It's a lactose-free birthday!!

I'm in a foodie mood lately, partly due to the fact that I've been having health issues the past few months so my sewing/jewellery crafting has taken a back seat, and partly due to the fact that Mr "lactose-free" Loops has requested that I make him some lactose-free (hereby known as LF!) goodies recently as it's incredibly difficult to find LF items in the supermarket unless you go for specialist items!

So for his birthday last week he requested LF chicken kievs, and a LF coffee cake for dessert (as we're both coffee addicts).  Mind you the coffee cake was also eaten for breakfast... we have a tradition of eating birthday cake for breakfast... only on our birthdays mind, else it would just be weird.... :-\

Cooking stage (sorry, no piccies of the creation)

Rather a large meal of LF chicken kiev, roast new potatoes and cabbage, yuuuum!

And now for the coffee cake, for which I followed this recipe but replaced the milk with LF whole milk, and the mascarpone with LF soft cheese.

Awaiting the oven!!

Cooling and testing our willpower....

THE MONEY SHOT!!!

You might be wondering why It doesn't look quite like the one in the recipe.... this is because due to using LF soft cheese instead of mascarpone, and due to running out of icing sugar and so having used half caster sugar it came out more like a coffee sauce instead of the coffee cream cheese frosting it was supposed to be!  So it became a drizzle cake - popped some holes throughout the cake and drizzled the "sauce" over the top to sink in and marinade it.

Not quite as planned but delicious nevertheless!! 

TTFN
Loops
xx

Lactose-free lasagne

Time for a foodie post I think!!

After a long time of stomach issues Mr Loops has finally discovered it's because he is lactose intolerant!  Alas he adores cheese, and foods like lasagne, pizza, beans and cheese on toast :-(  He tried lactase tablets but they cost so much for the dose he needed to be able to eat dairy foods so now I'm working on adapting at least some of his favourite foods so he can have a treat now and again hopefully without changing the flavour too much!!

The finished product!!

I don't tend to use measurements or recipes when I cook, if there's something I want to make and don't know how to, then I'll trawl through online recipes or cooking magazines to get the general gist and pick my favourite!!  I'm clearly not a chef and I like food that's easy to make and remember.  So here are the basics of my lactose-free lasagne (for roughly 4 people) with in-progress piccies, adapt as necessary to make your own or just look at the piccies :-)

• Soften onions/garlic/mushrooms in some oil (I use Carotino - cholesterol-free and vitamin-high oil) in a large deep frying pan
• Remove the base veg to a plate, and add your choice of mince to the same pan you did the veg in, adding more oil if required (beef mince is usually good as is, but for turkey mince for instance I add extra)
• If you break up the mince too early it will release water and start to steam but we're looking to brown the mince for flavour first, so try and keep it in one big block until it's browned on the first side, then turn it to brown the other side
• Now break up the mince and when it has all coloured add a little plain flour and stir to soak up the juices, and then re-add the base veg
• Add a tub of chopped tomatoes and the same again of water with a couple of stock cubes (pre-made stock instead), and add any other veg
• Add any dried herbs you fancy (or if you prefer fresh herbs then put these in just before forming in the lasagne dish), I favour oregano and parsley and black pepper, or else just some italian or plain mixed herbs.  Add a slug of worcestershire sauce and/or soy sauce, chilli flakes, whatever suits your tastes, but don't go too over the top as you can always add more later when you've tasted it!!
• Pop a lid on the frying pan and simmer for about an hour (really for beef mince the longer you cook it the more tender it becomes), stirring now and again and taste towards the end to check the level of seasoning/herbs/spiciness etc and check how tender the mince is.

Personally I like to pad out my lasagne with veg for extra [hidden] fruit and veg portions!!  In this lasagne I used onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots and peas (not sure I'd use peas again tho as they go a very unappetising colour!).  This tends to depend upon what I have in the fridge, I have also used leeks, sweet potato, anything to increase Mr Loops' veg count for the day!

As the mince is nearing completion, grab your lasagne dish, lasagne pasta sheets, lactose-free cheese and cheese sauce (and milk if required to make the sauce).  I used Arla Lactofree milk and cheese, and Free & Easy dairy-free cheese sauce.  Grate up the cheese, and prepare your cheese sauce.  For the sauce I used I had to make a paste with the sauce powder and some milk, then add the rest of the milk and pop it on the hob to thicken, I also added a little grated cheese to this.

Now build your lasagne!!  For mine - meat --> pasta --> cheese sauce --> meat --> pasta --> cheese sauce --> grated cheeeeese.

I like to add a little paprika and black pepper to the top :-)  Now pop this on a baking tray (to catch any overflow!) and pop in the oven at around 200C and leave for about 30-40 mins or until the cheese has melted and is all scrummy and bubbly!!

Serve with salad and/or wedges and/or some garlic bread (made with fresh garlic and a dairy-free spread like Vitalite)  Yum!!

TTFN
Loops
xx 

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

I hope everyone had a fab NYE, whether chilling at home or gadding about town! :-D

I should start by saying I'm not normally one for New Years resolutions.... but this year I resolve to be more regular with my blog posts  o_O

Sooooo, following on from that.... here is post #1 of 2011... written in my pjs whilst watching Big on the tv.... hum ho.....

I had hoped to make all my Xmas presents this year, but alas illness and time constraints worked against me.... but here is the journey of one of my handmade gifts this year, a stuffie of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy for my mate Sammy's boyfriend :-D

Stewie in design format with initial sketch

All the pattern pieces prepared for cutting out in felt

In progress shot of Stewie's clothes

Clothes complete, addition of head and hands!

Features completed, ready to sew back and front together

Stuffing in progress

And the unveiling of the completed Stewie stuffie:

Completed Stewie (front)

Completed Stewie (back)

"VICTORY SHALL BE MINE!!!!"

In hindsight he's a bit lanky and I should have made his head muuuch bigger, but I think the recipient was happy with his gift and I certainly enjoyed making him :-D

TTFN
Loops
xx

Halloween: The Party!

Happy Halloween!! (2 weeks late...hum ho.....)

So here are some piccies from the Halloween Spooktacular that myself and Spammy hosted :-)

Velcom to ze Halloween Spooktacular, mu ha ha ha!!!!

Pleez to meet one of my wampyr concubines

And now the strange made-up wampyr accent ends I'm sure you'll be pleased to know...

Table of mostly home-made (by myself and Sammy) goodies!

Yummy chocolate and carrot cupcakes made by Sammy

Witchy Jo trying to cheer up a grumpy looking Zombie!

Our stuffies joining in the fun, Hugsie the Dinosaur (outfit med by me last 'ween), Arnold the bat-cat and Yoshi the spider-dragon

Count Vladislaus Dracula and his stylish witch lady

Spammy the Wamp and Zombie with her Zombie child

Sammy trying to be seductive (sorry Sammy but I think you need to work on your seductive look a smidge), with strange slashed cracker hat wearing weirdo (a.k.a. Mr Loops), and man wearing pumpkin baby outfit being shocked by the presence of a zombie child

Your hosts, the Wampyr Sisters enjoying some warm blood and chatting with a strange pink eared cat

And that is finally it for Halloween 2010!!


TTFN
Loops
xx
 

Halloween: The Costumes!

Sorry for the giganti-gap since my last post, pretty much October-November has mainly consisted of illness so far, here's to hoping things improve on that front soon!

So this year my friend Spammy and I decided to co-host a Halloween party at my house, and thus having costumes along the same theme.  Soooo after discussions we decided upon Victoriany looking (not historically correct by any means!!) wampyr sisters!

Spammy and myself before the arrival of the guests looking sufficiently vampirish

Soooo... what was crafted and how did you craft it I hear you say??

HATS

• Bought a cheap fancy dress sequin top hat for each of us 
• Removed black ribbon and crappy piece of net 
• Got the hot glue out :-D
• Hot glued burgundy velvet ribbon round them  

• Dismantled and hot-glued big black fake flower 

•  Cut and hot-glued cobweb lace veil

CHOKERS
Found THIS awesome choker online but wanted to make as much as possible, plus couldn't really afford to buy after spending so much on fabrics and decorations (and BOOOOOZE :-D).  Soooo...

• Bought some wide black velvet ribbon
• Cut to size and attached velcro to ends 
• Fixed flat back red gems as vampire bite
• Attached red blood droplets [beads] to chain and attached to choker

EARRINGS
Made some earrings to match the droplets on our chokers.  Apologies for the artsy photo, I only had the one I took for my folksy page!

SKIRTS
I made us 3 skirts each for the look.  I could of course have made them all as one skirt but I figured this way each element could be reused if wanted!

• Black net underskirt for a bit of poof!  
• Red satin circle skirt.  
• Black glittery cobweb lace handkerchief hem overskirt.

BOLERO
We were after something with nice drapey sleeves and a large collar to highlight our chokers, but we couldn't find anything suitable (or cheap enough) to buy, so we ordered some black jersey so I could make jackets from scratch but decided that I didn't have the time nor inclination to do that in the end so we had a rethink!

• Bought us each a plain black long-sleeved t-shirt from the supermarket 
• Cut the sleeves to around elbow length 
• Marked the t-shirts to a bolero jacket type shape on the dress form (for mine, and directly on Spammy for hers) and cut to shape
• Did a massive amount of gathering to a massive amount (a good 8-10 metres) of black chiffon ribbon :-S 
• Attached the now gathered frilly ribbon to boleros 
• Cut squares of cobweb lace (with a sleeve sized circle in the centre) and attached to the sleeves to make some drapey sleeves

In addition we each wore a non-me-crafted top under our bolero.

(Apologies for the strange boobage of my dressform, to emulate my mahoosive boobage she wears a big turquoise padded bra which I tried to cover with my half-sarong, but alas the camera flash has x-ray vision!!)

 Hey presto we have clothes to wear!!

FANGS
Using some friendly plastic I also made my own vampire fangs with the help of THIS tutorial.  However whilst the teeth I made came out superb, apparently denture glue stuff doesn't work on my teeth cos even though they were custom made to fit my teeth they still wouldn't stay in.

Sooo the fangs ended up being lost almost immediately somewhere in the house (hence no photo) and my teeth left covered in denture glue which is the most disgusting substance known to man and took much brushing (thus ruining my makeup!) and mouthwash to remove!!  Boooo, so I ended up wearing some 10p fangs from Sainsburys, which is why my face looks so bizarre (more than usual anyways) in the first photo >:-E

I leave you with a shot of Wampyr Sam showing off her evilness with her pet Arnold the Bat-Cat

Next Halloween post = photos from the party :-)

Dr Loopenstein presents...

Mr and Mrs Frankenstuffy, and their journey into the world of the everliving :-)

Mr Frankenstuffy in design format

Mr Frankenstuffy ready for sewing together and stuffing!

Mrs Frankenstuffy in her undies waiting to be sewn together!

THE HAPPY COUPLE!!!

Happy Halloween!

Gratuitous advert: Available at my Folksy shop they could be attending your Halloween Party!! :-)

Meal of the week - stir fry!

Now, steel yourselves, I said this blog was gonna be a bit of mixture!!  So today's post is a little interlude before my next crafty post, which will be jewellery based.

I love food, I love talking about food, I love stir fries, every stir fry is unique, here is last night's stir fry :-D

Softening the sweet potato in stir fry oil.

After adding the rest of the veg - red onion, mushrooms, green pepper, mange tout, babycorn.  No meat or noodles today. Also added an oxo cube on this occasion for herbs and spices.

Ta daaaaa!! Ready to eat!!

Quick, cheap and yummy!!  I would have used chopsticks to eat it, except then I would have dropped more of it down me than usual... :-S

TTFN
Loops
xx