Grey Blue

I finally dragged my paints out and blew off the dust with the intention of painting one teeny tiny minuscule canvas that has been floating around the house for a few weeks. As if anything could ever be so simple as just getting my paints out and painting, oh no nothing so simple as that. When I dragged out my pallet I found that two paintings that I had done awhile ago had been ruined, there was mold on them and I was not the happiest of campers. I cleaned them up as best I could and decided to attempt to re paint them while I had everything out. the result is the above painting, and if you look closely you can see a shinny patch on the bottom half. Its not my photography, though I'm sure there is that too but the stain leaked through again so the painting will have to be binned. Which is a shame because I quite liked it. The stain? well I flipped the painting over and sniffed the back, as you do, eau de upside down packet of wet wipes left to fester while we were in Idaho.

the second painting to be redone is the one just below and it had less damage done to it so I'm hopeful it will be OK. The painting is just abstract, as most of my paintings usually end up being, perhaps something to do with me being left handed, perhaps not. The painting is actually more of a grey scale than the image below.

the third smaller painting I'm not happy with, I think I lost it after trying to salvage the first two. Later this afternoon we are supposed to go up into the attic to finally put the suitcases away after tripping over them for 3 weeks. Oh and its the ritual getting down of the x-mas boxes to see what has mouldered and how horrendously the lights are tangled if they even light anymore. ahh tis the season.

Dragonfly Scarf

Its not much to look at but I just finished knitting this little scarf last night, made with Noro Silk Garden, its a simple knit skinny scarf with obvious tassely bits on the ends. I fell in love with the wool and just had to make something with it and other than the coffee cup warmer! I wore it today but didn't quite have the nerve to take my picture wearing it. On my needles now is a grey and white spiders web scarf, and um that's about it but I do need to work on my stash and I have set myself the goal of learning to knit a simple lace design this week, we shall see how well that goes.

Oh and H wants a red scarf to match his red and black winter coat, and I want to get a bigger set of circular needles and attempt to knit a hat again, perhaps this time it wont go diabolically wrong. and I want to make some wrist warmers, though I'm not sure what wool and who for.

Putting aside the knitting for now I have some canvases that are in desperate need of a repaint, and first paint on a few, and also need homes for some of them so if I get brave enough I might put one up for sale or trade in the next few weeks. *fingers crossed and brave face on*

Mandarin Cheesecake

Mandarin Cheesecake

Ingredients:

3 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened1 pkg.

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. grated mandarin zest (2 mandarins)

juice of 2 mandarins

1 teaspoon vanilla

for the base:

12 biscuits (digestive buiscuits or grahm crackers. makes roughly 1½ cups crumbs)

2 tablespoons melted butter

Crush the biscuits and add the melted butter. Mix well and press firmly into a 8-inch pie pan. Pat down using the base of a glass. Place in fridge for 30 minutes to set.

While the base is setting. Mix together cream cheese, zest, juice (you can put the juice in to your personal taste depending on the size of the mandarins used, alternatively it could be made with tangerines, or any citrus fruit ) sugar, using a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Pour the cheese mixture over the base and spread evenly. Put cheesecake in the fridge for at least 4 hours to set, preferably overnight.

cooks notes: Its a very quick cheesecake recipe but the result is a very fresh and delicately citrus flavoured cheesecake. I suppose you could make a baked cheesecake version, but it would loose the light consistency and be a much denser cake and I think that the mandarins had such a lovely flavour that to have bake the cake would have taken away from the fresh citrus-y taste. I took the cheesecake to a dinner party last night and it good rather good reviews off my friends, definitely a keeper recipe. The recipe is my own based on my key lime pie recipe.

Banana and Coconut Muffins

Banana Coconut Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
½ cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 medium sized freckled bananas
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pre-heat oven to 400F.

Place paper baking cups into a muffin tin, or grease and flour the muffin cups. In a medium bowl place the banana and mash it with a fork, add the flour, sugar, milk, egg, butter, coconut, and vanilla and mix well, the batter will be quite thick and lumpy ( for a smoother consistency feel free to use an electric mixer though I mixed it by hand). Divide the batter evenly among muffin cups filling them about two thirds full. Sprinkle the cups with a small amount of sugar or oats or a little desiccated coconut if desired. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from the pan. Enjoy while still warm or wait for them to cool.

cooks notes: I made these muffins because I had to rather freckled and browning bananas that were at the state of needing to be used in something or composted. I thought it was better to use them. They turned out very light a fluffy, very cake like in consistency, H thought they were brilliant at least. They were a nice alternative to the normal banana nut muffins I usually make that have pecans cinnamon and brown sugar. Most cakes and muffins that call for the use of banana work much better with freckled and over ripe bananas when they are at their sweetest ( and no one else will eat them so they will just sit in the fruit bowl until petrified or they carry themselves to the garbage.)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Today is a busy day as H and I are off to play for the day and I'm going to a dinner out this evening, which I need to bring a dessert to, I'm thinking cheesecake, not traditional thanksgiving fair, but I have the ingredients for it, cream cheese sugar, and lemons and mandarins, not sure which flavour to make. Its not a thanksgiving dinner just a girls night that got moved to a thursday. As M has been poorly this past week with a migraine I thought I would transfer a thanksgiving type meal to sunday instead when he has no work and I can barricade myself in the kitchen for a few hours. I honestly forgot it was thanksgiving, possibly becuse it has no meaning here, and is just an afterthought on a calender page, just another day.

If we are at my parents house for the holiday it would be turkey with sausage stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, squash, apple pie, vegtables all the good stuff. Except for pumpkin pie, we are not pumpkin pie people never have been. Since living in england I have done thanksgiving a bit less formal a dinner affair, for starters I have never cooked a whole turkey, I'm sure my father is shaking his head for the shame of it. Normally I just cook a turkey breast, which is plenty big enough, and stuffing, mashed potatoes (sometimes with chedder cheese), sweet potatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. hmm I think I probably need to go shopping as all i have are some potoatoes.

Happy Turkey Day

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 1/2 cups self raising flour

1 cup butter

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 cup light brown soft sugar

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter

Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixing bowl with electric beaters until fluffy. Beat the eggs in one at a time. Add the Peanut butter and beat at a low speed until blended then slowly mix in the self raising flour.

cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for up to two hours.

preheat the oven to 375 F.

shape the dough into 1 inch balls spaced roughly 3 inches apart. With a floured fork flatten the cookies in a crisscross pattern. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges just begin to brown.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. If making more than one batch of cookies its best to put the dough into the fridge between batches or it becomes to sticky to work with.

enjoy with a glass of milk or nice cuppa

cooks notes: I haven't made peanut butter cookies in a very long time, the above recipe is my interpretation and I think it worked pretty well. I used Tesco's own brand of peanut butter which worked well but by far the best peanut butter is Jiff it has the best taste and texture over other cheaper brands. I used the tesco's peanut butter because that is all I had in the house, tomorrow is shopping day.

Marie Claire Magazine Craft Challenge

Today I bought a Marie Clair Magazine and attached to it was a free canvas bag with the slogan 'Plastic Ain't My Bag' all well and good, save the environment little by little. But for a lack of anything better to do I thought I would decorate the blank back of the canvas tote. Not that I don't have plenty of things I could have been doing tonight but due to extenuating circumstances I was not going to get anything done tonight. M has a migraine and is curled up in bed since yesterday and Lucky me the fuse for the downstairs lights has blown and I'm stuck with a dull reading lamp and assortment of candles to light my way. I'm not ironing by candle light, I can't paint as I intended as its too dark so I got out the MC bag and a fabric pen and entertained myself. I suppose I could be watching tv as the wall sockets work but there really isn't anything on that I want to watch.

The pictures are shoddy as the flash on the camera is only small and next to useless, but I'm quite happy with the result. If anyone actually reads this blog and Marie Claire Magazine, and also crafts, possibly a very small niche, I think its a quick little project to get your imagination going. So go on give the little hamster a kick to his wheel. All you need is the magazine with the free bag, and a fabric pen or permanent marker pen.

Willow Tree Bag

Home Sweet Home

Its good to be on holiday but its nice to be back home again. The flight back was as close to blis as long distance flights can be. The flight was half empty and we got two rows to ourselves, there was a strong tail wind that chopped off over an hours flight time, H slept for the magority of the flight and I actually got to watch 2 movies with BA's new multimedia entertainment touchscreen. Our luggage came through quickly, and the drive from heathrow to Derby was relatively painless. Now its just jetlag to deal with, oh and unpacking, but I'll save that for tommorow, now its time to put a tv show on and relax. I love sky+ !!!

Caffeinated In Seattle

So we are homeward bound now, in Seattle till Monday evening when we fly back home to England. Its been a really great visit to my parents despite H having learned a plethora of swear words, than you very much pappy and grammy. My sweet three year old is now a devilish four year old, ok he wasn't that sweet before and he isn't that terrible now, aside from having learned how to swear a blue streak. I wonder if I can get away with telling everyone he has developed tourettes?

We have been to the Science Fiction Museum and the Music Experience as well as Ride the ducks ( http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/ I think) . the museum was great, and not just for geeks and trekkies, trekkers whatever your predilection. Ride the Ducks is a definite must for Seattle, it was a great tour and H got worried for a second when the bus drove into the lake! Off to go get some more coffee and watch The Wizard of Oz as you do. Though I have the strangest desire to watch Buck Rodgers!

Thats all for now, more post sometime soon when home safe and sound, and aflicted with a jet-lagged 4 year old. I also want to say thank you to my parents for feeding us, providing us with a place to sleep, and copious amounts of babysitting! Thank you!

Sketch Book

I have been doing a bit of sketching in my sketch book and tidying up a few older drawings in there, I don't know exactly what I will be doing with these sketches but I think they lend themselves to alot of diffrent things, If I get a few of them properly scanned and not jsut take pictures with my phone then I think they might make some great t-shirts designs. Well maybe not the coffee ones. But I love the green man and the willow tree I'm very pleased at how they turned out. I still haven't gone to Harmony Yarn ( http://www.harmonyyarn.com/ ) which is on third street. I'll wait and pop that on M and have him drop me off there and send him for coffee!

I finally managed to go to the yarn store and got some lovely grey wool.. and purple too, I haven't decided what to knit with them though, possible some wrist warmers and a scarf, but they are so lovely that I will be hard pressed to give the finished products away, well once I actually start that is. I'm also trying to get my head around paint shop at the moment, I knew it long long ago but now I'm such a technophobe.. well more inept that phobe I think.

M will be here on wedensday so its off to the shops today to get a few things for him, and some more drip filter coffee that is better than the bag I bought myself because it was awful. H will be happy too as he has been a monster the last few days missing his dad so hopefully he will be a good boy again and deserving of a real birthday party.

Odd Shaped Cookie

IF ever there was a way to describe me odd shaped cookie would probably fit quite well depending on what day it is. Today H and I made some chocolate chip cookies, the recipe? Toll House of course the only chocolate chip cookie recipe as far as I'm concerned. Real home comfort food, or it would be if my parents' oven didn't loath me for reasons known only to itsself, The turned out ok, though a little bit malformed as the cookie dough didn't spread out to form nice cookie shapes it just sorta stayed mostly rather lump shaped. They tasted good though so thats really all that mattered, H is happy and flying around the room on a chocolate and sugar induced high.

I have also been learning to knit cables, or one cable or something, i'm not hip to the knitting lingo, but I think I have gotten the hang of it so far, its only a small piece and will probably end up as a cup holder (what are those cardboard things called at Starbuck's?) for M. I hope to attempt something new and craft worthy soon, maybe even try the dreaded knitted pattern, and hopefully do better than the tangled mess I got into last time I attempted such a thing.

Next trip out of the house I hope to go to Boucle's.....yarn ( http://www.bouclesyarn.com/ ) I went there about six moths or so ago on our last trip here and it was lovely, lovely beautiful yarns, though I only got about ten minutes before M and H were getting fed up waiting in the car. five more sleeps and M will be here, so that will make H a very happy boy, and thats means many trips out for coffee and bookshops and music stores and cinnabuns oh mi.

Idaho Cup Warmer

I'm not exactly sure if its right to call it a cup warmer, maybe a cup holder instead but I just finished it and thought I would share. Not bad for being jetlagged and tired. The wool is some Noro Silk Garden that I have been touting around and trying to figure out what to make with it. This is obviously only the beginning of the ball of wool but I wanted a really small project to do and as this goes perfectly with a cup of coffee well then what could be better. H and I are recovering slowly and managed to sleep till 4:30am almost heaven..well its not quite so hellish anyway. I don't know what to do with the rest of the wool, I'm tempted to make another cupholder for M when he gets here in 9 days, though I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want a flower charm on it. I'll have to have a think about that. ITs very foggy and misty this morning, that would probably have to do with being so near to the lake, Hopefully it burns off quickly becuse we have promised to take H to one of the playgrounds today if he is a good boy. and based on how he is acting now thats a big IF.

Travelling to Idaho

Ok we made it to Idaho, H was great on the flight he only slept for about three hours but was really good thought impatient for the plane to touchdown. The drive from Seattle to Idaho was ok, we mostly slept through it while my dad drove, H woke enough to have a few bites to eat then when to sleep as soon as he was back in the car, before he had a chance to eat the chocolate chip cookie he bought from a Starbucks on the way.

When we finally got to my parents place it was with a great sigh of relief to not be travelling anymore. We met the two new pugs, Niko and his mummy Sissy (the name she came with honest) which we nice though a bit to happy to meet H and there jumping made him cry. H is now one of the pack happily playing with the dogs and cats.

We have been awake since 3 am, well H has been awake I on the other hand have been stumbling around seeking coffee and wishing there was an espresso machine and barista in the house! Its 5am now, how do I know this well there are about a thousand clocks ticking and chiming in the house that my dad has restored and fixed. Strangely you would think it would be an awful racket but its not you get used to the noise rather quickly and I think its rather calming. Well Except for maybe the bird song clocks, oh and there is one that sounds a bit like pots and pans banging when it chimes the hour.

Its Sunday today and I don’t know what we will be doing later, I hope to go out for a bit, as caffeine and consumerism calls to me. If I put a dollar to my ear would I hear a list of stores? Old Navy, JC Penny’s, Cinnabun, Starbucks, Hot Topic, Jack in the Box, Gap, Macy’s, Borders, Barnes and Nobel… as they say money talks, or perhaps its just that living in England deprives me of certain favourite things.. Although Derby now has its own proper Mall, it only opened Tuesday and we were there for it, though it was lovely and shinny and new, with a Thomas Kincaid gallery of light, and a Colony Candle shop it just teased at being a real mall, there is no mall like an American Mall, they just don’t have that same mall smell.

Right I’m off to fight the effects of jet lag with another instant coffee! Not as good as a Starbucks but it’ll do.

Unbirthday Party

Yesterday was H's unbirthday party, his actual birthday isn't until the end of the month but as we are going to visit his grandparents he won't get to see all his little friends until we get back mid november. M took H out of the house for a few hours so i could bake and decorate the cake (pictured above) and decorate with a few baloons and frantically tidy and clean the house so that nobody thinks its the pigsty it really is most of the time. THe cake is a basic yellow cake recipe, I used the same recipe for the raspberry cream cake recipe listed on the right. The frosting is a chocolate cream cheese frosting and dont forget the malteasers!

I only got the tinyiest sliver of cake so I assume that means it was good, there was no arguing or fighting amongst the kids and H was very happy to get to play with all of his friends, he hugged everyone and sent them all on their way home.


Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

1/4 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup baking cocoa
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter, and cream cheese in medium bowl on medium speed until fluffy.
Gradually beat in cocoa, and powdered sugar on low speed until smooth. I used slightly less butter and icing sugar, due to the fact that I had run out of both but it still ended up very nice.

Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake

Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake

ingredients:

for the cheese mixture:
2 pkg. (250g each) mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons caster (white) sugar
3 150g bars of dark chocolate 55% cocoa
1 tablespoon butter (i used slightly salted but you can use unsalted)

for the base:
12 biscuits (makes roughly 1½ cups crumbs)
2 tablespoons melted butter

Crush the biscuits and add the melted butter. Mix well and press firmly into a 8-inch pie pan. Pat down using the base of a glass. Place in fridge for 30mins to set.



While base is setting. Mix together the mascarpone and sugar using a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Break the chocolate into squares and microwave with the tablespoon butter until the chocolate is smooth and melted. Pour the chocolate into the mascarpone mixture and mix thoroughly. Pour the cheese mixture over the base and spread evenly . Put cheesecake in the for at least a half an hour. The cheesecake is a very firm texture but very lovely and decadent. I served it with a dollop of whipped cream.


cooks notes: The cheesecake turned out lovely I was very happy with the taste of it, the texture is firm and next time I make it I shall try a higher percentage of cocoa in the chocolate but use less of it. The recipe is my own I searched in vain for a dark chocolate cheesecake recipe that was no bake and had no eggs, there was not one to be had so I experimented and the result turned out great, I think that I inherited a cooking gene from my dad.

I shall write up a recipe for the peach cheesecake when I figure out exactly what I did.

Experiments in Cheesecake

ok have been expirimenting with cheesecake today one a dark chocolate and marscapone cheesecake, the other a smaller cinnamon peach cheesecake, I haven't sorted out a recipe yet because we havent eaten them yet. The Dark Chocolate Cheesecake is for a dinner party tommorow night, and the peach one is for M for pudding later, although I'm sure he would rather have the chocolate one all to himself. The mixtures tasted nice if thats any help but I'm not sure yet how the chocolate one will set hopefully it will be ok and not turn hard as a rock but I won't really know till tommorow night. fingers crossed.

Antisocial Butterfly

Last week I got in contact with somone that I went to high school with, through the lovely myspace, and I realize that I didn't really know her then and I'm glad that we found each other now. Yes boys and girls I am that tragic, not only do have have myspace but facebook as well, admittedly they are mostly blank because I haven't the time to be mucking about on them all day, I'd say I have a life but that's a lie, I have housework and I have baking too and bloging on here obviously!

Back to the story, for the purposes of anonymity and unless she wishes otherwise we will call my friend J. I met J my senior year of high school though I think we may have had had a few classes together before that. I was always a bit of a misfit, to be honest with myself I was just a shy flower on the wall, antisocial buttery, that wasn't cool enough to be really outcast from teenage society. Goth I am not, I'm just not that cool, although my hair is currently nearly black, but that's a story for another day.

J and I have found each other on my space and we have something in common now that we wouldn't have before. We both have sons, and they both have the same H name. Small world I guess, but it proves that the Internet is good for something. It connected me with M and now it has reconnected me with another survivor from the Montgomery High Hell! J and I are e-mail now, or rather e-mailing through myspace, would that be myspace-ing? And it would be great if we could meet up in person if M and I ever sort out flying back to San Fran for a few days next spring before flying up to my parents in Idaho. Catch up on the gossip and all. Its nice to make new friends from old acquaintances, and J was always nice to me in high school and I think there are probably only about a handful of people I can say the same about. If she can remeber me that maybe I wasn't as much of a reject as I thought I was.. I still had glasses though so I was definatly still a geek!

I Has a Bubble Wrap

Poor little Alys has been to the vets this week to be spayed and has been ever so miserable about having to wear her plastic collar. Its a bit big and heavy on her and she keeps getting stuck in places. Especially when she is trying to eat her food. Its funny and tragic at the same time. It breaks your heart, bless her. If you haven't been I highly recommend visiting http://icanhascheezburger.com/ its highly amusing, at least to me!

Fugly Cookies

Slight disaster in my plan to keep H from the depths of boredom by baking cookies. The recipe was one of my favorite oatmeal cookie recipes, I had oats and I had chocolate but very little else and although this one looks quite nice I burned a batch and there were recipe alterations that i didn't plan due to not haveing some cookie baking essential ingrediants. Basically we blundered our way through and luckily they taste ok but they are oddly brittle cookies.

They were Chocolate Chip Sunflower Seed Oatmeal Cookies which was a bit diffrent from the plain oatmeal cookie recipe I just wish I had had the brown sugar, baking powder and so on at least it wasn't a full on disaster.

The Deepest Greys are Grey

Ok I have not been on my laptop for pretty much a week and to be honest I haven't really done very much craftwise, knitting wise or even painting wise, but I did go on a one day novel writing course with frizbe last saturday. It was the first time in a very long time that I have devoted a day to me and myself and I. A day to really look at the process of writing a novel and It was a very good day for me with much praise to Daniel Blythe for presenting such a great 1 day writing course. And I actually talked and participated in group discussion. I didn't just hide behind more gregarious and entertaining people. I would have thought that by age 30 I would be able to speak a bit more freely and not be so shy about things but its still such hard work to speak out and make eye contact. Maybe one day I will be a bright and outgowing person, but for now I'm happy to have gone along on the course and spoke a little bit.

Obviously I haven't had a chance to be on the computer, no mumsnet either thank you very much, but I have managed to make some brownies in a haphazard fashion. Meaning I had only two eggs and every recipe I had called for 4, so i used some melted chocolate and cream and they eventually came out great to eat but rather fugly.

We have had a few family days out to the zoo on tuesday, and to York thursday, had a lovely time both days except for the excruiating hour spent at the National Railway Museum in York, H loved it M took aome video of H running around like a maniac from train to train, It was quite horrifyingly, mind numbingly boring but it was cute to watch H looking at all the train engines, its definitly one of those places for granddads to take grandsons and leave mums at home with a nice cup of coffee and a few magazines.

I started a new scarf type thing last week but it only has a few rows to it but I like the wool and seem to have a grey thing going on recently. I guess grey is the new black. I'm off to go paint I think.. or make a cup of coffee, its a very fine line. meh.