To Craft ...

... and these are the newest additions to my Craft Book Library!

To Cook ...

These are the newest editions to my Cook Book Library.

To Cook ... Again!

Okay so this one took me a couple of days. The only reason being is I don't have a food processor, so crumbing biscuits is done by hand, and well it took a while!

 These are delicious!!  The good thing about them is I can't eat more than two at a time, so they will last for a while!

I have to confess to not reading the recipe properly, I didn't chop the dates before heating them with the sugar & butter. So it took a little longer for them to break down enough, but they worked out anyway!

I thought about making them big, but in the end decided I'd roll them to the size of a large marble.

This is the link to the recipe for Aimees Marie Biscuit and Date Balls.

To Cook!

I made a new cake recipe yesterday.  It was a Ginger & Date Cake!

It is/was rather yummy too!

It combined dates with golden syrup, boiling water and bicarb soda, till they were soft enough to mash up.  Then the ginger was added with the self raising flour, to the creamed butter, egg and brown sugar mixture.

It baked for about 50 mins in my gas oven, because I wasn't convinced the middle was cooked enough at the 40 min mark.  I then took it out of the oven and let it cool completely.  Once I got it to work this morning I iced it with lemon flavoured butter icing.

This cake was easy to cook, and even easier to eat! The flavour of the ginger definitely compliments the dates.  I suppose if you wanted to eat it warm, a thin butterscotch sauce would work well, kind of like a sticky date, but not. :D

Recipe taken from recipes+ March 2011 Back Cover ...

Gingerbread & Date Cake

1 1/2 cups of dried pitted dates, chopped

1/4 cup golden syrup

3/4  cup boiling water

1 tsp bicarb soda

80g butter

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 x 59g eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1 Tbsp ground ginger

·         Preheat oven to 180˚C.

·         Grease & Line 20cm square deep cake pan.

·         Combine dates, syrup, boiling water & bicarb soda in a medium bowl.

·         Set aside for 10 minutes then mash dates until semi-smooth.

·         Beat butter & brown sugar with electric mixer until light & creamy.

·         Add eggs one at a time & beat until combined.

·         Fold in sifted flour, ginger & mashed date mixture.

·         Spread mixture into prepared pan.

·         Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

·         Rest in pan for 10 mins before cooling on a wire rack.

·         Suggested toppings include lemon butter icing, a thin caramel sauce or ice cream.

Finger healing nicely

So my injured sewing finger has healed nicely, I can now re-commence hand sewing the Hexagons for Mariel's Table Setting. YAY!!

I can also attend the Stitch 'n' Bitch and actually sew this coming weekend!!

I also need to complete the handbag I started at Christmas for Kasey Ann too!

So lots of sewing in my future.

So continuity isn't my strong point.

Well it's been a while since I updated this blog.  That doesn't mean I haven't been crafting or cooking! I've cooked a number of new dishes, sweets etc.

So here is a list of the newest dishes I have cooked:

• Mini Confetti Muffins
• Potato, Bacon & Chicken Casserole
• 2 different versions of Banana Bread/Cake
• A Chicken Curry
• A Chocolate Ripple Cake
• A Citrus Mud Cake

I've also made the following:

This is a Knitting Bag, made with cotton seer sucker and other cotton fabrics in the shade of green. The handle is white cotton. The bag is quilted on both sides in a free geometric design of my making.

This is the matching Needle Bag, it is double padded at the bottom for the points of the needles. I also used bright green satin ribbon as the sashing and a finer white satin ribbon for the 'belt loops'. I also employed some basic straight line Sashiko on the trim.

This is a baby quit I made for Ethan.  It is all cotton fabrics and the wadding is polyester for ease of washing. The colours for this quilt were based o his Mum's 21st Birthday Quilt. The pattern is a commercial one,

Chocolaty Nutty Goodness

I've made this slice so many times I don't need the recipe anymore!  I also don't think I've made it the same way twice.

I should add that this originally came from my cousin Sylvia.

So here is the recipe and a photo of my latest version! 

Choc Bit Slice

180g butter

2 cups crushed plain biscuits

200g choc bits

1 cup shredded coconut or chopped apricots

1 cup chopped nuts

1 tin condensed milk

·         Place a 30 x 20cm tray in the oven with the butter while the temp is warming to 180˚C.

·         Remove from oven and mix in the crushed biscuits, press down if you wish.

·         Sprinkle the choc bits on top.

·         Then sprinkle the coconut and top with the crushed nuts.

·         Pour the tin of condensed milk over the lot.

·         Bake for 30 minutes.

·         Cool completely before cutting.

Note: Nuts can be 1/3 macadamia, 1/3 peanuts & 1/3 cashews or 1/3 crushed walnuts.

Choc Bit Slice