Pesto rice with tuna & broccoli

Very easy to make. Bacon and tuna sounds like another strange combo but actually tastes good.

Ingredients:
2 cups of rice
2 cups of broccoli florets (frozen or fresh)
1 yellow capsicum
4 slices rindless bacon
1 250g tinned tuna in brine, drained
1/4 cup of basil pesto
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions:
Mix pesto and lemon juice together.  Boil rice until cooked; boil broccoli florets until cooked (take care not to overcook them).  Remove seeds and stalk from capsicum and cut into squares. Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until cooked.

When rice has cooled, add the pesto and lemon juice mixture.  Add the capsicum, bacon and tuna and stir through, ensuring that the ingredients are evenly spread through the rice.

Linen skirt

I actually finished this skirt ages ago - in January.  I saw this linen fabric on sale and thought it would be perfect for the Michelle pattern from Burdastyle.com.  It was easy to make although ensuring that the contrast bands around the waist were sewn on straight was time consuming.  The bands were made from the underside of the fabric.

The original pattern has box pleats but I didn't like them so I changed them to knife pleats that point inwards. I also omitted the contrast hem because I wanted to keep the design simple.

The linen was scratchy to wear so I used cotton voile for lining and bias tape for the waistband facing.  The triple stitching around the waist is for decorative purposes (not that anyone will notice) and also helps to stitch down the bias tape.  The zipper is on the right-hand side of the skirt.

Total cost: about $55

Baked Pork Chops with Pears and Potatoes

Here's another dish I made for dinner recently. Pears and potatoes with mustard and pork sounds like a weird combination but they actually go well together.

The recipe is from "Simple", released by Australian Gourmet Traveller. It's a good recipe if you want to try something different but it's also time consuming because the chops need to be marinated and the pears and potatoes have to be baked separately.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
3 cloves of garlic, crushed (I used 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic in the jar)
2 tablespoons of chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
Olive oil
Olive oil spray
4 pork loin chops
4 beurre bosc pears (I recommend 6 if you like baked pears)
500g chat potatoes
grated parmesan cheese

Optional: cinnamon


Directions
Mix lemon juice, mustard, garlic, parsley and olive oil in a glass or ceramic dish.
Marinate pork chops in mixture for a least an hour

Put pears and potatoes in a baking dish and spray with olive oil. Sprinkle cinnamon onto pears - this brings out the flavour. Bake until cooked.

Brown pork chops in a fry pan for 1-2 minutes on each side. Place chops in the baking dish on top of the pears and potatoes. Bake at 180c for 10 minutes or until pork is fully cooked.

Remove pork and rest for 5 minutes before serving with the pears and potatoes, sprinkled with parmesan. Serve with dijon mustard.

Pumpkin and Fetta Pie

Here's my first recipe since I last updated my blog. This pie is easy to make and I had some for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:
3 sheets of puff pastry
500 pumpkin, chopped into small pieces
150 grams fetta cheese
1 cup of spinach leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil spray


Equipment:
21 cm springform cake tin
Food processor

Directions:
Boil pumpkin until soft. While it's cooking, crumble fetta cheese by mashing it with a fork and grind up spinach leaves in a food processor. Combine pumpkin, cheese and spinach in a bowl, and add salt and pepper if desired.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Spray the inside of the cake tin with olive oil (the spray is a healthier alternative to butter). Line the bottom and sides of the tin with a sheet of puff pastry. Pour the pumpkin, cheese and spinach mixture into the tin. Cover with the third sheet of pastry (fold the sides over the top). Lightly spray the top with olive oil.

Bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.

It's been a while

Well it's been a while since I last updated this journal. I've been quite pre-occupied with work and various RL activities - in fact nearly a year's gone by since my last post, which I can't believe.

I'm still sewing and trying out new recipes and will post photos when I have time.

The Body Shape Bible

My latest read is The Body Shape Bible by Trinny and Susannah (from the TV show What Not To Wear). Women's bodies vary a lot more than the standard 4 body types (hourglass, top heavy triangle, bottom heavy triangle, and rectangle) so Trinny and Susannah have extended these categories into 12 types which factor in other issues like leg length and build.

What I really liked about this guide was that it explained why some clothing styles work and others don't, complete with photos. Being a Vase, I should avoid smock tops, sleeveless tops and chunky shoes. The good thing is that Vases can wear glamourous styles like fitted blouses, pencil skirts and big hair for everyday wear and not look over the top. It just so happens I'm making the Kasia skirt which is so appropriate.

The Daily Mail has a summary of the 12 body types and the sorts of clothes and accessories that look best on each type.

Bias cut t-shirt with dolman sleeves

I made this t-shirt over the weekend with a pattern I drew up myself. I traced the outline of one of my t-shirts onto paper and made the sleeves into dolman sleeves. The front and back are the same, except that the front neckline is slightly lower. Instead of having a plain hemline at the bottom, I scalloped the sides.














The fabric is heavyweight cotton knit with terry-towelling backing. I was actually looking for a plain red-and-white stripe jersey when I saw this horizontal striped fabric in the bargain box. Normally I don't go for rugby stripes but since it was cheap ($4/metre, 150cm wide), I decided to make a bias cut top to accentuate the stripes.

Playing House: Contemporary Dolls' Houses 1957-2007

Today I went to a dollhouse exhibition at the Canberra Museum & Gallery. The items on display belong to miniature enthusiast Anna-Maria Svlatko.
















My favourite one is the Mod House, designed by US company Kaleidoscope.















I was also suprised by the amount of detail and workmanship put into the furniture.
Some chairs were replicas of designer furniture.

Tonight's dinner

Pan fried haloumi cheese sprinkled with lime juice. Canned salad (canned tomatoes, canned butter beans, canned peas) with extra virgin olive oil and oregano dressing - my own recipe. Fresh cucumber (leftovers from another dish).

Normally I soak the cheese in water to reduce the saltiness but this is a late dinner and I was too hungry to be bothered.

Sewing aftermath

My carpet floor after sewing that blue jacket.