Festival of Trees

Earlier in the year I found and joined a local crafting group.  We are made up of a group of 12 ladies most of which all come from the same village but as I live in the back of beyond I don't. That said I have been made to feel very welcome.  We have undertaken a couple of interesting projects this year. Firstly making twiddle quilts and crocheted blankets for a local nursing home who were very appreciative of our efforts.

Secondly we decided we would have a tree in the Festival of Trees that is held in St. Mary's Church in Melton Mowbray which is one of two local towns to me.  Melton Mowbray of course is most famous as being the  home of the pork pie.

St Mary's church is a Grade I medieval church set in the centre of Melton Mowbray. There is a whole raft of information about the church here on good old wikipedia.  I have never been to this festival before but was looking forward to seeing the results of the restoration that has been taking place.

As a group we are a talented bunch with some knitters, some crocheters, some crosstitchers and some sewers and we all set about making something for our tree.

Being set in a church I felt it was only right to have a little choir boy present.

It wouldn't be Christmas of without Father Christmas.
















It couldn't be Christmas without a Christmas Tree

And finally I loved this little bear all dressed up for Christmas sitting patiently waiting for Santa to call.

The four little cross stitches came from a magazine I have had hidden away in my stash for probably the best part of twenty years. Sometimes you can find these little gems on ebay, etsy or through ABE books if wanted to try and find a copy. As you can see it was released by Cross Stitch magazine and is titled Celebrations in cross stitch and the date is February 1996. I have made a few of the charts for birthing announcements and birthday cards but I had never made any of the Christmas charts. When the group decided back in September to have a tree this year I thought it would give me plenty of time to make up four of these little cross stitches to hang on the tree. And once the festival is over they will return home with me to hang on my own Christmas tree.

Set up was on Wednesday night and here is our little tree all set up and ready for visitors to start arriving on Friday to view all the submissions for this years festival. 

The festival runs from Friday 29th November to Tuesday 3rd December. All the details are above if anyone is nearer enough to be able to pop along and the postcode for your satnav is LE13 1AE

There are some amazing trees there this year and I took far too many photographs to add them all to my blog page. I have however added them to my Lazy Days and Sundays Facebook page here  for anyone who may be interested. and is too far away to go in person.

I think Christmas is now officially well and truly on its way and is there anyone else who is slightly panicking that they will not be ready this year or would that just be me?

Mx

Friday Night Fisherman's Pie

Did anyone else belong to a generation where upon Friday night was fish supper, regardless of whether this was made at home or bought from the local fish & chip shop?  Certainly when I was growing up this was definitely the case.  If it was a fish & chip night I used to love rock salmon.  I don't even know if you can still get it, but  whatever you had was wrapped in yesterday's newspapers. That wouldn't be allowed these days and who knows whether the printing ink had any ill effects but I'm still here to tell the tale. 

I have always loved any type of fish.   I have a fond memory from child hood of my grandmothers fish pie.  In those days she used to buy cod, salmon, smoked haddock from a little man that used to come around once a week, funny enough on a Friday, in his little van.  These days you can purchase a fish pie mix from the fresh fish counter in the supermarket or in most fish mongers that is already cut in chunks and ready to make your pie.   You will need about 350-400g  fish pie mix depending on how big you want your pie to be. In addition you will want 1kg of Maris Piper potato's  or any potato you know to be good for mash 

So for your shopping list you will need:

For the mash potato topping 

1kg  potato you know to be good for mash, peeled and halved.
a splash of milk
a knob of butter
season with black pepper
a handful of grated cheese to sprinkle over once your pie is constructed
a little grated nutmeg (optional) to grate over the top before putting in the oven.


For the filling

350 - 400g of fish pie mix which should contain  cod, smoked haddock and salmon.  Some people like to add a handful of  prawns to their fish pie but I choose to make it without. 

3-4 spring onions sliced.

 white sauce  (see below)

1 tsp of chopped chives (optional)

1 tsp of Dijon or English mustard

Pulling everything together  

• I don't think I need to teach my grandmother to suck eggs when it comes to making mashed potato the only thing I would say is it only needs to be a firm mash and not like the fancy chef's like to make it so that its more or less pureed or it will sink into your pie.
• Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan180C/Gas Mark 6
• When it comes to making the white sauce you can find the details for that here at the point before it tells you to add the flour to the butter add the sliced spring onions and let them cook for a minute or two to start and soften and then add the flour and continue to follow the steps to making a lump free sauce. Once made I add a tsp of mustard either Dijon or English mustard for a little extra flavor. 
• Take off the heat and stir in the fish mix and the chopped chives. 
• Spoon the mixture into an ovenproof dish or individual pie dishes
• Spoon the potato on top 
• sprinkle the cheese over the potato
• Finish off with a little grated nutmeg 
• Place on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 25 mins or until golden and bubbling at the edges. 

NB

If you like to batch cook this fish pie definitely lends itself to going in the freezer for another time. If you want to make to freeze don't cook until needed and let it defrost before cooking. 

These days we don't hold to the fish supper Fridays but this is most definitely one of my favourite winter warmers and is lovely served with seasonal vegetables whatever day of the week. 

I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I do. 

Mx

A spark of light - Jodi Picoult

The Center for women's reproductive health offers a last chance at hope - but nobody ends up there by choice. 

Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder. 

Now and life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real; a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage. 

Starting at the tensest moment in the negotiations for their release, A Spark of Light unravels backwards, revealing hour by urgent hour what brought each of these people - the gunman, the negotiator , the doctors, nurses and women who have come to them for treatment - to this point.

And certainties unwind as truths and secrets are peeled away revealing the complexity of balancing the right to life with the right to choose. 

As the right up would suggest this latest novel from Jodi Picoult is written in a time line working from 5pm back across the day to the point when a gunman walked into the center and starts shooting and taking hostages. Throughout the chapters winding back the clock hour by hour you get to know about the doctors and nurses who work for the center. About the clients who use the facility and ultimately why a seemingly harmless father would walk into a center brandishing a gun. 

Jodi Picoult is one of my marmite authors.  Some of her work I absolutely love whilst others I just cannot get into.  Even moving past the content of the storyline it took me a while to get into this novel and at times there was too much explicit detail to the medical procedure that wasn't relevant to the chapter. I wouldn't of said it was a page turner for me and definitely not a case of not being able to put down and if anything left me a little disappointed. 

Having checked out the reviews on other sites it would seem that general opinion was around a 3/5 and I have to say that on this occasion I would have to agree with them. Here's hoping that the next one will be much more in keeping with her usual standard of work.

Mx

Carrot & Coriander Soup

It has been so cold and wet here in the UK over the past weeks and for some they have had to endure leaving their homes due to flooding. I hope if you have been affected by adverse weather that you are somewhere safe & warm. 

At this time of year there is nothing better than a goody heart soup to keep out the cold.  I can become a little obsessive with my soup making and have quite number of soups that I make but one of my favourites is most definitely carrot and coriander.   Nine times out of 10 I will have carrots lurking in the veg rack and natural yogurt in the fridge and there is always ground coriander in the spice rack so the only thing I usually have to pick up from the supermarket is fresh coriander but don't worry if you can't get fresh as you can just add an extra tsp of the ground coriander instead.

I make enough to feed four, I still can't manage to reduce numbers since my older children left home, but that's all right because whatever I have left I take to work for my lunch.

To have ago at making carrot and coriander soup you will need

4 tablespoons of butter

450g approximately 4-5 large carrots sliced 

1 large onion diced

1 tsp of ground coriander (2 if you haven't got fresh coriander

2  pints or 1.2 liters of vegetable stock

small pot of natural yogurt (usually around 150g)

salt & freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

2-3 tablespoons of fresh chopped coriander

a little grated fresh nutmeg (optional)

• To start with melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion and allow to sweat off for a few minutes.
• As the onions start to turn translucent add the carrots 
• Cover and continue to cook until the carrots are starting to soften. 
• Add the ground coriander and cook for 1 minute. 
• Pour in the stock and bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes until the carrots are soft and tender. 
• Add 2-3 tablespoons of fresh chopped coriander, you can use the stalks as well as the leaves.
• Remove from the stove and allow to cool slightly before using a blender to puree and until smooth.
• Return to the rinsed pan and  warm through but not boil
• Remove from the heat and stir in the yogurt just before serving so that it doesn't split.
• Season to taste

it is at this point that you can add a little freshly ground nutmeg and a little more fresh coriander to garnish if you so choose.





All you need now is a big chunk of  freshly baked bread and if you have the time to have a go at making home made bread to go with it you can find out how to make a basic white loaf here.

Otherwise just tuck in and enjoy.

Mx

Peter Pan Child's Aran Jacket

When I wrote my post about the Traditional Hooded Baby Jacket  I had made for my little grandson I ended with saying that I was now making him an Aran jacket that I used to make for my children when they were small. Well this is it. The pattern is by Wendy and was originally made in their Peter Pan Toddler Aran. The pattern is still available on some vintage sites. You can still find a copy by putting  Wendy Peter Pan Aran Jacket pattern number P734 in your search engine.  The pattern covers the age range 1-5 years and comes in sizes 51-56cm or 20-26"  chest in old money. 

As promised this is a photograph of my boys wearing the round neck version of the pattern back in 1993 when they were 2 and 5 years old. Freddie's daddy is the little one at the top.  I first made this little Aran jacket 30 years ago and I have lost count of the amount of times I have made it since. Over the years I have made all three versions for them and for friends and family's children and it never seems to date.  Its now classed as vintage which must mean my children are vintage too, who knew. 

Fast forward to 2019 and here is my finished jacket for Freddie in the round neck version. It will be a little big on him at the moment but will keep him warm as we go into the colder months of winter and into the spring. None of mine particularly liked wearing coats and this little jacket, especially in the hooded version was  great to be able to put on if you were travelling in the car from A - B.

The wool I used is an aran weight by Woolcraft 25% pure wool and 75% premium acrylic and comes in 400g balls and produced in 38 beautiful colours.                                                                                                                     Unfortunately the colourway I had in my stash is no longer available but they produce a similar colourway 810 Denim which I have also used to make this pattern.

And the best bit is that if you are knitting for a little one there is sometimes enough wool left over to make a second garment. So of course I decided that I would make another Traditional Hooded Baby Jacket by Naturkinder

And this week I received a lovely photo from Freddie's mum to show him wearing the grey version I made for him and look it fits perfectly.

Keep warm & safe

Mx