Simply Red

The theme for this week's challenge at CD Sundays is "Simply Red" so I've made this simple-to-make easel card from a very old CD, Sharon Duncan's "Beautiful Butterflies". There was very little to do apart from cutting out the backgrounds, layering on to the card and adding the decoupage, although I did brush the large image with Opal Dust which with hindsight was a bit of a mistake as it made the ink bleed  and change colour a bit.

Simply Crocuses

The crocuses in our garden have been beautiful this year - glorious splashes of purple and yellow round the base of each tree and in pots on the patio.

They are almost over now, but I've preserved the feeling of them in a card. When I was rummaging through a box of unmounted stamps I found a crocus stamp,  that must be about 15 years old yet still uninked - I'd not even trimmed away the waste rubber! I used masking to stamp it in a row across the card, coloured then in and finished it with a stamped border.

 

This week at Less is More it is a one layer challenge with the theme "Spring Flowers" so I'm joining in there. And since the stamp was so very old, I'm also joining in again with "Spring has Sprung" at Oldie But Goodie

Baked Tunworth Cheese with Caramelised Pears, Shallots and Thyme

I bookmarked this recipe a few months ago - I can't remember whether I saw it on another blog, spotted a pin on Pinterest or just stumbled on it while looking for something else, but the thought of scooping out a loaf and filling it with brie and a gloriously delicious combination of pears, shallots, thyme and white wine then baking it in the oven sounded perfect.

And it would save on washing up too - instead of using the brie baker, the bread itself becomes the brie baker - handy to know if you don't possess such a piece of equipment.

I'll not give the recipe here - it would be a breach of copyright as the only changes I made were to substitute a lovely local Tunworth cheese for the brie, Sweet Freedom for the brown sugar and a supermarket crusty cob for the sourdough bread (I've not been lured onto the sourdough bandwagon yet - I don't think we eat enough bread to make cooking it on an ongoing basis viable). Oh, and most importantly, to increase the amount of fresh thyme from half a teaspoon (why bother?) to a couple of tablespoons.

The first task was to fry the pears and shallots together then simmer them with the other ingredients for the caramelised layer

Next the top was removed from the bread, and a deep hollow the diameter of the cheese cut from it - with the removed top and middle set aside for dunking purposes.  The cheese was halved  them layered alternately with the pear mixture, and topped with a layer of slivered almonds.

 

Then it was all baked until gooey - the recipe said for 45 minutes but after half an hour we couldn't bear to wait any longer, the fragrant thyme and rich cheese smell had lured us both into the kitchen. Maybe with a larger, heavier loaf it would have needed longer, but my flimsy little supermarket bread had allowed plenty heat to penetrate by then!

 

The verdict? Utterly delicious. A real triumph. The pear layer and the crunch of the almonds gave extra layers of flavour and texture from our usual baked cheese dishes. We scooped up the filling with the removed bread and some crispy Romaine lettuce to help balance the richness.

 

And when the two of us sat back, replete, having demolished all but a small fragment of the bread shell as well as all the filling, I glanced back at the recipe and read "Serves 8"

 

I'm joining in with the March link up for Cooking with Herbs at Lavender and Lovage

 

 

 

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Curiousity Corner

This month I've had a wonderful win - I won the February monthly competition on the Trimcraft website, an absolutely MASSIVE bundle of goodies from the Dovecraft Curiosity Corner range. The parcel included papers, bows, lace, flowers, wood and felt shapes, two sheets of stamps, brads, gems, twine, washi tape, buttons, doyleys, sentiments and much, much more, and I've spent a very happy few days playing with the goodies - and hardly made a dent in the massive amount of stash! Here are some of my creations

 

 

And as the last one has lots of buttons and bows I'm playing along at the Alphabet Challenge, where the current letter is B for Buttons and Bows.

The Easter Bunny

This week's challenge at CD Sundays is "Easter Parade". Now I've never been into celebrating Easter at all - maybe a chocolate egg for the youngest members of the family, but that's as far as I go, so I didn't think I'd be playing this week.

However then my copy of Digital Crafting Essentials turned up and one of the design sets on the free CDs is "Hoppy Wishes", so I printed off one of the backing papers onto thin card then on the other side, printed the rabbit box from La Pashe's "Spring  & Summer 3D templates" to make a cute little rabbit box, which I'm sure will be filled with mini-eggs to be enjoyed by the grandchildren.

Some flowers from my stash and some die-cut leaves have brightened up my bunny!

Yellow flag

Our front garden is full of tiny purple irises at the moment, which has set me wondering two things:

1. Why are the tiny ones always purple and never yellow?

and

2. Why did my grandmother always call yellow irises Yellow Flags, but never call purple ones Purple Flags?

I suppose you'll all tell me that they are completely unrelated species, but they look very much alike to me and I've used this iris stamp, bought from the USA so long ago that I had to write a letter and post it in order to order it, instead of just logging in to a website, to make a Yellow Flag.

I'm playing along with

Less is More #161 - Colour challenge, Yellow and Green
CAS  on Sunday #28 - Colour me Pretty
Crafty Creations Challenges #258 - Happy Birthday
Oldie But Goodie Challenge - Spring Has Spring

Flippin' Families - a sneak peek

Since joining the La Pashe design team, I've been lucky enough to have a chance to play with some of the design sheets and papers on their newest CD, Flippin' Families which will be launched on the Create and Craft TV channel next Tuesday, March 11th, at 11am and 6pm. You can find Create and Craft on Virgin channel 748, Freeview 36, Sky 671 or Freesat 813, or watch online through their website or app.

Here are some of my own ideas to tempt you....