<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[MiaDeRoca Magazine for Alpine Lifestyle]]></title><description><![CDATA[Articles]]></description><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/</link><copyright><![CDATA[Copyright MiaDeRoca Magazine for Alpine Lifestyle]]></copyright><generator>sNews CMS</generator><item><title><![CDATA[Homemade Christmas Cards]]></title><description><![CDATA[        Selfmade Christmas Cards and matching homemade place cards for your perfect Christmas table decoration  
  I start to get into Christmas mood when I start to do things: bake Christmas cookies, starting to decorate Christmas decoration and especially creating homemade Christmas cards. I turn on my preferred Christmas music, boil a cup of apple-cinnamon tea and sing along. But to be honest, I am no grinch can get into Christmas mood when pre-selecting Christmas items in January.  
Personally I have the best time crafting when in company with kids. I am very flexible: relatives, friends, unknown or my own children.When crafting homemade Christmas cards two things are important to me: no perfectionism and having flexible ways of doing things so that all no matter how versatile or talented can have fun doing. Our Christmas card decoration is festive and reduced in white and an additional colour for the winterly, festive touch â€“ the shape of a Christmas theme in wool. But we will tell you one after the other.  

  By the way: this decoration idea works perfectly well for making greetings cards as well as name tags at home- so you can match dinner invitations with your table decoration.  
  
For those who prefer more colourful self made greeting cards: have a look at the   pattern we chose for Easter cards for children  .  

       Paper, wool, embroidery needle - Crafting equipment for stylish, elegant Christmas Cards  
  You need for the self made Christmas cards:  
  Cookie cutters of your choice. We chose the bambi and derr cutter and ice crystal and snow flake cutter  
wool in the desired colours  
embroidery needle with sharp point and an eye wide enough for wool â€“ yet the eye should not be too wide, as you have to get through paper, we used number 20  
White, thick paper, like white construction paper or card stock  
pencil  
scissors  
As you like it: the print out of our pattern for greeting cards and place cards (see below)  

       With runing stitch the snowflake ain't ideal, make another round of little stitches.  
  Print out the pattern of our greeting cards and use the size you like. If you like all of the greeting cards and the place cards, print out the template several times.
Put the template on your white paper, retrace it and cut out your Christmas cards.  

  Fold your Christmas cards. Use the left flap on the inside of the card â€“ this is the backside of the front flap. Trace the outside of the cutter. Punch holes with your needle every 2-3mm (0.08-0.11 inches).  

  Use a simple running stitch.  
With some motives, like the symmetrical snow flake in lilac the running stitch leaves the shape still very cryptic. Here we did another round of running stitch filling all the gaps. Looks like a back stitch, but is much easier to make, even for those who have never stitched before.  

       Punch hole, after hole for an easy diy-way to make cut-out place cards  
  When doing the place cards there is a clever variety in design: figures with cut-out.
Those who think of using the box cutter, can do so. We chose a version that is as easy to do so it is often used when crafting in kindergarten. Using the needle you punch holes along the line you want to cut out. It is useful to have some fabric, cushion or woollen blanket under your card when punching the holes.  
Before folding the place card you stencil the figure and you mark the later folding edge. Above the edge you line out the figure by making hole after hole, below the fold you make needle holes where you can stitch afterwards. As you have done the pencil drawing on the front side you have to erase them before stitching. When you are done whit punching the holes you can fold the place card.  

       Match your self made Chrismas decoration with pretty place cards  
  You can of course use the cookie cutters no only to make matching invitation cards and place cards you can use them along the meal as well:  
start with appetizers like our   finger food with cut out bread and cheese crackers  ,  
go on with a Christmas-themed soup and cut out mozzarella cheese like we did for our   dragon soup  ,  
for the main course you can   cut out vegetables with the cookie cutters  , we did do this with pumpkin and squash and our bus cookie cutter.  

  Our crafting idea for greeting cards is especially suitable for older kids, teens and adults. If use a division of labor, bigger and smaller kids can help each other. Stitching holes along lines is usually makeable for kids in school age. The stitching with wool can be tricky at times, as one should not fold the paper.  

  If you are in the mood of more Christmas crafts and creating, what about   making Christmas tree pendants and name tags out of salt dough  .  
Or pretty   knitted covers for your tealight glasses   to have enchanting shadows.  

  
  Download Greeting Card Templates  
  Pattern:   DinA6 folding cards, long upright greeting card and place card   (pdf)   
If you would like to use all three templates, print them out three times and cut out only the template you would like to use.  
  
  If you would like to make envelopes for your elegant homemade Christmas cards, here you can find   how to fold your own envelopes  .  
For the DinA6 Christmas card you need a square at least 24 x 24cm, or 9.5 x 9.5 inches for the matching envelope,  
for the upright greeting card your square has to be at least 28 x 28cm = 11 x 11 inches.  

  Have fun making your homemade Christmas cards!  

  Still in need of fail prove homemade cookie dough. For the perfect Christmas cookies:
  Christmas cookie dough recipe  .  
A must have treat at Christmas time:   Baked Apple, the Austria Bratapfel  .  

  
	  
		Pretty wool, cool cookie cutters and biscuit stamps in our MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  high quality wool for knit, stitch, crochet    

  
		        
		  Ice Crystal and Snow Flake Cookie Cutter    

	  
		        
		  Bambi cookie cutter and deer biscuit cutter    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Dec 2013 17:50:57 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/homemade-christmas-cards/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/homemade-christmas-cards/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Marinated herb quark balls and chilli ricotta balls]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Versatile: as snack or hearty vegetarian breakfast, serve your marinaed ricotta balls and beans with toasted bread and srcumbled egg  
  We love self made pickled and salty stuff be it herb pesto of all kind like   parsley pesto   or   wild garlic pesto  , or chutneys and sauces like the   hot bell pepper sauce  . It is more probable that we fill a glas jar with something home made salty and hearty than with self made jam or marmalade. My personal culinary highlight of homemade food 2013 is to be found in this corner of the recipe book. I love to marinate goat cheese, I do this several times during summer. I like to combine what comes to my mind, if there is goat cheese or feta in the fridge and some oil I can start, I like to add herbs, olives, chilli, pepper, capers, shalotts, spring onions or normal onion, add some vinegar or leave it out. I like to match and mix, leave it a few days in the fridge and at many occasions is a little gift, a companion to a BBQ at friends, at parties or to say thank you. Even after years friends and family like to get one of my marinated cheeses and very often it is eaten straight away. For this recipe I took no goat cheese, yet a diary product that is even more often put in your shopping basket: Quark, or for italian-lovers Ricotta. A thousand times better than cream cheese with its many supplements I like to use pure quark. Be it to make quark dumplings,   quick quark puff pastry   or   herb spread  . If there is quark in the fridge I can easily mix it up to a full meal, nice snack or delicious dessert. Gorgeous plain and totally natural, only containing what needs to contain: pure quark.  

  If one uses a special ingredient that frequently one thinks to know everything about it â€“ I was so wrong. I heard it "en passant": marinated quark balls. And then in the evening there was some time and I started to arrange chilli peppers, dried herbs. Then I searched for jam jars, remembering that with marinated goat cheese I like especially big preserving jars. I did a quick check online: for quark balls recipes, I found many sweet quark pastries, searching for "marinated quark balls" did not take me anywhere either and marinated ricotta balls recipes did not string a cord for what I had in mind.  

  Recipe marinated ricotta balls or quark balls  
  250g quark or ricotta  
4 tea spoons of dried oregano  
4 tea spoons of dried basil  
1 tea spoons of dried thyme  
half a tea spoons of ground rosemary  
half a cup of sunflower seeds  
5 dried whole chilli peppers  
3 cloves of garlic  
1 can of kidney beans  
half a cup of white wine vinegar  
sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, canola oil or groundnut oil  
2 table spoons of tasty olive oil, extra-vergine  
salt  
2-3 jam jars or mason jars  
       Quick and easy to make: marinated Quark / Ricotta  
  Soak and drain the beans, cut garlic cloves roughly. Fill the jars with beans and garlic and salt properly, fill in vinegar. Either fill all the beans in a big jar or divide them to fill the small jars. Roast the sunflower seeds, let cool. Cut or smash the chilli peppers to small pieces or flakes. Wash hands very well (one does not want to accidentally touch one's eye with chilli fingers).  
Use a mortar to roughly ground the sunflower seeds. Mix sunflower seeds and chilli flakes onto a saucer or a coffee cup.  
Mix all the herbs onto a saucer or tea cup.  
Now salt your quark or ricotta. If the quark is to soft and wet, before salting: drain the liquid and leave it in a fine sieve or mesh or in a cloth, so it will lose some more liquid.  

  In the meantime cover the beans with oil. I like to shake the jars frequently, so the flavors can mix better.  
Take a spoon to form little balls out of the ricotta / quark. In turns cover some of them with herbs and others with seeds-chilli-mix. The perfect size of balls is in between hazelnut and walnut. You will get out 12 to 17 ricotta balls or quark balls.  

       Tasty cover: Ricotta balls in herbs and quark balls in nuts and chilli  

  Use a spoon to put the balls on top of the beans. Either put all herb ricotta balls in one jar and all chilli quark balls in another or mix them all up.  

  Leave at least one day in the fridge.  

  The cheese balls make a delicious spread (and if you think of it the fat in the quark and the oil - this is still less than what normal cream cheese carries). Especially on toasted bread, and maybe together with the beans which you could use as spread as well. You can top every green salad with quark cheese balls and beans and turn it into a nice meal. Serving chicken and rice you can add some zing with the fiery chilli ricotta balls which make up for a sauce like chutney. You can serve them as anti-pasta or appetizer before the meal or dip them into tortilla chips.  
       Marinated Ricotta or Quark: preserve your spread in a natural way  
  Why I loved these home made marinated quark balls so much? Because they are so simple to make and yet tasteful. Contrary to marinated goat cheese the quark does take up the taste of the herbs and oil and it blends perfectly.  

  You can vary this recipe, use fresh herbs instead of dry ones, you could of course use goat cream cheese as well. If you don't like beans, leave them aside. The oil is very tasteful and can be used for a salad dressing.  

  Those who like marinated goat cheese do get with this recipe a practical and tasty alternative.  
  
If you use a pretty mason jar, arrange the beans and quark balls nicely,   use a pretty muffin paper to cover the lid or crochet a lid cover  , you have decorated a nice little something into a gift.  

  
	  
		Pretty Cook an Bake Equipment at MiaDeRoca Web Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Funny Cow Cookie Cutter    

  
		        
		  Cow Baking Tin for yummy Cow Cake    

	  
		        
		  Spaetzle plane for Nockerl and SpÃ¤tzle    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Dec 2013 18:47:58 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/marinated-herb-quark-balls-and-chilli-ricotta-balls/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/marinated-herb-quark-balls-and-chilli-ricotta-balls/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Quick sweet pretzels in puff pastry with caramel]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Crunchy, puffy pretzels with caramel - quick to make and yummy!    Of course October is THE time for all kind of pretzel, pretzels: the big lye   soft pretzel   together with your weisswurst (Bavarian sausage) or the small salted pretzels â€“ we were in the mood for small sweet pretzel without salt. Yes, I know caramel without salt, fleur de sel, sea sold â€“ how old-fashioned and European is that. Well give it a try and if you like to do so you can still add some salt.  
With these sweet pretzel dish you have a great token for your own little Oktoberfest or a snack at the end of your five-course Bavarian dinner. These soft caramel pretzels are perfect together with ice cream and make a nice dessert.  
The preparations are rather easy you need a pretzel cutter, puff pastry and caramels or toffee.  
       All ingredients at a glance  
  Caramel Pretzel Recipe  
  You need:    
puff pastry (for the quick version buy ready made one or follow the   recipe of quick puff pastry with quark  )  
30g caramels (for 16-22 pretzels) you can use hard caramel candy or soft caramel toffee
some caster sugar  
  pretzel cookie cutter Nepomuk   (for the bottom of the pretzels and the top of the pretzels â€“ a cookie cutter to make the typical linzer cookies in pretzel shape)  
         Roll 0ut puff pastry and cut pretzels  
  How to make caramel pretzel:  
  First you have to crush the caramel candy. Crushing candy a meat tenderizers comes handy (any kind of hammer will do). Fill your candy in a plastic bag and start hammering. We used soft chewy caramels and used a rolling pin or the broad plastic end of a knife. The soft toffees can be cut in small pieces.  
  
Roll out the still cold puff pastry. Sprinkle caster sugar evenly on top of the dough. Now you can cut out the pretzel bottoms and pretzel tops. To make sure to have enough tops and bottoms either cut them out alternatively. It is more convenient to start with the pretzel bottom. So I flapped the puff pastry rectangle to see were the middle would be and started doing the pretzel bottoms. When I came close to the middle I cut out the pretzel tops.   
       Caramels on the bottom of the pretzles, cut out pretzels on top, that is how easy you can fill your caramel pretzels.  
  Put the crushed caramels on the bottom of the pretzel â€“ with the heat of the oven these will melt. So if you cover them unevenly, this won't matter very much. If you use to much caramel the hot caramel will spill over and you will get caramel brittle.
Cover the pretzel bottoms with the pretzel tops.  

  In the meantime: preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.  

  Take the remaining puff pastry and roll it out again. This puff pastry will behave slightly different when bakes as there is caster sugar in it. I made a rectangle placed chocolate and nuts on one side and pulled the other side over. I cut out triangles. Maybe there are members in your family who don't like caramel. Now you can offer them sweet puff pastry with and without caramel.  

  Bake the caramel pretzels for 12-14 Min. The caramel will melt the puff pastry will turn golden on top. Pull the pretzles gently out of the oven, let them cool â€“ and enjoy!  

  
	  
		Pretty things for Baking at the MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Pretzel cutter for filled cookies    

  
		        
		  Cookie cutter digger shape    

	  
		        
		  Cookie cutter cloud and umbrella    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 19 Oct 2013 17:58:28 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/quick-sweet-pretzels-puff-pastry-caramel/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/quick-sweet-pretzels-puff-pastry-caramel/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Paper Box Folding]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Quick and simple rectangular folding box    It is very easy and quick to make simple rectangular boxes out of paper without a pattern. When the temperatures in summer drop back into moderate areas, you will get into the mood to craft and make something. It might be to warm for wool or yarn, you can't even stand the warmth of the light of your sewing machine and think the engine warms the air. Baking gets beyond bearable in the end of July, beginning of August. This is the perfect time to grab paper and scissor and start with crafting Origami. The folded paper boxes are quickly to make and can be folded by an age. If your kid is good at folding properly this can be a perfect craft for Kindergarten, pre-school and school ages. If you child does not like to fold very accurately, split the working load. You can do the folding and your sibling can cut and to the final steps â€“ or your children might like to colour the paper before folding.  

       Step A + 1: start folding your own paper box  
  Instructions how to fold a paper box  

  You will need:  
paper  
scissors    

  Depending on which size your box should be take or cut the matching paper. You will need a square. The edge length of the box will be a quarter of the diagonal of the square. If you use a Din A4 paper your boxes will be 7.5cm in length, if you start with a square of 28.5cm you box will have the edge length of 10.4cm and if your square is 12.4cm the little box will be 3.5cm in length.  

       Step 2 folding paper box  
  
If you start folding the paper box for no other reason than crafting: try to experiment with sizes and paper: use wrapping paper, packing paper and transparent baking paper â€“ we used this paper to make the small little box with matching lid. If you have such semi-transparent paper you might even guess what is in the box.  

  Step A: If your are starting with a Din A paper or any other rectangular-shaped paper, fold a square out of a rectangular- Therefore fold a corner of the shorter side to the longer side to have a triangular (see photo), cut the rectangular edge.  

  Step 1: fold each corner towards the opposite corner and fold the paper diagonally.  

       Step 3 for your folded box  

  Step 2: fold each corner to the centre.  

  Step 3: fold each corner to the outer crease before the opposite corner.  
                  

       Step 4 + 5 how to make simple origami box  
  Step 4: fold each corner towards the first crease.  

  Step 5: the last step before you start folding your box: four cuts towards the square bottom of the box - see photos.  
                  

       Step 6 start folding the sides of the box  

  Step 6: take the long sides and fold the top edge into the centre and fold them to form one of the walls of the box.  
                  

       Step 7 now you have finished paper box folding  

  Step 7: take the short sides and fold them towards the centre, flap around the ends of the long sides. You have finished your box without any glue.   
If you prefer your box to be a little more solid, you can of course glue the sides and the bottom of the box.  
                  

       quick and simple to make: paper boxes  
  You can make a lid for your folded box â€“ you can even use boxes of the same size â€“ on the pictures you see the white boxes (started with DinA 4 paper) with hama bead heart (here you will find the   pattern for the hama bead heart  ).  

  These folded boxes are great as paper gift boxes, you can use them to make small gift baskets or start making boxes for an advent calendar.  
We used transparent baking paper for folding. Using baking paper you could box baked goodies like cookies or small cakes.  
  

       Small gift baskets in folded boxes  
  Are you in the mood for more paper crafting and folding:
  folding envelopes    
  craft paper flowers    
  make a pompon garland    

  Those who like a box in woolly texture: here you can find a pattern for a stable   little crochet basket   made of normal dk yarn.  

      
    
    
  
	  
		Sweet Gifts and Gift Ideas in our MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Sweet Notebook Bambi    

  
		        
		  Digger Cookie Cutter    

	  
		        
		  Enchanting Deer Necklace    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 01 Aug 2013 09:09:33 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/paper-box-folding/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/paper-box-folding/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Free Printable Thanks Gift Tags]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Free printabel Thank you cards    It is time to say thank you â€“ Thanks to all for your trust and shopping with us and coming back to shop with us again and again. Thanks to all our regular customer. Thnak you for recommending us to your friends. Thanks for the nice and sweet mails and the photos of self baked cookies made with MiaDeRoca cutters and the self knitted and felted bags made with MiaDeRoca patterns. Thanks for the links from blogs and discussion groups. Thanks for mentioning us and showing our products in magazines and papers. Thanks for the likes on facebook and Google+, for pining on pinterest and recommendations on twitter. For nearly five years we get so much in return and that is why we all want to Thank you very much for your support.  
       A present to say thank you  
  As we don't want to leave the thank you as a symbolic one, we made a little thank you as free printable thanks gift tag. Just open the file, print it our, cut them out and add these little tags to small presents, a bunch of flower, home made jam or any other small gift of gratitude.  

  Free Printable Thanks Tags  

  The little thanks notes are in pastel colours and ideal to add to a little something or as an additional tag for home made jam, as well as pesto and chutney from your kitchen.  

    Thanks Cards to print out  Free Printable Thanks Cards  
       Card and paper flower as decoration: the small parcel gets decorated quickly  
  We like to decorate presents and gifts for friends and relatives with tags and notes. To be honest we are no artists when it comes to gift wrapping, but we like to wrap gifts with love and affection.  

  We like to get crafty every once in a while, but sometimes there ain't enough time for crafting when we have to wrap a gift. To be able to wrap and decorate parcels they way we like it, even if there is little time, we try to make gift tags, notes and little cards ahead of time. Besides several different designs of gift wrapping paper we store jars with cards, crochet flowers, paper flowers made of muffin cases (  paper flower how to  ), crochet presents, crochet stars, hama bead hearts and for Christmas some crochet stockings, crochet snow men and wooly crochet candles (all from the   ebook gift tag pattern "Christl"  ).  
       Sweet gifts of gratitude  

  Why we store our little craft projects in jars? By storing them in this way we keep them safe and dust free and it is a very decorative way of storing pretty things. And sometimes these jars - filled to the rim with colourful pretty things - are allowed to stay on the shelves and not in the cupboard.  

  Our thanks note are in yellow, green, blue, pink and light violet, they match colourful gift wrapping papers, as well as fancy black and white paper and brown packing paper.  

      
  
	  
		Pretty gifts, cards and wrapping paper in the MiaDeRoca web store:  

	  
		        
		  Pretty set of cards    

  
		        
		  Tissue cover in gingham    

	  
		        
		  Sweet gift wrapping paper    

    

  Great blogs:  
  Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons     
  Blissfull and Domestic     
  My Turn for US    
  one artsy mama    
  Wait 'til your father gets home    
  Jennifer Rizzo  
  
   ]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 22:43:44 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/free-printable-thanks-gift-tags/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/free-printable-thanks-gift-tags/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Elderflower Cordial Cupcakes]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Recipe: Cupcake with elderflower cordial    The recipe for elderflower cupcakes is a marvellous spring dessert for a sweet desert or cake for tea. If there is spring and the endless rain does not wash away all the delicious blossom pollen. 2013 this gets a little difficult to find elder bushes which are not yet withered. This autumn we will definitely get plenty of elderberry. If you were able to grab some elderflowers you can get straight to our   popular recipe for elderflower cordial  . If you were not that lucky: you can buy ready made syrup and cordial as well all year long and add the wonderful smell of these blossoms to cupcake and muffins.  

  Recipe Elderflower Cordial  
       Overview of the cupcake ingredients  
  Ingredients for 12 muffins, cupcakes:  
3 eggs  
150g butter (unsalted)  
90g powdered sugar  
60ml elderflower cordial  
1 teaspoon lime juice or lemon juice  
180g flour  
1 teaspoon baking powder  

  Frosting:  
50g soft butter (unsalted)  
35g powdered or icing or confectioners' sugar  
4 teaspoons of elderflower cordial  
175g cream cheese or mascarpone  
if at hand: crystallized elderflowers  
  
       First step: bake yummy muffins  
  Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.  
For the dough: Mix sugar and butter, add one egg after the other, mix cordial and lime juice to the batter. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder and add it to the batter spoon by spoon. Fill your muffin tray with 12 muffin liners and fill in dough into the muffin cases. Bake for about 15 minutes.  

  For the frosting: again start by mixing butter and powder sugar, add cream cheese and start adding the cordial bit by bit. Make sure that the frosting is not too fluid. Cool the frosting for at least one hour in the fridge. As soon as the cupcakes are cold your can pipe the frosting on top of them.  
       Elderflower cordial muffins smell deliciously  

  With a piping bag we piped the topping. For piping our elderflower cordial frosting we used the   star tip size 12mm  .  

  If you have some fresh elderflowers at hand you can rip them of their little stems, add 1-2 drops of lime or lemon juice to them and crystallize them with granulated sugar. Server immediately as the blossom quickly turns brown.  

  What is the difference betweens cupcakes and muffins? To be honest we make the following differentiation: muffins are small cakes in muffin cases and cupcakes are small cakes in muffin cases with a topping or frosting on top. That is not exactly what the dictionary would tell you. Classic muffins and cupcakes do differ in the way the batter is mixed and what is included.   

       Beautiful to look at and easy to make: elderflower cordial cupcakes  

  But as we interpret muffins and cupcakes in a middle-European way â€“ less sugar, no added artificial flavour, no artificial colours, no bake mix and other chichi, our cupcakes differ from the US-American cupcakes. And why do we do this? Because we do present recipes we like to cook and we like to eat. That is the same we do with typical and traditional Austrian food we present here as well. We, e.g. use less fat (be it butter oil or lard), use fresh herbs, where in deep winter dishes were only seasoned with salt and maybe a dash of pepper.  

      


  
	  
		Order bakery equipment forr cupcakes at the MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Kit for tips for cupcakes    

  
		        
		  Washable piping bag for frostings and topings    

  
		        
		  Vintage rose muffin cases    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:23:27 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/elderflower-cordial-cupcakes/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/elderflower-cordial-cupcakes/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Homemade Table Decoration for Spring]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Colourful table decorations for parties in Spring    Table decoration in spring â€“ we like that colourful and vibrant. The colour scheme we chose was blue, green, yellow and white and we used it in all our decorative elements. The main decoration material where muffin cases, once you have them in the colour you want you can make a garland with them, use them as paper flowers and bake the muffins which are served in them. The home made spring decoration consists of a pompom garland, paper flowers, small hama bead hearts and crochet flowers used as table confetti.  

  Homemade Deco for a Spring Party  
  Spring Party Decoration can be used for Mother's Day and Easter and for every other party between March and June (for Australians, South African and all other Southern people we mean of course November to February). As winters in the Alps are long, cold and white we love to see colour in spring, be it the first snow drops which are surrounded by brown mud than green meadow. The daffodils and lent lilies which greet us in vibrant yellow, fresh green from the growing grass and the developing leaves and hopefully blue sky. As nature is not always very relialbe, like with the long, greyish and cold winter 2013, where we had a very late spring, which hardly arrived and was again drowned in weeks of rain which culminated in devastating strong rains and floods, we prefer to stick to crafting material we have at home.  

  Pompom Garland made of muffin cases  
       Home made table confetti hearts and flowers  
  Single coloured muffin cases in yellow, green and light blue (from the   muffin set Manuela  ), combined with flower covered muffin cases in yellow and light blue (  muffin cases Elke  ) and the lightblue muffin liners with dots (  lightblue muffin liners with snowflakes  ) made to pompoms â€“ all together glued onto a white-blue gingham ribbon. You can use the garland as wall decoration or like we do use as centerpiece in and around the   adorable cardboard suitcase Clarisse  .  
    Instructions Pompom garland    

  Paper flowers   
  We used the same muffin cases designs for the paper flowers like we used for the garland. The paper flowers ensure to have flowers that won*t decay, however the temperature or the weather conditions. If it is a nice day add small vases with wild flowers and insert some paper flowers into the vases.  
    Tutorial paper flowers    

  Hearts made of hama beads with the cross stitch pattern hearts  
       Decorations for Spring with muffins  
  We used a normal board for hama beads and placed small hearts following the cross stitch pattern for hearts and apple â€“ some are single coloured, some two-coloured and some multi-coloured. To be quick at laying down the pattern I sorted the hama beads by colour and then we started. You can make a different coloured outer border to the big hearts. These hama bead hearts are great as tags like e.g. on an Easter branch. They are really quickly to lay out and to iron, I made several of them and have some stored for other occasions.  
    Cross stitch pattern hearts    

  Getting to muffins: for a spring celebration I would recommend something light and fruity like our delicious   elderflower cordial cupcakes  . As this posting was made 2013, an incredible season of heavy rains and floods through the Alps and as well the east of Austria and big parts of Germany, as well as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland â€“ we need something for the nerves and the soul and opted for   spongy chocolate muffins  .  
  
	  
		Order Sweet Gift Ideas and Muffin Cases in the MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Sweet Cradboard Suitcase Clarisse    

  
		        
		  Paper baking cups light blue with white dots    

  
		        
		  Muffin cases wiht flowers in blue and yellow    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 08 Jun 2013 19:14:50 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/festivities-holidays-alps/homemade-table-decoration-for-spring/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/festivities-holidays-alps/homemade-table-decoration-for-spring/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Zucchini Muffins]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Amazingly fluffy zucchini muffins    Zucchini or courgette cake might be known as wonderful moist cake. We used this recipe from our family cookbook and adapted it for delicious moist muffins with zucchini.
To be honest when adding vegetables to sweet muffins, they don't turn out to be a nutritious meal, yet they are healthier and less heavy and rich than typical desserts. On the other hand you need not to worry, that they taste "healthy", similar to the carrot cake, usually the veggy ingredient won't be noticed, but the green dots of the zucchini skin. And if you have strict carnivores and members of the anti-vegetable gangs in your family, you can peel the green skin of, and they will never know â€“ unless you tell them.  

  Recipe for sweet Zucchini Muffins  
        Ingredients for zucchini muffins  
    ingredients:    
2 eggs   
170g cane sugar or brown sugar  
100ml oil  
50g grounded nuts (e.g. almonds)  
150g grounded zucchini  
190g flour  
1/2 teaspoon baking soda  
2 teaspoons baking powder  
1 pinch of salt  
the seeds of a quarter vanilla bean  
1 pinch of cinnamon + 1 pinch of ginger  

  Preheat the oven to 180degrees Celsius, fill a muffin tray with 12 liners.  
Mix flour and baking powder, add baking soda and spices.  
In a second bowl beat eggs until foamy, add sugar and the seeds of the vanilla pod and mix thoroughly.  
Add nuts and oil, and bit by bit add the flour-mix.  
When all is well mixed add the grated zucchinis.  
       Spread the dough evenly into 12 paper baking cases  
  Fill the muffin liners evenly with muffin dough.  
Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  

  250g of zucchini, that is about a middle-sized zucchini. That is quite a lot of zucchini. This muffin recipe is perfect to use up a lot of zucchini, and that is why it is so popular in our family and widely approced. Because during every summer there comes the time vegetable gardeners harvest tons of zucchinis, and although they taste delicious being grilled zucchinis, filled zucchinis, roasted zucchinis, you still have tons of them and don't know where to put them after having made zucchini chutneys and pickled zucchinis and than comes the time where you have given all of your neighbours plenty of zucchini. As zucchini, courgette is as versatile as all squash and pumpkins, desserts are the next thing that comes to mind.  
       Crunch from the outside, soft inside: zucchini muffins  
  We warmly recommend these muffins. This is an approved recipe and regularly asked for. In the cooler summer weeks when autumn is approaching we recommend to allow these muffins a flush of chocolate. Cover the top of the warm muffins with jam and as soon as the muffins are cold cover them with chocolate glaze. We totally love these muffins without chocolate as well throughout the whole year.  

  The recipe for zucchini muffins is dairy-free, it is ideal for all with lactose intolerant. If your using chocolate glaze be sure to take one which is without lactose.  

  You would like to see more muffin recipes: We recommend these baking recipes with photos:  
  bake moist chocolate muffins    
  delicious quark-tangerine muffins        

  
	  
		Buy baking supply at the MiaDeRoca store:  

	  
		        
		  Cookie tin fawn    

  
		        
		  Horse baking mould    

	  
		        
		  Muffin cases in beige    

    
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 May 2013 17:32:14 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/zucchini-muffins/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/zucchini-muffins/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Craft paper flowers out of muffin liners]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Make Paper flowers out of muffin cases    Paper flowers can be handy at all times, you can use them for all kinds of table decorations and party adornments, have them as eye catcher on a special gift and make 3-dimensional greeting cards.
    Our crafty idea for colourful paper flowers is super quick and totally easy to make and with a blink of the eye your are swimming in a sea of paper flowers. What you need to make these paper flowers: muffin liners and scissors. Use uni-coloured muffin cases or a bunch of colourful, polka-dotted, gingham or striped paper baking cups.       
       How to fold paper flowers  
  Craft idea: how to make paper flowers from muffin cases  
    You need:    
  muffin liners  
scissors    

  With white muffin cases you can make pretty marguerites. With different single coloured and colourful muffin liners you will get a happy multi-coloured bunch of flowers.  
       Cut paper flowers  


  Smooth out and flatten the muffin liners, then fold into halves, fold again into quarters, fold again to eighths and finally fold again to the sixteenth part.  

  Now cut the outer corners to a round shape, like the petals of daisies (see picture). Unfold and â€“ voilÃ  you receive sweetly shaped paper flowers. Take the middle and form the flower, slightly twist at the tip, tear apart the petals. These paper flowers are super easy and quic to make. The perfect decoration craft to make with children.  
       Crafting with muffin cases: paper flowers and Pompom garland  
  For single flowers use the coloured paper outside.  
When you are going to create a whole bouquet of flowers use the coloured paper of the muffin cases on the inside. Attach the flowers at the tip to a wooden stick, e.g. with yarn or wire, or stick into a straw, arrange several flowers into a bunch.    

  What do you think: Are you in the mood for more crafting inspirations with muffin liners?    
Then smooth some more muffin cases and fold only once hop to our DIY idea for a   unique paper pompom garland made of muffin cases  .  
        
    
  
	  
		Buy Colourful Paper Baking Cups for Baking and Crafting:  

	  
		        
		  Exceptional muffin cases with flowers    

	  
		        
		  Striped baking cups for muffins and cupcakes    

  
		        
		  Single colour muffin liners in yellow, green, red, blue and pink    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 17:50:28 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/craft-paper-flowers-out-of-muffin-liners/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/craft-paper-flowers-out-of-muffin-liners/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[DIY garland made of Paper baking cups]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Use muffin cases for a Pompom Garland  
  
Colourful paper baking moulds are the perfect asset to your self made muffins and cupcakes â€“ but did you know that you can use these muffin liners to craft decoration like this Pom Pom garland. You only need a little bit of crafting gear, and with a few steps your can create this garland â€“ a great piece of decoration for mother's day. Daddies and kids can smooth, fold, glue together and create this holiday decoration.
  The cupcake liner garland will suit as great decoration for many festivities; children birthday parties, baby shower, weddings, BBQs and muffin party. Use colourful muffin cases to give highlights with certain colours and match the muffin liners to your table decoration. What we like especially about this garland: with different designs of paper baking cups you can create a charming mismatched look, which can find its continuation with the design of the plates you use on the table.  

       Crafting material you need for the exceptional muffin case garland  
  Tutorial Pom Pom garland made of muffin cases  

  You need:  
For each Pom Pom 5-6 paper muffin liners  
glueing stick  
cord to attach the Pom Poms to  
some books to have some weight to flatten the folded paper cases    

  Start with flattening the paper cups and fold into halves, coloured side inside. For each of the Pom Poms you need at least 5 folded muffin cups. As soon as you have folded them, put them under a book to flatten them. And on you go with smoothing and folding.  
       Smooth paper baking cups and fold.  
  Matching our blue-yellow-green table decoration we used muffin cases in yellow, blue and green, some of them uni-coloured, some with polka-dots, some with colourful flowers on blue and yellow ground.  

  Glue them together on their lighter shaded outsides. For the first step we glued together five halves, without closing the Pompom. Again we pressed them to lie flat under a book. This enables the glue to be pressed flat and to dry evenly. You can let these dry Pompons rest for the night.  

  The last steps consists in closing the still open Pom Poms and fix them to a cord. It comes handy that this is all happening in the same work step.  
       Glue halves together and insert ribbon for the garland.  

  Take the Pompom and put the sides together and check the corners â€“ use some glue if the middle of each pompom does not close properly. As cord we used a white and blue gingham ribbon which we glued directly into the Pom Poms. Apply some glue directly onto the ribbon and on the not yet glued muffin case half. Put the ribbon to the edge of the folded muffin case, add some more glue onto the ribbon and the other half of the muffin case and now close the Pom pom.  

  We added a Pompom every 20cm to the ribbon. For a meter of garland you need 4 Pompoms. For a 10 meter garland you need 31 Pompoms and at least 155 muffin cases. And at least, two, three or four muffins to enjoy during crafting, find some proved and tested muffin recipes below.  

       Colourful decoration: garland made of muffin liners  

  More DIY and crafting instructions for several occasions can be found in the   category "For Children"  . Another crafting idea for Mother's Day and a perfect   last minute gift idea are our Mother's Day gift coupons  .
  

  Our recipes for yummy muffin:  
  spongy chocolate muffins recipes    
fruity   mandarin quark muffins recipe with fluffy quark-meringue topping  
          
  Have fun crafting with muffin liners!  

  
	  
		Buy colourful muffin linrsa and paper baking cups at the MiaDeRoca Store:  

	  
		        
		  Floral Paper baking cups in blue and yellow    

  
		        
		  Uni-coloured muffin liners in yellow, green, blue, red and pink    

	  
		        
		  Paper baking cups light blue with white dots    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:39:06 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/diy-garland-made-of-paper-baking-cups/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/diy-garland-made-of-paper-baking-cups/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Witchivity - Charades]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Hexivity - a fun game for your witch party    Theme parties for children are a great hit in our circle of friends and family. Be it dragons, witches, knights or princesses: as anybody likes we even match food and games with the theme. For the witches party we started in decorating everything together â€“ we made buntings and stamped on it with   self-made stamps of bats, witches hats and brooms  .   Later that afternoon we had witches games. We did award the best spell, they had to have a rid on a broom stick around an obstacle course and as our group was rather big we had several rounds of Hexivity. A game we all enjoyed a lot and is now played during several family gatherings.  

  By the way: Hexivity is new name for a game known under another term: Charades.  

  How to play Hexivity â€“ Charades â€“ Game for your Witch Party  
  You can play Charades starting with 4 persons,  
we usually split up into two groups,  
each groups thinks of words with two or more substantives â€“ matching the theme, which is in this cases witches, sorcerers and magic, suitable words for Hexivity would be "broomstick", "witchcraft" â€“ as we play this game in German if have to admit that it is far easier to find words consisting of two or more substantives. You can of course search for kown literature and cinema cahracter's or book and movie titles like "Harry Potter", "Nanny McPhee", "Bewitched" or if playing among adults "Blair Witch Project".  
A person from the other group has to interpret a chosen word or phrase by pantomime.  

  Kids 8 and above will mostly enjoy this game. It is important to us, that every child dares and tries to act out, therefore we allow to help out and to give hints.  
During the game some of the groups try to be quicker by arranging special hand signals, for instance when they show the first or the second word or when they mime the whole term. Clever guessers even find signals for special themes.  

  Hexivity is a fun family game to play outdoors, this word guessing game can be played inside as well. When forming groups we like to mingle adults and kids.  

  Matching the magic theme we recommend special witch party food and snacks like the   spooky finger food flapi    
or soup with broomstick and witches' hats â€“ made like our   dragon soup   
  
  
	  
		Magical and playful things at the MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Cardboard suitcase for painting stuff    

  
		        
		  Cookie cutter owl    

	  
		        
		  Ceramics Bowl Squirrel    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:35:38 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/witchivity-charades-witch-party-game/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/witchivity-charades-witch-party-game/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Printable Parsley Pesto Labels]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Preview template labels for parsley pesto    Pesto is quick to make and perfectly storable for some weeks. So you will get quickly a great dish for many meals to come and you can store fresh herbs. This dish bursting of freshness is not only great as a quickly to prepare dish for lunch or dinner â€“ we cherish Pestos as little gifts, like   delicious ramsons pesto   with   ramsons-pesto labels   or the likewise green and very   savoury parsley pesto   â€“ where we are going to provide parsley pesto labels to print out right here.    
  The parsley pesto labels are perfect to stick as banderole straight over the jar lid. You can as well use them like normal jam jar labels and glue them across the jar.  
       Printalbe template for our parsley pesto  
  Template: Labels for Pesto to Print Out  
  
    Printable Labels: Home Made Pesto from Parsley with Walnuts   (pdf)  
  
  The labels are narrow and elongate - white letters on a photograph with walnuts, image reduced to brown shades.  

  Exceptionally practical and handy become these labels if you are storing several pesto jars in your fridge. With the pretty stickers you know at first sight which one is the wild garlic pesto, pesto verde, stinging nettle pesto, parsley pesto, wild herb pesto, salsa verde or even gruene sosse.  

  For those who are looking for inspirations and ideas to make their little culinary gift look even better: Here you get   tips how to decorate jam jars and pesto glasses  .         Home made pesto as a favour  
  
  On the fly you have created low priced and lovingly decorated gifts, you can use when invited to gift to your hosts, or as favours for weddings, birthday parties and other celebrations.                  

  
	  
		Pretty ideas for little gift and favours at the MiaDeRoca Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Heart bowl made of porcelain with deer    

  
		        
		  Tool cookie cutters: funny for home builder    

	  
		        
		  camper van passport holder: gift for travellers    

    
  
Check out these links:  
  Thirty handmade days    
  
        
  
            
  
    
  

          ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 14:58:29 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/printable-parsley-pesto-labels/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/printable-parsley-pesto-labels/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[City-Country-River Game]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Preview Template City-Country-River Game: for 2, 3, 4, 5 and more people    Saturday evening and the TV does not work, a long train ride, rain during summer vacations, a mega traffic jam on the motorway â€“ to deal with such situation and prevent boredom, we have a collection of family games available. If we are with smaller children the game session usually starts with "I spy with my little eye something beginning with B..." (when the kids are to small to handle the alphabet we use colours).  
  You don't need special materials for many family games. What we usually take with us when we are "on tour" is a folder with some sheets of paper, a few pens and a several print outs, like these of the city-country-river game. Besides paper and pencil you don't need anything to play it, and if you are not too strictly sticking to the rules it is even for the youngsters great fun to play.  

  City-Country-River Template  
       City-Country-River a game for the whole family - or for just two  

  Our city-country-river template to print out has 10 categories, and they are:  
City - Country - River - Mountain - Animal - Plant - Name - Celebrity - Job - Dish and additional fields for the letter and points.  

    Template City-Country-River Game   (pdf)  

  To make it easy to choose the letters, we also made a template for all the letters in 
the alphabet, altogether 26 letters.  

    Template ABC   (pdf)  


  Rules City-Country-River Game  

  That's how you play City-Country-River  
A letter of the alphabet is drawn, all start to write down city, country, â€¦ with this letter. For example: if the letter is S - City: Salzburg, Country: Sweden, River: Shenandoah, Mountain: Sunnyslope, Animal: Siberian Tiger, Plant: Sunflower, Name: Sinead, Celebrity:  Delia Smith, Job: Screenwriter, Dish: Schnitzel.
You can start playing the game if you are 2 persons or more.  

  The person which fills each of the categories with a right answer shouts "stopp!". The remaining players can finish the word they wanted to write and then it is time to start counting points:  
If you have filled in a word correctly you get 10 points,  
if two or more used the same term each one gets 5 points,  
if you are the only one who filled in a category with the current letter you will get 20 points, if e.g. no one else has found a river starting with S.  
All points are collected and listed at the end of each line.  

  Pastime for big children, teenagers and adults  
       City-Country-River Game: party game for adults and fun for kids and teenager  
  Before starting it is useful to talk about the categories and define what is allowed and what ain't. Does it only count to name a city that is by definition a city or can it be a village as well. Do only nations classify as country or can it be a province or federal state as well. Especially when kids are playing as well we recommend to expand the category river to all  bodies of water and count lakes and seas.  
The category mountain is one of the most difficult ones (even to people who live in the Alps), we interpret it very widely and allow all kinds of peaks, passes and glaciers. And if you cross e.b. The Alps on your way to your vacations, you can see how City-Country-River turns into an educational game, as everyone tries to memorize all the names of the tunels and tubes. If there is a Mont Blanc Tunnel, Mont Blanc is a good term for mountain with M, or Tauern Tunnel gets you to mountain with T and St. Gotthard Tunnel leads you to St. Gotthard Pass and counts as mountain for S.  
When filling in animals use animal species, but what about animals that are extinct? Think of all kind of Dinosaurs or the Tasmanian Tiger. And what about fantasy animals, does dragon count as animal with D. With plants all species of plants are allowed, but no umbrella terms like tree or meadow.  
The category names is one we started for the younger players, as this is one to easily fill out for them. The category of celebrities causes much laughter, before starting the game you have to define if it is the name or surname of the celeb that counts.  We usually allow both, meaning Oprah Winfrey, counts for O as well as W. Do celebrities have to be alive and are fantastic celebrities like figures out of fairy tales allowed as well. And when is a person a celebrity? When finding jobs there might appear some funny suggestions is gangster a job for the letter G. With the category dishes you should talk if drinks and brands count as well, are Oreos a dish? And what about scones?
When we play this game with kids and juveniles the rules are not very strict and especially with younger kids a lot would be counted to keep the fun in the game.  
Among adults City-Country-River can turn into a very competitive party game and it is useful to discuss definitions and rules and to have a dictionary at hand or internet acess to be able to check if one or another peak or pass really exists.  
  
	  
		Order Fun, Play and Entertainment in our MiaDeRoca Web-Store:  

	  
		        
		  Card game black fox with deer    

  
		        
		  Baking Domino cookies    

	  
		        
		  Little Red Riding Hood Jigsaw    

    
  Fancy some other craft sites, see these link parties:  
  A diamond in the stuff     
  The winthrop chronicles     
  Elizabeth & Co    
  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia    
  Not just a housewife    
  The Tuesday Talent Show    
  

 ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:44:57 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/city-country-river-game-template/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/city-country-river-game-template/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Easter Stitching Pattern]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Preview Easter Eggs Pattern: for cross stitch and fuse beads pendants    Easter is for many countries the spring holiday â€“ the table is set with bright and vivid colours, multi-coloured eggs, table decorations in pastels and vernal flowers. We love handmade and especially things crafted by kids among our table decorations, be it   Easter bunny napkin rings   or   self made egg cups   and   cress eggs with bunny faces   â€“ they are adorable, and you can straight away collect the cress and have it with your scrambled egg or your sunny side up or directly on top of bread and butter.   
  The serviette rings and eggcups are available as downloadable pattern, click on the links and you will get to the page. The instructions for the cress eggs can be found when clicking the cressegg-links.  
  To provide not only ideas to paint, cut and plant with your children in preparation for Easter, we prepared a little Easter embroidery â€“ three coloured eggs are on the Easter stitching pattern, which you can use as design for fuse beads as well.  

  Cross Stitch Design Easter Eggs  

  The three embroidery patterns show: an Easter egg with small flowers, a striped Easter egg and a pastel coloured Easter egg. The colours we used are suggestions, use the colour you like best and which suit your table decoration.  

    Download Easter Cross Stitch Template   (pdf)   

  Not only in our house Handmade has its tradition during Easter: Small white doilies with cross stitch embroidery appear on some of my relative's tables and sideboard during Easter and I get very emotional when seeing those â€“ I did make them over 25 years ago, a sweet teenager at this time. Emboridered place mats, table runners and cushions are perfect little gifts â€“ and you can support the busy Easter bunny and hide it.  

  More cross stitch patterns:  
  Cross stitch design strawberry    
  Cross stitch design hearts and apple    
  Cross stitch pattern candles and mug    
  Cross stitch design snow man, clover and toadstool    
  Cross stitch pattern autumn: tree, leaf, acorn  
  
  
You can use our embroidery patterns as well as designs and pattern for hama beads. You can hang fuse beads Easter egg pendants onto your Easter branches, decorate a gift an use the Easter eggs as gift tag.  

  By the way you can use wool to embroider and can directly stitch onto woollen crochet baskets or cross stitch on knitted pieces-
  Tutorial embroidered crochet basket  .    
  Embroidered knitted covers for tealights  .   

  If you are looking for further Easter crafts, we do recommend:   
  Selfmade multi-coloured Easter cards      
  How to fold an envelope  .   

  A very practical gift idea are consumable items like delicious food: jams and jellies, or pestos, relishes and chutneys, and your can decorate them nicely:   decorating jam jars  .
   
Especially for Easter we recommend as special little gift as well as as Easter dish:   wild garlic pesto  .   
And here you can get to the printable for matching tags to your pretty pesto jars:   wild garlic pesto labels   to print out.
  

  
	  
		Look for presents and gift ideas in our online Shop:  

	  
		        
		  Happy, little Carrying Bag from France    

  
		        
		  Cookie cutter strawberry, cherry, pear and grapes    

	  
		        
		  Memory wiht cows, game for the whole family    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:20:15 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/easter-stitching-pattern/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/for-children/easter-stitching-pattern/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Fried Cheese Dumplings â€“ Austrian Kaspressknoedel]]></title><description><![CDATA[       Recipe for tasty Kaspressknoedel with cheese and fried onions    In our Alpine Lifestyle Chalet-style recipes section we have on most popular recipe, which is: Kasnockn. First of all this dish is known in many Alpine regions, sometimes with different names like Kaesspaetzle, Kaesenockerl, Kaesknoepfle or Kasspatzn, and second the dish is delicious, third recipes with melted cheese and cheese crust are highly popular. That is why we provide a new recipe which hast both melted cheese and cheesy crust. Maybe you have seen the legendary Austrian dish Kaspressknoedel on a menu of a a ski hut or Alpine chalet, or even tasted it. They are typically eaten with salad or in a soup. They are easy to cook and will be the perfect dish for an Apres-Ski-holiday invitation for friends or an Instagram or flickr presentation of your vacation in the Alps.  
  The name of the dish KaspressknÃ¶del means translated squeezed cheese dumpling, as this Knoedel variation is not round. The are fried or roasted Semmelknoedel (bread dumplings) with cheese.  


  Recipe Austrian Kaspressknoedel  
       Ingredients for the Salzburgian recipe roasted bread dumplings with cheese  
  The ingredients for the dumplings are like the   basic recipe for Semmelknoedel / bread dumplings  , we changed this recipe a little â€“ and the nice things about these dumplings, as they are fried, they are easier to make and will always turn out well.  


  Ingredients for 3-4 people:  
125g bread cubes (dry buns or white buns cut into cubes)  
2 eggs  
1 big onion  
100ml milk  
salt, pepper, fresh parsley  
3 table spoons of flour  
180g hard cheese  
oil for frying  
       Fried onions RÃ¶stzwiebel provide toasting flavour - typical for chalet style dishes in the Alps    
  Finley chop the onions and sautÃ© them in a little bit of oil.  

  HINT: to get beautifully fried onions, the fresh onions need to loose liquids, they will loose them quicker if you add some salt when you start to fry them.  

  Put bread cubes into a big bowl, let fried onions cool and add them to the bowl.  

  Add egs and lukewarm milk and mix, add flour.  

  Cut cheese into cubes, chop parsley, mix into the knoedel mixture and season with salt and pepper.  
       Add cheese cubes and parsley - the mixture is ready to be fried  
  Take out the amount of the mixture about the size of your fist, press well together and shaped them into a wheel (make a round dumpling and press flat to about the hight of 1.5 to two 2cm). Slowly fry both sides in hot oil.   

  If you buy them ready made in a deli or eat them in restaurant, inn they are usually the size of a palm. They are easier to fry when smaller and you can more often ask for seconds.  

  You can serve your Kaspressknoedel in broth or eat them with green salad or mixed salad, with a nice dose of vinegar (on the salad, not the knoedel).  
           Recipe for delicious fried bread dumplings with cheese - original from Salzburg  
  Kaspressknoedel are a typical dish from Salzburg, Austria. Like most traditional and rural dishes Kaspressknoedel is a vegetarian meal.  
    
  Happy Cooking!  
  
            
  
	  
		Have an Alpine meal and Alpine decoration in rustic chalet style:  

	  
		        
		  Cookie cutter fawn and stag    

	  
		        
		  Funny kitchen magnet Alpine boot    

	  
		        
		  Black or white stag head    

    ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:12:55 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/fried-cheese-dumplings-austrian-kaspressknoedel/</link><guid>http://www.miaderoca.co.uk/food-recipes/fried-cheese-dumplings-austrian-kaspressknoedel/</guid></item></channel></rss>