Folksy Secret Santa

I've done a few swaps and things on Folksy the past 3 years, but never participated in a Secret Santa before.

It was hard not to take a peek until Christmas Day, but I was very good and put the beautifully- wrapped present under the tree...

I was delighted when I could finally open it and discovered a gorgeous book for my favourite recipes. My Secret Santa was Susan from Dottie Designs. Susan/Dottie makes fabulous personalised photograph albums, keepsake boxes and guest books. I knew it was a Dottie Design creation as soon as I opened it! I'd said I love books and cooking so this was a perfect gift!


I'm going to put recipes in here that are particularly special. The first will be my Nan's Christmas pudding, which my Mum now usually makes. And then probably some recipes the little W's help me to make and some of their favourite meals too.

So a huge thank you to Dottie!

I'll probably do a separate post for the gift I made as I'm not sure yet if my person wants to know who their Secret Santa was!

On other news, I just reopened my Etsy shop for about the 4th time. I'm really going to give it a go this year. My theory is that Americans have bigger houses and therefore more wall space and are possibly therefore more likely to buy my photos! I'm having lots of fun creating altered images. Just this afternoon I've created a set of London prints that I'll probably list tomorrow. Also looking forward to getting on with my new range of polymer clay items. I've got a load of plain white textured shapes that have been baked but are just waiting for colour. Littlest W is currently playing with them as I type. Hmm... better go and rescue them.

Fish and Noodles!

Although I love cooking, I rarely post recipes or anything foodie on here. Not sure why really, but thought I'd show you what I cooked on Saturday.


I try to have fish once a week, but sometimes find it a little bland. This recipe was quite yummy! I think I got it off the Waitrose website, so please don't think it's my recipe! I changed a couple of things to make it easier, but it was pretty simple anyway.

Ingredients:
100ml dark soy sauce
100 ml rice mirin
1 tbsp clear honey
2cm fresh root ginger
sesame oil toasted
egg noodles
pak choi
spring onions
mange tout
fish!

I haven't listed all the amounts as I don't really follow them exactly - just throw in a bit of this and that and see what happens!

Method:
Mix the soy sauce, mirin, honey and ginger (chopped) into a shallow dish, add the fish and marinate in the fridge for 15 minutes. Turn the fish over after 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c. Put the fish in a roasting tin, pour over the marinade and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles, pak choi and mange tout. Add the onions then mix them all together and add some sesame oil.

Serve with the fish and that's it! Pretty simple and very tasty.

I'm not sure how appetising the pic looks actually. I bought rather a lot of noodles. It was buy one get one free, they have a short shelf life and you're not meant to freeze them, so we just ate them. The fish is under there somewhere!