How could she resist?

A beautiful sunny morning, some of the purplest of purple hydrangeas in the world…

Pretty pretty, and Isobel had to join in too…

Loving it!

Kimchi is SO good.  It is also SO expensive, really.

I’m into fermented foods these days, and have made my own batch or kimchi, I made some years ago with a Korean friend, and dithered a bit in finding a substitute for fish sauce, which was a key ingredient.

My recipe is simple, and as I really wanted to make it and then eat it as soon as possible I wilted the cabbage for only a few hours.  Recipes I had found involved anything from 45 minutes to 24 hours or salting the cabbage, and sometimes even longer…

Yum!

So, here’s what I used:

One smallish daikon radish, peeled, and sliced into half circles.

Three pak choi cabbages, washed and chopped in lengths of about 3-2cms.  I wanted Chinese cabbage but was not able to get one, this worked out ok, though I think pak choi is slightly bitter.

One medium onion, sliced.

These I wilted with lots of salt, in one of my biggest soup pots.  I spread a layer of chopped cabbage and sprinkled with about a teaspoon of rock salt, another layer and sprinkled with salt, and so on till the pot was full.  I did the same thing to the chopped daikon and sliced onion, I managed to fit it all in one big pot, with a plate between each different food layer, the salt needs to be washed off again, so it’s easier if they are not all mixed in at first.

While you let this sit, I waited about two hours, you will see quite a lot of water come away, you can make up the spicy paste!  Yum!

I used:
About 2/3 tablespoons of both (fresh) crushed garlic and (bought) crushed ginger and two tablespoons (bought) chili paste, this spicy goodness I combined with about 1/4 cup lemon juice and a cup of tamari sauce.  I was keen to use all fresh garlic, ginger and chili as you can taste the preservatives, but due to small people’s needs there were some time constraints, next time I’ll do fresh.

Now, maybe an hour or two has passed, but maybe even 24 hours has gone by, if you can wait that long!

It’s time to rinse off your salted ingredients, under running water rinse as carefully as you can, the veges become quite salty and wilted, so don’t rush this stage.

Then, all you do is get the pile of veges and mix in your spicy juicy paste mixture, go on, use both hands.

So yummy, you can sit down and eat a load now, you can scoop the mix into those glass jars you have boiled for the last five minutes, staying about one cm from the brim, topping up with any remaining liquid, and share it around, or keep it chilled and eat it yourself!

I made a couple to give away and placed two of the sliced half circles of daikon at the top, just before I topped up the juice and screwed on the lid.

Notes:

I found the pak choi could have had more than 2 hours with the salt, also, there was still a bit of a salty residue on the leaves, so I’d probably take more care rinsing next time too.  Two tablespoons of chili paste made the kimchi fairly mild, so up it if you like it hot.  This recipe makes quite a lot of liquid, which we like to use on rice, noodles etc. you can add less tamari if you wish.

Got a few nice snaps of the girls looking at some delicate fungi on our last day in Katikati…

Ramona and Audrey..  ”These are so ephemeral are they not?”

“Why, yes!”

“Wohoo!  Sunshine!”

“Look at these ones, tiny aren’t they?”

From us all, “Good bye Katikati, hello sunny Auckland!”

Happy new year!

You might have been following what has been called our worst maritime disaster, the container ship MV Rena ran aground in October, resutling in oil slicks, damage to marine life debris washing up on beaches..

A couple of days ago the ship broke apart, and there were reports of containers washing up on Waihi Beach.  We were staying not far off so it was something to see.  See that pile up there ^ bits of wood, a sack of milk powder and sachets of instant rice, gross!  The sack of milk powder is covered in oil, on such a pristine beach, brought me to tears.  The scale of pollution was overwhelming.

The next day we were heading home so stopped off to see how things were going..  I was very impressed to see the clean up was thorough.  The thing is, I wanted to help, with two littlees in tow, it was not practical, nor did I have any gloves, or somewhere to put the stuff!  It went from this:

to this

and this

to this

Hard to believe it was so long ago now, and we are seeing wash up and pollution as far north as Waihi Beach, and dissapointing to hear that the ship is still leaking oil.

Just a couple more images from my recently acquired Successful Dressmaking book.

Love these illustrations, so simple.

All the tools…

What did you do on boxing day?

We went to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki!

Come on!  Lets go!

Stop messing around Nancy and Iris!

The girls are all into gardening and flowers, so this work was a BIG hit.  Red, by Choi Jeong Hwa, who is also the artist behind Flower Chandelier, is a stunning piece and looks great outside the new entrance.  Fragile and bright in contrast to the city architecture and all that concrete.

There is also a cool art station for kids, you can play around with some fun stuff along side a sparkling Reuben Patterson wall…

Choice!

Luna checking out Len Lye’s Universe.  So cool to have her experience works I’ve come to know so well.

Before all the renovation work even began there was a lot of talk about making our art gallery a ‘world class’ art space and a destination. That phrase got bandied around a lot – particularly as the cost of the project grew.

But this is a world class gallery and so worth a visit, so get along over the summer holidays while it’s quieter than usual.

More treats from mums house!

An oldie and a goodie, Successful Dressmaking, this is my bedtime reading.  I have plenty to learn, so it’s good to have a book to refer to at the moment, and I LOVE the illustrations.

These are the inside cover images…

And this one, the only colour plate.

I remember reading this when I was a kid.

I’m pretty much all packed and ready to go, with just a couple more orders to fill, I have some goodies for you!  My Cupcake Pincushion Sewing Kits have been popular with buyers on Felt.co.nz, and my new Hanging Strawberry Sewing Kits have been a hit for people looking for an activity for a child or craftsy friend…  I’ll have plenty available on the day, all ready to go!

Cupcake Pincushion Sewing Kits…

A kit box for Hanging Strawberries…

See you there!!

Saturday 10th December 2011
11am to 3pm
Aotea Centre, THE EDGE
Auckland Central
Gold coin entry donation

(Yes, I know, I should have pressed it properly… but I may not have had any photos til next year!)

This maybe my favourite dress.  It was far easier than I thought it would be to make, though the fabric was tricky to cut accurately and moved somewhat no matter how many pins I used.

I made the largest/tall size on the pattern, including the longer skirt, I also allowed extra fabric on the front top and skirt panels (on the center fold) which worked ok on the skirt, but gave me more fabric than I needed in the bust (this was based on my estimated adjustments considering the my measurements and those noted on the pattern) and was fairly close.  However the next time I make this one I will get a better fit!  I also had to increase the darts in the top considerably, again I think this was because I allowed a little extra while cutting.

This the first dress I have made that is in two sections, a top and skirt, and it was not too bad, just a bit tricky lining it all up in the end, but I think this gave a good and comfortable fit in the end.

I’m trying to use what ever I have at hand as far as notions go, and so this baby is fitted with a hot pink invisible zip (which is mostly invisible I have to say – phew!) and as I do not have a suitable belt buckle I made the belt longer and tie it on the side (which hides the pretty pleats a bit though, so I am looking out for a buckle to suit).

I was a bit unsure of the style, as far as how well it would suit me, and the fabric was a gamble, it was not the first choice, though I’m happy now!  I learned I need to slow down a wee bit, I took the time to carefully finish all the facings in the top, however I neglected the inside raw edges in my enthusiasm to complete it, so need to address those before I’m leaving threads behind me wherever I go with it.

Here are those lovely pleats…

On to the next dress!