Crochet Projects 2013

Here are all the Crochet Projects I've done during 2013. When I've laid them all out like this it makes me realise just how many things I've done, during this year, the first crochet projects I've done for in 25 years!! Let me know if you have a favourite one :)

 

Bunting

 

Cushion

 

Mandala

 

 

 

Peg Bag

 

 

Hearts

 

 

Flower Wreath

 

French Bower Bird

 

 

Bower Bird Wreath

 

Rose Wreath

 

Flower Pendant

 

Lotus Flower Cushion

 

Ladybird

 

Black Cat

 

Ginger Cat

 

Stripy Throw

 

Heart Pendant

Yoda

 



 

Pumpkins

 

Acorns

 

Autumn Wreath

 

 

Cupcake

 

Little Fish

 

Owl

 

 

Dachshund

 

Poppy Wreath

 

Christmas Wreath

 

Snowmen

 

My Cat Poppy

Hello!

I'm going to try to update my blog via my iPhone so I'm sending this photo as a tester to see if it works.

Hope it arrives!!

Homemade Bagels

Thought I would write a blog about these bagels that I made a few weeks ago, I've been so busy over the last few weeks that I've not had time to do any blogging!

I got this recipe card from my father-in-law from a National Newspaper he reads. I knew I had just started baking bread so saved the card for me!

 

 

Like all homemade bread, there are very few ingredients in bagels, unlike shop bought ones, which can be full of preservatives and flavour enhancers. This is the recipe for the bagels.

 

500g strong white flour

2 tsp salt

4 tsp sugar

25g butter

1 tsp dried instant yeast

240 ml warm water

 

 

I used my beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer to mix the dough, I sometimes mix dough by hand but as I've only just bought my mixer I wanted to play with it!

 

I mixed the dough for 10 minutes, as I do with with my White Tin Loaves.

 

I then left the dough to rise for an hour in a bowl covered with clingfilm. The dough doubled in size during that time but its consistency was much denser than normal bread.

 

I then divided the dough into 9 equal (or in my case, not so equal!!) pieces. 

 

I then shaped the pieces of dough into bagel shapes by making the dough into little round balls and then pushing my finger through the centre of each dough ball. Not perfect as you can see but never mind!

 

The bagels then need to be cooked in boiling salted water. Have the water boiling hard before you put the bagels in so that they start to 'puff up' as soon as they enter the water. The bagels need to be cooked for 5 minutes on each side, so keep the water on a high temperature to keep the water on the boil all the time-the kitchen was filled with steam once I'd cooked all 3 batches of 3 bagels!!

 

The bagels look very anaemic when they come out of the boiling water-pale, doughy and not very appetising!!

 

The bagels are now ready for coating! First they must be dipped into an egg dip made from a well beaten egg. Then I coated my bagels with some seeds-I used Poppy seeds, Sesame seeds and Linseeds.

 

Once they have their seed coating they are ready to be baked in a very very hot oven. The recipe said at 240°C but my oven has a maximum temperature of 220°C so I put my bagels in at this temperature but had the shelf at the very top of the oven where the highest temperature would be. I baked my bagels for about 15-20 minutes.

 

And this is my completed bagels. All shapes. All sizes. And all homemade!

 

The texture inside is quite dense, as bagels should be, so they are very filling but absolutely delicious.

 

My favourites were the bagels coated in Linseeds, which I love. I toasted my bagel and ate it with a little spread of butter on-yummy!

My Spring Garden

 

Despite it being the middle of May we are still harvesting some of the Winter crops. Our leeks have been particularly good this year so we have made a lot of leek and potato soup and leek in cheese sauce with pasta-a really warming, comforting dish after being in the garden in this cold May weather!

 

 

We also have some parsnips still growing in the veg garden (one of my favourite vegetables which I just simply roast). We are going to grow more parsnip (Tender and True) this year in an effort to expand our winter veg garden.

 

 

Our rhubarb is growing really well this year, we've had several rhubarb crumbles already and I've made Rhubarb and Apple Jam with it too (see previous blog post). 

 

 

Our potatoes (Desiree) have been very slow to germinate this year but are starting to emerge from the ground now.

 

 

The garlic is just staring to germinate too. We haven't grown garlic for a few years (I've no idea why really as we use it a lot!) so this year we have put in a few bulbs to see how it grows-hopefully very well.

 

 

The white onions (Golden Ball) are starting to emerge.

 

 

As are the red onions (Red Baron).

 

 

And we even have some flowers on the strawberries this year. Last year they were very poor, so we are hoping for better success this year. Maybe we should put them under a cloche??

 

 

The Tayberries are starting to flower too, these berries are so sweet that they make excellent jam or can be eaten with meringues and cream-lovely!

 

 

Our compost this year has been so good, really crumbly fine stuff. It's amazing to think that this comes from all our kitchen waste, with a few grass clippings and newspaper thrown in too. Just wish we had more space for more than the 3 compost bins we have!

 

 

The spring grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) seem to be spreading everywhere in our back garden, but they are beautiful so we don't mind! 

 

 

 My Bleeding Heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis, formerly Dicentra spectabilis) plant was also looking really good before this cold, wet, windy May weather returned to batter it's delicate flowers!

 

 

My miniature Narcissus are surviving well though in their tub next to the sheltering wall in the back garden.

 

 

The giant Iris (Iris giganticaerulea) is looking really healthy in the front garden. This is a cutting we took 2 years ago from the original rhizomes, which we divided into 8 plants. Only one of the cuttings flowered last year but this year all 8 plants have flower heads on them, which we are really pleased about. The flowers are a lovely delicate blue, quite fragle, so lets hope the wind and rain stop before the flowers emerge!

 

 

 I'm not sure what this ground cover plant is! We bought it from a National Trust garden a few years ago and I've lost the label for it :(   It has grown really well in our garden though and has lovely little cornflower blue flowers in early spring. One of my cats, Tilly, uses it as an outdoor carpet to lie on when the sun is in the front garden!