Festive Dinner and Limoncello Making

Last Friday I hosted craft night. As we are in December and Christmas is approaching, I thought it would be nice to start the evening with a festive dinner. While Emilia was napping, I took my time to make the table festive! Oh how much I love this time of year! 

The craft I had chosen for the evening was *limoncello making*! I found an organic Limoncello kit on the Abel and Cole website and thought it was a fun idea. We could only do the first part of the craft as the alcohol needs to sit with the lemon peel for four weeks now. And then we can do the rest. I have got something to look forward to when we are back to London from the Christmas holiday! 

WI at its best!

On Monday evening my girlfriends and I met at Steph's for our usual WI appointment. This month we learned how to crochet; Steph taught us a couple of basic stitches that should help us make wonderful blankets, scarves, and whatever else we will want to make in the future! We started with simple bows; the result was not as good as the original in the template, and definitely far from Steph's beautiful yellow bow, but it's a start! I love craft nights.

 

Craft Night

As I have mentioned before, once a month I meet with my lovely London girls for a craft night. Tonight it was my turn to host it and we learned how to make fabric iron-ons. Unfortunately, two of the girls, Steph and Amy, couldn't make it but we had a new entry in the gang, my hippy grandmum who provided some free entertainment. 

The table was full of colourful fabrics and cards. We made fabric iron-ons and decorated tote bags and greeting cards. I had a wonderful time, thank you girls!

Afternoon Tea Series: Betty Blythe

My WI girlfriends and I have just started a new series that is promising to be very exciting! 

For my birthday last year I received a lovely book entitled Tea & Cake, London. The book was, of course, a gift from one of the WI members, Elena, and when she gave it to me all the rest of the crew was with us. It took us no time to realise that we wanted to start an Afternoon Teas series. It's so nice to hang out with similar minded people! 

So we started yesterday afternoon and we could have not picked a better tea place to begin our new adventure in London. Here are some pics from the evening. As you can see, we had loads of fun dressing up and wearing all the vintage clothes and accessories available in the vintage tea-room. The tea was lovely and all the cakes delicious. Definitely a nice spot in London!

1. Afternoon Tea at Betty Blythe - November, 25th

Thai Street Food

About two years ago I started a craft night series with my girlfriends and two years later we are still going strong. Every month one of us hosts a WI (=women institute) event where the hostess teaches the rest of us something, anything crafty, and provides nibbles and drinks. We always have so much fun and it is so lovely to spend some time with other crafty friends. So far we have learned how to cross-stich, make vanilla essence, jewellery, soaps, cook Japanese dumplings, make vanilla and lavender sugar, decorate Halloween cupcakes, embroidery stitch, decorate cakes, make cake-pops, Italian bread, olive oil body scrub, and paint boxes and frames. Last night we all gathered at our friend Amy's to learn how to cook Thai Street Food. When Amy was in Thailand last year, she attended a Thai cuisine class and last night she shared some of the secrets with us. We loved preparing, cooking and eating all together.

Everything was so good that I thought I would share the recipes with my dear readers. Enjoy!

Thai Fish Cakes

Ingredients

300g fish fillets (i.e. salon, cod, haddock...) - chopped roughly

100g prawns

1 tablespoon red thai curry paste

small bunch of coriander

1 teaspoon salt

100g green beans - chopped finely

2 tablespoon of oil

Method

Put fish, prawns, red thai curry paste, coriander and salt in food processor and blend yo a fine paste, add beans and pulse to mix. Refrigerate for one hour. With greased hand shape a tablespoon of mixture into small patties. Heat oil in frying pan and fry cakes for 10 minutes on each side until golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Makes enough for 4 people.

Thai Spring Rolls

Ingredients

cabbage (1/4) - shredded

glass noodles (a bundle), placed in water to soften

50g mushrooms - finely sliced and chopped

50g carrots - finely sliced and chopped

bunch of coriander

1 clove of garlic - crushed

a pinch of pepper corn - crushed

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons of oil

spring roll pastry sheets

a little egg and flour

Method

Heat oil in frying pan, add garlic, pepper, vegetables and fry gently until veg is a little softer, add glass noodles and remaining ingredients. Lower heat and stir continuously for a few minutes. Place on a plate to cool.

Take the pastry sheets and cut to a triangle, place the point away from you so it presents as a pyramid. Place little veg mix in the middle and tuck the corners in with the point still exposed. Place a dab of egg and flour mix on exposed point and wrap remaining side up to form a spring roll. Heat oil in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes. Makes 15-25 rolls depending on size.

Papaya Salad

Ingredients

1 small papaya - peeled and shredded

1 teaspoon light muscovado sugar

1/4 garlic clove - chopped

1/4 red chilli - chopped

5 French beans - chopped

a few roasted peanuts - chopped

1 tablespoon fish sauce

4 cherry tomatoes - halved

juice if 1 lime

Method

In pester and mortar or small bowl break down the garlic, chilli, green beans. Add the sugar, peanuts, fish sauce, tomatoes and lime juice. Add papaya and toss. Serves 1.

Buon appetito!