Cross stitch in the last 2 weeks

Here is my update on NH afghan, and the Poodle. Jo is still coming around once a week, and she is into cross stitch now biiiiig time - I can't believe it. Her picture is almost finished - and she goes to Hobbycraft about 3 times a week LOL, and bought about 5 or so more kits in the last 2 weeks LOL LOL. She's been bitten by the bug big time!

I hardly get to cross stitch though, and if there is one thing I'm jelous of, it's the time Jo can devote to her cross stitch. I think I did a few bits on the tree trunk for the NH afghan, and the poodle I managed to get a few lines in, but hardly noticable.

Roast leg of lamb with garlic and red wine sauce

Our Easter meal was Roast Leg of lamb with garlic and red wine sauce. Now I'm not a great cook, so if I do get something right, I'm quite pleased, and for my own sake (so I remember it next time), I would like to record the recipe here:

Ingridients:

1 leg of lamb (abt. 2 kg)
4 garlic gloves
rosemary or other herbs
red wine
olive oil
salt/pepper
potatoes.

1. Wash the lamb, dry and rub with olive oil, salt and a tiny amount of pepper.

2. Cut about 20 incisions into the lamb, and stuff the cut garlic gloves + herbs into it.

3. Put the leg into the pre-heated oven (200C), cover with foil, and let it roast for about 1 hour.

4. In the meantime, pre-boil the potatoes.

5. After every 15 or so minutes, brush the lamb with a mixture of olive oil, red wine and salt.

6. After 1 hour, remove the foil. continue to brush the lamb with the oil/wine mixture.

7. In the last 40 mins, put the potatoes around the lamb, but drain any liquids from the pan before (but don't throw them away, we need them for the gravy).

8. Turn the lamb once, and cook for another 40-60 mins (all together, 1 hr. 40 mins - 2 hrs).

9. After the lamb has come out of the oven, take the liquid which has collected at the bottom and stir it into some gravy powder with more red wine (I know, gravy powder is cheating, but all my cooking has to be easy-peasy Peggy friendly. I have mentioned already, I'm not a master cook).

Necla Kelek 'Die fremde Braut'

This is a German non-fiction book which really opened my eyes regarding the 'multi-cultural' society and integration. The title translates roughly into 'The foreign Bride', but the word 'fremde' in German is also equivalent with 'estranged'. Kelek, a Turkish lady living in Germany, why integration of Turkish people into German society is proving so difficult, and ultimately, appears not to work. I have to say that personally, I am a firm believer in multi-cultural society, and do not like segregation at all, for example, personally, I wouldn't agree to faith-schools. I could never quite understand why , for example, Turkish people living in Germany don't really want to have anything to do with Germans ( I had personal experience of this, and as a firm believer of multi-culturalism and married in a multi-faith marriage myself, I felt quite insulted when I was told by a Turkish young woman that her family would not allow her to go into the house of a German woman).

Kelek shows the deep roots in culture, going way back to the home-country. I can image that the book was very controversial in Germany. I can just hope that, one day, we can all live peacefully together. In the words of John Lennon 'Image' : Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I maybe I'm not the only one.

Spring Cleaning

I've had this week off, and really used it this time to do some major spring cleaning. I don't often have the time and the mood for it, but I really went for it this time. I've got several big bags in the shed, and about 100 books, all paperbacks which I read in the past few years. I decided that it is time to sort them out, as I'll not going to read them aagain, and it just takes too much space and makes the house all messy. We did a car boot sale, but only made about £40 (after taking away the stall rent of £12). Never mind, it's £40 extra in my purse. Lots of it was actually knitting stuff which I decided to get rid off as I don't knit any more - there just isn't enought time for knitting, and I enjoy cross stitch more.

We also finally started to paint the fence in the garden, and Rubyand Dan helped me. We've run out of paint though half way through, will continue maybe next weekend if there is time.

A finish and a new start

Happy Dance! I have finished Mirabilia's Spring Queen. It must have taken me around 3 years, but of course, it was only part of my rotation, and at times, I had to put it on hold completely for urgent other stuff such as wedding samplers etc. But boy, it turned out so beautiful at the end. The dreaded beading was really easy actually, and took me no longer than 2 weekends. I couldn't stop stitching this weekend actually, its always like that when the end is near LOL.

And here is the new kit which goes into the rotation: 'Giraffe and baby'from Dimensions. Ruby loves giraffes, so for a while, I collected cross stitch of giraffes to go in her room. At the moment, her room is full of Hannah Montana and High School Musical though;-))