Whoever has the most fabric, etc...

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Cherry Clafouti

Cherries are bountiful in the markets at the moment, as are apricots, peaches and nectarines. I bought a kilo of cherries and ate many of them right away, but decided to make a cherry desert for company. Cherry Clafouti came to mind as it is a classic French dish, not too difficult to make and utterly delicious to eat.

The recipe is based on one from an old copy of The Cookery Year, published by the Reader’s Digest in the 1970s. I’ve used this book for so many things. It has the best gingerbread recipe I know of and other tasty things. This book is a great reference book for cooking basics as well as special things like this Clafouti.

To make Cherry Clafouti, you need:

1 ½ lbs of cherries (stoned, if possible)

3 eggs

3 level Tablespoons plain flour

Salt

3 Tablespoons sugar

15 ounce of milk

2 – 3 Tablespoons of butter

Method:

Stone the cherries

Put them into a buttered oven-proof dish

Make a pancake batter by whisking the eggs into the flour and then blending in the sugar, salt and milk.

Pour the batter over the cherries and dot with butter.

Bake at 425 F, 200 C for 25 – 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool to lukewarm.

Sprinkle over with icing sugar and serve.

This is best served on the day it is made, but don’t worry, there won’t be any left anyway.

Saturday, 2 August 2014

Making a Simple, Lined Curtain

The finished curtain, which has only a little fullness.

This is a very simple curtain which can be made in an hour or two. It slides onto a pole, so there is no curtain tape to worry about. I made this curtain to cover a dormer window and I didn't want fullness, so I cut the width plus turnings. As I was making this in England for France, I did not want to find that it was not wide enough when I got there, so I added a few inches for luck!

Measure the width of your window and if you want fullness, double this measurement. If you want the curtain to hang straight like a blind, do not double the width.

Add 1 1/2 inches on each side for turnings.

Measure the length of your window and add 8 inches for top and bottom hems. This will give you a deep hem, but that makes the curtain hang better.

Turn under the sides ¼ inch and press, then edge stitch*.

Turn under another 1” and edge stitch again.

Turn under the top and bottom edges ¼ inch, press and edge stitch.

Turn down the top edge enough to accommodate the pole with another 1/2 " so it slides on easily.

Press and edge stitch.

Turn up the hem the required amount and edge stitch.

If you want the curtain to be unlined, this is all you need to do. Just press it and hang it.

*Edge stitch. This is simply lining up the presser foot and stitching as close to the edge as possible. It gives the fabric a nice, crisp finish.

To line the curtain:

I used blackout lining, which my machine does not like, so I did as little stitching as possible. Because it does not fray, I attached it to the curtain without turning under the top edge. I stitched along the stitching at the bottom of the channel. I then fastened it at the sides by doing an invisible hemstitch. In fact, I usually hemstitch the lining to the curtain as it is less likely to pull one way or another.

Measure the lining exactly as you did the curtain, but add only 5 inches to the length.

Turn under the sides ¼ “ and then 1 ½ “ and stitch.

Turn under the hem ¼” and then enough so that it is just shorter than the curtain.

Stitch the top of the lining just under the space left for the pole.

Pin and attach the sides of the lining to the sides of the curtain by hand with an invisible hemstitch.

Blackout cannot be ironed, but if you are using lining fabric, press the curtain again.

A view of the wrong side of the curtain.

Friday, 1 August 2014

Blue and Purple

My very good friend, Sue, always gets the French house ready for us before we arrive. It is such luxury not to have to unpeel all the plastic wrapping off the furniture, remove bags from lampshades and kitchen utensils and put things in order. She airs the house and fills it with flowers.

This time I thought she surpassed herself with the arrangement of blue and purple hydrangeas to match the blue and purple throws covering the old sofas in the room we grandly call the ‘library’ – a room which has two book cases.

Blue and purple are such a wonderful combination. Must remember this when planning the next quilt.

Saturday, 19 July 2014

Breakfast in St Malo

My favourite thing to do upon arrival in France is to go straight to St Malo from the ferry port. This holds all the expectations and anticipations of a summer in France. It is the beginning of what we hope will be another memorable summer. There is something magical about St Malo in the morning. It is fresh and bright. The shop owners and stallholders are setting up. The streets are being cleaned and the pavements are being swept. The people who are about are the residents of St Malo, out to buy bread or have a coffee and read the newspaper and we feel part of this. We speak our ‘first day French’- net yet honed by the familiarity of hearing the language and remembering our hard-learned vocabulary. We manage to make ourselves understood and to achieve almost what we ordered. Then we settle down to read a French newspaper, enjoy our coffee and croissant and watch people going by.

Another lovely summer in France.

Saturday, 28 June 2014

Why I Love Bloglovin'

Last summer, when Google Reader was about to shut down, I joined Bloglovin', mistakenly thinking that Blogger Reader was going too. Bloglovin' has both daily and weekly feeds. The daily feeds are the ones that I am currently following and the weekly feeds (on Sundays) are popular blogs that the Bloglovin' cookies choose for me. They're right. Many of them are just what I want to see and there is the opportunity to search for similar blogs to add to my feeder. Sometimes they get it wrong. I'm really not into self improvement blogs, but I love all the fashion, sewing, quilting and cookery blogs.

Here is how my blog appears on the list. I love that there is a compilation of recent blog photos and a tiny snippet of the text. Although I still use Blogger Reader, I enjoy seeing what comes up on Bloglovin'. Bloglovin' keep up the good work.

I am aware that the formatting on this blog is not great, but I am powerless to improve it. Sorry about that.