Last year I tried hard to design a template for an elephant – my first ever stuffed animal (plushy). It was all fine, but the belly just wouldn’t work. Eventually I gave up and looked for a pattern instead. Lo and behold, I couldn’t find one!
Then, in a whim of madness (because my French is bad) I bought French Burda magazine this month. And what do you know, they had a template for a sitting down elephant! It took some time, dictionaries and cursing, but Elephant is here.
Mr MacTavish is not so sure if Elephant is competition or not. He thought he’d test him out – by hitting Elephant’s trunk.
That was after he’d given it a good old sniff.
I’m in an as yet unnamed stage that occurs just before I make something new. It consists of a lot of pacing, even more pondering, a fair amount of staring at fabrics and pulling them out before realising I have ‘not enough’ which soon turns into ‘don’t be silly, just pick something and do it’.
In the meantime, Mr MacTavish likes to cosy up behind the silent sewing machine and wait until the fun begins.
Yum yum!
I used to love macaroons when I was a child. They came in a papery-plastic wrapper and for some reason, even in Scotland, they were not always easy to find.
I still remember Mrs. Sinclair, my teacher when I was seven, who made macaroons with us at school. Why we did that, I have no idea, but because of that day she has a place in my personal hall of fame.
After that, I spent the rest of my childhood (umm and some of my adulthood..) insisting that they are made with potato. They really are. Don’t laugh, I now have the proof. Test it and see:
Ingredients:
One small potato
APPROX 500g/20z icing/confectionary/powered sugar – have more just in case (this is not an exact science!)
Chocolate for melting and dipping the macaroons in.
Two big handfuls of dessicated coconut in a bowl (toasted if you wish – more authentic)
Boil the potato so it can be mashed. While it is boiling, sift the sugar into a dry bowl. When the potato is soft, mash it with a fork and then gradually add sugar while beating the mixture with an electric mixer. You know it’s ready when the mixture is very stiff. Make shapes out of the mixture, bars, balls or whatever takes your fancy and pop them in the fridge.
Melt some chocolate in a bain-mairie or a thick bottomed pan over a very low heat (you can turn the v. low heat on and off to lower the average temperature). Roll the chilled shapes in the moulten chocolate and then in a bowl of coconut and place on a sheet of aluminium foil. Pop in fridge when the shape is hard enough to move without damaging it.
Try not to eat before the chocolate completely hardens!
If the bars end up too big after the chocolate and coconut, break them up into ‘bites’ – they last longer that way.
