MARRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

                                                          And it is here, at last........

I hope you are all well and will be enjoying some quality time. 

All our lot seems to be suffering with colds of various degrees,

including me, but that will not stop us getting together.

Last minute baking,

Vanilla Tort with marzipan,

it has been favourite in our house for many years.

                     Have a wonderful time!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

FNwF and the rest

My Friday ended up a busy day; it also became a baking Friday morning in the end. 

Chocolate and almond cake, from Hairy Bikers' Baking book, one of our favourite cakes.

Also a loaf of bread, which I made in Remoska.

"In what?" I hear you ask.

Our Czech friends will know exactly what I am talking about. 

For the rest - Remoska is a "mini oven", a Czech invention, which has been around for more than 70 years.

It is very simple and clever, just one "on and off" button,

it is the lid which does the cooking and is self regulating.

Later that day I made macaroni cheese in it; 

it also makes a very good risotto. 

I could had made the cake in it earlier, but this recipe makes a rather large cake, my Remoska is the smaller size, but I do make other cakes in it as well.

Good on energy. 

What else can you ask?

My Friday afternoon was spent in my sewing room. Recently I resurrected Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. 

The next stage is a border around the centre part, made of 3,5 inch log cabin blocks, 

I need 52 of them, so lots to do.

But I did join others in "Friday Night with Friends" in the end!

I have been playing with some applique blocks and in the evening I finished the top block.

I have no idea where this is going, but it is just fun for now.....

Big Thank You to Cheryll for getting us together again!

Also some last colour in the garden.

I hope you all have a wonderful week crafting!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

baking weekend

I have realized that I haven't posted from my kitchen for a very long time, but be assured, that many loaves of bread, cakes and biscuits have been coming out of my tiny space, it was one of those things which kept me occupied during the lockdowns.

Last few days it has been like being in another lockdown, with various storms rolling over UK, storm Eunice being the latest one, but it seems that another storm is on its way. Luckily we haven't been effected by any damage so far, I am just watching with some concern our still young olive tree being bashed about; the rest of the garden is holding up OK. 

So, I retreated to my kitchen again - thankfully we haven't have any power cuts in our area (yet), so baking was possible.

Something new - I turned to one of my favourite cookery books, by Olia Hercules, recipes mainly from Ukraine (and food not that far away from own upbringing), the country currently very much in the news, sadly not for good reasons.

I have no idea why they are called Berlin, no do I really care; the main thing is that they are very nice, and easy to make. I would actually call them small pastries rather than biscuits. They are not very sweet (no sugar is mixed in the dough), as the circles of dough are dipped lightly in sugar and folded, this process repeated a couple of times again.  

After about half an hour in the oven:

Wet and windy Sunday afternoon here, so it is back to some sewing in the front of TV, 

with a cuppa and Berlin pastry. 😉

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

catching up

Since I finished Barn Dance quilt top I have been itching to start a new project (of course!).

I am now in the process of quilting Barn Dance; we had some cold evenings here, 

so it was quite nice to have it on my lap.

Ever since I got "Beautiful Botanicals" by Deborah Kemball, I had been planning to start my own "Flower Sampler" wall-hanging, which will be 

a combination of  applique and embroidery. Now it seems a good time to start, with all the lovely flowers outside, and being able to stitch outside.

I chose a plain mustard fabric for the background, which wouldn't normally  be my first go to colour choice, but I think it will work well.

It is not as brown as it looks here.

first some prep work

and the first flower is done 

As I was browsing through my blog recently, I realised that there haven't been any posts from my kitchen for a very, very long time. I can assure you that there have been many loaves of bread and many cakes coming out of my kitchen during all those lockdowns last year, when the kitchen, my sewing room and the garden were all my places of safety. Books, jigsaw puzzles, DVD's and recipes were making the rounds of the family with all of us confined to our homes.

This is just the latest book in the line of many; 

this one has been on our book shelf for a long time, 

but I got to it eventually. 

Our local library re-opened fully last week, so it is on our list of places to go in the next few days.

On the subject of cakes - spending so much time at home didn't do very much for our waistline, 

so I am now turning again to making little healthier cakes (if there is such a thing 😉).

Now, when we can have visitors at home again, I like to have a cake around.

This weekend's cake was from one of my favourite cake books, by Amber Rose,

where she substitutes sugar with honey or maple syrup, and some of the fats with nuts. The original recipe is made with nectarines, but I use apricots instead, because they have a stronger taste when cooked; 

the result is a wonderful moist cake.

Unfortunately today is very much "indoors"; we are having a busy mix of sunshine and showers,

so I think I will go and plan the next flower for my wall-hanging.

I wish you all very productive week, whatever you are into to!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

FNwF and another month

This year is moving along in an alarming rate; one day we might think of this year as a lost one - or possibly not, depending on how many quilts, socks, jumpers or other projects we have made during this time.

Friday night was that time again - to virtually meet up with others at Cheryll's, who very kindly lends us her blog for monthly "hang outs".

What was I doing? After a rather wet mid week, the sun came out and it got very hot again. The result was that Friday evening turned out to be very pleasantly warm and so we stayed outside longer than normally and while the light permitted, I worked on the last applique part of the Manor House quilt, nearly finishing it, I just stitched the last leaf on yesterday morning.

The next step will be two borders, but those will have to be done inside, as the sewing machine will be engaged - not my favourite pass time at this time of year, I prefer to be outside.

With some rain and sun, our little garden it looking rather lush; this has been our oasis since spring.

Last weekend our family got together in our daughter's garden, to celebrate all those birthdays missed during the lock down - 4 of them, including mine. We all chipped in with food; I made a summer cake, which I first made last summer; made with almonds and honey instead of sugar. I have come to a conclusive that apricots work much nicer here than nectarines.  

Once cut, it went rather quickly, before I had time to take a picture of a slice.

I am off outside again, to make few more 2 in hexies!

I hope this post will come out OK, I am trying to get in to grips with the Blogger version 😕

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

weekend baking in Remoska

In what? you are asking.  Bare with me, but most of our Czech blogging friends will know exactly what I am talking about.

Poppy seed cake - there are many variation on this recipe; this one comes from one of Rachel Allen's books. I like her no nonsense cooking.

She says in her introduction that she developed this recipe when their German au-pair was homesick for her mum's cake 😊.

                         So, what is Remoska? 

Remoska is an electric mini oven. It was invented in Czechoslovakia (as it was) just before WW2, and it was manufactured during the next 40 years. Its size and simplicity made it ideal for small flats, weekend cottages and even caravans. I remember, when I was growing up, many proud owners of Remoska. My mum never managed to get one (there always was a shortage of something during that time).

"It is the lid that does the cooking" - yes, it is all in the lid. 

There are no settings as such, only "on" and "off" switch. So how does it do it? I have no idea, but it works, you can cook in it most things, and it uses less than a quarter of electricity of a standard electric oven.

With the arrival of modern electric gadgets Remoska was forgotten and the factory got run down through lack of investment. But after 1990 the production started up again and thanks to a certain Czech ex-pat, it has been imported to England for many years now.

I bought mine years ago, but to my shame I must admit that through a lack of space in my kitchen, it does get put away occasionally and "out of sight, out of mind" .

Few months back my main oven was out of action for a while, so Remoska came to its own again, and since that time it has found a proud place in my kitchen again.

It is not a slow cooker, as many people automatically think, in fact very often it cooks faster than my main oven.  

I have also found that most thing retain more moisture in Remoska.

As with many things, there are some tips and tricks to learn, but on whole I have never regretted investing money in one.

So, I just popped the cake tin in, put on the lid and pressed the button. There is no preheating as you would normal oven, again saving on energy.

 25 minutes later

The recipe suggests a vanilla butter icing, but I prefer to use simple lemon icing.

 

It never last for long in our house!

I am happy to share any recipes with you privately; as most of them come from cookery books, 

I don't want to break any copyright laws by publishing them on my blog.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

this and that, and some stitching too

The weather has changed a lot since my last post; drop in the temperatures, 

lots of heavy rain, thunderstorms, and the odd nice day as well.

Early August at Lytes Cary Manor(NT) to see the changes in the gardens there.

Back in the kitchen,

small batch of one of my mixed fruit jams,

which we will appreciate during the cold winter months.

One of our favourite biscuit recipes, with dried fruit, honey, nuts and white chocolate.

and experimenting with a new bread recipe -

I was really pleased with the result, 

and I plan to make it again this week.

There is a slow but steady progress with the Arabian Nights crochet blanket, I am well past the mid point now, but I am out of the red wool, so I need to re-order.

I have put together some of small blocks of the Awakening quilt, 

so this is the top 1/3 of the quilt,

and I have a couple of large blocks ready for the lower part.

In the post this week - "Stitches to Savor" by Sue Spargo.

I know many of you know this book already; I have been looking for a good second hand one, but Sue's books do hold their price. Last week I came across an unused copy on ebay, at a half price of any price on Amazon, an opportunity not to be missed.
I am well pleased!

This is not a project book, there are not patterns or instructions, this is simply a showcase of her work; twelve of her quilts on show, a mixture of fabric and wool applique, embellished with lots of embroidery stitching, and beautifully quilted - a feast for the eyes!

The photography is first class, with lots of close up details.

I have been browsing through every day since it arrived, constantly finding new bits.

I have been very much in the "reading mode" in the last few weeks, and since my last post I got through another "Department Q" thriller, 

and at the moment I am reading  "Drums of Autumn", which is book no 4 (of 8) in the "Outlander" saga.

All the Outlander books are pretty "hefty" and so is this one, with over 1,000 pages.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019