Crispy roasted chickpeas – a healthy alternative to chips!
Crunchy, low in fat, high in protein and fibre, easy to make and simply delicious! These spicy crispy roasted chickpeas are made from scratch with dry chickpeas. They’re naturally vegan and gluten-free – a perfect snack when you’re craving something savoury. After cooking, the chickpeas are seasoned with salt, garam masala, paprika powder, and roasted in the oven until crispy. Continue reading Spicy Crispy Roasted Chickpeas – From Scratch→
Learn to make an authentic Victorian rag ball for your kid, pup or as decoration.
In the Victorian era, a rag ball was a toy of poor children. Old rags and fabric scraps were wound into a ball and covered with ball stitches to hold the rags together:
Rag balls were popular Victorian Christmas presents. Victorian mothers would make rag balls for their toddlers, while kids could make their own rag balls – rag balls are so easy and fast to make! And cheap too – using just what you’d usually throw away! I’ve wanted to make a Victorian fabric ball for a long time and now I’ve finally found the time.
‘To make this coveted Christmas toy take a small rubber ball or a piece of cork, wind it with coarse worsted of any color, until the ball is of the desired size, then knit the cover.’ (Demorest’s Family Magazine, 1891)
Today, rag balls are still popular: They are a favorite decoration at Christmas time. Or you could make a rag ball as soft toy ball for your baby or toddler. And if you don’t have a toddler, your pup would love a new toy too!
‘There are innumerable games to be played with a soft ball which the very tiny children even can enjoy and profit by.’ (Every Woman’s Encyclopaedia, 1910-2)
Cut an old T-shirt into a long, continuous 1-inch (2.5cm) strip. Then roll the strip into a ball like you’d roll a ball of yarn. Tuck the end of the strip under one of the previous loops to secure it.
The Victorian Ball Stitch
‘Bind some loose rags tightly together into a ball. Wind string across as in the illustration forming sections. Thread a needle with bright-colored wool, and work round and round, passing the needle each time under a strand of string. If different colours be used the effect is very pleasing.’ (Embroidery Stitches, 1872, p. 9)
The Edwardian tam o’shanter or tam hat – a soft knitted or crocheted wool hat – was the everday hat of Edwardian girls and sports hat of Edwardian women. ‘A small woollen cap […] which only needs two hairpins to keep it in place, is extremely becoming, and suitable either for summer or winter.’ Continue reading Edwardian & WW1 Tam O’Shanter Hats – Free Knit & Crochet Patterns→
German nougat – also called viennese nougat or gianduja – is made with three ingredients: hazelnuts or almonds, chocolate and sugar. While store-bought nougat contains dairy – this homemade German nougat is dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free and vegan!
German nougat is so delicious – it’s used as baking ingredient, as cake or praline filling, for ice creams and desserts or eaten as it is. I always wanted to make German nougat at home – especially since I can’t eat dairy (and therefore store-bought nougat) anymore. However, all recipes that I tried produced more a chocolate spread – not real German nougat!
But, finally, after years of research and trial and error I found an old recipe for traditional homemade German nougat. Yay! I adapted the recipe slightly because the nougat was made with too much chocolate. I’m so pleased with the recipe: This homemade German nougat is even better than store-bought German nougat! I never thought that it’d be so easy to make German nougat from scratch at home.
This unusual sloe berry yogurt cake is dairy-free, easy to make and simply delicious!
If you take a stroll in the country at this time of the year, you probably pass by bushes full of large blue-black fruits: sloes! Sloes are astringent fruits when eaten raw but they’re delicious in jams and cakes! Continue reading Sloe Berry Yogurt Cake – Dairy-Free→
These green Christmas tree cookies are naturally colored with kale and decorated with cranberry pieces.
These festive red and green Christmas cookies taste as delicious as they look. And what’s best: they’re made without artificial dyes – they’re all naturally colored with curly kale leaves. And even if the Christmas tree cookies are brilliant green, they don’t taste of kale – they taste just like classic Christmas sugar cookies! Continue reading Christmas Tree Cookies – Naturally Colored With Kale→
Indoor and outdoor ice skating was a popular pastime in the Edwardian era. Edwardian women wore specially made skating costumes. Edwardian skating costumes were made out of wool or velvet with short skirts and matching jackets. ‘The correct skating costume is of a rough material, with skirt shorter than the ordinary and a half fitted jacket of three-quarter length, while the hat should be small and should fit snugly on the head.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 3 January 1909)
‘The Winter Girl is seen at her best muffled in her velvets and furs, gliding like a true queen over the ice.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 1907)
‘With laughter and delighted greetings and in the highest of high spirits San Francisco’s young people met on Monday night for the first of the season’s skating parties. They were unfeignedly glad to be together again […] From 8:30 o’clock until nearly midnight the enthusiasm lasted without an instant’s break, and perfect music and a perfect floor did their share to make the evening pleasant. It was a large meeting, more than 200 persons were there’ (San Francisco Call, 1907) Continue reading Edwardian Skating Costumes→
Roasted salted almonds – an easy, satisfying snack – were already popular in the Victorian and Edwardian era.
‘At intervals about the center were cut glass and fancy china dishes of pimolas, salted almonds, and pecans, and pink and green confections, with little fancy Venetian salt dishes conveniently near the plates.’ (The Home Science Cook Book, 1902)
Made with just three ingredients – quince paste is a traditional Christmas candy popular since the Victorian era.
Quince paste – also called quince candy, quince cheese and quince jelly candy – is an old-fashioned Christmas candy. It has a beautiful reddish color and tastes like a sweet version of quince jelly. It takes some time to make quince paste at home but it’s so worth it and you’ll only need three ingedients: quinces, sugar and lemon juice! Continue reading Victorian Quince Paste – Homemade Quince Jelly Candy→
