Shiny things!

I’ve been promising to do this for a while, and I keep making jewellery and taking pictures of it, and now there are quite a lot of pictures and I might have to put them into a couple of posts. It took me a couple of goes to work out that you can’t take pictures of jewellery with the flash on, and even so I am really not that good a photographer. Also the display neck I am using is quite small, so the necklaces look much longer than they actually are.

Having said that, stuff below the cut.

( Read more... )

Spring has sprung

I thought a few weeks ago that we were likely in for an early Spring. Those few sunny days we had I managed to get out and do some gardening and it seemed like everything was on the verge of flowering. I got back out to do some more gardening this weekend, and it's full on Spring out there. The plum and cherry trees are in blossom, the daffodils are just about over already, and even the grape vine is starting to show spots of green. And it's not even 24 hrs into September...

I guess I'll be going out to get some antihistamines.

More shinies

Because I didn’t realise I had so many to put up…

( Read more... )

Clafoutis!

(Pronounced cla-foo-tee because it is French).

Because I seem to be doing this thing where I post nothing for weeks and then do all the posts at once, here is one more thing. Today was one of those filled every minute with doing things and now I'm completely knackered but in a pretty good way kind of days.

So I got up this morning and gave Andy his Fathers' Day present, and made him blueberry and strawberry crepes for breakfast. And then I went out and planted a bunch of plants I bought recently. The gardening I mentioned early was basically a massive weeding of the front garden, which now has a lot more space since the bottle brush fell down. Today I covered a large portion of the weeded area in bark chips, to discourage more weeds and also make it look a bit more tidy (we will possibly be selling this house soon, after all), and put in alyssum which is a small, creeping plant with purple flowers, and parsley, and a passionfruit vine, and spinach and shallots.

And then I made lunch, and spent half an hour playing a new game I have called Memoria, and then we went to see Andy's dad, and then we came home and I made lamb with red wine and quince glaze and a cherry clafoutis for dinner and then after dinner I made muffins for the kids to take to school next week.

I like clafoutis. It is a French version of what in English is called batter pudding, which you've probably never had unless your family was into those old-fashioned English desserts like spotted dick and cobbler and so on. So here is a recipe.

25gms/1 tblsp butter melted
4 eggs
1 cup/250mls milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
Filling

Preheat the oven to 180C

Mix the flour and sugar very well in a large bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs one at a time into the melted butter, and then whisk in the milk. Add this to the dry ingredients and whisk together thoroughly until smooth.

Take a greased pie dish. Put in the filling. You could use a punnet of blueberries or strawberries (hull and quarter the strawberries first), a big handful of stoned and halved fresh cherries, or as I do, a large jar of cherries very well drained. Generally you want some fruit that is small and lightweight as the pieces will float to the top when it bakes. Pour the batter over, and put into the oven.

Bake for about 30 mins or until the clafoutis is evenly puffed up and golden brown. Take it out and dust it liberally with icing sugar and eat it straight away.

This really is one of those things like soufflé that needs to be eaten pretty much straight away. After a few minutes it starts to sink and when it is cold is kind of dense and rubbery (I actually don't mind it like that too much, but it is infinitely better when freshly out of the oven). Nice fresh eggs, a well-preheated oven, a strong arm with the whisk, and making it really quickly and getting it in the oven straight away will all contribute to a great clafoutis.