Happy Halloween!!!

Today is one of DS's favorite days of the year, trick or treat! Before doing the rounds in the village this evening, we'll have some of DS's friends over for a make-up session and Halloween tea party. Creepy muffins, ghoulish sweets and spooky cookies are the order of the day.

Boo!!! Having slightly 'aged' from yesterday's look ;-) Good thing is, it's much easier to breathe! Sarves and accessories as yesterday.

Cup cakes recipe as in kid's cupcakes post, only with different colored icing and decoration

Halloween cookies

125 gr butter, unsalted and softened
60 gr sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp liquid honey
2 tsp finely chopped lemon zest
310 gr flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Mix butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix on medium speed until well combined. Add lemon zest. With mixer on low speed, add ginger and flour in two batches, mixing until just incorporated. Form the dough into a ball, wrap with cling film and leave for a minimum of two hours in the fridge. Roll out the dough in between two layers of freezer bags. Cut out cookie shapes. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and bake for approx. 10min.

Icing:
220 gr Icing sugar
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
Beat icing sugar with the lemon juice and add food coloring to your liking. Spread on biscuits with a spatula. Decorate with pearls, contrasting icing, sweets etc.

Back to normal !

Halloween is over, phew!! It was great fun, but I have to admit that I'm quite relieved to have stored all masks and decorations away until next year. DS has come down from his sugar high and with school starting again tomorrow, life goes back to normal.

Today wearing a 90 Carré in a bow knot, H ing Up simple woolen trousers and a white shirt.

Featured scarf Puzzle

Today wearing - Tie knot

Today wearing my Carré in a tie knot, leaving one end much longer than the other.. it gives the scarf a wonderful length!

featured scarf Monsieur & Madame

Neutrals

I love neutrals and I love cooking, which is why the 'Aux Pays des Epices' is one of my favorite scarves. Many of the spices pictured on the scarf are staples in my kitchen, others I only use rarely and some are yet to be experimented with. Today wearing my scarf like a necklace, in a full Ascot knot.

H it Up!

• Aux Pays des Epices 90 Carré
• Picotin bag in Etoupe
• Muse belt buckle & gris-t. belt strap
• Elephants bangle


Half Ascot. Click here for a how-to

Full Ascot
the ends are brought together at the back of the neck and then tied into a double knot

Pom poms !!!

Today sharing a fabulous invention of a creative and wonderful cyber friend, with her kind permission. She came up with the idea to create pom poms from ribbons and rubber bands. They make incredibly cute accessories to dress up your bag and here's how to make your own. Many thanks again, dear P and good luck to everyone!

You need about 1.30 meters of ribbon and a few rubber bands.

Scrunch and twist your rubber bands into a little ball. Leave about 17cm of ribbon as the end bit.

Start winding the longer end of the ribbon around the rubber ball.

Try to wind the ribbon tightly and in a crisscrossing way, much like winding wool into a ball. Always stay clear of the 15 cm long end ribbon, just keep winding around it.

Nearly there..

Once you've used up all the ribbon, fold the end over and secure with a few stitches to the ball.

You can either knot your pom pom onto the handle or metal ring of your bag, or you could create a loop to attach it.

For the loop, fold about 7cm of the end ribbon onto itself..

and fix it with a few stitches.

Attach your pom pom to your bag in the same way as you'd do with a clochette. (Wind the ribbon around a handle or pull through a metal ring, then feed the pom pom through the loop you have just created)

Pink Scarf Theme Day

Today's scarf theme day is 'Pink', in honor of national breast cancer month. Wearing my Carré Kantha in a basic bias fold, wrapped once around the neck and secured with a double knot.


H it Up!

• Carré Kantha 90 Carré
• Silver rings as usual
• 35 Birkin black Togo

Jeans & white shirt ~ two

Today wearing once again a classic 'uniform', jeans and a white shirt. Having folded the scarf in the basic bias, I then wrapped it once around the neck, leaving one end longer than the other. To secure, I pulled both ends from opposite directions through a scarf ring.

H it Up

• La Femme aux Semelles de Vent 90 Carré
• Evelyne scarf ring
• Muse belt buckle and black box leather strap

Market day ~ Autumn

Todays market greeted us with the most amazing display of autumn colors and produce.

Here is a crate of the first olives of the year.. it's the beautiful Picholine variety, which makes the best oil. One can't eat olives as they are, they need to be either pickled or pressed for oil. I find it charming that fresh Picholines are available to those customers who prefer to do the pickling themselves(it's a complicated process that takes several days). The fresh green of the olives looks so pretty next to the walnuts (from Grenoble) and the first Clémentines of the year..

And here the true flavour of autumn, Cêpe mushrooms (Porcini) from the Cevennes..

.. some liquorice, nutmeg and god knows what else!

Selecting a cheese to go with our glass of wine later in the café. Wearing my Ex-libris GM, Lift Earrings and Lift Pendant.

At the end of the market day, everyone gravitates towards the cafés which surrond the square, ordering some wine or coffee while enjoying a little pick nick of the delicacies bought while chatting to their friends and family.

A wonderful morning and a vrai joie de vivre!!

Today wearing ~ 70 Coaching for 'Scarf and Hat' theme day

This Friday's scarf theme day is 'Scarf and Hat'. Wearing my 70 Coaching as a headscarf, teamed up with a Stetson cap.

First folding the scarf into a triangle, then placing the folded edge across the forehead and finally bringing the ends to the back of my neck, tying them into a double knot. Putting a cap on top prevents the scarf from sliding, holding it perfectly in it's place!

featured scarf Coaching 70 Vintage Carré

Cowboy knot and autumn colors

I've been waiting to wear my 'Monsieur et Madame' scarf ever since I bought it last spring. It is from a previous season (AW2006), but luckily my store managed to find one for me. I love it's rich autumn colors and finally we have the weather to match!

H it Up!

• Monsieur et Madame 90 Carré
• Grand Apparat enamel bangle

Sunripened & roasted tomatoes pasta sauce

All through summer local farmers sell their produce at small stalls alongside country roads. A couple of weekends ago the season finished and I bought 15 kg (33 lbs) of wonderful sun ripe tomatoes to make sauce for winter.
They are almost too beautiful to be eaten, the colors and shapes are so pretty. The recipe that follows is for 5 kilos (11 lbs).

Skinning is a must. My fastest and easiest method is to transfer the tomatoes (once the skin has cracked from being a few seconds in boiling water) with the help of a pair of thongs into a sieve..

and then drop them straight into the kitchen sink where I leave them to cool.

Once they have cooled it is easy to slide the skins off, which I leave in the sink. Continuing to work in the sink, I half the skinned tomatoes and put them aside into a big bowl. The beauty of this method is that the kitchen remains clean, all the mess stays in the sink (I can't believe I am posting a pic of my messy kitchen sink here, but it illustrates the point)

A third of the halved tomatoes go in single layers on baking sheets lined with parchment (cut side up) to be roasted in a preheated oven (160Celsius/320 Fahrenheit) for approx. 80 minutes. The roast tomatoes will give the sauce a wonderful rich taste. All remaining tomatoes get chopped/teared into chunks.

Next pouring some good quality olive oil into a heavy sauce pan so that the bottom is covered in a nice layer. Chopping a big onion into little chunks and frying it in the olive oil on a small heat until translucent. Crushing two gloves of garlic and continuing to fry until fragrant. Then adding the oven roasted and chopped tomatoes and several teaspoons of Herbes de Provence.

Taking a big handful of basil..

..separating the leaves from the stalks and dropping them in the saucepan

then stirring the basil into the tomatoes and letting the sauce cook for at least five hours.. I cooked this one for seven. Choose the lowest heat, it should bubble just very softly. Stir occasionally.

When cooked, the sauce thickens considerably, more than a third of the liquid will have evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can either leave it at a chunky consistency, or puree to a smooth sauce.

Love the contrast of the sauce's rich red color with the ink black pasta and fresh basil. This sauce freezes extremely well, I fill dozens of freezerbags with it so we can have a taste of summer all through winter.

Bon appétit!