Coming a little late: Christmas presents!

I know it is early February and talking about presents I got at Christmas is a little late, but well... I am a little behind on everything I want to make and show!

At Christmas we (my siblings, mother and I) did a lot of home-made presents. It was great! It was also special because we were all together for the first time in a long time.

I got an apron from my mother for instance:

It is one of my favourite colours. I had given her the idea because without an apron I can hardly keep my trousers clean more than 1 hour! My two children always seem to find something to make them dirty ^^

For my sister B., I made rice hand-warmers. They are really small and keep the heat about 30 minutes (in the open on a table) which is about the time she needs to go to work.

Funnily it was also in my mother's plans with my youngest brother. Aged 7, he really wanted to make something for his brother and his sisters. Hand-warmers was a very accessible option for him. Here they are:

He chose to make both sides in a different fabric for four of them. He had started cutting fleece, but I had read that they can melt in the micro-wave... So instead he used the fleece to sew a doll blanket for his niece, Little N.:

Little N. was really happy! Not only did she get this lovely blanket for her doll, but she also got a special bag from her grand-ma: a changing mat with nappies and wipes!

She also got play-dough from her aunt B. She had never played with some, but since she has discovered it, she is a big fan! Plus I feel safe as it is made out of cooking ingredients!

One of my other sisters, M., is doing a lot of "deco-patch" (using paper napkins and gluing them on wooden objects for instance). And from her I got this very nice tissue box:

I, we, received a lot more both presents and love. The best of all as I said before was that we were all together. My children got to spend time with their grand-parents, all their uncles and aunts, and their cousins. We all live quite far from each other, so we cherish those times spent together!

And I am quite proud to see what everybody in the family can do and is keen on making for each other ^^ 

A Game on Facebook!

Are you on Facebook? Do you live in Europe? Do you like photography and enjoy a Challenge as well as potentially winning lovely presents? 

If you have answered yes to those questions then take a look at the game offered by Méo~photos. Just ask if you need help with understanding the rules (in French).

Theme of the pictures to be sent for participation: "Close to the Ground". I am already wondering what picture I could take with that theme, how interesting and challenging!

Doll House

For Christmas Little N. got a fantastic present from her grand-parents: a big doll house with five dolls and furniture!

I will wait a little longer until her brother is old enough to pull everything and then I will get on with making loooooooots of new tiny little things for the house! The dolls will need tiny food, tiny napkins, maybe new sets of clothes etc.

It's bath time!

Tea time

Baby T. messing up with the dinner table!

The house has not been moved to our flat (phew! no space here!) but stays at N.'s grand-parents and will provide hours of fun in the coming years! Watch that space! We (the grand-parents, N. and I) will be making many things to improve the house with time :)

Cooking&Baking Challenge - Session 7 : The Recipes!

The Challenge is starting again!

Here are the recipes from this month:

* Me: Aligot 

* Ben: Dinner Rolls

* Elke: Quarkkäulchen

Who is in for next month? Recipes are to be shared on February the 28th :)

Cooking&Baking Challenge - Session 7: Quarkkäulchen (Guest Post)

I am happy to share the recipe sent by a new participant to the Challenge, thanks a lot Elke!

 

Sächsische Quarkkäulchen

 

This is a very traditional dish served in the eastern part of Germany, in the federal state of saxony. I tried to translate it but without a lot of success ;) Quark is the german word for curd cheese and käulchen is the form of the dish - at least that's what I think.

But anyway...let's get started.

You need:

500g curd cheese

600-700g potatoes

2 Eggs

appr. 200g flour

raisins - if you like them....we don't, so we didn't use them

For the dough you need to boil potatoes with their skin on the day BEFORE you want to serve the Quarkkäulchen. So cook the potatoes and peel their skin of while they are still hot - when they are cold, it doesn't work. Then mash them how you would to mashed potatoes and leave them in the fridge waiting for what will come the next day.

On the next day add the other ingredients...curd cheese, eggs and flour and prepare a dough.

 And now comes THE secret for good Quarkkäulchen. The amount of flour you have add is an approximate value. It has to be enough to become a dough but not too much because then the Käulchen will be like leather and not very nice.

Then heat some oil in a pan and put the dough in. The easiest way is to get the dough with a spoon, put it in the oil and then flatten it using the same spoon. It's a bit sticky, but the taste it's worth the pain. ;)

Turn the Quarkkäulchen around so that the whole thing will be really nice and brown outside. 

Use all the dough and then serve it with apple sauce and/or sugar.

 

Our four year old loved them so much he ate 5 or 6 of them all by himself. Another funny thing is to try to see different shapes in the Quarkkäulchen - so it's also a fun meal for the kids.

ENJOY :)

Cooking&Baking Challenge - Session 7: Aligot

Here is my recipe for the January Cooking Challenge! A recipe from the southern part of Central France: Aligot. It is a delicious mix of cheese, garlic and mashed potatoes!

Aligot for four persons

Ingredients:

* 1kg potatoes

* 400 gr Tomme (French cheese)

* 200gr crème fraîche

* 2 garlic cloves

* salt, pepper

Preparation:

* Boil the water

* Peel the potatoes and the garlic. Cut the potatoes in large pieces and put them in the boiling water with 1 garlic clove for 20 minutes.

* In the meantime, cut the cheese in thin slices.

* After the 20 min. take the clove out, mash the potatoes with a bit of the cooking water in order to obtain a nice consistency.

* Add the crème fraîche with a wooden spoon.

* Put the potatoes back in the pot without the water. Warm it up on low heat and add quickly the cheese while mixing vigorously. The aligot then forms a sort of "ribbon" when you let it run from the spoon.

* Add salt and pepper

* If it is not tasty enough, you can crush the second garlic clove and add it to the aligot.

Bon appétit!

 Even our 1yo enjoyed it ^^

Terrarium

I have talked about Pinterest before, haven't I? Well, one of the many marvellous things I have noticed on there is the Terrarium. I loved the idea of making a mini garden in a vase (although originally I wanted it in an over-sized fish bowl).

One needs:

 

* Moss

* Cactus soil
* Stones, pebbles, beads
* Plants

* A nice transparent container.

Starting with a generous layer of moss, you then add the pebbles and stones on top of it.

Then you need to add your soil and your plants. Et voilà!

It made a perfect Christmas present for my parents-in-law who love plants :)

Cheese plate

I was born and raised in France. My children are only half french, but cheese and bread is an essential part of our food life (especially since my husband is a cheese-lover too!). I have been sewing a lot for N. and T.'s kitchen but so far they only had one box of small cheese pieces.

This weekend I finally got round to making them four pieces (decent pieces) of cheese:

The orange one is a "Mimolette" (one of N.'s favourite), the yellow is an "Emmental", we also have a "Brie" (I am glad I thought of keeping a label) and a "Bûche de chèvre cendrée" (a goat cheese roll with ashes - my personal favourite). The smallest one belongs to another box which I made a while back: Roquefort cream cheese! Yummy!

All four new cheeses fit in a small box which I found on Saturday :)

I need to get on with making some bread now!

A travelling doll house-pouch

Do you remember me showing you this image some time in November last year?

Well, that was for this project found via Pinterest (no surprise there, is it) - a mini doll pouch. I did not have a pattern but I found the idea absolutely brilliant! The lady who invented it is a Genius!

With many mistakes, I still managed to get it done for my niece as a Christmas present. 

Tadaaaaaaaa:

I love that space to tidy everything in! This way (in theory at least) the child does not loose the small elements when going around.

Let's take a closer look at the small elements:

A mini tutu (pink!) with elastic band so it can be put on and off rather easily. 

The tiniest teddy bear I have made so far.

Same again, this is the smallest ball I have had to sew.

And my baby boy, big fan of balls, tried to steal it!

That's it for today. I think my niece really likes her new toys, and I will probably make Little N. the same thing for her third birthday :)

It is winter for the dolls too!

Both my children have dolls, although for now only my little girl takes her doll for walks outside to the park, I thought I'd make a fleece suit for both dolls. 

Very simply, I drew the outline of the dolls for the back part (leaving generous space and adding another centimeter when sewing), then for the two front pieces, I used the same size from the shoulders down making sure to have a large overlap.

For Little N.'s doll I drew the headline far too close to the head and could not get a fitting hood. I therefore did a suit without hood (which does not matter since she - the doll - has a hood on her jumper!). The overlap makes it easy to dress and undress the dolls and the suit can be closed without a button, zipper or whatever other closing system ^^

We finally have snow and cold, so at least the dolls are ready to brave the outside weather!