Flower Shop Puzzle

And the last of my Castorland acquisitions. It's a bigger puzzle - 1500 pcs. and the beginning was much more difficult, but in the end the size turned quite doable and the picture is pleasing to the eye. I'll miss the relaxed hours of puzzle assembly, combined with an interesting audiobook, it's addicting. But this week I'm back to knitting.

Puzzle: Flower Shop by Richard Macneil
Brand: Castorland, 1500 pcs.
Time to assemble: 4 days

Details:

And a peek to my new knitting process - the Sabrina cardigan. So far so good :)

The Jewelry Box Puzzle

One of my most favourite puzzles - very easy and very interesting to assemble, I'm becoming a fan of period painting puzzles.

Puzzle: The Jewelry Box by Ettore Simonetti
Maker: Castorland 1000 pcs.
Time to assemble: 2 days

Details:

Amsterdam Puzzle Castorland 1000

The first of my new puzzle acquisitions. Very, very pleasant to assemble, bright colors, precise cut of pieces, various forms, no piece displacement. The cardboard paper of the box and and the puzzle is thinner compared to Schmidt or Ravensburger, but so is the price. In my opinion - excellent value/price quotient.

Puzzle: Amsterdam Landscape by Castorland (Poland)
Size: 1000 pcs.
Time to assemble: 2 days

Far Breton

I first came upon the recipe for Far Breton last summer in Mira's cooking blog and was immediately intrigued. Flan meets custard - my two favourite desserts - who wouldn't want to try it. I even made the prunes at home, in the oven, following instructions I found on the web.

However, instead of a few hours, it took a few ... days!, so next time I'll probably buy a fruit dryer first or experiment the traditional way with sun and air.

However, I made the mistake of using a rather big baking dish for my far breton and the batter came very thin, not covering the prunes. It was delicious, but not a real far breton. I put away the remaining prunes in the freezer and have been meaning to make a proper go at the recipe ever since.

Until Mira's latest publication on flan reminded me of the Far Breton. This time I used a more suitable baking dish and everything went as planned.
Ingredients: 

• 250 g flour
• 500 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tbs of alcohol (this time we didn't have rum or cognac at home, so I used Irish cream)
• butter to graze the tin
• prunes

The method I used is as described by Mira - you mix the dry and the liquid ingredients separately and then add the liquid to the dry and mix thoroughly.Then pour the batter onto the prunes and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 15 min and at 150C with a fan for another 45 min or so, until the crust is golden.

The resulting dessert is interesting, tasting something like flan and something like baked macaroni with milk, but not quite. Still, if it's going to be eggs, milk and sugar, I think I'll stick to flan or custard next time :)

And my new beginnings - three new puzzles I bought yesterday:

And the sleeve of my Jirachi cardigan - I think the transition from the moss stitch border to the chart went very smoothly, so far I love it!

Cracow Puzzle

The second Castorland puzzle we bought around New Year's eve - not quite my style - I prefer paintings to pictures, but still beautiful and interesting enough.

Puzzle: The Old Town, Cracow, Poland
Make: Castorland, 1000 pcs.
Time to assemble: 2 days

This one I assembled again by myself - the boys are keener on their tablet games and the girl is a busy bee. The tree and sky parts could have been a bit tedious, if I hadn't found that listening to an audio book and assembling the puzzle made for a perfect combination :)

Puzzle Cervena Lotha Castle

This is one of the two puzzles we bought for the New Year's Eve. Traditionally we open a puzzle on the 31 Dec and spend some time assembling it, while waiting for the New Year to come. However, this year none of us felt like assembling a puzzle - until a couple of days ago. From a family hobby puzzles are quietly becoming my personal hobby - this one I assembled almost entirely on my own, with a small part of the big tree done by hubby.

Puzzle: Cervena Lotha Castle, Czech Republic
Brand: Castorland, 1000 pcs.
Time to assemble: 2 days

The quality of the pieces is not as good as Ravensburger or Schmidt, but still quite good and better than Trefl, Educa or Jumbo. I definitely prefer puzzle paintings to puzzle photos, but this one was pleasant to assemble.  I hope one day to be able to visit the actual place, I love old castles :)