New Exotic soup recipe...

I found this recipe...

 in this....

I was a bit surprised to find something quite so exotic in something quite quintessentially English looking.  It simply had to be tried...

So a quick list of the ingredients...
500g unsalted peanuts

1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli (chopped & seeded)
2 lemongrass stalks
5tbsps fresh ginger

800g Sweet potatoes
3 large carrots
1 litre vegetable stock
1 400ml tin coconut milk

Salt, pepper ,fresh corriander and lime wedges.

So starting with the peanut butter. Pop 500g of peanuts on a tray and in the oven (180'c Gas 4)for 20 minutes, till they go golden brown...

 

Whilst they are roasting, chop the spices up small with the onion and cook them in a heavy based pan
until the onion is soft...

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and carrots and add them with the stock to the pan...

 

bring to the boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer for 10 -15 minutes until the sweet potatoe is soft. Allow to cool slightly and blitz in a food processor till its as smooth as you want it.
By now the peanuts will have cooled so its time to make peanut butter, its amazingly simple - just blitz them in the food processor...

 

 

When you are ready to serve it, simply stir in the coconut milk and the peanuts and warm it all through- without boiling.

 

Ladle into bowls and serve with some shredded coriander and lime wedges.

My sampling crew didn't seem that impressed (to be honest I wasn't too impressed - it just tasted like slightly spicy satay), but I did forget the coriander.....Maybe I'll try again another day....

Romania blanket #2 for 2015

 I got a tip off that a local charity shop had some good wool ( i.e. reasonably priced and bright colours) for children's blankets so I went and bought a bit...

A quick flick through some magazines revealed a simple hexagon pattern that  I thought it might be fun to try out...

Its amazing how quickly they came together,  I soon had quite a pile of ends that had been sewn in...

and despite the odd mistake, seven sided hexagon anyone?

I soon had a pile of lovely hexagons...

That show every sign of being enough to make a reasonable sized blanket...but not together in quite such a boring pattern as this....

Its definitely looking quite colourful!  I'm beginning to think I might prefer the "wrong" side...

 

Putting 2 rows of doubles around the very edge creates a nice border...

And keeps my toes warm while I'm doing it!!

And in no time at all (well a few months really) it was ready for show and tell.  Would you believe it I've gone off the "wrong" side...

Definitely prefer the right side now....

Though might have to send sunglasses along with it to the lucky child who gets it!

Just a little quilting challenge...

The Quilters of Sutton challenge was to make a 12.5" block using only black and white fabrics and one other colour, I'd got some black and white fabrics...

I've just got to work out what to make, time for a bit of geometry...

 

 

I think you can guess what my "one other colour"is going to bee...

Just can't make my mind up if its going to be on a Dresden plate flower or some hexagon honeycomb.  It might have to be both....

The honeycomb came together really quickly...

So now I need to decide if it should have one bee or two....

 

Just a bit of applique....

 

 

Right ...now for the dresden flower...

This needs a bigger bee...

 

Now I think these bees look better with button eyes...

 

But as the blocks might bee sewn together to make a quilt for a child and a button may bee a choking hazard for a small child, I'll just have to embroider a face on to them instead...

Apparently we are going to be voting for our favourite one at club night - would it be wrong to vote for one of my own?