Can You Feel The Heat

Last week-end we finally made it to West Dean Gardens, a place just 15 minutes from us and in the two years that we've lived here, we hadn't been there before ... wow! If you're anywhere in the West Sussex area, do stop by, it's beautiful, a lovely place for a walk and then a pit-stop at the coffee shop. Mind the wasps though, they are quite aggressive.

At the beginning of this year I had a brief intention of starting my own little vegetable patch, but that was before I sat down at that fateful sewing machine and never got up again. So I hang my head in shame at the planned vegetable patch that is now a weed garden, especially after having visited the Walled Kitchen Garden at West Dean. It is so beautiful that you immediately want to go and grow your own vegetables. Somehow though on the way out we got distracted at the coffee shop and the vegetable patch will have to wait a little longer now.

They run a few events during the year, one of them being the Chilli Festival and I never thought there were so many varieties in the world.


So on the subject of chilli, I leave you with the recipe for my favourite Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce - you should always have a jar of this in the fridge, it's delicious added to stir-fries, with cold meats or pretty much anything that requires a little bit of heat and sweetness.

SWEET CHILLI DIPPING SAUCE
Makes 200ml

250g large red chillies, trimmed
5 garlic cloves, trimmed an chopped
120g light brown sugar
3 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Combine everything in a pan with 150ml water, bring to the boil and simmer until soft. Blitz in the blender, add a bit of salt. Return to the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Cool and refrigerate, it will last for weeks in the fridge.

Toddler Logic

There could be a really long post and list to this title but I just have one very simple example:

TWO yoghurts must be eaten with TWO spoons. Is it about mixing the flavours? I don't know. Sometimes it's better not to ask too many questions.

Display Dilemma

Still here and still trying to recover from a great week-end with the family. At the same finalising everything for the craft fair next week-end and for the last three days I have been racking my brain to find a nice way how to display my things. I wish I could take my garden with me (or part of it) because then it could look like this:


But I can't take the garden with me so I'll have to be creative with two tables and a few clothing racks. I am starting to really look forward to the event, just hoping the weather will be ok so that the turnout will be good. Am I asking too much if I want ANOTHER week-end of sunshine??

Try This

I love going on holidays in May because if you go somewhere warm, it really gets you in the spirit of summer once you come home. This year we spent a week in Positano, Italy, and I have a feeling we might be heading back there next year. Whilst sitting on the piazza in front of the beach, I discovered this - now I'm not one to entice you to drink, but really you should try this, it's just so lovely. It requires a little organisation because you can't find it in the regular shops and will have to order it online, but boy is it worth it.

APEROL
Throw a couple of ice cubes in a tumbler.
Add
1/3 Aperol
1/3 Prosecco
1/3 Sparkling Water
1 Orange slice

Sit back and enjoy.

Time For A Drink

This household is getting ready for a rather big party this week-end with the little man's christening (I know, he's nearly 2 1/2, it was about time) and my birthday, and so far the weather forecast is looking good. I'm squeezing in as much sewing as I can but I fear there won't be much done from 2pm tomorrow until Monday morning. But remember my baby shoe post here .... well ladies and gentlemen, today I give you, ....... ta daaaa, 35 pairs of shoes. Whohooo!!!

I've also had quite a few orders for monogram sleepsuits, here's just one of them.

And finally the magnetic blackboard in the kitchen is being put to good use - thank you once again to the dear friends who gave Luca the fridge phonics (I know you're out there ;-) He loves them.

I feel I deserve a drink or two this week-end. Which brings to my favourite summer time drink, but more of that tomorrow. For now I need to go and have another one get some sleep.

State Of Panic

Yesteday we went to the Live Crafts Show which is exactly like the one I will be doing in 2.5 weeks and this is how I feel now.


Because:

- There are only 2.5 weeks left
- I will be selling for 3 days
- I don't know if I'll have enough stock ready
- I don't know if I'll manage to finish everything I want to do
- I now have to work out what my stand will look like and how to make it look really nice and inviting
- It's costing serious amount of money and I'm hoping I'll recover some of it.

OMG OMG OMG.

Quickest Pizza In The World

Honestly I'm not lying - it's 25 minutes from you entering your kitchen to the pizza entering your mouth.

You need:
4 parts plain flour
1 part butter
a splash of milk

Heat oven to 200°C. Mix flour with butter - I usually grate the butter straight from the fridge into the bowl. Add a splash of butter and mix with a spoon until you have a little dough ball. Make small handsize rounds and place on a greased baking tray. Add topping of your choice. Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove, cool, eat.

Normally I would have been more creative in regards to the topping but today it was all about speed, so the one on the left is red pepper pesto and grated cheese and the one on the right is green pesto and tomato slices. What more could a little boy want on a Friday evening? (Well actually a lot more but for the time being he is quite happy with this.)

N.B For these two I used 100g of flour and 25g of butter.