Haute Couture

And this really is "haute", at least when the card is lying flat, because there are so many layers of decoupage!

Actually I think if I make another like this - and the Couture de Jour die cut decoupage pad has four of each design - I will just use alternate layers because the decoupage projects TOO far, even with a tiny amount of gel glue on each layer, making the card unstable and, of course, the postage expensive when the card is sent!

The main motif is the die cut decoupage, mounted on a doiley. I first covered the card in pink patterned paper from the co-ordinating pad, then set a slightly smaller square of a blue patterned paper from the same pad at an angle to it, trimmed flush with the card edges and covered the join with liquid pearls. It is decorated with elements cut from several other sheets of the matching papers.

I am sharing this with

Allsorts challenge - Ladies Only
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge - March  
Shopping Our Stash - National Dress Day
Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine Anything Goes
 

The Dieter's Nightmare

.. a whole month of dieting and nothing to show for it! I think this would make a great encouragement card for a friend who was dieting and really struggling with it.

The image, sentiment and tape measure stamps are all from a Studio G mini set. I really wanted to use tiny buttons as embellishments - after all, buttons feel the strain when a diet isn't going well, but I had none in the right size and colour so I used a fine tipped permanent marker to add some faux buttonholes to pieces of Candi.

I am sharing this with

Just Add Ink - colour challenge


CAS-ology - Fit


Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Just for You

For this card I have used the lovely stencil that came with a recent issue of Papercraft Essentials along with a Dovecraft sentiment stamp.

I've stencilled the main mandala and the corners using a Kaleidacolor "Birthstone" ink pad and then stamped the bold sentiment with Versafine ink.

I am sharing this with

AAA Cards - Ombré 


Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes


Fab'n'Funky - Mandalas and Patterns


Shopping Our Stash - Stashed Stencils


Sweet Stampin - Sentiment Only

Apricot and Walnut Sourdough Bread

This week much of the UK has been affected by snow, and we're just not prepared for it! So even with just an inch or two, everything grinds to a halt. A combination of delayed deliveries and panic buying has left shops with little or no bread - what better time to have a go at baking your own?

The bread I have made today is a no-knead sourdough, using the recipe provided when I did the brilliant workshop at Bread Ahead - you can find the recipe online here  but you can use any plain bread recipe, either to make by hand or in a bread machine, to make a delicious Apricot and Walnut loaf.

For a large loaf, ie one made from a recipe using around 500g flour, you will need to add
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
75g ready-to-eat dried apricots, quartered (I find snipping them with scissors the quickest way to do it)

If using a bread machine with a hopper to automatically add ingredients, just load the hopper with the fruit and nuts and use your standard programme. Otherwise there will be a beeper to tell you when to add them - make sure you add them at the correct time for them to become evenly distributed without getting broken up.

If making a standard loaf, kneaded by hand, add them at the second kneading stage, and if making the no-knead sourdough from the recipe, add them at the folding stage on day 2. In both cases the technique is the same:
Pat out the dough to form a large rectangle and scatter your fruit and nuts over two thirds of it. Fold the other third over the middle and then again over the final third so that the additions are trapped between the layers. Then pat out into a new rectangle and fold again, working at right angles to the first time. Repeat once more and the fruit all be evenly distributed. Continue with your recipe as normal.

This is delicious served with Camembert cheese, or with St Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruit Thick Apricot - I have been sent some of this to try, and in the next few days will be bringing you a recipe using it, but today I just couldn't resist spreading some on my apricot and walnut bread for breakfast!

In the Wild at CD Sundays

It's my turn to choose the theme today at CD Sundays, and my choice is In The Wild.

We very often see wild deer where I live, so I've chosen them as my subject, using one of my old favourite CDs, Meadow's Edge from Design House.

I used a design sheet, insert and background from the CD,  folding the card into an offset gatefold to comfortably fit a wavy stacker pyramage and the vertical border from the same sheet.

Incidentally getting the folds in the right place is easy if you have a Crafters Companion Ultimate or Ultimate pro - cut and mat the vertical border and stick it to the LEFT of a sheet of A4 card, leaving even gaps top, bottom and left. Score to the right of the border, leaving a gap the same size. Now butt the FOLDED  edge of the card to  the left of the Ultimate and score on the A4 Half fold line. Crease the fold and you are left with an offset gatefold card that meets perfectly at the edges.

I am sharing this with

Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything goes with a creature

RECIPE - Plum Glazed Duck Wraps

Disclaimer - I was sent the Rhapsodie de Fruits by St Dalfour to test, but the recipe and ingredients are all my own.

This recipe is based on the concept of Peking style duck, which is eaten with pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and hoi sin sauce, and also on the very first Chinese duck dish I ever ate (in fact it was quite possibly the first time I ever ate duck) in a Chinese restaurant in Kuala Belait in Brunei,  which was stir fried sliced duck in plum sauce served garnished with sesame seeds and shredded lettuce. I’ve taken elements of both dishes and combined them to make a tasty new dish which, despite the length of the recipe, is very easy to prepare.

Most supermarkets sell small bottles of dark soy sauce now, but if you can’t get it, use the “everyday” light version – the colour of the duck and sauce won’t be as dark but the flavour will be the same.

Plum glazed duck wraps (serves 2)

2 duck breasts

 for marinade:

½ teaspoon 5 spice powder

1 teaspoon honey

2 teaspoons Chinese dark soy sauce

a few star anise (broken pieces are fine)

to cook:

2 tablespoons St Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruit Mirabelle Plum

 for the sauce:

2 tablespoons St Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruit Mirabelle Plum

1 tablespoon Chinese dark soy sauce

to serve:

½ teaspoon sesame seeds

shredded lettuce, cucumber and spring onions

wraps, chappatis or Chinese duck pancakes (available in the freezes at Chinese grocery stores)

 

 You will also need a frying pan, skillet or heavy roasting pan that can go in the oven.

 Prepare the duck in advance – dry the skin and make several diagonal slashes through to the meat. Rub with five spice powder, making sure it penetrates the slashes. then do the same with the honey and soy sauce. Place in a non metallic dish and tuck in the star anise under and around the duck pieces. Cover and leave to marinate for at least an hour, up to 8 hours if possible.  

 

 

Make your sauce by beating together the dark soy sauce and Rhapsodie de Fruit. Divide between two small dishes.

 

 

 

Heat oven to 190C (fan 170) 375F, gas mark 5.

 

Place the duck breasts, skin side down, in the cold pan and cook over moderate heat, turning once, for around 7 minutes until the fat starts to run out and the skin is blackened – don’t  be alarmed by how black they look,  they aren’t burned - the soy sauce and caramelising honey make them look so dark.

 

If there is a lot of fat running out, spoon it off to avoid filling the oven with smoke, then place the pan, uncovered, in the oven with the duck skin side up. After 5 minutes, remove from the oven and spread the skin of each piece with 1 tablespoon of Rhapsodie de Fruit.

Return to the oven and cook until you reach your desired doneness – if you like it pink, just 5 more minutes, but I always think duck tastes nicer well-done so I gave it another 12 minutes.

Remove from the oven, slice and serve sprinkled with sesame seeds, alongside the shredded lettuce, spring onion and cucumber.

 

 

Give each person  their plate of duck and salad, a bowl of sauce and their wraps/pancakes. To eat, spread your wrap with some of the sauce, top with a mixture of the salad items and some sliced duck, roll up and enjoy!

 

 

 

Twinkle, Twinkle Stars at Sparkles Christmas

Our March challenge  is live at Sparkles Christmas and this month the theme is Twinkle Twinkle Stars.

I used Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium to stencil stars into each corner of the white panel, then when it was dry, lightly distressed the edges and sponged on gold Delicata ink. The sentiment is cut with a Gummiapan die.

I do think from a distance the word "Merry" looks rather like "Messy" but then when the house is full of grandchildren, how could Christmas NOT be messy?