Christmas cards through the ages

I've made a start on this year's Christmas cards! I'm at least 2 months ahead of schedule, so that gives me time to reminisce a little...

Here are some of my cards from Christmas past. At least, going back to when I started taking photos of them. Photos are good, because I usually make too few cards and forget someone and have to use my leftovers to give them a card and don't have any left after Christmas. Phew!

The polar bear card is a favorite because it is a shaker card filled with holographic glitter. The polar bear stamp was a gift from a dear late friend who brought it back from Spitzbergen in Norway.

This year, I may do an acetate card, maybe something like this. But hopefully better than this first attempt. Ask me in December.

Lamb balls

Sometimes, I get a hankerin’ for some lamb but couldn’t be bothered cooking up a roast. I mean, that would take hours and the entire house ends up a bit pong-y with the fragrance of lamb, if you get my drift.

So, a quick alternative is … lamb kofta. It actually is nothing like roast lamb, but it’s pretty tasty, especially if you serve it with all the condiments such as tzatziki or sour cream.

I can’t remember where this recipe is from since it’s written on a piece of paper in my recipes folder. And I don’t like coriander, so I leave it out, and using tomato sauce instead of paste makes the kofta nice and moist.


Lamb Kofta
makes approx 16

Ingredients
500g lamb mince
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs tomato paste
½ cup fresh breadcrums
1 egg, whisked
½ cup plain flour
2 tbs olive oil

Method
1. Line baking tray with plastic wrap. Combine lamb, onion, parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and tomato paste in a large bowl.
2. Add the breadcrumbs and egg and stir until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Divide mixture into 16 portions and shape each into a pointy ball (oval). Place on prepared tray and cover with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 15 minutes to chill.
4. Place flour on a plate. Roll kofta in flour and shake off excess.
5. Heat half the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add half the kofta and cook, turning occasionally for 8 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel.
6. Repeat with the remaining oil and kofta.

Can be prepared up to end of step 3 up to 1 day ahead.

Serve with tzatziki or wrap in tortilla with salad.

Some more spring-inspired craft

It's been a productive weekend craftwise, because I finished these 2 pictures and also put them into frames (the finishing touch). They are chipboard trees and birds (Maya Road) and a strip of flowers (Buzz and Bloom) that I painted with chalk ink and acrylic paint or covered with patterned paper or stamped. They are mounted onto black cardstock and are hung, I like to think, so they add an air of 'class' to the upstairs landing.

It's Camo Cat!

Each day when I come home from work, a little scenario is played out between Tabitha and me. I go upstairs to change and Tab follows stealthily, slowly slinking up each step until she is outside the door. Then, when I least expect it, she shoots past like a bullet, holing up under the bed, rubbing her little paws together in silent glee at her sneakiness.

However, I, too, am small and sneaky, and two can play at that game...If there's a cat around, then so is my camera. If there's one thing Tabitha can't stand, it's a camera shoved in her face. Take that, Tabs!

...a mini Travel album...

I enjoy doing scrapbook pages that are smaller than the usual 12 inches because a) I can never think of what to put on such a large page and b) it allows me to cut those gorgeous patterned papers so that they can be used on more than one page.

This is a mini album that I made using chipboard covers cut to size and a couple of pages strung together with jump rings. It is 17x17 cm and it was a lot of fun to do because I could experiment with different looks, including ripping off - sorry, 'scraplifting' - designs from magazines. I stopped when I ran out of ideas, which was after about 10 pages!

The album covers our trips to Melbourne last year, so it's mainly of eating and shopping. I still have heaps of photos from these trips, so another album is in the wings...

What a big macaron you have...

Big macaron indeedy! This is the famous Cherry Cherry from Adriano Zumbo, a startling creation of macaron, chocolate sabayon mousse, morello cherry compote (delish!) and coconut moisture.

As you can see from the cross-section, there is quite a bit of coconut and mousse, but the best bit in my opinion is the morello cherries encased in cherry jelly. Try saying that quickly!

Tabitha's attention was focused on something in the background, so she did not even notice the cake under her nose...

...a Hello Spring card

I made this spring-inspired card using almost all Stampin' Up! products. The stamps are from the In the Spotlight set, on Whisper White, Certainly Celery (I think) and Kraft notecard and the green Palette o' Prints paper. The ribbon is my favourite, Old Olive. Ink is Versamark, Colorbox chalk queue and Tombow markers. The little squares are clear heat embossed (though I should have inked the stamps a bit darker...).

I am hoping that this burst of inspiration will be the start of my Christmas card preparations. Will have to wait and see if Xmas cards eventuate in the next few weeks or (as usual) about 2 days before Xmas.

More from designboom

Just the rest of the things I got at the designboom / young blood designers market:

This is actually a table centrepiece from Millicent and Frank, but looks good as a wall hanging, I think. It is made of black acrylic.

Healthy Caramel sauce!

This is a wonderful sauce to serve with bananas or drizzled (or poured) on ice cream. Make sure you keep stirring and use low heat, as it is sugar-based and it can stick to the pan.
And I've tried it using salted butter, but found that unsalted butter tastes better. This recipe serves 4.

If served with bananas, then the healthiness of the fruit cancels out the butter/sugar/cream-iness of the sauce (caveat: not medically proven!).

…I’m socially secure, I’m comfortably well off

…Well, not quite. But I can afford to have Zumbo cake once in a while! I got this one a few weeks ago but the photos I took were OOF (out of focus). Thankfully, the bf got another one, so here goes.

This is called Open Sesame, and has almond sesame biscuit, yoghurt mousse, and honey and date crèmeux. I found the yoghurt a bit much (very sour) and overall the cake was a too ‘herby’ for my liking (cinnamon, though I think that’s a spice?). But it did bring a flashback to that great Bugs and Daffy cartoon. Just as well he missed that left turn at Albequerque.