Saturday, April 06, 2013

Slow Weekend

I think I said yes to far too many things this year, and now I find myself really very busy. As a result, I tend to spend the weekends recovering from my crazy busy weeks by crocheting, gardening, reading, socialising, and not really doing much online. As a result of THAT, my poor blog has been neglected.

I really thought that I would give this site some attention last weekend. We had 4 days off, afterall, and no concrete plans. But, instead of queuing up posts with recipes, gardening successes, and craft projects, I spent time cooking, gardening, and sewing instead. But it was a glorious four day weekend - it went by slowly, and gently, and really gave me a recharge. I honestly think we should have a four day weekend every month.

My slow weekend involved lots of lovely things, like...

Peanut Butter Oat pancakes. I saw this posted on Facebook on Friday morning and had to have them. I made some changes - I used chia instead of flax seeds, I used sunflower oil instead of melted butter, things like that.

When I made the batter, I thought it looked like Definitely Not Enough, so I quickly mixed up a second batch, effectively doubling the recipe. That turned out to be unnecessary - we were so full we had leftovers, which admittedly were a nice snack. So even greedy gutses like Andy and I found this recipe enough for two people - if you make it yourself, don't be fooled by the small quantity of batter.

Gardening. Mainly Andy did the gardening, with some occasional support from me. He built some garden beds, covered the front bed with cardboard and then mulch, planted loads of seeds, and harvested this gigantic sweet potato.

Which we turned into African Peanut Stew. The stew also had eggplant from the garden, luffa (aka loofah) from the garden, chillies & capsicums from the garden, and lots of delicious peanut butter.

Easter Eggs. I made some totally amazing Coconut Cream Eggs from Celebrate Vegan. I know Easter is over, but it is worth making these, even if you shape as truffles, because OMGtheyaredelicious.

I mixed up the filling, which involved cream cheese, icing sugar and coconut, and in my version a splash of cointreau, and froze teaspoon-sized blobs on a baking sheet. Once they were frozen-ish, I could shape them into vaguely egg-shaped things. I had a little chocolate left over after coating all my eggs, so I made a ganache and drizzled it, which was sort of stupid but not bad.

Curtains. I made them, with the help of Nacho. Now our bedroom is nice and dark, no matter how full the moon is.

I also made jam, finished crocheting my blanket (now I just need to edge it), and we dog-sat Tika's friend Zoe. It was a full weekend, but it all happened at a nice slow pace. I'm looking forward to the upcoming public holidays to do more of the same!

6 comments:

Hannah said...

Peanut butter and truffles. Sounds like a perfect rejuvenating weekend to me.

Dee said...

I totally agree that long weekends probably improve productivity so much that we need more of them. I went down with the flu, but it was still nice to lounge around with no guilt about unmet demands.

Kari said...

It sounds like a perfect weekend Theresa - and I'm still loving the look and sound of those eggs. I also love the look and sound of that sweet potato and peanut butter stew. I also know what you mean about saying yes to too much and paying for it later; there should be some inbuilt way of detecting when commitments are getting excessive and shutting off 'yes' responses!

Joey said...

The four day weekend campaign starts here! Fewer work days means more people needed to do the same work - it's a cure for unemployment too!

Those coconut eggs are calling to me! Were they hard to make? And what cream cheese did you use? The stuff they have over here is just not nice! Reckon silken tofu would work?

Theresa said...

Hi Joey - the filling is basically cream cheese (I used tofutti) icing with lots of shredded coconut mixed in. You could probably do it with regular icing? Or even avocado icing, for a healthier version :)

They were not hard, though! Just mix, freeze, shape, freeze, dip in chocolate, eat! We only have two left in the fridge, which makes me a bit sad...

Mel said...

I like your thinking - a four day weekend once a month would be fantastic!

OMG - I can't get over the size of your sweet potato. Your easter eggs look great too!