Been there, done that...

I woke up in the middle of the night, had a quick glance out of the window, saw that the sky had a very strange look to it, but just turned over and fell asleep again. In the morning I found out why the sky had looked like that...
At first I very much felt like this...
But then decided that a) I should knit those mittens and scarf, and b) that it was infinitely preferable to the rain that had been falling all day yesterday, so much more pretty...
Particularly when the sun came out...
Maybe I do like January after all, I do love the calendar page for January...
And as I was taking pictures anyway, a little kitchen still life that I suddenly noticed...
After all this frolicking about I ended up in the attic. There really is a lot of dusting to do, but what are days like this for other than crafting, so I spent the rest of the day here...

Have a lot of snowy fun!

A few more kitchen frenetics...

A bit of sunshine in another wise grey, grey, grey week. I do like winter to a certain extent, but January always succeeds in reminding me why I hate it too.
But the whole house is smelling of sunshine as I am making marmalade. For the first time ever, so I have no idea how it will turn out. We can not buy Seville oranges in this country unfortunately, but I have been able to lay my hands on some untreated oranges in our health food store, so these will have to do. The smell of oranges and lemons always makes me think of sunshine, so it does do a whole lot in cheering me up.
As I am in the process of using up Christmas leftovers, I stumbled upon this recipe and cooked it the other day.

White turkey chili
serves 1

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 pound ground turkey
1 can (15.5 ounces) Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Garnishes such as lime wedges, coriander, sour cream, and grated cheese

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, garlic, oregano and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, for 3-4 minutes.
Add turkey and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until no longer pink, 2-3 minutes. Add beans and 3/4 cup water. Bring to the boil, whilst mashing some of the beans against the side of the pan to release starch. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thickened, 5-10 minutes.

Quicker and easier you can not make it. This recipe is easy to adapt for greater quantities. I did not actually use ground turkey, but the little pieces of turkey I took off the carcass after I had made stock from it. In our house nothing gets thrown out. This is actually quite tasty as you get the goodness of the herbs added to the stock as well. And, as I am a girl that a) simply can not follow instruction, and b) loves her greens; I added some chopped celery sticks, a few left-over Jerusalem artichokes and a small can of sweet corn to the mix. I spooned it over some rice which was left from the day before, and had a wonderfully satisfying meal.
Sometimes the telly is a good source of inspiration as well. I watched a re-run of Nigel Slater's programme and came across this marvellous idea. He sweated off some onions, then added two generous tablespoons of mustard ( smooth and grainy), some broken up sausages and a lot of double cream. All this he used as a pasta sauce. Now I liked the idea of the mustard as that is one of my favourite condiments. Thinking of the left-over stuffing from the Christmas turkey in the freezer ( which basically was sausage meat, sage onions, breadcrumbs and chestnuts combined in this case) this seemed an excellent recipe to use this up. So again, I added some extra veggies, i.e. leeks and celery sticks and softened those first with the onions. Then I added the mustard and cream, and a good bit of parmesan. I added the cream and the sausage meat which I had formed into meatballs. I then cooked some pasta and added that to the mix.
Again, even though this is not very sophisticated, more hearty winterfare, but I loved it.

And last but not least, a bit of progress to show you on my crocheted blanket...
As I am making this from wool from my stash, the colour combinations could start to be a bit tricky and daring at some point, but that is half the fun of it. Wonder when it will be finished though.

Enjoy a relaxing weekend!

Some new ingredients...

Yesterday I lit a couple of my scented candles and did some crocheting. I felt completely content with the world at that moment. It is lovely to sometimes just sit quietly and enjoy the things you have around you. I do apologise for the mess on my dresser by the way, as hard as I try to ween myself away from it, I will always remain a clutterbug I am afraid.
I then proceeded to make the most fabulous soup. I love soup, homemade though, do not like the stuff out of packets or tins. The other day I discovered some jerusalem artichokes in the supermarket of all places. I love their taste, and as this was the first time I saw them for sale in the supermarket, I decided it would be rude not to buy them. So I called upon the ever fabulous Delia, and found this super soup/

Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup
1 lb carrots
1 lb 8 oz jerusalem artichokes
3 sticks of celery
3 oz butter
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 1/2 pints of hot stock
salt and pepper

To garnish:
6-8 teaspoons creme fraiche
6-8 leaves fresh flat leaf parsley

Start by peeling and de-knobbling the jerusalem artichokes, as you peel them, cut them into large chunks and put them in a bowl of cold, salted water to prevent them from discolouring. Scrape the carrots and cut them into chunks.
Peel and chop the onion and cut the celery into chunks. Melt the butter in the pan and soften the onion and celery in it for 5 minutes, keeping the heat fairly low. Then drain the artichokes and add them to the pan, along with the carrots. Add some salt. Keeping the heat very low, put a lid on the pan and let the vegetables sweat for about 10 minutes to release their juices.
After that, pout on the stock ( I used turkey stock, as I have about 10 litres of it sitting in the freezer after Christmas, but really you can use any stock you like) and let is simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Let the soup cool slightly and blend it.
Before serving reheat the soup gently and add a swirl of creme fraiche and a leaf of parsley to each bowl as decoration.

See, a simpler meal you can not dream up, why ever would you need to eat canned soup? After this as I was on a roll I also baked some cookies. Again, the whole freezer is full of left over Christmas baking bonanza, but I simply could not resist these...

Double-chocolate cranberry cookies
Makes 15 large cookies
16 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped finely
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 10 ounces of chocolate au bain marie till melted. Set aside to cool a little. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and combine well. Beat in the melted chocolate. Then gradually add the flour mixture, beat in untill just combined. Then add the rest of the chopped chocolate and the cranberries.
Drop dough, 1/4 cupfuls, 3 inches apart, unto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake cookies till the edges are dry and the tops are cracked, 15-17 minutes. Let stand on sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer them to racks to cool completely.

After all that kitchen frenzy it was time to relax a little and play with my new books. OK. I know I should not have bought any, as really there is no immediate shortage of unread books in my house... but these are only little...
I bought the Isolarion book as it is about the area in Oxford that I lived in for a long time, I am really excited about it.
There is most definitely a theme developing here...
Have you spotted it? The Pere Lachaisse mystery I bought as this time round in Paris I will go to that cemetry... I might be too scared to after reading this though.

Have a lovely and relaxing weekend all!

A bit of cheer...

I don not know about you, but I like winter up untill just around Christmas time, after that I get terribly sad and bored with it. Usually I am not one of the most happy people in January and February. This year I decided to do some thing about it, and just before Christmas I booked myself another trip to Paris mid February.
IThis means that I keep waking up every morning with a happy thought, it is really like looking forward to your birthday when you were a child. This morning the train tickets came through the post. now it is real and even more exciting. So, I got on the site of my trusted bookshop and ordered myself a few very interesting guidebooks. There is just so much to discover and see!
As I was in need of a quickie project and am quite obsessed with crochet at the moment, I was so glad to come across this in the Attic 24 blog. If you have not seen this blog before and like crochet and colour, really go over and have a look, there is so much fun to be had there.
My mother always feels the loss of the Christmas tree very much every year, so I decided to make her two of these. This was the first one ever, so there are a few things I will do slightly better with the second one, but I am sure you will get the idea. I can not wait till the bulbs will be in flower, I really love this idea as it is simple and colourful.
This year I thought I would start to list 3 things I have been grateful for that day every day, just for myself. But I am not disciplined enough to do this every day. But, as I was reading Diane's blog Heartshaped, (another lovely read), I came across this tag. Basically you are meant to list 10 things you love that are free. This is a great idea, both to cheer me yourself up and to get to know each other better. So, here are mine. If any of you would like to pick up this tag, please do, I am looking forward to your entries.
1. I love the scents and the feel of autumn. It is both the abundance in colour and produce as well as the sense that everything is winding down and the tranquillity.
2. I love watching snow flakes tumbling out of the sky, they make everything so pretty, and I think that snowmen are my favourite things on earth.
3. I love watching children discover the world, to them everything is new and to be discovered, it is that sense of wonder about the world that I find extremely touching.
4. I love discovering a book in my to-read pile that I had quite forgotten about, but that is so lovely that it stays with me for a while.
5. Connected to this I love re-reading childhood favourites, as they make me realise that you should never lose that sense of joy of discovering the world.
6. I love colour.
7. Pottering about in the garden is one of my joys, it is so lovely to watch things grow and develop.
8. Waking up in the morning and realising that you can spend an entire day reading, gardening, knitting, whatever it is that takes your fancy, must be one of the best treats from time to time.
9. Creating a lovely meal out of things that you find lurking in the fridge.
10. Reading and enjoying blogs, I have said it before and will say it again, what an inspirational lot you are!

Have a fab weekend!

White...

This is a post for all my readers in Britain and elsewhere who are suffering from the unusual snowfall. I still think it is very pretty and magical, but that is the child in me speaking.
I was talking to a friend who lives in a village in West Sussex this morning, and she was telling me that it was very hard for her to get out of the house. The village shop has run out of a lot of things, notably bread and milk... There is no real saying when new supplies will come in, as nobody knows what the weather is going to do.
It made me think about how little we can do and know really, even though sometimes we think that everything is in our power. One little blip of nature, and we are powerless. It also made me worry about her cups of tea now, what would they be like without milk ( quite essential to her and indeed to me). Hence the cuppa at the top of my post! Hope that you are still all alright and that you can at least still make a nice brew!
I was meant to go to a concert in Amsterdam yesterday, but did not venture out because of the forecasts, which was a slight nuisance, but on the whole I am still enjoying this weather. It has been so long since I have seen it like this.
There are still loads of little pleasures to be had though, I trawled through some blogs and have picked up some ideas for a few quick project, more about those later, what an inspirational lot you all are.
A friend lent me this DVD as she knows I like Colin Firth and will watch anything featuring him...
I watched it last night and absolutely loved it. It is just one of those sweet, funny and totally impossible things I like to watch. If you are in need of a quick pick-me-up, watch it. It is a children's movie, but as such really lovely!

I can not say it often enough, keep safe and warm!

I like the ring of it...

Am I the only one who is getting more excited about the year 2010 than the year 2000? I always have a surge of optimism at the beginning of the new year, but somehow this time it feels even more true. I also just like the ring of the decade, it somehow has a better feel about it than the noughties. Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but then again, a bit of hope and optimism never did do anyone any harm.
I never make New Year's resolutions, but always think of a few things that I am going to do differently, and inevitably I change those within 5 minutes again. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. One of the things I decided is not to buy anymore magazines before I had read, sorted through, passed on the stacks that are lying around all over the house. But then... I saw this, and immediately all sort of projects sprang to mind.
I just love Margaret Sherry's cross stitch designs, they are always so much fun. And even though I am a very slow cross stitcher I always feel drawn to it. I am really looking forward to embellish a few aprons and tea towels with these.
The other day I was sorting through my stash of yarn and inspired by a free tutorial on the royal sisters blog, I decided to make a blanket or a throw. I like working with wool and love knitting and crocheting most of all. I tried to work out how many of these little stars I would need to make them into a decent size blanket, but that gave me a headache, so I will just see how I go.
I also decided not to buy any books as my to-read pile is getting ridiculous, but then could not resist getting these...
It also ties in nicely with my aim to use up my wool stash. Hey, I can sell these ideas to my self... The first one I will make is this one I decided, is not it fun?...
And, my last project so far...
I had loads of wool left over from the jumper I knitted a couple of months ago. This is the most wonderful yarn, and a couple of years ago I had bought a few skeins of it without really having a particular plan about what to do with it. Turns out that I can perfectly marry them up with my left overs, so I started knitting a scarf. I love the total different feel just the substitution of a few colours gives...

OK, off to do some cooking. Stay safe and warm!!!