I do it like an Italian...apparently. Every day!

Who am I to argue with the pucker Jamie Oliver?  

 C'mon, who doesn't yearn to be Italian?

We'll just turn over very quickly the fact a few pages later it says Italians don't have chocolate sprinkled on their cappuccinos. 

Ciao

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Me and my pot - a tale of love[s] in the kitchen!

I admit, using humongous pots really does it for me in the kitchen, well does it for me full stop.  I'll double (or triple or quadruple) any old recipe so I can justify using this stockpot.  Even using a long wooden spoon to stir, I still have to get my arm inside, stirring and turning, turning and stirring. 

I feel truly at one with the world stirring, well anything. 

Or like a dinner lady from favourite childhood stories or a witch mixing up her brew to poison a princess.

To be honest I could do with one a bit smaller as you can see that this four litre plus soup barely comes up halfway.  My next largest pot (which is still pretty huge) simply cannot hold the quantities I like to make.  Hubby says I don't need (urgh!!!!) one but I say as long as it fits inside this one no extra cupboard space is required.  That's as practical as I get.  At Christmas time we have to tell the butcher it's measurements to make sure the enormous ham we buy each year for the 'Eve will fit in it.  

It is masseeeeve!  I lurve it. It has lived with us for five years and will do so forever and ever and ever...... 

On Saturday it did it's job providing us with pea and ham [from a chicken!!] soup for having in mugs after a lovely long Sunday walk.

A huge sigh for me and my pot.

If we are all in for more 'what does it for me in the kitchen/kitchen porn' (I have a long list).......

I know, I know, more cake!

It cannot be just me who feels this way about kitchen paraphernalia, can it?  I haven't even mentioned my love for ladles or colanders or cake spatulas, or knives or measuring spoons or Kitchenaids and Magimixes or aprons or cake tins or pie dishes or.....I really do have a long list.

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The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 28 - 32 The Anniversary special!

(image copyright nofussphotography.com)

Five years ago in January Mr Biscuit and I got wed. You see us above, having a smooch cutting our cake (I had to get the cake in!).  For an anniversary gift this year I offered a bake of his choice for each week representing a year.  He's not called Mr Biscuit for no reason!

The 52MMMC Anniversary Special....

Week 28 

He would have me bake these every other day if he could.  From Nigella's Feast.  Very moreish and I love filling and sandwiching these biscuits.  A kitchen job that soothes the soul.  Like most of this Anniversary Special list, I had to make double batches so there was enough for us all.  Mr Biscuit devours biscuits!

Week 29

You've probably spotted the whacking great error here, no actual bourbons.  The story goes, I made them the day before I had surgery (had to be in my kitchen to settle my nerves) and totally neglected to take any photos of them before they were scoffed.  I was in a lot of pain and medicated up to the eyeballs if you remember so I'm sure you'll forgive me.  I based the recipe loosely on the above custard cream one (Mr Biscuit's idea/wish) obviously omitting the custard powder and adding cocoa and dark chocolate to the mixture.  I can't really remember how they tasted.  I'm sure I dunked them in tea to soften so I could manage them with a sore mouth.  They have been requested again therefore must have been alright.

Week 30

Technically called Anzac biscuits but not in our house.  From a recipe by Mary Berry.  Again Mr Biscuit would have me tied to the cooker constantly supplying him with these biscuits, he adores them. I have been making these for years and years from various recipes.   They are fantastic with a cuppa and a sure way to keep the menfolk of the house happy.

Week 31

I have a wee confession...I persuaded Mr Biscuit to request these by reminding him of one he had at a wee deli coffee shop in Kelso last year whilst holidaying at Easter time. I really fancied making them for the first time and grab an opportunity to use my special tins.  They did not disappoint.  Gorgeous wee things from a Gordon Ramsay recipe in a Good Food magazine.  In fact they were so delicious that for the first time in the 52mmm challenge I repeated myself and they became...

Week 32 (too)

We could not help it.  We were quite overcome by how delightful these little cakes are.  In celebration of a new found love I made this...

I do love brooches so.   

In fact here are some new purchases from the shop where I have already purchased brooches in the shapes of a custard cream, bourbon and jammy dodger.  A fantastic shop at Folksy now called CorBlimey Designs.  A pink shrimp and a white chocolate mouse...

I love them.  I am a huge fan of nostalgic brooches and sweeties and biscuits....

 ***

So that's it for The Anniversary Special.   

Mr Biscuit and I did take our time in getting wed, together nine years before, but if we hadn't then we would have missed the chance of seeing our then four and two year old Biscuits looking adorable in kilts and aran jumpers. 

(image copyright nofussphotography.com)

I'm sure you agree!

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Can I tempt you?

I may not be in the same league as serial [button] Temptress that is KirstyFish but I may be just tentatively stroking the title with my fingertips with these....

Any excuse to get my hand me down griddle out!  Therefore it is a must on Pancake Day and this very morn (for the first time ever on a school day) we had pancakes for breakfast.  It felt very decadent indeed having such a feast without the usual lazy weekend morning feel to it.  They were delicious, bathed in Golden Syrup and I confess I made ickle teeny tiny individual ones for two of my cats.  Thomasina was screaming at me the whole time I was at the cooker, she loves pancakes so. (What's not to love?)  And why should they be excluded from the celebrations? 

Go on you know if you haven't already, you simply have to make or buy some!

X

I'm going with Plan B.

 (image from amazon.co.uk)

I cannot help myself.

Listening to The Defamation of Strickland Banks is like reading a novel.  

I live each each song like chapters, engrossed in plot shifts and twists, my imagination thoroughly captured.

I get caught up in the injustice - how could someone lie like that?

I am scared for him in jail.

I wish I could take his guilty feelings away.

I worry about his sanity and anger with God.

About his loss of love and most of all I want to know what the jury decided they were 'gonna do' at the end.

I am, I suspect, feeling exactly how Ben Drew wanted me to.

I am transported back and forward through time, melodic soul and urban rap.

I am touched by the bittersweet love songs and on edge all at once.

It makes me thinks of Marvin Gaye and those soul songs I used to dance to in clubs.

Don't you just love the power of music?

X

p.s what are you listening to?

'Possibility' is positively my sort of word.

And why not when you can apply it to a glorious sight like this...

"fa la la la laaaaaaaaa!"

*sigh*

Almost more beautiful than what they can become; these colourful balls.

Part of our memories.

Part of our family story. 

They will transform like magic.

From, as Mr Biscuit says, me wrapping wool around a wee wooden stick really fast.

Possibility...

X

A happy [hearty] accident?

This is what happened on Sunday when Mr Biscuit took a turn of our beloved Gaggia coffee machine.  

He is neither a Barista nor artistic, although he was talking to me at the time so it may have come from deep within....

If that is indeed true it shows love is most definitely blind to bed - in desperate need of a wash - hair and unattractive nighties.

X

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 25-27

and how are you all?  I have a new toy.  A toy to help me enjoy my sewing machine more, a deal I made with myself that I would do this year -  (the above picture is of me having ' a go' with paper - too tight to practise on fabric for the first try).

For a wee bit of fun with freehand embroidery.  Have to have a ponder over what marvellous make I can craft with it.....

Here is another batch of makes, actually from weeks ago but only just got around to organizing myself into posting about it.

Week 25...

sofa cushions

The green crochet one was a previous make (week 15 ) and is now happily together, making friends and offering tea and cake, with four other cushions.  Two made with thrifted tartan fabric and the other two made with a lovely green cotton, covered with cream aran crochet fronts.  Still I am in shock when I sew something that turns out how I had imagined.

Week 26...

crochet front for a floor cushion

For my Biscuits' bedroom.  They are still in 'talks' about which colour fabric they want behind in.  It measures 26" by 26" and I have to say I loves the vibrant colours emboldened by the black borders.  

 Week 27...

Not any old chocolate cake but one from my favourite book - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery!  Quite an involved process including one of my favourite kitchen jobs; separating eggs.  I love doing it and learned at the feet of my Dad many many years ago.  I have, I confess, been a bit fascinated by egg shells since I was small.  Love breaking one handed and love peeling boiled ones too!   For some reason doing anything with eggs makes me feel very proficient and Goddess like in my kitchen.  This cake includes whisking the whites and adding at a later stage and I am always enthralled watching the whites, well become white.  It was a wonderfully moist cake and deserves a place in any Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame.

I've already got another few makes done and cannot believe I'm past the halfway mark.  It really has been fun documenting some of the things I make each week.

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