Old School.....

I am going to steal some lines from  STAR WARS to start this post.....

Long, long ago

In a Galaxy

Far, far away ..

Before the age of 

computers, laptops

androids and apples devices

(please pretend this is receding into the page- to get the full effect)

( oh - and sing da da tah da da da)

We

had ....

TYPEWRITERS

I remember spending time with my mother in her office at her work, I played under her desk and she would be typing. Even now I remember marveling at how fast she could type. The  furious clackity clack of those keys was like a speeding train. The rhythm of it sometimes lulled me to sleep and when I was big enough she would let me have a ' go'  on her new electric Olivette typewriter. When I hit High school typing was one of the subject girls had to take. I hated typing as the teachers placed a small tablecloth thingy over your hands and you had to learn to 'touch' type, that is typing without looking at your hands, while reading.  It was a disaster for me.... I was certainly not my mother and gave typing up as a bad job as soon as I could.

As life would have it, one of my first jobs entailed typing, I told the interviewer  that I could type 60 words a minute - so that I could get the job.  I rushed home to  mom, who TRIED to help me learn to type.. again.... A hopeless task! Somehow I managed to whack out a few letters with the help of Tippex(a corrective fluid) and when all else failed I took work  home to mom......(Thank you Mommy!) 

Where is this all going... Well a few weeks ago, I came across an antiques shop in Midlands called Treasures and Trash. I walked into one of the rooms and stepped back in time... The room was filled with typewriters. Beautiful pale green, blue and really old black machines. Some in pristine condition and some really old ones. I gingerly placed my finger on the keys of one, and the rhythm of A S D  F H J K L came back immediately, so many memories came flooding back to  me -  the smell my mothers cigarettes in her office as she bashed away at the keys, the sound of girls laughing and chattering in our class room, typing out recipes for my first cook book and my tiny office in the back of a furniture store.......

As you can well imagine I bought one immediately. A green one like the one from my memories.... like my mom's one!

I put in on display in out kitchen  area, After a few days Little Madame  asked what it was. Remember she was born a few years ago,  into a world of technology  that boogles us 'old' folks minds. We got some paper out, I showed her how to roll it in, and then showed her how if you whacked(I had forgotten how hard you had to push the manual keys down) an A - it would magically appear on the paper in front of you.......Squeals of delight ensued! She was having such fun. She said it was a lot more fun than the ipad and spent the entire afternoon bashing out stories!

It's funny to me how life is somehow a circle, as I sat next to my baby I could not help remembering sitting next to my mother at our dining room table 40ish years back, squealing and laughing in delight as words magically appeared on a piece of paper. I feel some how that our minds are filing cabinets, all the memories go in to a file.  At the right time, something will trigger them, the drawer will slide open and they all rush back out at you, making you smile.

Memories are happy things, that you smile at, memories can be triggered by so many things, smells, places, food and in this case a simple old school typewriter. I loved remembering my 'mom' and our typing days, however in years to come I will have one more memory to add to this simple machine. A hot autumn afternoon, laughing as my Little Madame typed 'I love you mommy! ' ....xxx 

Sugar and Spice....

This is not a post about food..... contrary to what the title is, I could not think of a name for this post because I truly have no idea what to call this cute little jersey-jumper-shrug thing. It is from the simply crochet magazine.....Possibly my favorite magazine in the whole wide world. now as you know I prefer crocheting little amagurimi things, and blankets I love blankets. There is always a blanket in a basket somewhere or an idea for a blanket bouncing about it my head. I have a very sad bunch of blocks all stacked up and waiting to be finished...... but that is a story for another post.

Back to Sugar and Spice.....

Little Madame was sitting with me when I was ohing and ahing of the articles in this magazine and as I turned the page she ohed too(my computer has lots of red lines under the oh' s and ah' s but I am going to plug on) She asked if I would make it for her. Now besides a shawl (or the occasional mitten) I have never seemed to make clothing. A few days later she asked whether I had started her Sugar and Spice jersey thingy yet. (see -  even she did not know what to call it)

I got all the yarn out and let her chose her own colours, then  got down to business. It all started from the neck and you worked your way down. I was as always in this magazine, a easy to follow pattern. It also looked pretty really quickly, the colours that Little Madame had chosen blended well. I actually thought it looked like Cleopatra's jeweled collar.......

Double crochet made this little jersey thing come together really quickly. I made it slightly longer at Little Madames request. She said she would feel cold if it didn't cover her bottom.... Go figure? but very soon I was crocheting around the entire jersey to neaten it all off. it looked just like the pretty picture and it fitted her perfectly.

The most difficult part of this .... oh lets just call it a jersey... OK?  So the most difficult part was getting little Madame to agree on a ribbon to tie it together. I liked the orange and she like blue.... we compromised on the pink.

Now after all the mad rush to get it finished, has she worn it yet? No.......But she says she will, and I know that one day soon , as winter slowly makes its way down to our little fishing village, she will pop out of her room with it on, probably with green tights, red shoes and a multi coloured tulle skirt - but that's her style and that's fine by me....xxx

Nutter Butter

I am fully into making my own food at the moment. I keep reading all these scare mongering stories on the interweb at the moment. It seem that everything you put into your mouth and body is full of E numbers, genetically modified this or that. Not to mention food being washed in bleach and chlorine - EEEEKKKK

I already make all my own jams, and there are only home made biscuits in the biscuit jar. My Veggie garden is rocking,  I have sourced a great organic butcher in the area(for those of you who live in the fishing village - Hope Butchers) But  I decided I needed to up my game....

So I bought a Yoghurt maker- the process of making yoghurt is really easy, in actual fact you don't even need a machine, but I like kitchen gadgets. Home made yogurt is however very different from store bought, it is slightly sour and NOT sweet. I add berries and vanilla and BAM - , you have a great healthy flavoured yogurt!

A Bread maker - What a winner. no kneading or waiting, you literally put all the ingredients into the machine and press play. two hours later you will know your bread is ready when the delicious smell of fresh bread hit yours nose.

And recently a Butter churner - I will do a post on the butter churner as I am wildly excited about said gadget but only bought it a few days ago and haven't tried it yet.

As usual I have gone off on a tangent.  This post is about PEANUT BUTTER. my favorite thing to put on warm home made bread. The other day,  in passing LSO had mentioned to me that I should try making some. I, of course was keen to rise to the challenge and went to my go place Pintrest to see how it was done..... It is really simple and the results are spectacular, that is if you love PB

So simple in fact, that you need two things - Peanuts and a food processor.

  

Now all you do is put the peanuts into the processor and press play..... then have patience. I bought a bag of peanut bits from our local bake shop. They were a little more expensive than peanuts in a shell, but honestly who want to shell peanuts? Oh I also did the peanuts in batches....

If you look at the above pictures you will see the various stages, they grind down, then sort of clump together - at this stage, I said to LSO that it wasn't going to work.... But suddenly, if formed a big ball of peanut yumminess, then started to cream - BAM - PEANUT BUTTER! Creamy yummy delicious PB! If it hadn't happened so fast I would have had time to say TA DAH! It was a real TA DAH moment!

We decided to try a few different flavours:  

JAR 1 - a tiny bit of salt

JAR 2 - a tablespoon of  organic brown sugar

JAR 3 - 1 tablespoon each of honey and coconut oil

JAR 4 - a couple of cashew nuts (LSO loves cashews)

Now you might look at all of this and say why add sugar and oil when you are wanting something pure? Well,  making it this way, you have control over HOW much and WHAT goes into your PB. 

  

 

If you will bear with me, I am going to stay on my soapbox for just a bit longer..... In this day of genetically modified this and that, fertilizers, pesticides, bulking agents and processed foods. Not to mention the diseases that these ugly things cause -  if I can control a little of what is going into my families bodies, and help thenm be as healthy as they can be, then I am doing my job!  

Thank you and now back to PB. So are you going to all rush out and buy some nuts....  Go on,  I know you want to! I wonder how much a cow costs.... fresh milk anyone? ....xxx

                                                    

A Lick of Paint......

I often marvel at all those peeps out there who can slap a lick of paint on an old piece of  furniture and - hey presto, it looks gorgeous, antiqued, French colonial,  or just brand spanking new.. My friend Mandy is one such person, she  buys dilapidated old relics and paints them beautifully giving them a new lease on life. Her beautiful home is filled with gorgeously painted pieces of furniture.

 

I have tried to paint furniture in the past, but it never and let me put that in shouty capitals NEVER looked great. The paint streaks, I get little running bubbles, you know the type.... you think that it is all perfect, you come back an hour later to admire your handy work and there is a great big run with a little bubble thing on the end.... Urgh!! So I have given up, because with painting the way I do, comes sanding it all back down which is a horrid task, that I simply hate... and the poor ailing piece of furniture never looks that same. Pieces that I want to look 'distressed' REALLY do look distressing ugly.  LSO has even forbidden me from painting. It's just not my forte!

 

However.......

 

I recently discovered (through Mandy the Master) chalk paint. Annie Sloan chalk paint to be precise. To be perfectly honest I had bought a few small tester jars a few months ago. I loved the soft muted colours, the tones are pretty, not jarring to the eyes. To me this is important, I love colour, I am a very visual person... When choosing yarn I am always spot on. Colours must blend and work in harmony, yikes, am I waxing about colours again! Sorry   

  

I painted a few jars, a box here and there but was certainly not willing to tackle anything big, not with my track record. Even little Madame got stuck in painting her fairy house inside, she even used a stencil - clever little thing!

 

So I decided to try something that could easily be changed....If it all went wrong, I would call in a professional painted to cover my mess. LSO* was away so time  was on  my side. We had never put a backing behind our stove and I loved the new chalk board trend, so a chalk board behind my stove was going to be my try-it-out-project.  

 

As you can see it worked...well! The paint went on smoothly and streak free, I did have to put on 3 coat to get the chalk board effect but it looked great! ?Did I mention that the paint went on streak free- well it did, I was delighted to say the least! I added my most used recipes to the top  - cupcakes and crumpets(flapjacks/pancakes to my oversea readers) and LSO(who liked it) added his fried eggs recipe.... Funny fellow my husband!

At the same time this was going on my sister arrived back from Canada, where she had been working. she brought back an old paddle head, announcing that she was going to make towel rack for our pool(since she was tired of towels lying around  - cheeky wench) As you know my sister is seriously talented in the food and wood work department, well actually she is just talented  - full stop! She had pick this old oar because it looked  like a whale. She then got stuck in with that chalk paint. She painted over it a few times the sanded it in places, added some hooks and it was done!  It looks like it was bought in one of those trendy little 'upcycle' shops. See for your self! 

 

 

 

So after much soul searching, yes, painting a large piece of our beautiful furniture was a soul search for me..... But it had to be done things were looking a bit dull and boring. I decided on a very SAFE blue called Greek Blue, muted and subtle. When it was painted, it was nice, however a cup of tea is also nice, I wanted WOW! So back to the stockiest I went and bought some yellow ,yes, bright and sunny Yellow. Now before I go any further let me tell you about chalk paint from my perspective:

 

It does not run!

It goes on smoothly!

It does not streak!

The brush that you use washes out perfectly!

You can paint on ANY surface! (and I do mean any surface - cloth/wood/plastic/anything)

And here comes the best part.....

It does not need sanded- unless you want a smooth finish.

 

 

I slapped on the yellow, 2 coats to cover the dull blue. It was so easy! I then got some fine sand paper and gentle distressed it, as I was sanding it so some of the blue from the initial coat of paint came through giving a really great look.  Now you can wax the whole thing afterwards but I really felt it was gorgeous just as it was.....     

 

Add some beautiful rose ceramic handles and I was ready for a Ta Dah moment......

So here is the blue coming through, not the best picture

Handles on...... and wait for it......

 

My big fat Ta Dah moment. to say I am super happy with myself would be an understatement. I love my new sideboard, the yellow is wow, happy, fun and funky! I am also very happy to report that I got the Mandy the Masters Chalk Painter's seal of  approval.....  xxx

 

   

*PS: Just to tell you all again, LSO is my 'long suffering one' My wonderful and very long suffering husband  who always lets me do as I want... never says I told you so when everything goes wrong and often helps me fix up my mistakes. Have I mentioned how much I love him...

Queen of Tarts

 

For a while now I have had this 'thing' about tarts! Making beautiful tarts, that inspire eating! I think it all came from this book that I saw at a very trendy new shop in our local Mall. It is simply titled TARTS! I had pawed over it for a few minutes at a time, many times - but because of snooty sales people, you know what the sales assistants are like  in these trendy shops..... if you don't buy  immediately they hover behind you making a person feel quite uncomfortable(and poor), however worst than  that , is how  many of the book shops and trendy stores  simply wrap recipe books in plastic now! It is very annoying! I get that people with camera phone take pictures of just one recipe, but what about us honest peeps who just want to see that there is not just one good recipe..... But I digress.....

 

 

I had wanted to buy it, but never quiet got round to it, so my delight was immense when I walked into shop and found the book at half price on a sale - JOY! Now to be honest I think that I only wanted this book because I had a hankering for APPLE pie! There is nothing like a good apple pie, and the recipe in this book looked delish! So with purchase in hand, I sat down at a coffee shop to check that I had everything I needed. What a beautiful book, the instructions are simple and the pictures mouth watering. It is divided into seasons, each season is then divided into savoury and sweet tarts. Names of beautiful tarts  that make you want to bake and more importantly.... eat.. Asparagus and Pea tart, Blueberry Butter tart, Summer Breakfast tarts, Chocolate Ganache and Strawberry tarts, Wild Mushroom, Bacon and Parmesan tart, Chocolate Brownie and Cheesecake tart, oh-my-gosh the list goes on and on.

  

Before I had turned to the last page I had already decided what was for supper, and what would be for supper over the next few nights, I had also visually put on a vast amount of calories!

The savoury tart that caught my eye  was in the summer section - a Balsamic Roasted Tomato and Gorgonzola tart. I LOVE tomatoes and I LOVE gorgonzola. I had beautiful home grown tomatoes that would be perfect. I will not bore you with the recipe, suffice to say that although it was a long recipe, blind baking a shell, roasting tomatoes and then putting it all together, it was easy. 

 

Home Grown Tomatoes

 


 

 

It was a yummy and delicious tart! The pastry was crispy and buttery( even though I did not have baking beans - I made a plan, see the middle picture )the tomatoes were sweet and this was complimented by the sour gorgonzola. By the end of the evening it was gone..... 

 

My apple pie had to wait until a few nights later..... Apple and Caramel Tart! The picture was a enough of a visual to send me to apple pie heaven!

 

Instead of using whole apples I used tin, sometimes a girl just has to do what is easy, and in this case tinned apples were the way to go. It was a biscuit crust so no rocket science was needed. The caramel sauce which the apples get baked in was a doddle and soon I was smelling my hearts desire.

 



 

NO custard or cream was needed, and to be honest although it was not your average traditional apple pie, it was warm, decadent and rich. It didn't even make it to the bowls, we ate it straight out of the baking dish. 

I would highly recommend  this book. I have a system in my kitchen bookshelf, my most used and beloved books go onto the top shelf, so Nigella's books and The Primrose Hill Bakery books have pride of place on the top... next comes Jamie and his mates, and so on.  'Tarts' by Tina Bester went straight onto the top shelf. Nigella, my beloved, my darling........ meet Tina - Queen of Tarts ........xxx

Little Lilly

When LSO goes to the United Kingdom, I wait in anticipation for him to return, not you might think that it is because I miss him, and I absolutely do! However it is because he brings me back the latest issues of my favorite magazine, Simply Crochet! I have told you all before that I can get in here but we are about 3 issues behind and they cost enough to keep a small country in food for a week or two - ok that's a gross exaggeration but they are expensive!  I was waiting in anticipation for this one as I had seen the sweetest little crochet amiguri doll in it. I needed to crochet her......

 

 

It was only when I had the magazine in my grubby little hands that I realized that it was also the free gift for the month - Yahoo! I didn't even have to race to my favorite yarn store. So on a lovely warm morning  a few days later I began to make Lilly. I sat under a tree while LSO and Little Madame were fishing and began the rounds that would make up her little head. I love this form of crochet, I think it brings out a little OCD in me.  Amiguri is crocheting in the round you have to count constantly or you lose your place and end up with an mess. So the rhythm is relaxing to me. 

  

 

Soon I had the  head done. The great thing about this form of crochet is that  you also have to stuff as you go, so you see the item come together before your eyes. Once the head was crocheted and stuffed, the body was quick and simple.

 

 

I ran into a gentle snag at this point, the arms were tricky and I was not getting them right. I never give up , however I do know when to move on, or I become frustrated and start to behave badly toward my crochet and that is never a good thing. The hair on this tiny little dolly is made by making a type of wig. So you re crochet half the head and then add long strands for the actual hair, very clever indeed. 

Her hair was easy to style, I had made the strands long enough to twirl and then go around her head and make a pony tail at the back.

Braids?

Her little hoody was a repeat of her head and hair....... so easy, I love easy clever patterns. So as you can see from the picture above even her legs were on, simply a pipe cleaner, bent in two -gave you two legs that are placed through tiny little holes that you make while crocheting the body, and then you bend two feet.(I did glue them with some project glue, as I found them falling out all the time) Too sweet, however now I had to return to those pesky tiny teeny  arms.....

I will not tell a lie, they took me a while. they are really tiny as you can see, to keep count of 5 stitches as you are hooking is very tricky and I am not 100% that they are both perfect but because they are so tiny you would never notice.

 

Little Lilly in the magazine is sad, I think because it is raining! I however love the rain, here in deepest darkest Africa we know that rain is a gift and we are happy when the heaven open up and soak the land.  Often when it is bucketing down outside, Little Madame and I rush out and happily dance in the rain.  My little Lilly is a happy girl. She reminds me of my Little Madame who is an exceptionally happy little girl, and when she is happy, I too am happy......xxx