Pug Love

I love pugs! They are such funny little clowns, I am near certain that at some point in my life I will be described as the crazy pug lady.

Until then I will have to content myself with pug related crafts and an annual hyperventilation fit at crufts.

so today I sketched some pugs

 

Rhubarb Martini.

So I've been playing around with alcoholic infusions for a few weeks now, and the absolute winner so far is my Rhubarb Martini! Opinions differ in my household, but I think it tastes like childhood favorite Rhubarb and Custard sweeties from Marks and Spencer's which is a pretty tasty thing to have bottled!
The best part is its super easy to make.

You will need. 
1 liter Kilner clip lock preserving jar 
1 liter of white martini (you will only use about 700ml)
4 sticks of rhubarb
200g of golden caster sugar
2 table spoons of honey
4 table spoons of good quality vanilla paste
Small amount of Pink food colouring gel
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped (optional)


Method

1. Cut the rhubarb into lengths the same size as the jar. 
2. Place the cut rhubarb into a roasting tray and add the honey, a small amount of water, 50g of sugar and a small amount of pink food colouring. 
3. Roast the rhubarb for around 15mins at 150c until it is soft but still holds it shape. 
4. Add the rhubarb and the roasting juices to the jar. 
5. Pour in the  remaining sugar and add the vanilla paste and ginger if using. 
6. Top up the whole jar with martini and seal. 
7. Shake well and leave in a cool dark place, shaking daily for around a week. 
8. Remove the rhubarb (you can use it in some scrummy crumbles) and strain out the ginger and any stringy bits of rhubarb that have developed.
9. Bottle in presentation bottles
10. Use with in 2 years (its unlikely to last this long however)

Simple, sweet and refreshing, I will serve mine with lashing of lemonade, ice and nostalgia at my next BBQ. 

Yummi Gumball

Has anyone else fallen in love with these Gumball rugs?

They are so colorful and quirky.  They are made up of felted little balls of wool sewn together. They are beautiful and I would love one in my living room, although the sensible (boring) side of me does wonder how well they wear and what on earth happens when the red wine spill occurs? At £170 for the smallest 3ft rug its a bit of a scary thought. 

And then I had another scary thought...how hard can it be to make my own?


Quickly searching the interwebs I found the answer is not terribly hard thanks to this useful guide to making your own felt balls, and then its just a case of sewing them all together, easy peasy right?


 If you answered yes to that you are braver than me, perhaps I will just save up and ban liquids, animals and small children from my front room







If the rug seems like a craft project too far, how about getting your teeth into this darling christmas wreath from Pickles   I think it would be lovely in pinks and yellows as a easter wreath as well

Although you can make your own felted balls as shown above it maybe worth cheating a little (read an awful lot) for your own sanity. I can only dream how mundane felting all these little squidgy balls would get and then you have the long process of sewing them all together.

 I found lots of really pretty coloured felted balls on Etsy for around £20 for 100 ball count.

Chocolate hazel nut meringues

These meringues are very similar to my strawberries and cream meringues . These however are full of chocolately naughtiness. The meringues themselves have little flecks of chocolate in them and are are sandwhiched together with a thick dark chocolate ganache. The cream is flavored with toffee nut syrup from monin and there are crushed hazel nuts hidden in there as well. 

You will need
For the meringue
1 packet of egg whites
4oz of sugar
8 tablespoons of water
1oz of finely grated chocolate

For the ganache
8oz of dark chocolate
50ml double cream.
1oz of crushed hazel nuts

For the cream
150ml double cream
3 table spoons of Monin Toffee Nut syrup

Also
baking parchment
piping bag
large star nozzle
electric hand whisk

Method. 
Firstly make sure your bowl and beaters are spotlessly clean, wash in hot soapy water and dry and then with some lemon juice on kitchen paper wipe both the bowl and the beater to remove any grease (grease is not your friend)

1. Add the sachet of poweder egg whites to the bowl and 2 table spoons of water
2. Start the mixer and keep adding table spoons of water
3. When the mix looks really frothy and bubbly start adding your sugar a little at a time
4. Once all the sugar is added the mixture should look and feel very thick and glossy. then you finely grated dark chocolare carefully folding it in to the mix with a spoon. 
5. Carefully put the mix in a piping bag with a large star shaped nozzle attached and pipe the mix onto a tray lined with the baking parchment.  You can draw circles on the reverse of the paper first so all your meringues are equal sized, but as I was just holding the piping bag down and pulling up I eyeballed it
6. Pop in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees. 
7. Keep checking the meringue and when a hard shell has formed turn the heat down to around 60 degrees and allow to cook for around 20mins.
8. After 20mins turn the oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the oven. 
9. In a mixing bowl suspended over but not touching  a pan of boiling water melt your dark chocolate and cream to make the ganache, take off the heat and allow to cool slightly
10. Once the meringues have cooled, whip up some double cream with 3 table spoons of toffee nut syrup until it is very thick, when it starts to clump together you've got it. 
11. Spread a little ganache on to each meringue and sprinkle the crushed hazel nuts over half the meringues. On the meringues with out hazel nuts pipe a pipe the whipped cream and then sandwich another meringue on top. And your done!

They are seriously tasty and pretty simple to make. I just love them sitting in a big pile on a vintage cake stand waiting for everyone to dive in and devour them. 

monin syrups

For me Monin syrups are the secret to tasty baking. These syrups are available in nearly every flavor you can think of, from classics like vanilla, raspberry, and cinnamon to the wild and wonderful basil, elderflower and jasmine. 

I love how the look all stacked together, and the vintage inspired french labels are beautiful in their own right. 

But these are so much more than pretty bottles to put in your kitchen and never think of again. They pack a fantastic flavor punch and can be used in so many different ways, add a splash of chestnut or gingerbread flavor to your hot chocolate for a festive treat, no longer do you need to be a slave to Starbucks red cups! Pour lychee over vanilla ice cream for a quick treat, or better still use it when making your own ice cream. Add cherry to coke, use the mijito or blue Curacao flavor in cocktails, add chocolate and hazelnut to milk for a quick milkshake or lemon to iced tea. Flavor your macron centers with pistachio and my favorite use adding pretty much any flavor to sponge mixes. 

This is really useful when you want a flavor like passion fruit or mango where the wetness of fresh fruit can cause a less than perfect sponge. Its also great for making flavored frosting! I'm dreaming up lavender cupcakes with honey frosting as I type this.

Another great use is in jellies or jams

Apple and apricot jelly

Ingredients 

2 litres apple juice 300 ml Monin Apricot  16 sachets gelatin  Fresh apricot wedges  1 cinnamon stick  (4 to 5 per portion) Method

Brings apple juice and Monin Apricot with cinnamon stick to the boil.   Cool slightly.  Dissolve in the Gelatine and strain through muslin cloth.  Fill molds with the jelly, 1/3 of the way.   Slightly set the jelly, add another layer of jelly and apricot wedges.Repeat so that the final layer is jelly.  You can use any mixture of flavors to make as many different jellies as your heart desires this way .

Another recipe I love is Raspberry Vinaigrette

Simply Combine -

1/4 cup of oil 

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 

1 tablespoon Monin Raspberry Syrup 

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

Salt & Pepper to taste

There are plenty more uses for monin syrups beyond simple drinks here. Once you start using them you really will wonder how your culinary en-devours ever survived without these jack of all trades syrups.   

The possibilities really are endless and although you may not find a million uses for a liquorice syrup, there are plenty that will serve you well.

Cream Supplies will have everything you could ever dream of in a syrup and are worth a look.

If you'd just like to dip your toe then there are also mini gift sets available with cocktail flavors and Coffee flavors to have an experiment with several flavors without breaking the bank or committing to large bottle. 

Easter Island cupcakes

So i found this fantastic Easter Island Moai head ice cube tray and thought it would be really fun to make use it to make chocolates to decorate cupcakes and I am so glad I did. You can get your own on Amazon.  I thought these were perfect at Easter time as a slightly quirky take on the holiday and bringing back a little excitement of tropical island, summer holiday memories since the weather is starting to pick up.... was starting to pick up...we've gone from 24degrees to -3degrees in the space of a week in the UK

I made a really simple bog standard sponge cake and a simple green butter cream for this recipe.  I did make a slight mistake with the Maoi heads in that I didn't fully shake and tap down the hot chocolate so some air bubbles formed (see pics below). Its not perfect but I kind of liked the effect, as it made the chocolates look more like the weather beaten mysterious heads of Easter Island.
The heads are very heavy (like the real things) so although mine held up just with a thick butter cream, you may want to consider pushing a cocktail sick into them for extra support.
The little pink flowers are just a small bit of fondant I had left over and I used a tiny little cutter to get some pretty blooms. I think they look like Sakura flowers and a nice little nod to another great spring which I adore - the cherry blossom festival in Japan. 

 I'm thinking of trying a mojito cupcake using a Routin-1883  syrup I have in mojito flavor or passion fruit  (again with a flavored syrup) and Malibu flavor cupcake decorated this way to really get the summer vibes going!

My icing skills still need improving but over all I'm very happy with them! They are a great quirky alternative to all that messy chocolate/shreadies bird nest ideas you find at Easter and no need to waste precious mini eggs!

A little note on Easter Island.

Easter Island is a fantastic little speck of  volcanic rock flung miles and miles away from the coast of Chile. Its historical inhabitants built thousands of the Maoi heads all over the island and seemed to deforest the whole island in order to do so, which lead to wide spread famine and the near eradication of life on the rock.  
Easter Island is certainly on my top 5 places I would love to visit! 

Moondogswife spins

I'm always on the look out for fun and unusual  yarns Rowan and Noro are my normal go to stops in shops. There is nothing I love more than secretly filling my stash bag with the beauties they produce, but increasingly I've hankered after more unique one of a kind yarns. My knitting still being in its infancy I fall back on a beautiful yarn to make up for the basic nature of my work.

 Ive found a great shop on Etsy, which provides beautiful and spun colourful yarns and I'm going to share it with you.  It is wonderfully named Moondogswife Spins
I think you will agree that it is heart achingly beautiful, the combination of colours are so exciting and expertly combined to create yarn I'm dying to see knitted up .

There is no denying its expensive at around £30 a ball, But if you had a special project, or a special someone, who are we kidding, feel like spoiling yourself and your stash bag I think these gorgeous hand spun yarns are worth every penny.........now fingers crossed for my lottery win so I can buy the shop out. 

(All images from Moondog'swife Spins Etsy store)