Friendly Nettle
Friendly Nettle is a community site for crafters of all sorts offering free project ideas, patterns for knitting, sewing and crocheting.
As it is getting autumny I decided to make a plum chutney today. I bought the plums from the store this time since this is must have in my kitchen and unfortunately I don’t own a plum tree. I love it with cheese (any type!!), but it would also taste really good with the ham or savoury biscuits…. the list goes on!
The recipe have been “stolen” from the BBC Good Food website (as always!!!)
Don’t forget to enjoy autumn ;)
Rasa xox
What a lovely weekend we had! My mum was visiting me all the way from Lithuania and we were invited to a one amazing Lola’s and David’s wedding…. Aww! But once the weekend is over I always think of the ways to prolong it. I baked this chocolate amaretto cake (who does’t like chocolate?), which defiantly deserves some attention ;). Try it out for yourself!
CHOCOLATE AMARETTO CAKE
(For the chocolate glaze)
Happy Monday!
Rasa :-D
Me, my mum (who is visiting me) and Vickie had a such a great time in Petersham Nurseries today. It is soooo beautiful there! Don’t you think this place would be perfect for a wedding?
The cakes we delicious too! My favourite was a lavender, rose water and almond cake…. yum :b
We definitely recommend Petersham Nurseries to anyone who loves vintage country style, you would definitely enjoy this;). It’s in Richmond (forgot to tell)! It has a cute shop as well where you can buy not only pretty stuff for home, but also the gardening accessories. I bought some gardening twine in pretty colours thinking to knit a rug or something… will let you know!
Having a really busy weekend. A dear friend’s, Lola’s wedding tomorrow! Looking forward to that :). What are you up to for the weekend?
Rasa xox
Vicki had an access to an apple tree this year. Yay! And what could be better if not to use these genuinely organic apples for making preserves? I thought I will make an apple sauce since I heard that you can use it to substitute sugar! However I was quite disappointed for a moment as I found out from many apple sauce recipes that in fact you need to add sugar and butter (wow!) in order to make it :-(…. bummer! It doesn’t make sense to me why would you use the apple sauce as a sugar substitute when it contains sugar anyways. Luckily after doing a further research I have released that I can still make a sugarless apple sauce, however I would need to take extra care in preserving it. So this is how I made it.
SUGARLESS APPLE SAUCE
Ingredients:
1.Clean the apples by pealing them, removing cores and any blemishes.
2. Put the apples and cinnamon stick if using into the pot and cover it slightly with water. Cook it for about an hour.
3. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C. Wash the jars in warm soapy water, then rinse and dry them and place upside down in the oven for 10 min.
4. When the apples are cooked, drain them slightly (don’t throw away the juice) and puree it with the food processor.
5. While the apple sauce is still hot pour it into the hot jars (very important, otherwise you can end up with the apple cider).
This one needs a lot of practice! I must admit I messed up the first time round, the jar lids got popped open. It must be because I let the cooked apples cool before pureeing them. Let’s hope this time it won’t happen again!
On the other note, my mum is visiting me tomorrow. That means I can ask her more advice on preserving ;)
All good!
Rasa :-D
So as I promised on the Bicycle trip to Richmond post, here I will share my recipe for a yummy rye bread. I think it is the closest match to the bread we buy in Lithuania and surprisingly there is no sourdough starter needed.
RYE BREAD
8. Baked bread goes with many toppings like radish butter & roast beef or just butter, avocado, tomato & basil combination (my family’s favourite).
Enjoy
Rasa xox
As you may know already last month we have been really busy with the 10 pillow challenge and I am happy to say it’s now achieved! Yay!
Extra pillows will be soooo useful for tonight’s mini knitting group meet! Still interested to join us? Check out the availability on the events page.
The list of pillows that have been made:
Thanks for your support ;)
Rasa xox
And this is how our journey to Richmond started. Alex planned the route, I packed the lunch and sky … well.. it delivered sun!!
Luckily Alex is an expert on picking scenic cycling routs so most of our trip took place around the rivers and canals. I love the river around my neighbourhood ♥. For more reads about River Lea go here.
While I was cycling I noticed that lots of Elderflower trees turned to Elderberries. I did a little research and found out that you can make jelly, cordial or even liqueur with it ;)
Such a quick scenery change as we went along! I loved riverside cafes and even cafe-boats!
At the Limehouse we had to leave the river, but not for good…
Passed the central London of course ;)
Lunch at Chelsea Park: bacon tart, elderflower and poppyseed cake and rye bread sandwiches that were really yummy. I will share the recipe some time soon ;)
So after ups and downs (my bike tire went flat that got luckily fixed), we get reunited with our friend Vicki! YAY!!
We can’t get enough of the riverside as more walks by the river continues…
But the time to say goodbyes is always round the corner, but not for good!
Thanks to Vicki for making our trip memorable.
Rasa :)
Hey! this is the last pillow on the pillow challenge! I hope you enjoyed following it ;)
Here are the DIY instructions for this cute bird!
Have a lovely weekend
Rasa xox
As you have guessed we are cycling across London to Richmond to visit our friend Vicki! Although this wasn’t my idea I am looking forward to this challenge…. after all I haven’t cycled for a while ;)
How are you spending your weekend?
Rasa xox
We are almost at the end of 10 pillow challenge and there is only one more pillow to go!
This one includes a quick tutorial on button hole stitch which is essential for applique method.
To access the instructions go here!
Happy Friday!
Rasa :)
I have been hearing that so many people have been picking blackberries at the park! They are surprisingly sweet this year and it would be a waste not to make anything out of it. I have been baking so far (berry cake) and now I have just finished “brewing” Blackberry Liqueur! I am so happy to share a recipe with you ♥.
BLACKBERRY LIQUEUR
Have a nice Thursday evening!
Rasa ;)
I learned a new a new stitch called couching (funny name) that I wanted to try out for quite sometime. So when I decided to make another pillow for my challenge I went with this technique. I hope you like it too! Here are the embroidered pillow DIY instructions.
You learn something new everyday ;)
Rasa xox
I am so blessed to have my dear friend Alex staying over at my home as he gives me so many cool ideas. Like the other day when he saw courgettes in my garden he suggested that we should eat their flowers! And I replied “are you insane?” and he went on to explain that in Italy where he is from it is actually a delicacy to eat them stuffed. So I tried frying them today according to his mum’s recipe and I loved them! The only thing is that I only had three flowers, but I suggest you have at least 4-6 per person.
STUFFED COURGETTE FLOWERS
1. Stuff the flowers with the cream cheese.
2. Whisk the eggs in one bowl and place some flour in another. Dip the courgette flower in the egg and then roll it in the flour.
3. Heat the oil in the pan and fry stuffed flowers.
4. Serve still hot drizzled with lemon!
You must try this out!
Rasa ;)
After having a long relaxing weekend there is always the time when you have to come back to work :(… So I returned to my pillow challenge today to do some patch-working. This one is simple, but quite creative as there are many pattern variations ;) Don’t you just love that? Here are the instructions!
Enjoy!
Rasa
I made this cosmetic bag for Vicki, because her old one… well, just became very old and worn! Vicki likes her cosmetics organised in different compartments so I thought this one would be a perfect replacement. It even has a zipped internal bag where you can hideaway all your private bits and bobs (pss… we all have them!).
Here are the DIY instructions!
Happy organised days!
Rasa :)
