Food at Christmas

One of my fabulous Birthday presents. My New Mortar and Pestle. It's huge! It's heavy and it's fantastic. Serendipity is a wonderful thing 'cos what was on the telly ?

Food Safari

doing indian food with heaps of spices. I'm planning on going to the market and stocking up on a few bits like fresh tumeric, shrimp paste, smelly beans and candle nuts. I love curries. Actually any full-flavoured food is good. We don't do a lot of take out and sometimes I get so bored with the things I cook, so I love new recipes.
We've created a favourite recipes book and this year we've come across some great ones. I judge a recipe to be great if I can make it work and it's tasty. An extra great recipe is one that can take modifying - something I just have to do - Anarchy in the Kitchen!!
This Christmas I bravely tried 3 new items ( I had a moment of panic) But all were fantastic. the Cranberry Punch from

Make it your Own

The "Coeur a la creme D'Anjou with Raspberries by Gabriel Gate on

Food Safari

and a Mushroom and Bacon stuffing I made up using almonds and rye bread.
I have to confess things didn't go all to plan. The Punch had rose petals and parsley floating instead of mint and I forgot a few things like bread and I couldn't find the extra gravy but it turned out a good night anyway.

Boxing Day was a day of left-overs.

We had a version of Turkey Bubble and Squeak on toast. I think the secret is to gently fry some chopped onions till they are really golden (in oil or butter) Takes about 15 mins. Add all the other leftover turkey , veg , stuffing and gravy. Moisten it with a bit of stock. I had left over roasted Roma Tomatoes so I added them too.

I juiced some carrots and mixed it with the leftover cranberry and pineapple juices ( I didn't use them all in the punch) - it was a healthy start to the day and finished the day with a sweet but still healthy version of the above Gabriel Gate recipe .
I still had raspberries, sauce and quark cheese left so I made up the recipe again but without the cheese cloth and only set it in individual bowls in the fridge for 30 mins. (Gave us time to eat dinner. ) It was divine! And there's still sauce to pour over icecream. Life is good.
Huggs Little Ma

Pay It Forward

We're in! We saw this at

jesschocolateect

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange.

I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise!

The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.


So we're doing it too. Love surprises and surprising ! Can't wait to see our 3 people that we get to send something to.

cheers Little Ma

Gingerbreadhouse

This is going to be the centrepiece for our Christmas. I wasn't that thrilled about doing Christmas - just get a bit tired I guess. But MnM made this Gingerbreadhouse and I just love it . So I'm feeling a bit more inspired. On the other hand I was just asked if I wanted some of her banana cake and I hestitated . Does that make me a bad parent! LOL This was one cake that didn't work exactly. It didn't cook through - in fact it ooozed. So back into the oven for 30 mins extra. It does taste okay - texture is a bit , well , gummy . But who cares - it's made with love. The most important ingredient.
Huggs Little Ma

Chicklets

Hi every one MnM here!!!
Today we picked up our three new baby chics.





The black one is called Pantha, closest to the cage in the second pic we have Fanta and last but not least is Piglet. Fanta is the noisest one and requires a lot more attention then the others, she's also the escape artist in the family. Pantha is the quiet one who is quite happy to just sit and eat. And Piglet is just Piglet.
C ya ,MnM

Hiya
They're sooo cute but so darn noisy. We drove about 1 hour away to get them. Supposedly cos they're from local,free-range parents - who knows. Our Fluffy chook, who normally is a really good mum doesn't want a bar of them. Mind you she's over 12yo so I guess she's done enough. Over the next few weeks I want to build a chook dome - just a small one and put it in the Great-Dust-Bowl-that-was-the-Pool. The drive was hot and dusty - no airconditioning - but I did get some lovely cotton knitting done. Christmas is going to include knitted and cooked things ( more on that later in case any recipients are reading this : )
huggs Little Ma

Fluffy Puffs ,Guilt and buckets

I'm ethnic, so that means I cook, clean and feel guilty . What do I feel guilty about? Doesn't matter really as long as there some guilt in my life. Not getting enough exercise, eating too much, not visiting aged parent often enough, not checking my spelling. Blah, blah, blah You know how it goes. Now I'm being helped in my quest to be a good ethnic by all the regulations and water restrictions. I'm really trying to save water but I hate being made to feel guilty all the time. I've reduced my showers to less than 4 minutes and I catch the first lot of cold water in a bucket. My house is full of buckets. I'm a bucket connoisseur now. My kitchen has 2, 3 in the laundry, 1 in the bathroom. I feel guilt if I don't put all my washing machine water on the fruit trees, guilt if I don't know whether something is recyclable. Do you know that bucket rhymes with an extremely rude expletive! I'm not saying it but I'm thinking it. If I have to feel guilty then the best guilty feeling is eating Fluffy Puffs.
Everyone needs these!!

250g Ricotta (smooth)
2 eggs
2 tblspn vanilla essence
120g plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
Oil for deep frying
icing sugar to serve
plate with paper towel to absorb some of the oil

Method:
Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and light, Fold in ricotta.
Mix together flour and baking powder then fold it into the egg and ricotta.
Heat some oil . ( not too hot else the middle doesn't cook through)
Drop in a teaspoonful at a time . (about 1/4 the size of a walnut - it fluffs up to the size of a small walnut !)
Don't overcrowd the pot. 5 -6 is enough at a time.
Cook for 2-3 mins , turning over once.
When they puff up and are brown allover , remove with a slotted spoon onto the paper , then put on a plate and dust with icing. Makes about 35-40 balls

We've seen various versions of this recipe and have adapted this one a bit to suit us ( us being cooks who like things simplified where possible)
huggs Little Ma

Homemade is best

Hi Everyone
It was a friend's birthday a few weeks back and we were trying to think of a prezzy to get her. We were really into cooking that week so we decided to make her her own truffle filled tin and a packet of the best Burnt Butter Biscuits ever. The truffle recipe is one I made up. The decorations on the top tell you the flavours. The blue faces are the originals, the yellow squiggles are vanilla, the red swirl roses are rose water and the green question marks are brandy flavoured.

This green jumper is one I had to restart because I left it sitting for a few too many months. Consequently it did not fit me and I had to start the next size up. Hopefully it will still fit next winter. [trust me to finish it before summer (:




bye for now MnM

Love my old TV and new socks

As a kid I always wanted to have a TV outside. So I dragged this old TV out of the attic ( It was our first TV from 1980) and it works a treat , except for SBS. We sat outside watching morning shows with our breakfast and in the afternoon - sport. I felt like I was on holiday without the hassle of packing, organising animalcare , getting there blah, blah. Love holidays , hate organising them. We took out some armchairs and footstools. Had shandies, softdrinks and chips. How decadent! I finished my Caspian Sea Socks while enjoying the outdoors and TV.
I used Bendigo machinewashable wool in almond and dyed it using foodcolouring.The original pattern used more traditional colours, I guess, but I wanted to try food colouring and wanted to keep it simple in case I needed more of a color. ( I didn't, had some left over and am trying to make a coloured knitted beret thing with the leftovers - more on that later) I loved the colourwork, the new stitches especially the edge and it was a free pattern from Knitting Daily. There were mistakes in it , some I left , others I fixed. But they fit me , and not anyone else in the family so that makes them mine !

Caspian Sea Socks

huggs Little Ma

Moggy monsters

This week we finished making these cat toys which were started a few months ago. They were made out of some leftover handspun wool we had laying around. They were originally circular in shape but we made one a little too big so decided to make a snowman -like toy. Mistakes aren't always a bad thing.

hiya
Aren't they cute.These little monsters just grew with each idea. I love when projects grow with inspiration and end up different to the original idea. It's just so much more fun than planning and working to a plan - sometimes : )
huggs Little Ma

Broad beans

Yoohoo
Notice the broad beans in the last post. I was told that I had planted at the wrong time, wrong place blah, blah. Now I have huge bush-things of broad beans - so there! Trouble is I don't think I like broad beans (oops kept typing Brad beans - hi bradley - no offense intended) and I don't really know how to cook them - there's something wrong there isn't there?
huggs Little Ma

The missing pool

Hiya- It's finally all working - I am wonder geek, hear me reload ! Okay, not all true and I did have help but I managed to get my mac working. I'll whisper that in case it hears and goes all technical on me again. ( But I'm having a quiet woohoo)
Now for some things we've been up to besides learning about the reproduction of bacterium and the Kingdom of Monera.
No matter how messy the garden there's always something lovely. The gerbera has survived for a few years now and right next to it is a'Cherry Pie' Lantana type of bush ( can't remember what its name was and I know Lantana is a weed in the bush) . We thought we could smell a bakery from the car but it was this little plant we'd bought. Smells gorgeous. So far it's been hardy and lives well with the other plants.

We finally had the pool removed . Now it just has to be cleared of that horribly invasive ivy plant. Fluffy the 12 year old chook and her mate Other Chook are helping. Can't wait for our new chookies. They haven't hatched yet - maybe they haven't even been laid but we're hoping for some black and red ones. Can't get speckled ones atm - nuts. The dogs would love to help but the black likes to pick them up by the tail and put them away and Violetta (hasn't she grown) is suppose to act like a lady but instead tried to eat Fluffy and wondered why Other Chook was pecking her! So she's banned atm.



We bought some moulds from Kerry at

Chocart

and this bunny was our favourite. Getting chocolate making stuff was impossible down our way but we found Kerry's site on the internet and after a few emails trying to work out what we needed , she sent us all the stuff -very easy. Beats hairing around town. We did heaps more , including making fondant . That was good till I tried to actually use it and then it just stuck to my hands . Obviously did something wrong.
Shucks will have to make more chocolate. We will be buying better choc buttons , the ones we got locally weren't that nice. Tasted like cheap easter eggs - yuk.
I better go and get rid of the evidence .
cheers and hugs Little Ma and MnM

Glitches

Hiya
Any minute now there'll be some pics and stuff and it
will be exciting and wonderful but atm my computer is
having a hormonal imbalance - and I really don't want
to talk about it : /
I'll go back and work on my Caspian Sea Socks and hopefully
by the time I've finished , the planets will align and all
will be right in my cyber world.
Am I a positive thinker or what ?!

hugs Little Ma

A few finished projects.

Hi everyone!!!!
Where has this year gone?
Thought it would be nice to post some pictures of stuff we've made this year. MnM

















Hi All
Don't you just love getting rid of UFO's. It helps when there's a deadline. All 4 things were presents so had to be finished.
Sewing ends in while on the way to the 'receiver ' is not unheard of . Thank goodness for gift bags otherwise I'd have to schlep along sticky tape, scissors , ribbons etc. Though my dear family are very used to their gifts being a tad late. I think they're more surprised if its on time.
hugggs Little Ma
PS Love this shawl. Pattern was from Knitty.com. Can be worn as a shawl , poncho or hat (would you believe it) but the mohair I used was not so good. Lesson for me - not all gifted wool is good. :/

Memories of Zappa.

Hi Everyone!!!
Knitting is one of our favorite crafty things to do and we have been wanting to make a knitted bag with a picture of our friends' cat and dog on it for a xmas pressie. Sadly their dog past away last year. So we thought it would be nice to make them a pair of pillows to sit on the bed where Zappa [their dog] liked best. We found a photo that best described him without using words then Little Ma pixulated the photo in black and white on the computer. Put a graph over the top. We then chose some colours that best suited Zappa, did a gauge and started. We made one pillow each in contrast colours.We always describe the white pillow as his good side and the other as his cheeky side. We helped bury Zap under the tree he use to sit under while watching the sun set with his companion cat Panda.
After, we gave our dear friends [Zap's parents] the pillows. They absolutely loved them and now have a permanent place on the bed where they get cuddled every day. We have plans to make some pillows of Panda in the near future but there is a long list of stuff to make so may have to wait awhile.
Till next time MnM!!!

Hey there,
Every now and then , while we were knitting the pillows, someone would tell of a favourite 'Zappa' memory. It got me thinking that whenever I make something for someone else , I seem to think of them at every stitch. So there's a lot of love, good karma , whatever you call it, in the garment. I wonder if it's felt. (Unless it's not working, then there's some negative energy happening LOL). hugs Little Ma

First try!!!

HI ALL!!!
You've probably figured out [by the title] this is our first posting and indeed our first ever blog. We are Little Ma and MnM. So let's start by introducing the family. There's Big Pa and Little Ma, MnM, Dudette, Dude. Then there's our fur family Tim Tam[dog], Miss Piddle[cat], Tigger[cat], and the newest member is Little Letty. We are training Little Letty [16 weeks old] to be a RSB Guide Dog. She's Labradour/Retriever and is the most sweetest puppy. Today we went to see 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' in the cinema. We had a little trouble when sitting down because she really liked eating all the popcorn. When the credits started she watched them for awhile then slept till the movie had ten minutes to go [Such a doggy thing to do] then had fun getting all the peanutbutter out of her 'Kong'. After the movie we did a drive by our house to pick Tim Tam up and drop Dude off so we could take the dogs to the park for being so good today. They both had lots of fun with their friends while pinching toys from the communal bucket of toys brought by one other 'doggy Mum'.
Well that's probably enough for now. Until next time. MnM!!!

Hiya , While MnM has been setting this up , I've been sewing and pondering - Why do boys want
things fixed that are more hole than fabric. Hugs Little Ma