Today Is Fish Day.......

.....at our house.
wishing you all a "good" friday!
(raylee).

Wee Jasper Journal Pages - ( pre Creative Awakening)

 collaged & stitched pages for the "wee jasper journal" showing photos of "Nell".

 two "cretonne" hand sewn pot holders made by my great grandmother, "Nell".(they still have the black soot marks on them from the black kettle that hung from a hook over the open fireplace).
"Nell" in her younger days.

 i have been stitching the paper pages onto fabric & making tabs which will be used to secure all the pages when they are completed.

an excerpt from the journal:
 "her name was Ellen Mary but she was known as "Nell".
to me she was nana grace, my great grandmother. she lived in a small house built by the men in her family, from timber cut from the bush. (this was also my first home).
the floors were dirt, the walls were papered with newspaper & magazine pages to keep the draughts out.
no running water, it was carried in kerosene tin buckets from the river.
no electricity. kerosene lamps & candles provided light, we went to bed early!
there was a fuel stove & an open fire in the kitchen, which was the dining, living area, no lounge room.
washing up was done in a dish with boiling water from the black kettle that was always on the fire, & sunlight soap.
her days were filled with work. washing was done in a copper tub with a fire underneath to boil the water. the clothes & linen were moved around with a long stick & when they were clean, lifted out steaming with the stick & had to cool before they could be wrung out by hand & hung on the line with the long prop in the middle to keep the line up.
a blue bag was added the water to make the whites whiter!
she had a vegetable garden, fruit trees, & a flower garden. chooks, turkeys, dogs & cats & cows for milk. she made her own jams, pickles & preserves & still found time to make clothes & furnishings  & she sewed her own aprons from calico with embroidered "crinoline ladies", also tablecloths, doilies & potholders etc.
next to the fireplace there was a small window & hanging at the window were curtains made from a pink floral that nana grace called "cretonne". i have two worn tattered potholders made from those curtains.
her "waste not, want not " ways have stayed with me.
(raylee).

Apple Cakes "Easy Peasy Recipe"

ingredients:
150g butter, cubed
1 tspn vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 cups wholemeal self raising flour, sifted
1 tspn cinnamon
3/4 cup milk
3 red apples


1. preheat oven to 180 degrees c, put 12 paper muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.
beat butter, sugar & vanilla in a  small bowl with electric  mixer until pale & creamy.
add eggs, beat between each addition.

2. transfer to a large bowl. stir in flour,cinnamon, & milk until smooth.
peel & grate the flesh of  1 apple into mixture, stir until combined.
spoon mixture into paper cases, 2/3 full.
quarter & core remaining apples, then slice thinly.
put 5 slices on top of each cake.

3. bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden & a skewer inserted into cakes comes out clean..
cool on a wire rack

i found this recipe in a "home journal" magazine. their recipe used unsalted butter & white flour.
to find more Easy Peasy recipes look at mezzmakesstuff
(raylee).

Sponge Cake

I baked a cake!!!........so what?.... anyone can bake a cake.
not just a cake ......a SPONGE cake!!
i remember afternoon tea at aunties & nana's eagerly awaiting the cutting of the Sponge cake. no other cake tastes like it, the sweet strawberry jam , homemade of course & the cream fresh from the cow that very morning.
the oohing & ahhing about the taste , the texture, the lightness, the golden colour from the fresh laid eggs collected from the chook house in the backyard, & don't forget the bowls, the utensils,  the heat of the oven ,what kind of wood to burn to get the correct heat & the ingredients. it went on & on & on.
all of these things made me scared.....very scared.......when it comes to baking i don't have a lot of patience. so i have procrastinated for years......& years, but i finally got up the courage to have a go at baking a Sponge cake.
i don't have a vast array of baking utensils, some cooks would cringe in horror if they looked in my kitchen cupboards, some probably have & were too nice to say anything!
anyway i did it! ......i followed the recipe exactly , just  that was an accomplishment for me, until the part about separating the mix into two cake tins......i only had one.... so one it was. one of those tins where the bottom is supposed to come out with the pull of the thingy on the side of the tin so the cake is easy to remove once it is cooked,...... yes that worked about twice.....never again.
so i poured all the mixture into my one cake tin with the non removable bottom........kept a close eye on it as i wasn't  sure how long to leave it in the oven........it came out ok!!
now what to cool it on......not owning a cake rack i turned the dish rack upside down, put some paper over it & carefully placed the cake still inside the tin upside down on the rack to cool.
then put a cold wet dishcloth over the tin just to make sure it would come away from the cake cleanly, someone was watching over me ...it worked! i put the cooled cake in the freezer for about ten minutes then cut it in two.

i didn't have any strawberry jam so mixed the pulp of a passion fruit from my garden with some apricot jam & heated them in a small saucepan, when it was cool spread it on one half of the cake, added the whipped cream, placed the other half on top & iced it with passion fruit icing.....yes i do like cream!!! (raylee).

Morning or Evening?

 Are you at your best in the morning or in the evening?

I started baking these biscuits at about 5.30 pm........ they are Anzacs  but i added some chocolate chips & extra coconut to the recipe.

 While i was waiting for them to cook i did a bit of doodling in my "flights of fancy journal".......with coloured Faber castell Pitt pens.........the page had previously been block printed with acrylic paint & collaged with magazine pictures & some notes i had written on a used envelope.....








.& earlier in the day i stitched some more crochet squares together .......slowly becoming larger. i tried to follow the instructions for the placement of the squares........but gave up as mine just did not correspond, so did my own thing as usual. it will be ok on the day.......my answer to the question.....definitely an evening person!

Hope you all had a wonderful day.........thank you so much for taking time to visit us.......

we love to see you!!

(raylee).

Cheesy Spinach Pastries

 Our family really like their food, ........but it is the male members that sometimes surprise me.......the topic of food often comes up in conversation.

 Sometimes some of them don't just talk about it ......they actually cook it!

 One of my nephews gave me a demo on his version of   these cheesy spinach pastries.......they are quick & easy to make & even the younger kids will eat them .....hot or cold.

You just take sheets of frozen puff pastry add a handful of english spinach to each piece.........mix some ricotta & mozzarella cheese with half a teaspoon of nutmeg or not.......put a big , big dollop on top of the spinach then fold the corners of the pastry to the centre, squeeze together, bake at about 200 for about 15 minutes give or take according to your oven....... this is a kid friendly version of the recipe......we love them!.....so thanks to nephew L..... (raylee).

No Hands....

It feels like my hands have been tied behind my back this last week......too busy with other stuff.....no stitching or painting.......but i did have to cook....

.....spinach, mushroom & cheese pastries were the closest thing to creativity. (raylee)

A Recipe to Share

A quick & easy fix for the sweet tooth......

Recipe: 1 cup SR Flour

1 cup cream

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup choc bits
mix till all ingredients are just combined *dont over mix*
spoon into mufffin pan
bake at 200c ( fan forced oven) about 10-15 mins
dust the top with powdered chocolate

Taste!!!....... Yummy!!!!

This was the first time i used "silicone muffin pans" , no greasing , no sticking.....easy to remove the muffin from the pan.....easy clean.....in the dishwasher. muffin pan compliments of "Australian Home Beautiful" magazine.