Domestic Goddess? I think Not . . .

I seem to have somehow established a reputation amongst some of my friends as a bit of a whizz, gourmet, food snob - whatever - in the kitchen. Now I will admit to being a food obsessive, and I love to cook. But I assure you that I have just as many lazy, throw something together or takeaway nights as anyone else :)


Proof? OK. On Sunday I had one of those nights. You know, when the afternoon gets away from you and before you know it, you have precisely 5 seconds to get a meal on the table before utter anarchy breaks out. BUT you haven't done a proper grocery shop and the pickings are pretty slim. So you pull a few random ingredients out of the pantry/fridge/freezer in an attempt to throw a meal together? You been there????

And so Fancy Beans were born . . .

Fancy Beans
Ingredients:

• 2 cans Baked Beans, (any flavour, but I like BBQ)
• 250g grams Bacon, diced (when I'm feeling really hopeless I get the pre-diced stuff)
• 6 Sausages, (Plain old beef, or whatver is lurking in the freezer)
• 2-3 tablespoons Caramelised Onion, (This is what makes it seem a bit fancy)

Directions:
In a large fry pan, cook sausages until golden brown. Remove from heat. Add bacon to the pan and warm through. In the meantime slice sausages into 1.5cm diagonals (see, a bit fancy!).
Add beans, onion and sausages back to the pan and bring to a simmer.
Serve over creamy mashed potato


(Serves 4)


But the Mash MUST be this:


Best Ever Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:

• 250 g potatoes, per person
• ⅓ cup double cream, warmed
• ¼ cup unsalted butter
• Salt
• pepper
• Nutmeg, Freshly grated

Directions:
Boil the halved or chunked (but unpeeled) potatoes in a large pan of lightly salted water. When they are soft enough to mash, drain them thoroughly then push the potato pieces through a ricer.


With a wooden spoon, beat in the warm milk or cream and butter and season with salt, pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg, to taste. Eat alone and straight from the bowl for quintessential comfort food.


(Serves 1)


And then you get this:

I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's pretty hearty and yummy and a kid fave! Try it next time you're having one of those days, you'll thank me LOL!

Inspiration . . . Thanks Kirstie!

I have been loving watching Kirstie's Homemade Home on Foxtel. I had never pegged Kirstie as a handmade kinda girl. But that just goes to show how wrong you can be :)

Just because I'm feeling lazy (and had already typed a lot of this earlier today blogger had a hissy fit!) here is the blurb from Lifestyle channel website:

From Life

"Location Location Location’s Kirstie Allsopp transforms a dilapidated country cottage into the ultimate “homemade” home. Kirstie Allsopp is on a mission to change the way we furnish and decorate property in the brand new series, Kirstie’s Homemade Home.

From Life

Journeying into the world of craft and homemaking featuring old and new, handmade and homemade, antique and bespoke, Kirstie attempts to prove that homemade beats mass produced designs every time. In a dilapidated farmhouse on the North Devon coast ripe for renovation, Kirstie shows how buying wonderful, unique, quality items will not only add character but can be handed down to future generations.

From Life

Over five episodes, she transforms the derelict space into a dream home by visiting auctions, buying bargains, searching out brilliant crafts people as well as restoring and making a number of items herself."

It was Bedrooms in last night's episode, and I got all inspired to make a doona/duvet colour for DD4 with thrifted fabrics. Here's today's haul. Might need to add a couple more patterns though . . . 

From Life

From Life

How cute is that little brodré remnant? I took the colour palete from the hand coloured detail. So sweet! There was actually a whole heap of stuff I put back too. But this happened to slip into the basket

From Life

I'm hoping to convince Rochelle to make a little cushion for me, just like the little ones I saw on Saturday night ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Now, as this will be my first attempt at anything like this, it will not be elaborate. Basically just strips of varying widths, with some fun frays or button details. And I may need to add some of Jodie's pretties too.

From Scrapping Stuff

I'm looking forward to the challenge, and have already got the old Bernina out!

From Life

I've Been Wrecked!

Cruise on over to Scrap Wrecks and check out their guest wrecker this month (it's me by the way LOL).

If you've not read about Scrap Wrecks before, it's just a really lighthearted look at the creative journey we take as scrapbookers. I'm sure we all have LOs/projects that DON"T get brought out for show and tell. Well, that's what Scrap Wrecks is about. Celebrating the wreckage!

So this month I was brave and shared my creative journey. Here's a little more that didn't make the final edit: (hold on to your hats folks, this could get ugly!)

^One of my very first. Clearly no idea what I was doing!


^The structured, measured approach


^Gaining confidence through scraplifting


^Experimenting with techniques



^Then . . . . .



. . . . And now (a redo of my first submission to Scrap Wrecks :)

This month's challenge is to create a LO using a colour scheme of your choice from kuler. There is a $25 voucher from Mr Turtle for the winner! And you don't even need to bare your wreckage!

I know Shaz will be looking for more guest wreckers. So go on over, enter the challenge and you too could get wrecked!