November Mandalong and a Paleo Pumpkin Pie recipe

Hello and Happy Halloween! I honestly can't believe that we have already stepped foot into November, where has the year gone? Before we know it we will be hanging tinsel and sipping mulled wine (well some of us anyway). 

Earlier this month we took the kids to see Disney on Ice and to be honest it came as a bit of surprise to us all as both hubby and I kinda forgot that we bought the tickets ages ago, don't you just love it when this happens? We didn't tell the kids we were going and it was so lovely to see the excitement and complete shock light up on there little faces as soon as we walked through the arena doors. The show was amazing and the ice skaters did such an awesome job, just a shame that the much loved Elsa didn't make an appearance in the end, one little girl was very disappointed. 

Many of my old readers will know that even though I love a good plan, I also like to wing things, nothing is more satisfying that just going with the flow to see where we end up. When I started this blanket, I made no attempt to try and calculate how many squares I would need, in fact I went and bought 9 balls of wool in colours that I liked and thought that that would do the job. Well, it seems that unless I want a toe warmer I might have slightly misjudged the situation. As a matter of fact it seems I am going to need a great deal more squares before I can call it a blanket of sorts. So I am interested to hear from those of you who have made a blanket big enough for a single/small double, how many balls of wool did you use? So sadly for now, I have had to move it to the back burner to make space for other little projects that I need to work on, but I am still enjoying admiring them from a distance as they do look rather pretty and cheery. 

At the beginning of the school holidays we set off to visit a good friend of mine who lives in Knaresborough. We had such a lovely weekend with them and enjoyed a really lovely visit to the 12th century Knaresborough Castle, which I must say was rather fabulous. I love spending time in Knaresborough, it is such a pretty market town.

Halloween is something my kids, especially little Es talks about all year long, in fact she absolutely loves it, so needless to say this week our house was running high on Halloween fever. 

We had fun decorating the house and ...

a little more fun decorating ourselves before we set off to go and watch The Book of Life at the cinemas dressed and ready to scare. In fact I had to do a little alterations to my make up as I didn't want kids running out of the cinema because they were too scared of the woman sitting behind them, so I opted for red lips rather than stitched up lips in the end. 

The kids had a ball trick or treating and came back with enough sweets to last a month, so all in all two very happy kids. Happy Halloween!!

I even managed to do a little experimental baking on the day and ended up with a grain free and dairy free pumpkin pie, which to be honest was so so easy to make and both me and hubby (who are both paleo now) absolutely loved it, in fact ssh don't tell anyone but its gone. At least this time of year we can blame the ghosts, now who said whooooo?!

I shared the recipe on Instagram, but for anyone interested here goes.

To make the grain free pastry I used

250g ground almonds

4-5 tbsp melted coconut oil (you don't want it too sloppy so start with 4 and then add another if you need to)

2 tbsp honey

1 egg beaten

Simply mix all these ingredients together and then push it into a pie dish, I just use my hands and push it in ensuring that it covers the entire dish. You don't want it too thin or too thick. Bake at 180C for 10 mins max.

For the filling

1 can pumpkin puree

1 can coconut milk

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp freshly grated 

3 tbsp of honey

2 eggs beaten

I popped all these ingredients into my mixer, make sure to mix thoroughly before pouring it onto your pastry. 

Bake for 40-45 minutes and leave for at least 20+ minutes before serving. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I think we will be making another one very soon.

So before I go, I will quickly share my November mandala with you. This month I made Marinke Slump's 12 Round Mandala as I figured it would be a little strange doing a whole year's of mandala's without using the staple pattern used by the queen of Mandala's right?! 

It is a quick and easy pattern to make and I really like the look of it too. Not my usual colour choices, but it was suppose to be gifted, so I opted for something a little different. Sadly I don't think I can gift it now as I am not very happy with the end result of the use of the standing stitch. It has created some holes in the mandala, which gives it a rather unfinished look. I have used standing stitches on other crochet projects in the past, but I have never used it with a mandala and I am not sure I am going to rush to do it again. I would really like to hear your experiences with using a standing stitch with mandala's or crochet in the round for that matter. Did it create a holes???

Last month I also mentioned that I had an idea and well, I figured a few mini mandala coasters might come in handy. What do you think? 

I really like them and they are so so quick to make. It took me an evening to make all four, so I have a little nifty plan to hook up a few more to slot into some Christmas presents. Speaking of Christmas, this month I decided that we should hook up something in preparing for the big day in  December and I figured if we like it, it gives us enough time to make a few more for presents.  Fortunately the very lovely Annette behind the gorgeous blog My Rose Valley kindly agreed for us to use and share her beautiful Christmas Mandala, so who's playing? It looks like a straight forward pattern to work and I love the Scandi chic style finish that it gives. I can see a few of these scattered around the house at Christmas. So for anyone on Instagram, please make sure to use the following hashtags: monthlymandalong, christmasmandala, myrosevalley and that way Annette can also see what you guys have been hooking up. Obviously I would still like you all to link up your pretties at the bottom of the page, so go on grab your hook and some christmassy cotton, you know you want to!!

So that is it for today my lovelies. I have been thoroughly enjoying some very beautiful sun rises before the clocks went back last weekend. We have been quite lucky that its been quite mild here in the North of England, but its all set to change tomorrow, so get those woollens out and light those fires or if yore lucky enough to live in the southern hemisphere I suppose it's flip flop time. I hope you are warm wherever you are and I also wish you all a beautiful and happy November. 

Make some beautiful memories!

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

This and that ...

I just quickly wanted to pop in today to say HELLLOOOOO. It has been so wet and grey here in the North of England, but if I am honest, I have rather welcomed it. I am not sure how I will feel by Thursday with half term upon us and kids at home being cooped in, but for now it has been rather fun and mostly quite chillaxing.

 

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Today I even managed a little time in the garden, yes with my rain coat on and I feel rather satisfied that things are slowly starting to take shape out there.

 

 

 

In fact I am actually super proud of my veggies (OK, there are only a few), but they are all planted from seed, which has been fun. The potatoes and kale is doing tremendously well and the spinach and beetroot is slowly coming into their own. Today I planted out the broccoli and rather sad looking cucumbers, so we will see what happens to these.

 

I am feeling just a tad excited bout the beautiful Camelia Japonica that I bought yesterday for a little spot in the back of our garden that has been rather neglected for quite some time. Largely because this gardening lark can be quite expensive, so it really does take time to get where you want to. It has also been one of those spots that I had far too many ideas for what I wanted to fill it with, but I am really pleased with my final decision and look forward to seeing this beauty grow.

We also bought another couple of  beautiful Hydrangeas, one blue and one pink and just for fun I bought a St John's Wort. So for now I really haven't the foggiest what I am going to do with it, but I reckon that I will find many a good use for it somewhere along the line, especially seeing that I have recently been discovering that there are quite a few nifty tricks one can do with the odd herb and weed growing in the garden.

So for anyone who struggles with a cough that won't go away and one that's been lingering for a while,or for anyone who just fancies a little lymphatic cleanse (we all need it!), or for anyone who wants to boost their immune system, clear their skin or calm the nerves (reckon I will be needing it again towards the end of the school holiday!), wander into your garden and look for a weed called a 'Cleaver' (pictured above), and for anyone up for a giggle it also goes by the name of 'StickyWilly', so for once we might actually be happy to enjoy a little sticky willy every now and then (who would have thought! pardon me!!!). So basically what you do, pick a very generous handful and make sure to rinse it well and then chop it up, pour some cold water over it and let it stew overnight (with a lid on) and then the next day you can strain it off and drink up to five glasses of the water. To be honest it's actually quite tasty and the good news is that you won't die, I am still here. So for a full lymphatic cleanse you really need to drink it for a week, somewhere between three to five glasses per day and for those of you who can't be bothered with the overnight soaking, you can always stew it up as a tea with hot water if you like, either way it taste quite good.

So after this morning's little session in the garden, I enjoyed a little time playing games with the kids before embarking on a spot of Paleo baking. I have decided to try out the Paleo diet again, even though I have been here before as I am a firm believer that if something didn't work for you once it doesn't mean it won't work for you at another point in time. Our bodies are constantly changing and especially when you are ill. Take for example my attempts to remove ALL sugar from my diet (no honey, syrup, dried fruit, no nothing!) for over a year and if I am honest it felt like it made ZERO difference, now on the other hand I have seen the most AMAZING changes in my body since cutting it out since the 6th of January, so my motto: Keep on trying. Now I feel ready to slowly embark on the odd treat every now and then and today's cake is no exception. In fact it is just a tad indulgent and very chocolaty and has a smidgen of palm sugar and some delicious forest honey to tickle my fancy and reignite that little sugar devil in me!

 

 

 

So basically Paleo baking is tricky as most gluten free flours are rice based and seeing that you can't eat any rice or other grains, I used almond flour and coconut flour and I must say the cake turned out rather scrummy. For the ganache I used coconut cream and cacao and rice malt syrup. Lets just say it made the perfect Sunday afternoonsie.

So despite the fact that I have mountains of crochet awaiting, as I am in the midst of having to pull out my entire Nordic shawl that I crocheted whilst on holiday, as it seems that for some reason I have this massive triangle at the top rather than a straight end (don't ask as I honestly don't have the answer!). I have been putting it off as I think I need to be in the right frame of mind for this job!

 

I am also nearing the end of weaving in some ends for another little project I am working on, but more on that next time.

 

 

 

So why not start another project just when I should really be focussing on making a start on my starflower mandala?!! Seeing that 'should' no longer features in my vocabulary, I figured why NOT. So this afternoon when the kids went off to a party I quickly started cutting out the pattern for a dress I have been wanting to make for a while. Now don't hold your breath as dressmaking really isn't my forte, but I am determined to make at least one this summer.

 

 

You see when we went to South Africa, Ma bought me heaps of gorgeous fabric for my birthday which means no more excuses and basically that the girl's got to get on with it. I am actually quite excited by the prospect, just wish I knew a little more than I do, but hey that's all part of the fun, so watch this space!

 

 

So that's it for today. I hope you all have a lovely week ahead. Before I go I just want to say a big thank you for all your lovely comments on my previous post, you are all quite special and for those of you who wanted to know how the Prince concert went, lets just say that it was MAGNIFICENT!!!! I am just a little more in love with the man and his music than I was before I went, my golly he has oodles of talent!

 

 

Time to sign off.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxoxo