I'm back

I've decided I need to come back, its been a while and my life has changed a bit and so too will this blog. I have been trying to work out how I can write the same blog when I don't feel the same and my days look so different now. I realised I can't, so here we are and I guess what this new blog looks like will reveal itself to you as is it revealed to me. Expect crafty goodness, expect domestic frustrations and occasional victories, tours of favourite places and new discoveries, a fasination with interesting merchandising, stories of dressing up and pictures of yummy food and coffee art. I hope you enjoy joining me occasionally, I will be here anyway just for fun....

Recipe Monday - Wheat and Dairy Free Fruit Sponge

Apple or Fruit Sponge

I was really impressed with how well this one worked. Please note that it was not gluten free but is wheat and dairy free. From "The New Zealand Food Allergy Cookbook"

400g Stewed or Canned Fruit. (I used a can of Peach slices)

Sponge topping:

75g dairy free margarine

100g Castor sugar

2 eggs

100g flour mixture (my scales are not that accurate so I used 1/3 cup each, rye, rice and potato)

2tsp baking powder (gluten free)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C

Grease a 22 cm pudding or pie dish, I used a 22cm casserole dish. Put prepared or canned fruit into dish and leave in oven to warm while you mix the sponge.

Cream the margarine and sugar until white and fluffy.

Add egg and beat well.

Sift in mixed flours and baking powder.

Pour over hot fruit and bake for 35- 40 mins.I think mine might have taken a bit longer I just waited for the skewer test.

Husband is dairy free so he had this with no additions and loved it. The girls and I had cream, delicious. A lovely warming pudding for winter.
Go and visit Jemma for the yummiest looking sticky date pudding and other recipes

Eye Spy - A sign

Again a week late but the sign was slow in showing itself, or was I just slow in seeing it................. I thought about the literal ones but I didn't see any as funny as Christina. And in the end it was one of those life lesson signs. On Monday my week started with this....

when the second born tipped the admittedly carefully balanced dozen eggs onto the bench. There were a number that were just cracked but needed to be used straight away. Baking was no where near my list of things I wanted to achieve that day but I decided to take two lessons from this sign. Lesson #1 That sometimes you can't control what life throw at you and amongst small disasters there is the possibility to create opportunity. So these became wheat and dairy free picklets for when they got home from school and work, left over potato and corn fritters for tea and wheat and dairy free fruit sponge for desert. The fruit sponge was very successful, I will feature it in Recipe Monday.

Unfortunately I also created these.

But while I was doing all this creating I thought about Lesson #2, remembering to make do with what I have. I like many crafters suffer the illness of stash hoarding. I love to use preloved fabrics, but I also like to collect more. I really need to remember to use my collection that I have first before I think about going out to buy more. On the other hand is there really anything wrong with buying a bit more inspiration every now and then.......... Maybe I will bang my head on that sign a few more times before I learn that lesson.

For more signs pop over to Cindy

Edit: I have tried to make the formatting sit better but it won't... I am so looking forward to one day understanding how to drive this blogger thing better.

The Train Trip

I can't believe it has been nearly a week since I headed off on my wee Train trip adventure and I haven't had a chance to tell you about it.

For various reasons the only one to join me on the trip was Michelle she had actually travelled in on the Hurstbridge train so we just jumped back on the train and pulled out our crafting supplies. Michelle was making some of her stretchy necklaces, and I was stitching some brooches. It's a good thing there weren't many others in the carriage 'cause we were taking up bit of room with our crafty gear and our giggling.

As we pulled into Eltham station we noticed a market nestled amongst the trees. We quickly gathered up our stuff and jumped off to have a look around. There were some really cute hand dyed pants and t-shirts for children. I didn't take a photo as I totally planned on going back on our way back out. Unfortunately and fortunately the market was bigger than we first thought so she was packed up by the time we got back to her end, so I will surely have to go back. I did manage to get some very delicious Autumn Chutney from "Alot of Good Stuff". We have already made a serious dent in the contents of the jar so I will have to return for some more of that too. Michelle brought some lovely Proteas from a farm up at Kinglake. We were told the guy had lost a third of his farm and his shed to the fires but still had some proteas to share. Michelle's Dad used to have protea he was very proud of at their house in Kinglake, so she brought them for him.

As all the stalls were closing up we headed back to the station to continue our journey. At Hurstbridge it was a short walk down to Heart and Soul Cafe. The atmosphere was great, quiet and friendly and they had a great fun mural on one of the walls. No photo as I wasn't sure the people having their lunch in front of it would appreciate me taking one. There are tables inside and out but we choose one next to the heater. The wedges we shared were the best I have had in ages. Fresh, really hot (temp) and spiced up tasty, there was plenty of sour cream and sweet chili sauce. At the chefs recommendation, we split a chickpea burger which was delicious toasty and not a bit dry which I find they often are. Filled with food and a good coffee we headed back into town again. I loved the day away from the routine and will defiantly plan another one when the weather is warmer and folks are over their winter ills. I love to craft on the go and with a new view and company was gathering inspiration all day. I hope you can come on my next one or are inspired to do some of your own 'crafting on the go'.

Recipe Monday - Chicken Quinoa

As requested by Shelley at Little Sparrow. A great simple and warming gluten free recipe. Adapted from 'Table' magazine



Quinoa (pronounced kinwa) is the seeds from an ancient south american plant. It's texture and uses can be likened to somewhere between rice and couscous. It is high in protein, iron and magnesium and is gluten free. I buy mine at the health food shop or the health food or gluten free section at the supermarket.

I took this away with us last summer for a camping trip. I made and froze the first part of the dish. It was then a simple one pot job to put it altogether and finish it over the camp fire.

Chicken Quinoa

Olive Oil
400 g Chicken
1 Onion
1 Red Capsicum, cut into strips
½ teaspoon each Ground Allspice & Cinnamon
2 cups Homemade Chicken Stock or Salt Reduced Commercial Stock
1 cup Quinoa rinsed
½ cup Slivered Almonds Toasted
½ cup Torn Mint

In a frying pan and cook Chicken in olive oil until brown, cooking in two batches may be best.
Remove chicken from pan, reduce heat, cook onion and capsicum stirring until soft. Add allspice, cinnamon and return chicken and toss to coat. At this point cooking can stop to cool and refrigerate or freeze for later.
Transfer chicken mix to heavy based pot. Stir in stock and quinoa and season to taste. Bring to the boil. Cover and turn off heat leaving until all liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender.
Alternatively use an oven safe dish and once stock has boiled transfer to 200° oven for approx 25 mins
Fluff up with a fork and top with almonds and mint to serve.

Yes this can be served without the mint, but I really do suggest the almonds or some other nut for the crunch texture.

Wide awake Owl

I just got home from a Brown Owls meet and I am a little bit wide awake. So as everyone in the house is either asleep (as we all should be) or out (when we should be home by now) I am frying some left-over sushi and sharing with you dear reader my thoughts of the day and evening. First the sushi- the picture is not what I am eating but some I had prepared earlier. Have you ever had it fried? I recently discovered it and it is soooo good. Sliced sushi rolls fried in a little oil soy sauce drizzled on it as it fries so it goes kind of caramelly crisp. Lovely. I eat rather a lot of sushi as I try to avoid wheat as much as possible and it is nice occasionally to have it hot.

I have had a lovely crafty day. I made some more felt mobiles but forgot to take photos of them and have been doing various embroidery projects most of the day, including on the train and tram on the way to Brown Owls and during the evening too. Brown Owls was a talk tonight, mostly about blogging and mostly by Lucy of The Design Files and Angela of Three Buttons and, although Pip from Meet me at Mikes was officially asking the questions luckily she let us pick her brains too. They had lots of hints and tips and experience to draw from in regards to this blogging world. I do plan to get my head around it sometime but in the meantime I am enjoying just doing it in the imperfect way I manage. Pip is going to write some of the ideas that were talked about so I will leave that to her.
During the meet I realised Lucy is a friend of a friend which I didn't get to mention to her but isn't it funny how small the world is sometimes, especially considering I still know very few people in this city. It is nice to be getting to meet some folks recently and crafty types are just so nice. Thanks peps for sharing on your blogs and in person to. And for keeping me company as I wind down tonight. All this linking has worn me out. Ready for bed now, big crafty day planned tomorrow and a couple of coffees too I think.

A trip to Red hill

In my new efforts to get to more markets and new places today we headed out to red hill market. I had heard about this market and been told by many it is worth the drive out from Melbourne. Well, following the print out from Google and finding roadworks, having to detour to find a service station and to find a 'relief' stop we got a little lost (why had I taken the Melways into the house?!) but eventually we got there and it really was great. There were a number of stalls I had seen before but enough that I hadn't that made the market itself worth while and it was nice to be out in the country. Despite the new discoveries I again found myself at a stall I had found at Sister Market harper & eddie and brought a lovely wee thing but I can't show your cause it is a present for someone... I also found these cool cookie cutters they will also be a present.

Another great thing about being at Redhill was we were pretty close to Sorrento and as three of the four in the car hadn't been there before we decided to head there for lunch. And found Buckleys Chance. Since this is a phrase the lone aussie in the car uses a lot we thought it sounded like the perfect place to stop and ...yum. The service was great, a seat in the sun and the food delicious and plentiful. After we decided we needed to take our pukanui (big stomach) for a walk down the street. (I have tried to edit this bit numerous times sorry if it still not sitting right)

We didn't go into this exhibition but liked the sign. That is me and Princess Michelle.

We did go into Gallery Sorrento and found a new item to add to my wish list, some beautiful butterflies made from recovered saucers by Lightly. Further down the street we wandered into Beast Creations strange name, but beautiful glass and jewellery inside. A walk on the beach, soak in the view and then home. A great day full of good friends, great food, treasures for the soul and pressies to bring home.

Next time though I will be heading to Made in Thornbury since I am pretty sure I won't get to lost getting there and I know there will be lots for me to bring home there too, Nice people also I hear ;) Sorry I couldn't get to both and hope all who had a stall there today had a great day.

Another weekend of wonderful

Oh bliss

It was full and it was great, I need a wee lie down now but no time for that.

Saturday morning we had some of our friends over for breakfast, some of our new friends and a couple of long time friends that we managed to bring over from New Zealand. We have lived in Melbourne for just over a year now and it was great to be able to have friends in our house, and to have those that hadn't before, meet each other.

Do you like to have guests? Sure it is a bit scary, my work space wasn't as tidy as I would like it and we nearly ran out of cups, but it is great to meet that scary and find out that your friends do like you despite the less than perfect surroundings and to connect the different parts of our lives. I love breakfast and I love feeding people. We had so much fun I forgot to take photos.

Sunday morning it was cold (yes really New Zealand readers it really was) but I managed to get myself out of bed and down to the Camberwell market to meet the other brave Brown Owl girls. It was lovely to meet some for the first time to share a coffee a chat and some good bargains. I found this great tin, a perfect find for a cold autumn day. It will replace one of my shoe boxes currently used for storage.

On Friday the felt I have been waiting for for my new kits arrives so after I defrosted I spent Sunday afternoon cutting it up. The colours are fantastic I just love to pile them up and rearrange them. But they are all destined to be out the door very soon so best I get stop playing with them and pack them up.

smmmooothies

I love smoothies and I love my blender. It was a family Christmas present brought at the end of last year at a excellent factory shop price. Every morning I make smoothies for my family. I highly recommend it as an excellent way to get fruit and breakfast into Husband and teenagers who are tempted to skip both. I am sure it would work well for picky pre schoolers too.

One of us in dairy intolerant, so at the moment I mostly use various combinations of bananas, mango, canned peaches, pineapple, frozen berries, and various juices. What I would like to do tho is sneak in some more nutrients - has anyone got any ideas?