What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?
I’m sorry I didn’t manage to visit many desks last week – rather busy with other things!
Celtic Bee Dance
This is the title I have given to the birthday card I made this week for a bee-keeping friend. I usually try and make a bee-themed card and this year I also wanted to use one of my Celtic knot motifs. I began by inking the base card (already printed with the sentiment on the computer) with Distress Oxides through one of my new stencils (thank you, Mary Anne! – and thank you for revealing your identity last week as the guilty party, proud recipient of the Temptress of the Week award for the most irresistible enabling!) – this stencil has a hexagon/honeycomb design. I offset the stencil slightly before applying the second colour, and then distressed the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.
I took one of my Celtic knot designs and fussy-cut it out. I glued it to the card base with liquid glue,and then coloured it with my Tombow watercolour brush pens. Here is the completed card.
I went over the outline of the Celtic knot with a sepia pen, and added a few spots of blue to the background.
When honeybees have found a rich source of nectar, they return to the hive and do a complicated dance on the comb, through which they communicate with the other bees the distance and direction of the food source. I could imagine a particularly creative bee following a complex Celtic knot path for her dance!
Here is the illustration I created for the tag relating to the bee dance, for the beehive explosion box I made for this same friend several years ago. Note the pink tutus on the ranks of dancing bees.
Kitty throw
I tested my red fleece blanket over my hubby’s chair and decided that this was a pretty good size for the finished kitty throw – large enough to offer protection for the chair. I laid the blanket out on the floor and randomly placed the kitty motifs I’ve made so far onto some of the squares. I worked out that I would need a total of 80 squares,and at this stage I needed to make another 48. I have made several more since then.
This gives an idea of what the finished throw will be like. It will end up a bit larger once there’s a border around it.
I am using up my stash of grey and white/cream yarns pretty quickly and will have to buy in some more in order to complete this project, I think. Still quite a bit of work to do!
Nutrition
Shoshi goes nuts
According to Medical News Today:
“The largest study of its kind, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that people who eat a handful of nuts every day live longer than those who do not eat them at all. Scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health came to this conclusion after analysing data on nearly 120,000 people collected over 30 years.
“The analysis also showed that regular nut eaters tended to be slimmer than those who ate no nuts, putting to rest the notion that eating nuts leads to weight gain.
“Senior author Charles S. Fuchs says, ‘The most obvious benefit was a reduction of 29 percent in deaths from heart disease – the major killer of people in America. But we also saw a significant reduction – 11% – in the risk of dying from cancer.'”
Eating nuts reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, colon cancer and diverticulitis, and is associated with lower cholesterol, reductions in inflammation, oxidative stress, body fat and insulin resistance.
Nuts are also super-delicious! There are so many different kinds – walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans, Brazils… the list goes on – and each has its own distinctive flavour. The ones I use the most are almonds, in raw form with the brown skin on, to make almond milk; blanched, and flaked for garnishing. I have jars of raw and toasted flaked almonds and I regularly sprinkle a few of these on top of various dishes before serving, such as curries, baked potatoes, pasta dishes and so on. I usually chop a handful of walnuts and toss them in my green salads for flavour and texture. I use raw cashews regularly – when blended with other ingredients, they make gorgeous rich sauces, dips and creams. When a recipe calls for nuts blitzed in a blender to make sauces or milks, you generally get a better result if you soak them first. They can be soaked overnight in cold water, or you can speed up the process by covering them with boiling water. They swell up quite a bit.
Nut butters are uber-delicious! We are all familiar with peanut butter, both crunchy and smooth, but have you ever tried almond butter? One of our favourite little treats is a couple of Medjool dates, pitted and stuffed with almond butter. Super-creamy, sweet, chewy and delicious. I have been buying tubs of almond butter up until now; it is quite expensive, so when I get time I intend to experiment with making my own in my high-speed blender. Nut butters are best with no added oil. There is no need for it; the grinding process releases the natural oils in the nuts, which are beneficial for health.
Although the above study shows that you can eat nuts without gaining weight, many people come unstuck with this because they eat their nuts with all sorts of added coatings and flavourings, many of which definitely contribute to weight gain. Better to eat them as they are, and as you progress with a whole-food plant-based lifestyle, your taste buds become more sensitive and you begin to taste real, unadulterated food as it is supposed to be enjoyed. Raw, natural nuts have a beautiful flavour; this can be intensified by dry-toasting either in the oven or in a heavy frying pan, but no salt needs to be added.
Chopping nuts
Years ago I more or less gave up on nuts in my cooking because when I tried to chop them, they would leap all over the kitchen! This was before I learned proper knife skills. You need a nice big knife with some weight to it, such as a chef’s knife with a blade of a decent length (minimum 8 inches). Rest the tip on the board and hold it there with your non-dominant hand, and gripping the bolster of the knife with your dominant hand, lever the knife up and down over the pile of nuts, starting slowly and gathering in the wayward ones, and once you have chopped them a bit, they become less mobile and you can increase your speed. It works a treat.
Recipe of the week
Nut roast
This is the second year that we have not had meat for our Christmas dinner. I decided this year to make a nut roast, which is not something I had ever attempted before. I searched the Internet and came up with two that seemed interesting and full of flavoursome ingredients, but also not too much of a fiddle to make, and being unable to choose between them, I ended up combining them.
https://www.fabfood4all.co.uk/nut-roast-vegan-gluten-free/
https://earthofmaria.com/vegan-nut-roast-gluten-free/
Obviously, combining two recipes, I ended up with a larger quantity than I would from a single recipe. There was more than enough to fill my large loaf tin, and sufficient left over mixture to form into eight little patties which I froze, uncooked, on baking parchment. I shall be able to take these out of the freezer and either fry them oil-free, or bake them in the oven. We could eat these like a burger in a bun, or accompanied by salad or vegetables.
Here is my nut roast. I garnished it with some rocket leaves, and tomatoes and cucumber. You can see that there are also whole sage leaves on the top. I laid these carefully in the bottom of the lined loaf tin before spooning in the mixture, so that they would come out stuck to the top.
In the picture you can see two of the wine glasses we received as a wedding present 34 years ago – unfortunately only four of the original six still survive – and my grandmother’s beautiful silver-mounted wine decanter. We were given a bottle of delicious red wine and decided to enjoy this with our nut roast.
We ate half the nut roast between us on Christmas day, served hot, and accompanied by my favourite roasted Brussels sprouts recipe: Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon. I have veganised this recipe, omitting the bacon, and adding a little smoked paprika to give that nice smoky flavour, and I also add a pack of fresh chestnuts. The slight bitterness of the Brussels sprouts is beautifully contrasted with the sweetness of the maple syrup and soaked dried cranberries. It’s a winner. We had the rest of the nut roast cold with salad the following day.
I also served the nut roast with the mushroom gravy which one of the nut roast recipes recommended as an accompaniment. This was super-delicious, and the surprising addition of the cacao powder gave it added richness without imparting a chocolate flavour. As always, I omitted the oil, and for this gravy I used regular mushrooms, and soy sauce in place of tamari since this was what I had in stock.
We were planning to have Christmas pudding for our dessert, and I had ordered a vegan one from Amazon, who promised it would be delivered in time for Christmas. Then I received an email to the effect that there was a delay and it wouldn’t come till 6th January! In the end it arrived on Sunday so we had half of it then, and the rest of it on another day. Following my family’s tradition, I made rum sauce with cornflour, departing from tradition by substituting the sugar with stevia and the dairy milk with soya, and added a good tot of rum. I much prefer rum sauce as an accompaniment for Christmas pudding than brandy sauce or butter.
We had an extremely quiet Christmas, just the two of us with our two kitties; we were supposed to be going out but a younger generation family member has gone down with Covid and his mother was self-isolating so that had to be cancelled. We both agreed that the nut roast Christmas dinner was absolutely delicious – it was almost like a savoury Christmas pudding with sweet accents, so perhaps having Christmas pudding after that might have been a bit too much! We had stewed rhubarb and custard instead.
Clothes
Even though it was just the two of us, I decided to dress my best for Christmas day, and wore my Afghan Nomad Dress. I made this dress many years ago from a Folkwear pattern:
I am wearing a pair of soft red leather boots that I bought in a charity shop before I was married (I have got some really ancient stuff lol!) and a pair of cheap Indian earrings I bought on Ebay this year.
This Christmas was the first occasion for many years that I have been able to get into this dress comfortably! Last year it was still a bit tight. I’m so glad I didn’t get rid of all my old stuff! My original (purchased) Afghan nomad dress is still too small for me unfortunately.
Kitties
On Christmas day I set up YouTube on the TV so that my hubby could see the latest Maru videos with me. Maru is my favourite online kitty. He lives in Japan with his sister Hana and their newest little sister, kitten Miri. We all know how kitties find boxes utterly irresistible, but Maru suffers from this obsession to a pathological degree and often walks around the house wearing his latest box of choice. Here is Lily watching him on YouTube, absolutely fascinated. She loves watching TV, especially wildlife and kitty videos.
Finally, Ruby completing a rather artistic installation shot of the back of our new settee with my friend’s mixed media picture above.
2020 Review
I shall be doing my normal annual review post on 31st December.
Love the idea of kitties watching kitties on YouTube. I have already copied the sprouts recipe for my husband Shoshi. My brother who came home from Canada for 2019 Christmas gave us some maple syrup and the recipe sounds perfect. That dress is amazing and looks fantastic with the boots. Meow to the kitties, stay safe, happy WOYWW and Happy New Year. Sarah #9
I love the idea of bees dancing round a Celtic Knot! Glad you enjoyed your Christmas dinner, I have still not cooked the pudding yet (it was one I chose from a hamper that came to work) might do that at the weekend. Wishing you a happy and healthy new year. Helen #5
What cute card and very funny with the bees dressed up as ballerinas! The kitty throw is coming along nicely – is it kitty throw because it’s for the kitties (in which case you might need two!) – or because of the cat theme? Good news about nuts – I definitely like all sorts of nuts and eat 100% peanut butter almost every day. That’s a stunning dress – how wonderful that you made it yourself! Where do you keep all these clothes? You must have a very big wardrobe! I’ve heard of Maru too – Oreo like watching videos as well, though for reason he remains unresponsive to his own mirror image. It might be that I stand too close to the mirror with him when I’m trying to show him his own face – apparently, they can’t see too close very well – a bit like me LOL! Wishing you and Nicholas a wonderful new year, Shoshi! xx
I think that bee card is fantastic and it made me smile, thinking of the bee tripping its way around the knot work! I’m sure your friend will love the card. The squares are coming along nicely! I do like the combo of different patterns, it works really well.
Happy New Year to you and your hubby,
Hugs LLJ 2 xxx
The card is fab as is the tag to go along with it. The kitty throw is going to be amazing when finished. I love nuts and at the moment am eating quite a lot of walnuts! The dress is stunning! Happy WOYWW. Take care and stay safe. Praying for a happy and blessed New Year for you and yours. With love & God Bless. Caro x (#16)
Hi Shoshi, lovely bee card, and the bees in tutus are very cute! You’ve made great progress on the kitty throw, half way there, if not more. Once I’ve finished my baby blankets, I’ve decided I want to crochet a throw/blanket for the sofa bed in my craft room/guest room. Occasionally when our grandchildren stay over, one of them will go up there for a bit of quiet time, and a throw would be nice for them to cuddle up under, maybe a couple of cushion covers to match too. We haven’t touched our Christmas pudding, or Yuletide log (both shop bought). However, the mince pies, truffles, stollen cake and Christmas cake, that I made, have all but gone now. I think there is enough Christmas cake left for one piece each tomorrow.
Your Afghan nomad dress is beautiful. The colours are striking, and match your boots perfectly. Colourful bed canopy too – you are most definitely a fan of colour, the brighter the better (I remember your garden sunshade/parasol). The kitty watching the kitties on TV is cute. I didn’t realise people made YouTube videos of their cats. Then again, you can find YouTube videos on practically everything I believe. Have a lovely week and Happy New Year, hugs Heather xx #30.
Lovely bee card and those bees wearing tutus are great. I like nuts, but nearly everywhere you read they are fattening. I am guessing it’s the amount you tend to eat, who can stop at one handful? Wishing you a happy and healthy new year Angela #14
That bee card is so well thought out – what a fabulous idea to put dresses on them like that.
Love the wine decanter, such an elegant design. A bit like the dress. That is a beautiful design and when you show the back view with the sleeves and the skirt extended like that it really is magnificent.
The cat tv is fun – not heard of it before but it sounds like fun and it is enhanced by seeing Lily watching it so avidly.
Hope you all have a lovely evening tomorrow and all the best for 2021,
Hugs, Neet 13 xx
Bee-utiful birthday card!! I love your nomad dress and your Christmas dinner looked scrumptious. That silver decanter is gorgeous! Your kitties afghan will be adorable when finished. ??⬛
Jiminy! what a stunning dress! I am a confirmed nut-eater (or maybe just a nut LOL!)
The blanket is coming along nicely – I LOVE the dancing bees (I got a new Xmas ornament which was a T-Rex in a tutu) and the card, with it’s delicate colouring, is so pretty. As ever, too much to mention every thing but a great post.
Happy (almost) 2021!
Mary Anne (6)
I do love anything with Bee’s what a lovely creation and your blanket is coming along just fine, it’s full of the stunning colouration that presents us from the kitties. Wishing you a Happy & Safe 2021 and plenty to keep or hands still crafty.. Happy WoywW Hugs Tracey xx
HI Shoshi, firstly thank you so much for sharing the patterns for you teeny rugs – I plan to start on my miniature carpet bazaar this week, totally inspired by your rugs. hhe love the tutus on those bees! Also LOVE that stunning dress and the red boots. And the hanging over your bed I can see in the background. And the wine flagon – I want all your stuff, including the cats 😀 Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy 2021 X Annie C #28
I love the bee card, and love the Celtic knot, the dress is amazing and love the colours,
I love the idea that the Bee is dancing a perfect pattern! I would not be surprised to be honest, nature is a gift for such things. The throw is coming along well, I do love the paw icon very much. Your nomad dress is just beautiful, my word that must have taken a deal of fabric. Wonderful!
Busy lady as ever. Sorry about the late visit. Loving the dress. Happy New Year too….hopefully. Hugs, Angela x17x
Yay found the comment section! Love the dress, so full and bright.
The kitty throw is coming along nicely, loving the colour tones.
Happy New Year BJ#10
Fabulous Christmas Attire!
I love the bee card too…
We have been making a vegetarian (but not vegan) main for Christmas for the last 40 years – For Kevin and I but usually our guests want to try that as well as the turkey!
This year it was a cauliflower sformato (https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/cauliflower-sformato-with-crispy-kale-and-caramelised-pine-nuts/) which we would do again!
Happy WOYWW!
Stay safe and keep well!
Update on here in Victoria – after more than two months with no Covid cases we now have a handful again…
Susan #15
Calling All Crafters! – My Blog!
Happy New Year!
Thanks for another informative post! We keep nuts in the house, simply because we like them, and never considered the nutritional value. I am in the habit of having a tablespoon of peanut butter every day. It is a habit I formed in nursing school. Between classes, clinical, homework, and children, eating was not high on my list. Rather than grab snack foods, I ate peanut butter right out of the jar. So even now, if I get a “sweet” craving, I eat a tablespoon of PB and I am good to go. I have not forgotten about the recipe. My computer failed and I am only now getting back to normal!
I love your dress!
Stay safe and be well
Hi Shoshi, happy new year!
I don’t know the Maru series but I love the idea of your cats watching them. Thea likes looking at cats on my phone but J won’t let her watch Simon’s cat on Facebook – too many examples of bad behaviour!
Your bees are beautiful and the kitty blanket is coming on well.
Take care, stay safe,
Hugs
Lynnecrafts
I love your titles at the top of the post – always so intriguing! The bee tutus are just adorable – great attention to detail. I can’t believe how quickly you are getting on with that kitty blanket – hope you don’t get stalled by a lack of wool! Well done you for dressing up for Christmas day (one must have standards) . The colours in your afghan dress are just stunning. Chuckling to think of you and the kittens watching kitty videos on the telly – well, probably beats the Christmas programming! Sorry I’m so late – you know, life and stuff! Stay well, stay safe, Cindy #15