Happy Mother's Day

So my lovely wee mum got 1kg of foam banana's for her mother's day! Hilarious but also my mum's fave sweet! I wish I was up in Scotland with her now to take a picture of her with them all!

In February I joined amialong from http://www.amigurumipatterns.net which has been so much fun. This month there was a pattern from Little Muggles of her two little doggies Lola and Finn. I had a lot of fun making it and feel it turned out well!

At this point it took me a little while with the feet. I couldn't understand why I couldn't connect them properly. It turned out that one foot was the wrong way round (sigh!) hours wasted on silliness!

This was my finished product, I just had time to make one as I have loads of things waiting to be made. Pretty proud of it. She has a new home lined up already with my friend's animal crazy toddler.

For the duck applique I got the pattern from here:

I have managed to set off my back injury again (nooooo!) Luckily although bad, it feels like it is starting to improve already (it went on me Thursday just gone). Due to my silly back I missed my friends Housewarming/ Chinese New Year party last night :( I was making her a little pug to mark the year of the dog but due to pain and napping as a result of painkillers it is not quiet finished yet. I hope it turns out like the wonderful pattern by Little Owlet as it is super cute!

Here was my work in progress along with some light reading to mark International Woman's Day last week:

Talking about strong women who else is binging on the second season of Jessica Jones? Since I'm in pain I have taken time off from studying and catching up on crochet and some kick-ass PI's. Hope everyone has a nice weekend. Cross your fingers and toes that my back behaves this week!

Happy New Year

Yes I am a few days late but in my defence I have been working, going from night shifts into days so I haven't really been on the ball wishing all a Happy New Year. So I was working on Hogmanay but we got to sneak a peak at the London fireworks for about five minutes which was amazing! Here are some of our pics, I have borrowed the better ones from my colleagues.

In terms of New Years resolutions I decided to pick nicer ones so that they aren't accompanied with almost an instant sense of failure.

My New Years Resolutions are:

• Press the snooze button less
• Go on more little road trips
• Crochet more
• Pet more animals

This may be the first year I actually achieve my Resolutions! I am excited about this year, I start a new job in just over a weeks time and I am feeling really positive about the new challenge a different branch of my vocation will bring. Here's hoping it all works out! 

A New Christmas Tradition

Merry Christmas!!!

Hope everyone's Christmas was nice and chilled involving too much food! James and I started a new tradition this year. I was inspired by the Gingerbread City exhibit at the Museum of Architecture in London. It was filled with fantastic smelling and fabulous looking structures:

So we decided we were going to try our hand at making a gingerbread car, loosely based on a Volvo design since we got an old Volvo this year (a complete money pit too!). Here is the process of us making our little Volvo gingerbread car, including it falling apart before James was able to salvage it!

I got the recipe for the gingerbread car from this YouTube video and I have absolutely tons of dough left - I'm going to make a bunch of 3D cookies now :) Since discovering this guy Donal Skehan I have become a bit of a fan. He is really easy to watch and his stuff looks tasty. I plan to try his Asian inspired eggs next. Some of the other YouTube cooks, particularly the ones making Gingerbread houses were just a tad too obnoxious for my taste, the few I looked at anyway!

Enjoy a lazy Boxing Day.

Animal Ball Masks

Last Wednesday I scurried along over to the Victoria and Albert museum as I had glimpsed a new exciting exhibit I wished to peruse. It allowed access to a part of the museum not usually open to the public, a place called the Cupola. This is located on the sixth floor where you enter a narrow door and ascend a steep winding staircase to the attic space above. You actually had to sign a health disclaimer before going in purely as it is so steep. Funny yes, but I must admit after ascending that flight of stairs my back injury did fair twinge, not to mention my legs were jellified because of my general out-of-shapeness! Is it wrong I felt a small smidge of pride that I made it up those stairs? Probably, yes!

I was lucky to get to experience my wobbly legs and out of puff lungs. I hadn't realised before going along that as the space was cramped you had to book time slots due to limited capacity. Luckily most folk hadn't realised that either and there was space for me to join the next group. The masks were worth the effort. They are a temporary exhibit until this Friday showing off spectacular work by designers for the fundraising event The Animal Ball later this month.

My Favourite!

Roasted Butternut Squash and Halloumi Jumble

Now this is another Hello Fresh recipe. I just changed a few things to accommodate veg I already had. The recipe calls for half a butternut squash - well I had frozen half a butternut squash cut into small chunks with the skin still on along with half a harlequin squash also. I decided to whack this in instead - more squash equals more yumminess! The only thing I would change in the future would be to defrost the squash first and using a paper towel remove excess fluid. I just shoved it straight in and the squash ended up steaming due to the water from the ice instead of roasting. Still tasty but just not the right texture. I also shoved in some spring onion to use it up also.

Now this recipe has all the warm autumn flavors from the squash with the decadant saltiness from the halloumi. It has become one of my favourite bowls of goodness. This makes enough for two folk.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Butternut squash
• Red pepper
• 1.5 tsp Smoked Paprika
• 150ml Water
• 1/2 veg stock
• 75g Bulgar Wheat
• 25g Pine Nuts
• 1 block Halloumi
• 1 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 1 bag of Rocket (James isn't a big fan so in the future I will use about half a bag or perhaps none at all)

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 210 degrees. Chop the butternut squash to about 1cm cubes, you can leave the skin on. Cut the core of the red pepper and cut a third of it into cubes as small as you can. Cut the remainder into about 2cm chunks.
2. Toss your squash and your large chunks of pepper in a little oil, the smoked paprika, a pinch of salt and pepper. Lay out on a baking tray and put on your top shelf for 25 mins.
3. Bring the 150ml water to boil with the stock pot. Pour in the bulgur wheat, place a lid on and rest off the heat for 25mins, or until the water has completely soaked into the wheat.
4. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn. Keep to the side once ready.
5. Cut the halloumi into 1cm thick slices. Rub a little olive oil on each slice and put your frying pan to medium-high heat, Cook each side for 2-3mins until golden brown.
6. Toss your bulgur wheat, roasted squash and pepper in a bowl. Add the red wine vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil. Lastly, gently stir through the rocket and season with a pinch of pepper.
7. Divide between two bowls. Top with the halloumi and pine nuts. Enjoy!

Today I visited Richmond Park for the first time. I had arranged to meet a friend at the park. Unfortunately neither of us had visited before and we ended up at completely opposite gates from one another. It took over an hour and a half to find one another! It is such a beautiful park and I will have to visit again. I feel like I spent so much effort looking for my friend I didn't appreciate its beauty fully. I quickly came across lots of deer just chilling out on the plane.

Spectacular! Apparently next week there will be a humane cull of the deer in order to keep population sizes down to reduce the spread of disease and parasites and ensure there is sufficient resources to support the herd. It saddens me this has to be done but I understand why it would be detrimental to allow them to grow exponentially. 

Autumn walks and water birds

So on Sunday James and I finally visited the London Wetland Centre which is a short walk from Barnes station. Amazingly it's completely man-made dreamed up by some guy called Sir Peter Scott. It was a nice relaxing day filled with some amazing water birds with some cool markings. Here are a few snaps:

There is something about ducks I find totally amusing and relaxing at the same time. Come spring we will head back to see loads of little ducklings! I cannot wait. I love this time of year when the shades turn warmer and you can wrap up in nice cosy jumpers :) Tomorrow I will share a recipe using one of my favourite vegetables - the legend that is Butternut Squash.