Happy Mother's Day!

21 Mother's Days ago I got my first Mother's Day gift. It was a food processor and it is still working! Some of the parts are broken but I've learned to live without them. Today my son made griddle scones for breakfast. It's so nice when I don't have to cook. My son made this card and got me this box of chocolates that I was going to buy myself. Didn't he make a great card?

We prefer our cakes cold and 'aged' so we made this Zebra Cake that I tested for Carla's cookbook yesterday. It's fun making Zebra Cakes and I recommend trying it. It was a good choice for my Mother's Day Cake. Well chocolate anything is good for my Mother's Day!

Gardening

Last summer I had a few things growing on our balcony. They didn't grow very well and so we didn't get very much produce! I did find out though that we don't like ruccola and I should try to find someone to give the seeds to before they are too old to use anymore.

In this container I've got basil on the left and kale on the right. I keep reading about kale and seeing recipes for it but I've never seen it in the store. I shouldn't say never because I only bothered to find out what it is in Finnish over the winter, so maybe they just sell it in the summer. I found seeds though, so I decided to try and grow some. I read somewhere that a grape container is a good greenhouse for seeds so I tried it. The stickers on the top were difficult to get off but I thought that they blocked too much of the little sunshine that there is.


Here there should be dill on the left and basil on the right. I was surprised that the dill hadn't sprouted yet. It's such a fine plant that I would have thought that it would sprout quickly. I guess the seeds could be dead. I'll have to wait a few days and see what happens. I have no idea when I should try to put them outside!

This and That

Last month I finally finished the Aspen wrap (Ravelry link) that I started in January of 2008. Between the time I started it and marked it as finished on Ravelry the name changed! After not working on it for about a year I wrote out each of the 16 rows of the pattern repeat on separate cards and used a carabiner (why can I never remember what these are called) to hold them together. It was easy to flip each card when I finished the row and I didn't loose my place.

Last year I bought some baby wool and after looking at a lot of patterns, I've decided to knit a Vortex Shawl (Ravelry link). After the first 13 rows there is only a 2 row repeat so I hope I'll have no trouble remembering it!


It was my son's birthday at the beginning of the month and this is the card I made for him. I saw it somewhere and made my own. We are hoping to invite his grandparents for a birthday meal next week. So I've been trying to tidy the living room and do some of my decluttering goal at the same time. I'm aiming for 7 items from around our home a week.

I'm still doing test baking for Carla's cookbook. This Clafouti Tart is the latest. I used black currants instead of the raspberries because I didn't have any and I'm trying to use up the food from my freezer. I'm thinking of making it again when my son's grandparents come because my son and I both really liked it and also I think that the grandparents will be interested in tasting tofu and a vegan dessert. Though I'm tempted to let them eat it first before telling them what is in it.

What I've Been Up To

I'm disappointed with myself again! It's been so long since I've posted.

My son's in the military hospital with a bad flu and probably bronchitis, so when we decided to go to visit him yesterday I made some biscotti because it would keep well without being refrigerated. I won the book My Sweet Vegan cookbook some time ago and I wanted to try something from it as I've been doing the Carla's cookbook testing for a while now. I made the Orange Hazelnut Biscotti. I substituted almonds for the hazelnuts and left off the melted chocolate. I don't use Amazon but where else do people link to?

I'm taking bridge lessons. I'd be failing if there were tests. Yesterday it took me an hour to translate 2 pages! I wanted to make notes for myself and I thought that I should use English terms in case I want to look things up on the Internet. I'm such a slow translator. I either use English or Finnish and seldom need to translate. I seem to be missing the bridge between two languages. It's probably why French was so difficult for me at school. I wish I had realized it back then.


Last time I was at the charity store I had a great find. They have several boxes that have free items in them and I found 6 English books. Then in the back where they have the books they are selling I picked up 2 more at 0.50 € each. Not bad!

Don't Laugh!

I finally made it. I visited over 1000 blogs to see what they were like. And of course to see what they were giving away for One World One Heart (OWOH) event. Some I've marked to go back to, but with 270 blogs on my bloglines list, I didn't want to add too many more! I hadn't heard of this event before this year and I was glad to find out about it just before it started and not soon after it ended.

I really found the mixed media pieces interesting. I need to start looking for tutorials as I'm not creative. I'm good at following directions but not with coming up with my own.

My friend is turning 50 next week so I thought I'd make her a card. On my OWOH tour I came across a style called zettiology. I don't have many paints or supplies that I could use, so I just used what we have. I went around looking at people's art and took what I thought I could manage on the card. I started putting them on the paint program and came up with this. Now if you continue on reading I don't want to hear any laughing!

This is what I came up with from going around looking at people's artwork. The first version also had the words 'tick tock' and a larger clock but I thought that she might not find that as funny as me!

I had trouble finding pictures and colours in magazines that I wanted to use, so I just took what I found. All of our felt markers are old so I didn't think that they would last to do the black around the edges, so I used crayon. It isn't as dark as I liked but better than nothing. I painted the background with coffee and sprinkled some instant coffee granules on it. If I'd had more experience I would have realized that I should have planned where to put the granules first!

This is what I wrote inside.

I baked some cookies for the recipe testing.

A Little Bit More Sewing

I finally got the tote done that I won from Green Bag Lady. The prize was a finished tote and pieces to make a tote to give away. I wanted to give the second tote to my son to add to his university chest (ha ha, like a hope chest) but I decided to take the striped handles off of mine to put on his and put the pink ones on mine. I French seamed the seams and I think it turned out well.

I bought a bundle of material from a charity store and I want to start making a (lap) quilt. I don't have enough material to make anything yet but it's a start. The bright material at the bottom of the pile won't be part of the quilt but it was included in the pile. I decided to look through my quilting magazines (which are from 1985 to 1989) and all of the patterns I've cut out, photocopied or drawn out but I didn't find anything that I felt was what I wanted. I haven't looked at the magazines in years but it was funny how familiar the pictures all looked. I guess I've looked at them too often.

I found a fabric giveaway at Kvnita Quilts. The colours are really pretty! She will draw a winner on Feb. 15, 2010.

I did a bit of recipe testing again. This time it was flavoured scones. Both my son's and my reactions were 'yum'. I look forward to Mondays when Carla posts new recipes for us to try.

My friend's 50th birthday is coming up and I'd like to make her a card. I'm hoping that my son will be willing to make her a pair of earrings. (And that he'll help me make the card too.) She doesn't want to celebrate but I'd like to give her a little something. I need to get started so I can have them done before I see her next week.

A Bit of Sewing

My son and I are trying to sort through our things. We were emptying out a linen shelf so that he could store some dishes he got as a gift and I came across some material that his grandmother had given me years ago to make tea towels out of. Are they tea towels if they are only used for putting over your baking? Anyway I thought it was time to sew them and so I did. I sewed around all 4 sides of the different sized pieces.

I did a bit more baking for Carla's cookbook testing. We'd finished the crackers so I wanted to make more, which was a mistake because I rolled them thinner and I could have eaten them all!

As I'm trying to use items up from the freezer I thought I'd make Carla's banana loaf too. I didn't have the berries called for but substitutions were allowed, so I used some black currants. I wasn't sure if they would make the loaf too tart, so I just used the minimum amount in the recipe. I still have some frozen bananas and black currants and because we liked this, I'll probably make this again.

Crackers and Cheese

I've been wanting to try this Cashew Chive Cheese Spread for a while now. I thought that since I had made the crackers for Carla's at The Year of the Vegan cookbook testing, it would be a good time to make the cheese too. The crackers turned out well and I don't think that they needed the agave that they called for that I left out because I didn't have any. Oh course I don't know what they would taste like with it though! I don't use chives so I tried dill. I don't mind putting dill where ever I can. I need to use a thicker yoghurt if I make the cheese again. It was more of a dip. Might try it without the nutritional yeast too as my son doesn't really like it. Tasted good on the crackers which was most important.

ETA: The cheese firmed up in the fridge but it was still quite soft.

Here I go!

So it didn't take me long to stop blogging again. I found a blogging giveaway event called One World One Heart and started to go to different blogs to see what they were like and what they were giving away. So nice. They seem to put so much work into their crafts and their blogs which really makes me envious! But I need to accept what kind of blogger/blog writer I am and just do my blog my way.

I've been doing some testing for Carla at The Year of the Vegan for a cookbook she is doing. For breakfast I made her scones. I actually followed the directions and rolled them out to about 2½ cm instead flatter, so they rose quite nicely We enjoyed them with marmalade.

Menu for Week 44

Breakfasts:
M: oatmeal porridge
T: cereal
W: flavoured oatmeal porridge (homemade pumpkin spice and brown sugar)
T: 4 grain porridge
F: cereal
S: Overnight Granola

½ dl brown sugar
½ dl honey
½ dl oil
½ tsp cinnamon
8 dl oats

½ dl raisins
½ dl coconut
1/4 dl sunflowers seeds
(½ dl chopped nuts)
(whatever you like in your granola)

Bring brown sugar, honey and oil to a simmer and remove immediately from heat. Stir in cinnamon and then oats. Mix until oats are well covered with honey mixture. Pour into a lined baking dish.

Put in a 175° celcius oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Put back in oven, turn heat off and leave in oven overnight. Before serving, mix in raisins, coconut, sunflowers seeds and any nuts, etc. you would like.
S: cereal

Lunches:
M: leftover mashed potatoes and salmon
T - F: leftovers from the night before
S: Chickpea Noodle Soup









S: leftovers

Dinners:
M: My son made Broccoli Carrot Stir-Fry that we had with nuts and rice









T: Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup

2 tbsp oil
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1 carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
1-2 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 ml garlic powder
½ tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1 L water
1 vegetable broth cube
1½ c red lentils, rinsed well
(salt)

Heat oil and saute celery. Add vegetables and stir for a bit. Add water, broth cube and spices. Bring to a boil and add red lentils. Reduce heat and cook for 20 minutes or until vegetables are done. Purée until smooth.

W: Pan Fried Potatoes (without onions or spices), fish sticks, lettuce and spinach salad with buttermilk dressing









T: shrimp and pollack sauce with macaroni, lettuce and carrot
F: french fries and frankfurters, fresh spinach and red bell pepper, homemade Sweet Salad Dressing for the first time (1 tbsp sugar, dash salt, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp vinegar, 1 tbsp oil - tried olive oil but not to our taste, mix well together)
S: macaroni, frankfurters, red pepper
S: leftovers

Evening Snacks:
M: bread, cheese spread and honey melon
T: apples
W: bacon and toast, kiwi
T: popcorn, apple
F: bread and cheese, honey crunch apples
S: -
S: grapes