Getting Creative in the Kitchen

I've been away from Glasgow recently staying with Gregor as his folks are away for a month. I think it has been good for us both, I certainly am enjoying having his company :) On days when Gregor is working its been my job to make lunches and dinner. The other day I made some Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Chilli soup - yuuuummmy! It really was delicious. I used a recipe from the Covent Garden A Soup For Every Day of the Year book, only making one substitution which was using dried chilli flakes instead of fresh chilli.

The finished soup looked scrummy in the green bowls! It didn't last long. I'll have to make some more next week.

My favourite soup has always been (chunky!) leek and potato, but maybe I'll be converted to something else if I practice more recipes from the soup book. What's your favourite soup and how do you make it?

'Thank you' cards

Last night I made some thank-you cards to send to the lovely people who gave me such lovely presents for my birthday. The original idea I'd had was to use some material in the middle of the card then stamp 'Thank you' over the top of it. This didn't happen, simply because my potato-cutting-to-make-a-stamp skills are utterly non-existent. Does anyone make stamps out of potatoes or similar at home? If so how?! :) I will have a look for a ready made stamp for future use online today but it would still be nice to be able to make my own if need be. So, due to lack of stamp I decided to use one I already had - I felt the leaves, particularly in the orange ink, were rather seasonal so it didn't matter it was un-birthday related. On each card I glittered around one stamp and then glued some wee buttons over the acorns on another. The gluing was tricky for the glittery stamp as I used glue then glittered over the top as I didn't have any glitter glue. I used Uhu but it came out rather thick and made it look messy - can you think of a better glue I could use next time? I popped the cards in the post this morning but I still wish I'd managed to get them in earlier. Perhaps for Christmas I'll make cards before present opening then can just fill them all in at once later.. or I could just buy some nice cards I suppose but that defeats the purpose for me really - it's so much nicer to make my own!

Crafty birthday presents

After a good feel of this particular parcel ('it's squishy.. oh no! not another scarf! .. phew, I can feel a hard bit - it isn't a scarf after all..') I finally opened it to discover a pretty bag filled with lots of lovely crafty things from mums own collections. Its bits and pieces like this - trimmings and cuttings and odds and ends that one collects over time - that I really rather wanted for making cards and other things. Thank you mummy :o) I had a lovely time back home for my birthday (we had a bonfire and lots of yummy things to eat and drink!).

When I got back to my flat I had some more parcels to open - an absolutely scrummy big button keyring that went straight on my keys, a matching button purse, and the new Hummingbird Bakery cook book. I cannot wait to try some of the recipes - there is one called 'Grasshopper Pie' and the filling is made from melted marshmallows flavoured with peppermint - ooo its a dream come true. Maybe I'd better save it for dreaming about just now though or a little tubby will soon become a big tubby what with all the other sweets and chocolate I was given at the weekend! Has anyone made anything from this book? Do you have a favourite you'd like to recommend?