I can spend hours and hours wandering around blogland, stopping off when something catches my eye then discarding the site or delving backwards if I like the feel of it or it strikes a chord. There are many blogs that I drop into every so often, funny ones, funny mum ones, crafty ones, English, American, Norwegian, teaching ones, rude ones, naughty ones, spiritual ones, home decorating ones, cooking ones, entirely made up ones and ruthlessly honest ones...the list is endless. There is a certain reluctance in me to fully commit to this mainly because I'm not sure quite how I want this blog to represent myself.
I am a mum to a teenager and a toddler , I am a wife - for the 2nd time, I like to make stuff but I also make lots lists of stuff I'd like to make, I want my home to be a haven of beautifully decorated characterful calm and cosiness but I am fundamentally lazy and crap at doing housework, I brim over with ideas for stories and books but lack the courage to actually put them down on paper.
Some people suffer from such fear of failure that they devote their lives to success at their chosen endeavours, others -yours truly- spend their lives preventing themselves from trying just in case they are not the successes they are sure they could be.
So...I have no idea what this blog will be about, whether I'll be a mummy blogger, a craft blogger, a foodie blogger, a naughty blogger or a big blank space...I think I shall just whack on anything that strikes me as interesting or funny or cool and see what happens...
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Thursday, 15 September 2011
A post and a stamp tutorial too....blimey!
I have finally sat down and done the necessary to get my camera to download onto my laptop. Feel free to shake your head and tut...I am a sad, tragic technarcoleptic. Any mention of anything that needs to be mastered and my eyes start to glaze and I get frantically interested in anything else at all...classic displacement activity.
Anyhoo, this is something I've been wanting to try for ages but I fell into the trap of thinking it would be much harder than it actually was. I wanted to make some stamps to add embellishment to letters, wrapping paper, scrapbooks etc. but I didn't want to spend money on a whole lino cutting kit - nice though they undoubtedly are - so I improvised...
Bits and Bobs you'll need.
Some rubbers - or erasers if your t'other side of the Atlantic I believe - I got mine for about 30p each at Tesco.
Something to cut the rubber with - a scalpel or razor blade - I bought a whole pack of different sized bladed implements for a £1 at a pound shop (strange that). I don't think they'll stand up to much heavy duty use but they're perfect for this.
A pencil
Something to cut on
Bits of wood to stick your stamp on - makes it easier to hold and use the stamps.
Glue gun - to stick stamp to wood
An ink pad
Decide what image you want on your stamp - remember it will come through back to front, I doodled around until I found something I fancied.
Cut out a piece of rubber bigger than the image you want.
Draw the image you want to reproduce onto the rubber - now comes the interesting bit, you now have to decide how you want the stamp to look and whether you want it in negative or not. It's important to decide which bits you want to carry the ink and which bits will come out as blank space.
With the leaf I cut out the shape I wanted then sliced out a sliver to give the central line as a blank
Once you've cut out and isolated your image glue the stamp onto a bit of wood to give you something to hold on to.
Stamp on!
For bunting draw a line, as curved or looped as you like and stamp along it - the triangles are so easy and quick to do it's worth doing enough for every colour ink you've got.
Once you get started there is no limit to what you can do...A bunting triangle to bedeck a note or envelope, a leaf - just add a green squiggly line and you have a vine twining it's way up the side of a letter, an old style skull to add that little touch of terror to a halloween invitation and lastly far-off seagulls flying in the corner of the page (I made the mistake here of cutting them out as I wanted them to look so the stamp itself became the mirror image - Beware!)
In the olden days they used to used blobs of sealing wax to securely close envelopes and ensure that the contents came from that particular person - make your own signature stamp and use it on all your correspondence...
Hope you enjoy it!
Thursday, 28 July 2011
40ish for 40ish
Throughout the last year I wrote a list of things I wanted to do and learn and achieve. My aim was to cushion the blow of hitting 40 by having something to show for it...Obviously 2 wonderful boys and a more than tolerable husband as well as a veritable bouquet of lovely friends is an achievement in itself - but I digress.
One of the things that I have learned over the past few years is not to set myself cut and dried 'Do By' dates and times. My to do lists used to be whip crackers which always ended up being a big fat confirmation of total failure. Then I chilled out and realised that, for me, setting a time to finish (or start) something was a guarantee of abject failure - some deep-seated fear of success type thing happening here but I think I'll let that little psychosis slumber in the depths of my sub-conscious for a little while longer. So now I makes my lists but more as an encouragement and reminder than as words writ in stone that must be obeyed.
Anyhoo, somewhere on this blog I have made my list of things to do and I will document each one that gets that big beautiful tick...stay tuned for more exciting list news!
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Spring is springing...
For the past few weeks the gorgeous weather has made it seem as though summer has come early. Unfortunately this probably means that we won't actually get a summer, more a season of dampness and disappoint, like last year. I can't complain though, we shall be wandering around France for three weeks visiting relatives and holidaying by the sea.
This is our usual holiday routine and it takes the full three weeks to really enjoy, a few days with my mother-in-law in the south, then a week on the coast, followed by the rest of the holiday relaxing in my parents dutch barge as we float around the french canals...yes it really is as blissful as it sounds...My mother-in-law is always..how shall I put it?...interesting. She prides herself on saying what she thinks, regardless of social niceties and has quite a low tolerance level for visitors. Despite this, I love visiting her. Her house is incredible, once part of the medieval battlements for the town it is probably the only house where you can look through an arrow-slit whilst sitting on the loo. She has quintessential French shabby chic style, complemented by the huge amounts of delicious things she has gathered over a life-time in the antiques business. As a woman I am very proud of her, this is a seventy year old woman who still back-packs around Africa and hitches (bush-taxi) around the south of France, she does her own thing and is beholden to none, she also takes snuff...classic character.
It does seem to me though, that her desire for independance means that she fends off contact with her family and keeps herself quite incommunicado, she's missed out on a lot of her grand-childrens' and her sons' lives.
All I have to do is smile and nod and not let her get my goat, however hard she tries - and believe me, she tries...
This is our usual holiday routine and it takes the full three weeks to really enjoy, a few days with my mother-in-law in the south, then a week on the coast, followed by the rest of the holiday relaxing in my parents dutch barge as we float around the french canals...yes it really is as blissful as it sounds...My mother-in-law is always..how shall I put it?...interesting. She prides herself on saying what she thinks, regardless of social niceties and has quite a low tolerance level for visitors. Despite this, I love visiting her. Her house is incredible, once part of the medieval battlements for the town it is probably the only house where you can look through an arrow-slit whilst sitting on the loo. She has quintessential French shabby chic style, complemented by the huge amounts of delicious things she has gathered over a life-time in the antiques business. As a woman I am very proud of her, this is a seventy year old woman who still back-packs around Africa and hitches (bush-taxi) around the south of France, she does her own thing and is beholden to none, she also takes snuff...classic character.
It does seem to me though, that her desire for independance means that she fends off contact with her family and keeps herself quite incommunicado, she's missed out on a lot of her grand-childrens' and her sons' lives.
All I have to do is smile and nod and not let her get my goat, however hard she tries - and believe me, she tries...
Monday, 7 March 2011
Enough about that....
Let us draw a veil over the tedious repetitivity (?!?) of the previous post and talk about my latest new recipe...
I am trying to challenge myself with new recipes and foods I never cook...why? Why not...Anyway, today's attempt was Pork chops with an onion, mustard, cream and cider sauce. Pork and I have an odd history, I am certain that I have never cooked a pork chop before, roast pork is never on my menu and I don't do goulash...It's not that I'm anti pig, oooh no, bacon is an example of gustatory perfection and ham and especially sausages are an essential part of my culinary repetoire.
When I was small I didn't particularly like roast pork, I have a feeling that this was largely due to the questionable textures associated with the ubiquitious school dinner, with it's hard smooth roast potatoes and glutinous 'gravy'. My dear, long-suffering mother even tried to hoodwink me by telling me I was eating lamb...but no,I guessed it and still said I didn't like it. Thereafter I was released from the obligation of eating roast pork and to this day I still get a little frisson of excitement at actually getting one over on the grown-ups.
{As I type this I keep remembering just how much pig I am actually delighted to consume...spare ribs, spit-roast, stir fry....so basically I really enjoy the flavour of every type of porcine product barring the sunday roast style...so much drama over so little...}
On with the recipe...
Pork Loin Chops - as many you think your guests will enjoy
Sliced onion - I am of the opinion that you can never have too many fried onions in a dish so visualise how much onion you'd be happy to pile onto your plate then times it by the number of guests
Cream (single or double)/creme fraiche
Cider or apple juice about 200ml but go with the flow
Wholegrain mustard
Olive oil
Seasoning
Slosh some olive oil into a large pan and heat it up, season your chops on both sides and pop them in the pan, fry the meat until it is nicely browned - this might take longer than you think...
Remove the chops and put on a plate nearby, slide your sliced onion into the pan and keep frying, at this point I sloshed some of the cider into the pan to de-glaze it, worked like a charm and gave the onions some extra depth of flavour. Cook the onions until they are all sexy and softening but still with that sweet, edgy body, slosh in the cider and keep to a gentle simmer until the liquid has reduced a bit.
Now add how ever much cream you fancy, some mustard - anything from a heaped teaspoon to a tablespoon according to your taste - and stir through, place the chops into the sauce and let it gently cook for 5-10 minutes, check the seasoning - a little salt might be good here - and put the chops on warmed plates, cover with the oniony sauce and add your veg.
I served boiled new potatoes, spinach and sweetcorn and peas with the pork - the freshness complemented the richness of the pork very nicely.
Verdict...still not that interested in 'straight' pork, I'm actually not keen on what feels to me like the coarseness of the meat. However, my husband was enraptured by it and proceeded to tell me just how much he had missed eating pork...poor, poor cruelly deprived man. Even my eldest ate it all and he is the type of person who minutely examines his food just in case I've maliciously placed something he thinks he doesn't like into it... looks like I'll be cooking this again.
I am trying to challenge myself with new recipes and foods I never cook...why? Why not...Anyway, today's attempt was Pork chops with an onion, mustard, cream and cider sauce. Pork and I have an odd history, I am certain that I have never cooked a pork chop before, roast pork is never on my menu and I don't do goulash...It's not that I'm anti pig, oooh no, bacon is an example of gustatory perfection and ham and especially sausages are an essential part of my culinary repetoire.
When I was small I didn't particularly like roast pork, I have a feeling that this was largely due to the questionable textures associated with the ubiquitious school dinner, with it's hard smooth roast potatoes and glutinous 'gravy'. My dear, long-suffering mother even tried to hoodwink me by telling me I was eating lamb...but no,I guessed it and still said I didn't like it. Thereafter I was released from the obligation of eating roast pork and to this day I still get a little frisson of excitement at actually getting one over on the grown-ups.
{As I type this I keep remembering just how much pig I am actually delighted to consume...spare ribs, spit-roast, stir fry....so basically I really enjoy the flavour of every type of porcine product barring the sunday roast style...so much drama over so little...}
On with the recipe...
Pork Loin Chops - as many you think your guests will enjoy
Sliced onion - I am of the opinion that you can never have too many fried onions in a dish so visualise how much onion you'd be happy to pile onto your plate then times it by the number of guests
Cream (single or double)/creme fraiche
Cider or apple juice about 200ml but go with the flow
Wholegrain mustard
Olive oil
Seasoning
Slosh some olive oil into a large pan and heat it up, season your chops on both sides and pop them in the pan, fry the meat until it is nicely browned - this might take longer than you think...
Remove the chops and put on a plate nearby, slide your sliced onion into the pan and keep frying, at this point I sloshed some of the cider into the pan to de-glaze it, worked like a charm and gave the onions some extra depth of flavour. Cook the onions until they are all sexy and softening but still with that sweet, edgy body, slosh in the cider and keep to a gentle simmer until the liquid has reduced a bit.
Now add how ever much cream you fancy, some mustard - anything from a heaped teaspoon to a tablespoon according to your taste - and stir through, place the chops into the sauce and let it gently cook for 5-10 minutes, check the seasoning - a little salt might be good here - and put the chops on warmed plates, cover with the oniony sauce and add your veg.
I served boiled new potatoes, spinach and sweetcorn and peas with the pork - the freshness complemented the richness of the pork very nicely.
Verdict...still not that interested in 'straight' pork, I'm actually not keen on what feels to me like the coarseness of the meat. However, my husband was enraptured by it and proceeded to tell me just how much he had missed eating pork...poor, poor cruelly deprived man. Even my eldest ate it all and he is the type of person who minutely examines his food just in case I've maliciously placed something he thinks he doesn't like into it... looks like I'll be cooking this again.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
The Big 4 0
I was 39 in October last year...to save time I thought I'd start stressing about turning 40 early and so set myself a list of things to do and learn and finish.
Foremost on the list was to loose a considerable amount of weight...Unfortunately I have only been even approaching slim a couple of times in my adult life. The most recent was about 6 years ago, after I discovered the rather exotic and very busy double life my then husband was leading and we parted company. My body's response to this was to stop feeling any hunger at all, I lost any and all interest in food and subsisted on hot, sweet tea and roll-ups... mmm healthy. This went on for 3 months and I lost a stone every month without even thinking about it, nothing like a bit of emotional anguish to kick-start your weight-loss plan. Can't say I'd recommend it.
So that was sort of all well and good, every so often I'd get the big bags of clothes that I'd always kept for 'when I lost weight' and I'd be able to fit into some more, good ego boost etc. Unfortunately 2 bouts of what I thought was extreme food poisoning and a trip to the Dr later I found out that I had gallstones...ouch. This continued the weight loss - after all extreme pain after eating anything fatty is quite a good incentive to avoid fat at all costs.
Life then started to look up, I re-met the man who is now my husband, had surgery to remove the stones and got happy...A few years after that and I had my second son so happiness plus pregnancy over-indulgence and all the weight lost returned, bringing reinforcements... Arsington!
Thing is, I really do not want to spend any more time thinking about being fat, I want to be happy in my skin, I want to have a massive party for my birthday and feel that I have succeeded at this one fundamental thing that has over shadowed so much of my life.
I am determined to make my body healthy...27th October 2011 - Bring It On!!!
Foremost on the list was to loose a considerable amount of weight...Unfortunately I have only been even approaching slim a couple of times in my adult life. The most recent was about 6 years ago, after I discovered the rather exotic and very busy double life my then husband was leading and we parted company. My body's response to this was to stop feeling any hunger at all, I lost any and all interest in food and subsisted on hot, sweet tea and roll-ups... mmm healthy. This went on for 3 months and I lost a stone every month without even thinking about it, nothing like a bit of emotional anguish to kick-start your weight-loss plan. Can't say I'd recommend it.
So that was sort of all well and good, every so often I'd get the big bags of clothes that I'd always kept for 'when I lost weight' and I'd be able to fit into some more, good ego boost etc. Unfortunately 2 bouts of what I thought was extreme food poisoning and a trip to the Dr later I found out that I had gallstones...ouch. This continued the weight loss - after all extreme pain after eating anything fatty is quite a good incentive to avoid fat at all costs.
Life then started to look up, I re-met the man who is now my husband, had surgery to remove the stones and got happy...A few years after that and I had my second son so happiness plus pregnancy over-indulgence and all the weight lost returned, bringing reinforcements... Arsington!
Thing is, I really do not want to spend any more time thinking about being fat, I want to be happy in my skin, I want to have a massive party for my birthday and feel that I have succeeded at this one fundamental thing that has over shadowed so much of my life.
I am determined to make my body healthy...27th October 2011 - Bring It On!!!
Thursday, 22 July 2010
MAKE and BAKE Manifesto
In order to encourage my creative ways and heave myself out of this utterly tedious rut I am declaring the Patchwork Pinny Chronicles Make and Bake Manifesto...I shall henceforth endeavour to Make something every week - big or small, complicated or simple, whimsical or eminently practical - I shall produce something new every week. At the same time and in the very same 7-day period I shall also bake (or roast/steam/grill/fry/boil) a new recipe. These will then be immortalised here for me to admire and to spur me on to greater things. HURRAH!
The making will stretch my time management as well as my creative skills and will (I hope) be really enjoyable) the baking is a nifty way to introduce myself to new things. I am a pretty good cook, hardly anyone ever complains, and everyone seems to be adequately nourished. However, it is so easy to fall into a total food rut and churn out the same things over and over again...boooooring.
I shall add a piccy of this week's make - I had a bunting breakthrough - but this week's bake has already been devoured and must live on only in my memory...
Sneaky Moules
I love love love moules marinieres and always gorge on them when we visit my husbands family in the south of france...but in all honesty I hate celery and having to pick the meat out of the shells takes up valuable scoffing time - plus I'm always having to seek a second opinion over the open-ness or not of various shells and thus their level of toxicity...I digress, this is my home-bodged version of moules with not much of the work...but, to my uneducated palate, most of the taste...
Ingredients
2 packs of mussel meat (these were £1 each from Tesco)
double cream
2 small onions (only because I had no big ones...)
large glass of white wine
a big squirt of garlic puree
knob of butter
olive oil
Crusty bread of your choice...
Fry up your diced ( I diced some small and some slightly larger to make it a bit more interesting)onions in butter with a splurt of olive oil and a big squirt of garlic puree until translucent and soft
Pour in most of the wine and let it bubble and reduce a bit, then pour in the double cream until you have enough to make sauce for two. Stir it around and let it reduce a bit again then toss your mussels in, stir then cover and turn down the heat. The mussels are cooked but this heats them up and allows them to add flavour to the creamy sauce. Give it a few more minutes, stirring occasionally. Then when it looks good and tastes good pour your mussels and sauce into two bowls, add a big pile of sliced up crispy bread and some butter and dig in...Lusherooo.
Don't even think about the calories...it's worth it, honest.
The making will stretch my time management as well as my creative skills and will (I hope) be really enjoyable) the baking is a nifty way to introduce myself to new things. I am a pretty good cook, hardly anyone ever complains, and everyone seems to be adequately nourished. However, it is so easy to fall into a total food rut and churn out the same things over and over again...boooooring.
I shall add a piccy of this week's make - I had a bunting breakthrough - but this week's bake has already been devoured and must live on only in my memory...
Sneaky Moules
I love love love moules marinieres and always gorge on them when we visit my husbands family in the south of france...but in all honesty I hate celery and having to pick the meat out of the shells takes up valuable scoffing time - plus I'm always having to seek a second opinion over the open-ness or not of various shells and thus their level of toxicity...I digress, this is my home-bodged version of moules with not much of the work...but, to my uneducated palate, most of the taste...
Ingredients
2 packs of mussel meat (these were £1 each from Tesco)
double cream
2 small onions (only because I had no big ones...)
large glass of white wine
a big squirt of garlic puree
knob of butter
olive oil
Crusty bread of your choice...
Fry up your diced ( I diced some small and some slightly larger to make it a bit more interesting)onions in butter with a splurt of olive oil and a big squirt of garlic puree until translucent and soft
Pour in most of the wine and let it bubble and reduce a bit, then pour in the double cream until you have enough to make sauce for two. Stir it around and let it reduce a bit again then toss your mussels in, stir then cover and turn down the heat. The mussels are cooked but this heats them up and allows them to add flavour to the creamy sauce. Give it a few more minutes, stirring occasionally. Then when it looks good and tastes good pour your mussels and sauce into two bowls, add a big pile of sliced up crispy bread and some butter and dig in...Lusherooo.
Don't even think about the calories...it's worth it, honest.
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