Fudge-tastic!

Chewy Christmas fudge - family treats

lovely fudge setting in a baking tin

Ready for X-mas !!!

Homemade clothes for Anna!

Anna's wardrobe

Some little things I made for the princess, none of them fit her anymore cause she's growing up too fast!

First, here's the first thing I ever made with a pattern and actually following it and using it the right way. I was so proud. Too bad it was too big when I took this picture. I was just so keen on trying it on.

I love this candy fabric, bought at Sjiekebiele, Bruges. 

First try at elastic thread...woohoo, it worked. She absolutely loved this piece, she wore it until she just didn't fit anymore.

My little cutie pie!

Lovely summer skirt, rockabilly baby style! Tule lining to make a nice wide skirt :) Cause of the elastic waistband she could wear it a long time. 

Fairytale-style fabric, the perfect summer dress, made in a workshop @ Sjiekebiele.

This again, was a huge winner with Anna.

Lovely little treats...can we say mmmmmmm....

Birthday treats, some nice little cookies,...

Owly cookies, hahaha, cute and delicious!

Little apple-cinnamon cakes as a treat to my girl's friends in daycare. All of them glittering with excitement to tickle your tastebuds!

Gifts !!!

Too bag or not to bag? That's te question!

Here are some bags made by me, as a gift or for myself.

This was one for myself, very simple, made in a jiffy! Two rectangles, rope and four of those metal hole to put in your fabric for the rope to go through. Fake leather and playground rope...strange combo, but I think it works.

This was a gift for my grandmother. A very handy shopping bag. Outside fabric is laminated cotton, the lining is a unicolor cotton.

Bib for Lucia, who welcomed her little sister Ellie.

Bib for little Ellie, new to the world, but well protected already!

Notice the embroidered 'Kwielebabbe' which is dialect for little bib in flemish. The other side of the bib is cotton with little owls.

The Charles dungaree - shorts versions with golden paspel

Charles pattern by Compagnie M.

Firstly I have to say that I kind of screwed up here. It looks lovely, but working on a second pattern by Compagnie M. I just discovered that my printer changes the settings without asking me (how dare it!) and the little test square which of course I didn't check with the Charles pattern....not the same size...

So my dungaree ended up looking great but a bit too wide on the legs and the legs also a bot to long for being a shorts version.

Have a look and tell me what you think!

Detail of the golden paspel and my glittered centered buttons 

Detail of the pockets

Detail of the elastic waistband, adjustable with button

My label :) Couture Vienne

And voila, ready :)

This was a lovely pattern to sew, very well explained. If you follow it step by step, you really can even make this model as a beginner.

The adjustable waistband was a first, but with the extra free tutorial on her website, Marte made it clear as daylight.

I can truly recommend this pattern, it has the dungaree in long and shorts version and the trousers version both long and shorts again. What more can you ask for.

B-day cake time!

Cake!!!!!!!!!!

Who doesn't love cake?

Why not make a huuuge one then...a special occasion like a birthday is the perfect excuse you need for this. 

I needed a cake that was gonna be great for both my little girl and for the family that was coming over to celebrate.

So I decided to make a two-layered cake, bottom layer a light sponge cake with orange peel and cointreau, the top layer a confetti cake. Everything covered up with real frosting, the strawberry and chocolate kind and sprinkle it all with food glitter!

Happiness all around!

And it was a huuge success with the grandparents and the birthday girl!

My girl's birthday crown

Happy birthday my sweet little princess!

Her first real birthday party was coming up and every birthday girl or boy needs a crown. But why make a new one every year... Why not make a cute one with her name and not her age... And why not make it size adjustable?

Indeedie, so mommy went to work with the rest of my huge cookie cutter, the felt, my glue gun and some glitter glue :)

I made a bunch of different sized flowers with the felt, glittered some butterflies and put everything together into this little crown. She loved it, luckily :)

Vintage style hair pin

We love vintage !!!

I just bought this beautiful rockabilly red dress to go to a wedding and I figured that I needed something to put in my hair to make the outfit complete...

So then this little piece was born

It's made with dried lavender, some special ribbon that you can make wider or thinner cause it's wired. A simple orange button, some felt and a piece of a large cookie cutter in plastic. Yes, really, I cut into a huge cookie cutter so I'd have a firm piece with the rounding of my head... cover it with felt, glue a good quality hair clip to it and you're set to go...

Review: tomato peeler by Victorinox

Best peeler, ever, really!

I bought this on our annual ski trip in Grindelwald, Switzerland.

We needed a new potato peeler at home and this one looked smart, the box said tomato peeler, but if it peels a tomato it'll peel a potato, right?

Well, I can genuinely say that this was a best-buy if there ever was one!

It peels a tomato without difficulty, without boiling, easy peasy lemon squeezy :)

Just be careful, because it goes through skin as it'd go through butter.

A few pics to give you an idea...

They have them in all kinds of trendy colors, which ever one suits your character best

Here you see my favorite peeler at work

Buy it, love it, never want any other peeler ever again! 

Quicker than a knife!

Step 3: Accessorize!

Who doesn't like accessories...

Must be two of my favorite accessories, multi-use bags, you can hang them on a park, a buggy, your bicycle...closing with snaps makes them easy to place and remove. I made a small one just the right size for a bottle for my baby girl. And the bigger one is often used for an extra pacifier, a small teddybear, a hat, my cell phone or wallet.

I needed a purse for a fancy ball, luckily I still had some fake fur lying around.

Cutest tapestry fabric ever, I found it in Cologne last winter. I thought it was perfect for pillowcases to put on the sofa.

Step 2: actual baby clothing

Then I started to sew actual clothes for her. But without taking classes or workshops, it wasn't very easy to get into it. I still managed to produce a couple of nice things though. Have a look and tell me what you think.

I abdolutrly love this dress. Unfortunately she's only worn it once because it took me so long to sew it, that she'd almost grown out of it by the time it was ready.

Nice idea, but why didn't I use a pattern for this one...oh, right, cause I didn't know how to read patterns back then.

This actually used to be a skirt of mine.

Great idea, fabric with the pattern all drawn out, just cut & sew and it's a two-sided dress! I used this model with another fabric as well and it's an absolute winner. Can be worn as a dress, or as she grows as a tunic. The back is crossed but overlapping instead of buttoned, so it 'grows' with your baby girl.

Again, nice idea, but I forgot to put a zipper in and without realizing cotton doesn't stretch it's a real struggle to get a toddler in there.

One of my favorites, easy as can be, just a nice tricot, 3 layers of lace ribbon and a stretch border and finito! And it's oh so comfy for playing and at the same time fancy enough for a party girl :)

Winter skirt

Step 1: Baby bibs

The first things I started making when I got back into sewing, bibs for my little baby girl. I had the idea of making them in all kinds of shape, like the bottom one, shaped as a fish head :)

Rabbit lasagne

I agree, sounds strange, but tastes devine! A very tasty original spin to the classic lasagne.

Ingredients(for 2 persons):

• 250gr fresh lasagne sheets
• a small bag of grated parmesan cheese
• 500gr rabbit meat, without bones, preferably the white meat (back, thigh)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• thyme, sage, rosemary and marjoram
• salt & pepper
• 12,5cl vegetable stock (make it with 25cl water and 1 cube of veggie stock)
• 5cl of dry white wine
• 3 tomatoes
• olive oil
• for the bechamel: 70gr butter(unsalted), 70gr flour, 1l whole milk, a little bit of nutmeg and a pinch of salt

How to:

Cut your peeled garlic cloves into 4 and together with your herbs, put it in a frying pan with some olive oil. Add a little salt and put it on the side for a minute.

Take another frying pan, add some olive oil and put the stove on high. Bake your rabbit with just a little pinch of salt and pepper until it's nice white, with  a light golden color. Take it our, cut it into small pieces. If it's still on the bone, take it off the bone, it's ok if it's not completely baked through yet. It still needs to go into the oven.

Add the meat to the garlic and herbs and add the wine. Let it steam for a couple of minutes, stir so it won't burn.

Add the veggie stock now and let this simmer for 20 minutes on a low stove. Mine only needed 15 minutes before all the liquid had vaporized. This is not necessary, if you still have a nice thick sauce left after 20 minutes, leave it like that.

Peel your tomatoes, you can put them in hot water for a second and then quickly cool them before peeling. Or you can use a marvelous peeler like mine from Victorinox, this is one I can recommend to even the best chef in the world, it peels tomatoes effortless like it was an apple. Check it out here  Victorinox universal peeler .

Get rid of the seeds and cut into small cubes.

Precook your lasagne sheets, even if the package says that this is not necessary. It just makes the texture and taste nicer and it helps to prevent them from sticking together.

Depending on the thickness of the sheets, cook them 1-3 minutes.  Cook them in salted water with a bit of olive oil. Cook 3 sheets at a time max. Pick them out with the handle of a wooden spoon and immediately dip them in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Lay them out on a kitchen cloth next to each other.

Now to make the béchamel, it's an easy one we'll make. I always make mine in a frying pan with a fork, but this is a personal preference. Melt your butter, add the flour and bake-stir until the color starts to change so you're sure that the 'flour-taste' has gone. Poor the cold milk in bit by bit, make sure you don't have lumps. Add milk until you have a nice consistency, not too thick, not too thin. Add the nutmeg and personally I like to add some parmesan cheese as well, not too much though.

Let's put our lasagne together now. You start with a bit of béchamel so the pasta doesn't stick to your tray. Then pasta, béchamel, a third of you rabbit, some tomato cubes and repeat this 3 times. Last you put on a layer of pasta, parmesan cheese on top for a nice crust and a couple of tomato cubes.

Put it in a preheated oven of 180°C for 30-40 minutes.

Your original lasagne is ready, it'll be a sure hit!

Chocolate fudge cake

Lovely rich chocolate fudge cake for those days where a good portion of chocolate is needed. Haven't tried it yet, but I think this'll even be better with some nice warm vanilla custard...I had it like that once in Edinborough in a lovely pub called Jekyll & Hyde, a bit more milk in the custard than normally, in a soup dish, and then a nice piece of the cake in the middle...

Ingredients:

• 200gr dark chocolate, good quality, f.e. Jacques chocolate pastilles for cooking
• 175gr butter, real butter, unsalted
• 120gr soft brown sugar f.e. Tienen Cassonade light brown (the one you put on pancakes)
• 100gr sliced almonds
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 4 large eggs
• 150gr self-raising flour
• 100gr soft fudge f.e. Lonka soft fudge
• 1 small bag of vanilla sugar

How to:

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Put the chocolate, butter, sugar, almonds, the cocoa powder and the salt in the food processor and mix it until you have a smooth substance. The chocolate will probably never be smooth, but tiny pieces are ok. You can now cut up the fudge, I cut every piece up into 4, add to the mix and whisk it again. Then I take my normal mixer for batter, but you can keep using the food processor as well if you want. Add the eggs one at a time, add the flour and mix again until it's smooth. The chocolate will probably never be smooth, but tiny pieces are ok. You can now cut up the fudge, I cut every piece up into 4.

Get a deep baking tray, 20x20cm should be fine. Wrinkle a sheet of baking foil under the tap, wring it out and line your tray with it. You'll see, this is a great way to make using baking foil a lot easier.

Put your batter in the tray, sprinkle some tiny cubes of fudge on top and pop it in the oven for 40 minutes. Test the cake before you get it out, touch the middle with a fork, if it feels wobbly, leave it in a bit longer. Not too long though, cause the cake is at its best when it's still a little bit gooey inside.

Enjoy your calorie bomb!

Daddy's mashed potatoes

This may very well be the very best mashed potatoes ever known to mankind. So definitely try this recipe, you'll love it!

Ingredients:

• potatoes of course
• milk (not skimmed, not semi-skimmed but the real deal)
• butter (cooking, frying butter f.e. Fama, Solo,...)
• Salt & pepper
• A bit of grated nutmeg

How to:

Peel and cut your potatoes and then boil them in salted water until they're soft. Drain them and let them damp out a bit in the casserole. Mash the potatoes quick and thoroughly. If you mash them to slow they can get a 'mastic' like texture.

Warm a cup of milk up in the microwave, don't let it boil, just warm is enough. Whisk it through the mash. Cut some cubes of butter and press them into the mash, all over the casserole. Put the salt and pepper and a just a little bit of the nutmeg in. Don't stir yet! Put the lid on the casserole, let it rest for a second and when you put it on the table, open it up, stir it with a wooden spoon and here's you're mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

Pumpkin - sweet potatoe - mushroom - carrot soup

A great tasty soup, very rich in taste, bit spicy. Perfect for rainy days :)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 small pumpkin (orange, round one)
• 3 medium sized sweet potatoes (red)
• 1 small container of mushrooms (about 500gr)
• half a bunch of carrots
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• vegetable stock cubes or cups (for 2l of water)
• salt & pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, olive oil, sweet pepper powder, caster sugar

How to:
Preheat your oven on 200°C (hot air oven). Take out two oven trays and line them with baking paper.

Peel and slice your sweet potatoes, spread them out on one of the trays. Cut the peel of the pumpkin and cut the flesh in slices, thin pieces and spread on the sweet potatoes. Put some salt and pepper, a little bit of cinnamon and some cayenne pepper over the veggies and put it high in the oven, but not top shelf.

Slice the mushrooms, scatter them on half of the 2nd oven tray, put some salt and pepper, sweet pepper powder over the mushrooms and put al the garlic in between the slices.

Peel your carrots and now's the tricky bit. If you have a thin slicer, like the one you use for peeling the carrots, you can also use this on your carrots to make really thin long slices. You just put your carrot on the chopping board, move your slicer horizontally moving left-right-left-right as much as you can in one go. Keep doing this until you have almost nothing left of your carrot. Do the same with the rest of the carrots. Put al of them on the other half of the oven tray and cover them with a thin layer of caster sugar, some salt and pepper.

By now, the top tray should be in the oven for about 40 minutes. Take it out, shuffle your veggies a bit so none of the top ones are still on top. Put it back in the oven, this time in the lowest shelf.
Put the second tray, with the mushrooms and carrots in the higher part of the oven, not the top tray.

Leave it like that for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, put a casserole on the stove with 2l of water and add the vegetable stock.

When the veggies get out the oven, you need to take the peel of the cloves of garlic. They are hot, so be careful. It's very easy though, just cut of the flat bottom and you can squeeze the garlic out. When your stock is boiling, add the veggies to the stock, put out the stove and carefully mix your soup.

Your soup is ready for tasting now, enjoy!

Welcome

Hi everyone,

My name is Astrid. I live in the beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium with my lovely daughter Anna.

This is my first blog ever, so bear with me.

I was always very creative and with an unlimited supply of endless imagination, anything is possible.

I love DIY, fixing stuff, putting things together, painting, drawing, but most of all, I love cooking and sewing.

It'd been a very long time since I last sewed anything, but about 1,5 years ago I realized I need a hobby that really takes my mind off things. You know, the kind of hobby that when you're busy, you can't think of anything else at that same time...that was sewing for me. So, I borrowed my dad's sewing machine, which is a pretty awful machine, and I gave it a go for a month to see if I'd see it through. And I loved it, so not long after, I welcomed my very own perfect Pfaff Ambition 1.5 :) 

With a small toddler in the house, it's not easy to find time to sew or do many things for yourself, but I take every chance I get.

If it's not sewing something for Anna, for me or cooking a nice dinner, making cookies or baking cake, it's fixing things up in the house or garden...

I hope you enjoy seeing and reading what I'm up to, try some recipes and let me know what you think!

Bye!

Astrid