Clafoutis and Yarn.

Last week I was given a bag of fresh rhubarb and coriander (not mixed!).  I don't often eat rhubarb, and am rather ambivalent about it in crumble, so I decided to make clafoutis.  We had a delicious one of these when visiting some friends in France last year, and I've quite fancied the idea of making it since.

It's essentially a sweet batter, with a spiced cooked rhubarb filling.  It's delicious, and we thoroughly enjoyed eating it!
I enjoyed using the coriander too, and made a lovely lime and coconut chicken, and a carrot and coriander soup.  Thanks Nadine!

I've not blogged much about yarn recently.  I have been knitting, but things are getting made less quickly at the moment with two little ones taking up lots of time! BUT- I have renewed vigour and am steaming ahead, as I have some lovely things lined up to make.
I am almost at the end of a Debbie Bliss garter stitch cardi for P, and I have three new projects I am about to start... EXCITING!
I'll give you a sneak peak of the cardi, but I'll save most of the info on this for when I have completed it.

I'll finish with a couple of shots, nothing to do with cooking or crafts in the least, but everything to do with what most of my time is currently spent on...

Goodnight friends!

C x

A bit thrifty

I was inspired by reading a friend's interesting post today on Food Waste, and how it is a really serious issue, and it got me thinking again about how much I waste...  I try not to, but with life being pretty busy, and with two rather time-consuming little ones to watch, I start off with good intentions and then get lazy.

Today I resolved again to work on cutting the amount that we waste, both to be more environmentally friendly, and to help the old bank balance.

So, we had a dinner comprised of lots of bits and bobs that needed eating up... Some delicious carrot and coriander soup (carrots were not going to last much longer, and a friend had a surplus of coriander in her garden!) to which I added more potato than in the recipe to make it go a little further.  Some bread (made using our wonderful bread maker) and butter, and some cous cous salad, using lots of odds and ends of salad vegetables that we had in the fridge.  This was topped off with a lovely rice pudding (not using anything up per se, but a delicious and very thrifty pud!).

To follow in this vein, I then made some breadcrumbs from some stale bread that was lying around... (into the freezer, and then I'm nice and organised for macaroni cheese)

And had another go at jam making with the left over strawberries from our PYO session on Saturday.  Again, I think it was a success... Thanks Delia!

On a non food-related note, I had a bit of mending to do for a friend.  She had a couple of bags that needed a spot of sewing.  One was a doddle- just a strap that needed machining back into the bag.  The other was less easy to figure out what to do with- the very pretty fabric had totally worn away and been ripped in places, leaving only the lining visible.  I wasn't so sure how to fix this without it looking like a very obvious patch-up job, but a suggestion from a friend was that I just add a panel to the bottom in a heavy-wearing fabric.  This worked very well, and I used an old pair of jeans that have been in the fabric stash for a while.

How very satisfying!
Any thrifty/ food saving ideas/recipes to add to the mix?

Happy Friday everyone (nearly!)

C x