Our weekend - Nick's birthday

It was my wonderful husband's birthday on Saturday and I feel like we spent most of the weekend celebrating by eating way too much!

My mother took us out for lunch on Saturday to all you can eat chinese, yum but too easy too eat way too much

Then back to our house for tea and cake. 

Nick requested that I make the carrot cake from the September Better Homes and Gardens magazine  

It turned out surprisingly well (I really struggle to bake cakes) and it was delicious too.

I also made some mud cupcakes just because mud cake is one of his favourites and I like to spoil him and I may have been having a craving for chocolate when I decided to make them :-)

After eating entirely way too much we sat around the table and played Taboo for a couple of hours and continued to graze on all the other naughty things like pods, M & M's, fantales, chocolate biscuits etc 

Despite the chocolate overdose we had a great time. 

We should play board games more often, I laughed so hard I cried!

Even though no one was hungry I forced them all to eat again as Nick had requested the slow cooked Pork Belly in Asian sauce also in September's Better Homes and Garden's magazine.

It had been cooking since 10 that morning and it was fantastic too. I wasn't sure about it when I was making it as the sauce had a few things that made my stomach turn as I added them but once it was all done I really enjoyed it. I can highly recommend it.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of it before we ate it all up, sorry

It looked a bit like this but I served it with mash potato instead of rice as well as broccoli (from our garden) and bok choy in oyster sauce.

I can't find links to any of the recipes on line but if you're interested let me know and I can scan them and email you a copy.

Hopefully this week I will get back to some sort of routine with my blogging, but no promises ;-)

Hope you have a fabulous week ahead

xx

My House, My Weekend

My weekend was fabulous! How about you?

We caught up with family and friends, relaxed, cleaned and stayed warm!

On Friday (not technically the weekend but I start early) my nephew and I baked.

We made cupcakes from here

and we decorated them. 

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my nephew Vlad decorating each cupcake with lots of love and concentration. 

(If you don't follow me please look me up I only just joined but it is lots of fun)

He did so well.

We also made Michelle's fantastic Sticky Date Pudding you can find the recipe here.

My brother in law who was a chef said it was the best Sticky Date Pudding he ever had (maybe he has never had it before) and I think it was good even if  I say so myself.

For dinner we made pizza using Jo's dough recipe, that you can find here.

It also was a hit and we will definitely be using it again and again!

My new kitchen aid mixer that I got for Mother's Day works so well and I just love it!

Love 

Love 

Love

On Saturday we cleaned and I rearranged, as I do quite often

I am loving the lanterns, the horse head bookends and the clock.

All available in for purchase in my store by the way ;-)

Hope you have a great week and please pop in tomorrow for the start of my Guest Blogger series!

Tomorrows guest blogger is Michelle from 

Home, Love & Life As I Live It

Have a  great day

xx

 PS. You may or may not have noticed that there are no photos or the yummy food we made, you see, even though it tasted fantastic,I could not photograph it so it looked as good as it tasted or any good at all really. So I think I need to practise baking and cooking pretty looking food then I need to practise photographing it. I think I may also need to start exercising regularly as well :-)

Baking with books or Google?

Over the last few years I have attempted to bake regularly, mainly so that we could save some money on treats and also because you can control what ingredients you use when you make it yourself.

I am by no means a great cook but I try and I do tend to keep my recipes simple, mainly ones that use standard ingredients that are kept in the pantry or fridge. I usually make muffins, slices and biscuits. I pick recipes with oats, fruit, honey etc that are healthier and good to take to school or work for a mid morning snack, afternoon tea or to have with a cuppa after lunch.

Most of the recipes I use have been recommended by people and if they email them to me I keep then in a folder in Outlook and then just use my laptop to read the recipe while I bake. 

I do own lots of recipe books, I love the look of them and I know this may sound strange but I have been know to buy a book because I like the way it feels.

Funny thing is that I rarely use them. If I want to try something new or make something I need a recipe for grab the laptop, google it and away I go.

What about you, do you use a book, your laptop/PC, google or just make it up as you go?

I confess most of our daily meals are a make up as I go, depending on what I have in the fridge, freezer and pantry :-)

Nick likes to cook but he prefers the fancy stuff, so I leave it to him when we have guests or special occasions.

I took theses photos not long after I finished up working at the Bank (before I had my lovely new Kitchen Aid Mixer) but I wanted to show off my cute Babushka Dolls. I love them so much I leave them out on display :-)

Thank you to my lovely friend Naomi who gave them to me as a farewell gift when I left the Bank. They are fabulous and I use them all the time. They also double as emergency toys when little kids come to visit.

Have a great day

xx

PS. If you have any simple but tasty recipes that fit my requirements please send them through or leave a link in your comments. That would be great :-)

Scones & Jam

I am loving my new flexible working hours and I am trying hard to embrace being around the house during the day, so when hubby mentioned he really likes scones I thought I would make him some for morning tea.

Unfortunately past my experience with scones (think year 7 home ec class) always makes me think of rocks.

Despite my reservations I whipped out my old recipe (LOL, no not really I googled) and pre-heated the oven.

Apart from morning tea being at 11.45am the scones were not too bad. I still need more practise but I am sure hubby won't mind being my taste tester until I get it right.

Watch out CWA here I come :-)

Did you notice the homemade jam?

My lovely Aunt gave me three jars and the colour was so fabulous I couldn't resist snapping some pics.

I think the jam even made my scones look pretty good.

xx

PS. I am actually tossing up the idea of joining the CWA is anyone esle a member?