Dreams of Orange and Purple: Orange-Black Currant-Ginger Jam

 In August the garden is full of fruits and vegetables, besides there are so many other things to to, so when it is possible I just freeze a part of the crop and leave the preserves for later.
With this grey and foggy november weather I yearn for some colours and tried a new combination: black currant, orange and fresh ginger preserve.
You need:
1 kg black currant
1 kg Orange slices
1 kg 1:1 gelling sugar
5 cm of fresh ginger root

Mix fruits and sugar. Add raped ginger. Boil. Fill into jars.
This preserve is not very sweet and goes wonderfully with cheese or meat.

Welcome Fall!

My garden is blessing me with oodles of fresh veggies ... what a bliss! That means a lot of colours, fun and a lot of time in the kitchen.See below (clockwise):
Apple sauce and pickled zucchini - vegetable casserole with potatoes, tomatoes and green beans - soup with cauliflower, pumpkin, potatoes and zucchini - very chocolatey cake.
Yum!

Crafting Space Makover!!

Yes, it was time... This used to be the darkest spot of our home and I felt so ashamed when vistors lurked through the curtains. So after two years of feeling too worn out and tired to do anything to make this space usable a sunny saturday gave me the force to begin what was a herculean task. This is actually not the realy "before" picture, because piles of books and mags have already been taken out, plus a sewing machine and a huge spinning wheel!
So I cleared the space completely and wiped the winter garden from floor to top. It took me hours.

Then I finally took care of this small dresser, which was standing abandoned on the street. It had be sitting in the basement for years waiting to be loved again. Initially I thought of spraypaintng it. But it turned out very ugly, probably because I had no idea for what size of surface the tin would be sufficient for. Luckily I found a leftover of white acrylic paint that had to do the job (it was sunday, all shops closed). So next time, insted of wasting a tin of spraypaint I should invest on new acrylic paint. But finally I like the outcome, with distressed edges for some shabby chic.
But after hours of wiping and polishing I am really happy. And even the spinning wheel found its place :-)

 The beads and supplies are all neatly organized in screw top jars or translucent boxes. The shelves used to carry the ever-growing piles of books in my student appartement - now they have a new life.

 A reading corner with books and dictionaries for my PhD thesis...

 

 What a fatigue! But it was worth it...  Now I have a new sacred space for creativity and ... only myself (oh, yes, my daughter got a small share of it. A little box with mixed beads that she can play with whenever she likes :-))
How did you (re-)arrange your creativity space? I'd love to see it!

Kalbelia Costume I: Needs a lot of Patience...

For an upcoming workshop of Kalbelia dance I threw myself into sewing a costume.

The skirt is the central piece as the dance is full of whirling and spinning (see the first picture).













With a readymade dance skirt from Hongkong purchased from here, lots of ribbons from my stock and some fabric to recycle the adveture began:

 
 


  The diamonds are cut out from the fabric and basted. A narrow white ribbon will cover the edges later.

Many many hours later: lots of greens and blues. Red, yellow and white will follow....

Sunday of the Frugal Housewife

Partly probably due to my Svabian ancestors (they are the Scotsmen of Germany when it comes to parsimony), partly due to vital necessisty in the years I have perfectionated my habit of never ever throwing away anything that is still good, exspecially regarding food.
So today we have an extraordinary frugal Sunday with homemade marmelade from garden strawberries and a cocktail of very ripe fruits from the kitchen:

 

Yum!

 

Venetian bread cake with apples. A recipe from my mom who taught me never to throw away bread ... "because the child Jesus ("Gesù bambino" is a very common figure in Italy that sees Jesus Christ predominantly as a human being. Its the poor little boy that was born in the hut, a very well known situation in after war Italy) climbed down from his donkey just to pick up a tiny crum of bread." This used to be told to children that (quite naturally) refused to eat bread from the day before.

Additionally the women of the Padan Plain, once a very poor region where my mom comes from, created a lot of delicious ways to use day-old bread. One of our favourite is the bread cake:

You need: 

day old bread cut in cubes (as much you can put in a salad bowl

1 liter of milk

3 spoons of sugar

vanillia essence

3 spoons of butter or vegetal oil

3 eggs

3 peeled and diced apples

raisins (if you like them. My kids are unfortunately rather picky with them)

Heat the milk until it begins to boil. Be careful to stir it while heationg, otherwise it tends to stick on the bottom of the pot. Add sugar, vanilli essence and butter in the end. Then pour it on the bread dices and cover the salad bowl with a large lid. Leave it while you prepare the apples. Mash them with the bread that should have absorbed the milk by now and add the eggs. Butter a casserole and bake for 25 min.

With vanillia sauce it makes a whole meal!

 And finally some pasta al forno, an absolute classic for reusing leftovers from the previous day. Mix them and add eventually tomatoes to make a sauce. Cook some pasta, add the sauce and cover everything with a bechamelle sauce. Done! Super quick and easy.
And how do you celebrate frugality? I'd love to know!
Have a great sunday!

Strawberries

 Summer is in the garden.

Yum.

Big Jump

Please don't ask me how I'm feeling - reluctance has caught me again. As always before an important project comes to life. I'm not talking about crafts... my PhD thesis needs to be finally written and the labour pains are awful.
I console myself with these beauties from the charity shop: vintage jewellery and a Lomonosow (!!) coffee set. Everything for less than 10 €. And a new shawl to knit.
May the BIG project come to life. Soon.

Garden, plant dye and a surprise

Probably like many of you I was totally excited when I discovered the wonderful work of India Flint - what an inspiring person!  The beauty of her books is amazing and I still soak it in whenever I feel empty or dissatisfied.

So one sunny day I rushed into the garden, harvested all my woad and started, after having searched for long an easy recipe for this medieval technique without fermentation and having to use strange ingredients like human urine. But I failed... probably in the last step. The dye did.not.turn.blue.at.all.

Sigh.
In the meantime I gathered some walnut leaves and rolled it to a bundle, where I had hidden the last woad leaves (in the picture below) put it into al glass filled with water and boiled it for a while.

What a surprise when I opened it - at least some blue stains are visible, together with the brown of the walnut leaves the form a pretty structure.

Colour Magic and a Love Letter

Sometimes my friends give me clothes they don't like anymore, that makes me happy as I do not want to fill landscape with even more waste. This time the colours were not my choice but the size was perfect. After dying with two simplicol-packages, one in dark brown and one in violet, see how cute they became! An orange dress turned chocolate brown, a very flashy turquoise jacket is now the most lovely petrol. The blouses have all different shades of brown according to the colour they had before; plus there are a pair of saved kid's pants and a couple of doileys for tone-sur-tone embellishment. So many new garments for only 12 €!
Another thing made me happy this morning - a sweet love letter from my husband on our vintage kitchen board. I love you too, Amine!