Sunday, October 28, 2012

Quilting Diva

Thank you for your comments on my office.
I made the Kokeshi wallhanger, from a pattern by Susan Claire.
Lisa, the trees you see accross the street from my office window belong to the Jas de Bouffan, that belonged to Cezanne's family... 

After the rain comes the sun, here the sun comes with wind. This time, the wind is very strong. Strong enough to endanger a ferry in Marseille... In other parts of France, that is the snow that made an early appearance. Sometimes up to 15" overnight...
I'm lucky everything is OK at home. It is just too cold and windy to want to go outside, be you human or cat. Perfect weather to work on a self-portrait. I mean, on a pattern by Amy Bradley. I've prepared about half of the pieces to fuse. I'm putting them together, to check the impact of colors as I progress.

 
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I'm preparing for a short week, ending in a 4-days weekend.
I wish you a very happy week. Take care!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Getting ready for Xmas...

I've just left my flipflaps for more adequate slippers. 
I confirm, temperatures are dropping.

Which reminds me that Alisa Burke is proposing a new online workshop.
30 Days starting November 12th.
Alisa celebrates this new workshop with a giveaway!
More information here

more on my office walls

Thank you for your commentson your offices.
Here is a glimpse on the rest of my wall. As you see, I do try to have colors...

The rest of the week has been rainy, especially yesterday. I feel lucky that both my work place and my home were safe. I've heard that some roads have been flooded, especially at the shopping mal that was hit recently by a tornado. Not far away two students lost their lives falling in what they thought was a puddle in the parking of their university. It was in fact an overgrown and deep drain. They were swept away into the sewers. My thoughts go to their families and friends.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Monday, Gloomy Monday

What do you do when the autumn is coming?
When Monday is rainy, with dark clouds?

When you go back to your office, your grey office, where even the ficus is depressed?
I jumped into my car, towards the gardening center. Tada!
I don't know if the ficus feels better, but I do!
I found this ficus in a bin, when we moved from our former building to the one we are in now, I think it was 15 years ago. It had no leaves, just tiny dots of green to tell it was not dead, yet. While staying in the same building, I've been moving from room to room, and it has always followed, with more or less luck, depending on the amount of light available. It is a fighter.

How is your office? can you decorate it?

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Bollywood slippers

I realize my last post may have mislead you: I ate that food, but did not cook it.

However, I have two secrets:
- I'm lazy,
- I dream of coming home and find everything ready for the next day.

Since I can't afford my very own butler, I have to cheat: I prepare most of my food during the weekend, so that I can crab a ready dish from the fridge whenever I need one. Sure, I could buy ready food, but I don't like that. I prefer to buy my raw food and prepare my meal myself.
My trip of last weekend, and the last posts by Nikkipolani have been a great inspiration for this weekend. 

Here is a potimarron. With curry, cucurma, sultanas, cashew, shallots, wheat-floor, and Philadelphia.
The recipe comes from a book by Clea, dedicated to potimarron. A must-have in my opinion.

First cook the minced shallots and potimarron with curry for 5 minutes. Then add the Philadelphia (about 3 spoons), curcuma, cashew and sultanas, and mix well.
In the meantime, prepare the dough with 150 g flour, curcuma, enough oil and water to make is handable.
Roll it flat and cut 4 "rectangles". Wrap 1/4 of the potimarron mixture with each rectangle. In French, the result is a "chausson"=slipper... Cook for about 45 minutes in the oven.That's it:
Sincethe oven was still hot, I baked an apple cake. With corn flour. The recipe called for butter and sugar.
I used the rest of Philadelphia instead, and some honey. Although I've a sweet tooth, I often find that there is too much sugar. So I used only a small amount of honey.
I mixed all the above with three eggs. Then added the minced apple, and cooked it for 30 minutes.

I like cooking in one shot. I'm less likely to forget the vegetables in the fridge, minimize the washing up and optimize the oven heating. The drawback is the wonderful smells that invade the house. Difficult not to overeat on Sundays :-). Quite often, I finish cooking just in time to watch a TV show dedicated to French food. It lasts about 20 minutes, the man takes us to restaurants, big ones or tiny ones, throughout France. And he speaks so well of food that you can actually smell it! I'm talking foie gras, bread, cheese, wine, barbecues, etc... He makes me even more starving!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Take care!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Food!

It is this time of year, when the days are shorter, the temperatures coolers, when you want to snuggle, or eat.
This is exactly what I did this weekend.

Started with a healthy brunch, the glass in the middle was yummy, with kiwis, strawberries, and carrots.
Amandine like eggs, I prefer muesly...
But we both like cupcakes
or big cakes
This beetroot carpaccio was to die for, and the vermouth, well, it's vermouth...
a brownie with its mango icecream...

and much more food over this three-days weekend.

The weather is crazy. While I was away, there was a tornado in a shopping center close to home. My garden was blessed with a fair amount of rain (so glad I was away: I would have been scared). We had our first frost of autumn, but the next day, it was warm again... I think rain is expected again for this weekend.

Nikkipolani, I did not know you had potimarrons waiting (although I would have guessed so). It is just that your last post reminded me of one recipe I have. I think you may like it (and I have to find a potimarron too to make it for myself :-). The week looked like a whirlwind, but I promise I'll send that recipe very soon.

I hope you'll all have a nice weekend. Take care!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Did I mention those?

This is a snood,in fact the one shown here
and this bag was a perfect training for cables, that I was scared of. Brea bag by Norah Gaughan
Thank you for all your kind comments. I insist they should go to the designers, as I only follow instructions.
It is quite funny, as the instructions I find on Ravelry or in US Magazines are much more sophisticated than the French ones I'm used to, not to mention the weird abbreviations, like ssk, or pwyf. Thanks the knitting gods for YouTube and Google :-)
I also insist that knitting is one stitch at a time, be it a scarf or a mitten. And in any case, a bunch of love sent to the recipient.

Back to my couch and my needles! Take care all!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

What's I have been up to recently

I'm suffering a severe knitting crisis, with the following symptoms:

Free pattern Swallowtail Shawl made in Malabrigo lace
Free pattern  Pimpelliese made in Zwerger Hundertwasser Opal fingering
Free pattern by Drops, made in Bouton d'Or Cocoon yarn.

Have a nice weekend!
PS: I must leave you, my knitting needles are calling...