More Soul Food Art

What is soul food?  It's a 6 month online creativity class put together by Mystele and a number of other artists and hosted at the Community Thrive site.  I have shared my work for 3 of the lessons so far, first the Nourishing a Creative Spirit lesson and then I shared my work from two lessons in the Soul Food Part 2 post.

Some of the lessons are not entirely new to me so I take a little twist on them to make them a bit different, like the bookbinding lesson, where I did a little twist on the long stitch by copying something I had seen in a photo online.

Some of the lessons inspire me and I end up doing far more than is suggested or at least putting more work into it, like this one where I so loved the idea of stitching into the paper that I did the whole quote by stitching it!

The lesson began with playing with spray inks

then weaving into that piece with some stenciled paper.

More stencil work was done on top of the weaving

and finally the woven piece was mounted onto another piece of paper for more embelishment with paint and stitching.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Soul Food Part 2

I can't believe I haven't done another Blog Post about Soul Food since that first one, Nourishing a Playful Spirit.

What is soul food?  It's a 6 month online creativity class put together by Mystele and a number of other artists and hosted at the Community Thrive site.

Here's a reminder of my work from the first lesson.

I was really pleased with that piece and enjoyed doing it.

Some of the other classes have been enjoyable but not so easy and certainly haven't produced results that I am as proud of.  This lesson was about drawing with markers without pencilling anything in first, so that you had to keep whatever happened and just go with it.

Yeah, there are bits of it I love and bits of it I don't like.  I made another attempt at it and the mouth got even worse than the first one.

I love the lessons that are really based in drawing and painting because they stretch me, but i lvoe the classes that are more paper art based too, like this one:

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Hairy Dieters Lamb, Spinach and Potato Curry

Hairy Dieters Lamb, Spinach and Potato Curry

Well, it's supposed to be Lamb, Spinach and Potato but I didn't have any spinach in the house.  I did, however, have green cabbage, so I stripped the stems out, chopped it roughly and used that.

I reckon this would work well with chickpeas instead of the lamb for a vegetarian version.

I altered the amounts in the recipe to suit our budget a bit better as lamb is not cheap.


You will need:

400g lamb leg steaks

1/2 tbsp oil
3 large garlic cloves, chopped (I used lazy garlic from a jar, 3 small tsp)
1 1/2 large onions, roughly chopped (I used 2 medium onions)
20g chunk of root ginger (you could also use lazy ginger from a jar)
1/2 plump fresh red chilli (recipe called for a whole one, but I don't like things too hot, you can use a whole one if you prefer)
60g ready made curry paste
400g chopped tinned tomatoes
350g potatoes (preferably maris pipers in the UK) cut into 3cm chunks
400ml water
2 bay leaves
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp caster sugar
3 medium rip tomatoes, quartered
100g young spinach leaves (or green cabbage or kale, etc, but follow notes on timing)
freshly ground black pepper

Trim the lamb of any hard fat and cut into rough chunks of about 3cm.

Season the meat with salt and pepper.  Heat 1 tsp of the oil in a large non stick pan and fry the lamb (in batches if you need to) until lightly coloured on all sides.  Transfer the lamb to a plate as soon as each batch is browned.

Heat the remaining oil in a large flameproof casserole dish or ovenproof pan (I used the ovenproof pan) and add the onions.  Cook over a medium hear for 6 to 8 minutes until the onions are soft and lightly browned, stirring regularly.

Turn down the heat, add the garlic, ginger, chilli and curry paste and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring frequently.

Remove from the heat and blitz the onion mixture with a stick blender until blended to a puree.  I used a jug to get a bit more depth to the mixture, you could also let it cool a while then blend in a jug blender or food processor.

Return the mixture to the pan and put back on the heat.

Add the browned lamb to the spiced onion puree in the dish and cook over a gentle heat for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring.

Add the tinned tomatoes, potatoes, water, bay leaves, tsp of salt and the sugar.

If you are using cabbage or kale instead of spinach, also add this now, but if you are using spinach, that comes later.

Bring everything to a gentle simmer, then cover with a lid and place into the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the lamb is tender and the sauce has thickened.  Check after 1 hour and give the curry a good stir.

Just before the curry is due to be finished, quarter your tomatoes and get the spinach ready if you are using that.
Take the casserole dish or pan out of the oven and remove the lid.  Stir in the tomatoes and spinach leaves.

Cover once more and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and the spinach has wilted.

Serve hot with rice and some spoonfuls of plain yoghurt of you fancy.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

Nourishing a Playful Spirit

Let's not talk about how long I have been away from the blog, let's just get on with this . . .

I am so so so blessed!  By combining my Christmas gift from my hubby with my birthday gift from him and adding in the money I made on craft sales in December, I was able to sign up for a 6 month online craft class called Soul Food.  There are 2 classes every week with a wide variety of teachers and I am having a blast.  I think so far I have managed to get something done for about half of the lessons, but that's OK, because we get to download all the class materials and keep them.

The first class was by Mystele and titled Nourish a Playful Spirit.

Mystele used a gel plate to make her first back ground layer. While a gelli plate was also on my Christmas list, Santa didn't bring that, so I had to make my own (watch out for a blog post about that coming soon).

There were then various other layers involved, gradually building up the background, and yes at times it looked like a mess . . .

until finally I got to start figuring out what shapes and faces were there on the page.

She's certainly not got a pretty face, but I really do like her.

What do you think?

One last thing.  I just have to show you the book paper that I used in the flower/sun in the top right.  My husband has been spending some time out in Germany for work and in November I got to join him for a few days (watch out for a blog post about my travel journal too) and I picked up this awesome book in a second hand shop in Frankfurt for just €2, don't you just love that font?

It's not too late to get involved in Soul Food, check it out.

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.

My Mom's Coffee Cake

First of all an explanation for my American readers.  Here in the UK when we say coffee cake we mean a cake that is flavoured with coffee.  Makes sense to me!

Anyway, recently I was sorting through some family photos and came across this one of my mom.  From the colour of the mix in the food processor I knew immediately what she was making.  This coffee cake.  Among anyone who knew of her baking she was famous for this cake and it was SO easy!  I wonder if they all knew how easy it was if they would still have thought she was so amazing for making it.

I knew I had to make the cake yesterday and had all the ingredients in. I remembered how much butter, flour and sugar to each egg, that's easy, but I wasn't sure about how much coffee or baking powder and how long to cook it, but I had a go and it turned out ok.

You will find a printable version of the recipe at the bottom of the post.

First off, preheat your oven to 180c. (That's 360f for my American friends). I remembered that OK.
Now I had to decide how much mixture to make. I knew that when my mom made this cake it used to have a 6 egg mix but she had these HUGE cake tins. Since I only wanted to use 8 inch tins, I decided a 3 egg mix would be enough.

Whenever my mom made this cake she always took the time to grease AND flour the tins, so I did the same.

First, grease your tins as normal, then put a tbsp or so of flour into them, and tip the tin until you have coated all surfaces with the flour. I am sure cake release spray would do the same job BUT I am trying to stick to what my mom did here, so I went with greasing and flouring.






Measure your flour, baking powder, sugar and butter into the bowl of your processor and then add the 3 eggs, having cracked them into a bowl first in case you get a bad one or any shell falls in.


Before you start mixing the cake, make up your coffee. I am not sure I have the amount of coffee right. I have upped the amount slightly from what I used, in the recipe below, but think it might still need more. We had the amount in the icing right but the cake could have taken more coffee flavour. Add as little boiling water as you can to make it up and then thin it out a bit with cold water, which also brings the temperature down.


Now back to the food processor. Mix on med high (or pulse) until the mixture is combined and smooth. Then add the coffee in a thin stream through the spout on the processor.


After a few more seconds your mix should look something like this.


Divide the mixture between your two cake tins.


Spread it out in the tins as evenly as you can.


Then place them in the preheated oven.


Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.


Remove from the tins to a cake rack and leave until completely cooled.


Once the cake has cooled ice the top. You do this before filling the cake because the whipped cream is soft and you might squish it out if you ice after filling it.
Make up another small portion of strong instant coffee, 1 tsp of granules with about 1tbsp water, then make up some icing using that as your liquid. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle the walnuts over the top. My mom always used walnut halves when possible and used one to mark each portion of the cake. I only had walnut pieces, so I sprinkled instead.


Once the icing has set nicely you can whip the cream and get ready to fill the cake. I used 300ml of double cream here and you can see from the later photos it is quite a thick layer. But maybe that is what makes this cake so nice.


Pop the top on and your cake is ready to serve. If not serving immediately, keep chilled because of the cream.


Was it good? Yes, amazing! Was it as good as I remember? Not quite, it came out a little dense but there are a couple of things I know were not quite right. First I was using free range eggs from a family member's chickens, and they were on the small side, I am sure slightly larger eggs would have made a difference. Secondly I made the coffee up with as little water as possible and I think it could have taken a tbsp or so more. Finally I couldn't remember how much baking powder my mom used and guessed. I have upped it slightly for the recipe below and hopefully with those 3 things it should come out much better next time.




Printable version:

My Mom's Coffee Cake
Coffee Flavoured cake my mom used to make that was always a success no matter where we took it!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Serves: 8 decent slices

Ingredients:

6 oz self raising flour,
6 oz caster sugar,
6 oz soft margarine, (I used butter because it was what I had),
3 medium eggs,
2 tsp baking powder,
2 1/2 tsp instant coffee,
1/2 cup icing sugar, I didn't measure this,
Handful walnuts,
Whipping cream or double cream.

Instructions:

1. Grease and flour your cake tins.
2. Preheat the oven to 180c.
3. Set up your food processor with the normal blade.
4. Measure the first 5 ingredients directly into the bowl.
5. Take 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee and make up with a little boiling water.  Cool with a little additional cold water.
6. Switch your processor on to med high until all the first ingredients are mixed, then pour the made coffee in through the spout while the mixer is still moving.
7. Divide the mixture between your two tins and spread evenly in the tins.
8. Bake in the preheated oven until it begins to come away from the sides of the tin, is springy in the middle and a cake tester or fine knife blade comes out clean when inserted into the cake. For the size pans I used this took about 20 minutes, but I would recommend checking at about 15 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and cool in the tins for 5 minutes.
10. Turn out onto a cake rack to cool completely.
11. Make up the remaining instant coffee with a little boiling water and a little cold to cool it back down.
12. Make up the icing sugar with as much of the coffee as you need to make a consistency that will spread easily but without being too runny.
13. Decide which of the cakes will be the top and spread the icing over it. Sprinkle the walnuts over that and leave to set.
14. Once the icing has set you can whip the cream and fill the middle of the cake. If your bottom cake is a bit uneven you may need to slice some off it to get it to sit flat first.
15. Keep chilled (because of the cream) and serve!

You can check out the sites I link up to over in my sidebar. Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.