Homemade gift tags

My mum lives for sending presents to people and she's the best present buyer in the world. Something that has passed to me. I myself prefer to make presents. The most exciting part is watching people open them.

These I made for my mum for her birthday. Very simple to make.

Find online some clip art or pictures that you like and stick then to some card. Then cut out and hole punch.

:)

A little about my work

When I was 18 my family moved from the uk to the South of France as my father is a yacht captain. I followed in his career choice and became a stewardess and after a short time a chief stewardess which basically means I run the interior of the vessel and act as the personal assistant to the owner or guests.

This yacht pictured above is one I have the great chance of assisting with the build and helped the interior designers Versace set everything up on the inside.

Ive travelled a lot of the world doing this and have the most amazing memories.

Now I have a family its not so easy to pick up and leave for foreign shores so I choose smaller boats which stay in France.

Gold Leaf Macaroons

Had to show you these real quick. When we went for our little mountain holiday in Megeve I came across these in a shop window. They are french macaroons  with a gold leafed top! I can't even imagine what the price of these might be. But its inspired me to try and make some of my own. Perhaps with out the gold leaf :)

Homemade Limoncello (with oranges)

This has to be the most simple liquor recipe there is. In France its illegal to brew your own alcohol so they don't sell it in shops but you can however pick it up from certain chemists although its very regulated and can prove hard to find. However, we live next to the french border of italy so we popped over for the day to get some lemon trees and pieced up a bottle.

You will need

6 think skinned lemons (not waxy)
a litre of 95 prof alcohol
1kg of white granulated sugar
1ltr water

very simply peel all the skin off the lemons trying not to get much pith. Then put into a sealed large jar. and add the alcohol. Leave for four weeks.

Then you make sugar syrup from the water and sugar and add that. Bottle and freeze.

It lasts forever and is a great thing to show off to guests with :)

My New Quilting Project

I noticed its been a while since Ive put up a crafty post so here it is.

Evies 14 months old now and we have very generous family ad friends let alone myself who loves to shop so we have a years worth of beautiful girlie clothes that no longer fit. Some of them are so precious that i have boxed them up in case we have a second little girl one day but that still leaves me with a good few boxes. Stained ones to the bin or made into rags, uninteresting ones to the red cross and the pretty ones Im making into a single bed sized blanket for Evie when she's older.

Heres what I have started so far. A fair way to go yet but I have a sewing machine now instead of doing it by hand so things are a lot quicker than before although I must say I prefer the look of hand sewed ones.

Fig Chutney

As an english woman in france, Ive had to work quite hard to get rid the pre conceived ideas of English cooking that the French think that we do. Being the center of the culinary world (so thy think) they are very skeptical about eating foreign foods and of course.. how can an english girl cook something they might like?

Well, this is one of the recipes that have wowed them. I eat chutneys and sauces withe every thing. Mint sauce with lamb, red current with chicken. They think Im mad. So when I made this fig chutney they were very cautious to try but now my in laws have finished the last of the jars from last season and are desperate for me to make more. I even had to translate the recipe for a friend of theirs as she told me after trying mine she went out to buy some and couldn't find anything that compared. So here it is. Great with cheese, cold meats and pates.

Ingredients
13 fresh figs (mine from garden)
150ml balsamic vinegar
100 red wine vinegar
300g soft brown sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 red onions
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbs olive oil

Method
peel and thinly slice the red onion and quarter the figs.
sweat the onions in the oil and then brown until slightly caramelized
Add all ingredients except the figs and season with a little salt and pepper, bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and leave simmering for 30 minutes
Once the liquid looks like a syrup consistency add the figs and cook for a further 15-20 minutes storing occasionally.
then simply pour while hot into sterilized jars, turn upside down to seal and then leave to cool.

Very was recipe that doesn't fail to impress. Can be kept for upto six months.

:)

Dries Herbs

Something I love is cooking. Especially from scratch and using some of my own home grown ingredients. 

Herbs and plants can only be used at certain times of the year but one great cheat is to dry them so that you can have them all year round. The method is much cheaper than buying pre dried packets from the supermarket. 

Its easy too. Just choose what you want to lay out onto baking paper. Either leave somewhere warm to dry for a week or do which I prefer which is to place in an oven on a very low heat. 

Put into jars and there you have it. Garden herbs all year round :)