#60 #steppingintosixty #steppingoutoffifty #stepoutifcomfortzone #comfortzone #newthings #life – Stepping Into Sixty and Out Of The Comfort Zone

Little late in posting this week as attended the wedding of one of the first friends I made when I moved to Devon. They have had to cancel twice due to COVID but the sun shone brightly as if it knew how much this day meant to them ❤️

I created a few really yummy evening meals this week.

The first was teriyaki salmon, veggies and pad thai noodles

With the potato peeler I sliced carrot and courgette and then sliced up a whole pak choy and broccoli florets and added to a pan to saute and soften. Meanwhile I cooked some pad thai noodles and drained.

I then cubed a couple of fillets of salmon and then added to pan with soften veggies. Once the salmon had started turning pale pink I added the noodles and a packet of #bluedragon Sticky Teriyaki Sauce and combined everything so it was all coated in the sauce. This took about 30 mins to prepare, cook and dish up.

Yum!

The other meal was Sausage and Gnocchi Bake
I used #tescofoods Finest Pork and Chorizo sausages but any good quality sausages would work.

I cubed courgette, red and orange peppers, diced up broccoli florets and whole cherry tomatoes. Added half a packet of gnocchi and drizzled some oil over it all and mixed thoroughly. Chop up the sausages into 4 and place into the veggies and then add blobs of soft goats cheese on top. Cook in oven for about 45 mins on 180. I mixed it at about the halfway stage so everything browned.

The ‘P’ for last week was poppy seeds. It’s not that I haven’t used them many times in a lemon and poppy seed cake but decided to add them to butter biscuits and also grated lemon. The flavour was lovely and the poppy seeds added that little extra to them.

The recipe I used was https://thegardeningfoodie.com/danish-butter-cookies/

Now onto crafts, I told you last week that we had our monthly Crafty Butterflies evening due. We made Shaker Cards which was great fun and I was rather pleased with the outcome.

I also finished my trio of tin can covers designed by https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2022/05/stylecraft-blogstars-garden-party.html

I have started on making a bucket hat for my Nephew’s Birthday and creating a shoulder bag for my Niece who’s Birthday is next week and I will be seeing them over the Jubilee Weekend as they are visiting Devon for the half term holidays.

I also have one of my best friends and her husband visiting this week, so hoping for a nice day and evening so we can eat in the garden and drink plenty of cocktails and chat and giggle till the early hours just like we used to many moons ago!

I have taken a week off work to enjoy all the festivities, wishing you a wonderful week whatever you are up to.

Chris x

My youngest daughter is back from her course in Sheffield and she really enjoyed playing with bones! Of course like all good teenagers she came back with a pile of washing 😂

This week has definitely been a week of April showers, some of those showers have been decidedly wintery. As I write this though the sun is coming up and although there is a frost on the ground it should warm up nicely for today’s adventure. Mia, myself and the little dogs are heading into Dartmoor but you will have to join me next week to see where we went!

I am now on the letter I which does not seem to have a specific herb or spice but correct me if I’m wrong. I decided rather than skip it, to go with an Italian herb blend. This homemade Italian blend is the combination of basil, oregano, marjoram, parsley and thyme. You could add rosemary also but I did not have any dried.

I made a delicious fish stew and Italian soft rolls.

Fish stew made 3 portions

2 fillets salmon skinned and cubed
8 large raw prawns chopped into 3
Chopped onion
Small head of Broccoli chopped finely
2 cloves garlic
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Tablespoon Italian herbs
Tablespoon dried morel mushrooms soaked in cup of boiling water

Saute onions, broccoli and garlic till soft, add tinned tomatoes, herbs and seasoning. Drain the mushrooms and add the water to the pan and chop the mushrooms and add. Finally add the salmon and prawns and cook till prawns turn pink.

The rolls were made from this recipe but I halved the amount as did not want as many rolls and only half the size.

Subway Bread Recipe (Italian Herb and Cheese Copycat)

Decoupage

The word is fashioned from Middle French decouper, meaning “to cut out.” Decouper, in turn, pastes together the prefix de- (“from” or “away”) and couper (“to cut).

I have seen some lovely decoupage projects on Pinterest to recycle tin cans and decided to have a go. It took about 1 hour from start to finish so an easy fun project to do as a group or with kids. Just make sure you use a can that has a pull ring top as you then don’t have to worry about a sharp edge. I didn’t have one so used black duck tape around the top edge.

I found old music sheets online and printed and cut to size of my tin, you could use newspaper or even just paint it. I glued the music sheet to the tin and allowed to dry whilst cutting out patterns from some pretty napkins I had recently bought.

I found a good YouTube video which showed a good way of putting the napkin onto the tin using cling film which means you get no creases or ripping. I didn’t bother spraying a gloss varnish over it but just painted a thin layer of the white glue (modge podge) over the top as this goes clear and seals.

I thought the music was very topical and I just popped one of my seagrass jars inside it to adorn my kitchen island.

Our craft group had been going to learn needle felting or needle stabbing as I wanted to call it!Unfortunately our expert has gone down with the dreaded Covid, so it looks as though I will step in to do a decoupage session instead. Good job I don’t stick to one craft 😂

I will let you know how it goes. I am also going to see if my lemon and nettle cake from a few weeks ago is as good made into individual cupcakes for everyone to try.

Have a lovely week as we head into Easter.

Tag Archives: #60 #steppingintosixty #steppingoutoffifty #stepoutifcomfortzone #comfortzone #newthings #life

Tasty Meals and Pretty Crafts

Chris x

A little step into the Mediterranean

Chris x