100 Posts!

I didn't know I had written that much! So as a celebration I'm going to have a giveaway - a surprise parcel of crafting goodies to the lucky winner. So please enter by leaving a comment and I will draw the winner in two weeks time.

During the holidays I had time to do some special cooking and have successfully converted Fairy Cakes & Victoria Sandwhich to a dairy free recipe by substituting Vitalite for butter. This resulted in some tasty cakes when our friends visited on Saturday. Also, as we were having a Banoffie Pie, I made a dairy free version for Emily.

Recipe:

3 dairy free biscuits

1 small lump of Vitalite or Pure dairy free spread

1 Alpro Soya caramel dessert

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 a banana

Alpro soya cream.

Crush the dairy free shortbread biscuits then mix in a small lump of melted Vitalite (or Pure) for the biscuit base. The middle caramel filling was made from Alpro Soya caramel dessert mixed with a teaspoon of brown sugar and topped with the freshly sliced banana. Then add a sprinkle of ground coffee. Em was able to add some Alpro Soya dairy free cream on top. Her dairy free banoffie pie was delicious and she loved it. Happy crafting. Jane x

A Heap of Warm Woollyness

Encouraged by my wonderful blogging friends to have a go at knitting a cardigan or jumper, I decided to frog a shawl that I had lost heart in and use the yarn to make a cardigan. I looked at Knitty and found some lovely cardigans, further exploration of the web turned up Knitting Plus with lots of patterns for the larger person. I finally decided on a Sirdar pattern I had used before. So far all is going well but there hasn't been much blogging going on. I just need to finish the sleeve and then the border/collar and I'll be back. Writers block struck and no more thoughts bubbled to the surface!

Finally Saturday evening blogging mojo crept back. Emily was making some biscuits at school on Friday morning, she did her usual substitue of dairy-free ingredients and made some delicious Apricot and Cherry Stars which fortunately I photographed before they all disappeared.

The recipe for Apricot and Cherry Stars, courtesy of school:

100g Vitalite or dairy free margarine,

50g Caster Sugar,

150g Plain Flour.

7 Apricots.

7 Cherries.

Method:

1. Oven temperature Gas no5 or 190 Celsius

2. Flour the baking tray lightly.

3. In a bowl cream the sugar and margarine until pale and fluffy

4. Add the chopped apricots and cherries.

5. Fold in the flour gently

6. Ease the mixture together into a ball using your fingers.

7. Knead the ball of dough lightly on work surface

8. Roll out the dough and cut out biscuits using a star shaped cutter.

9. Bake biscuits for 10 -15 minutes until golden brown.

I have also finished my cardigan and I love it. I used chunky wool - Magnum Chunky Acrylic / Wool mix by King Cole. I think the next one I make, I shall shorten the sleeves a little but otherwise I am very pleased with it and it only took me two weeks.

Carrot Soup and Mittens

Wednesday: Tony went back to work, I had to go food shopping and Em's friend Sam came to spend the afternoon giggling and chatting and playing on their Nintendo DS's. I started work on a pair of mittens.

Thursday: Em and I stayed in in the morning and went shopping in the afternoon. It snowed - only a few flakes though. More mitten knitting, I finished the first glove - it is too large.

Friday: I decided at long last it was time to do something with the two bags of carrots that I bought on a b.o.g o. f. so I turned them into Carrot Soup. It was delicious, my recipe should make 2 pints enough for 6 bowl sized portions.

2lb carrots, 4 sm potatoes 2 clove garlic, small lump of butter, pinch fennel seeds, 2 pint chicken or vegetable stock (I used 2 tsp Maigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillion to 2 pints of water) salt and pepper to taste.

1) Peel and slice the carrots and peel and chop the potatoes, fry off the carrots gently with the crushed clove of garlic,

2) As carrot softens add the potato but keep stirring frequently as the starch in the potato will cause it all to stick.

3) Add the stock and fennel seeds bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 20 mins.

4) Once the carrots and potatoes are soft, turn off the heat then puree either in the liquidiser or by hand in batches. Em said "you must put a wet cloth over the top of the liquidiser to stop the hot liquid escaping and causing injury." (as she learnt in Food Tech at school) I used a dry Tea towel folded up as my liquidiser has a good seal on the lid.

5) I placed the pureed soup into a large bowl and stirred to ensure even distribution of the liquid.

6) Serve hot with thick fresh bread. - delicious

Back to mitten knitting, second glove on smaller needles.