We are addicted.

There is no easy way to say this.

My name is Monika and I am addicted to crochet.

The cat's name is Ferguson and he is even more addicted to crochet.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday evening cruising free patterns to find my next crochet projects - bearing in mind that I already have my next shawl underway.

Of course it would be more underway if Ferguson would stop lying around on it.

Crrrrrrochet. It just rolls off the tongue so easily.

My fingers itch when I don't have the hook in my hand. I have already crocheted one 100g ball of wool on this shawl this morning.

I think I may need help.

Free patterns available here:

http://www.bernat.com/

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php

my current favourite:

http://www.caron.com/ the patterns are well written, easy to follow, rated for ability, the wool estimates are spot on, and best of all there is a good range of free patterns to choose from sorted by project style.

What has happened to common sense?

What has happened to good old fashioned common sense?  Where did it go?  How has it come to have vanished from one generation to the next?  Or is it a geographical thing?  Is it a casualty of modern life?  Do people no longer feel they need common sense and so the latest generation have evolved beyond it?

Am I so archaic to still have a vestige of common sense?


I seem to have spent the whole day dealing with issues directly relating to common sense.  Or lack thereof.

It has been an exceptionally frustrating day.

I have been threatened with solicitors letters for something that I cannot control, i.e. the date of Christmas.

Put quite simply, shouting and ranting at me on the phone will not alter the fact that I cannot get a contractor to work on Saturday because it is Christmas Day.

Nor can I change decades of social policy in the UK and alter the fact that the following Monday will therefore be a Bank Holiday, and so the majority of contractors and financial institutions will also be either unavailable or closed.

Now factor in the inclement weather currently being experienced across the UK and ratchet that rant up by 10.

How can I possibly hope to combat the snow on a personal level?

Silver lining - hopefully the person ranting and raving has now managed to get the stress out of their life, and I know that tomorrow is another day and unlikely to be as horrid as this one.

Time for dinner, and a cuddle from my family, then a couple of hours of kitten fussing.

Finished!!

I did have to add in some black to finish the edges.

I ran out of the pink even with some alterations to the pattern to try to finish it off without changing colour so went and raided the project cupboard and found a mohair style fluffy thin wool and a thicker plain twist, then ran both together to get the extra thickness to match it to the pink felty wool.

I am quite pleased with the contrast actually.

And the big pineapple or shell pattern has come out well even with the thickness of the wool I used.


Have even managed to find my next project but because it is another new crochet stitch I am practising on some scrap wool before starting the new shawl.

Sucked in...

...to an ever increasing degrading spiral of Christmas themed shows on TV.

In fact they only have to have the eponymous C word in the title and I'm wedged in front of the goggle box looking for yet more knit it yourself turkey dinner hints and tips.

This has never happened to me before.

Even as recently as last year I only had to hear those dreaded words that signalled another trip into the lastest dish of the day chef and their pseudo kitchen eating some undercooked poultry with the best extras that Rent a Friends R Us could find on short notice, and I would be cruising the channels for something more interesting to watch - like One Man and His Dog.

But 2010 - oh yeah - this year, I even have TV reminders set for Kirstie, Jamie, Nigella, Gordon, Kirstie again, Kirstie and Phil, River Cottage and bliss of blisses they all get repeated on a Sunday!

I am officially old and officially a saddo - I have square eyes and reams of tips and hints scribbled on the backs of envelopes shoved down the side of the sofa cushions.

In the meantime at least my shawl is nearing completion - it shouldn't be because I have only done half of the pattern, but I am running out of wool.

Third Christmas dinner - a little bit more traditional.

No photos - because I forgot to charge the camera battery.

Today we had creamy mushrooms and a couple of pieces of left over chicken in some puff pastry castles, followed by a roast chicken with some garden potatoes, carrots and cabbage, finished with some traditional mince pies with cream.

For the starter, fry a handful of chopped button mushrooms with a piece of leftover chicken, season with salt and ground peppercorns, then add a splash of chicken stock, about a cupful, then half a cup of cream.  Leave to simmer until the sauce has reduced and thickened, then leave to cool.  I am using some ready made puff pastry castles like these:
 just spoon in the cooled filling, and warm through in the oven for 15 minutes at 150°C before serving.

My roast chicken was simply seasoned, with an added pinch of paprika on the crispy skin.  I added flavour with some thyme stalks from the garden - found this morning when the sun came out and melted away some of the snow.  Just pull the skin away from the breast and push the leafy sticks in the gap.  Drizzle over a little olive oil before roasting to give your gravy a richer finish.

I am pleased to find that my carrots and potatoes have kept well in their new place in the garden garage rather than in the barn like last year.  Although some of my pumpkins are showing signs of rot now, so the chickens got those as a bit of a treat today - did you know pumpkin flesh turns chicken poo orange?  Well it does.

Finally we had some mince pies served with a bit of double cream.  A rare treat this, and a very traditional finish.

If only.

After mince pies we had choccie biccies with coffee.

Hmmmm - be glad when the snow melts - I think a few 7 km walks before Christmas may be in order to fit into my clothes!

Second Christmas dinner party menu and recipe

Had our second Christmas dinner of the season last night and very seasonal it felt too. Snowy weather, fires lit and Thea broken up from college.

Last night's menu:

Selection of nibbles including spicy olives, tomato and mozzeralla, charcutrie platter, tuna and bean salad, squid in spicy sauce and pickled anchovies.

Mexican Lasagne served with corn bread

Fruity jelly with Creme de Cassis



The slightly South American theme came in a flash of inspiration thanks to Nigella Lawson and her Mexican lasagne on the box the other day. Her recipe is here. Mine follows below.

For the sauce:

4 turkey breasts cut into small cubes
2 medium onions roughly chopped
1 yellow pepper (I used some of my preserved peppers under oil and did the frying in the flavoured oil from the jar)
3 cloves of garlic
1 fresh red chili

Fry the above in olive oil together with a teaspoon of ground coriander.  Add more chilli if you want a hotter sauce.  Season.

10 large ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
4 tablespoons of tomato puree
500ml of water
1/2 teaspoon of sugar

Add to the turkey and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes until the tomatoes are soft.

For the lasagne layers:

1 x 400g can of black beans drained
2 x 250g of sweetcorn drained
250g of cheese - I used an emmental style cheese
several lasagna sheets

(I did try to make my own tortillas but they were a dough disaster - hence their metamorphosis into corn bread and substitution with the bog standard pasta sheets)

Mix the beans and corn with cheese and layer with the tomato sauce into a large oven dish.

Bake in the centre of a preheated oven at 180°c for 40 minutes ( or equivalent length of time in the Rayburn - 1 hour or until sufficient of the starter has been consumed and several glasses of bubbles drunk!)

It is snowing again nicely, and we have leftovers for lunch - yummy.

My suggestions to the Olympic committee

for new events.

First up - Competitive freestyle cat stroking.

Second - The speed stack.

And finally - The old biddy dead lift.

take one of these:



and assume the position:




I think I stand a good chance of gold in any one of these events and so I am championing their inclusion for Rio in 2016.

First Christmas dinner of the season

Complete with crackers, plastic toys, glasses of wine and snow.

I love Christmas.

Last night's menu was very French:

Charcuterie platter
Guinea fowl in creamy pepper sauce
Celeriac mash
Chocolate Creme Brulee.

Creme Brulee is not that hard to make, the biggest disaster is if you cook the egg yolks too quickly, they will curdle if the cream is too hot.

500ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g caster sugar
25g vanilla sugar (I just have a glass jar of caster sugar with a vanilla pod in it)
6 egg yolks
4 chunks of rich patissier chocolate

Preheat the oven to 150°c

Break the chunks up and place on a plate in the oven while it preheats to soften.

Bring the cream and vanilla to the boil in a saucepan then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a large heat proof bowl until light and fluffy.

Heat the cream back up to just short of boiling, then pour over the sugar and egg mixture, whisking continuously until it starts to thicken.  For a super smooth creme brulee, you can seive the mixture now.

Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins and place in a bain marie (an oven tray with hot water upto about half way on the ramekins), drop a chunk of chocolate into each ramekin, stir with a skewer to swirl the chocolate through the mixture.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the custard is set but slightly wobbly.  Leave to cool or refridgerate until about to serve.

To finish, sprinkle with caster sugar - and this is where my recipe fell apart last night.  I don't have a chef's blowtorch (Brendan offered me his plumbing one but I declined).  I tried to do the grill version of caramelising the sugar, but it just left the set custard runny.  So looks like a blowtorch is on my wish list now.

Crochet confusion

This is by far the most complicated thing I have ever attempted but I am enjoying the challenge.

I found the pattern here:

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/Accessories/SN0124+Sidewalk+Shawl.htm

via http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com which also has a directory for knitting patterns too.

I think perhaps it would be easier if I was using the wool recommended instead of this thick felted wool, but I just adore the rich cerise colour and the felty feel of it. (Katia Mystery, shade 7655)

Each day I attempt at least the next 3 rows, and slowly but surely it is advancing. I do have to have complete silence so that I can count out loud and have several little reusable stickers that I can attach to the pattern to mark my place in the counting.

yesterday's rows

today's rows added

Too cold to go out

Tried to let the chickens out this morning while it was still -10°C, needless to say they had no intention setting foot out of the coop, not even with the temptation of some nic bread left overs and some cake crumbs.

Everything pool of water is frozen solid and it takes forever to get the rabbits watered with endless trips inside with the watering can.  But funny to watch the ducks and geese break through the frozen top of the pool for a splash around.

With the decorations up, the fires lit, all the lights on because it has been so foggy all day that we can not seen the end of garden, I have managed to get quite a large part of my Lesley Anne Ivory cat cross stitch done.

Large part relatively speaking for a 16 count aida and tiny tiny tiny cross stitches.



This is the one I would really like to do if I could find it on sale somewhere, for mounting on a patchwork quilt.

 Having just googled Lesley Anne Ivory cats, I never realised quite how many pictures she has created.


And then a lovely visit from a neighbour and her new grand daughter, Emma is only 5 months old, and utterly adorable, baby talk in French is a new one on my though, at least goo goo and ga ga sounds the same in any language.