Burger it!

I felt pretty stumped by the challenge at Cuttlebugmania, which is BBQ time,  until I started to think a bit laterally, about the kind of food you might get at a barbecue. And of course a great barbecue favourite is the burger, so I decided to make a burger using  the basic Nestabilities sets I bought when I got my first die cutting machine. Fancy dies may come and go, but those basic ovals and circles will go on forever, especially when we keep finding new uses for them!

The burger and top and bottom pieces of bread are cut using oval dies. I chose ovals rather than round ones because if you can see all the layers of filling, you are probably viewing the burger from above and in front of a table, so perspective means it would look oval. The lettuce leaf is cut with a scalloped oval and the tomato and cucumber from circle dies. I used one size larger for the tomato because I like big juicy tomatoes.

The top of the bun is decorated with hand drawn "seeds". I thought about getting the effect by putting the oval through the Swiss Dots embossing folder, but I think it would have looked too regular.

The sentiment is from the Rubber dance Chilli stamp sheet and I "framed" the burger by using my biggest circle die to draw a ring around the whole thing, starting either side of the sentiment.

RECIPE: Broad Bean and Feta Salad

The broad beans are ready in the garden, and I decided to make the most of them by showcasing them in a salad rather than just having them boiled on the side of the plate.

 

 

To make this you will need

 

150g broad beans, weight after podding. Our beans were young and tender ones, picked a few minutes before cooking, so there was no need to double-pod them, but bigger, older ones from a supermarket may need it.

70g feta cheese

a handful of Kalamata olives - about a dozen

6 sprigs of fresh Greek oregano

1 lemon, juice and grated rind

3 tablespoons olive oil

 

Cook the broad beans until just tender - ours only took 3 minutes but bigger ones will take 5-10 minutes depending on their age.

While they are cooking, whisk together the lemon rind and juice and olive oil.

Drain the beans and immediately mix them into the oil and lemon mixture and leave to cool.

When ready to serve, drain the beans from the dressing,  reserving the dressing to serve on the side, and place in a serving dish. Crumble over the feta, scatter the olives over and sprinkle with the finely chopped oregano. Serve with the dressing on the side.

 

As there was some feta left, I served the rest with sliced melon and chopped mint.

I am sharing this with Simple and in Season at Feeding Boys

Flowers for Algernon

That was the title of a science fiction short story I read many years ago. I can't remember much about it now (I think Algernon was a mouse) but the title stayed with me because back then it was even rarer than it is now to give men flowers - or make cards with flowers on them for men.

Which leads me, in a very roundabout way, to this fortnight's challenge at The Male Room, which is to use flowers in a masculine way.  I decided to go for an industrial look.

First of all I made the background, using some grey textured card. I stamped all over randomly using a wire netting stamp and a scribbled lines and circles stamp - both from a very old Linda Luckin set (dated 2008). Then I distressed the edges and rubbed a little brown and charcoal grey chalk over the surface to bring out the grainy texture of the card here and there.

The sentiment, from Rubber Dance, is stamped on a piece of woodgrain paper and embellished with brads, then layered over some brick-effect paper from my scraps box.

The metallic flowers are cut from patterned metallic effect card and then embossed using a grid effect embossing folder, and finished with eyelets. The newsprint flowers are stamped (using an old magazine freebie stamp from several years ago) on newsprint effect paper, inked, curled a little and finished with screw-headed brads.

I am sharing this with

The Male Room - Make Flowers Masculine
Fab 'n' Funky - Two or more designer papers
Retro Rubber - Brads and Eyelets
Ooh La La - Something Beginning with F (Flowers)  
Craft Rocket - Anything Goes 

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

Well, no, actually, it isn't hot, hot, hot at all here in Hampshire, it's grey and gloomy yet again and Mark is beginning to worry about whether his chillies will ever ripen.

Talking of chillies, I'd been looking for a chilli stamp for ages, to make cards for him and his chilli-loving friends, and found a whole sheet of them at Rubber Dance stamps,  so now I have lots to choose from. For this card I stamped the biggest, boldest one from the sheet with red Versacolor and embossed it with clear powder - it was just the right size to use with my tag template.

A sentiment from the sheet and a little doodling with a marker pen and the sizzling hot card was finished. Now we need some sizzling hot weather to go with it!

I am sharing this with:

AAA Cards - Tags



Inkspirational - Anything Goes with Red



CAS Mix up - Stamping & Markers & Your choice (heat embossing)



Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

Tree of Stars

This tree of stars stamp has been in my collection for many years and doesn't get inked often enough! It's a red rubber UM and I can't remember where it came from, but I thought it would be perfect for this week's sketch challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown

I made it into a one layer card by sponging on the green ink through a circular stencil, then stamping and embossing the tree in gold and finally adding a stamped sentiment.

I am sharing this with

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Sketch
Fantasy Stampers - Wish Upon a Star
One Layer Simplicity - Christmas in July
The Paper Players - Christmas in July  

Bring me sunshine!

Ho-hum, it's another of the grey, gloomy days that seems to be the closest we can get to summer this year. So I've decided to brighten up my day with a sunny yellow card! I made one quite similar to this a few weeks ago, with a stencilled sun and a sentiment, but this time I decided to add a bold, bright yellow and black butterfly instead.  Both stamps are from a magazine freebie set, I think it was Quick Cards Made Easy,  very appropriate since this was such a quick and easy card. And all one layer, too, which is a bonus when it comes to posting it!

I am sharing this with

Addicted to CAS - code word FLY
Butterfly Challenge - Yellow and/or years (just yellow this time)
CAS on Sunday - Black, White and one colour
Crafty Creations Challenges - Clean and Simple

RECIPE: Chicken Stir Fry with Fresh Peas

We've had some lovely, sweet, tender peas from the garden this year, and I wanted to make something that made more of a feature of them than simply having them boiled on the side of a plate: this is what I came up with.

I made it to serve 2 but it is easily adaptable to serve more.

Ingredients:

2 medium chicken breasts, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon Chinese Five Spice powder
2 teaspoons cornflour
2 tablespoons groundnut or rapeseed oil
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
a few drops of sesame oil
6 spring onions, sliced diagonally
a piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, cut into julienne strips
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
100g button mushrooms, wiped and quartered
100g of fresh peas (weight after podding)
150ml chicken stock

Place the chicken in a non metallic bowl and add half of the cornflour, mixing it in well - rub it into the meat with your hands for the best result. Then stir in half of the oil and soy sauce and the sesame oil. If you have time, leave this to stand for half an hour.

Heat the remaining oil in a wok or large frying pan, and when very hot, add the chicken and spring onions and stir fry for 3-4 minutes until the chicken is opaque throughout and starting to brown a little at the edges. Mix in the garlic and ginger, then stir in the mushrooms and peas. Add the remaining wine and stir well for 1-2  minutes, then add the soy sauce.

Place the remaining cornflour in a small cup or bowl and blend in a little of the stock, then add the remaining stock to the pan and mix well. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the mushrooms and peas tender - this should only take a minute or two. Mix in the cornflour mixture and bubble, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Serve with rice - I added some blanched beansprouts on the side.