Chocolate crunchy cakes

We just cannot believe quite how soggy and wet it has been lately. You can't move in our house for drying umbrellas, wet washing and soggy shoes. DD and I decided that the situation called for chocolate, and as we have a surfeit of cornflakes at the moment, we decided on chocolate crunchy cakes. Such a well known recipe; such a lovely chocolate fix. DD followed this recipe here but there are hundreds on the web. She used half milk chocolate and half dark chocolate, as DD and DS don't go a bundle on dark chocolate. DD was in charge of the baking, I was relegated to wielding the camera. DS was happy to be in charge of quality control!

                                           

Thrifty shopping

I got ridiculously overexcited yesterday when I discovered a new charity shop in town. Not that we were lacking them before, I can think of eight without effort, but this is a Salvation Army one.

This made me happy on many levels! I have friends who work for the Salvation Army, I know that they do a lot of good and their shops tend to be cheaper. Some charity shops can be more expensive than others, especially for books, which is the section I head for first. I know it's for a good cause and it's environmentally sound, but in my more selfish moments I resent paying nearly as much for a second-hand book as for a new paperback in the supermarket. However, yesterday I was very happy when I picked up a copy of "Matilda" by the inestimable Roald Dahl for 25p! My lovely son was very pleased too and immediately curled up to read it.

Cherry and Lemon Cookies

The other day DD came home from school with a list of cookie ingredients for her next Food Tech lesson.

100g self raising flour
50g butter/ margarine
25g caster sugar
Juice from lemon/orange
grated rind from lemon/orange
25g finely chopped cherries

I was intrigued by "25g finely chopped cherries" as I have never used fresh fruit in a biscuit recipe. I found a cheap punnet and a lemon and had a go. There was no method so I used the standard biscuit baking technique of creaming butter and sugar and adding flour and other ingedients. This made a crumbly dough so I used the lemon juice to bring it together. I assumed I needed to roll out balls to bake and popped them into the oven at 180C. Half way through baking I realised they weren't spreading out so quickly squished them flat. The results weren't beautiful but did taste rather good; very lemony and quite sophisticated. Little children would probably want more sugar. The quantities given only made eight, but I managed to take a photo before they all went!

The cup is my favourite tea cup which came from Whittard. Unfortunately you can't get this design any more but I love it.

No more cold tea!

Recently I have been having knitting cravings. I had two Knitting Nanas, as well as a Knitting Mama, so it is hardly surprising that I learnt to knit as a small child, and knitted my way through adolescence. I haven't done much lately; the unfinished baby blanket for my 14 year old nephew was my last project! I decided that my teapot is in dire need of a cosy, so I signed up for Ravelry, an online knit and crochet community. I found it very easy to use. I could not believe the number of patterns on there; six pages of free tea cosy patterns! I eventually settled on this one:

Frankie Brown's beautiful tea cosy!

I really like the fairy cake design with the bead decorations. It is by Frankie Brown who has designed lots of beautiful things. When I visited the local craft shop to choose some yarn, I dithered for ages. I am still not convinced by the baby pink, but I couldn't see anything I liked better. 

The first snag is teapot size. Did you know teapots come in standard 3-cup or 6-cup sizes? The pattern thoughtfully gives alternative sizing for both. After much faffing around with measuring cups, I discovered that my beloved teapot is 4.5 cups! So I have decided to go with the larger size, and adapt if necessary.

The second snag was casting on. I never realised there was more than one way, so when instructed to cast on with the "long tail method" I was stumped. After frantic Googling I found this tutorial which comes complete with a video. It looks trickier than it is, and I eventually managed to produce a row of not too higgledy-piggledy casting on. You never know, at some point soon I might be able to keep my teapot happy!

Raspberries!

Last year we planted a few raspberry canes and, spurred on by a tiny harvest, this year we put in a few more. Today we picked all these, held here by my lovely son. I couldn't believe how sweet they were. They tasted of sunshine, even though they haven't seen a great deal! The bowl wasn't full for long!

A generous giveaway

Nancy is having a very generous birthday giveaway on her blog Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. It is definitely worth a visit! Happy Birthday Nancy!

Just Sweet Williams!

Occasionally I see some flowers in the supermarket that I just can't resist. These Sweet Williams were so happy and cheerful that I just had to bring them home. I really like the vibrant colours. As they are British and seasonal my eco-conscience was satisfied, and at £1.50 a bunch I couldn't pass them up!