Sculpture / Art made by Me!

Some sculptures and other art that I have made over the years.

Tajine tonight, sis and I are cooking Moroccan

Just dug the tajine out of the garage - freshly scrubbed and ready for use!

Stay tuned, step by step and recipe will follow as work progresses.

This tajine survived the plane trip back
from Morocco many years ago

Preparation is key, you need quite a lot of ingredients. 
For 2 persons you need:

• 500 gr lamb chops (with bone)
• 2 large carrots
• 1 zucchini
• 3 medium potatoes
• 3 tomatoes (pealed)
• 35 g tomato concentrate
• 1 large onion (roughly chopped)
• garlic to taste (min 2 cloves)
• herbs: cumin, sweet paprika, kurkuma, pepper and salt, cinnamon (ground + 2 sticks), Ras el Hanout
• 20 apricots (dried) and 1/2 cup raisins
• chicken stock 
• 1/2 cup green olives (without stones)
• couscous

-

spice the meat (easiest is to put the meat and spices
in plastic bag and shake well)

cut the vegetables in big chunks, peal tomatoes and de-seed

sweat down the onions and garlic without colouring them (put aside)

same saucepan, brown the spiced meat (put aside)
pour some stock into saucepan and loosen  juices
add tomato concentrate and stir

layer the onions, the meat, the carrots, tomatoes, zucchini and
Cinnamon sticks, pour in the chicken stock until
half way up the contents

cover and bring to the boil, reduce heat to simmering
and forget for 45 min

I wish they made blogs in smell O vision, mmmmm

after 45 min add the potatoes and dried apricots, cover again
and leave for another 10 to 15 min until the potatoes are done

In the mean time prepare the couscous with some raisins.

We used a regular stainless steel saucepan for the preparation, but for presentation's sake, we used the tajine to bring to the table.

add some olives to the couscous at the bottom of the tajine

layer on the meat

now add all the vegetables and juices
sprinkle with sliced almonds and some sesame seeds

serve piping hot

 Beware! Enjoy, but watch out for over eating!

My 2 skinny ladies

Some years ago I adopted 2 Spanish greyhounds (Galgo Espagnol)

meet Gitana (Tana) and Simpatica (Tika)

They are the most adorable, sweet, good tempered dogs you can imagine. 

They only have a few drawbacks ... they can't be banned from the sofa (you don't have to believe me, just ask anyone who has adopted greyhounds) and because their skin is so fine, they don't like being wet or cold.

So, here are some things I have made over the years to keep them warm and dry.

Turtleneck and cable sweaters with embroidered monogram

Turtleneck (to be worn under their winter coats) can also be worn as a snood

Finding fitting coats (long in the back and narrow enough for their skinny bodies) proved to be difficult and expensive, so I made them myself. I looked at horse's winter turnout coats and went from there. As the material I used some XXXL men's anoraks that I bought at a discount store. And don't worry, Tika got an identical coat



November 3rd, 2013: today the coats were tested in the field!

Origami Slippers

My sis is coming to visit tomorrow, and as my floors are getting very cold, I'm quickly knitting her a pair of slippers.

Simple design, quick to make!

knit

1st seam

2nd seam

final seam

and here it is : slipper number one

now knit a second one and then my sis will have warm feet !

And now they are a pair!

and here they are warming sis's feet

this is the link to the site where I found the idea: http://breierij.de-paradijsvogel.nl/patronen/origamisloffen/index.php