Christmas Two Oh Boy Ten !! Belated

Well Christmas has well been and gone but the foods like christmas cake , almond short breads, truffles and still hanging around ... yum yum 

I thought that I would share some happy times with you.

Because my grandparents were Latvian we celebrate Christmas eve as well as day. This year for Christmas eve my family decided to make it dress up the them was formal form any era! That gave me a mountain of chose but I went for a 1920s style flapper dress that 

I made and just a cute little dress that I wiped up for Edie. The night went off with a bang and was a lovely night on the whole.

Oh k so I might look completely wiped out here but that might be because we were up at 5.30 am on Christmas day. Its been a long standing tradition in my family that I get up super early and wake everyone up, which I take great joy in doing. 

I shall call this ... THE AFTERMATH !!!!! what can you say Edie got lot and I mean lots of presents plus the 5 remaining family members didn't do too badly either.

Lastly I thought I would show you the one and only   Christmas stocking ! I Have to say that I'm  pretty jealous of it compared to my old one. I was going though my mamas wardrobe and found some old red woollen fabric and thought Oh yes that would come in handy and here it is re-crafted into a special thing.


Lili xx

Edie's Itty Bitty christmas dress..

So I kind of forgot to put some pictures of the dress that I made, for  Edie to wear on christmas eve. So here at last are some action shots. I have to say even if I am slightly biest thats this dress turned out pretty darn fantastic! I had also brought Edie some drop dead gorgeous embodied linen shoes, that turned out to be a perfect touch, along with a head band I had made for a different occasion .

Christmas time is coming ...

Oh k . So its less than a fortnight to christmas now and I'm pretty much running to my schedule, I've only got 3 presents to make and hopefully my christmas dress I want to make . I'm planing on making a vintage style flapper/dropped waist dress out of tie silk left over from my mummy's wedding dress 23 years ago! Anyone got an idea about how I should go about this ? I've got an ruff idea but just need to be sure before I  take the big snip of dooooooom haha.


I've almost finished Edies christmas dress and why isn't cute! I've made her a itty bitty dress upsized to fit a 3-6 month old cubby bubby. For the boddice i've used a frog and the princes linen print i found on etsy and then because there wasn't enough I've made a plain linen skirt and a feature pocket which looks lovely! I'll put up a picture of in tonight maybe! 
Well I'm off to start my day ( lots of cooking ahead)
tuttar Lili xxx

10 years latter ....

Oh K so I haven't written in this here blog for a long time , but I do have a reason I along with my sister and my mother have been busy little people making all our crafting goods for our new shop that we have started.


( Drum role please...) We would like to welcome you to Once upon a time .... We make lots of different crafty bits and bobs all hand crafted with lots of love packed into them. 
Some of the things we make are button hair clips and covered button hair clips, book marks, badges, hair bands, little baby shorts and applique tops , onesies and singlets. 
But it's not going to stop there we'll be coming up with new products all the time , so please stop by and tell your friends about us.


Bye for now 

Lazy Days: Hummus

Lazy Days: Hummus: "Hummus is a great dip , it can be used in so many different ways, in toasted sandwiches, as a dip, as part of a meal, it also goes great wit..."

Potato's and split peas mix up

The other evening I found myself with a bit of a predicament. We were going away the next day to our beach house for the weekend so there wasn’t much food left in the pantry.

I had been looking through a cook book earlier and found a recipe that I liked the look of but had hardly any of the ingredients, so I decided to have a go at it with what I had around. 

  

I had read the recipe and thought it said that it had chickpeas in it. I didn’t have chickpeas because I had used them in the hummus but I had some split peas laying around so I thought that they would work. 

Later on when I looked back at the recipe it didn’t even need chickpeas but oh well it was meant to be. This dish worked out really well. It took a bit longer than I thought it would take, because the potato’s took for ever to cook but I endeavored and the effort was well worth it.

The combination worked well with the slight hint of chili worked into the potato’s and the split peas adding a hearty feel to the dish, adding a different texture other than the starchiness from the baby potato’s. It was also coated in a lovely rich tomato sauce that carried the chili’s in it’s body.

Recipe

1 1/2 cups soaked split peas, green or yellow or both 

2 onions, finely sliced 

1 stick of celery, finely sliced 

3 gloves, crushed and diced 

600 g baby potato’s, washed and quartered 

1 tsp chili flakes

2 tsp olive oil

2 jars tomato sauce 

Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan or deep frying pan, once the oil is hot add in the prepared onions, celery and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent and the celery is soft.

Then add in the potato’s and mix through for about 5 minutes. Then add in the chili flakes and tomato sauce , stir until all the ingredients are coated in the sauce. Now add in the soaked peas and mix in.

 Bring to a simmer and stir frequently for 10 minutes. Then turn the stove down to low and cover the pan, remembering to stir it every now and then until the potato’s become soft. This may take as long as half and hour. 

Once the potato’s are soft place them into a lined roasting dish and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes or until the top of the dish is slightly crisped.Serve up with some fresh bread and hummus or it also goes well with rice.

I also roasted some cheery tomato's to go with this dish by sprinkling them with balsamic and placing them in the hot oven with the potato's and split peas and they were ready at the same time as it .

 

Enjoy

Hummus

Hummus is a great dip , it can be used in so many different ways, in toasted sandwiches, as a dip, as part of a meal, it also goes great with roasted veggies.

One of my favourite things about a good hummus recipe is the combination of the smokiness from a good paprika, the tartness from the lemon and the mild flavours from the roasted garlic and tahini.   

The image is truly eye catching as well with the contrast of the different colours from the light beige for the chickpeas to the vibrant ambery red of the paprika.

Recipe :
2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 cloves roasted garlic
2 cloves fresh garlic
1-2 lemons, juiced
3 Tbs tahini
2 tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all the above ingredients into a food processor or blender and  pulse until combined the slowly add water until you have a smooth consistency.
Then place into a container or bowl, then top with sesame seeds, olive oil and more smoked paprika.
This hummus is best left for a day in the fridge so that the flavours are able to develop completely.

Enjoy !