Nothing of import.

I enjoy lugging out the 47-year-old Bernina and sewing simple things.

I'm no seamstress, but have been sewing a few things using up some scraps. I'll only show you one item, the rest are a bit ho-hum.

(As an aside, when Child One doesn't have her personal space to skateboard, she gets rather melancholy.)

I whipped-up this shift for Martha. I thought it'd be quite large on her, but my measuring skills leave a lot to be desired.

It's groovy fabric, and she's going to wear it for the next fourteen days out of the fortnight's-worth-of-wear she'll get from it.

Time to permanently-shelf this book, it seams (pun!).

The other night I cooked up some Finnish meatballs from the Moomin cook book. The plan was to WOW! Finnish K with my mastery of Scandinavian cuisine.

Surprisingly, she said the meatballs were exactly like the sort of home-cooked meatballs one would stumble across in down-town Helsinki.

Here's the recipe .... Sniff's Favourite Meatballs

50ml water
100ml cream
25g breadcrumbs
2 onions
1 egg
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 clove garlic
2 tsp basil
600g minced beef

For Cooking:
butter or margarine
water

For the Sauce
250g passata (we used crushed, tinned tomatoes)
1 tub ricotta or cottage cheese
soy sauce

Measure the water and cream into a bowl and mix in the breadcrumbs. Allow this to rest for a moment. Finely chop the onions and add to the breadcrumb mixture.

Add the egg, salt, seasoning and minced beef. Mix the ingredients together to form a smooth paste. An electric whisk will make this much easier (I used a wooden spoon).

Wet your hands and shape the mixture into small balls. (I put them in the fridge for half-an-hour). Heat a frying pan and add a knob of butter. Cook the meatballs (about 10 at a time) until the surface has browned. Place the browned meatballs in an oven dish.

In between each batch of meatballs, boil up about half a cup of water in the frying pan, reduce and pour the remaining liquid into the over dish on top of the browned meatballs. (I didn't do this as the book suggested, I did it in one swoop at the end).

Mix the ricotta or cottage cheese and the passata. Add a dash of soy sauce. Pour the mixture over the meatballs. Put the oven dish into a preheated oven at 225C. Allow the meatballs to cook for about an hour. Serve with potatoes or rice.

The end.

Tell me if you cook them. They were, without exaggeration, scrumptious. I teamed them with a cauliflower bake which always screams 'Michelin Star'.

Speaking of cauliflower ... here's a couple of Ekka-worthy specimens my mother-in-law gave me. They were that foreboding that Martha decided to have an argument with them. I think she thought they were fellow toddlers.

Out of one, I conjured-up a Cauliflower Soup ... another lip-smacking meal.

And if you want to eat chocolate cake in the bath at the end of a long day, then I can't be stuffed arguing with you.

You'll soon learn that chocolate cake, bubbles and warm water don't mix,

and hopefully you'll, be sensible enough to next time, sit at the table and use a plate. Hello.