FELTED BIRDS

We've got flowers, textured Easter eggs, and now it's time to sew small felted birds.  Do not worry if you have no experience making felt toys, in fact this could be a perfect beginners project because these cute little birds are so easy to make.

First you will need to gather supplies:

• felt (I've used black and white but you can choose your own colour combo)
• pattern (right click the image below and select "open in a new window".  Right click the new image and save it on your computer).

• thread and needle
• pins
• filling material (if you do not have any use cut up leftover felt or other fabric)

Cut out the pattern pieces. You will need 2 body pieces and 2 wings, 1 top piece and 1 bottom piece. Pin paper pattern pieces to felt and cut.
Now it's time to stitch pieces together.

You will be using blanket stitch for these birds.  If you are not sure how to blanket stitch, here is an excellent illustrated tutorial.
You can begin assembling the bird from the tail part, attaching one body piece to the top piece.  Cut the thread and attach the second body piece to the other side of the top.  Continue stitching around the bird's head.
When you get to the beak part, stitch together one body part and the bottom part.  Cut the thread and attach the second body piece to the other side of the bottom.
Before finishing stitching fill the bird with filling material (do not use too much of it).  Stitch and secure the thread at the tail.

Your bird is almost done. You can leave it as is or add wings by stitching them to the body (if you are feeling lazy use a bit of glue to attach wings).
You just finished the first felted bird.  Pretty fast and easy, right?
Time to make another one.

And then one more .... and one more ....

Over the weekend I will be taking more pictures of our Easter decor so you can see how I've used these cute felted birds. 
What would you do with a flock of felted birds?

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Previous black and white Easter projects:
WHIMSICAL PAPER FLOWERS
BLACK, WHITE, AND TEXTURED EASTER EGGS

FRUITCAKE TOSS DAY

Did you know that January 3rd is the Fruitcake toss day? While I do not feel comfortable tossing the cake I've always wondered whether the fruitcake could be incorporated into other dishes.
This year my father-in-law ended up buying way too many cakes giving me a chance to make a fruitcake pudding with eggnog sauce.

Since fruitcakes come in all shapes, sizes, and textures you might want to adapt the quantities of the recipe depending on the cake you have.  My fruitcake was very moist; I tried drying it in the oven but instead of drying up it fell apart.  If your cake does not have a lot of fruit try toasting it before using (the same way you dry bread before making bread pudding).
I did not need to use any extra sugar or spices in my pudding, since the cake was quite sweet and spicy to begin with.  In fact I decided to add a tart green apple to compensate for the cake sweetness.  If you want your pudding to have more flavour add some nutmeg and cinnamon to the egg mix.
Finally, I made my pudding in a loaf pan.  I needed about 3 cups of crumbled cake to fill the third of the dish.  The recipe could easily be doubled or tripled for a bigger pudding.

What you need:

Pudding

3 cups crumbled fruitcake

1 green apple (peeled, cored, and cubed)

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

2 tbsp brandy or rum (could be replaced with rum essence)

Eggnog sauce

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cream

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp brandy or rum (could be replaced with rum essence)

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

What to do:

Pudding

• In a medium bowl lightly whisk egg and sugar (if using any).  Add milk and butter, mix well.  Add brandy.

• In the buttered baking dish (loaf pan) mix crumbled fruitcake and apple.  Pour egg mix over.  The egg mix should cover the fruitcake completely.  Let stand for at least 30 minutes.  You can leave the custard-cake mix overnight

• Preheat oven to 350F.  Fill a deep baking sheet with water.  Place it on the oven rack and put the loaf pan in it.  Cooking the pudding this way will prevent it from burning and overcooking at the bottom.  Cook for an hour or until the pudding is firm and no custard comes out when you press on it.  You can cover the pudding with foil if the top gets too dark.

 Eggnog sauce

• In a small sauce bowl combine milk, cream, sugar, and spices.  Heat up over medium heat, stirring frequently until light simmer.

• Prepare a cornstarch slurry by mixing cornstarch with 2-3 tablespoons of cold milk.  Slowly pour the slurry into the sauce, mixing constantly.  Add the alcohol and let the mix simmer for 2-3 minutes or until it reaches desired consistency.

The fruitcake pudding could be served as a dessert.  Personally I think it makes for a great breakfast so I am adding it to my BREAKFAST CLUB collection!
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A year ago: JANUARY "TO DO" LIST
Two years ago: CREAMY PARSNIP SOUP

Gazpacho

I have been fascinated by the idea of a cold soup for a while, however every time the mercury rises I loose my appetite completely and a mare thought of a soup (cold or hot for that matter) makes me ..... let just say not very happy.

Yesterday was not too hot and after overeating during my trip to Toronto I decided to cook something fast, simple, and light. I browsed several recipe sites to get an idea of what I can put in my gazpacho. I have to admit that I have never had gazpacho before. Probably there are rules and regulations on what you can put and what you can not but I just went with my appetite and taste to make this:

GAZPACHO

6 medium-size tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
2 small cucumbers (they are sold here as Lebanese). If you don't have small cucumbers use the regular ones
2 garlic cloves
2 purple shallots (I know those are rare to find. Do not hesitate to use either purple onion (1/2 or even 1/4 should be enough) or regular shallots)
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 ripe avocado
3 cups of vegetable juice (I used V8)
1 tsp sherry vinegar (you can use lemon juice instead or even white balsamic vinegar)
5-7 springs of cilantro
Pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper

Peel tomatoes. To do so, make an x-shaped cut on the bottom of each tomato. Put them in a sauce-pan and cover with boiling hot water. Wait for 2-3 minutes. You will notice that the skin next to the cut is peeling off and all you have to do is remove tomatoes (careful not to burn yourself) and peel off the rest of the skin.


Coarsely chop the pepper, cucumbers, onions, and garlic. Combine them with tomatoes in a big soup pot.
Using hand-held blender, blend vegetables until smooth. You can also use a regular blender for this purpose.
Add cumin, vinegar, sugar, cilantro, and avocado. Blend until smooth.
Add V8. I would recommend adding it slowly and mixing throughout to give the soup required consistency. Also try the soup to adjust for seasoning.

Feel free to experiment with different herbs and spices. You might want to check out this website for some unsual Gazpachos, such as Oriental or White Gazpachos.


P.S. The picture of purple shallots comes from the Muffintop blog

Click on the image to see posts with tutorials:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

1, 2, 3, 4