Oat crackers: a recipe

Have you ever tried Nairn's oat crackers? Yummy, right?
I have been wanting to replicate these cracker for a while. Lately we've been having porridge for breakfast, and we usually soak the oats the day before. Every now and then we eat something different, so I'm left with a jar of soaked jumbo oats (they're usually fine for about 2-3 days, depending on ambient temperature). The other day I decided to use them to make crackers. I added a bit of wholemeal flour, lots of butter and mixed it into a dough. I flattened walnut size balls onto a baking tray then baked them at 150ºC until slightly golden. Once cooled, they taste like Nairn's crackers. Or like my memory of it anyway.  They're nice, they don't last in our house they're so nice. And very easy to make. Perfect for nibbles with pesto, or chutney (I made a persimmon chutney that goes perfectly well with cheddar cheese, on a piece of oat cracker of course!), or cheese, or all of the previous combined.

Here's a list of the ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup jumbo oats, soaked 24h
- 2 cups wholemeal flour
- 120g butter

Mix until it forms a dough, take walnut size pieces and flatten onto a baking tray, bake at 150ºC until slightly golden, flip onto other side and bake a little more. Let cool.

I wish I could draw

As well as Ben Heine. Well actually he seems to be an all round super talented man this one... he can draw, takes pretty good photographs, has genius ideas and speaks quite a few languages... check out his profile and more of his work here.

It's all about me

I've been making a few things for myself lately, so I feel a bit spoilt and I'm happy to be changing my wardrobe (and we had a clothes swap last week end!). I made my first pair of pants, using one of my old pairs as a guide. A few details here and there need to be altered (next pair) but hey, they fit!

I also refashioned a black tunic I got given, by adding some funky orange 70s fabric. This one is going to my shop though, since I can't breastfeed with this kind of top, and I might be breastfeeding for a while if Tahi's anything to go by (he self weaned just short of 3 years old).

Tunic refashion: before

Tunic refashion: After

I've also been upcycling some tee shirts and woolen tops, respectively into a hoodie (for a friend) and a winter dress (in my shop).

My creative space: bubbles

Yes, bubbles of the edible kind. Not champagne, no, although I do have some stored away (given by our wine maker friends Wright Wines). I have been fermenting foods of all kinds, although not as much I would like to but it'll come.
It started with sourdough, and yoghurt. Then a friend gave me kefir grains (mmm, I'm addicted to kefir), and I also tried making saurkraut (I didn't leave that one long enough to reach full flavour I think, I was too impatient!).

water kefir, great for making ginger beer!

Milk kefir, yoghurt with the fizzzz!

A friend also gave us some fermented tomatoes, we tried fermented gherkins at their house and she also gave me a recipe for making apple cider vinegar (dead easy). And now we soak our oats for porridge... Fermented foods are more easily digested by your system and make nutrients more available. Which is why you're supposed to soak grains, seeds and pulses before you cook and use them.

saurkraut

So our bench top often has two or more jars and bowls of food soaking in water, it looks a bit like a science lab and it requires a lot of planning ahead for meals, but since having kids I've found that planning meals makes my life much easier and less stressful (try cooking while your child is screaming of hunger, it never happens fast enough and once it's there they're not hungry anymore).

Apple cider vinegar, with the recipe written on it...

It's been really interesting and eye opening to read about cooking the "traditional" way. A friend lent me her recipe book "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon. Another good book on the subject is "Change of Heart" by Kay Baxter.

More creative bubbles here!

New technology

I played around with Josh's new camera yesterday, a Canon 7D... It's nice to be holding a bulky camera for a change. After my last film camera died, a medium format Bronica, I took to using his other digital camera, a Canon Ixus, you know the little pocket ones. They are great, take nice pictures and are easy to use. But the 7D, I mean, wow. The pictures look great and I hardly had to touch them up (big bonus since I'm useless with photoshop and the likes). Is it me or does the camera naturally take good photos???

Make your own: kids' drawing table

A couple of years ago I flew back to France with Tahi to visit family and friends. We stayed with some good friends of mine who had just moved from Paris to Bordeaux with their little girl. Living in small confined spaces can be challenging when you've got one or more active toddlers! My friend had this great idea of covering her coffee table with drawing paper so that her daughter could have fun drawing without having to worry about making a mess. As soon as I got home I set to doing the same.

I bought a roll of brown craft paper, but you can do the same with white or any colored paper. I used some double sided tape to stick the paper onto the table. First stick the tape along the edge of all four sides of the table, then peel the plastic protection off.

 Line your paper with one edge, then roll it out, flattening it as you go so it sticks to the tape with minimal creases.

If your roll of paper doesn't cover the whole length, stick some tape on the edge of the paper you've just laid down and peel off the plastic protection, then proceed to cover the remaining space of your coffee table following the edge of the first strip of paper.

Trim the edges with a pair of scissors. Get some pencils out and have fun!

My creative space: home improvements

I've been busying myself with little projects, mainly for our ever changing/ constant building site of a house. Nope, I am not talking about the last pair of patchwork woolen curtains, although you'd think by now they would be hanging where they should. But I did make two things that were not on my to do list (I must be scared of running out of things to do!): Some chair cushions and a wine bag.

The chair cushions were a bit of an emergency, since Josh was threatening to get rid of our mismatched wooden chairs and get a set of matching ones. I personally really like and see a lot of potential in them. I like mismatched things in general, and I always thought repainting our chairs with various colors of our (my) choice would be great. So I started by making these little pillows to remedy to Josh's main complaint i.e. they're not comfortable. Well, they are slightly more now. I used some coffee bags I'd bought a while ago in Wellington that were just waiting for the perfect project. The inside is made of two layers of cut up duvet (I've been hoarding them).

And then... I had also been wanting to make more fabric buckets, this time with a flour sack I had an the same coffee sacks. well, it didn't exactly turn out as I imagined, but still usable. As a wine bag. Because we very often carry our wine around when we're out for a walk me and the kids. Seriously I'm sure I'll get to use it eventually, it'll be a good excuse to bring some wine next time we're invited over for dinner. Or maybe I can put our thermos in it next time we go camping.

I also (geez I've been busy!) made a new duvet cover using two flowery cotton sheets found at the op shop. They were originally single sheets, the length was no problem but they were obviously going to be short width wise for our queen size duvet. Luckily that same day in the same shop I also found a pale green double sheet that matched them perfectly. As you can tell by the photo, the cover ended up too wide. I'm not sure how I managed to get it wrong since a queen size duvet is basically a square, but luckily it's an easy fix.

More creative spaces here!