Recipes and Stuff

Since joining Blogger in January I have come across many recipes from other blogs, and have even made a few (!). I thought I would share with you the recipes that I have made, and tell you what I thought of them. And I might throw in a few photos, too...

From The Goddess's Kitchen there was Afternoon Tea Slices, which I like to call Choc Coated Anzac Slice. Read the recipe and you'll see why :) DELICIOUS!
This one isn't actually in a blog, but for the sake of alphabetical order I am putting it here and not tacking it on at the end of a post... CHOCOLATE CARAMEL SLICE! This is my husband's favourite type of slice and he loves this version. I have made it twice since discovering it one or two months ago. Sorry no pic! There may be only 2 of us, but it goes pretty darn fast (and the camera needed charging...)

Next (drum rolllllllllllll plllllllllease!), The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies (anyone seeing a theme??), from Good Things Catered. These are great, and the batter is some of the best I have EVER tasted... seriously addictive. Have also made these twice since discovering them not very long ago (less than a month). Go to the original post to see the pictures. As an aside, instead of putting in an extra 2 Tbspoons of flour, I put in cocoa instead. VIOLA! The Best DOUBLE Choc Chip Cookies! Also from Good Things Catered are Smooth Fudge Brownies, which are really yummy (and also unphotographed by me. Sorry). Check out the blog for yourself, you won't be disappointed (I hope!).

Julian LOVED these Cranberry and White Chocolate Flapjacks from Sweet and Simple Bakes, but I haven't made them again for one reason. Before I say (type) my reason, let me just tell you that I am not into low-fat, diets or anything like that, and most people who know me would think I was a little bit crazy if I did go on a diet. Okay, I've said it. Here is my reason: SOOO much Butter for such a small amount of slice! And when teemed with the sugar and golden syrup, the oats and cranberries look like they are in a bath. Just look at the square on the paper towel where a bit of slice used to be (I ate it!) to get the idea:That said, the slice was delicious and is well worth making. I didn't drizzle my white chocolate on because I was feeling lazy. And I had cut it up into tiny squares instead of bars :)

Another good find were the Chocolate Chip Oaties from Bombay Foodie. I have made these a couple of times, but I do douple the recipe, so as to end up with more than eight Oaties. Really yummy.

The Double Chocolate Brownies from Bake or Break were good. I think. I'm not sure, I can't really remember what they were like, but hey, they are Brownies so I assume they were good!

Key Lime Pie from Domestic Goddess in Training was great, though I made it with unsweetened condensed milk instead of sweetened condensed milk. I think I would like it much better with the correct ingredients. However, using unsweetened condensed milk made the dessert much more suble and I have a feeling it would be great with a coffee.

One of the most exciting recipes I have made was Homemade Pita Bread! This recipe from the blog Sugar and Spice (now moved to Brown Eyed Baker) was amazing to make! Seeing it puff up in the oven was very so exciting. Sorry no pictures, but I really recommend having a go at this if you don't mind working with yeast. A bit time-consuming and fiddly, but SO rewarding!

Last but not least were Korean Sweet Pancakes (Hoddeok), from My Korean Kitchen. If you aren't confident with yeast cookery this would be a great recipe to start on. You don't even have to do any kneading! These were really nice: the stuffing is delicious! I used almonds instead of walnuts, because they were the only nuts in the house (besides the one upstairs playing a computer game...) but it would have been much better with walnuts, I imagine!

There we go, the recipes I have tried (except for one that I really didn't like... I don't want to get in anyone's Bad Books). I apologize about the lack of photos... go to the original sites - their photos do much more justice to the recipes than mine would have!

No Excuses... I'm just lazy

My last post was on the 1st of May. That is more that 2 and a half months ago! I don't have any reason for abandoning the blogging world... I had no life-threatening events take place and I didn't forget how to use my computer.

Okay, so I do have one excuse: I had 3 massive essays due on the 26th of May (2 essays that were 5000 words each and an annotated bibliography that was 3500 words long), but since then I have been on holidays!!!

I admit it - I have been a very, very lazy girl.

My dear bloggees, please forgive me and don't abandon me... posts are on their way!

Fresh Strawberry Scones - Recipe

These scones are soooo good! I made them a while ago, but just haven't got around to posting them yet. I am going to send these over to Ruth, at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments, for her Bookmarked Recipes.

I bought a whole lot of strawberries the other week, and rather than eating them all I thought I better cook something with them. I found this recipe in a book called Bread & Muffin Perfection. The fresh strawberries work so well in these scones: once cooked they are sweet yet tart. If you eat the scones while they are hot you won't need anything spread on them!

I actually doubled the recipe, but because I used a scone cutter which was bigger than what they specify I only ended up with an extra 3 scones! (Which is actually okay, considering my track-record in actually making the amount of biscuits etc the recipe says I should be able to!)
I think the reason my scones didn't go a gorgeous brown was because I put too much milk on for the glaze... :(

Fresh Strawberry Scones

225g (7 1/2oz) self-raising wholemeal flour I just used white flour...
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar I just used white sugar - it was all I had!
100g fresh strawberries, chopped
1/2 cup (125ml, 4 fl oz) milk
extra milk for glazing

1. Preheat oven to 220C (425F, gas mark 7). In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Lightly rubin the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar, strawberries and enough mild to form a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly (don't knead long or hard, unless you want springy scones!), then carefully roll to a thinkness of 2 cm.

3. Cut out 12 rounds (use a 5 cm cutter), and put them onto a greased baking tray. Brush with milk to glaze. Bake fir 8-10 min, until risen and goldren brown. Cool them on a wire rack. Or just eat them!!

Pear and Chocolate Muffins - Recipe

It all began when I had 3 extremely overripe pears and some good quality dark chocolate...

The result? A batch of yummy yet unusual muffins. To make these I followed a recipe for basic sweet muffins, added in some cocoa, and used pureed pears instead of buttermilk. After putting the batter into the muffin tin holes, I pushed half a square of dark chocolate into the centre, and made sure it was (only just) covered by the batter (I used my fingers to spead the batter over the chocolate, and then licked my fingers clean...).

These are not very sweet muffins: the pear taste is subtle, but the lump of dark choclate is absolutely heavenly. Ommiting the cocoa and using spices (maybe cinnamon and cloves) would probably be just as yummy. Hmm, might try that next time... Here's the recipe:

Pear and Chocolate Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

300g (10oz) self-raising flour

2 Tbspns cocoa

125g (4oz) castor sugar (I used normal white sugar, having no castor, though raw or brown sugar would probably compliment the pears really nicely)

1 1/2 cups (375ml, 12 fl oz) pear puree (about 3 ripe pears, cored and chopped-I left the skin on)

2 eggs

150g (5oz) butter, softened a fair bit

6 squares of dark chocolate, each chopped in half (0r, if the square are little, 12 whole squares)

1. Heat oven to 200C (400F, gas mark 6). Grease a 12 hole muffin tin. Sift the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre.

2. Puree pears (if not already done). Add in the eggs, one at a time, blending them in, and then blend in the softened butter. Make sure the mixture is quite smooth.

3. Add the pear mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix gently to combine. DO NOT over-mix, or your muffins will end up tough and springy. The batter should be lumpy.

4. Spoon the batter into the muffin holes. Push a bit of chocolate into each muffin, and then stick it in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until risen and golden and beginning to come away from the side of the tin.

Mmmmm... yummy. These were so moist. I think using fruit puree instead of buttermilk is genius, and can't wait until I have some more overripe fruit!! (Hopefully strawberries... !)

(Edited to add the whatsit below. Digital recipe card, I think it is called. See this post and this post to find out the backstory.)

Silly Animal!!

Someone was playing with crayons!(I think it might be lizard blood...)

Lovely Lilies!!

The lilies I got on Sunday have bloomed beautifully over the past week. This was Tuesday: And a close up:This was Wednesday:And Thursday:And Friday:

Consider the lilies...

Yesterday Julian let me choose a bunch of flowers for myself. This is what I decided on:I am really looking forward to watching these lilies open up and bloom over the next week. There has already been a little bit of progress since yesterday :)

I'll (try to remember) to keep you posted...

Making Cards!

I have actually done something creative today...

A little while I bought some card-making things (cardboard, stamps, and 'choc chip' coloured ink) from Stampin Up. In addition to a card I made at a Stampin Up workshop, and the two cards I made today, I now have 3 cards:

Here is a pic of the frog card (for Anita's {aka 'frogwoman'/'greenlady'} b'day!! ) (the envelope for this card has a frog very conveniently hiding the ugly boxes meant for the postcode) and the cake card (which was made at the workshop for no-one in particular...):

And, just because I love it so much, the flower card (for Em's birthday) again...

And my ever-so-slightly artistic shot:

What do you think of them?? (and what do you think of our 'beautiful' carpet?!?)