Pies and bargains

So, the new blog thing didn't go quite to plan (originally I was thinking of posting every other day!). I started a new job recently and it's been pretty tiring so haven't had much time to post.

This month I have mainly been cooking, working, doing some crafts (but not as many as I'd like!) and finding bargains at fairs:

I made a spinach and feta pie from my friend's Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals recipe book. The recipe I used (slightly tweaked) was:

Ingredients:
5 eggs
300g Feta
50g Cheddar
Dried Oregano
1 Lemon
A little butter
400g Baby Spinach
270g pack of filo pastry
Cayenne Pepper
Nutmeg
Preheat the oven to approx. 220 degrees

1. Crack 5 eggs into a mixing bowl and crumble in 300g of Feta. Grate in the 50g of Cheddar. 
2. Add a pinch of black pepper, oregano, zest of 1 lemon (although I thought lemon juice would suffice), and some olive oil.
3. Add olive oil, butter and half of the spinach to a pan and place on medium heat. Push it around the pan until wilted and add the other half. Take off the heat.
4. Take pastry out of the fridge and lay a sheet of greaseproof paper (50cm across) on the work surface. Rub olive oil over it. Arrange 3-4 filo pastry sheets in a large rectangle, overlapping at the edges so that they
almost cover the paper.
5. Rub some olive oil over them. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
6. Repeat until you have three layers.
7. Add wilted spinach to egg mixture and grate in 1/2 nutmeg. Mix Well.
8. Put pastry in an over pan (carefully- it needed two of us to move it at this stage!). Pour in egg mixture and spread out.
9. Fold the filo over the top. I brushed a little olive oil over at this point.

10. Put the pan in the oven on the top shelf for 15-20 minutes until crispy. I pushed a knife in to see if the egg was cooked at this stage and it wasn't so it went back in for another 10 minutes.

I've also been discovering that hospice fairs are often places to find bargains - St. Gemma's in Moortown Leeds was wonderful to visit today with lots of old goods on offer. I got some fabric for 50p and some good quality thread for 20p a go. Also got some lovely things to make presents for my friend's birthday (more to follow on this later). My favourite find was a old fashioned 'Poison, Do Not Drink' jar for £3.50 - perfect for a flower or just for decoration on its own. St. Gemma's are hosting another on 24th and 25th September and 10th and 11th December - I highly recommend a visit if you like beautiful old things and a bargain.

Plants and Samosas

So, the last of the wonderful bank holiday days is just about to come to a close. With an almost better ankle I managed to venture out today to get some stuff to start off some seeds (tomato, chilli, courgette, runner beans) and some pots to add to my existing compost. More of this later when they start to sprout...

My herbs seem to be doing quite well on the windowsill but I have no idea how long they will last for. Any ideas? On another note, is it best to leave them for as long as possible or to start eating some now so they are encouraged to grow back?

I finally got around to making the Spinach Samosas I found on the Good Food Website (here's the recipe). Unfortunately overall I wasn't very impressed- perhaps a little too spinach-y for me and not enough other flavours or maybe it was the quality of the frozen spinach I used? I'll possibly use fresh next time. Also next time (and as a tip if you'd like to make them) I think a little diced cooked potato, some diced carrots, some peas and more spice would have made these absolutely delicious. Please excuse the mis-shaped samosas (and these two were the best!)- I found the filo difficult to fold!

Lazy Sundays and Bagels

This Sunday I woke up with a clear head and decided it was about time I got around to making some bagels that I'd spotted  the recipe for some time ago. Having found the recipe on Jess' Blog I started out making some dough. Usually making dough in the bread making machine (lazy, I know!), I was amazed to see how far the dough spread in the hour after I've kneaded it.

If you'd like the recipe I highly recommend looking at the one on Jess's page above.

The most amazing part of my bagel experience was having to boil the bread in sugar water.

I was really happy with how the bagels formed a puffy, yet quite solid coating when boiled. You have to keep on turning them and then get them onto the baking tray and cover them with as many poppy and sesame seeds as you like!

 

 Here's the finished article- absolutely delicious. Thanks Jess! 

My first blog post: Patchwork Quilt

Hello. I've decided to set up a blog as I'm increasingly more jealous of my friend Jess' blog everytime she posts. Jess' blog is here: www.knittingontrains.com and it's beautiful. So, I've finally got around to this blog as I have damaged my ankle falling over- thus chaining me to the house for the bank holiday weekend!

My first blog post is going to be about the mammoth task I have just started: my patchwork quilt! So, I've been learning how to do patchwork from my mum, the most crafty person I know. she made me a patch work bag a few years ago and only now I am appreciating how precise you have to be! So, here's a step by step guide in case you fancied having a go yourself:

1: Get yourself some material. This can be all the same colour schemes (I've chosen blue) or completely random. It's up to you. Get a good two to three metres if you're planning on doing a double bed sized quilt as you'll need to make a lot of squares of material.

NB: I'm planning on doing a double sized quilt and am going to do approximately 50 of each finished pattern (2 patterns) so 100 squares in total. This leaves room for 'sashing' which I will have to describe when I've done as I'm an amateur quilt maker!

2: Get a large cutting board (see the photos below) and a rotary craft cutting blade- like this one: http://www.pelennapatchworks.co.uk/rotary-cutters-blades-and-knives-39-c.asp

<--- We want to end up with this in the end of these steps:

3: Cut yourself a template for the first square out of cardboard (I made mine about 8cm but you can make it bigger) and start cutting some squares out from your template. Cut the squares in two different types of material as we're going to sew them together.

4: Sorry, haven't taken a photo of this step- so I made a paint example instead!. Place the two different patterned 8 x 8 cm squares together, with the best/front side of the fabric facing one another. Sew around the squares so they are totally sewn together. It is best to do one side of the square at a time (don't worry about knotting it off) so you don't cut through the thread and unravel the whole thing.

Using a ruler and either a dress makers pencil or chalk, mark a cross on the side of the fabric you don't want to be in the middle, for example the light blue in this case.


Carefully cut with small scissors where you have drawn.




Flatten the triangles out so you have similar to this.-->


Now iron this piece so it is nice and flat for you to work on.


5: Measure this square (the one with the arrow pointing at it) and make your next template out of cardboard.

6: Now cut your the next colour square you would like out from your new template. Sew this new square and your started patchwork together:

7: Repeat the step of drawing on the cross and cutting along the line of the cross as above in step 4. Open it up and iron it out again.

The different squares of material can be seen below:

8: Continue to make templates from the ever growing patch work and draw on crosses, cut the crosses and open out. Then iron. here's an example of the larger sqaures being ironed out. This also shows the amount of hem you should be leaving (quite small!).

 9: Continue the above steps a few times with the same fabric. Sit back and be proud of the (almost!) identical nature of the patchwork squares.

Right that's enough for now, once I've made 50 more of these I'll get to the sashing and quilting.
If there's anything you'd like to know, leave me a comment and I'll try to answer your question (this is my first patchwork though!).