This month’s definitely going to be really yummy. And everyone is on board around here.  Today we had to eat fish for Good Friday, of course.  I have actually made this curry many times and think it is one of the yummiest and easiest meals I have ever made. I often pull this one out when guests are coming over. It became apparent today that there is going to be plenty of leftover food this month as I grew up in a big family – and still cook for one. Most weeks we have leftovers a few nights to eat up all the extras. It seems like it will be a good month to have guests, just an added bonus really.

This recipe is adapted a little from Nigella Lawson’s “Nigella Bites”.

Thai Yellow Pumpkin & Seafood Curry

Ingredients
400ml tin coconut milk (I used the low-fat variety)
1 -2 tablespoons yellow or red Thai curry paste
350 ml fish stock
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar
3 stalks lemongrass
3 lime leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 kg/ 2.2lbs pumpkin (I use butternt squash because they are delicious)
500g salmon or other fish which is good in a curry
pak choi or other green vegetable (I used choy sum)
juice of half lime
coriander (I missed this out tonight)

Method
1. Put coconut milk is a large frying pan over medium heat. Add curry paste and stir them together.
2. Add fish stock, fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, lime leaves and turmeric and continue to gently stir them together.
3. Bring to the boil and add the pumpkin, chopped into chunks.
4. Cook on a fast simmer until the pumpkin is tender (between 5 – 15 minutes)
5. Add the fish, chopped into cubes. This only takes about five minutes to cook.
6. Add the pak choi to the mixture and after it has wilted mix it in.
7. Stir in the lime juice.
8. Garnish the dish with coriander to serve.

I hope you give this a go, let me know if you enjoy!  Who knows what delights tomorrow will bring!

Enjoy!

Mia

xoxo

Day 1 of One Hour Craft Food Month was delicious! A great, hearty meal perfect which is easy to prepare.

Day 1: Tomato Bredie
Tomato Bredie
Ingredients
1 kg/2.2lbs lamb, cut into smallish pieces
1 kg/2.2lbs chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
Garlic – about 3 cloves
1 Onion
Salt & Pepper

Method
Any Cut of lamb or mutton can be used.
1. Cut the lamb into smallish pieces.
2. Roll the lamb in flour and brown them in oil in a large saucepan.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, spices and mix well.
4. Put the lid on the saucepan and simmer for at least 2 hours or until tender. Stir it well, now and again. You can add a small amount of water.
5. Add 1 chopped onion, an hour before the bredie is done.
6. Serve with rice (and other vegies if you like, this is a very meaty dish).

(Millie drinking water at dinner)

Enjoy!!
Mia
xoxo

Lately good food has been at the forefront of my mind. So, we have decided to make April ‘Food Month’. We are looking for great recipes. We will cook a great meal, quick, easy-to-make and low-fat, every day of April.
We will share the recipes and photos here every day. The challenge for me is to try new recipes that I haven’t cooked before.
We have been busily asking friends for their recipes, those golden recipes in their heads, passed down from their grandmothers and mothers. And today we are making a gastronomical visit to South Africa with Stella Steel’s “Tomato Breedie with Rice”.
So join us. Make as many meals as you can. Leave us the recipes and we will make them too……
Let’s have a wonderful yummy April…
Back in a few hours with some photos and the recipe…
Mia
xoxo

We love this Easter Fascinator Tutorial from Outsapop.  How fun is this?

Follow the tutorial here.

Enjoy

Mia

xoxo

source:  weheartit

Easter already…this is crazy. 2010 feels like it is nearly two thousand and went.

This year the holiday will be spent finishing renovating the kitchen, going to church, hot cross buns on friday, the rugby on friday night (of course), easter egg hunt on sunday, more times at the beach getting in some finals swims for the season…. and more work on the house. I can’t wait to have a working kitchen again.  Also curtains to make.  Will post some curtain ideas in the next week or so.

For now, I have found some lovely Easter links for you…

• Chez Larsson has made a lovely Easter Tree.  Great idea, if only those twenty more boxes were unpacked.
• These gorgeous papercraft characters are really cheap at $4 each. But I am wondering how hard it would be to design your own similar characters since there is little time for them to arrive before Easter.
• Very cute Easter Egg Surprises.
• Our Birdies from Christmas would be perfect for Easter. Wouldn’t they look gorgeous on an Easter tree?
• Craftapalooza has made a pattern for some cute little amigurumi bunny egg covers. If you haven’t tried amigurumi before it is a form of crochet to make little animals. Give it a try some time. There are plenty of tutorials to get you started.
• Martha Stewart’s tutorial to make these elegant origami Easter eggs is divine.

Enjoy!  More inspiration coming tomorrow.

Mia

xoxo

Hi we’re back.  Thanks for the sweet well wishes of so many readers of this blog.  Was very nice.

We are still in chaos at OHC central.  The kitchen is not done, the bathroom needs gutting and redoing and there are many storage issues.  I have enough craft supplies to sink a ship.  When I whined to Mr Steel, “What should I do about all my craft stuff, I have nowhere to put it”.  He replied (without any hesitation), “Throw it out, get rid of it”. 

Can you believe that?  Meanwhile I have a pile of about 30 boxes of craft stuff – all my vintage patterns, vintage craft books, beads, wires, stamps, papers – that I am falling in love with all over again – and he says that?  He has guts, that’s for sure….

Back to sorting.  Will be back soon with some wonderful funky fashion things.  Let’s get this party started…

Mia

xoxo

Hi everyone!

We have been thinking at OHC of having a focus for two thousand and ten, or two thousand and zen (whichever you fancy). And we have come up with one of our favourite things in the world. a word that always makes us smile: Fashion

This year we will be making all things fashion, quick tutorials to make, longer tutorials to make more complex things and links to great fashiony ideas and things to make. We will also be having a One Hour Craft Monthly Challenge again – starting in February.

I am also here to announce our first giveaway of the year. I have two copies of my first book One Hour Craft, available to two of my readers – Free of course!

How to enter??
Please send me an email at mariabinns@hotmail.com and make a suggestion for the kinds of fashion-y things you would like to see more of at OHC, this year. I get a lot of emails so please put in the title of your email “OHC January Giveaway” . I am really looking forward to hearing all your great ideas. I will choose my two favourite entries.

The giveaway will be decided on on Monday and sent on Tuesday.

Have a good one,
Mia
xxx

Hi. Happy Australia Day!!!!! Sorry I didn’t get a chance to post a tutorial for you. Sick. Bit better now. Well, I did make some koala cupcakes but they were so naff I couldn’t post them here. I can do most things but cake decorating is not a strength. Oh well.
Well the weather in sunny Perth is…… Sunny, if course & we are planning a great evening. Every Australia Day there is a big fireworks show in the middle of the Swan River. Over 200,000 people crowd around the banks with their picnics & radios. At 8pm a local radio station blares out music for half an hour & the fireworks explode in time to the music. It is amazing. It always ends with the purple chrysanthemum, a huge violet firework that blooms into the sky, set against a backdrop if the city skyscrapers & the river. It is amazing. This is the biggest day of our year. It will be different this year because alcohol has been banned. For an Aussie event this will be extremely strange & I’m not sure how many people will pay attention.
Anyway I thought I’d list some cool ways you can join in & help celebrate Australia Day, wherever you are:
- Have a BBQ of course. But please no shrimp on the barbie (we call them prawns not shrimp).
- Lamb is the meat to eat for an Aussie BBQ.
- Buy a round of beers for your mates. When we to to the pub with a group if friends, one person buys beers for the whole group. Everyone has their turn buying beers during the evening. It’s not ok in Australia to just buy yourself a beer.
- Make a pavlova. A meringue pie topped with fruit & cream. A divine twist is to make a chocolate pavlova. For the chocolate use a Lindt Intense Orange bar. It is the best thing Eva!!
- Eat small meat pies with tomato sauce. Aussies seem to love meat and beer. )
- Pump up some great Aussie tunes. My favourites are by the John Butler Trio. Some classics are by AC/DC, INXS, Cold Chisel, Crowded House. Other great artists are Natalie Imbruglia, Silverchair, Grinspoon, Wolfmother. Crank the volume up……
- Go for a surf or just to the beach for some bodysurfing. We literally to everyday to the beach like thousands of other Aussies.
- Buy some great Aussie fashion from labels like Country Road, or higher end like Colette Dinnigan, Josh Goot, Akira Isogawa, Sass & Bide. Beautiful!
- Wear Ugg Boots. Yes of course these are Aussie. We get our first ugg boots as toddlers to wear in winter.
- And. Have a few more beers in the backyard, near the swimming pool, with all your mates. Get a little bit rowdy. And have a lit of laughs and a wonderful, relaxing Australia Day.
Now I’m better, the giveaway is happening tomorrow.
Cheers!!
Mia
Xxx
PS We love you Australia!!!

This year I am really looking forward and getting inspired for Australia Day on 26 January. I have never really made anything for it before but I am going to be making a few things and posting them in the next few days….. just for fun.

So many iconic places, animals, scenes to inspire….

And, because I have been crazy busy this week, working, planning a renovation, packing, we are having our giveaway on Monday.

This weekend should be interesting. I normally love the Aussie summer but there are some cruel temperatures. Sunday is predicted to reach 43 degrees – and the airconditioning is broken. I will have to find somewhere to hide out.

See ya Monday,
Mia
xxx

source:weheartit.com