Buy Local!!

Saw this over on Facebook and thought that it is a great thing to promote so I'm posting it here as well!!!

 

Feel free to post it on your own blog!!

 

 

Cakes, Cakes and More Cakes!!!!!

Hope everyone is ok today.  I've spent the day at home in the kitchen today and have chicken bubbling away in the Slow Cooker for dinner and I've baked 2 cakes and they are cooking nicely as I type!!  I saw an alternative Christmas Cake recipe in a store magazine where you use 2 jars of sweet mincemeat - to any of my American readers this is not meat at all but a mixure of spices and fruits in a jar usually used to make little tarts at Christmas!!  If the cakes come out nice then I will share the recipe tomorrow with you!!  Recipe here!!

On the subject of cakes, I wanted to tell you about my sister Hayley who makes custom celebration cakes and decorative cupcakes.  She has made some fantastic cakes and they taste delicious!!  She is known as The Sugar Plum Fairy and you can find her over on Facebook here.  She is based in Bristol and is always eager to try out new designs and ideas so feel free to contact her via Facebook or through my blog.

Here are some of here lovely cakes

 

You can see more of Hayley's fab creations over on her facebook page.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my followers and readers celebrating today.

 



Another Tealight Holder!!

Hello to you all again!! 

We've had some really miserable weather this week in my part of the UK.  My city, Bristol has seen flooding in places where it's not been seen before.  Of course our flooding does not compare to floods that other parts of the world have experienced in the past and more recently the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy.  It does make you wonder what on earth is happening with the weather these days though.

Anyway onto jam jars - after seeing my little jam jar tealight holder, my sister decided she also wanted one so I made her one last night!!  I made hers slightly different as individuality is a good thing!!  Here it is

I used twine and buttons on her one and I quite like it!  I avoided using glue as if the jar gets hot, glue may go sticky and get messy!  Even if your sewing is not the best, it won't matter on these as none of your stitches will show!!  They get hidden under the lace flowers!

 

My 11 year old niece wants one as well but my mum is not keen on her having candles in her bedroom so looks like nanny's word will be final.  Maybe I can make her one to be used as a pen pot or something!!!

 



Vintage Style Tealight Holder

Good morning - it's very cold this morning.  I'm finding it very hard to get out of my warm bed each day now the cold weather is upon us.  I hate the cold and I used to spend the entire winter in India to avod it as it was lovely and sunny there.  I think my blood has thinned though over the years of doing that and I am no longer able to cope well in cold conditions.

Anyway - I've had my eye on an empty jar for a few weeks now and forgot to claim it so it went in the bin so yesterday I had to retrieve it before the bin men came and took it.  I wanted to make a tealight holder with it.  Initially I was going to use wire around the top and make a handle but that didn't work out as the wire was not flexible enough!!

Last night, whilst sat watching the Walking Dead, I came up with this vintage style holder. 

 

I think it's pretty and it looks lovely when it's lit up with a tealight inside of it.

 

 



Very simple to do, just get an empty jar and tightly pull some wide width lace around the jar.  I overstitched where the lace meets to hold it onto the jar. 

 

Next I made some simple ribbon flowers by just doing a running stitch along the edge of the ribbon and then pulled the thread to gather it and stitched the edges together. 

 

I then stitched the flowers onto the lace on the jar to cover the stitches I had made earlier.  I popped a ribbon around the neck of the jar and made a bow.  Voila, one pretty vintage style tealight holder!!

 



 

 

 

 

Slow Cooked Pulled Pork

Today I tried out a recipe in my slow cooker.  The cooker has been in the cupboard for years and I have decided that it's time to get it out and start using it again!!

I joined a group over on Facebook that has recently been set up by a fellow crafter for people to swap and share their slow cooker recipes and tips.

A recipe for pulled pork was shared in the group by a lady called Jan and it sounded great and also easy to make.  Even better that the recipe used a shoulder of pork which I already had in the freezer.  The pork had been reduced at Sainsbury to £1.09 and I picked it up and popped it in the freezer until I'd decided what to make with it!  So this was the idea way to use it and test the recipe.

I cooked it in the slow cooker for around 7 hours until the meat fell away, then shredded it and mixed in a BBQ sauce I'd made.  Now you can leave it for 30mins in the marinade and then put it into your conventional oven for another 30 mins but I left mine overnight in the fridge to get more flavour and then cooked it the next morning.  I also made up some more BBQ sauce and mixed it in just in case it had got abit dry overnight.  During cooking I also stirred it several times to prevent it burning on the top.

The result was delicious and I will definately be making this again.  I froze some of it also for another meal!

Now for the recipe!!



Slow Cooked Pulled Pork serves 2

 

750g-1kg Pork shoulder
 

BBQ Sauce:

                     140g tomato ketchup

                     4 tbsp red wine vinegar

                     1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

                     3 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

          1 French stick, sliced into rolls, and coleslaw, to serve

 METHOD 

1.      Place pork shoulder in slow cooker with cup of water and cook 5-7 hours

2.      Shred pork meat using 2 forks and place in roasting dish

3.      Mix together sauce ingredients and pour over the meat and mix well

4.      Marinade for minimum of 30 mins

5.      Cook in oven 200C for 20-30 mins and serve with bread. Alternatively, serve with chips or rice

 

 

If you make it, let me know what you think of it!!

 

 

**UPDATE**

 

 

Just thought I would add that I froze a bag of this in a ziplock bag after letting it cool down completely.  About a week later I defrosted it overnight and then popped it into an ovenproof dish and put it into the oven on about 160 C for just 10-15 mins stirring it in between so it didn't burn on top.  It still tasted lovely and was nice and moist so freezing works well with this recipe!!  Great if you have a party or BBQ coming up and you need to cook alot of it as you can prepare it a week earlier than you need it!!