Food Glorious Food... ... and a Swap

I posted yesterday right in the middle of a marathon food making session with the girls. So you have no idea how incredibly well it turned out. It was sooooo good! Now making your own japanese dumplings and crispy duck and pancakes may seem like a total palaver - in all honesty it is a palaver - but when you sit down to eat and it is even better than you hoped and your children are pleased as punch with themselves, well then it is worth every minute.

I told you about Emily's dumpling making factory. Helen was in charge of the pancakes. These are easier to make than you would think and rather fun too. The dough is a very basic combinatin of flour, a tiny bit of sugar and boiling water. You knead the mixture smooth, let it rest and then get rolling.

You roll out the dough not too thin and cut it into discs. When that job is done you brush half the discs with sesame oil and place the other half of the discs on top of them. Then you get into the serious rolling to get them nice and thin for wrapping around your duck.

The pancakes are cooked in a dry frying pan. Just for a short time on each side.

Now comes the cool bit. Making sure you don't burn yourself, you peal the two layered pancakes apart. The brushing of sesame oil that you did before rolling them together enables this.

Repeat the above steps until all the pancakes are cooked. We ended up with about 30 once all them were pealed apart. I didn't do anything special to the duck, other than buy it cheap at Tesco where they were selling half a duck for £3 the other day. Just popped it in the oven with a little seasoning at Gas 3 and left it alone until it was crisp and cooked. I shredded the meat off of the bones with a fork. Add the hoisin sauce, shredded cucumber and spring onions on the side and the job was done.

Emily's dumplings were briefly fried, then steamed and then finished off frying again so that they browned on the bottom. If you have had pot sticker dumlings before then this is what these were like.

Some Singapore noodles and the veggie spring rolls the girls made me buy in Tesco rounded out the meal and we got stuck in. As I said in the beginning - it was good. I don't think that the things we made tasted any different from what we would have got in a (good) Chinese restaurant. Mind you, I could use a take away today after spending the best part of the afternoon in the kitchen yesterday!

On the Brit front, I have another new flag to add to the Brit Quilt and Brit Bee ones. Now we have the -

Yesterday, all those who signed up for the swap, received their partners. Now we have until the end of June to make a mini quilt - no bigger than 24" square - for the person chosen for us. We don't tell anyone who that person is but can put photos on our blogs and flickr of the quilt as we make it. The design, colours, quilting methods - everything - is up to ourselves but it is our job to find out as much as we can about our partners through their blogs and flickr so that we make something they like. Meanwhile someone in the group will be making something for me. I won't find out who until I receive the quilt, just like my recipient won't know it is me making her's until the postie pops it through her letter box. Fun! The interesting part will be seeing what other people are making and trying to guess which one I will be getting.

I had set aside today as the day that I would be making Trudi's blocks for the bee and I got the fabric all the way to the sewing machine before I remembered I had over 50 letters to modify for the PTA to try and raise prizes for the Summer Fete raffle. Oh joy! But one does what one needs to do. So one did it. And now it's done so maybe tomorrow, barring unforeseen circumstances, I can get the blocks done.

Then I can start working on my secret partner's little quilt. And the wonky star quilt. And finish the Pips x2 quilts. And do more for my Pay It Forwards. God, what have I got myself into?!?!?

Susan

I Remember When Weekends Were Relaxing

I am not sure if weekends used to be more relaxing or if I just attained a much higher level of laziness back then - in those days before husbands, and children, when you did things to your own schedule - or not at all because there was no one to upset but yourself if something didn't get done. Oh yes, I remember it well!

But that was then and this is now and, no matter what levels of tiredness I achieve, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So I made the pancakes this morning for three hungry girls. They kept a tally chart to make sure that they all got the same number. Wouldn't their teachers be proud to know that they are utilising the knowledge they get from school so well?! I am including photos mostly for Hadley's benefit because I like to torment her.

Ready to flip...

... and ready to eat. Don't worry, there are lots more to come.

And if you are still hungry some of Helen's cakes are still left -

Midday we returned someone else's child to their home and did a quick shop to top up on ingredients. Top tip - don't let your children near the deli counter if you are in a soft mood because you will end up buying most of the contents. Home with enough sausage rolls, pasties, spring rolls, samosas, pork pies, scotch eggs and the three things we actually needed and it was time to start preparing food (again).

Emily was in charge of the gyozas. These are Japanese dumplings and mine could eat their body weight in them. Another top tip - Never, ever take your children into Yo! Sushi unless you want to drop a lot of money. To quote Emily, 'I love a restaurant where you just have to reach out and take the food you want as it goes by.' Yeah, don't we all! But I digress, dumplings needed to be made.

Emily gathered the ingredients -

Complained that she wasn't in the photo -

Mixed the filling ingredients together and got the assembly going -

That was her job done. (Well, I helped a little but not much really.) The cooking part will be mine. Helen prepped the veggies for the noodles and we are about to make the pancakes for the Crispy Duck with Pancakes. The half a duck is in the oven. I think we are in control. (That's why I thought I could sneak away and write this.)

Between this and that today I managed to make four more stars. I have placed my rotary cutter in the first photo to show you the scale as two of the stars are the smallest I have made so far. The blocks currently measure 3.5 inches. I quite like them.

This last one, in bright greens, I just love because of the cheeky  monkey fussy cut -

And now it is almost 6pm, dinner is going to be late, and I am on tenterhooks because in two hours time they will be sending out the emails that tell all of us who have signed up for the Brit Quit Swap who our secret recipient will be. My first ever swap. Yippee!

Susan

Back to the Blogging Life

Things were not normal in this house this morning. I woke up at what Helen would refer to as 'stupid o'clock in the morning' and no wishing or hoping got me back to sleep. So the first load of laundry was in before 6am. John was in his office half an hour later and less than half an hour after that Helen was in the kitchen making cakes. At least, now that she has taken on the role of chief baker, I can blame my lack of weight loss on her instead of myself.

Emily was the only member of this household who had the common sense to stay asleep past 7am and I think she would have slept a lot later if there hadn't been so much going on already. I feel for her. I too would prefer to be asleep at that time of day. I feel robbed of sleep even though I have no one to blame for waking me up.

With the turmoil in Blogger land the past couple of days I have forgotten to mention that Judith at Rags to Bags has stepped forward and become my third, and final, Pay It Forward participant. As my first PIF was Jane that is one delivery made and two more to go, plus my bonus non-PIF to a non-blogger reader. I have a plan in place for number two PIF - Nikki, and for the non-blogger - my friend Francine. Now I have to think about what to make for Judith. It is not as easy as you would think because all three of my blogger PIFs are majorly fantastic quilters so I am rather shy of making anything quilty for them because, well just because I am not a major quilter - just a happy go lucky one.

But plans are forming and as a little tease here is a photo of one present in the process of being created and I am not saying who it will be for either -

I had lots I wanted to get done today, and failed. Dancing classes, feeding the hungry hoards and life had other ideas. I managed to cut the fabric for another wonky star, finish off one mini project and do a little bit more on the above crochet project - that is it. Hummff! So much for the best laid plans and all that.

Maybe tomorrow though I have promised the girls a day in the kitchen. Plus there is a bonus child here who is sleeping over tonight - and this child loves pancakes so I will be flipping those with a vengeance in the morning. The Canadian kind - round, plump and drizzled with maple syrup. Then we have all sorts of things planned for our dinner. No roast here tomorrow. We will be creating! I'll try and remember to have my camera handy.

Hope whatever you are up to that you are having a great weekend too.

Herman the German

Herman the German (the Friendship Cake) has left the smelly sourdough stage and entered the baked goods part of his life. The making of the cake was, um, interesting – to say the least. There are very few instructions. Just a list of ingredients that you need to add. They do not stir together very easily and look remarkably unappetising once you have got them to a semi dough like consistency. This is not a light and fluffy batter. If there was an urgent need for mortar in the building industry I am sure this would suffice and the buildings would stand for thousands of years.

The concoction needed serious manhandling to get it from bowl to pan. Herman wasn’t going without a fight. Then to make it look all the stranger the instructions told me to melt ¼ cup of butter and pour it over the top, followed by a sprinkling of ¼ cup of brown sugar.

This sounds terrible! Well it looked rather terrible too. But it did smell good. And it smelled even better cooking. The mixture contains two heaped teaspoons of cinnamon, and chopped apples, and raisins too, for good measure. These things make for luscious smells. Cooking improved my opinion of Herman by leaps and bounds.

Then I started getting annoyed. Cooking time was set at 45 minutes but you are told to check it at 35 minutes. At 50 minutes it was still wobbling like an unset jelly but the top was sufficiently browned. I covered it loosely with foil and hoped for the best. Part of me started being thankful that I had given out all three portions of the friendship part of the batter therefore I wouldn’t be able to make another one.

This went against John’s suggestion that we keep one of the portions for ourselves. I pointed out to him that I didn’t want to be making or eating the same cake every ten days for the rest of my life and that eventually even I would run out of friends to pass on batter to. Sooner rather than later if this cake isn’t any good!

But, eventually, the cake cooked – almost. It fell a bit in the middle. Honestly, I had a school run and it had to come out the oven even if it wasn’t ready. There is only so much a person can do.

I waited for John to get home and we cut into it. It didn’t look too promising but in actual fact it is very nice. One of those cakes where you have a little slice to be polite but then have another little slice, and another, and another. It is still warm though. I cannot yet report on what it is like cold. It would be nice for dessert with ice cream in this nice warm stage. (John gallantly stepped up to the plate and had this for dessert and pronounced the ice cream/cake combo very good.)

So, in conclusion, it was worth making. It was worth keeping ‘Herman’ alive and bubbling for ten days to have the cake. But I wouldn’t do it again for a little while. If and when I did do it again I would bake it in a different pan. I used a 9”x9” baking tin which was plenty big enough for the batter but I think it may benefit from being a flatter, bigger cake that is cooked all the way through, even in the middle.

Maybe in a few week’s time when the cake has done the rounds of all the school mums and villagers it will make its way back to me again. I would make a few changes, tweak it a little. Then see what happened. It would be fun to try.

The Day That Blogger Forgot

Well, after most of the day with Blogger down I return to see yesterday's post is still missing. I would like to see it returned. It couldn't be that easy, could it. I wonder how many other blogs out there are missing posts as well. All? Some?

I have a full report on the Frienship Cake but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Blogger kept all us Blogger people on hold all day and now there are more pressing things like dinner to attend to.

So appologies to all who have stopped by to see or hear any news from me. I shall return, upbeat and ready to take on the world tomorrow. Right now I have a hungry stomach or two to feed. Enjoy your Friday night.

Susan