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Sunday 26 November 2017

Coffee aroma reindeer tealight holder

This project started out with someone wanting to make a garland for their bedroom for Christmas (it was not me!). I got roped into it because I am gullible when it comes to children wanting to do crafts! It turned into a pretty tea light holder that yesterday turned into one with a coffee aroma. Perfect for gloomy winter days.


You will need:

1 A4 sheet of coloured paper (or letter size if you are in the USA. Your garland will be a bit shorter.)
1 metal lid from a jam jar
Strong glue (we used Uhu)
Transparent, non-flammable paper (about 1/2 an A4 sheet)
A thin tipped black felt tipped pen
5 - 6 white jewels and one red one
2 handfuls of coffee beans
A tealight

Method:

We started with the reindeer and found him (and a few other friends) at this website https://www.woojr.com/christmas-paper-chains/christmas-paper-chains/ . We printed out this template and followed the instructions to make the garland (the instructions are on the template) using brown paper. Cutting it was rather fiddly so we took turns to cut it out. If you want something quicker you should consider the snow man or the Christmas tree.


After the garland was cut out I was deserted! The reason being that the garland was too short to go across the door and there was no way that my child was going to cut out a second one (very low attention span!). I did not want to trash the reindeer because they looked so cute.

Using a thin black felt tip pen I gave the reindeer some eyes and then stuck on the jewels for the noses. I was constantly visited by my daughter so that she could give me advice, which is why one of the reindeer has a red nose (Rudolf of course!).


I then rummaged around in our box of jam jars to find a lid that was the right size to wrap the reindeer around. I also found a piece of transparent paper left over from making tiny origami lampshades for a string of fairy lights.


I measured the circumference of the lid and cut out a rectangle from the transparent paper that was a centimeter longer than the circumference and as wide as the reindeer were tall. Then I stuck the reindeer to the transparent paper and the transparent paper to the rim of the lid (the inside of the lid upwards). If you want a sturdy construction you might use a glue gun to secure the paper to the lid.


Finally, we put a handful of coffee beans in the lid and settled a tea light on top of them. Now we have a wonderful coffee smelling tea light holder!!


You can use any of the templates above and any coloured paper, be creative! We'd love to see your products.

Friday 24 November 2017

Sore Throat Tea (Sage/Lemon)

We're through the first outbreak of sore throats and coughs and now we are battling the second. Cough syrups don't work so well for us so we drink a lot of tea instead. In an attempt to use up the herbs that are growing in our garden we try all kinds of things. Sometimes stumbling on something amazing. This tea (or herbal infusion to be exact) is definitely one of those things. All four of us have tried it and all agree that it works well to sooth the throat and it tastes good.



For one cup all you need is around 4 leaves of fresh sage (Salbei in German), 2 slices of lemon and some honey. Put the sage and the lemon in a cup (or pot) and pour boiling water over it. Let it sit for 6 - 8 minutes, strain and add honey to taste.

Enjoy this hot and you can literally feel it soothing your throat.


NOTE: Be careful which lemons you use since many have chemicals sprayed on them that are not for human consumption. If you are not sure if you can eat the rind, just squeeze some lemon juice into your tea instead.

Monday 20 November 2017

Twig door wreath

The kindergarten my children attended always has an Advent Bazzar in November. All the produce sold is made by the parents under the guidance of a very crafty teacher. One of the years they made these awesome wreaths made of twigs. They basically had a whole heap of someones garden trimmings and they molded them into shape and tied them together with brown wire.


Unfortunately I was not in the group that made the wreaths (I was busy managing the truffle making) so I don't know exactly how they made them. I did however manage to find a tutorial on YouTube that is pretty good.



Once you have the wreath the only thing that limits you is your imagination and wallet. I found some left over ribbon to make a huge bow for the bottom, bought a few cheap Christmas balls and used a string of plastic fall decorations to get a bit of colour.



I was very careful to use light weight things because we cannot nail anything into, or hook anything onto our door. It has to be held up with sticky tape!!


While decorating I found it best to hang the wreath up on a door so that I could see how everything fell (literally sometimes!). If using glass ornaments I would seriously advise you to put a thick blanket on the floor!



The whole thing is hung up by a matching ribbon (I ran out of left overs and picked up a new roll from IKEA, if I hadn't found it I would have just used wool) which is passed over the top of the door and stuck down with tape on the inside. Very, very heavy duty tape!



If your door can bear it the lights suggested in the tutorial are wonderful addition.

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Recipe Index

This is not really a post! I cannot figure out how to make an index for my recipes, which I badly need. I could use a webpage instead of a blog but then I would have to pay for it (I'm a cheapo!). Note that homemade can be interpreted as being made from scratch. Everything is vegetarian, those marked with a V are vegan.

Soups:

Butternut squash soup
Mushroom soup
Pumpkin and potato soup - half an hour

Sri Lankan curries:

Bean curry V, gluten free
Breadfruit curry V, gluten free
Dahl, red lentil V, gluten free
Drumstick (Murunga) curry V, gluten free
Eggplant curry V, gluten free
Fried bitter gourd curry (karavila) V, gluten free
Potato and pea curry - tempered (fried) V, gluten free
Pumpkin curry V, gluten free
Sweet onion sambol - seeni sambol V, gluten free
TVP (soya chunk) curry V, gluten free

Breakfast:

American pancakes
Boiled eggs
Crows nest - half an hour
French toast
Granola - homemade V
Sri Lankan milk rice V, gluten free
Waffles (German style)

Mains:

Bi bim bap, gluten free
Caramelized leek quiche
Channa Masala (chickpeas) with spinach V, gluten free
Cauliflower bake - Cheesy
Cauliflower cashew curry with coconut milk V, gluten free
Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant with tofu - Chinese V, gluten free
Fried eggplant quiche
Fried rice - fusion variation V, gluten free
Falafel V
Grilled mini-eggplant V, gluten free
Guacamole V, gluten free
Hummus V, gluten free
Mexican (Spanish) rice V, gluten free
Refried beans V, gluten free
Rosemary garlic focaccia
Salsa - V, gluten free