Making Things

Well, I didn't make these for a start!
Last week we started getting our milk delivered. We still had a couple of litres in the fridge before the pints began to arrive and by Saturday we had 9 bottles of milk! They weren't all in the fridge as they didn't fit, luckily it's turned a little colder here so we just left them outside till we caught up.

Making rice pudding helped. I use a modified version of Nigella's stovetop recipe. Since I tried this recipe I've found that oven baked rice pudding is just no longer good enough, even with its yummy skin!

For 2 big servings...

1 litre full fat milk
1.5 tbsp butter
4 tbsp caster sugar
4 oz pudding rice

Heat the milk (I put it in a plastic jug and pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes)
Melt the butter and 2 tbsp of the sugar in a wide heavy based pan.
Add the rice, stir to coat.
Gradually add the milk, stirring regularly (this stage take me about 30 mins altogether but you don't need to hover over it, just make sure you don't let it boil dry between each addition of milk)
Once all the milk is added and the rice is thick & creamy remove from the heat and beat in the rest of the caster sugar (add more if you like it even sweeter!)
And that's it!

Dolloped into the rice pudding is a spoonful of the bramble jam I made recently. It was my first jam attempt and it seems to have worked fine. I used a microwave recipe I found on the internet and it didn't take long at all.

My granny squares continue to mount up. I'm using Lucy's Summer Graden Granny Square tutorial, and would recomend it as I'm a complete crochet novice and have struggled with any other tutorial I tried.

I think I'll do a 4x4 cushion, so just another four squares to go. I've only sewn in the ends for four squares, I find this takes as long as making the squares in the first place.

I also recently had a shot at origami and made this flower. I'd spotted them on someone else's blog (sorry can't remember whose) which had a link to a tutorial for them. I'm planning to make a few more using better paper, when I do I'll post the link.

Some choc chip coockies for friends coming over for a visit. They're so easy to make, faster than going to the shops if you've already eaten all the biscuits in your biscuit tin!

8 oz softened butter
4 oz caster sugar
10 oz plain flour
100g pack of chocolate chips (dark/milk/white as per preference)

Heat oven to 170C (325 F) Gas 3
Cream the butter & sugar
Add the flour & choc chips
Mix together to form a dough
Roll pieces of dough in your hands to form walnut sized balls, flatten slightly and place on a baking tray (no need to grease) slightly apart.
Bake for 20 mins till light golden brown.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

And finally, a contribution from A. You'll be familiar with who it is if you've ever watched Maggie and the Ferocious Beast!