Boozy Bank Holiday

Having already blogged about making Limoncello and Spiced Cranberry Vodka, you would be forgiven for thinking I'm a bit booze obsessed. Especially since I've just placed a load of chestnuts in a jar of rum and a bag of blackberries in to a jar of gin! I would like to assure you that this is mainly about my desire to create rather than imbibe but you may just be thinking that 'the lady doth protest too much'.

The desire to place a load of cooked, peeled chestnuts in a jar of rum stems from a recipe that I have featured here twice before - that of the Italian chestnut cheesecake. I found the recipe in an Italian food magazine whilst staying with my friends in Northern Tuscany. With the help of Google Translate I set about making it, following a semi-successful trip to their local supermarket. The one missing ingredient was glace chestnuts or marrons glaces. However, my friends farmhouse is surrounded by sweet chestnut trees and the previous autumn they had gathered, cooked and peeled a mound of chestnuts and all those that they couldn't eat immediately had been preserved in rum. They suggested I use these in place of the marrons glaces and the cheesecake worked out brilliantly (even if I do say so myself).

Then last Christmas I decided to make the cheesecake again.  Once again I couldn't lay my hands on any marrons glaces so I decided to make some myself. The long and the short of it was, they took ages to make, ended up being rather chewy, and added absolutely nothing to the cheesecake's flavour or texture. I decided rum soaked chestnuts were far superior and so, here I am, soaking sweet chestnuts in rum just in case I have an occasion to make Italian chestnut cheesecake at some point over the autumn or winter. I guess you could say I'm more motivated by food than booze or is that me still making excuses?

Anyway, if you fancy having a go, take a sterilised 1 litre jar and to it add 150g sugar, 280g cooked chestnuts and 600ml rum.  

Tip and gently shake the jar to mix the contents and then leave in a cool place. For the next few days, tip and gently shake the jar every day until the sugar has fully dissolved. Then repeat every few days or once a week for about three months or until you want to either eat the chestnuts or drink the rum!

The idea for the blackberry gin came from a lady at the West of England Herb Group. It's based on Slow Gin but, because blackberries are sweeter than sloes, you can afford to use less sugar. I used 110g sugar, 290g blackberries, and about 600ml gin. The methodology is the same as for the rum and chestnuts so I'll be tipping and gently shaking from now until Christmas!

The Dartmoor Artisan Trail

This week I found out about The Dartmoor Artisan Trail. It's a self-guided trail that takes in visits to some of the best artisans and crafts people living and working in the Dartmoor National Park. It turns out it was named as one of the UK's best travel experiences in 2017 so I feel slightly ashamed that it has taken me until August to hear about it!

The idea of the trail came from photographer and travel writer Suzy Bennett and the website is worth checking out for her photographs alone. You can make your own way between the artisans by car, bicycle or on foot, stopping to take part in workshops (obviously if you've arranged these in advance) or just take a look at the artisan at work. You can even buy something as a memento or for dinner that night.

Yes, that's right - there are edible things on the trail because food producers are included in the 'artisan' category - which is a fact I love. Artisans include painters, print makers, a cider maker, goat and vegetable farmers, a blacksmith, woodworkers, a weaver, a felt maker, a basket maker, a shoemaker, potter, upholster, and a jewellery maker.

I'm already hoping to incorporate an element of the trail on my next trip to Devon, which will hopefully be in a few months' time. I'm sure I will report back here when I return.

If you find yourself in the vicinity, I hope you will be tempted to check it out too.

All change

I can't believe I've not done anything creative since June. Well, perhaps I can. The weather had been so nice I seem to recall that I was making the most of it and also getting organised to go on holiday. But that is all now a distant memory thanks to the dip in temperatures, the arrival of rain and the fact that I managed to pick up a cold on the flight home from sunnier climes and so have spent the week cowering indoors, sneezing and blowing my nose.

It was largely to do with this depressing reintroduction to the UK that I decided to reacquaint myself with my most recent creative project, which had been lying unfinished for some eight weeks. I had ceased work because I needed a couple of zips but I actually managed to get them fairly easily, so they too had been sitting around for about seven weeks. No more excuses - the project was to be finished this weekend!

The project was, in my head at least, called 'The Orange Bag', which was being fashioned from an old mohair wrap cardigan that found itself in the wrong washing machine cycle and no longer fitted me. This had been created but, by my own admission, was looking fairly ragged. The next step was to create a lining for the bag and this was to have all the helpful pockets and pouches in order to keep my things in order and, importantly, easy to find. I'd planned this all out and cut out the fabric so the first thing to do was begin construction.

Not having any instructions to follow and being a bit rusty, this took me a good few hours as I tried to recall my original plan and execute it. However, shortly after lunch I was very pleased with the lining I had created.

On one side I had inserted a small, flush zipped pocket with three pouches in front.

I had decided to leave the bag with an open top so for added security I had decided to make another zipped pocket, this time using the whole of the other side of the bag lining.

The next step was to insert the lining into the bag. However, this is where the whole plan fell apart. It fitted, of sorts, but my grand ideas of using the curved edge of the original cardigan to add a feature to the front of the bag, with the lining making up the difference with a flash of contrasting texture and colour. I just couldn't get it to work. The lining was so pristine and beautiful I also didn't really feel it worked with the fluffy, soft, rather more organic fabric of the cardigan.

I therefore had a bit of a rethink, delved through the fabric box and came up with some denim that toned with the orange striped lining and added a fun and casual element to the whole thing. So, it was all change! In no time at all I had whipped up a new outer shell from the denim, along with a shoulder strap and put all the elements together.
 

The full length zip so close to the top edge of the bag meant that I couldn't top stitch around the top opening of the bag to anchor the two elements of fabric together as I would normally have done but felt it needed a something to finish it off. I opted to add a small running stitch by hand to the top opening and the handle using a twin strand of dark orange embroidery thread.

I am very pleased with the finished bag and am still referring to it as 'the orange bag', which is really rather pushing the description.  I'm desperate to show it off but feel that I need to get back to more casual days out to show it off. It feels eminently large enough for my usual bits and pieces but will also fit a book/kindle and water bottle, perhaps even a small lunch box. However, if I'm out having such a leisurely day, when am I going to have time for all my other creative projects?

I guess if you don't hear from me for another eight weeks you can guess what I'm up to!