Fleeced!

Apparently it takes a professional shearer approximately 2 minutes to shear a sheep but how long does it take to put a fleece on a sheep? I guess the sheep would say it takes a full year of dedicated grass eating but, if my experience over the past two weeks is anything to go by, I'd say about 10 hours.

OK, so it wasn't an actual sheep that I was re-fleecing but a small crocheted one. However, you hopefully get the idea that it was quite a laborious process.

I'm talking, of course, about my latest crochet project that I had first attempted back in October. On that occasion, after 6 hours of starting, unpicking, re-starting and yet again unpicking I had nothing to show for my efforts except a splitting headache and a crick in my neck. Fortunately, my second attempt two weeks ago was much more successful, mainly thanks to some moral support and advice at the last Craft Club gathering. By the end of the afternoon I had a body and head to show for my efforts and by the end of the following day I had 4 legs, a pair of ears and a tail.

That just left me to stuff the pieces, sew them together and then add the fleece. This final bit was a tiny line in the instruction booklet so surely I'd have this little sheep done and dusted and ready for his new owner?  Let's just say, after the first hour of attaching 8-chain loops to the body of my sheep I realised I was in this for the long-haul and BBC Radio 4's Drama of the Week podcasts were summoned alongside copious mugs of tea.

Anyway, the little chap - courtesy of Edward's Menagerie by Kerry Lord - is now complete. Now we just need the new baby to arrive!

Oh, and now I've got the crocheting bug once again, I just have decide which animal to make next...!

Chilli Jam

So much for me spending this weekend finishing the crochet project that I began last weekend. Let's just say I became somewhat distracted by a bowl of chillies.

We are lucky enough at work to have a fruit and veg stall, half of which is set aside selling bowlfuls of things for £1. Whenever I pass by I always look to see if there's anything interesting on offer and this week a £1 bowl of hot, red chillies took my fancy. I paired it with a similar bowl of sweet red peppers, picked up a kilo of jam sugar on my way home and then dug out a bottle of cider vinegar. After completing my regular Saturday chores, time has rather slipped by this afternoon as I combined the aforementioned ingredients under the instruction of Nigella Lawson.

I've not picked up my crochet hook yet but I do have 5 very pretty jars of Chilli Jam waiting on the side to cool.

Meanwhile, the spare chilli and peppers have been diced and thrown into a vegetable chilli that is now in the oven, so at least there will be dinner.

Fortunately, the crochet project, which is for a baby with a due date of tomorrow, did make some progress in the week so all is not entirely lost. However, I am secretly hoping the aforementioned baby will be a little late in making his/her first appearance to give me a bit more time. I'll just have to make sure I don't get distracted by anything else!

Cakey-biscuits?

It has been a busy few weeks involving a lot of travel for both work and pleasure, all great, but it was nice to finally find myself at home this weekend. And what a weekend! It finally feels as if Spring has sprung and it was Craft Club, so there was no excuse not to get creative.

My Craft Club contribution was due to be cake although what I ended up making was a bit of a cross between biscuit and cake. The recipe was an adaptation from a Hemsley and Hemsley recipe, adapted out of necessity because of the paucity of stock held by my local supermarket. In spite of that, the results went down well with our mid-afternoon cup of tea so I thought I'd share my version of the recipe with you.

Melt 75g of butter with half a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste. Place 175g ready-to-eat, pitted prunes in a food processor and pulse until well chopped. Pour in the melted butter mixture and combine, then add 250g ground almonds and mix until everything is well combined.

Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form into balls, squashing each to a fat disk about 5-6cm in diameter. Place on a large baking tray lined with baking parchment. You should get about 14 'cakey-biscuits' from your mixture.

Pop them in the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes whilst you pre-heat the oven to 160C or gas mark 3. Cook for 15-18 minutes and allow to cool on the tray.

Meanwhile, melt 30g dark chocolate to drizzle on the top. I found the easiest and least messy way to do this was to place the chocolate pieces into a disposable piping bag - the sort that you snip the end off when you are ready to pipe. Don't snip the end off yet but place it in a mug, twisting the open end of the bag and tucking it through the mug handle. Pour over not-quite-boiling water and leave for the chocolate to melt.

Once your bakes are cool, remove the piping bag from the mug (the chocolate should now be melted), dry the outside of the bag, snip off the tip of the bag and slowly drizzle the chocolate over your bakes.

Once the chocolate has set, make yourself a nice cuppa, sit back and tuck in!

Whilst in the relaxing environment of Craft Club I made a second attempt at a crochet project that had previously defeated me. It's going well so I hope to be able to 'show and tell' next weekend!