Halloween and Disney

It's been a busy fortnight here.  My little shop gets more busy at this time of year so I am trying to make time to make lots of Christmassy stock, and of course I have my office-monkey job to do too.  So there has been a lot of hours divided between sculpting clay and editing spreadsheets, lots of mugs of tea are being drunk around here lately.

And last week, half term, we popped over to Paris for 3 days (as you do) to take Lillia to Disneyland! 

My lovely Dad and step-mum treated us all to two nights in a hotel and a trip to Disneyland Paris, Lillia was delighted.  Hubby rather enjoyed himself too...

When we returned it was time for all the festivities of Halloween and all the fun of Pumpkin carving...

Of course I couldn't let the innards go to waste (they has been bought from the local farm where they were grown) so pumpkin muffins were made...but they were disasterous.  So we made pumpkin and bacon soup using this recipe from the Asda magazine and that was delightful :)

But all this fun seems a long time ago...at this present moment though both my girls are sick, they have temperatures and Phoebe has been throwing up pretty much everywhere, so it's only a matter of time before the rest of us start....might be quite handy in my case, what with the 7lb weight gain thanks to the steroids I am on, a good dose of a sicky-bug might help..

I am kidding of course.  Health-wise I am doing better.  I have a way to go and the next three weeks or so are pretty crucial as I come off the steroids and see what the new drug can do on its own.  Time will tell, for now though I am pretty much symptom free, which is a welcome relief indeed.

There has been making going on, and patterns being written up for you, but these shall have to wait...for now I am getting the tissues ready and preparing the calpol ready for a rough night ahead.

Please use the antibacterial hand rub on your way out...

Happy Hooker Backwards Project #35: Skullholders

The day before I went into hospital I had managed to whip up the next project in the Happy Hooker Backwards project.  I had been really keen but slightly apprehensive about this one so I was so happy to find the pattern a dream to do :)

Once I got the hang of switching colours I got to enjoy the simple nature of colourwork. Though I must admit the mess on the underside of this kind of crochet makes me very twitchy indeed!  It's just not neat, and I love neat.  If you are making colourwork things like these you can expect the back side of your work to look rather like this...

*shudder*

Terrifying isn't it?  But just try not to think about it because the other side looks like this...








Of course in order to properly show off these potholders I had to recreate the picture in the book itself, which meant I had to make a pie.  I used a recipe from one of the contestants in the first series of the wonderful Great British Bake Off.  Remember Ruth's beef pie from series one?  Well, no, neither did I until I looked it up.  The recipe is here and let me tell you it was yummy scrummy...



One beef pie served up in style with the new skullholders :)

And here's the project lowdown:

Cost - about £3 - I used less than a ball of each colour to make a pair. 

Yarn - Any double knit would do, but I used Patons Smoothie DK as I am slightly in love with its creamy smooth texture.

Hook - 4mm

Difficulty - Once you get the hang of the colour switching this is no more difficult that just crocheting a simple square of single stitches. 

Overall happiness with finished object - very pleased with this one.  Not only were they a pleasure to make, but they are also very tactile and cool to look at, plus they are super-useful! AND I had to make pie to show them off.  Total bonus.

By the way do you like my pie dish?  Pretty cool right?  More on that later this week! 

Super Chocolately Brownies

Hello hello!  Lovely and sunny here in Kent today, sunny and fresh and very autumnal, just the way I like it.  I've been doing a bit of blog maintenance at last, I stole my mum's lovely fresh, new, working laptop and have at last been able to get some stuff done without waiting 20 minutes for each page to load.  So if you look above *points enthusiastically upwards* you will see some new buttons! 

There's an About Me page full of useful stuff about me, why I started this blog, links to some of my favourite bits etc.  I also made a page just for the Happy Hooker Backwards Project so I can log all my efforts in one place - I was actually rather surprised to see I am onto the FIFTH project!

 

I also changed my comments settings so that anybody can comment...at least I thought so...but now it seems I can't comment on my own blog...How does that make any sense at all?  So if anybody could tell me their settings I would be very grateful so I can work out what I am doing wrong.  Also if you get a minute if could attempt to leave a comment to see if it works that would be very handy too.

 

Enough of this jibber jabber anyway.  I thought today I would share with you a recipe.  I was sat here fancying a little something sweet and I thought I would rustle up my super chocolately brownies.  These are extremely easy to make and very cheap too, plus the recipe uses mainly cup measurements so no fussing about with scales.  I've always made them from memory so the process and ingredients keep changing but here's the recipe I used today...enjoy!

Super chocolately brownies

• 200g butter (I used Stork as I always have some in the fridge)
• Half a cup of cocoa powder
• Two large pinches of salt
• One teaspoon of vanilla essence
• Two cups (yes two!) of soft brown sugar
• One cup of plain flour
• 2 medium eggs
• A heaped half cup of chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and grease a shallow baking tray with butter.

Melt the butter and cocoa powder over a low heat in a large saucepan, do this gently and don't let it start to boil. 

Once it's all melted together add in the salt, sugar and vanilla, I really love Sainsbury's Madagascan vanilla...no I'm not being sponsored by Sainsbury's!  It's just what I like to use :)

Stir the lot together and take the pan off the heat, then sift in the flour and mix that in too.  Add the eggs and give it a really good beat until everything is smooth and silky looking.  Then stir in the walnuts.

Pour the mixture into the baking tray and spread it evenly.

Put it in the oven for 20-25 minutes.  Then let it cool in the tine before cutting into squares and scoffing down with a cup of tea.

 All very quick and simple, perfect for when you need a quick sugar fix.  This recipe works really well with other nuts, like pecans, too...or if you are really desperate and the local shop is shut you could always just make them without the nuts.  And if you are feeling really decadent you can finish the brownies off with a drizzle of chocolate icing...mmmm!  Enjoy!

Malteser Muffins

I was twittering on about my favourite recipe for malteser muffins when Fi of Childcare is Fun asked if I would like to share the recipe on her site.  Of course I was more than happy to spread the joy of malteser muffins.  I must admit the recipe is not of my own conception, I am not that clever, it comes from an old and cake mix splattered cutting from a magazine.  I've had it for years and can't say which mag it came from so I am guessing it's ok to share.   So without further ado please click here or on the pictures to be taken to the recipe, you are just a click away from muffin heaven, trust me...

If you make them do leave a comment here or over on the recipe at Childcare is Fun to let me know how you got on.  Enjoy!

Lang's Super Tuna Salad

Hello dear readers!  I am dashing in to share with you this excellent recipe from my old friend Mr Lang.  It is the perfect side dish for those long and sunny barbeques, as long as you're not planning on snogging anyone soon after...

Lang's Super Tuna Salad

1 x can of cannellini beans (they come in smallish cans)

2 x regular tins of tuna

2 cloves of garlic

3 spring onions

Olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together, the amount of olive oil you use is down to preference, I like quite a few hefty glugs.  Season to taste with the salt and black pepper and, if you really want to jazz it up, add a handful of chopped fresh basil too.

(Serve with blackened sausages and charcoal chicken drumsticks!)

Enjoy!

xx

Marshmallow Butter Cookies

I need to let you know the winner of my giveaway I know!  And I will, tomorrow though.  Today I had to dash in to share with you this recipe.

I had been working at home yesterday, my little one was poorly so I needed to be here to take her to the doctor's.  Bless her, no matter how ill she is she still desperately tries to be cheerful and make us laugh.  We got back in the afternoon after the doctor's verdict of "just a virus" and she settled down for a spot of DVD watching (Madagascar!) with Granny whilst mummy got an hour more work done.

I felt I needed to do some domestic-wifely earth-motherly activity to decompress from all the harrassed-working-mother activity.  Plus I needed something that would go nicely with my well-earned cup of tea.  So I went to the Blue Book - an old A4 spiral notebook stuffed full of recipe cuttings that I have kept for as long as I can remember.  Somewhere near the back I found a tiny recipe cutting for some nutty butter cookies - I had every ingredient but the nuts, but who needs nuts? 

This recipe was an old clipping, from some magazine in the distant past, so I can't credit it to anyone.  But it's just too good not to share...

Here's what you need:

100g butter (room temperature)

100g caster sugar

50g of demerara sugar
1 large egg (I used extra large)
250g self raising flour

Here's what to do:

Beat the butter and sugars together until soft and kind of creamy, then beat in the egg until the mixture is all nice and smooth. Then mix in the flour with your hands to form a dough.  Shape the dough into walnut size balls, flatten them slightly with your hands then pop them onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper, leaving room for them to spread.  Use a fork to further flatten them.
 
Pop them in a preheated oven at 180c for 12 minutes (just enough time to clean up and make a cuppa.) Leave them to cool on the tray for a few minutes...if you can wait that long.
 
And if you want an even bigger sugar high...
 

Whack some mini-marshmallows into the mix for a sticky squidgey cookie feast!

Mmmmm :)