Sunday, November 29, 2009

Bits of this and that...

With the 9 week summer holiday break now officially begun I plan to take time out to try some new recipes for family lunches - all those sandwiches and salad rolls are great for easy and quick lunches through the school term, but now that we are no longer living to a daily timetable I have the freedom to play around with the lunch fare.
Today I made "Chinese chicken & vegetable rice paper rolls" with a simply scrummy lime & chilli dipping sauce! These are low fat and totally addictive, but best of all they require no cooking just soaking of the vermicelli noodles and the rice papers. I bought a bbq chicken at the supermarket and shredded the chicken breasts (also to save cooking) and the rest of the ingredients were raw vegetables and snow pea sprouts.
The dipping sauce was made from Sweet Chilli Sauce, Soy Sauce, grated lime rind, and lime juice.
Have you made these before? If you haven't, you should try them.

Blossom has finished this Bronwyn Hayes Christmas stitchery, and is now working on some colourful stitched ornaments for the tree. She took a break to read a book, though, and her head has not reappeared from behind it's cover yet!
Thank you for all your lovely thoughts about her lip and the new hairdo - she's nearly all better now, and wanted me to say, "thank you so much for your care!".

I've been sketching and fine-tuning one of my BOM designs for 2010...

...finishing a gorgeous new Shabby Roses design (I'll show you the whole thing on the 1st December)...

...and making some gifts!

With the never ending carousel of 'must-do/plan-now' projects during November I haven't had time to finish block 1 of the Robyn-Allen Waters BOM I started in September. I have blocks 2 & 3 waiting as well, but now that the school year is over I am taking advantage of little pockets of time to get block 1 finished. Today I watched the movie 'Valkyrie' with hubby and stitched the curtains to the left of the block - 100 minutes to stitch the red curtains. Small stitches are definitely time intensive!

Tonight I have some pattern writing to do, then I'll be all up to date with the must-do's and I can slow down and enjoy the want-to's.
I hope you too are finding time to catch up on things you make for sheer enjoyment, and are not wearing yourself out with all the 'have-to-make' projects for Christmas?

This year we have decided to do things very simply, with our eldest daughter (a mother of two boys) suggesting we forgo presents and give each other's family an experience instead. We are giving them a family pass to an African Safari Park for the day, complete with a supermarket gift voucher to purchase all they'll need to fill their picnic basket. They in turn are giving us the money to buy a family ticket to tour the Atherton Caves, just north of us. Both her family, and us here, will take photos of our family days out, and post them in an album to each other as a remembrance of each family's Christmas 'experience' gift. She's so clever to think of this!

Tonight I'm making Chicken Burgers with a spicy mustard dressing, so I'd best get about my business and marinate the meat...

Have a lovely evening (or morning!) wherever you are,
Hugs
Jenny
xxx

10 comments:

Deb said...

Hi Jenny, what a great idea your daughter thought up for gifts.-everlasting memories and so much fun. Tell Blossom I love her Christmas tree, looks great. Can't wait to see more of your Shabby Roses when you release it, the colours are divine. I know what you mean about having the must do's out of the way and then just having the want to's left. I think I am going to have to learn to priortise better next year I think and like you learn to take more me time, I might even manage to make things to keep!! LOL.
P.S Day 7 of migraine, onto narcotics now. I certainly hope it goes soon, pain is incredible.
big hugs Deb xx

Chocolate Cat said...

Those rice paper rolls look yummy! What a great idea for presents. You will both really enjoy your days.

Hanna said...

What a wonderful Christmas present your daughter thought of. I hope you are going to share some photos with us too.

FIONA said...

Beautiful gifts Jenny and always inspiring to see what you are doing! What fabric do you use to stitch on? Is it an embroidery linen? It looks lovely. Thanks, Fiona x

edyB said...

Yummy! Have to try some of those rice paper rolls.
You're just teasing us with the lovely stitching ... can't wait to see more.
Today is a gray day in NM and we may have snow later! Well, it puts us all in a Christmas season mood.
Enjoy,
edyB

Allie said...

Sounds yum, Jenny! Darling stitchery Blossom did. Can't wait to see your new designs!!!!! They look awesome!
What a great idea for gifts. We've been trying to do this for years now, nobody wants to play along, lol. Great idea to photograph it and share between you!

Terri said...

Yum!! I want to eat at your house! I'd probably like to live at your house.....good company, good food and lots of stitching!!
And love the stitcheries you know...Blossom is talented like her mom!
Your oldest DD had a great idea for Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Love your work! So beautiful the color combinations. Thanks for sharing.

Country Nanny said...

Hi Jenny! Everything on your blog look fab: the food, the stitcheries, the patterns... It's always a joy reading your posts. I'm waiting for the new Shappy Roses Design.
Have a nice week.
Hugs,
Elisa

P.S. Tell Blossom her Xmas stitchery is so pretty and well done.

Dolores said...

I love the rice paper rolls and my daughter makes them. Glad to hear that Blossom is better and her bolster pillow is gorgeous. The idea of the "experience" Christmas gift is wonderful - especially the photo ops and the sharing of them. Almost like having two experiences.