Creamy Smoked salmon, Leek and blue cheese risotto....

As you will know on a Friday I try to find you a picture to make you smile.  This week I am sharing a recipe with you...cos it certainly made me smile.  :-)  I often make a risotto for tea and I adjust the basic recipe depending on what I've got in the fridge.  I usually add mushrooms but this week I had none in the fridge so I added a finely chopped leek instead.  I don't tend to weigh out all my ingredients so a little more or less really doesn't matter but I have to say this combination now comes highly recommended....yum yum

Creamy Smoked salmon, Leek and blue cheese risotto   [serves 2]

160g risotto rice

1/2 litre vegetable stock.....boiling

1/2 cup of white wine....guess you can drink the rest of the bottle!

1 medium onion....finely sliced

1 leek....finely cut into rounds

I packet of smoked salmon trimmings....cut into 1-2cm pieces

creamy blue cheese.....cut into 1-2cm pieces

couple of hands full of frozen peas

1oz butter 

Grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in a saucepan and gently fry onions and leeks til soft.  Add rice and fry until the grains are starting to turn translucent.  Add the wine and frozen peas and then the hot stock little by little, stirring continuously. Cook for 18-20 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender with a little crunch.  When adding the last ladle of stock add  the salmon and cook until most of the moisture is absorbed.  Turn the heat off and add in the blue cheese, stirring until melted.  Serve with a topping of the grated Parmesan cheese......yum yum yum

I hope you give this a go cos I just know you will love it.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Annie x

WOYWW....

Happy Wednesday to one and all.  Firstly I must let all my concerned friends know that we were lucky enough to not be affected by the floods of yesterday thankfully and as they did back in July the water levels went down as quickly as they came up.  Thank you to those who left me comments yesterday.

I teased you a while ago with the rag dolls I had made for the twin's birthdays.  It was their birthday on Thursday [check out the pics in the posts below] so I can now show and tell the finished dolls and accessories.  :-)

Please click on pic to enlarge to read labels.

We bought Lexi a push chair and a little wooden trike with a trailer for Sam so they have transport for their new dolls  :-)  .... and I'm pleased to report that they love them all.

The new jars [alas plastic not glass] have already been put into good use...

I've replaced my smaller jars with the new large ones and, oops somehow, they are already full!! ....how did that happen?  :-)

Our fun day was rained off on Monday and none of my customers ventured out with sewing jobs through the floods so I set my table up to play alone.  You can see my embellisher on the table and my boxes full of yummy fabrics, all colours of wool rovings and dumfable yarns all spread around me on the floor.  Of course there was no point in clearing it all off for Tuesday as the munchkins came to play and the shop was shut so this morning I will be having more dumfing fun til my customers flood back with work for me.

The little dumfed dragonfly pic on last Wednesday's post sold before it had time to settle in the blog shop so I have now finished this one and will be loading it up in the blog shop at some point soon....Jo has already put her latest in there if you're interested.  I have put this one in a double mount so that who ever buys it can put it in a frame of their choosing.....everyone has a different opinion on the size/colour frame to use and selling them this way also makes them cheaper to post.

For those interested in why Jo and I are dumfing dragonflies you might like to read this link.
Waterbugs and Dragonflies

That's about all from me for today so if you'd like to leave me a quick 'hello' comment I will aim to pay you a return visit ASAP.  Have a great week.
Hugs,
Annie x

When is it ever going to stop?...

It has rained non stop all night and it's still raining heavily.  The little bridge over the brook [where you can see the car with it's lights on] cannot cope with all the water so it's now running like a river down the sides and onto the road.  It has already flooded out the shop [behind the vans] and they have only just redone the floors there since the last flood on 14th July.  They are desperately trying to pump out the water but I think it's a losing game they are playing I'm sorry to say.  

When you think that the road was flooded like this only once before in my memory [back in 1963/4] it is amazing that it has already happened again.  What is happening to our weather?

Making memories...

Yesterday was Lexi and Sam's 1st birthday party.  The sun shone and special memories were made so I thought I would post a couple of collages of the pics to share with you.  If you want a closer look then you can click on the pics to enlarge.

Haven't they grown since this?.......

Two tiny tots end to end in one moses basket!

What an amazing first year of life it has been.  I feel so very blessed to have been able to share it all so closely.

Friday's smiles.....a week of firsts

It's been a week of firsts this week for our Grandchildren....

The twins have now got their first proper pillows and quilts on their cot beds [they are not allowed pillows til they are 12 months old]...don't they look cosy?

 

Lexi has taken her first steps and she thinks she is such a clever girl....Sam isn't far behind her too.   The twins have now got their first pair of proper shoes....they look pretty pleased with them too.

......and they had their first birthdays yesterday...wahoooooo.   Mummy sent in a birthday card for them to CBeebies...if you'd like to see it then you can click on this link...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/cbeebies/episode/p00ylcqt/CBeebies_Birthday_Cards_Thursday_20_September_2012/

Phoebe has had her first session at pre-school this week.....don't they grow up quickly?  She looks pretty pleased with the pictures that she did there too.  :-)

The other thing I would like to share with you is a text Michelle sent me this week......

Picture this: Lexi's nappy leaked! Decide to bath them both on my own.  Splashing each other Lexi laughs so much, farts and baths fills with poo!  Quickly bail out, throw Sam in ball pit in his room.  Go back, grab Lexi and go to put her in ball pit.  Sam's now weed in ball pit!!  Now got poo in bath, wee in ball pit! Quickly dry twins and put nappies on!  Twins play whilst mummy cleans poo and wee!  aaaah!  Now recovering on sofa!

I just know you will be chuckling now....a day in the life of a mother of twins eh?
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Annie x

WOYWW....

Hello my WOYWW friends.  I did manage to call in to see most of you last week but was unable to leave you comments as we were AWOL for a few days [see yesterday's post].  I'm happy to report that I managed to recharge my batteries and came home raring to go again.  :-)

So what is on my work desk today?

My best find of my holiday!

We had coffee in a little cafe in Harlech.  The other half of the shop was an old fashioned sweet shop with shelves full of sweets in jars.  I got talking to the shop owner because I can no longer get empty jars round home and he said he had so many that he struggles to find homes for them!!

Of course I couldn't let this chance pass me by so for a donation in his charity box I left with 6 new jars to put my ribbons into....my old ones had cracked.  Trust me when I say....I'm easily pleased.  :-)

Since coming home I have now finished the first little dragonfly picture.....it's only about 10.5cm square but I'm rather thrilled with it.  I will probably upload it into the shop at some point if anyone is interested in buying it.

Monday afternoon was spent crafting and creating with Jo and our friend T and we spent it doing little appliqued and free machined characters...it's def a case of practise makes perfect and I have a feeling I have a way to go yet but they are rather cute.

That's about it for me for today.  Tomorrow is the munchkins 1st birthday so there will be lots of celebrations going on this week.....there is more news to share with you but I am saving that til my Friday post....aren't I a tease?  :-)

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me your lovely comments.  I promise I will do my best to leave you return comments this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

Did you miss me then?

Some of you will have noticed my lack of leaving comments over the last week and this is why?

....Yes I cheated and automatically posted last Wed and Friday

We have been away recharging our batteries for a few days.  We stayed in a wonderful 4* hotel north of Harlech in Wales.  The weather wasn't wonderful but who cares?

We ....

• rested
• slept
• walked along several beaches
• ate wonderful meals
• drove all round the area
• chatted and 
• laughed lots

....as they would say it was just what the Dr ordered.  :-)  It was a lovely place to visit and I had the best of company with me [my darling hubby].  The phone signal was rubbish and there was only weak internet signal so I managed to check out a lot of your blogs on Wednesday but couldn't leave messages.....I make no apologies cos, trust me when I say, I NEEDED the break.  :-)

I have put together a couple of collages of our snaps to share with you and if you want to see them in more detail you should be able to click on them to enlarge.

Hopefully normal service will resume now I'm back with my recharged batteries.  :-)

Faces of an angel?...

My Friday's smile this week features Lexi.  She pulls such a lot of funny faces at the mo and how ever hard I try my camera just never seems to work fast enough....or is it me?  :-)

Thankfully her mummy has been able to catch a couple of them this week to share with you and I know I can guarantee a few smiles after looking at these....

With all the newly developed curls in her hair it's not easy to decide just what style to put her hair in and as you can see Lexi is pretty serious about this new style.  :-)

This is her favourite funny face of the moment.  If she touches something she knows she shouldn't or if something doesn't please her this is the face she pulls!  She really does make us all laugh with it too....and doesn't she just know it?  :-)

And finally she just wanted to say a quick hello to all her blogging Aunties down under.  :-)

She is such a funny little bunny.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing my snaps today.  Have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Hello WOYWWers.  Hope you're all having a great week.  Life here is as always, pretty busy. 

We had a brilliant Funday Monday this week cos our friend T joined us again for crafting fun [not that we did much of that ;-)  ] she has been tied up with lots of family commitments for weeks and we have really missed her so it was lovely to catch up for a good chat and giggle.

On my desk today is the little dumfing pic I have made a start on.  I have already dumfed in some yarns and fabrics and will do some machine embroidery before dumfing on the lily pad I have hand dumfed ready. The dragonfly is finished now too and is ready to sit on his lily pad  :-)  I am having to do these little pictures in snatched minutes so they will be slow to develop.  At the back of the pic are the birthday projects under covers ready for next week's celebrations.  :-)

We decided to go blackberrying on Sunday but as you can see we found barely enough to cover the bottom on the box....there are lots more to ripen yet but they are much smaller than I thought they would be with all the rain we have had.

I am pleased to say though that, with a couple of Bramley apples off our little tree in the garden, the blackberries did make rather a lovely crumble.  :-)  Yum yum

That's about all I have to share with you today folks and I'm sorry to say I doubt I will be able to pay you a return visit til later this week.  Sometimes life just gets in the way....will tell you more about that later.  :-)  Hope you all have a brilliantly creative week.

Hugs,

Annie x

Friday's smiles...

These are a few snaps of things that have made me smile this week....

When the twins have finished their meals they like to sit and hold hands and giggle together.

I have a room full of toys for them to play with but as you can see here their favourite toy is playing peep behind the curtains!....yes those are Sam's feet sticking out on the left of the pic.  :-)

Who needs a hoover after lunch time for the twins?  I have two little doggies who really love their visits.  :-)

I've been bitten by insects many times this year so Saturday I decided to tuck my trousers into my socks to keep the little b*****s out while I picked the veg down the garden.....vest tucked into my trousers too and I was covered with insect repellant!!

Having picked a huge bag full of kidney beans I mentioned to my 'Gadget man' that the old bean slicer was still hanging up in the shed from when I was a child so of course he had to search it out and ...

...ta da it still works!

Needless to say that, although it was like meeting an old friend, I still sliced them by hand cos there is more flavour in the thicker slices.

Beetroot, cooking apples and onions fresh out of the garden and what do I make?

4 jars of the most yummy beetroot chutney that's what  :-)

It's been a busy week for me but I have had so many things to smile about.  How about you?

Have a great weekend.

Hugs,

A x

WOYWW...

Good morning to all you wonderful blogging friends who call by each week to peep into a little of my world and leave me such lovely comments.

This week I've been mostly ....

 ....looking after these two little monkeys.  Their other set of Grandparents have been on holiday so I've had a double duty this week.  [such a hardship I know....we have loved every minute  :-)]  

As you can see I had a little helper on Friday and Monday so I could keep the shop open too....her daughter calls her a fair weather Granny though cos she didn't change any nappies  while she was here!  :-)

As you can imagine my sewing has taken a place on the back boiler this week [happily] so today I will be catching up with clearing some of the sewing mountain.

I have however managed to free machine the wings for my dragonflies...they are only sat on top of their bodies here to check for size.

How's this for an amazing car boot find folks?  Jo is always on the look out for me to replenish my toys for the Grandbabies to play with and this week she has really come up trumps.  It's all immaculate...and a real bargain it was too.  Thanks Jo.

The last thing I have to show you today is the visitor who few into our patio door this week!  It's a beautiful sparrow hawk and I'm pleased to say that after being rather stunned he rested for a few minutes and then flew away happily [but probably with a headache!].....that will teach him for trying to catch my little birds eh?

That's all from me for today....more pics to come on Friday  :-)

Thanks for calling by and leaving me such fab comments.

Hugs,

Annie x