Pumpkin recipes & other Autumn bits

I tried cooking pumpkin years ago & never liked it but this year we have grown quite a few & what we grow we must eat! This is what I made with one pumpkin a similar size to the one in the photo about 4lb. They were all really yummy & I've made the soup 3 times since.

First I washed & dried the seeds then spread them out on a baking tray & baked them for 20 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread (American recipe hence the cup measurements)

2 cups of plain flour, 2tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp baking powder, 1tsp bicarb, 1/2tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups sugar,3/4 cups vegetable oil, 3 lge eggs, 1tsp vanilla essence, 3 cups shredded pumpkin, 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds.

Mix the dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients keeping back some of the seeds. Put into a loaf tin pushing the saved seeds on top. Bake at 325 for about 1hr 15 mins or put mixture into muffin cases & bake for 30 mins.

Spicy pumpkin teabread.

12oz diced pumpkin boiled for 10 mins, 5 1/2 oz honey, 30z sultanas, 11oz SR flour, 2tsp mixed spice, 5 1/2 oz margarine, 1 tblsp seeds

Mash the boiled pumpkin with the honey then add the sultanas. Put the flour & spice in a bowl then rub in the margarine add pumpkin mix & seeds. Put into a 2lb loaf tin & bake for 50 mins.

Pumpkin soup

When I make soup I tend to make it up as I go along using what I have available so this is a rough guide to my soup!

I sauted in a knob of butter a diced onion, 1/2 diced green pepper, 1 deseeded red chilli, 1 chopped clove garlic. Add 2 diced potatoes and the chopped pumpkin (I used about a half of a 4lb pumpkin) Add roughly a pint of veg stock, a tsp of ground cinnamon, pinch of salt & pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce heat & simmer for 1/2 hr. Blitz with a blender then stir in a little milk.

Some of our Autumn harvest.

I have done some crocheting an Autumn coloured brooch & some Amigurumi pumpkins.

And some fabric pumkins scented with orange & mandarin.

L and I made a Autumn display using some leaves & seed heads collected on our walk through the woods.

It was very sunny & the butterflies were making the most of it, basking in the afternoon sun.

Lots of funghi and the first signs that ........

Christmas is just around the corner :)

Happy Easter & the rest of the crafty bits.

The daffodils are now looking beautiful all over the village green, we've done some Easter baking:

A rather messy ( helped by 3 yr old) bunny cake, egg nests, hot cross buns, Easter biscuits and jelly bean Biscotti.

I finished some more crafty bits: crochet Amigurumi bunny & chick, crochet eggs,

some more crochet hair slides.

I think the egg cosies are breeding!

A couple of lambs.

Yoyo & lace brooches.

and some Hen hearts.

L made this really sweet chicken card at school.

She also overloaded this table centre piece and the Easter tree :)

And finally I did the Easter craft and produce market yesterday, which was very successful in our new venue, even though it was absolutely tipping it down with rain.

Thankyou for all the comments on my last post re the 'makes' just to let you know they were made over quite a few weeks not all done in one :D and Gill I will try and find out the name of the hen/bird fabric for you, it is gorgeous.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the Easter holiday as the sun is now thankfully out I think we will be going to the beach for an egg hunt.

I'd also like to say congratulations to a family friend who had a beautiful baby girl in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Some sewing, a swap and a few books.

As Christmas is fast approaching and I have an ever growing list of Christmas things to make (sorry I mentioned the 'C' word twice in one sentence!) I thought I would tackle some of the things I wanted to make from some new sewing books that I have bought recently, I must apologise for the poor quality of the photos, the light is either too bright or too dull at the moment.

I adore all the Tilda books and must say I find them the best value for money as I always want to make just about everything in them plus there isn't any faffing about with the pattern pieces. The latest book is 'Sew Sunny Homestyle' and so far I've made the oystercatcher, birdhouse plant sticks,

mother and baby duck

seahorse and starfish

a couple of beach huts

and a long legged lavender angel.

These two are from 'Sew Darn Cute' I did change them slightly as they should be fleece teddies but I used linen and played about with the sizes. Lily says the larger one is a bunny.

This arrived in the post last week

so I quickly made the bag it only takes about an hour, I changed the button loop & didn't bother with an adjustable strap. I must say it is a lovely little bag in very pretty fabric.

I also made the bird mobile for Lily's bedroom, quite hard to photograph I had to hang it in the lounge as am awaiting a hook for her ceiling.

Now at the SCC we had a flutterby swap basically anything with wings, I sent these to Bloomin Myrtle

A felt butterfly brooch.

an amigurumi baby owl from Ana Paula Rimoli's book

and another owl made from a Sew Hip magazine pattern.

Whilst I'm talking about sewing I thought I'd show you these, which I bought at a book sale a couple of weeks ago. I've always wanted a darning mushroom but have never come across one at the boot sales etc. At this particular sale they have a bric a brac stall, I was just paying for some plates when out of the corner of my eye I espied this one and nabbed it quickly at 50p I was very happy!

The book is also delightful, even cheaper than the mushroom, 30p. It is Weldons Encyclopedia of sewing, old but I'm not sure how old as it isn't dated. It covers absolutely everything from applique, embroidery, smocking, dressmaking, crochet, tatting etc, etc. including patterns.

Well I can now concentrate on important matters - making lists of all the things to make for Christmas including looking through and drooling over an Australian Handmade Christmas special which I managed to find in WH Smith's.

Crochet Hexagons, Amigurumi and Flowers.

At long last I have finished my hexagon blanket so now I really must finish the ripple.

But first I couldn't resist doing another hexagon using a different pattern this one has 3 different hexagon motifs, one has lots of clusters, one with a few less clusters and the third has fdptr so you get 6 lines from the fourth round to the first (like the blue & red one in the photo) All the hexagons will have a final & joining round in pale cream.

This is how far I've got only another 100 or so to go.

I've also made a cushion, yet to be backed, in 100% cotton for a change I usually use DK.

A little wallet to hold my store cards etc.

I haven't done any Amigurumi for a while except for Jodie's jigglypuff so had a little play making

this little jelly fish,

who spends most of his time hanging around in the bathroom.

Finally some flowers made whilst sitting outside on the few dry days that we have had, some are brooches and the smaller ones are going to be made into headbands..

I've also bought this gorgeous Kaffe Fassett wool and a circular knitting needle to make some socks. I haven't knitted for years, I think the last time was when I made a set of Jean Greenhowe scarecrows when I was pregnant with daughter no 2 who's now 19!

On Saturday I had a lovely surprise in the post, a beautiful flower brooch made by Lyn. We were swap partners for the freestyle swap in May and she sent me the brooch as she felt there wasn't enough handmade things in the swap. There really wasn't any need as I was delighted with my swap but it was wonderful to receive this one, which I put on straight away as I was on my way out wearing a taupe top, the perfect match.

Thankyou Lyn it was really kind of you.