This truly feels like a never ending winter. Its been so cold for so long now, and in the yurt it has been quite cold in the mornings. We are all absolutely looking forward to some warmer weather.
Today I made a little spring table in the hope that it might inspire the spring to come.
The other day the girls and I each painted one of our chickens eggs to hang on the spring table. We had a lot of fun and they brighten up our cold mornings.
Happy Easter!
It has been a long time since I posted anything, so I thought I would put a few photo's on here to get us in the mood for the weather to come. This is now our 3rd winter in the yurts and there will be a few more to come. We will start building our house at the end of the month but for now we are snug and warm in our little yurts.
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| The snow stays on! |
I have always wanted to make tomato chutney, but I have never had enough tomatoes. I only make preserves if there is an excess of something, otherwise we always try and eat everything fresh. But this summer there was an overload of tomatoes, they seemed to be coming from everywhere, and with them I have made lots of tomato chutney. This is the recipe I used.
My Big girl just turned 7 and for her birthday I wanted to make her something spacial. I was given this very lovely, soft fabric from liberty which I used to make her a tunic. I wanted to keep it as a surprise, this meant I could not measure her without her getting suspicious. So instead I used one of her tops to get the measurements and made it a little bigger, just to be sure. Luckily it fitted and she is very happy with it.
The other day I discovered how easy it is to make really delicious chocolate chip cookies. I looked on the internet and found lots of different ways to make them, most of them had a bit too much chocolate in them. So I have adapted the recipe to be more child friendly by putting a bit less chocolate and sugar in and adding some nuts.
Ingredients:
Makes 12 cookies
125g soft butter
100g sugar
100g chocolate chips
50g hazelnuts
50g ground almonds
150g spelt flour
1 egg
I first creamed the butter and the sugar then added the chocolate and the nuts.
The girls help with the mixing and when it was all nicely mixed together we added the flour and the ground almonds then a nice cold egg from the fridge. We used an ice-cream scoop to make bolls of cookie dough on the baking paper. When we had 12, we baked them in the oven for 20 minutes until they were golden brown.
They came out of the oven felt and round looking just like the cookies you can buy and testing even better.
They were so good that we have made then 3 times in a week. We didn't eat them all though, we gave some of them away.
Today the sun was not shining and we were feeling a little cold. I am starting to wonder where the summer has gone. So we decided to bring a bit of our own sunshine into the yurt today by picking some beautiful sunflowers. They always help to cheer up a grey day.
I hope the sun comes back to shine for us soon because we are not ready for autumn just yet.
I have made chocolate orange sticks a few times now and they never fail to taste great. They have a pungent bitter sweet taste that I just can't get enough of. They take some time to make but it is so worth the effort.
Ingredients:
3-4 orange(peel only), peeled and cut into sticks.
200g of sugar
200g plain dark chocolate
The orange peel needs to be cooked and softened but if they are boiled too long in the same water they become very bitter. Put the peel sticks in a pan, cover them with water and bring them to boil. As soon as the water begins to boil, pour it out and add new water. Repeat this twice. The third time add the sugar and simmer for 30 minutes or until the peel is soft. In one of my recipes it says to leave the peel over night in the sugar water, but I have never done this because I am not patient enough. but I think leaving them over night or at least for a few hour will help to soften and sweeten them even more.
Pour out the excess water and place the orange peel sticks on a wire rack to cool and dry.
When they have dried, melt the chocolate and dip all the orange peel sticks in one by one and place them on baking paper to cool. When they are cool put them in the fridge for an hour or so to harden. They melt very quickly so it is best to leave them in the fridge until they get eaten.
I also had lots of strawberries so I dipped some of them in the left over chocolate. Together they both made a very nice little treat to go with the coffee at our sewing group.
The other day the girls and I each painted one of our chickens eggs to hang on the spring table. We had a lot of fun and they brighten up our cold mornings. 
I have always wanted to make tomato chutney, but I have never had enough tomatoes. I only make preserves if there is an excess of something, otherwise we always try and eat everything fresh. But this summer there was an overload of tomatoes, they seemed to be coming from everywhere, and with them I have made lots of tomato chutney. This is the recipe I used. 
First I cut out a circle from the felt and then a strip as long as the circumference of the circle. I then pined the two bits together and sewed them up. 
I did the same with some cotton fabric and placed the felt pot into the cotton one. I then folded down the top, sewed around the edge and the pot was finished. 
Ingredients: 
