3 Recipes - a meal swap!

With all this crafting recently, I figured I should check out swap-bot once again! I thought I'd do a few quick email swaps first to get me into the swing of things and a recipe swap caught my eye!
Email 2 family favourites to 3 partners. I thought I'd share them with you too.

To start...


Cheese and Tomato Dip

4oz grated cheddar

2oz butter

1 small onion finely chopped

1 level tsp mustard powder

2 level tbsp mayonnaise

1 level tbsp tomato ketchup

1 level tbsp single cream

1 level tsp Worcester sauce

1/4 level tsp thyme

1/4 level tsp cayenne pepper

Serve with bread sticks or crudites.

This may not look like much, but it's the most delicious thing!! Made of (pretty much) store cupboard stuff too, so I can whip up a batch whenever I fancy!
By rights I'm stealing this off MummySew, but its sew YUMMY!

Secondly...


Pork Chops Oriental

1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sherry
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 clove garlic
2 pork chops
1 oz butter
6 oz sliced onion
4 carrots in julienne strips
1 tbsp flour
Half a pint of chicken stock
Parsley to garnish

Blend soy sauce, sherry, garlic and sugar and marinate pork chops overnight.
Drain (but keep marinade) and brown chops in oil and remove.
Cook onions and carrots in butter, add flour and cook for 2 minutes
Gradually add stock.
Pour into serving dish and place chops on top.
Pour over marinade, cover and cook for 1 hour in preheated oven.

Gas Mark 3 or 325 F

Best served with creamy, butter mash potato and a green veg e.g. beans/broccoli (although there are lots of carrots in it already!)

This I do at uni in the slow cooker although historically, Mum used to serve it when I came home tired and bruised after a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. Now its just comfort food :)

and lastly (because everyone needs pudding)...


Cinnamon Plum Pudding

For the pastry:
3oz butter
6oz plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tbsp water

Sieve dry ingredients together.
Rub in butter with hands until texture is like fine breadcrumbs.
Mix in egg and water to form a solid ball.
Leave to stand in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll out and line a 9" flan tin, then stand in the fridge for a further 30 minutes.

For the filling:
1 tsp cinnamon
1oz caster sugar
3 large egg yolks
200mls creme fraiche
50mls milk
1lb of plums de-stoned and cut into 8

Arrange plums (I usually go spiral) on the pastry.
Mix the custard and pour over the plums.
Sprinkle with demerara sugar (roughly 1 tbsp)
Carefully place on middle shelf of pre-heated oven and bake.

Gas mark 6 or 200C
20-30 minutes

I made this recently for MummySew and NannyBake. The plums I used were very wet so while it tasted delicious...the centre was quite sloppy. I might try a few different techniques to avoid this and make the custard set better next time...maybe lower temperature for longer, or blind bake the pastry, or use less plums?? MummySew recommends bigger tin, thinner custard e.g. 12x9" sandwich tin.
Never-the-less...yum scrum!

Photography

I've been looking through the photo's that I've taken since I bought my Nikon J1 in September 2012 and somehow facebook doesn't do them justice. So I've added a line of tabs under the SewGorgeous header...one of which is entitled 'Photography'!!

Along with the new embroidered header, my blogs having a bit of a makeover! The letters remain on the embroidery ring, sew I might add some more stitches in the future (those visible pencil marks are killing me). 

What on earth do I do with these?!

I think they're sew beautiful but I don't know what to do with them! I made them 4 years ago for my art A-level, they were part of a big mossy landscape, but are now lonely in the supplies draw!

Any ideas?

They were actually really easy to do - I made felt balls the regular way (attempted using the tights and washing machine trick which definitely did not work for me) and then wrapped synthetic fabrics and threads (e.g. voile) around each ball, secured with a pin and then used a heat gun to melt away layers of the wrappings to whatever level I liked best. I then used the heat gun with embossing glue and powder to add the metallic shine and some were beaded

Other ideas for these were SEVERE melting, wire wrapping, threading beads on said wire, and I even tried to use washers instead of felt balls which did work but needed extreme patience.

If you don't want a felt ball base, these were started off on metal skewers or needles depending on what size hole you want in your bead.

I love all of these and used them last for pretty A-level things...but now what?

Crochet WIP

This is something that MummySew and I are creating together - a massive mohair granny square blanket! Although the granny squares are giant squares I have to admit.

 We have quite a stash of them now! 16 in fact. Aiming for 25 which should be double bed throw size. 

It works quite well since I can do some in Glasgow or on placement and Mum can do some in Leeds. Better keep at it! 

MummySews previous mohair blanket is so warm and snuggley, despite being crocheted and hole-y, I just had to have one for myself!!

Smelly Christmas Presents!

I spent quite a lot of time on trains and ferries this Christmas for various reasons, and ended up taking a little sewing bag with me to pass the time. I took inspiration from a cool blog called Beedeebabee and made up these brightly coloured lavender bags. 

 I ended up with quite a pile of them!! 

Now I know they're so quick and fun, I'll be going for more detail next time!

Fairy Mice!!

Courtesy of MummySew...what on earth could be better?? She's holding a little silver star *eeep!*. Her pattern was from Alan Dart and he calls them fluffy fairies! I just can't find the pattern online anymore. Found it! He has it for free - he's a genius! Click here

  

On a more simplistic note - felt mice for your christmas stockings! Loving the whiskers, although I unfortunately can't remember where I got their pattern from! Found him! He's a seriously cute mouse tutorial from Rhythm and Rhyme (which is a really lovely blog).

Blogging updates!

Sew, blogger has all these new features (which have probably been there for months) that I haven't spotted before, and I'm attempting a bit of an update! At the same time, were adding MummySew to the blogging world!! Sew excited :D

No posts yet, but watch out! Find her at www.mummysew.blogspot.co.uk 

I'm waiting for inspiration to hit sew I can change my blog header, its neither central nor big enough *sigh*

And just sew I'm not posting without a picture...here's a little stocking filler that I made for mummysew! Lavender bags proudly presented by a mouse family that mummysew made a few years ago. Silly little embroidery that I can do with the limited selection of craft supplies that I take with me to Glasgow. Fun!

Meet Clara!

 MummySew and I created Clara (and Clara's friend) on a course at Carlisle University - we sewed her bodice in multiple layers and then ripped and shredded layers away. Her arms, legs and head were sewed and then her skirt was decorated and fixed with a ribbon and bow.

 She has a few accessories which are forever on the WIP shelf - a pair of long gloves, a wrap and a pair of wings (which need serious button embelishment)!

MummySew will be starting a blog in the new year...watch this space to meet Clara's friend!

Dotties

 So this was my take on dotties!! Well, they started out as dotties but kind of ended up a different kind of thing altogether - unsurprising since I've not done them before. Whatever they are I think they're quite cute! And i liked using up pretty scraps of fabric and painting their faces on felt.

 

 First came the girls...and then the boys!

Yoda (ish)

 My first 3D crochet project!!! Admittedly, he doesn't look much like yoda (no-one seems to be able to recognise him) but I'm chuffed with him :) his toes are cute. His pattern came from happytogether - very good for beginners like me! Takes a bit of getting used to though, working out differences between american and english pattern reading. Hopefully I can hone my skills over 2013!

Spring lambs

I can't even remember where I found the pattern for this little guy, but he's very cute!

I keep making these things but have nowhere to put them! I suppose they're a bit useless...but just fun to make! Always a pain to go back to uni and leave my fancy sewing machine behind...

Cupcake Flags!

Cause they're so blimming expensive in the shops!

22nd...

So today we had both crafting and a Christmassy outing! First a pair of party turtles...I made these for stockings last year and the never quite made it into the blog! Sew cute! There's a free tutorial over on vintagericrac. Note Great Grannies vintage bedthrow in the background!

There's also a host of button fairies around this year...I didn't know you've met these guys yet...like their peers, they have knickers and finery under all their outer garments! Such fun, teeny things to make :)

And then we nipped off into Leeds for dinner and the theatre - The Nutcracker!! Fantastic show as always from the northern ballet and our usual box was cosy and Christmassy.

Comfy Christmas

Christmas at home is bliss! We decorated the WHOLE house, and we've had a crafty time on the way. I think you met our treetop barbie before...well obviously she's back this year!

 

We also found this idea for old christmas cards on pinterest (my new obsession)!  Quite fun to stick on inside doors.

And I collected a million pine cones recently with the man which have been drying out ready for crafty action...watch this space! Meanwhile though, the manky ones ended up on the fire - and smelt amazing!

Recycling Newspaper

Sew, I've been recycling! Found a fantastically detailed instruction guide on how to make these storage boxes. Find the tutorial here in totally green crafts.

Aren't they full of character! For this box (the prototype!) I used felt to bind the edges and brown paper to line with. The felt was days to glue on and wouldn't fray...plus I can pinking shears the edges. To add detail I thought about embellishing with all sorts of things...sequins/buttons/glitter. For now, I used one of the origami paper bows which  I found a tutorial for here on let's create!

I think they'd be fab full of crafty goods, all stood in a row!