The cider in this recipe brings out the sweet flavours in the parsnips, swede and carrot. Make up a larger batch and freeze half - this one tastes better with age!

For 4 people...

1 swede
2 leeks
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1 bay leaf
500ml water
1 garlic clove
500ml dry cider
3 celery stalks
1 teaspoon thyme
1 beef stock cube
1 onion or 5 shallots
1 handful of mushrooms
800g diced casserole beef
salt, ground black pepper and oil


1. Chop the veg into biggish (2 inch) chunks, half the mushrooms and finely slice the garlic.


2. Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in your pot and fry all the chopped veg, with the garlic and mushrooms for a couple of minutes.
3. Add beef and fry for about 5 minutes until it has browned.
4. Now add the bay leaf, the dried thyme and crumble in the beef stock cube. Then pour over the cider and water, put the lid on and bring to the boil. Take the lid off and let the stew bubble for a few mins so that any alcohol in the cider evaporates.


5. Put the lid back on, turn down to a low heat and leave to simmer for 2 hours. After this time, the beef should be tender and the vegetables soft.

Serve with lashings of freshly ground black pepper, a glass of cider, and some brown bread and butter to mop up any juices left in your dish.

Labels: cooking

I'm not the biggest fan of Nigella Lawson's more recent TV series, where she opens a packet of something ready made and calls it cooking (see previous rant). However, I've got to hand it to her, when it comes to cakes, biscuits, and general sweet things, she is hard to beat.

The only book of hers that I own is How To Be A Domestic Goddess and it has been well used over the years. The recipes seem to be foolproof, and consistently delicious.

As I've had a glut of over-ripe bananas crying at me from the fruit bowl for the past week, getting blacker with every minute, I felt obliged to use them in some kind of baking escapade. I've already made a banana loaf, so this time I decided to have a go at banana muffins.

Having realised I did not have any honey in the cupboard, I decided to substitute with maple syrup - sounded good in theory. Still waiting for the beeper to go off to see how it goes in practice.

Unfortunately, while waiting for the muffins to bake, I stumbled across this Nigella banana muffin fiasco forum thread. The news ain't good. I don't hold out much hope.

25 minutes later (plus cooling time) and I'm afraid to say the muffins are just as disappointing as the forum suggests. Burnt on the top, raw in the middle, bland and they have hardly risen! Arrrgh!

Looks like those bananas were destined for the bin after all. As for Nigella's baking being hard to beat. I think I will have to eat my words, because I won't be eating any more muffins.

Labels: cooking

Pumpkin... carved in a rush between feeding William, feeding the cat and making the dinner.

Cat Sillhouette inspired by Feast Bowl

Halloween Votives thanks to Skip to my Lou

Spider Sacks thanks to Modern Parents Messy Kids

Labels: crafts

1. Hanging Spider Sacks :: Modern Parents Messy Kids

2. Halloween Votives ~ Skip To My Lou

3. Spirit Jugs ... eighteen25

4. Cat Sillhouette || Inspiration only. Image from Feast Bowl

5. Menacing Mummy Window Cling - you could buy a window cling like this one, but I fancy working out how to make one of these mummies for real.

6. Batty Sock Puppet >> Country Living

Labels: crafts

Since William was born we've been very lucky to be showered with gifts from our amazing family and friends. I especially love the handmade ones, as I can appreciate the effort that has gone into their making.

My brother in law's mum surprised us with a wonderful hand sewn quilt and I thought that, for her, I'd hand make a thank you card.

I had spotted this neat tutorial from Freckled Nest showing how to embroider handwriting and I thought I'd give it a go.

I made a template of my "thank you" on scrap paper (and took a couple of copies so that I could use again and again).


Then, I taped the template to my card and used a drawing pin to push out the holes for the thread to go through, following Freckled Nest's advice of placing holes where lines cross eachother.



Finally, I sewed around the writing in backstitch and added a button for the dot of the exclamation mark.

Simple and effective - thanks Freckled Nest!

Labels: crafts

Labels: seeing_doing

I wanted some artwork for our nursery and took inspiration from my IKEA Barnslig Djur curtains. They have some bright little cartoon animals on them.

First I traced the outlines of the animals by placing a piece of paper over the animals and holding the curtains up against the window so I could see through them. Tip: pin the paper to the curtains to hold it in place.

Then I took the paper tracings and positioned them on some watercolour paper. I went over the outlines with a sharp pencil, pressing quite hard so as to indent the design into the watercolour paper beneath.

I carefully drew in the outlines onto the watercolour paper with a pencil to make them easier to see. I didn't mind that I would see the pencil through the watercolour paint as I think this adds to the effect.

Then, I painted the animals, matching up the colours on the Barnslig curtains with paints from my watercolour palette. It didn't matter about being too exact.

Once the paint was dry, I cut the paintings down to size to fit centrally into my IKEA Ribba frames. I am pretty pleased with the results and hopefully bubba will be too (when he/she decides to make an appearance!)


The nursery is almost exclusively decorated with IKEA pieces. Our old Billy bookcase has been recycled into storage for baby clothes, bedding and toiletries using brightly coloured Barnslig Ringdans and Kusiner storage boxes and the nursing chair is a Poang armchair which has a nice little bounce to it. The ceiling light is a big yellow Smila Sol sunshine.

Labels: crafts, d.i.y.