New Makes

My recent makes were bespoke tiaras for a bride, first communions and a little ice skater.

Front View

Side View

 This tiara is called Shirley after the brides mother.  The design is based on the embroidery on the wedding dress.

This tiara has a double barrel named after the little girl it was made for. It was a First Communion tiara and the little girls communion dress had a shamrock design on it. It is called Caitlin Ciara.
My other communion tiara was designed by the grandmother and I interpreted her design using sterling silver. To make it more affordable I changed the design slightly by removing the initial E and using silver plated wire. Here are the 2 designs. The first is the sterling silver one, the second picture is the silver plated version.

Erica in sterling silver

Silver plated Erica

I designed this tiara to match Megan's ice skating dress. Here is a picture of her dress for you to see how I came about the idea.

A happy Megan

Kapusta

Or Polish Cabbage....
It has been some time since I have posted on my blog as it has been a very difficult start to the year again with my mum having 4 hospital stays, my sister having an operation, my niece suffering from viral meningitis and my 2 sons suffering from martial art injuries.
I usually write about my new makes or stories about my brides but if you are a follower of my blog you will also know that I sometimes write about things that have happened in my life and some of the stories are quite a good read, I know because I often read them myself to remind me of things that have been quite significant in my life.
Now I bet you are wondering about my title of this blog.  Kapusta is Polish for cabbage, pickled cabbage to be more accurate. For the first time in my 40 something years I had the opportunity to make it for the very first time for my family. My mum used to make it all the time when we were little because my dad was Polish and he liked cabbage.  In more recent years it was my sister who made it, I always watched on. I suspect both my mum and sister thought no one could make it as good as they knew how to make it, and to be honest I never pushed to make it as it did look a little complicated. Well anyway, I was so happy at how tasty is turned out I mentioned it on facebook.  As a result of that I have had a request for the recipe. So here it is...
1 sachet of Kapusta 500g (found with the Polish food in the chiller cabinet) or
1 jar of Kapusta (found with the Polish food section of the shop)
1 small onion
2 to3 rashers of bacon
2 pepperami
1 smoked sausage (Mattesson)
Olive oil
2 Oxo cubes
3 to 4 bay leaves
Sprinkling of fennel seeds
Pinch of salt
Open the cabbage and place the cabbage in a cauldron and run it under the cold water for a few minutes to rinse off the vinegar
Pour some olive oil into a pan and chop up the onion and gently fry the chopped onion until soft
Chop the bacon and add to the onion and hot olive oil, chop the pepperami and add to the pot. Finally chop the smoke sausgage and add it to the pot. Gently stir fry for a few minutes until bacon looks cooked.
Drain the water from the cabbage and remove the pot from the heat before adding the cabbage. Once the cabbage has been added return to the heat.
Add the bay leaves and a pinch of salt, sprinkle on a little fennel seed. Crumble the oxo cubes (it gives the cabbage a nice colour)
Finally just cover the cabbage with water then bring to the boil and then simmer.
NOW the question you will be asking is "how long do I simmer it for?"  I asked mum this question and she said "until its cooked"....."erm and that would be?", I ask  "As long a possible, the longer the better it tastes" So I will say let it simmer for a least 2 hours and make sure it doesn't dry out but neither do you want it swimming in water.
Serve with either a jacket potato or a chunk of crusty bread and enjoy!