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In the past when I tried to roast a pork belly, I could never get the crackling nice and crunchy! Fast forward to 2019 with Covid, my hubby and brother both found separate recipes that guaranteed crunchy crackling every time. I liked part of both recipes so have combined them here. Ingredients: 1kg pork belly white vinegar 1 tsp raw sugar 2 tsp salt Spice Mix: 1/4 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder 1/4 tsp sea salt Method – Part 1: With skin side down, cut into pork meat 1/2 – 3/4 of the way down but not through the fat and skin! In a frying pan, add enough water to half fill the frying pan, 1 tsp salt and sugar and heat on medium to high heat. Once boiling, add the pork belly skin side down and cook for 8 minutes. Repeat on other side. Once done, remove the pork belly and let it cool on a wire rack with skin side up. Pat skin dry with some paper towel when it is cool enough to do so. Using a metal meat skewer, punch holes into the skin of the pork belly. DO NOT PUNCH TOO DEEP THAT IT REACHES THE MEAT. This usually takes 5 – 10 minutes. Brush the pork skin with vinegar and then sprinkle 1/4-1/2 tsp of salt. Let it rest for 10 minutes and repeat the process. My pork belly came with pre-scored lines in the skin. Put the pork belly into the fridge uncovered and allow the skin to dry for a minimum of 12 hours. If you can, check on it every now and then to wipe off any moisture that comes to the surface. Method – Part 2: Take your pork belly out of the fridge and apply the spice mix on the sides and meat of the pork belly. Place the pork belly on a flat piece of foil and wrap sides up to make a foil boat around the meat part of the pork belly. Hope that makes sense! This is...
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This recipe is fast becoming one of our favourites and it’s fairly quick to make. The one I’ll be sharing is actually a combination of 3 recipes. The base was inspired by the “Apple and Sour Cream Slice” using a packet of butter cake mix. The topping was a combination of 2 recipes because we were not happy with either one so I varied and combined them both. Base Ingredients: 340 grams butter cake mix 1/2 cup desiccated coconut 125 grams butter melted Topping Ingredients: 1/4 – 1/2 cup of raspberry jam 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence 2 cups desiccated coconut 1/2 cup caster sugar 2 extra large eggs (100 grams) Method: Mix all the ingredients for the base. This will give a crumbly biscuit-like texture. Press firmly down into a slice tin. Bake the base in a 160 degrees C oven for 10 minutes. Bring out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Microwave the raspberry jam for about 30 seconds or until warm. Once the base has cooled a little, spread the jam gently over the base. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the topping and drop small chunks all over until the slice is all covered. Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 160 degrees C oven. Hope you like the recipe!...
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A couple of years ago I bought a jelly roll of Kona Cotton Solids (from Robert Kaufman) online from Craftsy. I had planned to use the jelly roll to make a Strip and Flip Quilt on Cluck Cluck Sew blog. On Friday I got an unexpected call from work saying that I did not need to work. Yay! With nothing else planned for the day, I decided to sew this quilt top. The jelly roll came with 2 strips of 20 colours. I decided to leave out 3 colours (black, white & cream) and sewed up each 17 colours together. This gave me two halves to join together at the end. Unfortunately I made a BIG mistake when I came to cut my quilt top halves to flip. I was supposed to cut the quilt top halves into 8″, 5″ and 30″ width sections. Because I folded each quilt top halves in half to square off, I accidentally cut 2 lots of 8″ width sections and 2 lots of 5 ” sections!!! To solve this mistake, I decided to cut more white strips and flip both 5″ width sections. So instead of making a Strip and Flip quilt, I made a slight variation of it! I kind of like it but I am now tempted to make another Strip and Flip quilt. Time to go shopping for more jelly rolls :). Quilt Top Details: Current size is 48″ x 66″ Pieced by me Jelly roll of Kona Cotton Solids (from Robert Kaufman) I’ve decided to link up with Young Texan Mama’s Sew Cute Tuesday (25th October 2016)....
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Wow! This 2 weeks Spring school holiday is going by too quickly!!! I had so much planned and got hardly any done. Oh well at least I am making progress on my On the Spice Market (OTSM) shawl. Nearly up to Section 3 :). ...
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For my On the Spice Market (OTSM) shawl, I’ve decided to do my 6 colours in the order below: Aconite (yellow) – CC1 Crab Apple (green) – CC2 Tweed (lighter blue) – CC3 Harbour (dark blue) – CC4 Wisteria (purple) – CC5 Red Currant (red) – CC6 Before I started, I familiarised myself with the techniques below: Weaving ends as you knit (Continental style) for CC1 to CC6 (YouTube video) German Short rows for Section 2 with MC (YouTube video) Carrying yarn up for MC (YouTube video) I also decided to add the extra YO at the start of each WS and have placed a marker to remind me to do the YO after the first stitch on the WS and to drop it on the RS. Doh! I was about to do Section 2 (using MC) for the 3rd time when I realised I have been doing it wrong! I forgot to divide the stitch count by 3 and placed the 2 markers in the wrong places :(. I decided to frog back to yellow and start again. Ahh much better! Now to start the 4th colour :)....
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Today I thought to try a row of squiggly lines then have another go at stippling/meandering. I think I am getting better! Especially with the slow start and slow stop. Although there are still some big stitches from inconsistent hand speed. Not too worried about that as there’s a big improvement since the last block! Most of my stitches seem consistent so I’m happy with my progress so far. I found it difficult to see where I’m at especially when I’m moving from right to left. I hope this will get easier the more I practise. I can not wait to do another block tomorrow :)....
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