making gnocchi (a fairly colourless post)

I made gnocchi today. I figured it was time to have potatoes as we haven't all week, but fancied something different! The Silver Spoon had a recipe, it's basically a kilo of spuds, a fifth of that in flour, a pinch of salt and an egg, quite simple! I steamed the peeled potatoes (Queens), mashed them and mixed them with the flour, salt and egg (make sure the mix isn't too hot when the egg goes in!). This mix is kneaded until you have a flexible dough.

I divided it up in two batches, as 600+g seemed quite enough for the three of us! One half I put aside, for Kartoffelklösse tomorrow.

The other half I divided up again, and rolled into thin sausages.

Those I cut up with a pairing knife, into little pillows.

The pillows were rolled into little balls

 ...lots of them! You can see how I started to flatten them a little with the fork (I think too much, I was looking up some other recipes and you're supposed to hold the ball in your hand while pushing on it with the fork, but I left them on the plate! The Silver Spoon says to push them against the underside of a grater.). The other half of the dough I made into 7 Klösse (or Knödel) which I wrapped in cling film.

Emm was fascinated with the process, she probably thought it was playdough! I gave her a little piece to play with, but she immediately tried to eat it, and with the raw egg I reckoned that wouldn't be a good idea!

I didn't get to take pictures of cooking them, as I was too busy cooking them! You put them in small batches (I did seven or eight at a time) into salted boiling water, and when they start to float to the top you take them out with a slotted spoon.

I made a spinach and philadelphia sauce, improvised, to go with it, with some of the perpetual spinach from the garden. (I fried some garlic and chili in a bit of olive oil and butter, and removed them as soon as the garlic started to get golden. I added the washed and chopped spinach and put the lid on, for about 5 minutes. Then I added cream cheese and tomato cubes and seasoned with nutmeg, salt and pepper.)

I know, it doesn't look too appetizing in the photo, but trust me, it was delicious! They were light, soft and kept their shape and didn't disintegrate or dissolve! All in all a quite colourless dish, it could have done without the philly, but I tend to not think much before I throw something together! I might serve the gnocchi with a tomato sauce the next time, or with sage butter and a mixed salad!

By the way, Gnocchi is pronounced something like [n'yog-kee] rather than [g'nok-chee] or [g'no-chee[ as you might often hear, to the confusion or despair of Italian waiters wordwide, depending on the level of their experience!

Waiting for the flight home

While we were waiting for our delayed flight home, Emm and I went for a few rounds with the stroller, in a vain attempt to get her to sleep. This storage building was transformed into a jewel by the setting sun, nearly imperceptibly the pattern on those window panes changed, ever so slowly...

scanning old photographs

i'm having great fun (and frustration) scanning old photographs on an old scanner. the software on it is very spartanic, no remembering settings or file locations, and i can only run it 'as administrator' ... (the driver is not really meant for my version of windows, and not approved and possibly a little dodgy)

the fun comes into it when i look at images on screen! this one should be summer 1976, sunday afternoon coffee, i think it's the day of my little sister's christening, that's why my aunt's there, and the good china is out even though we're in the kitchen. on screen little things that i don't really see when i look at a photo in the album jump out at me, expressions on peoples faces, the cute coffee pot on the counter, and the printed glass on the table. i also love the pattern on the high chair!

and of course to me it's amazing how YOUNG everybody looks! i forgot how pretty my aunt was, and my uncle and 2nd cousin were mere boys!

my aunt is wearing a 'kittel' over her skirt and top, white for sundays, they were the 'modern' version of an apron, crackly polyester or 'perlon' sleeveless apron-dresses, and my mum and aunts and granny wore them almost all day every day, goes to show you how much of their day and week was seen as 'work', only for leaving the farm and in the evening the aprons came off.

i might post some more of these as i come across them. it's a pity all those seventies plastics haven't lasted, i'd love that high chair now for my little one!

Another day out with visitors!

We went to the usual close by attractions, if we get many more visitors this year we'll have to think of some new places to go, so we don't get bored!!





Skerries Harbour was lovely and busy, everybody making the most of the warm day, knowing well it might be the last for the year!






the sun going down always makes for a nice photo opportunity, these are all taken with my old, clumsy, slow, noisy, annoying olympus x715 camera... ach, it's nowhere near as nice to handle as the benq... it'll do for blog photos, but i really hope i can get the other one fixed... and maybe get a more advanced one, for when the baby needs lots of photographing, all going well... (still scared of jinxing it if i assume all will go well...)

my camera is very sick!!

:-( just paralysed! it kind of half starts up and then goes into error mode, display frozen or off, and the lens out or half out!! the only way to switch it off is to take the battery out, but that doesn't retract the lens, oh dear... i've treated it so well, never dropped it or got it wet or anything...

i don't like to be without a camera, it makes me uneasy! i like to have it with me most days! just in case! i love digital, i don't mind taking 20 photos to get just one good shot, and i love being able to take pictures of bits that i'd never bother to get printed, just to show on the blog or send home to my sis or parents. p got it for me last year in february, on ibood, so it is still in warranty, unfortunately it's a 'carry in' manufacturer's warranty, and i have a feeling it might be for the UK only, they don't even have an irish phone number... have to wait till monday when their warranty department opens to find out. it wasn't expensive, as far as digital cameras go, under 150€ including all the bits, postage, tax... all of it! so if i go down the warranty route, i might spend a large percentage of the price on sending it to and from the UK...

i might see can i bring it into one of the camera shops in town, but the two i tried today were no good. in one of them the guy was pressing on the lens to try an make it retract! he even left a big fat fingerprint on it, i think to work in a city centre camera shop you don't actually have to have any knowledge of or interest in cameras... ah well... p managed to make it retract properly by pressing a lot of buttons at the same time, so at least i can transport it safely and won't be asked if i dropped it!

if i can't get it fixed i think i'll have to get another compact, and i'll have to decide on one soon (only 7ish weeks till baby's due!). i had just started to think about getting an SLR-like camera, but i don't think i could handle having only a bulky camera, i really like to have something small that i can slip into the handbag or jacket pocket, it was supposed to be in addition to my point and shoot!

i like what i'm reading about the lumix lx3 , but it's only just out and not in any shops here, and gee, it is pricey for a compact! but it reminds me of my precious old analog olympus myu, no zoom on that one, but a lovely bright lens and it takes great pictures. although the flash can be a bit bright... alternatively maybe the tz 5 but i heard it's got noise problems?

i seem to be quite set on something with a wider angle lens, and at the moment i like the panasonic ones best, but i'll have to do a bit more research... when really i should be preparing the house for the baby!! i seem to be suspiciously easily distracted...

travelling

i was travelling for work last week, and couldn't resist pointing the camera at the windscreen a few times, look at those skyes!

lunchtime in the park

a few photos i took on the first day of may...

a few photographs

the dunes, eaten away by the water, roots exposed.



the last minute 'purled' beret, now with 'beanie topper'



new shoes - green



new shoes - red!

garden on a cloudy day

i saw lots of great photos of clotheslines lately, so i gave it a go as well, and while my composition and angle aren't very arty, the T shirts on the line are doing their best, dancing in sync!


it's actually quite windy today and i got slapped in the face by wet tea towels while hanging them out... but it wasn't raining so there was no excuse for using the dryer today, i still feel very bold for buying it in the first place!


mexican orange blossom


wisteria?


gooseberry


red currant

the garden is slowly starting to look like a garden again, it looked quite desolate after the winter, the quite compacted clay soil had started to look like concrete, after a wet winter and then 2 weeks without rain! but p has performed miracles by simply digging it all over and now it looks more like what we had in mind. the concrete block wall will be painted soon, that should make it all look friendlier again! aargh, almost everything seems to need painting! i'm really impatient and can't wait to have a mature garden where you don't see walls and fences much. we only bought the august before last and have a very ad hoc approach to gardening, which isn't always the shortest (or cheapest) way to success but it's a lot of fun, and it doesn't feel too much like hard work.
and here a photo of skerries, where we went for some mid week tapas because the weather was so nice and it just felt right to go out for a walk by the sea and dinner, instead of home and cooking!


i'm only just slowly realising that yes, winter really is over and there's lots of daylight and the feather and down jacket can be put away until october! it surprises me how fast time went, being engaged and planning a wedding have that effect i suppose!

did i forget to mention the great easter bonfire?

We have one every year at my parents' farm, it's always a great fun, with neighbours and relatives coming over, we sit around the fire, everybody brings something, beer, lemonade, dyed eggs, sweets, sometimes bread or cake. there are bonfires all over the place on easter sunday in Germany

fabrics

felted jumpers, waiting for bag inspiration


this apron is from the charity shop, it looks like it was a school project, the seams are quite uneven. unfortunately it has a little stain. Will I cut it up? or try to get out the stain? although it doesn't really fit me, it's a bit small.


these are cotton shirts that i cut up for fabrics, the pink one's my favourite. they are partly from the charity shop and partly donated by P. I might make some more bibs from them,


this is another charity shop find, a big polycotton (that's what 50/50 polyester and cotton is called, right?) duvet, washed many many times, a lovely soft feel to it. i think it might make pretty lining for a tote bag. although all the wool fabrics i have wouldn't really go with pale brown and dusky pink on cream background. i think dark brown soft corduroy would work well though!


i can't claim credit for these, my mum made them for me ages ago, she wen't on a course. they are not pieced but attached to this foundation fabric that has pre printed squares, so it's easier to get the squares at the right angles. she made a good few of these at a course, and also some small star shaped tablecloths, for christmas, they are done on a different foundation fabric, with 30 degree angles on it.

the photos are taken with the new camera that p. got me as a surprise. it's a small compact camera, i haven't quite figured it out yet, it doesn't always seem to be focusing, it's supposed to from 50cm or further. but the menu is well layed out and it has a lot of handy functions. it's also much quieter than my old one (which was a bad value very basic olympus i bought out of the pure frustration of my lovely canon powershot breaking after the warranty was up and i didn't have a lot of money to spend, a bad buy. i should know better, it's probably like spontaneously going to the hairdresser!)

Lunar Eclipse

We had a lunar eclipse tonight, i tried to photograph it but my current camera isn't great...



No other news, no new crafty things, although I did cut out two more sets of smock bibs, from the same cotton shirt. I hope the appliquee will work better this time, not quite as short a stitch length maybe!

february photographs...

two very grumpy guys


on my way to the office


I love crocuses... The park near my office has loads of them! The other day I met a friend for lunch and we got cheese sandwhiches from the cheesemongers (I had camember with pear, rocket and honey on dark bread, absolutely delicious!) and sat on a bench, catching a few rays and catching up and looking at the fountains. Should it really be warm enough for that in february? I really hope it's not because of global warming...


our share of the organic box scheme for this week!

finished cushions

I took this cool photo the other morning when a flock of birds visited the neighbourhood


and here finally the finished cushions for the living room

and I got this lovely super soft blanket in just the right colour in TKMaxx... it had a horrible, uneven (hence the cheap price), yellow mashine stitched border, which i unravelled and replaced with this fire engine red crochet border, i think it's called dogtooth edge? I'm not sure... I wasn't even sure how to do it until i picked up the crochet hook and then it came back to me, from a long long time ago... I vaguely remember my granny or mum showing me how to do it when i was in school.

-PS it's not quite the right colour but i think it might be after a few more washes...