A successful night at W.I.

Despite all my worries about the Japanese inspired evening I was running last Thursday it all went really well. There was a goodish turnout of about 30 members even though the weather was not too good.

Fran in the centre

After the official business session I introduced the theme of the evening and Fran demonstrated 3 different wrappings with the furoshiki. This literally translates a ‘bath sheet’. There has been a resurgence in the popularity of this craft since the early 2000s when it was recognised as a more ecologically acceptable way to wrap gifts.

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The leaf bag from a silk scarf

I helped about 10 members with some sashiko practice with small kits I made up myself. In the last week I had made a simple book bag with Japanese fabric and some basic sashiko stitching on one side.

The sashiko table

Our final table was laid out with origami papers and examples of four easy models, a fall leaf, a minnow, a windmill and a shell. I had printed out the instructions from the books I had. This table became the centre of great concentration and hilarity.

One member came up late to thank me and to say how much she enjoyed these craft sessions as they gave everyone the opportunity to chat and that even the most shy members had been able to join in. We all enjoy the talks by outside speakers but gathering around a table with everyone trying something new is much appreciated.

On the home front we have done what all the country has been doing and hunkered down to see out the storm. I decided to use up bits and bobs in the fridge and freezer left over from Christmas. This year we had goose for Christmas lunch and I had put the two large legs in the freezer. I came across a recipe for Christmas goose dum biryani at this website. I always have a large stock of spices and had all I needed apart from ground fennel so I pounded up some fennel seeds instead with the garlic and ginger. I don’t often spend all afternoon cooking the evening meal but this was really worth it. However I forgot to take a photo but it was not far off the one in the recipe. The biryani was served with lime wedges, raita, red onion rings and scattered with pomegranate seeds and coriander.
Dessert was a baked cheesecake adapted from several recipes and using up cartons of ricotta and marscapone which had escaped notice and were about a week out of date. They smelt fine and looked ok too so they were whisked up with more cream, lemon zest, vanilla essence, eggs and sugar and put on a base of crushed chocolate digestives. The recipe had said ginger biscuits but these were all I had in the cupboard.
One tip I did get from the net was to cook new season rhubarb in a slow cooker. The stems are cut up into short lengths and put on the base of the container and sprinkled with 100gms of castor sugar. The rhubarb takes 45 minutes to cook and the castor sugar melts into the juices to form a syrup. No water is necessary. This slightly sweet rhubarb perfectly offset the creamy cheesecake and I had the satisfaction of using up things that may have been binned.
I decided not to make a traditional Sunday lunch today as it will be just be for the two of us. I came across a largish piece of rump steak in the freezer so we will be enjoying some griddled steak with chips, baked cherry tomatoes and spinach then some more of the cheesecake. I’ll have to watch what I eat at the beginning of the week to make up for all the calories over the weekend!

Whatever you are doing I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. I’m off to Manchester to see Mum tomorrow so that will mean an early start.

Catherine x