Time on my hands...

Well, I've some time on my hands at the moment but not a lot of energy as I wait for baby to arrive, so I need small, quick projects to keep me going.

Christmas-y left overs
We have rather a lot of mincemeat left over from Christmas and today I tried a new recipe for a mincemeat and marzipan tea bread. Very easy to make and uses up those pesky 'Christmas' ingredients that would otherwise hang around in the cupboard. Apparently. I don't think the tea bread will be hanging around that long...

Mincemeat and marzipan tea bread
(from GoodFood magazine's 101 Cakes and Bakes)

200g self-raising flour
300g mincemeat
85g light muscovado sugar
85g marzipan, cut into small cubes
100g cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs
flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 180/Gas 4/fan 160. Butter a 1kg/2lb loaf tin or equivalent. Tip the flour into a bowl.

2. Add the cold butter to the flour and rub into fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar and the marzipan cubes.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs and stir in the mincemeat.

4. Stir the mincemeat and egg mixture into the dry ingredients.

5. Spoon into your prepared loaf tin or tins. Scatter flaked almonds on top. Bake for 1 hour.

6. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then tip onto a wire rack. Cut into slices and serve spread with butter.

Move over Project: Baby blanket
Project: Baby cardigan has arrived! I had four balls of my Debbie Bliss Eco Aran wool left-over from the papoose and thought I might try my hand at knocking up another baby-related knitting project. It seems to be really difficult to find plain, woolen cardigans for babies in the shops, so I found this pattern on Ravelry and gave it a go! It only took me two days from start to finish and is far-and-away the most complicated knitting project I've ever managed to complete, including learning how to use circular needles and pick up stitches to create the right-angled ribbed collar. It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to go to work...