five things on a Friday

1. Crocheting!

Here’s the somewhat eccentric thing I was crocheting at the end of last year. It felt slightly weird to be crocheting a cover for a cafetiere to sprout mung beans, but when I started to blog people were all over crocheting covers for wooden coathangers. So perhaps it’s not that strange! (Eccentric crochet first mentioned here.)

I wanted to try sprouting mung beans in a cafetiere, as I’ve seen it can result in really plumptious beansprouts. (Apple really doesn’t like that word. It’s very red and wiggly underneath. Well Apple, Google says it’s real and has a pronounciation guide, it’s not a Rachel Special.) I started them on Monday and so far I can’t see that they’re looking any more impressive than they did when I sprouted them in a soup mug, covered with a piece of muslin and secured with an elastic band… We will see…

I’ve also been doing some proper crochet. I’ve dug out my Ana Lucia shawl, found some notes on the pattern and realise to my shock that they were written in October 2019. This IS going to be FINISHED this year.

It’s further on now, with some very nice charcoal stripes, but I’ll wait for a brighter day to take some updated photos. It’s grey, grey, grey.

2. Baking

Think I’ve invented pizza topped sourdough focaccia!

Sun dried tomatoes, green olives, a thin spread of red pepper pesto and a sprinkle of mozzarella. The SD proved overnight in a bowl in the fridge waiting to become something last Sunday. A piece was so tasty eaten with a fruity crunchy red cabbage slaw, with the last of my Christmas dressing (dijon, honey and clementine, instead of lemon juice) dressing and topped with omega seed mix.

Lucky dip cookies from a Good Housekeeping magazine in March 2017. Recipe can be seen here.

I’ve just used up the rest of the cracking nuts and chocolate chips from Christmas, with some desiccated coconut, raisins and a few more of those mixed seeds. They haven’t been tested yet. Soon!

3. Sprouting

A spicy mix of red cabbage, broccoli and radish volcano, my first sprouts of the new year.

Butternut squash, sweet potato and chickpea curry, with roasted cherry tomatoes and a handful of sprouts on top. Warming winter meal.

4. Walking

It’s always an effort to walk when it’s cold and grey, but look what a lovely day it was when I took these photos last week. You’ve got to get out there whatever the weather, but particularly when it’s this blue. The snowdrops are already up and in bud, I should go back soon because they’ll be open now. Beauties.

5. Reading

Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene. Very much of its time, partly making me cringe, partly making me smile. I thought I should read one of his novels.

I’ve been listening to Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes but I’ve run out of hours on Spotify, so I am waiting for my new allowance. I could get the library book, in fact I was next in the queue on Libby, but I sent it back. I’m really enjoying the narration.

I’ve been approved to read a proof copy of the forthcoming accompanying book to the BBC series The Repair Shop. It looks interesting. As new converts to the show (after it’s been on for about a hundred years) I spend evenings wiping my face with mascara coated tissues. Every time one of them wells up, I do too. Then when the big reveal happens and they start boo-hooing I have tears rolling down my face. It is the devil‘s work! Can’t someone bring something in which THEY once bought and is now damaged? Do we really have to have every item loaded with some sentimental family significance? It won’t stop me watching, but I’m definitely going to go through a lot of tissues this year.

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What are you up to? How about sharing a few things?

Lastly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

:: CROCHET

Awww just look at him! So cute already for a headless Gingerbread man!

It’s been years and years since I did any amigurami, so I’ve forgotten things that I used to know. You’re meant use a hook smaller than the yarn band states, so that it’s tighter, but he looks okay doesn’t he? I’d forgotten how kind of fiddly it can be, plus stuffing the legs and body and then carrying on crocheting is interesting. It sort of drags the whole thing down a bit on the hook. But I love him so it doesn’t matter!

I had luckily remembered that Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches website (sadly it’s not current anymore) used to say not to bother with the ends as they can just stay inside of the pieces. Hurray! Minimal darning!

Does anyone remember me making Mr Scrappy? Here he is in all his mischievousness. He’s very much a part of the family still. He’s a right character…Over the years he’s won the Cannes Film Festival, learnt to ride a motorbike, was at war with the frogs in our old garden, was tempted to join some very dodgy characters and still parties like it’s 1999 when we’re away. I’m not even making it up, or trying to be cute, he really does!

:: BOOK TALK

My new audio book Blackberry & Wild Rose is by Sonia Velton and was her debut novel. I’m only at the beginning of chapter three, but I like the two narrators. The story is set in London’s East End, in Spitalfields, amongst the Huguenot silk weavers of the late 18th century. I have wondered the streets of Spitalfields and can picture the area as I read about elements of its historical past.

:: DINNER

Tonight I will be making a lasagne with a rich red wine ragù and using fresh lasagna sheets. Someone has already uncorked a bottle of claret for me to pop some into the meat sauce. We’ll drink the rest with dinner. A first using fresh sheet and I suspect that I will not go back to the solid as concrete dried sort. I love Friday nights!

:: SLOW VLOG

I absolutely love Country Life Vlog on You Tube. I watched This Film thanks to Pip for sharing. You’ll need a quiet place to watch and the volume up for all the lovely sounds in this film of the filmmakers’s Grandparents living a rural life in Azerbaijan. (No music, so refreshing!) Just marvel at the egg technique cracking technique. Notice how there’s not a single piece of plastic. If you don’t also fancy making some sort of dough afterwards I’ll be amazed.

Here’s some info about who they are, where and how the account came about last year.

:: CAKE

Absolutely delicious eaten warm or cold. We ate it for dessert after Sunday lunch, with spoonfuls of creamy crème fraîche. I used huge juicy fresh raspberries grown in Kent. As you see I placed them on top of all the cake mixture rather than try to mix them in. This way they didn’t sink right to the bottom, or get broken up by a spoon. I would definitely make this again.

The recipe is from Nigella’s Simply Nigella book. Message me if you can’t get hold of the recipe. It’s not on her site, but there are various blog versions.

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My wishes for the weekend are to go on a train journey and see a film at the cinema. My fingers and toes are crossed!

What are you planning?