Smart-arse

Picture the scene.  I'm in the kitchen preparing lunch, when I hear a scratching sound on the back of the kitchen door.  When I push the door open, I see Violet is drawing in white chalk all over it.

Me: "What are you doing?"

Violet: "Drawing"

Me: "What's that?"  (pointing to chalk scribbles she's created on the door)

Violet: "a door"

Flippin toddlers - they're got an answer for everything! 

Made me laugh though and let's face it, a chalk drawing on a door is far better than finding she's replicating a Picasso on her bedroom wall using permanent marker!  But, I suppose she'd have a smart-arse retort for that too.

Yesterday I rescued some Daffs and Tulips, which were looking rather forlorn in a bucket at the Supermarket.  Today they're looking much happier:

And they're giving me something nice to look at seeing as the weather is so bad again today.

I'm off in search of some Rhubarb later on - I've got some great recipies that I'm dying to try out, I'm especially looking forward to making some Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam.  Doesn't that sound fantastic?  The other recipe is for a Rhubarb & Orange Cake.

You can find both recipies below so that you can try them out too. Enjoy.

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RHUBARB & VANILLA JAM

(makes 3 x 1lb jars) - and apparently it's easy :0)

Ingredients
1kg/2lb 4oz Rhubarb (this is the weight after they've been trimmed), cut into 3cm chunks
1kg/2lb 4oz Jam Sugar (or 1kg Caster Sugar plus 1 x 8g sachet pectin)
2 Vanilla Pods, halved lengthways
Juice of 1 Lemon

1.  Put a small plate in the freezer.  Put the Rhubarb into a preserving pan or your largest saucepan with the sugar and halved Vanilla Pods.  Heat gently, stirring, until all the sugar has dissolved, then squeeze in the Lemon Juice and increase the heat.

2.  Boil for about 10mins, skimming off the scum as you go (the fruit should be soft).  Test for setting point by spooning  a little onto your chilled plate.  After 1-2 minutes, push your finger through the jam - if the surface wrinkles it is ready, if not, keep cooking for 2 min intervals, testing in between (or if you have a sugar thermometer it should reach 105c).

3.  Once the jam is ready, let it cool for about 15 mins before ladling into warm sterilised jars and sealing.

This will keep for upto 6 months in a cool, dark place.

This recipe was taken from an old copy of BBC Good Food magazine.

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RHUBARB & ORANGE CAKE

Ingredients

400g Rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2cm chunks (if fresh Rhubarb is unavailable use tinned instead)

200g Caster Sugar

150g Butter, softened

2 Eggs, lightly beaten

75g Self-Raising Flour

Half tsp Baking Powder

100g Ground Almonds

Grated zest of 1 small Orange, plus 2 tbsp juice

25g Flaked Almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 190c.  Grease a round (23cm) springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.  Place the Rhubarb in a bowl and cover with 50g of the Sugar.  Leave for 30 mins while you prepare the rest of the cake.

2.  Beat together the remaining Sugar and the Butter, then whisk in the Eggs.  Using a metal spoon, gently fold in the Flour, Baking Powder and Ground Almonds, then stir in the Orange zest and juice.

3. Stir the Rhubarb and its sugary juices into the cake mixture and spoon into the prepared tin.  Place on a baking tray, sprinkle over the Flaked Almonds and bake for 25 mins.  Reduce the temperature to 18oc and cook for a further 20-25 mins, or until firm. 

Can be stored in an airtight container for 3-4 days

I picked this recipe up from Watrose goodness knows how long ago.

How's your geography?

Well I found out that mine is appalling.  It's all Little Tin Bird's fault.  A couple of weeks ago she mentioned a games website called Sporcle and me being the curious soul (nosey bugger) I am, I decided that I'd go and check it out. So I tested myself on the countries of Europe, then the states in America, the flags of Europe, the flags of the world and the countries of the world.  Oh my, I'm ashamed to confess that my knowledge was terrible.  I was especially poor on the countries of South America and Africa.  I even tested the other half when he came home - and for the record, he was just as bad as I was, though he did do rather well at the flags of Europe.
I consider myself quite well travelled (I've even visited the small principality of Liechtenstein when I was on my jaunt around Europe 8 years ago, which I'm ashamed to say, was totalling unknown to me before I started planning my trip).  So there I was feeling totalling ashamed about my lack of knowledge when the lovely lady over at Quilt While You're Ahead spoke about a great website called http://www.postcrossing.com/.  Basically, you register your details with them (it's free by the way), it gives you upto 5 addresses at a time (anywhere in the World), for you to send postcards to.  You're given an ID code to write on the postcards you send, and when the recipient receives your postcard, they register it with postcrossing and then you start to receive postcards yourself from different countries too.  I thought this would help me gain better knowledge of the countries of the World and maybe make a few extra friends along the way.  So I registered and I've been given people in Russia, China, USA, Latvia and The Netherlands to send postcards to.  There was a little information given about each person, which was a help in 4 out of 5 of them because it listed their interests and basically told me what sorts of postcards they'd like to receive i.e. churches, mountains, local history.  One of them wanted me to use small nomination stamps, which leads me to think that they collect stamps.  However, the lady from Russia didn't give much information at all except for the fact that she's young and 'is living alone, now'. She'd also posted a very 'sexy' shot of herself on her profile.  Well, what do you think of that?  I know what I thought 'I think she's going to be very disappointed when she gets a postcard from a 37 year old English Woman', that's what I thought.  Anyway, I'll send my postcards and see what happens.  When I'm next in town I'm going to pick up one of those cheap World maps from The Works so I can see exactly where I'm sending and receiving postcards from.  It'll fun if nothing else won't it?

Chicken Lasagne

I love picking up new recipies from magazines, and more recently, other people's  blogs, especially when they're not too complicated and long winded.  So I thought it only right that I share one of my favourite dinners, which is so easy to put together.  If I remember correctly I origianlly picked the recipe card up from Waitrose many moons ago and have been making and enjoying it ever since.  Even my extremely fussy other half likes it so it must be pretty tasty.

Ingredients:
250g Spinach (I normally just buy a medium sized bag)
250g pot of Ricotta cheese
Small jar of Green Basil Pesto (about 150-190g)
2-3 cooked chicken breasts - sliced.
500g pot of Napoletana sauce
Mozzarella
Parmesan - grated

1.  Preheat oven to 200c.  Place the spinach in a colander over the sink and pour over a kettle of boiling water to wilt the leaves.  Leave to cool, then squeeze out all the excess liquid with your hands.  Then chop it up roughly and set to one side.

2.  In a large bowl, mix together the Ricotta and Pesto until combined.  Then add the chopped spinach and mix it all together.

3.  Put some lasagne sheets in the bottom of a dish and layer half the chicken slices on top.  Then add a layer of half the Ricotta/Spinach & Pesto mixture. And then more lasagne sheets.

4.  Pour over about a half of the Napoletana sauce, sprinkle with some Mozzarella then add the remainder of the chicken.  Add another layer of the Ricotta/Spinach & Pesto mixture. Top with more lasagne sheets.  Then add the rest of the Napoletana sauce, the remaining Mozzarella and finally grate some Parmessan over the top.

5. Place in the oven for about 35-40 mins, until bubbling and golden.

I love to eat this with a side of Rocket leaves and Parmesan shavings - Yum.

A very good start to the weekend

This was waiting for me on the doormat outside my flat this morning:

And what's inside?

My prize - Yay!

Can you remember me winning this blog competition at the beginning of last week?  Well, here's my wonderful prize - Knitted Flowers by Nicky Epstein. 

Here's a little sneeky peek at what's inside.

Ooooooo & Ahhhhhh

It was the very generous Leslie over at A Friend to Knit With who ran the competition, and I was one of fortunate few who won.  I'm a huge fan of Leslie's blog, and I'm kinda jealous that she can knit an entire cardie in just 2 weeks (it's madness).  Leslie comes across as such a warm and generous person so there's no wonder she has so many loyal follows.  Thank you Leslie for running the competition and for your beautiful blog. Long may it continue :0)

I'll be flicking through the pages of my prize tonight when Madam Violet has finally gone to bed - I think that my decision to buy her a pair of Minnie Mouse Sunglasses on the spur of the moment today was abit of a mistake as she's now gone into Hypermode.

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So, onto other things.  As you know it was the other half's birthday yesterday and I promised him Chocolate Cake.  And, here it is - complete with rainbow sprinkles and Woody:

I did lick the Chocolate frosting off the spoon and it was utterly yummy.

Anyways, I'm now off to try and remove Minnie Mouse Sunglasses from my child's head and pack her off to the land of nod.   Wish me luck, there may be tears.

Something to think about

Joy has given me something to thing about - to expand the 'about ' section of my blog and basically let any visitors know more about me and even see what I actually look like (that photo I posted on my blog yesterday of me fast asleep on the sofa wasn't one of my best).
I can understand why bloggers would like to hide their identity and I totally respect that, but I'm wondering why I'm hiding mine.  I'm going to go away and give this some serious consideration before I do - so watch this space and hopefully you'll be seeing more of me (not in the naked sense though).

It's the other half's birthday today so I need to put my backside in gear and start baking a celebratory cake for him. I'm thinking of giving the Chocolate Layer Cake in my Primrose Bakery Cookbook a go seeing as he is a chocoholic.  Too much chocolate for me though, but I'm sure he'll be able to eat the entire thing himself.

Eliza

I've just been reading Petit Filoux's blog this morning.  She's taken up a new 'weekend job' walking dogs from a nearby rescue centre.  What a great way to volunteer your time. Anyway, it got me thinking of my dog, Eliza the Chocolate Labrador, which we sadly had to have put to sleep when she was only 3 and a half years old.  Unfortunately she had a condition called Megaesophagus Myasthenia Gravis, which would have been treatable if the vet had diagnosed it in time, but very sadly she caught pneumonia before treatment could start and became too ill for anything to be done.  She was a completely mad dog , but she was my completely mad dog and she would have made Violet a wonderful friend to grow up with.

Here's one of my favourite photos of her, which was taken not long after I came out of hospital with Violet.  As you can see mother was completely shattered so decided to have a little nap on the sofa whilst Violet slept.  Cheeky Eliza decided that she'd join us too.

Yippee - the back is finally finished

Whilst Violet snoozes at the side of me, I think I'll just do a bit more knitting..