more from the garden

I'm loving watching our plants grow (and grow, and grow)

{kale}

{basil}

{capsicum/peppers}

roll no. 3

Have had this roll of film in my camera for MONTHS. Fujifilm Pro 400H this time. Here are my favourites, you can see the rest in this set, on my Flickr. The first couple are from a crawfish boil we went to a while ago. Oh, how we like the craw.

Happy weekend!

the long weekend and other stuff (mostly food related)

We had a pretty foody long weekend here for the 4th of July. It was also Jon's birthday, and good birthdays usually involve indulging in great food – and cake,
of course!

We spent the evening of the 4th in downtown BR, on the bank of the Mississippi. We ran into some friends from Jon's work, and ended up sitting with them. We listened to music, shared plates of funnel cakes, drank beer and enjoyed the fireworks after the sun went down. The show finished around 9.30, so we all went out for one more round of drinks, and finished with giant slices of pizza from Schlittz & Giggles (sort of dinner, as we hadn't eaten anything except the funnel cake), before heading home.

For Jon's bday, we went out for a nice dinner at Ruffino's Saturday night. We shared a ridiculously rich pork belly dish, and had some lovely creme brulee. With dessert, Jon ordered a scotch, and was surprised when he was brought a full glass (about four shots)! At home, we made a layer cake using recipes from the King Arthur book we got. Our yellow cake turned out nicely, quite dense and moist. For the icing, we thought we'd try the silky buttercream (sugar syrup poured into whisked egg whites, with a heap of butter whipped in). It sure turned out silky smooth, and very buttery. Pretty good though. (Here's a pic.)

While I'm on the subject of food, last night I made double broccoli quinoa for dinner. With the chilli oil, avocado and feta on top – deeelicious! I've tried a couple of recipes from 101 cookbooks now, and they are really good. Would definitely recommend taking a look if you're in need of any tasty vegetarian recipes.

Also, this afternoon I baked some banana bread (recipe here, but I added chopped dates and fresh blueberries). Fortunately/unfortunately (I'm not sure which), I'm the only one 'round here who likes banana bread, so I'm going to slice and freeze it. When I feel like some for breakfast or lunch, I can just pull out a slice or two, pop into the toaster and enjoy with a cup of tea. Very nice.

july?!

Already? I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I really don't know where the time is going. We've been here nearly a whole year.

Summer's here, it's pretty hot, and our plants are going gangbusters. I'm totally amazed at the comeback our tabasco chilli plant has made. Only a few months ago, it was so dried up, I was about to pull it out of the pot and throw it into the dumpster (I may not have been watering so regularly back then!)

I noticed a little bit of new growth coming through though, and decided to cut the dead bits back, and leave it to do its thing. Now it is big, leafy and covered in flowers and chillis!

We are also growing a few other things – tomatoes, capsicum, and some mint and thai basil that are doing really well considering they started from cuttings.

Growing tasty stuff is fun!

Also, top no. 2 is finished! I bought the pattern online. It was much simpler to make than my first top, and is nice and light for summer.

busy sewing

Been doing a bit of sewing lately. Here are some pics of things I've made:

A fun bunting and bibs. Made for our month-old niece with lotsa love, and miles of (handmade) bias tape. The pattern for the bibs is from my Martha Stewart book

An embroidered handkerchief – I guess, but I hope no-one blows their nose into it... The pattern is from Clover

And my very first top! It was a little tricky at times, but good to learn and get experience making a garment – sewing darts and sleeves, and using interfacing.
I even customised the pattern a bit, shortening the length and using sleeves from
a different pattern. The fit is pretty loose, but overall I'm happy with it, and definitely looking forward to more sewing projects :)

roll no. 2

Got my second roll of film developed yesterday, and I'm pretty happy with the results. It's exciting to get some good photos back, especially since I have a fear
(and actually recently dreamt) of getting a roll back that is completely blank!

I loaded this film (Kodak Portra 400NC) into my camera when Jon's family were over, so have quite a few shots from around BR, and our visits to Memphis and New Orleans. Here are some of my favourites:

Mmm... filmy. The rest are in this set, on my Flickr.

lately...

We have:
• been to Lafayette for the Festival International. Music + food + arty stalls = fun!
• been eating LOTS of delicious boiled crawfish
AAAND
• become uncle and aunty to a cute baby girl! (Congrats J&C!)

Apart from that, the weather's starting to heat up (I think we're skipping spring and headed straight for summer, minus the humidity though, thankfully). Jon's busy at work, and I've been having fun sewing things. Also, I won a competition on Jamie Oliver's twitter and got his Food Revolution book. Sweet! It has some really nice and simple recipes, including a fresh cherry tomato and basil pasta which I made last night. Super quick and very tasty!

colourful cotton

Some necklaces I made recently with embroidery cotton and nice wooden beads from a local bead shop (tutorial here, by Jenny of Wiksten/Wiksten-made). I'm also keen to try some different styles of embroidery, like cross-stitch and sashiko. My new Martha Stewart book and the purl bee have lots of lovely looking projects.

(Oh, the possibilities!)

attention : people who like food!

I've just added a little spot on the sidebar (to the right, below the tweets) for the recipes I've posted (all tried and guaranteed tasty). Hope you can try some.

film fun

I recently bought a Pentax K1000 from KEH. I'd been thinking about getting a film (35mm or instant/Polaroid) camera for a while, and was especially inspired by looking through the beautiful film shots on Brian and Molly's photostreams. I really like the look and texture of film photos. I like that the process makes me slow down, to be more selective with what I photograph, and try to compose my shots better so I'm not wasting my film (when I have plenty of space on my DSLR memory card). I'm hoping the more I use this, the more I learn and more practise I get, the better photographs I'll take (with both my cameras). And I do like the idea of having lots
of lovely pictures to look at and remember everything by.

Here are a few photos from my first roll* (there were also a couple in the last post). Stay tuned for more, I've nearly finished my second.

* I was a little disappointed with the processing of this roll. I took it to a local pharmacy, and my film came back marked (see above) and creased. Oh well, lesson learnt, and better luck next time.