Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Soft and Squishy Chenille Poncho

One of my large and mindless ongoing projects has been a big chenille poncho. Yesterday morning, I crocheted around the neck, wove in the ends, and called it finished.

I love it! It is big and soft and squishy and oh so comfortable. The chenille was a gift from a friend who found it in a Boston thrift store earlier this year. It was a big cone--6 1/2 inches across--so there was plenty of yarn for a large project.

I'd knitted myself a poncho last year and I wear it a lot. That seemed like a good project for this. In my other one, I had two points of increase, but I knew that on this one I wanted four. That meant I would be making a big square with a hole in the center. Then came the decision about what stitch combination to use. Because the chenille is prone to worming when knit, I knew it would be crocheted. Simple stitches are best with yarn like this--anything intricate would get lost in the plush yarn. In the end, I decided to go with a traditional granny square.

I always make my groups of 3dc (US terminology--treble in UK) without any chains in between and I work the next rows/rounds in between groups. If I make chains, I get ruffling every time. This way everything is flat. So, with the important decisions made, on 4 September, I got out my 5mm (H) hook, my giant cone of chenille, and I started crocheting.
Once I got it set up on the first few rounds, it was just a matter of crocheting around and around and around. I worked on it off and on, picking it up when I felt like it or when I was tired or wanted something that did not require concentration or attention. It was lovely to be able to sit quietly and listen to something while my hands were busy with this or to just sit quietly and let the rhythm of the work become like a form of meditation.  In these moments, the piece grew a bit at a time until it was finished.

And the cone of chenille is still quite substantial!  Now it measures just a hair under 4 inches, so more projects to come from this.
Today is another holiday here, since Christmas fell on a Sunday and yesterday was already the St Stephen's Day holiday--it is so quiet out there. It's funny how deep quiet can get. This is almost always a very quiet place anyway, but somehow at certain times, it is even more quiet.

I guess I will make some decisions--which book will be next? And what do I want to make with my leftover chenille?

Happy Tuesday!

Monday, December 26, 2016

Jalapeno Cheese Puffs

Today is another holiday in Ireland--St Stephen's Day. It seems like a good idea to have another, more quiet holiday after the excitement and work of Christmas. Of course, for us, Christmas is a lovely quiet day too, but like others, I appreciate a day where there are no expectations and no food to be prepared, thanks to leftovers.

We stopped having a big meal on Christmas Day over 30 years ago. After a simple, but large meal on Christmas Eve, and a birthday meal the day before that, it seemed like too much. Besides, we did not feel like spending our day cooking and cleaning up a mess. So we started having munchies on Christmas with Christmas Eve leftovers for lunch and we still do that now. The menu for Christmas varies--this year after a lunch of leftover lasagne, supper was smoked salmon with crackers and cream cheese, apples, and the one thing is always there--jalapeño cheese puffs.
We love these. I could make them ahead, because they are good reheated or even cold, but I usually make them shortly before we plan to eat some of them, because they are really great hot out of the oven. I do make a double batch though, so we have enough for a few days. I think the original recipe, which I came across 30+ years ago, calls for Swiss cheese and no jalapeños. I have never made them that way, but I am sure they'd be good.

Jalapeño Cheese Puffs
1/4 cup butter
1 cup water
sprinkle of both black pepper and garlic powder/granulated garlic
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1 cup of shredded cheddar--or cheddar that has been cut into small cubes (I never measure the amount of cheese, so don't worry too much about being exact)
jalapeños from a jar--I have used fresh in these and they are not as good as using the ones in the jar

Put the butter and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. When it is boiling, add the flour all at once and stir in until the mixture clumps up and leaves the side of the pot. remove from the heat. Add one egg at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition to incorporate well. I must say that this is not my favourite part! Since I double this recipe, I use 8 eggs and the batter gets stiffer and harder to stir with each addition. Still, it is worth persevering! This is what the batter looks like after the all the eggs have been added.
Then mix in the cheese and chopped jalapeños and mix in well.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet (not an airbake) and drop mounds of the batter onto the baking tray. The size of each puff is not too important. They will expand a bit as they bake. If yours are smaller, then they will be done sooner. Bigger ones will take a little longer. I baked these at about 180C for about 20 or 25 minutes, but ovens here are small and take a while. If you are in the US try 375 and start checking after 15 minutes or so. Once you know how long the first batch takes, you will know how they work in your oven. They will be done when they are golden brown all around.

You can add as much or as little jalapeño as you want--or none at all. They are quite good plain too. I used to make some plain ones for our daughter every year, because she is not a fan of spicy food. You could probably also use roasted red peppers from a jar or even sun dried tomatoes. Add some herbs if you want and/or try a different kind of hard cheese. They lend themselves well to lots of variations and are good as a snack or with a meal (I have had these alongside a bowl of soup), or even for breakfast.

I hope you are enjoying some yummy leftovers on a peaceful and relaxing Monday!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Happy Day to You

Whatever today means to you I hope that you have a beautiful day, full of love, inner peace, tranquility, and great joy!

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Christmas Eve in Moville

It is a rainy Christmas Eve in Moville this year. Storm Barbara has blown by, but there is still some wind, steady rain, and mild temperatures.

I made our annual Christmas Eve lasagne--there is enough to last us through St Stephen's Day and possibly beyond. That's lunch sorted for a couple of days. 😋
I should have saved more cheese to put on top, but I got carried away with the layers!

After supper we went off for a short walk through Market Square. It must have been mass time or something, as there were cars parked everywhere. The rain was coming down and Bill is not keen on walking in the rain. He was a trouper though. ⛆⛈

Main Street looked lovely in the rain with the beautiful tree and the lights strung across the street.
This is from the other side of the square. It was quite dramatic when we turned the corner from our lane and looked down the street (from the other side of the tree) because the lights are strung all the way down. All the pics I took from that angle had big water blotches on them though, so this one will have to do!

On the way back up, I saw this cute guy keeping an eye on Market Square through the window of the chemist shop.
Yesterday I said I planned to listen to The Many Faces of Ebenezer Scrooge on BBC Radio 4. That was indeed my plan. I settled in with my coffee and crochet and wondered why some woman from a soap opera was talking about her year and seemed like she was not going to stop anytime soon. I double checked the schedule and discovered my mistake. The show I want is on tonight. So tonight I will settle in with some coffee and crochet and try again!

I am enjoying a peaceful evening after an enjoyable creative day and I hope that your day is everything you want it to be.



Friday, December 23, 2016

Got Rain? Got Books?

One of the things that was in the parcel our daughter sent us was this key chain--she said she felt it was appropriate for both Ireland and Oregon so she got one for us and one for herself.
Indeed we did have rain today! Storm Barbara came through with lashing rain and whistling wind and a sunny break or two. It was my kind of day.

Since the library will be closed for the next week and a half, I checked my account this morning and found that some stuff had come in, so in between rain showers, I dashed down there.
I added them to the pile of previously picked up books on my bedside locker (nightstand).
Hmm, looks like I might need to rearrange that or something, lest the pile topple over onto my head as I sleep! I did not notice the way the pile was leaning until I looked at this picture. It is one book shorter now, since I read the top one this afternoon and can start a different pile for returns 😊📗

Tonight at 8, BBC Radio 4 is airing a show from their archive called, The Many Faces of Ebenezer Scrooge. I plan to crochet and listen to that. I have a textile art book and a magazine to look through with some festive music. The extremely quiet Christmas weekend has begun. Since St Stephen's Day on Monday is already a holiday, the legal Christmas holiday is on Tuesday this year, so it will be a nice long weekend for many.

I hope that your weekend has started off wonderfully, whether it is a holiday weekend for you or not. Happy Friday!

Thursday, December 22, 2016

They Know Me So Well

Yesterday Bill took off for the recycling area in town where we can bring tins and glass. While he was there, he spotted something that was left there because it would not fit into the round hole in the bin. He picked it up, looked at it, said to himself, 'Shari would take this.' He put it in his backpack and brought it home.
I washed it and let it dry. It is metal and will be a perfect frame for some future project! The cardboard backing was all wet, so he left it there, but that is easily replaced.  He is right--I would have taken it.

When we got back from Sligo the other day there were a couple of parcels waiting by our door. One was from our daughter and I had to chuckle when I read the note inside. She mentioned the back issues of the crochet magazines she sent and said she saw them at a thrift store. 'I figured you'd like them,' she wrote. She knows her mother well 😊 I love them. A couple of them are not even being published anymore and the Old Time Crochet has some tatting in it too.
I will have a good time looking through these.

I love it when I can use stuff that has been cast aside by someone else! 

Hope your days are full of happy surprises too!


Wednesday, December 21, 2016

What is This 'Knit Too Much' Idea?

A friend sent me this. I wonder if she is trying to send me a message.
I do not even know what knitting 'too much' would look like. Besides, I do not ALWAYS knit! Sometimes I crochet, or needle tat, or cross stitch, or needle felt, or some other fibre thing.

I am pretty sure I am going to love this book, even if I cannot grasp the main concept behind the title. I opened it at random to this page:
😊 Yup, I've done that.

I wonder if there is also a thing about riding the bus and getting excited because you think someone is getting out their yarn project, only to deflate a few seconds later when you realise they are untangling earbud wires. 😃

I am looking forward to seeing what other gems are in this wonderful book. If I figure out what she means by knitting 'too much' I will report back!


Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Sligo, Decorated

We went to Sligo yesterday because Bill was scheduled for cataract surgery this morning. Before we left, he had an INR test because he is on warfarin. We did not get the results until we were already in Sligo. We'd already booked a hotel room for the night, so when we found out his number was too high and the surgery would have to be cancelled because to proceed would be unsafe, all we could do was to try and enjoy our time there. We walked around and enjoyed looking at the Christmas lights and decorated shop windows. It was quite festive, although every time we go there we are reminded how unused to larger towns we are now. Sligo only has about 19.000 people, but it seems large compared to our little village. Things seem hectic with lots of traffic and people rushing everywhere. It is easy to get frazzled, so it was nice to be able to focus on the seasonal sights and try to ignore the hustle and bustle! Here are some of the decorations that caught my eye.






This morning, Mother Nature decorated the sky as the sun rose.
We went down to the dining room and had an excellent breakfast before checking out and starting our journey home. It is always good to get home.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Sparkly Tunisian Hexagon Bag

I had one sparkly skein of yarn left (and scraps!) from the bunch Bill surprised me with a few months ago. This one was in a colourway called 'glacier.' It decided it wanted to be a bag. I decided it would be a bag made of two Tunisian short row hexagons and that is what it has become.
Each side is slightly different only in the way the colours appeared.
To make each hexagon, I used the DK weight yarn and a 5mm (H in the US) afghan hook. I chained 23 and picked up a stitch in each chain, then worked them off as usual. In each subsequent row, I  skipped the last stitch, and repeated that until I had one stitch left. Then I began the next wedge by working down the side where the skipped stitches were and repeated the process. When I had 6 wedges, I slip stitched across the last wedge at the decrease end and then slip stitched that edge and the beginning chain together to connect the hexagon. I did a regular hdc around the edge. The buttons were added as embellishment--I picked them up in a charity shop in Buncrana. I slip stitched the hexagons together and then did a handle in a different Tunisian stitch. Turns out this stitch has a nice vertical stretch to it, that could come in handy for some future project!
The leftovers have gone into the bag that contains the bits I am using to make a mitred square blanket, so there's a bit of sparkle left 😃



Friday, December 16, 2016

Creating with What Is Washed up on the Maya Blue Waves of Lough Foyle

Since we've been in Moville, we've taken to beach combing on the small beaches along the shore walk and another one that is at the edge of town. It's funny how different things are found in abundance at different beaches. Along the shore walk, the beaches are a treasure trove of interesting stones, shells, and some driftwood. The one at the edge of town has more wood and lots more sea glass and pottery shards. I've collected bits that speak to me and experimented with them--combining them with fabric and thread to make new things. I decided to make a couple such things for a friend this Christmas.


She loves blue, and has just recently published her first book, called Maya and the Book of Everything. She has had the cover art for a couple of months and the background is a lovely shade of blue, which she now thinks of as, 'Maya blue.' It is the colour of the first piece above--at least that is where I ended up, but the thinking was going on for months before Maya blue was even a thing!

We had a small quilted wall hanging that needed refreshing, as one of the embellishments had faded. One summer day, I took that bit off, along with some beads. I was deciding what I might want to do with it when I decided to rummage around in the sea glass, shells and pottery bits. I ended up with a sort of collage. I quite liked it. As I was poking through the pottery shard collection, I noticed one that had a red design of a castle on a white background and where it was broken left the castle image almost intact. I decided that one should be the focal point of its own small piece, so I stitched that up and liked it, too. So did Laurie, so I filed this information away and made a note to myself to be on the lookout for blue bits. I had one or two pieces that I could use in a pinch, if no more turned up, but I kept my fingers crossed for just the right piece.

Lo and behold, one day in August we were wandering the beach and picking up stuff and there it was--white with the blue bird design. As soon as it hit my hand, I said, 'There's Laurie's piece of pottery.' I brought it home with the rest, washed it, let it dry, and set it aside. Then the thinking began. How exactly would I use it? What would be the best way to secure it, especially given that there is a bit of a curve to the piece and it does not lie flat? I left this to percolate in my brain and every once in a while I would think of another possibility. Months passed. Ideas came and went. One night, I had the thought that I could sort of sit it on a small piece of driftwood to give it more stability. I tried that out the next day and it seemed like it would work, but I still had to decide on how to make the background. I concluded that needle felting would be the best thing. I sat down with my roving and needles and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed--and then decided that it wasn't right. I set that piece aside.

Different roving and more stabbing ensued. Then it was lunchtime. After lunch, I was still not happy, but, since I'd been chewing and thinking at the same time, I realised that I was complicating things too much. I wanted the found objects to be the focal points so I should keep it abstract and very blue. In fact, by then I had been introduced to Maya blue and recognised it as the same colour as the waters of Lough Foyle on some sunny summer days. Back to stabbing with Maya blue/Lough Foyle blue roving with a bit of white to indicate the motion of the water, which is what carried the embellishments to shore and left them there for me to find.

When I had my piece of felt, I backed it with acid free watercolour paper for stability, since the embellishments were a little heavy. I sewed them on through the felt and the paper, starting with the wee piece of driftwood before adding the pottery shard. Then as I looked at it, I felt it needed a little something else, so I poked around in the glass until I found pieces that were the right size and shape and I sewed those on. I added another piece of watercolour paper over the first piece on the back, which gave me a place to date it and added another layer for me to sew through when adding a small hanger. That is a piece of something that I found on a walk at some time. I pick up bits like that, wash them and save them to use for things like this.

In the end, this ended up being something completely different than what I thought it would be when I first started thinking about it. That's part of the fun of the creative process!

The shell ornament was another thing that I'd tried out in the summer. After I made a similar one for myself, but in purple, I kept my eyes open for more holey shells that are thick enough not to shatter. As it happens, when I found the one I used for the ornament above, I dropped it onto the concrete footpath as I was coming back from the rocky beach. I didn't mean to drop it, but since I did, and it was unharmed, I figured it could handle being posted across the pond! And it did!

Happy Maya blue Christmas, Laurie 😉



Thursday, December 15, 2016

Smiling

Another gift has found its way to its new person--or their new people, depending on how you look at it! These two (or this pair of) slipper socks now reside(s) with a friend who is experiencing winter (not her favourite season) and is cold. Hoping they keep her tootsies warm, anyway 😊


Because her favourite colour is purple, I made the cuffs with fingering weight purple wool. The feet are done in black sock wool for better wear, held with mohair. It is a plain vanilla sock pattern with a star toe.

Today's post brought us a gift from the same friend! She is also a crocheter and made this extremely cool wreath.
The yarn has metallic threads wrapped around it, so it sparkles in the light. I love it! Makes me smile.

Mr Postman also delivered a picture from another friend--one taken on a lovely day spent with wonderful people, both two-legged and four-legged. That memory makes me smile too.

I hope your day brings things that make you smile, too!

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The Black Book of Color and The Stuff of Inspiration

Had some stuff in at the library so we called in after lunch. Got some fun stuff--poetry and some textile books for inspiration.



I quite enjoy doing Swedish weaving on a smaller scale, using thread and aida cloth. I like the effects created this way. I used to have some excellent books on the subject--I used them to teach myself the technique--but this is one I have not seen before, so I will enjoy going through it. The quilt one should be fun too. I am curious about the poetry book, as I have read a bit of Boland and Duffy, but not the third poet.

While we were there, Gerard was commenting on the feel of the quilt book, which is interesting--almost has a textilian (I rather like that as a word) quality. It reminded him of a children's book which he pulled out for me to look at. It really was fascinating.

It was called The Black Book of Colors. There is a video about it here
It is in braille as well as text and the illustrations are embossed, so someone could feel them as well as look at them. The text describes color using all of the senses besides sight.  It was a fun book for me to read through and the short video is worth watching.

On the way home we took a short detour across the street and called in at one of the charity shops, where I found a couple of nice bits of clothing on the euro rack to bring home and deconstruct.


 The silver top is made with embroidered and beaded fabric in the front and is plain on the back. It closes up the front with small hooks and eyes, which I can remove and use for something or leave on as needed. The peachy top has the different fabrics and a couple of little flowers at the neckline. These will be great for some new work I am starting soon. 

And just a little while ago, at a little after 4, we were treated to another beautiful sunset.
 Happy Wednesday!

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Simple Slippers

One of the gifts I made has arrived at its destination, so I can post the pic now--a pair of simple slippers that I made for our daughter to wear during cosy times at home.
This is a pretty common pattern--called grandmas slippers or something like that, I think. You don't really need a pattern, as its a simple idea. Just knit back and forth for the foot part, , leaving a long tail when you cast on, then switch to double points, distribute your stitches on the needles, and knit in the round until the slipper is long enough, then do a few rounds of decreases. When there are a few stitches left, cut the yarn, leaving a long tail, thread through a tapestry needle, thread the tail through the live stitches and pull them off the needles, pulling tight to close. Then use your long tail at the start to sew up the back.

I used a double strand of DK weight yarn and size 10 needles for these, knitting in garter stitch for the foot and switching to a 2x2 rib for the toe section.For the cuff trim, I switched to crochet with one strand and did a few rounds of hdc (US). This is a good pattern for gifts because both the garter stitch and the ribbing are nice and stretchy, so you do not need an exact size.

 I found the yarn at a local charity shop and since blue is her favourite colour, it was perfect for this project. I have some left that will be used in the mitred square blanket I have in progress. I might use some of my odd scraps to make myself a pair too 😄


Saturday, December 10, 2016

Starry Sky Hat

I had this skein of black yarn with a silver metallic wrap thread that was one of several skeins Bill surprised me with a few months ago. It wanted to be a black and white hat. Now it is. It makes me think of a starry night sky when I look at it.
The ribbing is sc (US) through the back loop to make a strip that would fit around my head, slip stitching the ends together to make a tube. Then I folded it in half lengthwise and crocheted the edges together using hdc. I did this because the yarn did not seem like it would want to stay rolled up on its own. I am not sure of the fibre content of the white--a friend got it for me in a charity shop and it was on an unmarked cone. It's very firm and worked best crocheted rather tightly.

I attached the black and crocheted through the very back loop of the hdc stitches, alternating sc and ch1, skipping a stitch in between sc.  I worked around and around without joining, sc in each ch1 space and ch 1 over the sc stitches. When it was as tall as I wanted it, I did a few rounds of rapid decreases by doing a sc2tog in each of the next 2 ch1 spaces (ignoring the sc that was between them), ch 1, skip next sc, sc2tog over next two ch1 spaces and alternating around. I could also have just kept on going as I was and left a long tail when I ended off. This I could have used to pull the top closed by threading into a tapestry needle, weaving through the stitches, and gathering until the top was closed, weaving in the end securely.

The crocheted ribbing is a good way to start a hat because you do not need a pattern or a specific kind of yarn or hook. You can just make the ribbing until it is as long as it needs to be, either sew or slip stitch the ends together into a tube, and then work up from the edge using whatever yarn and hook you have. Or you could make the whole hat sideways in crocheted ribbing--it's a very good beginner project or just a fast and fun way to make a hat!


Friday, December 9, 2016

Collecting Cast-offs and Borrowing Books

We called in at one of the charity shops this morning and I had a look at the rack of costume jewelry that sits on the counter. Sometimes there are bracelets, necklaces, or other such things that can be taken apart and the beads or other components used in various ways. Today I found a couple of bracelets with nice big chunky beads that will be fun to use. I also found this necklace, which I got for the pendant. As soon as I spotted it, I was smitten, but had to take a minute to untangle it from the stuff that was hanging with it.
 I think I will probably take the pendant off the cords and replace them with something else.
A couple of weeks ago, Bill found these in a different charity shop.
It's all good stuff to work with.

Another happy library day, as a couple of holds came in and I found another fun book on the shelf. Yay!
Hope your Friday is full of little happy surprises too!

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Then There Was Light

Yesterday on our way to the shop we called in at the library to return a few books. One of them was one we'd both read, called Then There Was Light. It's a collection of reminiscences about the rural electrification scheme in Ireland.
It was a fun read. I have always taken electricity for granted--it has always just been there. When I flipped  a switch, the light came on. When we lived in Alaska, there were a lot of people around that did not have electricity or running water in their homes. While we lived for a couple of years without running water, we always had electricity.

It is different here for older people who remember what it was like when there was no electricity in homes and how it felt when they got it. This book is full of stories about that, from people who worked on the project and what sorts of attitudes they encountered to people who were small when this new and amazing thing came into their lives. I'd read a little bit about the latter in other books--people talked about how suddenly you could see the cobwebs in the corners.  😊

When we lived in Ballinrobe, our neighbour invited me to her birthday party (women only) and I was sitting and chatting with a friend of hers. Both our neighbour and her friend had lived in Ballinrobe as children, but the friend had gone to Chicago as a teenager in 1966, where she lived with an aunt and uncle for 5 years, before returning to Ballinrobe. She said when she left, they had a single bulb hanging from the ceiling in one room of their home. She arrived in Chicago at Christmastime, so the place was even more lit up than usual. She talked about how amazing it all seemed to her then.

Some of the funniest parts of the book were the responses of people who were not keen on this newfangled thing. Some refused permission outright and never backed down, so their homes did not get electrified until after the person's life on this earth had ended. Usually those left behind wasted no time in having the electricity brought in after that. Some people were resistant for a while, and then caved in, sometimes after assurances from the ESB  (Electrical Supply Board) man.

I will not soon forget the story of the woman who refused permission for the poles and wires to go across her property. When the ESB man asked why, she said that if she allowed it, that would provide access to the neighbours across the street and it was rumoured that 150 years ago, their ancestors had helped those in opposition to Irish independence. No way she was going to be helping those traitors! So the ESB guy assured her that if she gave permission, he would see to it that her poles and wires were not involved in the electricity supply to the house across the road. She agreed and he kept his word, making sure that their power came from a different spur.

Some people allowed the electricity in, but did not want to use it. One woman would not drink tea made with water boiled in the electric kettle because she was afraid to be electrocuted. Another left the electric cooker her son had given her as a gift unused for a year, until he was due home for a visit. At that point, she called ESB and asked for a rep to be sent out to show her how to use the thing. She was famous for her brown bread and asked, 'What if that yoke won't cook brown bread properly?' So the rep assisted while she baked a loaf of brown bread in the yoke (thing) and the woman's fears were laid to rest. 'You can hardly tell the difference,' she said when it was baked and they were having a slice with a cuppa.

Moville was mentioned because many of the poles for Inishowen were brought by boat and unloaded at the pier here. Inishowen was a tough place to get the poles moved and set up, because of the remoteness, the state of the roads, and the terrain.

I raced through this book because I enjoyed it so much. The stories were amusing and a wonderful window into a specific time of change in Ireland's history. They were also a reminder that so many of the things we take for granted were once considered modern marvels.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Christmas Pizza and Banana Muffins

We have a bit of a contradiction today in this post about food--some healthy and some not quite so healthy and some improv and some planned. First, we have the Christmas pizza.
I was going to make pasta with veggies and sauce for supper tonight, but we went to the shop to pick up some eggs and to grab more bananas while they are still on sale, and I spotted take and bake pizzas on clearance. Bill had been saying he was craving pizza, so it seemed like a good day to pick one up and postpone the pasta until tomorrow. The choice was between margherita and one with sweet corn, some other stuff and possibly chicken. I did not look closely at that because the sweet corn eliminates that as a possibility for Bill. I picked up the plain one and doctored it up myself. Hard to see the white onions, but they are on there with the red peppers and the green broccoli. It is not the healthiest meal we've ever eaten, but it was tasty.

Just before I did the pizza, I baked some banana muffins.
These are both very tasty and very healthy. The oats had been soaking in the fridge since last night. I'd planned to bake them earlier, but our oven takes forever and a day to heat up, so I decided I would only turn it on once today. By doing the muffins first, I had the oven already nice and hot for the pizza.

These are a variation on my usual soaked oat muffin recipes. For this I soaked 2 cups of jumbo porridge oats (old fashioned oats in the US) in 1 1/2 cups milk overnight. When I was ready to bake them I added 3 mashed up medium sized bananas, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and some coconut. Then I added 1 1/4 cup wholemeal flour, 1 teaspoon each baking soda and salt and stirred that in before adding a handful of walnut 'crumbs.' I whizzed walnuts in my little chopper and used them that way. I baked for about 20 minutes at 180C (I baked these at 400 when I made them in the US) and ended up with 15 muffins.

These will be handy to have for breakfast, snacks, or even dessert. 😋