Nayu's Craft Time #236 Fresh naan & plushie laundry!

cooked vs raw

 

It's been a week and a bit of stuff going on, some I can't share but I'm about to share what I can. So I managed to make naan bread! I'd wanted to try it, and found a bread friendly recipe. Unfortunately mine ended up drier than it should be and overkneaded (4 times...) due to not realising it was meant to be a wet dough. I used some shredded coconut as a flavour, to make it a little like peshwari naan. I managed to get the shapes how I buy them in the supermarket which I was pleased about. 

 They took time to fry and I was exhausted by the end, took more than a day to recover but I feel they came out really well. I've frozen most of them (had a nice stack) so I won't have to do that for a long time. The taste is worth it but might try oven cooking next time, or bribe my family to use their air fryer. 

 

These caused a few tears

 

Next up in the baking department was the easiest dish. I got my family to chop a load of onions, I coated them in a tiny bit of olive and vegetable oil (price of pure olive oil is a little eye watering), popped them in the slow cooker and cooked on a mix of medium then high heat for around 11 hours. They t
20.urned out as wonderful caramalised onions that I'm slowly dividing and freezing in large and small chunks so I can throw them in curries and stirfries. 

So tasty!!!

The other productive activity was taking advantage of a final heatwave before autumn and washing my most used plushies! I try and do it once a year - apparently plushies can get mishapen and damaged in a wash but thankfully all mine remained in tact, fluffy and held their shape ok. It was quite amusing washing them, I just used the quick wash feature, I guess I could have used the handwash one too. It looked like a toy shop carousel by the time I'd done the 3 loads! 

Plushies and clothes ready to get wet!

I'm busy with a review game so not done much craft but the next post will be an update on my current projects, so stay tuned! 

Drying time!

Nayu's Craft Time #278 Upcoming post topics

Who doesn't like to start the day by looking at some cute kitties?

It's half way through the week so the weekend is in sight if you have a 'standard' working week. I'm half way through my recovery from mega strong meds, consisting of staying horizontal because moving really isn't a good idea if I don't want to feel weirder than I already do. This is a pre-scheduled post, but I'm almost out of time hence why it's a list of topics that will be appearing over the next few weeks. 

I will be talking about...

this hair accessory!

...hair scrunchies! I'm not saying what it's about, other than if you wear hair scrunchies or someone in your family does then stay tuned!

She knows how to relax!

...my cat! I love Belle, she occasionally loves me, and I have some cat care tips to share. 

This isn't mine, but it looks similar (mine isn't as runny as some are)

...Daal! However you spell it I recently made a batch of this nutrient rich lentil based meal which is easy to cook, requires very few ingredients or cooking skills, and is highly adaptable. 

That's it for now, thank you as always for reading my posts and stick around for many more! 

Nayu's Craft Time #266 Mild chaos & relaxation

Chestnuts are conkers, hidden in a spiky protective outer layer!

I know the title is a bit weird - how can chaos be related to relaxation, right? The past few days - mostly just yesterday - were more chaotic than planned. I had to finish  chore quicker than expected on the same day I went shopping (which means I should do nothing but rest, only that didn't happen). 

This is chaos - when I researched chaos online as a picture they were all dark and scary, which isn't the sentiment of this post!

I finally found some chestnuts in the shops - got to love this time of year for having food I like but rarely can buy, and because I'm having my mega strong meds tomorrow night I needed to cook the chestnuts yesterday. The cooking part was easy: tip chestnuts in a pan, cover with boiling water, cook for an hour. No mess, no fuss, simple! 

As simple as a pretty paperclip rainbow!

While it cooked I happily played on Pokemon. Then it finished, I got my knife and two bowls - one for rubbish, one for the cooked 'meat', with a third holding the whole ones. I've never cooked or deshelled chestnuts, but with advice from family I was good to go. I didn't know what a bad one looked like, but 2 or 3 chestnuts in I discovered exactly what shouldn't go in the bowl of edibles. I only had 4 that were bad, I know what's better than what my family had. Peeling a chestnut is a bit fiddly. I simply put tip of knife in the chestnut, cut it in half, then scooped out the good part into the bowl using a knife. I hadn't thought of using a spoon, but that would have made the process a little longer, and I wasn't fussed how the chestnuts looked by the end. I just needed them cooked!

You can see how they look whole and when cut in half you can see the white flesh part.

I still need to look up how long they can keep in the fridge - I may need to freeze them. I want to do a sweet crumble with some fresh cranberries, bit of orange and maybe some apple. I'm aware this may be a weird combo but it's what I fancy! Hoping there is a recipe for something similar online somewhere. 

Mine look as tasty as these ones!

Like chestnuts cranberries are another item I can only really get at this time of year, dried cranberries aren't the same. Oh and pre-packaged chestnuts are not very nice, fresh is best in this scenario! I never get to eat chestnuts because I don't eat stuffing since it's made with meat, hence me finally buying some. Because I'll be horizontal for 5-6 days straight I really didn't want my lovely chestnuts to go to waste. I might see if there are recipes involving maple syrup because I have some of the good real stuff! (a post devoted to maple syrup is coming in a few days!)

This is entirely unrelated to the post, I just thought it was cute (I love Pooh bear!)

I had some other chores to do yesterday, making it a busy day, so I relaxed with lots of Pokemon in the evening, which was bliss! Normally today would be rest day, but since I'm have ketamine tomorrow (legally guys, it is part of my pain management treatment - NEVER take drugs unless prescribed) I'll have several rest days soon. The chaos was doing a lot of things in one day, the relaxation is from tomorrow night! I hope you all have a super weekend, and if you're taking part in any festivities that you have fun!

Whateer the weather have a good one!

Nayu's Craft Time #262 Postal Competition (That isn't an NCD competition)

Still dreaming of an American style post box!

Sorry if the title is misleading - this isn't a competition to do with the postal service! It's basically because yesterday I saw 1 postman with shorts on. I asked if he was cold and he said no, and that he can't lose against our other postman. I saw the other one today and yes, he was wearing shorts too! I guess if they are moving around a lot they will stay warm, and since they keep wrapped up with scarf and gloves they may not feel the cold so much, though I still feel a bit sorry for them, even though it's self-inflicted. 

I'm staying nice and toasty inside! The colder weather has begun in earnest, so lots of rest is happening while my body goes on strike. I managed to bake a super yummy vegetable dish yesterday: peas + sweetcorn + baked potato + broccoli + beansprouts + bechemal (white) sauce = winter warmer meal! I haven't got a picture yet - will add one in the next post, but it's delicious (included stock cube & grated mild chedder cheese), and I'm having it for lunch today! (I eat my main meal at lunch)

Too perfect to be my picture! Plus I didn't add herbs.

 Will post my recipe when I do get a picture, but you can put whatever veg you like in (& I guess add meat if you want). I simply Googled a white sauce recipe as I haven't made one for yonks, cut up the potato and broccoli super small, (not quite as small as the peas and sweetcorn), cooked everything in the microwave for speed (separately but only takes a few minutes unlike the many more minutes if I'd cooked it on the hob. My kind of cooking is super fast!), made the sauce then mixed it together! Simple! 

I've been busy working on jigsaw puzzles, something I'll discuss in the next post. Until then...

Nayu's Recipes #8 Speedy 3 veg stirfry

Sorry it's not the best picture, took it with my tablet camera.

With autumn most definitely on the way, I have plenty of meals prepared in the freezer since my body hates the cold & wet English weather so cooking is low on my agenda. Last week I needed to use up a home grown yellow courgette given to me by a family member, 

Yellow courgettes taste similar to green courgettes (at least they do to me), so green ones are good for this recipe too!

so I teamed it up with delicious aubergine and some peas to create a super speedy stirfry! 

Purple and delicious aubergine! Super yummy.

Ordinarily I like to start a stirfry by gently frying an onion, but I had none so didn't use it. I simple chopped the courgette and aubergine into quarters then sliced them. I added a bit of olive oil, and began cooking the veg. 

A smidge of olive oil goes a long way. You can use any oil, depending if you want a strong taste or a lighter taste.

The exact timing is unknown, since I did it to how cooked I like both veg. Part way through to help with the cooking I did add some water (instead of more oil) - water frying is super easy to do, and if you look it up online you'll find out all about it. I then added the peas, and let the 3 vegetables cook some more. 

Peas are super yummy, full of protein, and most people like them! I added mine straight from frozen but you can defrost them if you like

Once I was getting close to the veg being cooked to my taste I popped a microwave rice packet in the microwave, and crumbled 1 vegetable stock cube into my aubergine, courgette, and pea mix. I then added the rice once cooked, stirred it around and voila! My aubergine, courgette, and pea stirfry was ready! 

It tastes super yummy, and is an easy recipe to adapt to whatever vegetables you have. You don't have to use microwave rice, any rice will do, or if you want a change try some noodles. Whatever's in your store cupboard will be fine, and you can add whatever seasoning you fancy. Instead of a stock cube I sometimes use soy sauce and ginger, or I buy a stirfry sauce and add it. I'd love to hear what your go-to stirfry is!

I found a purple frying pan! Not mine (which is my family's and a boring black) but looks so cool! What colour would you have?

Nayu's Craft Time #143 Healthy Vegan Lentil, Grains & Spinach Dahl, Crown Fishing & Secret Baking Project!

I had this for lunch!

Afternoon everyone! I hope your week has gone well/as well as it can depending how life is treating you at the moment. I've been quite flakey the last few days, so been resting a lot. I've done a bit of crochet - although not enough to show you, but some progress is better than none. I managed to make this super easy & fairly quick (minus the whole boiling) lentil & mixed grain/bean dahl. 

I used a so-called soup mix which was full of various lentils & grains/beans/peas (no liquid or flavourings in it, so not sure why it's a soup mix as all my soups exclude beans & grains), plus added some red lentils (I unearthed the packets from the pantry and want to use them before the sell-by-date). Once those were cooked according to the instructions which for the soup mix included overnight soaking, I threw in some spinach leaves and fresh basil, let it wilt a little (using a sophisticated cooking term!) and put it in a bowl. 

I then lightly fried 2 small onions in olive oil, added a bit of fresh ginger, plus 1 vegetarian stock cube, before mixing it with the already cooked grains/lentils. I'm not doing a full on recipe because I simply followed the packet instructions and used my common sense (I don't have a lot of that...). It's super tasty, low fat, got lots of veggies in (oh yes there's some yellow pepper in there too), as far as I can tell is both vegetarian & vegan, although don't think it's gluten free. I'm not vegan, but I have vegan friends so I am having fun investigating what kind of food they eat. It's super tasty, filling, and you can adjust the quantities of everything/add entirely new ingredients to suit your tastes.

I've been reading, and currently busy gaming as I have less than 2 hours to get about 300,000 bells on Animal Crossing New Leaf to get the queen crown! It's gorgeous!!! 

The deadline is because my shops close at 7, I think, as I'm an early bird town (shops open early). Or maybe they do stay open later...I don't want to risk it so am doing as much fishing on the island as I can. Now it's after 5pm in theory more sharks should be out and more expensive bugs will be out too. Apologies if this makes no sense, it's an awesome game! 

I've been doing some reading too, and have just been asked to join in a super special book review activity which will involve baking! The review will be on Nayu's REading Corner sometime in August - I'm finalising details with the publicist. I will do a joint post here because what I'm making I've never made before, and it looks super fun! 

Insert your favourite hobby to personalise this statement!

That's as much of a clue that I can give you now - my lips are sealed! Or should that be my fingers are tied? Either way I'm saying nothing!!! 

This weekend I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing yet. Might be seeing a friend on Sunday, might not (it's dependent on whether she's busy or not and she won't know just yet). Got a few tasks that must be done, but apart from that I'm sure there will be the usual gaming, reading, and hopefully I'll be up for some more craft too! 

(Almost!)

Nayu's Craft Time #141 My Cat Likes Scrambled Egg

I'd love a sewing machine like this! Must decorate mine with stickers...

Morning/afternoon/evening! I think that covers all the time of day you may be reading this. It's been a busy week, mostly me not being 100% and able to come online. I did do some paperwork, which took a few hours...and then several more hours as I had printer issues. I've revived my printer, got new toners, then nearly broke it when a toner accidentally slipped inside the printer and I had to put my hand in to find it. Thankfully it worked after that ^o^ I did get a lot of ink on me, but it's all washed off now. 

I definitely want a Hello Kitty printer!!!! This is adorable!!!! Guess I've found something else to put stickers on to make it cute...

Annoyingly I haven't really done any more machine sewing. I'd really hoped to do some today but aside from blogging I'm taking it easy as my body doesn't like how the weather is at the moment. I can't push myself as I'm out all day tomorrow crocheting with a friend, which is always fun :) Yes I am back on the crochet! Slowly easing back into doing it, it's very therapeutic and great for when I can't think straight as it's the same stitch which I know off by heart. As for my cat...

How I discovered my cat likes scrambled egg. 

Here's Belle looking super cute!

One evening this week I made scrambled egg for dinner. I was looking forward to eating it on fresh white break with cress (my latest food addiction), salt, pepper, and butter. I make it in the microwave, and was tipping it out of the pan onto the plate, when it decided to bounce off and land on the floor. It was a classic moment that made me and my family laugh, as the round scrambled egg lay staring up at me! 

Scrambled egg mostly looks like this (online pic)

I obviously wasn't going to eat it, so picked it up, then my family wondered if our cat would like it. I gave her the part which didn't touch the floor, and she really liked it! The catch is she only likes it warm...I gave her a bit more later when it was cold and she didn't touch it. So now whenever I  make it I'll give her a little :) 

Nayu's Craft Time #124 Cat drama, Grocery Skip, Quiche delight, sewing time!

 

This is sort of an innocent garden shed.

Hearing caterwauling 5 mins after waking up saw me out of bed, at the window, and praying my cat didn't get hurt as she stood her ground over her territory on a neighbour's garden shed roof. There are just some things a cat owner shouldn't witness! I can proudly say the other cat slunk away-given my cat is prone to letting strange cats in the house this is indeed progress.

Love this bed when I spotted it - it reminds of Little House on the Prairie when Laura and Mary slept in a trundle bed kept under their parents bed! Obviously not looking like this... Picture source

Adrenaline is one way to wake up fully! I did go back to bed and catch up on last night's Casualty episode from BBC 1. I wasn't up for crochet and I'm glad as it involved a fair few subtitles saying 'earlier' since it was full of flashbacks. Very good ep!

Groceries can wait because...

I was due to go shopping later but I feel like an afternoon of sewing so I'll postpone it to tomorrow instead. This is me listening to what my body wants!

 I did manage to get some sewing in yesterday. White thread on white canvas does require a lot of concentration, but I managed to almost finish the polar bear on the Z  and make a start on the Y penguin. A different colour is needed for the bear-I do 1 colour at a time, not 1 section at a time. Looking forward to some homemade quiche at lunch-the one Imade the other week. 

No, I'm not food poisoning myself, it's called frozen quiche ^u^ It will be much needed after a morning of blog work and writing! I'm still making notes on my wip (work in progress, a term used in both the writing and craft worlds) which is good fun for refreshing my memory on the story. Already seen areas that need improvement, as well as what I think are good bits.

 

Nayu's Craft Time #117 Peach Crumble, Mushroom & Leek Quiche, Bok Choy stir fry

Saw this when search for cute kitchens - I adore happy looking clouds! Picture source.

I'm not sure how but I've managed not to do any craft over the last few days. Been busy sorting a few bits out, visiting friends, and  baking, all of which take lot of energy from me. I'm nearly back to what ressembles a normal schedule for me, which is exciting.

I didn't need to use any of these! I didn't buy them from this seller, but they are my Hello Kitty plasters!

Sunday was a long day of baking. No matter how long a recipe says it will take, I have to almost triple the time (yes it took 4 hours to do everything, excluding clearing up). I narrowly avoided burnt fingers, had lumpy cornflower mix, was convinced I was going to have soggy pastry due to it looking like the quiche mixture went over the sides, and I know there was another mishap but I can't remember what it was. What can I say - I'm very accident prone! It was heaps of fun, if extremely tiring. 

The main dish was the mushroom and leek quiche, which ended up like this. 

 It's super yummy, can be found on the BBC Good Food website. I think I used the suggested quantities, which were too much for the quiche (I've remembered the other mishap! I thought my pastry was too thick, but it was ok in the end). Back to the leftover veg and cheese, I made up some quesadillas for the freezer with the extras. ^o^ Oh and I didn't use gruyere cheese, I used smoked cheese and one with herbs and garlic in. Very yum! 

I made this too!

 I also made some stirfry - somehow the bok choy became hidden, but I promise it's in there with sweetcorn, yellow pepper and a bit of onion (I think I put onion in it...) Again it's all in the freezer, ready to have some more veg added when I want to eat it. Yum yum! 

Fresh peaches would be nice, but this is all I had to work with.

Using 2 cans of peaches I also made a vegan gluten free peach crumble! 1 friend is vegan, another is gluten free. Neither could eat the honey cake I'd made for everyone else, so peach crumble was what I ended up making. The recipe was a mishmash from ones online which I didn't save the details for. I promise it's easy though!

You wouldn't know it was vegan or gluten free either. I mean that in the nicest way, because I've tried food from both categories in the past and just didn't like them. I'm hoping next time I'll have the time to make the vegan cupcakes I want to try out, may do my usual of making them in advance and freezing them. Vegan buttercream will be interesting! 

I wish my skills extended to gorgeous and delicate looking cupcakes like these! Picture source.