Spring Clean

There is nothing I like more than giving the house a really good spring clean.  Some people say that a tidy house is a sign of wasted time but I for one like to walk through my front door to a tidy home.  Everything having a place and everything in it's place.  I love to have my cupboards all neatly arranged so it's easier to find things and it makes the shopping list easier to do as you can see what you need immediatley.  Now don't get me wrong, I do have the untidy drawer in the kitchen, you know the one that the junks gets thrown into and you sort it out once a year, I've also got one of these drawers in the bedroom and also in my scrapbook room. 

So where is this blog post going I hear you ask? Well, the last 2 weeks off work I made my list of things to do and one was to give the house a really good spring clean and would like to recommend the following product to all you cleaning freaks out there,  this stuff is amazing........

And yes, it certainly gives an all round clean, from wood work to mirrors to worksurfaces (however, if like me you  like to disinfect worktops I give them a quick blast with an anitbacterial after).  I've cleaned my oven to my skirtings and can now proudly say my house has had it's Stardrops Spring clean.  And if you are a bit of a thrifty person like me, get rid of all those expensive cleaners and buy this product, you'll love it. 

For the record, the first picture is of my scrapbook room desk, it's never looked so empty, I think I may have to start a new project with paper and scissors to make it feel at home.

Laters my lovely's

Lynetta Xx

Week 14 - Gypsy Tart

No Quote from book but description from Wikipedia  A gypsy tart is a type of pie made with evaporated milk and muscovado sugar and pie crust. It originates from the County of Kent. The tart is extremely sweet and is, for many people, associated with school dinners.
Faff Factor =8

Bake = 9

Keeping Up Appearances = 9

Total score = 26/30

Yeah,, I made pastry.  Congratulations I hear you say and about blooming time.  I have been watching Eric Lanlard's Baking Mad programme on Channel 4 recently and was really happy to see his twist on the good old fashioned Gypsy Tart so without further a do I decided this was to be my pastry bake.  And oh my, did this bring back memories of my childhood and school days as it's the only thing my mum could bake so I grew up on the ever so sweet pastry dessert.    However, I mixed it up a bit and like a good little girl I made Mary Berry's sweet shortcrust pastry whilst using Rachel Allen's method of rolling out between two pieces of clingfilm and then Eric Lanards bake.  Ooh hark at me being creative in the kitchen.  

Back to the pastry, it was easy peasy and would recomend anyone to knock up a batch instead of buying the pre-packed stuff (which I will admit of buying just the once). As I do not have a food processor I made my pastry by hand, rubbing in the cold butter to make breadcrumbs then adding a yolk and splash of cold water. It was delicious, short enough to crumble and sweet enough to accompany the tart, so that's why I have given it a score of 9. 

The amount of filling was enough to make 2 10" tarts so I knocked up another batch of pastry and baked one for my mum - and the second batch was just as easy and good as the first.

Personally, it was way too sweet for me.  I used dark muscovado sugar which gave it a really dense sweet flavour, my mum though uses just ordinary soft brown sugar so next time I will give it a go using this and hope it will taste more to my palette.

Phew, I am so happy to give shortcrust pastry a go and will put the lemon tart on my list to bake in the summer, so once again watch this space.

Hope you all are having a good time whatever you may be doing.

TTFN

Lynetta Xx

Easter Celebrations

I've been having a few thoughts about food recently and how particular foods relate to certain holiday celebrations.  It's funny that we only eat certain foods at certain times of the year even though it is available 365 - 24/7.  Take the humble Fish and Chips. It's a tradition to eat on Good Friday, Why?  It's a religous rule with Catholics abstaining from eating meat on this day(or if anyone wants to put me right I would be interested to know). Sad to say I am unable to eat fish due to an allergy that I suddenly contracted about 2 years ago - it even ruined one of my New Years Eve celebrations - I vomit within 2 hours of eating fish but the strange thing is I can eat tinned tuna!  So for our first feast of Easter the boys had Fish and Chips and I had a battered sausage (I'm not a catholic).

Saturday afternoon I decided to bake my first Hot Cross Buns.  A Facebook friend posted the recipe and so I whipped these up in a flash. and the tradition to Hot Cross Buns? The cross on the buns symbolises and reminds Christians of the cross that Jesus was cruicified on - another religous meaning to food

and this morning I was greeted with a lovely Roses Easter egg and was even given a 'free' one in the newsagent when I went to collect the Sunday papers.  When I was little I couldn't fathom out the reason for chocolate eggs at Easter and later found out in ancient times an egg was the symbol of fertitily, new life and rebirth hence the egg symbolising Jesus' resurrection.  Here endeth the Humanities lesson :-)

And so back to my original thought of having food associated with celebrations, I guess having cake for Birthdays, Christmas and Easter suits me just fine (it gives me the opportunity to bake even more ) but I will not abstain from eating anything I fancy at any time during the year, I just love my food :-)

Week 13 - Chocolate Brownies (with a twist)

Quote from book:  Irresistible chocolate squares, originally from Boston. Not just for teatime but perfect warmed through for dessert with a scoop of ice cream and hot chocolate sauce.

Faff Factor =8

Bake = 8

Keeping Up Appearances = 7

Total score = 23/30

A Brownie recipe was not included in the book so I resorted to the Mary Berry Complete Cookbook for my bake.  Whilst surfing on Pinterest (go there it's fab way to get inspiration) I came across the idea of making brownies into creme eggs, if there could be such a thing.  I loosley used the recipe to make my own fondant type filling (icing sugar, butter and golden syrup) I did not however make it gooey enough to run out like the creme egg.  The boys love them but I find them too sweet.  I don't have a sweet tooth and can resist alot of my baking only having small portions to taste.

I enjoyed putting these together, I do not think they are as good as the snickers version which I will be making again.

I really want to bake a cake for Easter and currently thinking Lemon!  Watch this space I'll be back pretty soon.

Happy Good Friday

Lynetta Xx

Circle of Friends

For the last 5 years I have run an after school club for Year 6's.  It's called 'Circle of Friends' and I help them create a memory album where each week they are shown a different technique along the lines of scrapbooking, whether this is paper piecing, stamping or doodle work.  This year (and last) the theme was cupcakes as they are all a trend at the moment.  It's great to work with a group of girls who are enthusiastic and creative and I am very happy that I am giving something back to the community and hopefully show my passion for paper and scissors.

At the end of the 6 weeks they will have a piece of artwork from other members of the club plus their own page called 'This is me'.  I always comment to the girls that in 20 years time you'll find this book amongst all the boxes in the loft and it will be a smile to your face not to mention bring back some fond memoires of being 10 years old. ( that's what I am hoping for).

Over the Easter break I then get to work collating and sticking together the books, making them a page with a group photo (so they have a piece of my artwork too) and make something special to keep the books in.

I've made 8 of these little bags (9 more to do). My little sewing machine worked it's overtime today as each bag takes on overage 15 mins to put together and that's not including the cutting out of the felt pieces.  It's all worth it in the end though, to see the smiling faces and the hugs and 'thanks' I get when I present the girls with their books is worth it no end.

Happy days.

Lynetta Xx

Week - 12 Mary's Chocolate Roulade

Quote from book:  Totally irresistible, this dessert if made from just a few ingredients: chocolate, eggs, sugar and a little cocoa powder plus double cream for the filling.

Faff Factor =8

Bake = 9

Keeping Up Appearances = 6

Total score = 23/30

OK, I'm taking my hat off to all of you who can turn out a roulade. My oh my that was difficult.  As you can see mine kind of didn't do a roll more of a fold and for some reason did not crack as much as I've seen in the GBBO book and other places.  I can remember watching a Fanny Cradock episode last year when she made a roulade and with my hand on heart it took her no less than 3 seconds to roll it up, I even had to rewind on the sky + to have another look, amazing.  I've tried to find the episode on You Tube but no luck.  

So, back to my bake, I am very happy with the taste, it is so light a fluffy as you do not use any butter or flour, just eggs which you seperate and whisk the whites which you fold into the yolks, sugar and chocolate.  2 mixing bowls and that's it.  

I was lucky enough to be given a jar of home made summer fruits jam from one of the parents  at school which I liberally smoothed over the sponge before adding the cream.  I am glad I did as it gave the roulade that extra special taste. 

And my lesson learnt this week - be more watchful on how much icing sugar you use to decorate the roulade! 

I will definatley be giving this one another shot, as I know I can improve on the rolling.

Here's to next time :-)

Lynetta Xx

Week 11 - Sticky Buns

Quote from book:  These buns, made with butter and an egg, filled and rolled, then baked on a mixture of butter, muscovado sugar, maple syrup and chopped nuts are hard to resist.

Faff Factor =7

Bake = 9

Keeping Up Appearances = 9

Total score = 25/30

This week I decided to make Iced Buns. But those don't look like Iced Buns I hear you say? No they are not! Yet again, I had another disaster with the mix - this disaster malarky is becoming a regular thing, tut tut tut.  I really really cannot say what went wrong, I followed the recipe and as soon as I added the milk, boommmmphhhhhhhh it went into an awful crumbly mucky mess which I could not retrieve.  So it was back to the drawing board (well cupboard actually) and as I only had one packet of yeast remaining I frantically looked through the book and decided that I had all the right ingredients to make Sticky Buns.  Basically, these are just like the monkey bread except you roll out into a rectangle, add cinnamon sugar, roll up like a swiss roll, cut and place in the tin then bake. They are also like cinnamon rolls (minus the currants) but with a maple syrup and walnut glaze, which you cover the bottom of the pan before placing the rolls on top and then once cooked turn upside down so it becomes the top (are you keeping up with me?)  

It's a funny old thing this baking, even though I haven't made this recipe before the result was so similar to cinnamon rolls and the monkey bread, I felt I had been there, done that. 

So will it be pastry next week?  Da da daaaaaaa....

Laters

Lynetta Xx