One Saturday afternoon in January

Well today started very early because we had a big walk at school this morning. It was good fun though. Cyrus unfortunately was unable to join us due to his injury, but he did get to ride in the train. We all dressed in our blue and red to show our support.

When we got home I felt like something different for lunch so I made some onion soup. I looked at a few recipes and then went to see if I had the ingredients to do it. I didn't have cognac as one recipe called for and I only had an assortment of frozen white wines. What we do is if we don't drink a bottle soon after it had been opened we normally freeze what is left for cooking. In this particular glad bag I had about three different white wines. I normally just open a bag and top it up LOL

I thinly sliced 4 red onions and gently fried them in about 3 tbs of unsalted butter (French butter I might add) and 1 tbs of olive oil' To that I added 2 tbs of brown sugar and 1 tbs of sea salt mixed with herbs of Provence. ( Something we picked up in Marseilles). They caramelised beautifully over a low heat in about 30 minutes. To that I added about 1 1/2 cups of my frozen wine mixture, 1 cup of hot water with about 2tsp of Maggie Seasoning Liquid. It smelled like it was going to be really tasty. As all of the ingredients cooked gently I added to 1 pinch of wild thyme. I thought wow I am loving this.

To finish off I sliced up a brown baget, sprinkled it over with some grated, white cheddar and toasted it. The pictures don't do the soup justice because not only did it taste great it smelled divine as well.

After that I made my version of shortbread. While I was kneading the dough I thought of my friend Claire who make the best shortbread ever. She serves hers with strawberries and boy howdy it is mmm mmm mm good.

I wonder how mine will taste, it's cooling now. Ya know Andy better hurry back or he may lose his place as number one chef around here!!

Andy and his great friend Korkor in Istanbul. Wow Andy looks very relaxed and happy amazing what a little R and R can do. That is baby David. he is one of the sweetest little boys we have ever met. They called me to tell me that they were enjoying hamsi ...again. Once upon a time Andy used to say he was not a fish person. One day when we were still living in London, I had made the kids some home made fish and chips. Normally on a Friday I did not cook, that was my tradition; but I would go to the local Chippy in Ruislip; Aquarius I think it was. Anyway Andy normally worked every Friday at the hotel and Doug and Adam did their own thing. Cameron, Katherine and I would go to Maverick foot ball training, pop into Granny's, that was our routine before heading home. These were the days before we had Cyrus and Isaiah. One Friday night on our way home I got some really nice Monk fish from Waitrose along with some of those beautiful Cyprus potatoes. We decided to make our own fish and chips.

We had just settled down to watch some Disney movie and eat our dinner when there was a knock on the TV room window. (For most of our married life Andy has never had a house key more bout that another time) To our great surprise Andy had come home early and was just in time for a treat. He joined us in the TV room and tasted some of our food. Before long he was really tucking in and enjoying every bite. His words were "You might make a fish love out of me yet" well judging by his expression he is well and truly a fish lover.

Zucchini bottoms!!!

Just wanted to include the shrimp and zucchini we had for dinner.... Comfort cooked them and they were delicious.

a little more on those quilts. The lavender fabric you see was hand dyed by me. The buttons I used on the blue jean one were mother of pearl buttons I found in Istanbul. The jeans were a nice pair of Giorgio Armani jeans I came across, they didn't fit me and they were in really good condition so i took the scissors. The blue in there is an old Nautica shirt from my good buddy M.E. The safari quilt is one of my little favourite. I think I have made three other variations of that one. Little Jack's face lit up with delight when he saw it. (That is what it is all about really)

Now I have to get busy on a quilt that is going to a very special lady in London who I have never had the pleasure of meeting. Through her sister we have charted her progress during a very challenging time She is fighting an up hill battle with a down hill ease that is inspiring. People she doesn't even know are rooting for her.

Watch this space

Hamsi in Istanbul, Quilts in Ikoyi

Andy is having a good time in Turkey and we are not doing so bad here. I have been buys helping out at school for the endowment walk this Saturday, but I have also been busy with my Burper-Slurpers. I wasn't up all night finishing them. I got them done at a decent hour but I was restless. I got the idea to make bags for the mini quilts in the middle of the night so I got up and made them. They were easy. I made a mistake or two but as ever I covered them up very cleverly. Look at the pretty buttons!!!! I loved making them and the kids I made them for are all very sweet. I haven't met one little girl but I have met her daddy and he says she is sweet so I am taking his word for it.

Andy has sent some lovely pictures of his travels and what he has been eating. He is eating hamsi and drinking Efes we are eating tempura shrimp and zucchini fried the way a friend from Bulgaria taught me. Today has been a productive day and I think I will sleep well tonight. This is fun......

Well Andy set off for London on Saturday and no sooner had he arrived than he was out the door off with a friend out to dinner. Tomorrow he is flying to Istanbul. I have asked him to take lots of pictures. He says he will be eating at our favorite family restaurant Set Balik. How lucky. He also has plans to go back to Urfa. Pictures please!!

I am here with the boys enjoying our little time together. Isaiah had a tooth that was loose for weeks just hanging on a string. He could twist it every which direction and grossed us all out. All over the Christmas holidays we kept trying to get it to come out. Finally today it came out.

Good bread is not as easy to come by as you might think here, however my friend Lola told me about Barcelo's in the Silverbird shopping mall. She brought me some last Saturday night still hot from the oven and she was right it was delectable. Today Anne and I went and I bout 6 loaves for the freezer. Cyrus, who is our bread and butter man loved it. We also discovered a bookstore. Anne found the cook book section and there we saw a fantastic looking book called Hunger for Freedom The Story of Food in the life of Nelson Mandela. It looks like a book you want to sit down and pour over with a nice glass of red wine.

I will let you know.

More later gotta finish those burper slurpers

Kids left last night.. back to London back to Nottingham. I promised Kt I would keep our gym regime and so I was good today. One hour in the gym and two in the pool doing my water dance. I am determined to get fit.

Andy has been working some magic in the kitchen but not taking the photos of how he did it. We had chicken satay last night and it was gorgeous.. hmmm hmmm
Cyrus thought it was finger snapping toe tapping good

We have two new babies who have joined us at post and as I want to keep my hands busy I have decided to make them some dribble catchers or burp cloths or nursing blankets, I haven't decided what to call them yet. I remember when my Kath was a baby she loved the satin silky edge of an old blanket we had. She used to rub it between her fingers as she drifted off to sleep. I thought, hmmmmmmmmmmmm I have lots of silk scraps, I could incorporate them into theses little beauties.

I get to use my imagination and they get a cool little quilt. What a happy thought!! Here are a few ideas on the table....

Anyone who knows Andy knows how much he loves tennis. Find him a good partner and he could play every day. He is good at it and likes to have good equipment to play with. So that is why I am
going to order some new shoes for him to play in. K swiss is his preferred shoe and even though he does have other sneakers he won't use them in spite of the fact that these have seen better days. Even though these shoes have given up the ghost he still plays a great game, but he really does need to let these go!!

Last night we had a couple over who have really gone out of their way to help us to settle into our new life here. We had them over for a collection of eats. Not dinner but just some eats. Andy found this fantastic recipe for turning ordinary cucumbers into something exciting.

You hollow out a peeled, halved cucumber and slice them about 1/4 inch slices. Then you mix:

2 table spoons of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of hot water
1 teaspoon of salt together

together in a bowl, pour over your cucumber slices and garnish with thin slices of shallots if you have them we used red onions instead. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve. This is very simple and takes about 5 minutes to make. Makes a refreshing and tasty change to quite possible an otherwise unexciting vegetable.

I made a cool little Netbook bag for Katherine yesterday. I did it all by hand and stitched while we watched Scent of a Woman for the 100Th time. I use an old bag that I bought at Gap a few years ago. The strap on it broke and I was too lazy to sew it back. I was going to throw it but I loved the fabric but not so much the shape of the bag, sooooo, I picked it apart and put it in my stash as I do for a later date.

I was rummaging around in my stash and found some beautiful black corduroy that a great friend found for me. My friend Katharine L has the coolest brown corduroy couch I have ever seen. It is the thick heavy corduroy which quite honestly you don't see much of anymore. Any way one day she phoned me to tell me she had found some fabric for me. It turned about to be about 3 yards of black corduroy. I used some for this bag. I also used some extra heavy cotton wadding I had left over, and a nice leather button from my button collection. I love the finished result. I got ideas for another one but Cameron said he wasn't interested. I asked Kath my Kath if she thought her friends might like one. "They don't have a Netbook mom' was her reply, one look at my face and she said 'Go on then mom. I am sure they can get one" so I am busy on the next one

Just a note: Thank you Katharine L for thinking of me when you saw that fabric. I love it. I talk about fabric all of the time so imagine my genuine joy when she told me about it. Couldn't wait to see it

Tomatoes on their way to becoming chili jam

Beginning in the middle

Today is the second day of January 2010. Andy and I are going to try and do a blog together in the interest of togetherness. I like quilting and traveling he likes cooking and traveling. He got a new camera for Christmas so hopefully he will use it to chronicle his travels and his cooking adventures.


For anyone who doesn't know us already we have been married for 23 years, we have 6 kids and two grand daughters. Our kids range in age from 31 to 6. We own quite a few cookbooks (mine are all the ones with the pretty pictures). Andy likes to read about the food he eats and so doesn't mind if there is no picture, by contrast it is what the food looks like that makes it appealing to me.

Once upon a time we used to sit in the kitchen and keep each other company while the other cooked. Somewhere along the line it seems that cooking became a competition between us. I resist the use of recipes except as a guide where as he follows them religiously. I feel I have a certain amount of natural talent and a spirit of 'oh well if i don't have every ingredient the recipe calls for, I will just make due'. Andy on the other hand likes to have each and every ingredient and will go get something he doesn't have to make the dish complete. Both ways are fun and creative ways to cook, but our differences have cause clashes that are really quite comical when you look back at them.

Andy's interest in cooking has become a passion of his much like quilting has become a passion for me. I love the colours and textures of the fabrics and threads I use and he loves strolling through vegetable markets sampling where he can the fare. We both enjoy spending hours scrolling through blogs he on eats and me on quilts and all things fabric and creative. We both enjoy traveling and discovering new places and things. Andy is the more adventurous of the two of us. What we would like to do is creative a blog together which reflects us and our interests and our family. I hope it will be a success I certainly intend to do my part to capture the beauty of both our passions as we cook and stitch some great recipes and quilts together.