My son had his art homework to do today and so, I joined him in painting in sepia tones. His work is a stunning portrait of a native American which isn’t quite finished yet. My sepia painting of a tree is less stunning but I enjoyed myself nonetheless:
I’m a huge fan of Nigel Slater, not least because his recipes are delicious and they ALWAYS work! This chicken recipe was taken from ‘eat‘, a perfectly pocket sized recipe book. The chicken is flattened and then liberally sprinkled with salt, the zest of lemons and limes and some chilli flakes. The grill is then used to quickly cook the chicken without it drying out. I served ours with boiled rice and steamed broccoli – for a more decadent meal next time, I think I’ll cook the rice in coconut milk:
To follow we had vanilla cupcakes. I made these for my son and his school football team as the dessert at their ‘Sportsman’s Dinner’. They were topped with fudge cubes and chocolate coated popping candy!!
With the rain pouring down outside I completed my trio of balloon pictures framed in embroidery hoops:
They are now up in our front room:
A frame with a difference was used today, I really like the idea of using an embroidery hoop as a frame for a pice of fabric art. This is hopefully the first of a set of three pieces that I hope to make this week:
I had a lovely half hour in the ‘shudio’ (shed/studio) after work today. Even though it’s only a very short distance from the house, it really does feel like somewhere I can recharge my depleted batteries at the end of the day!
A simple sunset is today’s offering, focussing on the opposing colour mixes of blue/green and red/orange:
It was my Dad’s birthday this week and yesterday, he and my Mum came for a celebratory lunch. I got up early (really early for a Saturday) and spent a lovely morning preparing, baking and cooking. Cooking without a set time limit (lunch would begin between 1pm and 2pm) was great as there was never any real time pressure.
To begin, we had caramelised red onion and goat’s cheese tartlets:
Our main course was called ‘Rigas’s Lamb’, it was a slow roasted leg of lamb served with macaroni cooked in tomato passata. I really wasn’t sure about this recipe, I hoped it would work. As it turned out, it really did work, the fresh and dried mint added an extra layer of flavour:
It wouldn’t have been a proper celebration of my Dad’s birthday without some form of meringue, I decided on an ‘ultimate’ pavlova – strawberries and raspberries mixed with some meringue and double cream (Eton Mess), on top of a large meringue base:
As an alternative/addition to the pavlova, I made some Salted Caramel Cupcakes:
I think we will need to be on meagre rations for the rest of the week!!
A combination of watercolour paints, watercolour pencil and soft pastels were used, followed by a bit of editing with ‘afterlight’ on my ipad:
I may edit it some more but for now, I think I’m happy with it.
Our bank holidays here in the UK have a bit of a reputation for bad weather and traffic jams, I think that this one has been the exception here in Bristol. The sun has shone throughout and the furthest we have driven has been around 3 miles.
On Saturday, I made 10 napkins with some very summery beach hut material, perfect for picnics:
Whilst the sewing bit was very straightforward, the measuring and precise cutting that were needed did take some concentration!
Yesterday one of my boys asked if we could bake something together. I passed him my Paul Hollywood book and asked him to choose something. His choice was a fruit loaf (or rather, 2 fruit loaves):
The result is a delicious, moist, fruity bread, perfect for tea last night and breakfast this morning!!
Today, we went to the BBC Food Festival, we arrived quite early which was just as well because it became really busy by the time we left. It was a great foodie treat with a huge range of artisan producers. I really liked the fact that at most of the stalls, food was cooked to order and was definitely worth the wait. The boys (including my husband) tried scotch eggs, sausage rolls, Jamaican jerk chicken wraps, BBQ chicken, a selection of samosas, cider (produced just a few miles away from where we live). I had a lovely latte and treated myself to this beautiful water jug:
All in all, a great bank holiday weekend – hope yours has been just as good wherever you are and whatever the weather.
Brush, Needle & Whisk 