Loppy's Crispy Sea Kale

Today will be another recipe, I've been cooking more than anything else lately as I haven't really had time for general crafting.

I've seen a lot on Pinterest over the last year about a vegetable called Kale. I had never heard of it before but apparently my mom has grown it in the past, she doesn't really like the taste though. I decided to buy some to make the most popular recipe I've seen; kale chips. Apparently they're supposed to taste even better than potato crisps but they're super healthy. It took me 3 days to hunt down a bag of kale from the supermarket, and the only type I could find was shredded curly kale. I wasn't sure if it would work as kale chips but I tried it anyway. I decided that I wanted salt and pepper flavour crisps so I followed the instructions and when they came out of the oven they didn't exactly look like the pictures I'd seen on Pinterest...they looked more like crispy seaweed from the Chinese. Upon tasting them I realised that they tasted a bit like crispy seaweed too, and nothing like I imagined they would. So the next day I tried again but using salt and sugar, and they tasted EXACTLY like crispy seaweed, even my mom likes them!

So here's my recipe for Crispy Sea Kale :)

• 1 bag shredded curly kale
• Oil
• Salt
• Sugar

Evenly spread out the kale on a baking tray in a single layer (you may need to do this in batches depending on how much kale you have). Drizzle a bit of oil over the leaves and add a teaspoon each of salt and sugar. Toss the kale to evenly coat the leaves and spread out again.

Bake for 10-15 minutes at gas mark 4, shaking and rotating the tray half way through.

Enjoy your crispy sea kale :)

This won't store well in the fridge (it goes soggy), so store in an airtight container for a couple of days.

Loppy x

Loppy's Gingerbread Biscuits Recipe

Today I decided to make gingerbread as it's something I haven't made for a long time. Here's the recipe I use, I can't remember where I got the original recipe from but I've adapted it over time and it always turns out great. Feel free to adjust the amount of ginger and spices to your taste, or try adding extras such as chocolate chips :)

Loppy's Gingerbread

350g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

175g soft light brown sugar

 2-3 teaspoons ground ginger

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon or nutmeg (or both)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

100g butter
1 egg
4 tablespoons golden syrup

Combine ingredients and cook at gas mark 5 for about 10 minutes.

Today's batch :)

I managed to get 23 small gingerbread men and 18 decent sized gingerbread stars in today's batch. This isn't the hard gingerbread that you'd find in high street bakers, it's crunchy on the outside but soft inside and really delicious.

Loppy x

Midge's Musical Madness.

So, I don't blog that often as you can tell. But I do work a lot, and nowadays many of us time our travelling to and from work by number of songs, not minutes. Ergo, I thought I'd share with you my favourite songs to get creative to.

Whenever I draw, work or study, I listen to music or watch a show. Nowadays, when I look back to the work I created or revision material I had for back then, I get an image of the show, or a chord or line from the song stuck in my head. Such is the case for when I review old biology notes, I am suddenly watching Friends again in my bedroom 5 years ago... It is because of this, that I believe it should be memorable music you are reminded of when you look back on a piece of work.

So, without further ado (which is how musical winners are announced, right?) here are my best songs to get creative with.

(I tried to limit it to two songs per artist for maximum diversity, which was hard since I do love Two Steps From Hell)

20) Colours Of The Wind: Disney- Pocahontas - This song is a great relaxing tune to listen to if you're painting landscapes or anything generally pretty ^.^ (Dang, only one more Disney song allowed)

19) I Write Sins Not Tragedies: Panic! At The Disco - A personal favourite of mine, this song fluctuates between soft and fast, so is great for just about anything!!

18) Run And Hide: This Century - Given to me as a recommendation from Loppy, this song is great for painting just about anything. You'll be humming along in no time. We both were up-cycling clothing to this for hours xD

17) Brave: Sara Bareilles - A great anthem for just about anything... also great for being creative.

16) Hey Soul Sister: Train - Just... an awesome song.

15) On Top Of The World: Imagine Dragons - The rustic background music just makes this one sound creative in itself!

14) Hoist the Colours: Hans Zimmer - So good for spooky creating, advisable for Halloween stuff.(technically bypassing the no more than two for Disney ;D)

13) Grand Theft Autumn (Where Is Your Boy Tonight): Fall Out Boy - Me and Loppy just love this all together. No reason necessary.

12) I Am The Doctor: Murray Gold - Great composition, especially for huge fans of Doctor Who.

11) He Mele No Lilo: Disney-Lilo And Stitch - Hard to pick a second Disney song with all the great Phil Collins songs, but there's something about not being able to understand a single word that makes you concentrate more on what you're doing with this one.

10) Planetary (GO!): My Chemical Romance - Part of me needs to listen to MCR, and part of me just loves this song... I'm not sure which part made me choose this.

9) All Star: Smash Mouth - What piece of art would be complete without remembering this afterwards?

8) Spring: Vivaldi - Just, one of the best classical pieces I think in terms of relaxation. Reminds me of walking in to primary school assembly's.

7) Pour Some Sugar On Me: Def Leppard - Uhm, so this is a new obsession with me, but it's great at getting you in to a task.

6) Heart Of Courage: Two Steps From Hell - You know that great instrumental you get to in the middle of games, or at the end of movies, well these guys do a lot of that, and it's genuinely incredibly hard to just pick two. But this song is amazing.

5) My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up) : Fall Out Boy - No list of mine will ever be complete without at least two FOB. This is one of their best later songs, also good to draw with.

4) Any sort of Pan Pipe music: Various - No actual songs here, but listening to any pan pipes is a great relaxing creative background sound. Famous ones include My Heart Will Go On, instrumental.

3) Baba Yetu: Christopher Tin - As his album has already won Grammy's and the like, it's no surprise this song is so good. A definite must have to create stuff with.

2) Tubular Bells (2003): Mike Oldfield  - Tiny bit creepy, mostly just amazing to remember with.

1) Strength Of A Thousand Men: Two Steps From Hell - I can't count how many times I've walked into work with this playing to get me feeling awesome. For me, it's the best song from this artist, and a great song to create epic artwork with.

Hope you like my list... Happy creating ^.^

-Midge :3

Diy storage containers

So today I wanted to use up some of the craft stuff I've been collecting without buying any additional things.

I had a few big coffee jars lying around that I wanted to do something with and some wool leftover from a previous project so I made this striped vase, I didn't have enough wool to cover it all the way to the top.

I also had some burlap that I hadn't used for anything and some lace ribbon. I just got a few tin cans from the recycling and made these pretty storage containers. I love these :) They only cost £1 each to make and look really effective.

Loppy x