Quilting and cooking

Here's what I cooked yesterday, to welcome back the wanderer! 

Moroccan chicken from the Good Food pressure cooker cook book. (You can just see it in the background)  I did it in my electric pressure cooker, which I love and is one of the most used kitchen gadgets. 

I also made this in my food processor, another much used kitchen gadget!

A blackberry and clotted cream shortcake! I spotted the recipe on Facebook and shared it with Adrian who said 'yes please!' It's a BBC Good Food recipe and you can find it here. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2857/blackberry-and-clotted-cream-shortcake-

Both were delicious! 

And here's some better photos of Simon's I spy quilt. The idea is to have lots of fun print and then play I spy with all the pictures. I made mine a snap and I spy quilt so I had two squares of every fabric, so we can play matching and spotting! I used a disappearing 9 patch pattern. I backed it with fleece.

Here's the finished quilt draped over the sofa.

Here's some close ups.

I quilted either side of the seams.

Here's the back.

I even put one of my labels on it!

I'm really thrilled with how it turned out. And of course I have two more quilts in the planning stage!

Baking

Today I made apple, pear and blueberry muffins, in two sizes! Simon loved the little ones! Weightwatchers recipe so made with fruit not added sugar and with low fat spread. Yum! (Just as a side note, I made the easiest dinner ever because I used up my cooking energy making these...pasta with fried ham and mushrooms, covered in grated cheese)

I also made a khaki smoothie - blueberry, banana and baby kale.

I also went all arty and took some photos around the house.

I like this because the cushion was made from a t shirt I wore when I was pregnant which said 'dream big'...Just reminded me to think about what my dreams are. A bedroom without piles of clothes? Time and space to make stuff? Mmm, needs more thought!

My creative corner of the spare room...plus two cupboards full of fabric, art materials, puppets etc

Now some arty bathroom shots!

And a random brick left as a trip hazard by Simon!

Budding African violet...I think the window sill is too sunny for it!

Leftovers from the muffins!

I'd forgotten how much taking photos makes you look. My phone is full of Simon snaps, although even with him I try and get the interesting shot of him covered in dinner, or looking cute when asleep! We are so spoilt with digital cameras and cameras in our phones now. You can snap away, experiment and try things without worrying about the cost of the film. And you can delete or keep as you wish!

Support and permission

After a busy week, me and the little guy had a stay at home day. It started with the groceries being delivered and ended with a night out for me and my big guy!

And in the middle...no housework! 

We all need days like this and it was possible due to support and permission. Adrian said 'don't worry about the housework today' so I didn't! I let it go. And I gave myself permission to do on online shop, rather than drag myself and little one round the supermarket. And Aunty came to babysit so we could have an evening out.

Support and permission - it helps creativity!

Because I didn't have to go to the supermarket, or cook dinner I was able to

Do a couple more lines of quilting on the I spy quilt

Paint my toenails...sorry for the fuzzy close up of my feet. I couldn't decide on the colour so I went for all three that appealed!

Make chicken smoothie! No, it's not a new breakfast smoothie for us, it's pressure cooked chicken, leek, celery and potato which I blitzed in an attempt to get fussy toddler to eat some meat. I even split it into three batches with different flavours. And did he eat it? Of course not! He squished it through his hands until I took it away when veggie Aunty arrived to babysit!

I made Star Wars space ship biscuits using my new bargain cutters from Lakeland. As you can see, some of them have the details showing, but not all. I think I haven't found the right recipe yet. This was a Mary Berry one from her Christmas book, but, unwilling as I am to criticise Mary Berry, it uses self raising flour which meant all the details got lost. Love the shapes though!

To end the day I went out to dinner here http://sabaideethai.co.uk/ with Adrian.

The food was delicious and beautiful. Here's my Pad Thai, with a delicious eggy net across the top!