Echoes of a Dream

Cooking up a treat

There is nothing like the casual, off the cuff invitation to some new friends to come over and sew one morning to get you to start frantically unpacking your craft stuff. This week I found myself inviting three gals over next Tuesday and when I got home I realised that I might just have to unpack some of my stuff if we're to achieve anything other than drinking tea and talking all morning.

Firstly, I moved the cookery books into the conservatory:

 

which freed up this cupboard on which I slowly started to dump some of my stuff:

Then I emptied the dresser bottom but didn't quite get around to moving anything in there. I did however, go through all of my boxes in the annexe and I retrieved what I might need in the short term and repacked other stuff. At one point I did wonder about chucking this 'other stuff' out because if I don't need it in the short term am I just hoarding it (and the answer sadly, is Yes).

That job took me a couple of hours over two mornings and I must say that it's nice to have some of my stuff in the main house. Should inspiration ever visit me again I will be ready.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying my non-crafting and little blogging life. Most days I've had supper started way before the children get back from school which means I can sit with them and catch up on their news, do jigsaw puzzles with Raj and look vaguely at Amber when she asks me Maths questions. All this happens after we've had tea of course and (sadly for my waist line) most days I've managed to do a spot of baking. On Monday it was muffins:

I kid myself that these are healthy because they have carrots in them but the icing more than makes up for their wholesomeness. It's Philadelphia, butter and icing sugar and even if you halve the ingredients in the recipe you still end up with enough to spread on digestives biscuits afterwards. As you can see we fight over these.

On Tuesday it was Cowboy Cookies - a recipe given to me by Jodi in PA. They are yummy. I love the mixture of oats, coconut and chocolate chips and luckily the mixture makes 36 biscuits so they can last a couple of days:

Today Amber came home and made Macaroons from a Nigella recipe which really are the best ones I have ever eaten. Why? Because they have cardamom in them and she cooks them at Gas mark 6 for ten minutes so that the outside is crisp and the centre chewy. They are divine:

Here's the recipe if you want to make some yourself. You'll need two large egg whites, 200g ground almonds, 200g caster sugar, about a quarter of a teaspoon of ground up cardamom pods (the inside black bits) and 2 tablespoons of rosewater.

Mix the almonds, sugar, cardamom and egg whites together and knead with your hands to make a thick paste (or use the flat beater of your mixer).

Sprinkle some rosewater on your hands and roll into little balls - size of smallish walnuts. Place on baking trays and squidge slightly. Stud the centre with whole blanched almonds if you wish. Bake for 10-12 minutes at gas 6/200C/400F.

This recipe comes from her book 'Feast' which I received last Christmas. I decided last week that I was totally bored of cooking the same thing over and over again. Do you ever get like that? I love cooking but the chore of doing it every night gets you down sometimes. So I decided to try some new recipes from Feast. So far we've had Ritzy Chicken Nuggets which weren't that popular. One pan Sage-and-Onion-Chicken and Sausage was much better as was Meatballs and Couscous. Tomorrow it's going to be Blakean Fish Pie and sometime I'm keen to try her Involtini which is stuffed aubergine slices in a tomato sauce. I'm sure that last one will produce an "Ugh what's that?"

So, guess which dish got the thumbs up this last fortnight and the 'is there any more'? None of the above sadly but pancakes and bacon and maple syrup followed by cherry slice. Both of which took me minutes to produce. So why am I slaving over the stove each night ............

PS Amber wants me to point out that none of the above refers to her. She has a more sophisticated palate than her brothers.

Back to books

You know for someone who was an avid reader as a child I just do not read anymore. It's not because I don't want to but because I just don't seem to be able to fit it into my day. Up until Christmas I'd be crafting all my spare hours - day and evening and reading was kept for holidays. So it's with pleasure that I'm devoting all my spare time to catching up on my books. I love buying books - it's one of my weaknesses. One day I'll take some pics of all the bookcases in our house that are crammed with books. I buy them, flick through them, maybe one will grab me enough to cause me to stay up too late of an evening. I think reading has gone on the back burner since I've been madly crafting and blogging.  Did I tell you that I'm just getting into the hang of reading in the day without feeling guilty? Isn't that weird?  When do you read?

Anyway, I am making up for it now though. I've just finished the most amazing book:

I was so moved by this one that I got Tom to read it straight after me and he stayed up till 1.30 in the morning to finish it off! The Homemaker was written in 1924 and is the story of Eva and Lester Knapp and their three children. Eva stays at home and drudges (sorry not a word but it sounds nice) and Lester has a job that he hates. Both are unhappy and this has a deep effect on their children. Then Lester has an accident and has to stay at home (in a wheelchair) and Eva goes out to work. This role reversal re-awakens their innermost being and it's so lovely read how Lester is with the children, Tom said he cried at this bit, and to see how fulfilled Eva is. However, at the end there is the prospect of Lester getting better and both he and Eva returning to their former roles - a prospect that they are both horrified at......will they be brave enough to go against convention and do what they really want to do?

I don't know why we were so touched by this book. I really felt for them both and I sympathised with Eva for being subsumed with her role. I can see bits of myself in her I suppose. Anyway, please read this book and tell me what you think.  (I bought it off Amazon - infact Tom wrote a little review for it on Amazon UK). There's a whole strand going though the book too about the new consumerism - another thing that makes Eva unhappy because Lester doesn't earn enough.

I've got two books on the go today. One is called 'Akenfield' and is the history of an English village in Suffolk in 1969. The author interviewed a number of the inhabitants and it makes fascinating reading because a lot of the people are in their 60's and 70's. They talk of the grinding poverty, the harsh life working on farms from the age of 12 and even then the loss of community because of television. At that time the village had a blacksmith, thatcher, saddler, the 'big house'. What will be even more fascinating is a book called 'Return to Akenfield' which was written by someone else in 2004. This chap interviews the original author and goes back to find some of the people in the first book. In 1969 most of the people in the village were born there and I imagine in 2004 there would be lots of newcomers for one. I don't imagine any of those trades have continued either. I'll keep you posted on these books. The other book I've just started is called 'The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets' which Amber is desperate for me to read as it's one of her favourite books.

Aside from reading I thought I ought to do something with all that handspun wool so I started a hat for Raj. Now I've never knit with home handspun wool so I did the wrapping-round-the-ruler bit and decided to knit with 3.75mm needles. Sadly, I cast on too many stitches cos it's too blooming big:

I cast on 88 stitches. Does anyone know how many I should do for a child's head? I guess I'll be unravelling all this later. Still, the colours go well together don't they - there's madder, goldenrod and walnut. If you remember I dyed blue faced leicester fleece and a neighbour spun it for me.

I'll just leave you with something that Amber concocted over the weekend. She decided that she wanted a crocheted bikini so she grabbed some of that dishcloth cotton I had (Peaches and Creme) and just went for it. Who needs a pattern for triangles Mum (well, me actually Amber). It's turned out really well but is a bit skimpy and she's worried that it'll sag in the water. She's abandoned doing the bottoms as she's convinced they would be around her ankles when she came out of the water. So this will just go with a sarong or something. I'll wear it on that quiet beach in Wales she said - not many people there.

Vanilla fudge

I don't know if it has been that obvious but we're a family that takes our baking and cooking very seriously. The week always starts on Sunday morning with me baking a loaf of bread. I try to keep it as wholesome but delicious as possible and usually stick to half wholemeal and half white flour with some rye chucked in. Sunday afternoons is when Amber bakes something to take to school with the sandwiches. Sometimes it's gingerbread, treacle loaf, biscuits or the boiled fruitcake by Delia. During the week Amber will try and sneak in a few puddings like Apple Betty, Eve's pudding, Chocolate surprise pudding by Nigella and if nothing else is in the cupboard or fridge she'll make biscuits instead - a favourite at the moment being Chocolate Chip cookies - these have taken over from Cornish Fairings. How she remains a size 10 I don't know (but I do know why I'm not a size 10, or 12 or....).

So you can see that we have a lot of recipes under our belt(s). If there is one recipe though that would be everyones favourite it would have to be Vanilla Fudge. Now this isn't something we make everyday. Infact I usually do two batches for our two school fairs which I bag up in small amounts and sell for 50p. Then being the meany that I am (according to my children) I may make it once or twice in the year (you'll know why when you see the quantity of sugar).  So here is the recipe (originally from a Harrods cookery book):

                                    Vanilla Fudge

1 1/2 lbs granulated sugar

3oz butter

1/4 pint evaporated milk

1/4 pint milk

few drops of vanilla essence

Place the two milks, the sugar and butter into a deep pan (I use my preserving pan) with a cooking thermometer.

Simmer until the sugar dissolves then turn up the heat and boil until it reaches 115 degrees C.

Take off the heat and add the vanilla essence. Now beat the whole thing with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves a trail.

Pour quickly into greased tins (that look like they've never been washed) and leave to set. However, you'll need to mark it up into squares whilst the mixture is still hot.

I actually doubled the recipe in this case hence the large quantity of the stuff. Warning: very addictive.

Hot Cross (Bun) Loaf

This was supposed to be a post about the things I made last week but the smells coming out of the kitchen have sidetracked me. Never mind that I finished off this lovely fairy from a pattern in Salley Mavor's book. Never mind that I came across the free bunny pattern from wee wonderfuls last Friday and was inspired to make this wee bunny . It's all been forgotten whilst I nip into the kitchen to have a warm slice of bread and butter.  Nothing can beat warm bread on a day when the rain is lashing at the house and the wind is howling. I know we need the rain....

That's better I've had two slices as you can see and I can carry on now. The wee bunny is made from bits of dyed blanket that I had left over from another project. I spent a few days last month cutting up blankets and dying them with Dylon dyes for a sewing project at school. The colours turned out much better than I expected and I'm probably going to have another go over Easter. (I have 4 blankets left). I was really lucky with my blankets. I found about 6 in different charity shops, they're all pure wool and all made by Witney. Anyhow, some of the blankets are like felt now and I thought I'd try making the bunny out of them. I sewed most of it on the machine, forgot to sew in the ears so they went on afterwards and I sewed on the bottom circle by hand. As you can see Millie, as she is called is wearing one of those flowers that I'm so fond of crocheting. It was a very quick and easy project and I think the pompom tail took the longest to make. I'm going to try another bunny with different fabric. There's a whole group on flickr devoted to them if you want to have a look.  Now for the recipe for the loaf which I'm sure you'll all want to try for Easter (it's much easier than making the buns I have to say).

Hot Cross Bun Loaf

• 700g strong bread flour
• 7g sachet of easy-blend yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 75g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 125g of mixed fruit
• 375g tepid milk
• 1 large beaten egg

It's so simple. Just put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and add the tepid milk and egg. Mix together and knead for 10 mins. Divide the dough into two and plait each one and place into two, greased 1 lb loaf tins. (I only had one tin so I just made the other in pan, hence it's squat features). Leave to rise in the tins (covered with a damp cloth or carrier bag) for about 1 1/2 hours. Bake at gas 6, 400F, 200C  for 35 mins. My squat one took five minutes less. If they start to darken too much place a piece of silver foil over the top of them.  Take out of the oven and place on a cooling rack and glaze with: 3 tablespoons of milk mixed with 3 tablespoons of sugar that has been boiled for 1 minute. Try and leave a bit of time before eating if you can resist the aroma. (The fruit doesn't seem to have distributed so well between the loaves and that might be because I made mine in the Kitchen Aid.) Incidentally, the recipe is from the Waitrose magazine Spring 2005.

Rainy Day Musings....

Yesterday it was cold but the sun shone and you felt like you could do anything. By this time yesterday I had shopped for food till I dropped, sat in the garden and started on that night's supper. Today I feel like a different person. It's raining, it's grey outside and dark in the house. I need to do a ton of things but all I want to do is sit by the Aga, drink tea and nibble. Those were my first thoughts as I entered the house after dropping the children off at school. BUT for once I resisted and I have this blog to thank for that. I wanted to post a couple of pics of my dolls but I had to finish them off first. So that's what I've been doing all morning.

I wasn't very happy with the look of one of my musical dolls. They both had velour hats and whilst the baby doll looked good in a red hat the other didn't. So I used up the remainder of the brown Yorkshire Tweed and knitted up a hair piece. I really like the sort of hairstyle that is two plaits wound up close to the head on each side and most of my musical dolls end up with that.

Next stop Alfie, another doll that was made to sell but we didn't want to part with. He needed some hair care. His hair is made from Rowan Chunky, it's a crocheted cap with bits hooked into the cap. It tends to get quite flat though, especially at the back. So I boiled a kettle and stuck his head over the top (hoping for the best). It soon sprang back to life and looked as good as new.

I resisted the urge to bake till about 2 o'clock. It was still miserable outside and I just had to have one of our favourite biscuits. This is a recipe from Delia's How to Cook Book One and we make them all the time. Somehow you can kid yourself that they're healthy because they have oats and almonds in them.

Chocolate Almond Crunchies

• 2oz dark chocolate
• 4oz butter
• 3oz demerara sugar
• 1 dessertspoon golden syrup
• 1 1/2 oz Whole almonds
• 4oz self raising flour
• 4oz porridge oats

  Firstly melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and then transfer to a bowl to cool. Delia doesn't suggest this but if you add the chocolate whilst the mixture is hot the chocolate melts. Meanwile, chop the almonds and chocolate. Add these to the bowl with the flour and oats. Mix and squidge into as many balls as you like - anything from 15-20 depending on how large you like your biscuits.  Put the tray/s into the oven at Gas mark 3, 325 F, 170C for about 15 mins. Leave to cool on the tray for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack. Our don't usually get to the wire rack.