Leon Cookbook

 Dave often buys very unexpected, but awesome presents. After declaring that we weren't doing presents this Christmas, he changed his mind and went out shopping, thankfully hours before the pre Christmas Tier 4 lockdown!!

One of the presents he came back with, was a Leon cookbook. I've only eaten at Leon a few times - mainly as I never eat fast food - and am not usually a fan of cook books. I tend to find a recipe I like, only to discover that it contains 7 million ingredients, I've never heard of most of them and only have 3 in the cupboard. 

So I was swayed with this one, when the first recipe I opened the book on was Sweet Potato Falafel. It sounded so good and I had every ingredient (of which there weren't too many) already in the cupboard, aside from gram flour. Thankfully, after the great flour shortage of March/April 2020, I knew that the shop across the road sells gram flour, so that was incredibly easy to locate, and I was set to go!

I also then decided to make Leon Gobi to go with it, as I already had everything for that too (aside from turmeric, which I've since bought!)

These were both incredible! They tasted expensive, so many flavours, and also conveniently Vegan. Perfect timing for making an effort towards Veganuary. 

The next recipe, which Dave was drawn to immediately, was the ketchup. As we're not allowed  out, what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, than make ketchup. We get through a lot of it, and as I insist on buying it in glass, not plastic, it doesn't come in big enough bottles for him!!

It was well worth the effort!! It's less sweet and more spiced than regular ketchup and so good!!

We next tried the Rogan Josh and I decided to attempt naan bread with it too. The curry was quite long winded to cook, but more in a 'do this then leave for 30 mins' way, so not too time consuming!

Naan bread, it turns out, is way easier to make then I expected. Why have I never made it before!!

It looks beautiful as well as containing lush recipes!!

Cardamom rice pudding. Our milkman has started selling cream in glass jars so perfect timing!! 

I've also tried the falafel with butternut squash instead of sweet potato, and although it was a bit softer (I added more flour) it was equally as tasty!!

There are still so many more recipes to try! I'm also a big fan of the Brazilian beans, Pilaff Rice, and the Cauliflower, Almond & Turmeric Soup. The problem is to choose what to try next!!

Merry Christmas Banners

I know, I know, it's only October, but if I need to sew all those letters, I need to start now.

Last year I made these banners in Red and Green, and Black and White. Any suggestions for more options....

Christmas 2016

Wow Christmas 2016 was fantastic! I'm still recovering and frantically sewing to build up my stock again for the new year! Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported me and bought something - it makes me so happy to see people enjoying my creations!

Here are some photos from some of my Christmas markets....

Christmas Paper Crafting

A few months ago, I was asked to make some paper Christmas decorations for a Christmas photo shoot. Although I mainly specialise in sewing and knitting, I LOVE working with paper, I don't do it often, or my house would be filled with paper decorations, which would not make my boyfriend happy, as he already thinks we have far too much 'stuff' in the house! So I was very excited to have an opportunity to make lots and lots of paper decorations.

Here are some photos...

I also made some giant crackers, which required a lot of maths early in the morning!!

Christmas Shoebox Time!

Yay! It's that time of year again when I am allowed to be buying Christmas presents without it seeming too early as I need to buy things for my Christmas Shoeboxes!

I planned to do 2 boxes this year, but as usual got far too excited shopping and have ended up doing 4. Here are some of my favourite finds for the boxes:

Mini connect 4, a giant pencil sharpener and cats cradle!

Boden Knitted Baubles (& Reindeer & Robins)

Way back in June I was asked to knit some decorations for the Boden Christmas catalogue. It seems like so long ago now but the catalogue has now been published and here are some photos or my creations.....

Here are my reindeer and robins...

Wow that was a lot of knitting!!

Do they know it's Christmas time at all - well yes probably.

I was at my work Christmas party last night and at the end of the night, all of the usual Christmas cheese came on. I was very quite drunk, but got a little bit into the lyrics of Band Aid.

I was obviously at the point of drunkeness when I got a little too into the lyrics and started to think well actually they're a bit ridiculous. So I refused to sing along.

Now I realise all song lyrics are a bit ridiculous, but one one of my pet hates is people to referring to Africa as a whole. I have a friend who always says 'Oh when I went to Africa' and I always say 'You went to Uganda!'. He'd never say, oh I went to Europe, when he was off to France, so why should it be the same for Africa.

So it annoys me when the lyrics say things like 'There won't be snow in Africa at Christmas' as Africa is so massive, that it's entirely different in every country. And actually, there will in some countries. I've been to Morocco just after Christmas and there was plenty of snow in the mountains - we even went skiing.

(Skiing in Morocco)

Similarly the 'Do they know it's Christmas time at all?' Well yes. About 40% of the Africa population is Christian and so Christmas is one of the most important events in the Christian calendar. Even if they don't celebrate it in the same was as us, with a tree and presents, Christmas is still a time of family and giving and most Christians will try to go to church and celebrate on Christmas day.

(Christmas in Namibia - 2009)

Similarly, the bit about 'where nothing ever grows' only really applies to a very small percentage of Africa areas, and even Ethiopia, which is was written about, is very fertile in the west of the country.

(Blue Nile Falls in Ethiopia)

(Eating wild peas on a walk in the Highlands in Northwest Ethiopia)

So there we go, rant over, but this is one Christmas song I won't be listening to if I can help it this Christmas.