Thursday, 26 November 2015

Nayu's Craft Time #88 Craft & chocolate mania

Can you guess what this is?
Ta-da! It's my secret project!
Whew, what a week! It was crazy busy in the lead up to Sunday's birthday event. The strawberry cross stitch tablecloth went down well...

Milk chocolate truffles with chocolate outer layer and sprinkles
...as did the various chocolate treats! 
These milk chocolate truffles with chocolate shell and cute butterfly fluttered into open mouths
I crashed out Monday and Tuesday, strictly only watching DVDs and reading. I ventured back into craft yesterday with knitted baby booties. I thought I was going to finish one, but the technique required was super hard, and time consuming. Since I'm trying to use patterns that are fairly simple to make I gave up and started trying a different pattern. So far, so good! 

Today I was busy writing up reviews for Nayu's Reading Corner - I hope to be on top of them by next Wednesday. Tonight I'm watching anime with no craft as I've ended up being busy all day so need to rest before bed. 

Tomorrow is a bit busy with getting ready to meet up with a friend on Saturday (we meet once a year), more on that tomorrow ^o^

Friday, 20 November 2015

Nayu's Craft Time #87 A Yummy Raspberry Eclair!

Super yummy!

This week I treated myself to a delicious raspberry eclair from Sainsbury's - highly recommend them! The combination of slightly sharp raspberries with fluffy cream and pastry is wonderful. Prefer it to the standard chocolate eclair.
I still like the chocolate kind! Now, have I made you want to eat one?

Life is a still a bit busy, so I haven't yet done anything crafty to show you. It's a bit frustrating, but hopefully by the middle of next week I'll be back to some kind of schedule. Will keep giving a peek into my life though!

I am & I do! Are you & do you?

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Nayu's Craft Time #86 Busy!

What am I doing here? Can't quite say...
I've yet to finish the baby bootie I started the other day - I've been busy doing secret mission stuff, and in between that resting. Going to be busy until the end of next week but am determined to fit craft in when I can! I promise my secret mission work will be worth the wait. ^o^

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Nayu's Recipes #7 Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Getting ready to bake!
Yesterday I wanted to bake some cookies, so after I got my equipment and ingredients out I got baking! I followed this recipe, although I only used 2/3 of the recommended chocolate chips, baked them for about 10 minutes at half the size. 
Super tasty!! Ones on the lower left are baked a little more than the others.
Both the unbaked and baked cookie is totally delicious! I'm more a cookie than biscuit person, loving the softness that comes with delicious treats. While the first batch was baking, I halved the recipe, shaped the cookie mixture into balls and then put them in the freezer, so if I fancy a freshly baked cookie but don't have the energy to do all the baking I can simply take them out of the freezer and pop them in the oven. Simple! If you like them thick as I do, don't flatten the dough balls, they spread on their own accord.

I'd love to hear what your favourite cookie is, and whether you prefer soft cookies or crisp biscuits!
This is the best part of baking - often the food tastes better before it's baked too!

Friday, 13 November 2015

Nayu's Recipes #6 Nayu's Quick and Easy Mushroom Soup

If you want you could leave the soup unblended, like this, but I like smooth soup so I hit the blender! (not literally!)
Finally I can share my mushroom soup recipe! I did initially look online for a recipe, but after getting the gist of what goes into mushroom soup, and wanting a smaller quantity than most recipes created, I made it up myself. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, possibly less but I can't remember the exact time.
Note: this is an unsponsered post, any links and brand mentions are because I like the products the company provides and wish to share them with you.

Winging it worked out extremely well for this dish. The silky smooth texture (thank you Vitamix!) teamed up well with the subtly, buttery flavour of mushrooms. Here's what I did, with the full recipe at the end post.

I took a small smidge of butter,

My onion looked about this size.
used it to gently fry a small chopped onion. 

Since they were going in a blender I roughly cut mine into slices
I then the entire organic portion provided by Able and Cole added the super tasty mushrooms which are delicious raw and cooked, and I think are underated in cooking. I cooked them for a few minutes with the butter and onion mix. 


Also delicious cold from the fridge as a drink!
Next I tipped in enough milk and some water to cover the mixture.
The essence of life

I crumbled in an instant stock cube for flavour, 
Other brands are fine too!

a bit of flour to thicken it,
Flour isn't just for baking bread and cakes!
Use as much or as little as you like!
then added a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and let the mixture simmer for a while. 

Yummy!

Once I judged it ready I tipped it into the blender, whizzed it up & voila! Mushroom soup ^o^
Simple, plain, wonderfully tasty!
Mushroom soup is often creamy: I didn't add any cream, but it was better than any tinned soup which I've tasted. Here's my recipe! 

Ingredients

Please note the quantities are estimated as I 'winged' the recipe. Adjust the quantity according to your own preferences,

butter, a small matchbox sized amount 

onion, egg-sized chopped into little cubes 

white mushrooms (any kind can be used) about 2 fists worth 

milk, 3/4 of a cup 

water, 1/4 of a cup 

vegetarian stock cube, x 1 (I think meat ones could be used if you prefer them)

plain flour, 1 tablespoon 

salt and pepper, a little of each 

How to Cook
Total time: 30 minutes, depending on how well you like some of the ingredients cooked.

Put the butter in a saucepan until it melts, stirring occasionally. 

Add the chopped onion, and keep stirring as they cook for a few minutes.

Tip in the chopped mushrooms, and keep stirring as they cook for a few minutes. 

Add milk and water to cover the mixture. 

Add the stock cube, flour, salt, and pepper then let the mixture simmer for several minutes. How long you leave it is entirely up to how cooked you like your ingredients. The flour will thicken the soup so keep stirring until any lumps have dissolved.

Please follow the instructions in  your blender - not all blenders can take hot liquid, in which case either wait until the soup is cool before blitzing it, or blitz it after it warms up a bit, then heat it up for eating after. I'm fortunate that my family has a Vitamax blender which creates silky smooth soups (hence this soup's title) but any blender will do the job. 

Place mixture in blender, and blend to your preferred thickness. 

Place in bowls and enjoy!

I hope you've enjoyed today's recipe - I'd love to hear if you try it out for yourself!
This is obviously not going to happen after making my recipe, but I spotted it while searching for cooking images and it made me laugh, especially as I've used still images of this cat in previous posts. Picture source.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

Almost here....

Super yummy soup from mushrooms!


Tomorrow I hope to give you the recipe for this delicious mushroom soup! Been a bit peaky this week, so today's the first day I've really caught up with email. Will finish catching up tomorrow (time for me to have some food then go rest til bed), so expect a post then! Thank you for bearing with me during my quieter times.

Monday, 9 November 2015

Nayu's Craft Time #85 Out with my crafting buddy!

I adore this cherry pattern sewing basket! Not mine, but a girl can dream ^o^ Picture source
There's not really a post today because I'm out visiting a fellow crafter! We will drink tea, work on our individual projects (sewing or crochet) and have a good catch up. Craft is a sociable hobby! Hope you have a great day whatever you're doing.