Thank you!

I do love the lull between Christmas and New Year. The shopping and cooking is over and I'm afforded the luxury of forgetting all about work for at least a week in the safe knowledge that no one else is working or, most importantly, sending me emails! Instead, I can turn my mind to thinking about new creative projects for the year ahead and enjoying presents I have been lucky enough to receive. And, of course, thanking the people who gave me the presents.

Today I finally had the time to assemble a birthday present I received last month - a set of Scrabble piece rubber stamps. What better than to combine creativity with a favourite game! The box contained the labelled wooden blocks, rubber stamps with self-adhesive backing, and mini red and black ink blocks.

The first task was to fix each rubber stamp to the correct wooden block, making sure it was the right way around - not exactly taxing, so perfect for a lazy Sunday! I then set about working out a few appropriate words that fitted together, Scrabble-style. The set also includes the star from the centre of the board as well as the double and triple letter and word score markings. Moments later I had created a few cards, exploring spacing and testing out the results. Nothing earth shattering but hopefully the family members who gave me the stamp set will appreciate getting a thank you card for their Christmas present made using the stamps.

And to you...

...for reading.

I look forward to sharing lots more creative projects with you in 2015.

Happy New Year!

Last Minute Christmas Treats

I have just finished making the last handmade Christmas gifts and am sitting down with a well-earned cup of tea before embarking on preparations for the feast that will be Christmas dinner. What a whirlwind – so much for this year's preparations being ‘stress-free’!

Oh well, if I didn’t enjoy it, I guess I wouldn’t do it…

Why have I left it so late? Well, the last gifts are perishable so need to be made as close to the time of giving as possible. [At this point I would ask my Christmas Day guests to stop reading and only resume on Boxing Day if you want your presents to be a surprise!]

I have two edible treats to share with you today; one sweet, one savoury, and both are gluten and dairy-free with the potential to also be vegan, so there should be something for everyone.

This first recipe is for chocolate truffles which are remarkably healthy (if a truffle can be healthy?!) It was hastily scribbled down from a library book some years ago and has been a firm favourite ever since. I think the book was called ‘Zest for Life’ and it offered loads of interesting, healthy, generally gluten and dairy-free recipes. If you tell people what they contain before they try them, they have a tendency to look a bit wary so I recommend they try them first and then let them guess the ingredients. The quantities here make 20-25 truffles.

Prune and Chocolate Truffles (Pruffles)

150g pitted, ready to eat prunes

100g dark chocolate (70% minimum)

50g hazelnut or almond butter

2 tbsp honey (or use agave nectar for vegans)

1 tsp vanilla essence (or paste)

Your choice of cocoa powder, finely chopped nuts or grated coconut to coat

Melt the chocolate with the nut butter – you can do this in a glass bowl set over a bowl or saucepan of boiling water or in a microwave.  Mix together to form a velvety cream and set aside to cool slightly.

Drop the prunes one by one into a food processor with the blade spinning and blend to a smooth paste. Add the honey or agave nectar, vanilla essence or paste and pulse again until smooth.  If it is too sticky or clumps together into a large ball, add a few drops of water to soften it up.

Add the prune mixture to the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly.  Cover and chill for 2-4 hours.

Once it has chilled and set, take out teaspoons of mixture and form into small balls with your hands.  Toss in the cocoa powder, or whatever you have chosen to coat the truffles in.  Pop back in the fridge for another hour before serving.  They will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Pruffles

The next recipe is from the December 2014 Sainsbury’s Magazine and is a new one for me. It’s from the Hairy Bikers and is for spiced nuts. Let’s hope they’re as tasty as the description (the nuts, not the Hairy Bikers!)

Spiced Macadamia Nuts

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

½ tsp caster sugar

½ tsp garam masala

½ tsp hot chilli powder

½ tsp sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

150g macadamia nuts

1 tbsp clear honey (or use agave nectar for vegans)

Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Whisk the sunflower oil, lime juice and caster sugar until pale then add the garam masala, chilli powder, sea salt and a grinding or two of black pepper. Drop in the nuts, stir in the honey (or agave nectar) and toss together until the nuts are evenly coated.

Scatter them onto the baking tray in an even layer and roast for 5 minutes, then turn over the nuts and roast for another 8-10 minutes. Keep a beady eye on them for the last few minutes so that they don’t burn.

The nuts should end up with a golden, shiny, non-sticky coating.

Cool for a few minutes so that the coating can harden and then serve hot or store in an airtight container and enjoy cold.

Spiced Macadamia Nuts

Now that the nuts and truffles have been added to the other foodie items and placed under the tree, there's nothing for it but to start peeling potatoes ready for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree – with added sparkle!

I do like to have a real Christmas tree but, without access to a car, they can be a challenging thing to purchase. In previous years the main criteria for where to buy a tree has been that it had to be close enough to the house for a decent size tree to be carried home. However, the luxury of a car this year meant that I could work a bit more meaningfully on ‘shopping local’.

I had discovered that the Frenchay Christmas Tree Farm on the outskirts of Bristol, was owned by someone I used to go to school with (and his Dad), so that is where I headed. I got a great reception and found a beautiful tree at a really reasonable price (and that was before I was given ‘mates rates’ – thanks Simon!)  Anyway, if a Christmas tree doesn’t already give you a warm glow, supporting a local business who has lovingly hand tended each tree was the icing on the cake – or should I say angel on the top?!

The next step was to decorate the tree. Last year I felt the tree needed a bit more sparkle. Although I love all the decorations, many are handmade from fabric and so are less than shiny. I was therefore inspired watching Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas when she made some glittery baubles – just what I needed.

Fortunately, this weekend was Craft Club so what better way to spend an afternoon with friends than to apply glue and glitter to polystyrene balls, whilst catching up on all the gossip. It was even a task that I thought I could achieve under the influence of a glass of mulled wine! Kirstie insists that the balls are left to dry for 24 hours before applying hairspray (as a final fix for the glitter) so it was great that we were all staying the night (thanks Jo!) to gorge ourselves on home cooked food and perhaps another glass or two of wine.

If you want to have a go at these baubles yourself just get a load of polystyrene balls, some bamboo kebab skewers, some PVA glue and a brush, glitter, hairspray, some loose cover pins, and some ribbon to hang them with. Oh and an upturned box with holes poked in it or florists foam for the skewers to stand in whilst the glue dries.

As for the instructions, I don’t think it could be simpler. Stick the sharp end of the skewer into the polystyrene ball, paint with PVA glue but not so much that it will drip or run (I found this out to my cost!), then mix up your glitter and sprinkle liberally over the gluey ball. Stand the skewer in the box or foam and leave to dry for 24 hours.  Repeat until your run out of balls, glue or glitter! I even made a bauble with all the left-over glitter colours mixed in together, which turned out surprisingly well.

The next day give each ball a liberal coating of hairspray and, once dry, carefully remove the skewer and hide the hole by fixing a ribbon loop to this part of the bauble using a loose cover pin. Kirstie simply fixed the centre of the ribbon to the bauble and tied a bow at the top to hang over the tree branch but I went for the slightly more fiddly option. I crossed and overlapped the ribbon at the bauble end before fixing with the pin and then hid the pin with a simple knot.

Over tea and mince pies the previous day the Crafters had discussed which ribbon looked best with which bauble. I decided to try all options – matching the colours as well as mismatching them. I’ll let you decided which you prefer.

I'm really pleased with the results, which are even more sparkly in real life!

Advent Garland

We are well and truly in the countdown to Christmas, and what better way to do this than with an advent calendar. There must be a million versions of this simple tradition, some consist of opening a perforated card 'door' to reveal a picture (or more commonly these days a small chocolate); others are more elaborate involving 24 containers, each bearing a small gift.

Up until last year I was a true traditionalist about this and stuck to the simple illustration with 24 doors. In fact, I still have this in card form as my friend in Germany sends me one of these as a birthday card each year, which I love!

This year's birthday advent calendar

However, inspired by Design Sponge's Falling Stars Advent Calendar I set about creating my own version - making it with felt rather than brown paper so that it could be used for years to come. I started by cutting out 24 different shaped stars from white felt and then made backs for each star by cutting out two overlapping halves. Using silver embroidery thread and a simple chain stitch I sewed numbers to the front of each and then used whip stitch to join the front to the back. Various lengths of narrow silver ribbon for hanging the stars finished each one.

My next challenge was to find a suitable branch to hang all my stars from. Living in the middle of a city with only a small garden, this proved rather difficult. However, I enlisted the help of my Dad who appeared in the last week of November with half a holly tree sticking out of the top of his car (I thought it best not to ask too many questions - he lives in a flat so it certainly didn't come from anything he had readily to hand!) As for things to go in the stars, my lovely friend Ce set about filling them all as my Christmas present. This resulted in a wonderful haul of chocolates, craft accessories, lip balm and jewellery appearing daily throughout December.

2013's advent branch

This year, not wishing to risk having my Dad arrested, I felt I needed to come up with a better solution for hanging the stars. A trip to my local high street resulted in me hauling home a 2.5m festive garland. I say 'hauling' but it did fit into a carrier bag so there was no chance of being pulled over by the Transport Police!

This year the stars are filled with chocolate coins. Not nearly as lavish as last year but certainly a nod to my childhood Christmases.

 The next task is to source a Christmas tree. A job for Friday I think!

Party Food

It has been a busy few weeks with lots of birthdays to celebrate, including my own, and a few days ago I invited some friends over for an informal gathering. I wanted to serve some simple tapas-style food that involved fresh ingredients and some interesting flavours. It was all very well received (devoured!) and so I thought I’d share some of the recipes with you, in case you have your own party - birthday, Christmas or other - planned.

First up (since everyone asked for the recipe) is a Citrusy Green Quinoa Salad. The secret here is in the dressing. Place about 200g of cooked quinoa in a large bowl (these quantities serve 6-8) and to it add: 75g chopped watercress; 100g chopped fresh spinach; a small, finely chopped onion; 100g toasted, chopped pistachios; 3 tablespoons each of chopped mint and chopped parsley; half a deseeded and diced cucumber; and 1 diced avocado. Mix well. In a separate bowl or jug mix up the following ingredients for the dressing: 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon of ground ginger; 2 teaspoons of sumac; the juice of a lemon; 3 tablespoons of olive oil; and 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses.  Just before serving, mix the dressing into the salad ingredients.

Next come a couple of dips: Red Pepper Hummus and Spicy Broad Bean Dip. Both are so simple I almost feel that they are cheating, but if catering for large numbers I think you are allowed some easy dishes and it’s definitely better than buying a tub of dip from the supermarket. I promise, even if you profess to not being able to cook, you will be able to make these.

For the Red Pepper Hummus simply blend the following ingredients up in your food processor: a 400g tin of chickpeas (drained); a couple of roasted red peppers from a jar (drained); a teaspoon of lime juice; a teaspoon of paprika (or smoked paprika if you prefer); a sprinkling of salt and pepper; tahini paste to taste (optional).  I served this with some falafel but toasted pitta would work just as well.

The Spicy Broad Bean Dip involved a bit more cooking, but not much, but its simplicity does rely on being able to buy a jar of Belazu’s Coriander and Cumin Paste.  If you can’t get this, just look to see what else may be available – coriander pesto, ordinary pesto, sundried tomato pesto all would add great flavour or just add chopped fresh coriander and some ground coriander and cumin until you get a flavour you like.  However, for the simple version, start by finely chopping half an onion (or a shallot) and sauté in a bit of olive oil over a low heat until soft. Meanwhile, cook 250g frozen broad beans in boiling water for about 4 minutes and then drain. If you want, reserve a few of the cooked broad beans to decorate, otherwise tip the cooked beans, onion and garlic into a food processor, add 60g of the Belazu paste (or whatever you’re using as a substitute), a 400g tin of butter beans (drained), 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and a large handful of mint leaves. Blitz to a paste and tip into a serving dish. Top with the reserved broad beans, popped out of their shells, a sprig of mint and a swirl of olive oil. This I served with crudités.

The next dish was a Pea, Feta and Basil Frittata.  I found this recipe on the Sainsbury’s Magazine Blog – delicious! They serve it with a tomato salsa but because I had so much else going on, including a tomato sauce, I didn’t bother.

I was very lucky to be given River Cottage Veg Everyday book for my birthday so I couldn’t get away without making something from it.  I chose the Chilli, Cheese and Rosemary Polenta with Tomato Sauce.  I know one of my guests is not partial to chillies so I replaced the chilli flakes with a small pinch of mild chilli powder. I think it was enough to add depth of flavour but not so much that she knew it was in there!

Although perhaps not the most feted dish on the table but my own personal favourite for effort put in and enjoyment received, was the Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Skewers. This is simply cherry tomatoes, mini mozzarella balls and basil leaves threaded onto cocktail skewers. However, the fun bit for me was making the mozzarella. For Christmas last year, friends had given me a cheese-making kit (mozzarella and ricotta).  It contains all you need (except for 8 pints of whole milk and a pair of rubber gloves!) to make both types of cheese. It may initially seem like a bit of a faff but it only takes about an hour and is hugely satisfying. A great present for anyone who likes cooking!

A plate of Parma ham and some sliced Milano salami completed the feast.

Fabric Wall Hangings & the Holiday Project (finally!)

When talking about my new duvet cover the other week, I mentioned that I had bought some other similarly smile-inducing fabric and have it as a wall hanging. What I don't think I mentioned was that I had also mounted an off-cut in an embroidery hoop as a picture.

Earlier in the week I found myself at home in daylight hours so grabbed the camera to take some photos to share. For anyone struggling to grasp what I was on about I'm hoping this blog's photos will result in some 'lightbulb' moments when you can actually see what I was blathering on about.

The fabric hanging is about a metre wide and over 2 metres long and, I think, really cheers up a hard-to-reach and very dull wall on the staircase.

You even get little glimpses as you walk up the stairs thanks to the mirrors on the opposite wall.

And, if you didn't already spot it in photo two, here's the off-cut that I mounted in an embroidery hoop.

I liked this effect so much, I managed to salvage a bee and a bug from duvet cover off-cuts and am in the process of making a further two embroidery hoop pictures. It's really easy - just clamp the fabric in the hoop, trim off the excess fabric, and then place some really strong double-sided tape, preferably as wide as the wooden hoop is deep, to anchor it all in place (although I'm currently out of double-sided tape, hence this is still a work in progress).  However, the finished hoops will hang on the wall adjacent to the blackbird.

The back view - the red shows where the double-sided tape goes.

The (incomplete) pair

There, surely that was easier than me trying to describe the various wall-hangings ... and if a picture speaks a thousand words, I've just saved you reading a extra 6,000 words!

Oh yes, and also taking advantage of being home in daylight (December days in the UK have me leaving for work just as it is getting light and getting home well after sunset - bleurghhh!) here's a quick photo to show you how my holiday project turned out.  I did finish it months ago and it has been much worn!

Summer Bag - farewell

Autumn has definitely arrived and so any journey outside involves a warm and preferably waterproof coat, having an umbrella to hand if not in hand, and occasionally a hat and gloves. This change in wardrobe also, for me, involves a change in bag.

Gone are the carefree days when a bag slung over the shoulder is a practical option. Bulkier clothing invariably means the bag doesn’t really stay on my shoulder and when you then add in wrestling with an umbrella in the elements or removing gloves in order to find door keys I tend to seek something that, once shouldered, stays put.

It is therefore with some sadness that I say farewell to my summer bag and dig out my more muted but practical and hands-free cross-shoulder option. But before it spends the next 5 months in the cupboard I thought it was a good opportunity to share it with you, not least because it is hand made, but also because it also got quite a few compliments this year.

I would love to say that the bag was meticulously designed from the outset, but the reality is the design evolved slowly. It started a number of years ago when a friend returned from a business trip to Tallinn, Estonia with a gift of two balls of rainbow-dyed yarn. It was 100% wool but treated in a very different way from a ‘normal’ ball of wool you’d buy to knit or crochet with. Without getting too technical, not least because I don’t really know any great detail of what happens between shearing the wool off a sheep to buying it in a shop to knit with, this wool was different in a number of ways. Although dyed and carded (a process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibers to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing*), very little else had been done to it. A gentle pull of the yarn, a normal process when knitting or crocheting to unravel a length from the ball to knit with, just resulted in the strands breaking. I occasionally pulled out bits of grass or grass seeds from the strands and my hands were always beautifully soft every time I worked with it indicating that hardly any of the lanolin (natural oils in sheep wool) had been washed out.

Anyway, the volume of wool I had and the huge fragility of the strand led me to one conclusion – it would be perfect for felting or making ‘boiled wool’. This would help deal with its fragile nature but only if I could knit it into a shape first. This I did carefully and whenever a strand broke I resisted tying a knot and just placed the two broken strands side-by-side and kept going. I’m sure this would have just unravelled if the knitted material was the final product but I knew the ‘boiling’ process would hide any loose strands and really ‘knit’ the fabric together. I cast on a random number of stitches and knitted away in stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row) until I ran out of yarn.

I ended up with a very flimsy and fragile rectangle about 50cm square. It was only then that I thought it may make a bag of some sort but the next step was to felt or boil it. This was a complete act of faith because I tossed it into the washing machine and turned the temperature dial up to 95°C. Fortunately, this resulted in a lovely, rainbow-hued rectangle of boiled wool but with a slightly curled edge on what was the cast-on and cast-off edges – now measuring about 40cm square.

The rest was pretty straightforward. I joined the side seams and then sewed across the bottom corners to give the finished bag a third dimension. I made two strips of cotton into the handles and sewed them onto the wool.  For the inside of the bag I took a piece of fabric that approximately measured the same size as the original piece of boiled wool and joined it at the top with a zip and a second one that was slightly shorter.  I placed the shorter one inside the larger one and sewed up all the side seams before slip stitching into the main bag opening around the zip. This gives the bag three internal compartments as the smaller zipped section essentially divides the main lining into two.

I hope you love it as much as I do. Just don’t ask me to make another, or if you do, don’t expect it to turn out the same!

*With thanks to Wikipedia!

Duvet Cover

I always seem to struggle to find a duvet cover that I like. The last purchase was a desperate one since the existing pillowcases and duvet cover had become threadbare and now another set of pillowcases looks set to follow suit.

Yet again I was inspired by the Lotta Jansdotter book (the one with the apron pattern), which explains how to make a double duvet cover out of conventional width fabric. It seemed straight forward enough so my next challenge was to find some fabric I liked that also wasn’t too expensive, since you need quite a lot! This is where Ikea came to my aid. I’d already fallen for their Evalotta fabric by designer Malin Åkerblom – the background colour suiting the accent colour I have in my hall and landing. With a lot of help from a friend with a tall ladder, great DIY skills and a head for heights I have managed to cover a whole wall on the upper staircase with it. It being one of the first things I see when I venture out of the bedroom each morning, it certainly brings a smile to my face (which the previous bare wall did not!)

I also liked Malin’s Evalena fabric but couldn’t think where it would go in the house. Of course, that was until I decided I could make my own duvet cover. The fabric is heavier than conventional sheeting so I didn’t think it would make a great duvet cover if used for the whole thing so this is when I decided to use it for a key section of the top cover, with other cotton (also from Ikea) for the sides and underside. Lotta's instructions use the fabric running width-ways across the bed, but this wouldn’t work with the Evalena pattern. Also, the instructions assume you are using all the same fabric or at least fabrics that are the same width. Unfortunately Evalena is 150cm wide and the red cotton is only 140cm wide. This meant that I spent some time with pencil and paper trying to work out the best arrangement of strips of red both aesthetically and economically.

Anyway, last weekend I put all the theory into practice – easy in terms of sewing but a bit of a faff trying to find floor space big enough to lay out pieces of fabric to measure over 2 metres square, one of which starts out over 6 metres long. However, it was done in an afternoon and I then finished it off this weekend by turning the small strip of red that I had left over into two pillowcases.

I’m so pleased with the result. I also now won’t have to wait until I exit the bedroom to see the birds to break into a smile – surely you can’t resist smiling at those bees and bugs?!

Apron

A few years ago a friend was having a bit of a clear out in order to turn her craft room into a nursery and she passed on a book of sewing patterns by Brooklyn-based Scandinavian designer Lotta Jansdotter. It mostly contains patterns for household accessories such as oven mitts, place mats, a range of bags suitable for carrying anything from books to garden tools to a yoga mat, a duvet cover, desk tidy... hopefully you get the general idea.

One of the patterns is for a double-sided or reversible apron which is a really lovely design. That may sound odd for an apron but it is more than just the usual flat shape and ends up being quite flattering (for an apron!) It is fairly short but the addition of curved side panels gives it ample width and a bit of shape that turns it from being ordinary to something that you wouldn’t mind answering the front door wearing. I made one for myself a few years ago out of denim and red and white gingham, which received lots of complements from the craft club ladies. In fact, a few said I looked as if I was dressed for a party!

So, with the birthday of one of the crafty ladies rapidly approaching and a metre of fabric sitting in my fabric box that I knew she’d like, I set about making her an apron. Lotta’s pattern includes an applique design for a vase and flower but I used one of my own from the butterfly blanket.

Also, the original pattern has two straps at the top that tie at the back of the neck but I find having a knot at this point uncomfortable.  I therefore replaced these with a single strap on one side and a pair of D-rings attached by a short loop of fabric at the other so the neck loop is fully adjustable.

 

Anyway, huge thanks to Ce my fantastic photographer. Now all I have to do is wrap it up in time for the next weekend’s birthday-themed crafty gathering!

B is for bookbinding, baubles and Bristol

This blog is brought to you by the letter B. Firstly, as I share my latest Christmas project – bookbinding inspired baubles - and secondly for some lovely things going on in Bristol in November and December to help you with your Christmas shopping.

The baubles are constructed from twelve pairs of fabric circles bonded back-to-back and then bound together through the centre, a bit as if they were pages in a book.  The time-consuming bit is cutting out circles in Bondaweb (double-sided, heat-fusible webbing), ironing one side onto fabric, cutting them out again, ironing the other side onto yet more fabric and cutting them out again. This leaves you with two circles of fabric bonded together with the ‘right sides’ of the fabric facing out and slightly stiffened by the webbing. You then press each circle in half. I find that this process is best done with the ironing board set up in front of the television or with a really good drama on the radio as it is a bit long-winded but doesn’t need much concentration.

You then pair up the circles, lining up the pressed creases ‘back-to-back’, and stitch them together with two large stitches that form a sort of figure-of-eight through the centres of each.  For this I used bookbinding thread, which is waxed linen, but mainly because I had it to hand. Line the next pair of circles up between the first two and stitch them together and then keep going until you have a bauble as full as you desire.  Finish off by stitching a loop at the top from which to hang your bauble and you are done.

I used Christmas-themed fabric for these, using 12 circles of fused fabric, but I do want to try some in different fabrics and will let you know how I get on.

If making your own Christmas decorations and presents isn’t really your thing but you do prefer to give a gift that is handmade or a little bit special I urge you to check out these events if you are in the neighbourhood.  Both are organised by Made in Bristol who run arts and crafts events, exhibitions and pop-up shops in venues across the city to celebrate, showcase and promote the wealth of local creative talent.

The first is the Christmas Design Temporium (that’s a temporary emporium in case you were wondering!) It’s at the Architecture Centre on Bristol’s Harbourside and runs from 22 November until 23 December 2014, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm. This will feature a collection of jewellery, textiles, prints and artworks inspired by architecture and made by Bristol and Britain’s top designers.

The second is a series of Christmas Gift Fairs at the Colston Hall, just off Bristol city centre. These take place on Saturdays 29 November, 7 and 13 December. The fairs will showcase up to 150 local designers all of whom are based within 50 miles of Bristol, showcasing jewellery, toys, ceramics, art and home accessories.

Whatever you decide, I hope you will find (or create) something a little bit special!

Curry

I do like a good curry but finding one can be hard and making one from scratch always seems to involve a lot of forward planning. Of course, there’s the option of having a jar of curry paste in the fridge but I’m never quite sure how much sugar, salt, oil or other preservatives they contain and it also feels a bit too much like cheating.

A couple of times this year I have been organised enough to gather all the raw ingredients and make up a batch of my own curry paste but it always seems to make enough for about three curries. The surplus is placed into a pot in the fridge and somehow always gets pushed to the back and forgotten about until it goes off.

For a couple of years now I’ve been buying root ginger in bulk from the fruit and veg stall at work – anything in a bowl for £1. I take it straight home, peel it and then chop it finely in a food processor and use it to fill an ice cube tray. This way, whenever a recipe calls for chopped or grated ginger, I take out a cube or two – simple! It suddenly occurred to me that I could do the same with curry paste. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner!

Anyway, a trip to the fruit and veg stall resulted in a haul of limes, chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander; out came the mini-food processor; the spice rack was raided and I was all set. Well, nearly all set. I did actually need some recipes. Fortunately Jamie Oliver has a selection of 5 different Indian-style curry paste recipes on his website and the BBC provided a simple Thai curry paste .

 

As you can see, my chillies were red rather than green so my Thai green curry paste was always going to be a little different. This is what I tackled first. I actually had some small pots which had originally contained Indian pickles from Tiffins our local Indian take away (a rare treat but somewhere where you can be guaranteed of a fresh, healthy, locally sourced meal!) Since the recipe says it makes enough paste for a curry for 8 people, fitting it into three of these pots meant that it should make three generous curries for two, with perhaps a bit left over for someone’s lunch or dinner the next day.

I next moved onto the Jamie Oliver recipes and took a while deciding which ones to make. Over a cup of tea I settled on the Korma and the Rogan Josh as the seemed to offer distinctly different flavours. These I did put into ice cube trays. Fortunately there’s no worrying which is which thanks to the quantities of tomato puree, roasted pepper and paprika in the Rogan Josh, which gives it an unmistakable red hue. Of course, once frozen it would be easy to pop the cubes out of the trays and into a freezer bag, which would be easier to label.

Korma paste

Rogan Josh paste

Having three different curry pastes in the freezer now means I have spicy variety to hand. And yes, I’ve used some already in the form of a Thai fish curry with mango and a Cauliflower biryani – delicious (even if I do say so myself!)

Autumnal Blanket

As the days are getting shorter, so they are getting darker and cooler - all things to make me want to hibernate. That's not to say I don't like autumn.  In fact, I love it as it's a great excuse to get out all the lovely cosy things such as blankets, favourite jumpers, recipes for warming casseroles... you get the picture!

One such thing that is coming out of the cupboard is the blanket for the guest room which I made last January. I was at the beginning of my applique journey and spotted a workshop being run in Bristol for an applique heart quilt. I wasn't too bothered about learning the quilting skills (although I do admit that I did pick up quite a few sewing techniques) but I was keen for someone to show me how to applique 'properly'. However good books and videos on YouTube are, there is really no substitute for someone showing you in person.

The quilt in question was small and made from a single charm pack, which is made up of about forty 5" x 5" squares of co-ordinating fabric. I can't say the selection of charm packs on sale at the time was very exciting. I therefore wasn't too happy with what I ended up with but I eventually got over the fabric choice and set about learning the technique. After all, that is what I was there for.

I ended up with a fairly multi-coloured piece of patchwork complete with appliqued hearts that measured about 35" by 24". For some reason quilters always work in imperial measurements but I work that out very roughly to be about 90cm x 60cm). Not one to make something that can't be used I then spent some time trying to work out what to do with it. It certainly wasn't going to be turned in to a wall hanging because I really would have nowhere to put it.

However, it occurred to me that a few of the colours matched those in the guest bedroom curtains so I set about making it into the centrepiece of a blanket to cover the bed. Not only did I think that this would this turn it into something useful, but the vast acres of fabric that I would need to add to make it big enough may work to tone down the colour scheme (which I still wasn't happy with).

I spent hours planning out the surrounding fabric and then working out how I could cut and join the bits together to use as little fabric as possible. I was also very keen to make the back as tidy as possible. This resulted in me buying 9 metres of navy blue fleece fabric. I thought it was challenging enough carrying it all home until I began to spread it out on the floor in order to cut it and then piece it together. (Oh, and the observant out there may now guess where I got the pieces of blue fleece that became my first appliqued cot blankets!)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was really pleased with the results and it has to be one of the warmest blankets I have ever experienced, since my way of making it look neat on the back was to make it double thickness! Now that it is time to get it out of the cupboard and put it back on the bed I thought I'd share it with you.

 

And, if you are coming to stay and are rather warm-blooded, do let me know in advance and I'll swap the duvet underneath for the summer-weight one. Why, you didn't think I'd offer to remove this labour of love did you?!