping a weather eye on it and when I saw how it turned from a circle to a square I could not help myself.  A rummage around in my stash and yippee I have almost enough yarn, will have to top up later.  So I can justify this as a stash buster for Linda's February's Link Party

So on Tuesday as the weather had turned bad I had a lovely crochet day and did weeks 1 and 2.

The instructions and tutorials are the best I've seen!

Yesterday and today I have been working on week 3.  

It took me a long time, and that is the reason I was unable to do this week’s Mini Rings of Change, that and this, Lucy deciding that it made a wonderful  place to have a kip!  I couldn't move her could I?!

However that is on my radar for tomorrow!  That is if I can keep my hands off the lovely Sophie’s Universe blanket!  Well, week 6 instructions come out tomorrow and I have a lot of catching up!

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and a great creative week.  Thanks for visiting.  Ambrose Sends his purrs along with Lucy and Peggy Sue.

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.

Do you remember........

I haven’t had any hooky time for the last week or so.  With the welcome rain the garden needed attention!  So I have decided to give you an update on a long term project. Do you remember  my front door doily curtain?  I started it in June last year.  See below or here.  

At that time I had never made a doily.  I am now a doily addict!  Anyways, this curtain is almost done, woohoo!

I decided to add a fair bit of colour as the hall is narrow and dark.  It gets the morning sun, and then it looks glorious.  I will take a photo of that when it is completely finished.

I have been pinning the doilies to the net curtain that is already there so the final position is not set in concrete.  When the doilies are completed I will take the curtain down and sew them together.  I think I will join them to a few rows of filet crochet so that they hang better.

I think I am on the last one, yay!  The doilies below are waiting to be blocked and added to the mix.  It has been a long project.

On the subject of doilies, the doily bedspread has its fourth doily and I am well into the fifth doily.

Pineapple Passion

Hopefully I will have some time for a bit of hooky over the next few days, and will be able to sit back and admire all the bounty from the vegetable garden, then I will have to get to and do some freezing and  sauce and pickles making!

Well that’s it for today thanks for visiting and see you soon.