... making truffles!

My last couple of posts have been about my crafty gifts for family members. I am going to try to make everyone's presents by hand this year, and am please at my fairly successful start. On Friday, we saw my sister in-law and her husband for dinner, and she loved her embroidery I may or may not have told her if she didn't like her present, I would cry :). We spent most of Saturday with Dave's parents, as his step-mum's birthday was during that week too. She loved her gardening apron, and said she'd be wearing it in the hosue as she thought it was to good for getting muddy! She's quite the seamstress, so it was a big compliment! As well as the apron, I made her some chocolate truffles, which she also really liked! I quite enjoyed the ones I had too!

Chocolate Truffles

makes about 16

200g good quality dark chocolate (mine was 75% cocoa solids)

200ml double cream

1tbsp chocolate liqueur

4tbsp cocoa powder(I used Bournville)

It'll be darker in colour than this, but this way you can see the texture.

• break chocolate into small pieces
• melt in a large bowl (you can use a bain-marie if you want, but I melted it for 5 mins on a medium microwave setting)
• when melted, mix in cream and liqueur
• cover with clingfilm, and put in fridge for about 4 hours(or overnight)

• if left overnight, take out an hour before you want to make the truffles.
• sprinkle cocoa powder in a plate
• roll heaped teaspoons of the mixture into balls
• roll truffles in cocoa powder till lightly coated
• place in paper cases.

They look quite pretty, no?

The good thing about these is that the are simple to make, and you can add lots of things. I made basic ones because they were a gift, and you can't go wrong with dark chocolate, but I'd like to try

• adding 3tbsp chopped crystalised ginger to the mixture
• adding flavoured liqueur - Baileys, orange, maybe creme de menthe.
• adding chopped toasted almonds, and rolling in ground almonds
• rolling in shaved chocolate
• making them with a caramel centre

I sampled a couple of these, and they are very, very tasty!

...a birthday present making machine!

After my epic embroidery marathon yesterday, you'd think I'd take a day off sewing, no? Well, I would, but Dave's stepmum's birthday was yesterday, and I'll be seeing her at the weekend as well as my sister-in-law. I'd already cut all of the bits for her present, so today I set about sewing it together.

Of course, when I was almost finished, my underneath stitches bobbin of thread ran out, and then the uptake thing wouldn't work for about half an hour. I managed to get it working again after some growling and huffing, and this is the (in need of ironing) result.

It's a gardening apron, with two pockets for seed packets and string, and whatever else people use for gardening. The fabric is the Michael Miller print Annie sent me in the pincushion swap, and I had some red stuff already at home. It's backed in the red too, because it looks tidy, and is easier than doing French seams!

In the fridge, I have chocolate truffle mixture firming up, so if they work, I'll post the recipe tomorrow!

...unlikely to do embroidery in the near future

I had a romantic, nostalgic view of embroidery before I started my first ever project. In my head, sitting by the window and sewing with a cup of tea seemed a very good plan, and a bit Jane Austen-ish. Having finished it, I can honestly say I won't be doing anything this complicated for a long time. I stopped thinking it was fun after about two hours, and this took much, much more than that. Today alone I have been sewing for 11 hours pretty much straight.

I am pleased with the result though!

This was originally to be either a tablecloth centre or a cushion cover, but it looks so nice in the hoop I've decided just to leave it as it is. It's for my sister-in-law's birthday, so I am hoping she likes it, It would make all of the time and energy it took worth it! I'll be giving her it this weekend.

In the future, I might attempt some embroidery like Hannah's, or stick to cross stitch! My next project is finishing Dave's step-mum's birthday present, also to be given to her this weekend. For the moment, I think I deserve some blog reading and a cup of tea...

...in love with blogs - the Scottish Edition.

I have been sat on the sofa/my bed for three days due to having broken my bottom at some point over the weekend(It's more technical than that, but that's as much detail as I'm will to broadcast on the internet). For most of that time, I've been thinking ' I should really blog something'. However, I haven't done any crafts, and the only thing I've baked has been eaten by the husband and I.

Something that has kept me a bit sane whilst being pretty much unable to move is reading lots of lovely blogs. I try hard to always update my blogroll, but I often forget and leave out ones I love.I've decided that today, I shall share with you the blogs(and blogging people) I love from Bonnie Scotland, and so without further ado I give you...

... Adventures of a Lady in Training - Written by Vonnie, who happens now to be my boss at The Life Craft, It charts her life as a parent, a wife, a crafter and importantly, a person. I think lots of parents feel they are just parents, but Vonnie seems very much to still be her, which I admire. On her blog you can find stories about being a mum, lots of craft projects, recipes and honesty. I 'met' Vonnie on an internet forum, and our online friendship has evolved into an in person one, and a work based one too.

...Cooking, Cars and Craft - is written by Julie, I am quite proud to say that I very much encouraged the starting of this blog. Julie is someone you can't put in a 'type' box. She's training to be a mechanic, she runs around shooting people with airsoft guns at the weekend, but she also knits, crochets, sews, cooks, bakes and is a parent. She writes about all of this on her blog!

...Conversation Pieces - Zoe's blog is bright and dynamic, and is a mixture of weekly features including 'Weddingnesday' which charts the wedding related things she loves in the run up to and planning of her own, some ' my life' stuff, and lots of lovely design stuff. Zoe and I have bonded over a love of tea, design and ranting about politics on Twitter.

...Hestia's Larder - I 'met' Ali in the comments sections of Belgian Waffle and Facegoop (both of which are also good, though not strictly Scottish). I asked her where in Scotland she was from, having noticed that she mentioned a college no-one outside here would have heard of, and our friendship was formed. She writes about her domestic exploits, stuff she likes, and stuff that annoys her. I want to be Ali if I ever grow up.

...JenWHY's Blog - Jenny is also someone I met in the interweb world, who has become my friend. She to works with Vonnie at The Life Craft. Jenny has a degree in textiles, and has some serious crafting and sewing skills. She started her blog yesterday, and I want to give her shout out, because she's awesome, and her blog is great! She also sells funky tights and hand made clothes on Folksy.

I hope everyone has a look, I think a strong blogging community can only be a good thing. Later in the week, I'll blog about the UK wide blogs I love, and after that a worldwide one! I might even do a wee one on family blogs...

... here, if a bit late.(some political stuff covered)

So, as a certain blogger (and friend) has noted, I haven't posted in over a week.

Part of the reason is that Dave and I have been trying to rework our finances a bit to make life a bit easier for us- renting here and still having our Paisley flat is making things very tight and quite stressful, and we are trying to loosen them. It's taking a wee while, but we are getting there (and we aren't going to starve or anything, so don't worry).

The other part is that I've wanted to blog about the election all week, and every day has just added more stuff it want to say. I've being consumed by the election, and progressively more and more dismayed, as anyone of you who follows me on twitter will have noted. It seems that sometimes it's easier to say something in 140 characters. This post may be a bit jumbled.

The last time I posted about the election, it was about being unsure of who to vote for. In the end, I voted SNP, because they deal with things I think are important, and in my heart of hearts, I didn't feel I could vote Labour. I'm still glad I voted for who I did, because they do a good job of running Scotland, and I'd like them to have more input at Westminster.

Fast forward a few days, and with the whispers of a Lib Dem-Tory coalition, I was just hoping it wouldn't work. Labour have done alot of things I don't agree with, but they are definitely the lesser of two evils. I got home from work last night and switched on BBC News, and I sort of wish now I'd just switched it back off again. The previous day, having seen that Labour and Lib Dem were in talks, I dared to hope that the outcome would be a good one. Yesterday, I cried at the honesty and integrity evident in Gordon Brown's departing speech, and then out of anger that people have so quickly forgotten the result of the last period of Tory government. I feel the best the UK can hope for now really is that Lib Dem really push their ideals in parliament, or that there is another election soon.

I realise that I was voting in a general election within the union and some may think I'm unjust in saying this -as I vote SNP and therefor partially for independence I think it's fair that I do - in Scotland, the Tories have one seat out of 59. ONE. How can they have a mandate to govern us? Scottish people(along with anyone working in mining, steelworks or shipbulding in the rest of the UK, and anyone in need) were badly affected by the last Tory government, and clearly haven't forgotten. Whilst we are obviously represented by our chosen MPs, there is a widespread anger here that we are stuck with a government that doesn't speak for us, coupled with anger of people who put faith in the Liberal Democrats and have been betrayed. I can't help but wonder if yesterday Scotland took a large step toward independence.

So, that's my stuff. How is everyone else?

...experimenting with spices (and some random weekend babble)

So, Friday was payday for Dave, which means it's time for the monthly shop. At the beginning of each month, we try to buy enough food to last most of the month. We buy milk, bread and eggs as and when we need them, and if I happen on a recipe that has an ingredient I can't substitute, I'll get that, but mostly, we manage on what we buy at the beginning of the month. We rely fairly heavily on spices for making things interesting, so on Saturday, we did a big stock up, and bought a pestle and mortar.

Sadly, I have to admit that they came from Tesco, because they do uber-bags of spices in the World Foods section for very cheap, and the Indian shop near us has stopped stocking them. I was of course dying to use my new shiny cooking thing the minute I got home, and we had most of the ingredients for Bombay potatoes, except Garam Masala. A quick Wiki search showed I had some of the ingredients, so I set about making my own!

Garam Masala Mix

1tsp black peppercorns

1tsp cloves

1tsp cumin seeds

1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp cardamom

1tsp nutmeg

1tsp ginger

1tsp mustard seeds

• grind in mortar with pestle till spices are a fairly fine powder

The Bombay potato recipe is Jamie Oliver one I found online, my only changes were frying two onions sliced into rings before the spice mix, and using 3tbsp of tomato puree and a pint of water at the cooking for 15 minutes stage. They ended up looking like this, and tasting very good! I'm going to experiment more with the spices in the Garam mix.

A couple of weeks ago, we were at Dave's parents house having tea, and worked out that we haven't had any ready-meal type stuff(other than fresh pizzas) since before Christmas, which makes me happy, but as I said above we want to make a more concerted effort to buy locally, from independent shops. This weekend is the first we've spent in Dundee for a while, so we had a look on the interwebs for farm shops, and found the site for Turriff's. We went today, and got lots of veg, some fruit, eggs and cheese for £12!

One of the other things we bought from Tesco was a big pack of rice noodles and some coconut milk. We had some thai bits leftover from last moths shop, so I thought green thai noodles with veg would do nicely for tea this evening. Out came the pestle and mortar again, and I set to grinding u the things for thai green curry paste found on the BBC food website, where there was an option of ingredients, I used lime zest and soy sauce, and I omitted the galangal leaves (which I will be on the lookout for).

Thai Green Curry Noodles with Veg

100g rice vermicelli noodles

2tbsp Thai Green Curry Paste

2 cloves garlic, squished

3 spring onions, chopped finely

2 large carrots, diced finely

a handful of green beans, chopped

1tbsp soy sauce

250ml coconut milk

• cook noodles according to instructions(generally pour over boiling water and leave for 5 mins)
• set frying pan/wok on medium heat
• add curry paste, garlic and veg(excluding a little of the spring onion to pan, and stirfry for 5 minutes
• add soy and stir in well
• add coconut milk, and cook, stirring frequently for 5 minutes
• add in cooked noodles, stir in to coat with sauce, cook for a few minutes
• serve with a sprinkle of raw spring onions

Dave commented that ' it smells good, and it looks like it should be in a magazine about eating healthily'. Afterward he asked if there was more, so that must have been a good thing!

Other than the spice experiments, I've been embroidering more. It is taking a very long time, but instead of random blobs of red, I have now embroidered a whole flower!

I've also listened to the radio, watched Blackadder and East is East, done some reading, planned some more crafting, done some housework and drank alot of tea.

How is everyone else enjoying the weekend? Does anyone have Monday off too?