Easy Cheesy Pancakes

Easy Cheesy Squeezy  Pancakes, which are yummy in your tummy.  Not just for pancake day  ;)

So, it was pancake day - I would make something pancake based for tea.   What I really wanted to do was an asparagus and mushroom pancake, but I had neither asparagus or mushroom in the house.   Morrisons supermarket is literally minutes away, but I really hate shopping, so decided to try and cobble something up from what was in the cupboards already.  Making this dish part of my STORECUPBOARD DINNERS recipe collection  :)

What you need:

• Flour (I used wholemeal, any will do)
• 1 or 2 eggs
• Milk
• Fizzy Water
• Seasoning
• Cheese (any, brie, Dairylea, good old cheddar. Old dried up bits are fine too)
• Butter
• Something to put in them! (I had Quorn mince and peas for mine and Chicken Tikka strips for the carnivores)

What you do:

• Put some flour in the bowl - 3 or 4 tablespoons.
• Make a well in the centre and drop in an egg or two. 
• Mix from the centre until the mixture thickens.

• Alternatively splash in milk (then stir) and fizzy water (then stir).

• Until the mixture becomes a pouring batter.

• Heat up some oil in a non-stick frying pan until nice and hot, then make a pancake for the pan. 

 (yep, for the pan, it will be messy, ugly and tatty, the rest will be beautiful  : )    Or instead of making it for the pan, cover it with syrup and eat it quickly yourself before anyone sees you!)

• See?  pretty pancake.

• Make two for each person and leave them to cool.

• Now make a cheese sauce - you can find my perfect cheese sauce recipe HERE.

• Mix your fillers into the sauce - into one I put Quorn mince, peas and a dollop of wholegrain mustard.

• Into the other, chicken tikka strips.  Spinach would have been good too but I didn't have any in.

• Give the pancakes a squidge of tomato ketchup and spread about, then plop a load of cheesy mix on so it sits down one side.

• Roll it up and place in an ovenproof dish.

• Sprinkle with grated cheese and dried herbs and bake at gas mark 6 for about 20/25 mins or until warm in the middle

• Enjoy  :)

You can make these ahead of time and just do the oven baking bit when you are ready to eat.

My new business cards have arrived

Why is it so exciting to get new business cards?

I guessed they were going to land this morning so I hung back from my shower, because I knew the second that water started to trickle, the doorbell would ring.   And last time that happened, I jumped out of the shower, slipped on the floor, went down like a sack of spuds, winded myself and got the 'red card of doom' through the letterbox.

This morning I was ready. I greeted the postman with such glee - good job he has been my delivery driver for quite some time and knows I am a bit of an odd ball - nearly knocking him off his feet while I snatch the box.

Then..... I made him stand there while I opened the box so I could give him a business card.

Now THAT'S what I call self-promotion  ;)



PS:  I have noticed an error, twice I checked the blooming thing.  It's not a massive error, just a font colour issue  ('Phone' should have been in black ink)  but it's going to annoy me for however long it takes to give 2000 business cards away!

Patons Valiani 'wet look' yarn

Just finished crocheting this gorgeous jumper.  I say gorgeous not as in to blow sunshine up my own bum, but gorgeous as in that is is a beautiful pattern and the most divine yarn.

The yarn is Valiani from Patons.  It was in the Hobbycraft clearance sale in packs of 10. I bought 3 packs  :)  2 red and a black.  

It looks rather odd with it's high shine, it almost looks wet.... or PVC ish, don't you think?

Based on that you might expect it to feel somewhat rough to the touch, so I got quite a shock when I opened it to find the softest, snuggliest, cosy yarn ever!

It is an Acrylic/Polyester/Wool mix and is honestly just beautiful.

Now what pattern could I possibly make with this?  I thought it needed to be more of an over top, so you could show the yarn of to it potential rather than it being solid stitches.

I found this lovely FREE pattern by Tammy Hildebrand, you can find it on the Red Heart Yarns website.

Oh, have you met my manequin?  She is called Claudette and she is skinny.  Never mind though, she does her job well and doesn't cost much to keep  ;)

My plus size tunic doesn't sit so well on skinny Claudette.

Let's nip it in a bit.  That's better  :)  (I wish!!)

Have a close up of the lovely design.

This only took 9 balls of Valiani yarn, so I have another full bag to play with in red and a bag of black.  What shall I make next?

Crochet along .... Mandala (6)

I am so sorry I have been so long with this instalment, I popped the Mandela out of sight, and you know what that means - out of sight, out of mind!

Anywhooo, if you are joining in you should be at this stage....

If not and you would like to join in, click HERE to go back to the start.
We are working in UK crochet terms.



So, first of all today we are going to join some yarn into a space between Treble clusters, and chain 3.

Make 2 Trebles in the next space.

Now we are going to be working BEHIND the next TWO posts, can you see the hook direction of the blue hook?  That way.

Work 3 Trebles into that space.

Jump to the next space and pop in 2 Trebles.

And again, working behind the TWO posts, work 3 trebles.

It should look something like this..

 Continue round in the same manner.

When you come to the end we are going to add a little jiggery pockery to make it all join up.

Make ONE Treble into the last space to join the Treble you put there at the start.

Look where the blue hook sits, you will be working behind the two stitches to bring them together.

Work 3 Trebles into this space.

Slip stitch into the first stitch of the first cluster to join.

Another round complete  :)

If you look across the top of your clusters, there are three clear stitches to work into.  Add a new yarn into the first of one of these three stitches.

Double crochet in each of the three.

Then chain 2.

Double Crochet in each of the next three in the next cluster, then chain 2.

Continue around.

It's getting rather large now isn't it?

In fact, it should be a close enough size to fit an 18" cushion pad.

This one is from Dunelm and costs £3.99.

Mine fits perfectly, but if yours doesn't we can work on a filler row later.  If it is too large we can sort that out too  :)

So, if you fancy making a cushion join me in the next part for the other side.  We shall make a reversible cushion with lots of different rows so you will never know which side to show off!

If you don't fancy a cushion then you will end up with two beautiful rounds to use as you wish - a table decoration perhaps, or the beginnings of a funky blanket.

The next instalment coming soon, but if you have just joined us please use the links below to catch up  :)

Crochet along .... Mandala (1)

Crochet along .... Mandala (2)

Crochet along .... Mandala (3)

Crochet along .... Mandala (4)

Crochet along .... Mandala (5)

And remember, anyone who joins in with this crochet along and provides a photo at the end will be entered into a draw to win a lovely prize of a full set of coloured crochet hooks in a case just like this one...

A sneaky peak at a new kit coming up....

It's an infinite scarfy, snoody thing.  Knitted.  

The yarn is delicious, in purple, pink, green, oranges and yellow with a fabulous gold metallic fringed edging.

Once I get some decent photos it will be made up into a kit with yarn, needles, a sewing up needle and pattern   :)