What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain,
And it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again! (A.A. Milne)
Starting with a culinary triumph for me. In my 55 years I have cooked and baked many things from cakes and cookies through to entire banquets for weddings and events (including all the food for my own wedding of 70 guests).
However, the humble rice pudding, which is one of my all time favourites has proved to be my nemesis, until now. I have tried many, many recipes all of which have failed in some way usually coming out of the oven too runny and/or the rice still being crunchy.
Then I treated myself to an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot) which has proven to be an excellent addition to the kitchen. Last week I stumbled upon an Instapot recipe for rice pudding so I thought I would give it a try. Chuck all the ingredients into the pot and switch it on...a mere 20 minutes later I had the most perfect and delicious rice pudding - there was much rejoicing.
Kitchen Witch Shenanigans
Yesterday began with an annoyance, one of those social media trolls that pops up regularly and makes arrogant, argumentative comments on my posts. I shouldn't have risen to the bait, but I did and it riled me up.
Shortly afterwards Heather and Ness arrived for a Kitchen Witch day of shenanigans which made everything better. We began with a big ole fried breakfast followed by an international supermarket heist then back to Kitchen Witch HQ for plotting, planning and scheming.
We also jumped on to social media to do a quick impromptu live with announcements to celebrate 12 years of the Kitchen Witch School and the 'soon to be' opening of our online shop. We may have been a little bit hyper.
Artwork balance
Digital artwork and artists is also on my mind at the moment. At KW we try and get a bit of balance. All of our posters, social media adverts, website design and some of my book covers have been created by the ever patient hubby, Pete. All of these are created digitally as his skill set (and profession) is that of a Graphic Designer and we are eternally grateful for all the work he does.
We do like to bring in a bit of balance when we can and you will find two of my book covers have been drawn by our daughter, Emma (The Cailleach which is a pencil sketch and The Triple Goddess which was drawn digitally). Coming up, the Dragon Magic book cover was created in digital artwork by the talented Matty Greenfield from Moon Books. The cover for Sulis which is released in September I commissioned from the very lovely Suzi Edwards Goose and is acrylic on canvas.
We also have a couple of other commissions in progress, one for a book cover and the other is a secret so you will have to wait because artwork takes time! It is about getting the balance, some things lend themselves to digital artwork such as the social media posts and adverts other things open up to paint and pen, such as the book covers which have long lead times. We embrace artwork in all its many and varied forms.
Weekly Chats
My weekly chats will be continuing of course and the 1st May chat (9am) will be all about Beltane and May energy. But, there won't be any chats on the 8th and 15th May, regular scheduling will resume on Weds 22nd May.
