DIY #1

There is something you have to know.. I love doing things by myself. There's something wonderful about creating stuff from scratch.
It's relaxing, and very enjoyable !

Last week, I felt like having new t-shirts, and different than what you can buy in a shop kind of t-shirt.
So on Saturday, I went to Dublin, straight to the sanctuary of any kind of sensible woman, I have named Penneys! 2.50€ for a t-shirt? I say YES! Run ladies ! (3 Primark opened in France by the way... ;))

Anyways, I had enough in my craft box to customise, I just needed inspiration.
I stroke me last night.

I made something very simple to start. Three buttons and some lace got me a cute teesh :-)

Cute Black T-Shirt

 What you need:

A T-shirt
scissors
needle and sewing thread
pins
buttons, lace, ribbon etc.



1) The shoulders

To help you sewing the lace straight, you can use pins to maintain it at the right place.
Sew the lace with  same-color sewing thread, into some very small stitches.

2) The buttons


Add three buttons, at equal distance from each other (measure with a seam measuring tape).
Sew them tidily to keep it clean and nice.

Humor 

"I know, I know"

Olympics..

The Winter Olympics have started last week. I'm not following them, but I think this picture is very funny !

To the people watching the game, Enjoy !

Hop-o'-My-Thumb would love that.

I'm back on the challenge.

30" Dinner Rolls

Get ready for a mind-blowing recipe. Easy and delish man !

30 minutes, by my watch.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup warm water

- 1/3 cup oil (I used olive oil, much tastier)

- 2 tablespoons dry yeast

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 egg

 - 3 1/2 cups flour

1/ Preheat the ovent at 250°.

2/ In a bowl, combine warm water, oil, yeast and sugar. Allow the mixture to rest for 15min.

3/ Mix 2 cups of flour, the salt and egg into the yeast mixture. (What I did is mixing with a knife. It was brilliant) Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour, half of a cup at a time.

4/ Shape the dough into balls, the size you want really. Allow them to rest for 10min.

5/ Bake for 10min

Enigmes de Christophe

Need a bit of brain teaser stuff ?

Enjoy a completely mental riddle discovery with Les Enigmes de Christophe.

It's the new hobby at work with the colleagues. It's brilliant, difficult and super easy sometimes, in French though.. I spend an awful amount of time on it !

Once upon a time...

Keeping the same name, the old articles, but intending to be better, the blog is back !

I'm going to treat it like a diary, a travelling diary. This will explain the new font, cute isn't it?
I'll try to show you more of the gorgeous landscapes of Ireland and the places I will visit, tell you all about my DIY and (humble) cooking skills, and everything that might be interesting at the end of the day :)

Ready ?
Steady.
Go !

Renovation over the next few days/weeks

Because it's time for a bit of change, Canemanquepasdeire is going to be renovated over the next few days/weeks ...

More articles to come ! Be patient !

Baking Challenge n°3

Third edition of Fred&Friends's Baking Challenge !
I'm not gonna tell you to participate, you already know why you should do it ;-)

My August 2013's:

Dessert focusing. Again. I know... I am not even ashamed of it. 

Tarte au citron Meringuée !

Estimated time: 60min // Price: € (normal-ish) // Pleasure: ++++ 

Ingredients for 1 medium pie 

For the dough:

250gr of flour
125gr of butter
70gr of sugar

2 eggs yolk  

Water

 

For the lemon curd:

100ml of lemon juice // juice of 3 lemons + zest if you like it.
1 tbsp of cornflour
3 eggs
150gr of sugar

For the meringue:
2 whites of eggs

100gr of sugar
1/2 tsp of baking powder


Whisk the sugar and the yolk together and dilute with water. Not too much!

With your fingers, mix the flour and the pieces of butter in a bowl to obtain a sandy dough. Make sure that the butter is fully absorbed. 
Pour in the middle of that "sand" the liquid mix that you prepared before.

With a knife, mix everything together, without much precision.

Form a ball with the inside of your hands and push it in the pie mould (25cm large is good, but I think mine is smaller and that good as well!).

Put in the oven (180°C) for 20 min, "à blanc". It means that you cook only the dough. So you'll need to put beans on your dough to avoid it to blow. Myself, I put some baking paper and then little rocks. It works the same!

While it's in the oven, make your lemon curd.

In a pan, mix the sugar, the lemon juice, and the cornflour. Stir well.
Then you have two choices. Either your start to cook your mixture on the small ring of your cooker, and then add the eggs and change to a big ring, either you add the eggs straight away and go directly to the big ring.
There's no big difference really. Be just really careful to constantly stir the mixture once the eggs are in the pan. Otherwise, it will burn.
Your curd is ready when it is thick enough.

Once the dough is out of the oven, pour the lemon curd all over it !

Looks yummy already, isn't it?!

A little more effort... Go on.

In a bowl, whisk up the egg whites with a pinch of salt. When you think they are hard enough, you can add the sugar and the baking powder, and keep going with the whisk until they are firm. Use an electric one, it's not cheating, it's helping yourself out ;-).
Pour them all over the lemon curd and put in the oven (150°C) until the meringue's golden... about 10min.

 

 

 

Bon appétit !

Baking Challenge n°2

Second edition of Fred&Friends's Baking Challenge !
I can't advice you than participating to it. It's nice to exchange recipes and having new ideas from people from different countries. My sister is a very multinational girl, she has friend all around the world, it's quite fantastic !

My July 2013's:

Dessert focusing. Easily and quickly made, you're going to be amazed by the result. Very little effort and great taste!

Chocolate Cup & Banana-Strawberry Smoothie

Estimated time: CC 3h BSS: 3min // Price: € // Pleasure: ++++

Ingredients for 4 cups and 4 Smoothies (size medium)

For the cups:

About 150gr of milk chocolate 

4 balloons (I used water balloons because they are smaller)

Ice cream

For the smoothies:

6 big strawberries

2 bananas

4 big spoons of yoghurt (plain and low fat tested and approved)

2 glasses of orange juice

Honey

Chocolate Cup

1) In a microwavable container (bowl is the best), melt the chocolate. Melt little by little to not burn the chocolate and having a smooth mixture.

2) Blow 4 balloons

3) With a teaspoon, drop a small amount of chocolate on your baking sheet to create a stand. Dip each balloon in the chocolate high up as you want. Stick the balloon to the base on the b.sheet.

Repeat that for every balloon you need.

4) Leave aside to cool down and place them in the fridge for at least 2 hours and more.

5) Just pierce with a needle to get rid of the balloon. If it sticks to the cup, just slowly pull up the rest of the balloon. It is easy but be careful.

6) Fill the cup with ice cream (homemade is the best!) and Enjoy!

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Bananas-Strawberries Smoothies

 

 1) Cut the bananas and the strawberries (after washing them!). Put them in a food processor. Add the yoghurt, the orange juice and make two or three circles with the honey on top of everything.

 

 

 2) Mix everything for few seconds. It's better to turn the button several time for few seconds rather than once for a minute. Once everything is mixed correctly, open the top of the food processor, take off the blade, and pour the smoothie into glasses. With a rubber spatula you can avoid any waste!

You obtain a delicious smoothie ! Yummy !

Dublin Mountains Way 2 (DMW)

More pictures on a sunnier day :)

 Beginning of Day 2, through Rathmichael Wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dublin Mountains Way 1 (DMW)

Did I tell you that I went hiking twice with a friend?

It was unbelievable ! The Dublin Mountains are extraordinary and offer a wonderful view over the Dublin Bay, it is gorgeous!
We did it over two days (two Saturdays, one in April and one in July). The DMW is about 40K walking, but we did more because we got lost a tiny bit each Saturday :). The first time, we did a circle of 4K twice without really noticing it... shame! It was good fun when we realized it!

You can start/finish in Tallaght or in Shankill. A map is a good thing to have, and don't be afraid to ask people around you as the start is not very clear in each town.

Let me show you few pictures:

The official entrance of the DMW

Water reservoir

 

 

My thought when we arrived here: Lord of the Ring.

 

View on Dublin and its area