Balcony Table

The summer holidays are a perfect time to craft!

The newest project is a balcony table, made from a piece of multiplex we found in the dump. After many, many hours of carefully sanding, decorating and painting, this is the result:

Love, 

Ginny

Flikken

Dear all,

Today I tried something new: I'm not sure how to call these things in English, but in Dutch we call them Flikken. 
I made them with melted chocolate, and dried fruits and nuts :)

These are really easy to make, and also look very beautiful as a gift!

Lots of love, and see ya next time!
Ginny.

Campfire Tomato Soup

Yesterday I tried a new recipe for tomato soup, and I decided to share it with you :)

You need:
1-1,5 ltr of water
bouillon
2 onions
6 cloves of garlic
50-75 gr of bacon cubes
3-5 sticks of celery
1 leek
100 ml tomato paste
3-5 carrots
50 gr of grated old cheese
5-8 tomatoes
vermicelli
salt, pepper, sage, basil, laurel, chili

Boil the water with the bouillon and the tomato paste. 
In the meantime, bake the bacon cubes. Add the onions and garlic. Bake a little while, then add the celery, carrots, leek and tomatoes. When ready, add to the broth. Add some vermicelli. Sprinkle the grated cheese into the soup and let it melt. 

And dinner can be served! <3

Love,
Ginny.

Redecorated Cabinets

Yesterday I spend all day redecorating some of my old cabinets. Still too good to throw away, but too boring to like. 

I started sanding the cabinets.

Kendra thought it was really interesting.

Then I started painting, and I think Searlas liked the colour ;)

Then there was an awfully long time of creation, decoration and frustration.. But this is how it turned out...


I made one with a phoenix on it:

Which looks like this in detail:

The other one I painted, is decorated with butterflies. I varnished the wooden parts.

And in detail, this is what it looks like:

I'm really, really pleased with this result! I hope it will inspire you in your creations :)


Lots of love,
Ginny.

Ginny-Proof Burgers

Today I made a lot of Ginny-proof burgers. As most of you know, that in itself is a difficult task, but after years of perfecting and trying, I now feel that I have created a nice vegetarian (and if you don't add the cheese, it's even vegan!), Ginny-proof burger.

What do you need?
(Wheat) Flour
Tomato paste
Bread crumbs
Olive oil / Sunflower oil
Salt and pepper

Herbs
Vegetables
Onions
Garlic


First, you mix the flour, tomato paste, and the oil until you have a thick smooth paste, something like this:

Slice and bake a few unions and cloves of garlic, and add to the batter you already made. 
After this you can improvise! You can add a huge array of vegetables and herbs, to create a nice variety in taste. Mostly I tend to use broccoli, tomato and paprika for a nice bite. Also experiment with different herbs. Most of the times I use a mix of sage, basil, thyme, savory and rosemary.

When you are satisfied with the batter you created, it is time to use the bread crumbs (supermarket ones, or make them yourself) to make the burgers. Make sure you don't make the burgers too big (or thick), for they will be less tasty if you do..

After that, bake them. If you want to freeze them, and bake them off later, make sure you don't bake them too long, for they will dry out. 

Tip: You can also mix herbs with the bread crumbs for more taste.
Tip: You can add some cheese to the batter, to make it stick nicely together
Tip: Use (more than) enough oil while baking, for the burgers will suck it up, and they will not be as nice and pretty.

And when you are finished baking them all, there's only one thing to say: bon appetit!

Love,
Ginny.

Rice Cushion

This was such a fun project to work on! 

You all probably know the cherry stone pillows. You heat them up in the microwave and you can snuggle up to them :)

I always thought that cherry stone pillows aren't soft and cosy enough. And then I came across these sweeties! The basic idea is the same, but instead of cherry stones, you use rice to fill the cushion. It is ovenproof, microwave proof, if you do it right it is even more durable than cherry stone cushions. 

I made these without a sowing machine, but it will be a lot easier to use one :p

First you make a cotton shape, sow it and stuff it with rice. Stuff it good, for that will improve the heat endurance of the cushion. 

Then you will also want a cozy, snuggly cover for your cushion. I wanted to make them without buttons and zippers, for they only annoy me when snuggling. So, I took some fleece, and folded the cover with an overlap. That way you can easily take the cushion out to heat it, but you will still have the fleece covering the whole cushion.

And this is the end result! Even the cats and dog like to lay close to it :) 

P.S. I also made one with cables, those are really nice when you have sore muscles. This one is without inner cushion, so just sow the fleece on one side, sew cables, and fill them with rice on the open side. Then fold it inwards, and sow it shut. Done :D Tip (something I should've done but didn't because of having no sowing machine available at that time): make the cables even smaller, it will be better for your muscles!

Happy snuggling!

Love,
Ginny

Forest Fruit Pancake Cake and Chocolate Pancake Cake

Dear all,

A while back we made some pancake cakes! They are relatively easy to make, can easily be modified depending on your wishes and they look pretty nice. 
Watch out: eating them can be quite difficult when you make them as high as we did!

You will need:
Lots of pancakes
Whipped cream
Forest fruit (or chocolate, see second cake we made) Also try both of them, or something else altogether

Make layers with the different ingredients until you are satisfies with the height and the end result.

Here you can see our forest fruit pancake cake:

Doesn't it look delicious? And this is our chocolate pancake cake:

Have fun baking and eating :)

Love,

Ginny