Mosaic Club!

What a busy day!

8:15 - veggies washed and chopped ready for the slow cooker...

Easels away at the top end to make room for the mosaic class...

Mosaic for St Michael's Church in the middle of the room...

9:30 - students' table, ready and waiting...

Straight in there! Well done for finishing your first mosaic project, Janet - I know it looks like you've just covered it up but wait until you have finished the grouting...

...see, you can see some of your lovely mosaic now...

...getting there...

...finished! Gorgeous!

Another beautiful mosaic, Georgina - please bring it back next week grouted so we can see!

Ah, class over, time for soup! Recipe at the bottom.

Hm - think I ought to stop breaking pretty dishes to use in mosaics.

The soup was another winner today. It was pretty good, I must admit. Here's the recipe:

1/2  x butternut squash

1 x onion

 1 x courgette

2 x sticks celery

1 x sweet potato

herbs de provence

chili and garlic flakes

fresh ginger (lazy ginger is good or powdered if not)

2 x bay leaves

Stock

2 x tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1 x cup small pasta shapes

Wash and chop the vegetables. Cover with vegetable stock and add herbs and seasoning. 

Either bring to the boil or put on high in slow cooker for  3 hours, add the peanut butter and whisk up - I like to leave some chunky bits in but the peanut butter makes it thick and creamy! Add the pasta and serve when cooked.

We all really enjoyed this soup!

Why not come and join us - for just £15 a session, it's a great way to spend a Wednesday morning.

Welcome home!

It was so lovely to see Janet, Georgie AND Bridget this morning. Sue - have a wonderful holiday!


Loving Bridget's finished door plaque for her grandchildren. Just needs grouting now.  The other two pieces are looking fine and I had a break from glass - well, I couldn't allow my dear friend to continue to be distressed when her favourite cup split!  The water went in, the cup cracked and her face fell. Mine lit up! "I'll have that!"  I'm sure she'll be pleased when I give it back to her, though, remade.


I did think I'd messed up the soup this morning by adding too much water but it turned out fine in the end. Wasn't one of my favourites but cannot have been that bad because I've just had another mug of it!

Red Cabbage and Kidney Bean

serves 8 - 10

1 x onion
1/4 x red cabbage
1 x tinned red kidney beans
1 x stick celery
1/2 x stick leek
1 x handful broccoli
1 x handful cauliflower
1 x large bowlful of diced carrot and swede
1 x teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/2 x teaspoon garlic and chilli flakes
1.5 litre vegetable stock
salt to taste


Wash and chop as appropriate (someone had taken my sharp knife from the kitchen so I had to tear!) Place in slow cooker for 3 hours, blend to desired consistency and serve with a swirl of cream (we had semi skimmed milk for a healthy version!)

Jackie - The Album and Broken Glass

It has been a wonderful morning! 

Janet, you were missed but we do wish you a lovely holiday.

Congratulations Georgina and thank you for the VERY naughty (but oh my goodness - they were gorgeous!) cream cakes to celebrate the safe arrival of your new granddaughter.

Despite the rain and grey of the morning, it seemed extremely sunny in the studio today.  We had a lot of laughs.

Our music of the day was 'Jackie, The Album' which set off a stream of reminiscence - Donny or David Cassidy, putting singles on repeat, over and over again...they were the days!

I am LOVING Georgina's latest idea for her children's cupboard in the bathroom.  

Sue's number plate for her house is gorgeous - the photo does not do it justice! 

Really looking forward to seeing this grouted next week.

 Well, it is a different soup every week and I was a little unsure of this one.  I enjoyed it and think it was one of my best - I just hope I can remember everything I put in it...

RED CABBAGE & AUBERGINE SOUP

Serves 4

1/8th x red cabbage
1/2 x aubergine (slice and layer with salt to remove bitterness, for 10 minutes, then wash before use)

1/4 x onion

1/4 x medium sweet potato

1 x celery stick

1/4 x sweet red pepper

1/2 x tin butter beans, drained.

2 L x Hot vegetable or chicken stock (I used chicken AND vegetable stock)

1/2 x teaspoon garlic and chili flakes

1 x mug of passata
1 x teaspoon Herbs de Provence


Wash and chop finely all the vegetables. Place ALL ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on HIGH for  3 hours, partially liquidise then reduce to MEDIUM for 1 hour. 
Optional, add splash of semi skimmed milk.


Do let me know if you use my soup recipes and if you like them.

Treacle and Soup

I really enjoyed Sunday at the Treacle Market, setting up a table outside Mike's new shop, mosaicing with my gorgeous SMALTI.

I do not know where this week has got to!  It has been a wonderfully creative week, making coasters with children on Sunday, water colour beach scenes at Mount Hall and Mosaic Club on Monday, shifting 360 kilos glass yesterday and my mosaic group this morning.

I DO love Wednesdays.  I got a little excited today as my new slow cooker arrived so I could do a bigger batch of soup! Recipe at the end.

Janet and Georgina's mosaics are coming on so well - really proud of you girls! 

Well, the slow cooker worked.

I do not think I could EVER be able to run a cafe serving soup, I would not be able to make the same soup twice!

Here is what we had this week:

3 x small potatoes 

4 x small carrots 

2 x celery sticks

1/2 x white onion

1 x vegetable stock cube

1 x chicken stock cube

2 x fresh cloves garlic

1 x bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 x tablespoon cous cous

garlic and chili flakes to taste

1.5 litres water

splash of semi skimmed milk

Do not peel the vegetables - just the onion and garlic. 

Chop everything up small.

Place everything except the milk in the slow cooker on 'high' for 3 hours. Stir occasionally.

Optional - whizz half the soup with a hand blender and add the milk before serving.

I would actually have liked pearl barley in this but it was tasty nevertheless.

Mosaic Club Soup Recipe!

What a fabulous morning! It was so nice to have the window open today. I did not realise how much I had missed the sounds of the canal. Lovely.


Janet asked me to write my recipes down, so I thought I would include a recipe at the end of my blog each week.   Please feel free to send recipes in, though. If I use them, I will put them on my blog.

I am really looking forward to seeing Janet's floral mosaic finished.  I love her use of stained glass and mirror.

This photo just does not do justice to Georgina's beautiful woodland mirror.  Using colour on her grout to add depth and atmosphere, her careful addition of very fine glitter on the grout just completed the look. Stunning!

No - not even Georgina is that quick! She has gone back to a project she started before Christmas and it is looking goo...oood!

Heads down and concentrating. 

We did have a lot of laughs today. 

Actually, we quite often have a lot of laughs!

Just loving Sue's chosen colours for her door number.  I think it may even be finished next week when I melt those glass pieces down into cabouchons!

And what can I say about Tonie's work. It was a pleasure to have her in the class. It is a pity she lives so far away but I was really pleased she wanted to use the GORGEOUS Dynasty Smalti! We found the colours she wanted for her first ever try at mosaics and I think she has been bitten by the bug.

I really must get those photos done now the boxes are open.

You can purchase the smalti from my Ebay shop - just click on  the Ebay icon on my website:

MY WEBSITE

Ok - here it is, the first Mosaic Club Soup Recipe:

Roasted Vegetable and Red Lentil Soup

Serves 4

4 x small maris piper potatoes

1 x large parsnip

2 x medium carrots

1 x medium courgette

1/2 x red onion

2 x sticks celery

2 x mugs COOKED and drained red lentils

2 x pints vegetable stock

1 x teaspoon paprika

1/2 x teaspoon ground garlic and chilli flakes

1/2 teaspoon Oregano

1 x tablespoon olive oil

optional - splash of milk

Scrub all the vegetables, peel the onion but just top and tail the others except the potatoes.  Chop into small chunks except for the courgette, make those a bit bigger.

Dry the veg with kitchen roll or a clean tea towel. Spread out in a roasting tin.

Mix the oil, herbs and spices. Pour over the vegetables and rub in to cover them.

Roast in pre heated hot oven for 20 minutes. Turn temperature  down to medium-hot for 30 minutes.

Place cooked veg, lentils and stock in a pan and bring to the boil.  

Depending on how you like your soup, either add a splash of milk and serve as is or liquidise partially.

Add seasoning to taste if required.

Hope I remembered it all - enjoy!