I've been a busy wee bee with birthday business!

For us, the last two weeks of October is abundant in birthdays which is fabulous really - love a birthday - but bugger it's exhausting!  I feel sorry for Mr Biscuit too as inevitably we spend his birthday preparing for Youngest Biscuit's the day after so we never go out or celebrate much.  I did make him Lamingtons which has scored me many many tens of points in the Good Wife department.  Just as well as I barely had a second to send him birthday wishes.

Traditions were kept, birthday age biscuits...

...made every year of both of my Biscuits lives and now, always decorated with a brother at hand.

And of course there was a cake...

...based on the PS3 game Driver: San Fransisco, Youngest Biscuit's favourite game.  I had to edit this photo in cinemascope to match the feel of the game's opening sequence, very dramatic!
My amazing friend from the States who lives near to SF got me the Golden Gate Bridge which we spray painted red and really makes the cake, don't you think?  She sent over oodles of chocolatey pretzels too, the star that she is!
The Dodge Challenger (hark at me with the car names) was made from Sculpey clay so it could be kept.  I have to say it's a lot of fun making cakes like this but the sugar paste was so soft it was a right pain! I was tired after I admit. It was a cake four days in the making and I think all that creativity and organizing is exhausting!  I get very sick of baking too which I really do hate to admit.
After all this effort I will be terrorized with a remote control tarantula and Nerf Guns, such is life, with boys!

 It was my friend's special day yesterday and I got to be girly...

...which I don't get to do very often!
 It had been a busy old time and I really did deserve this...

Two more birthdays this weekend and I have just had my two year blogging anniversary, which is just a bit mad.  I think my second post ever included Youngest Biscuits birthday.

I must be off, Biscuits are back at school today, beds are stripped and Stormy (my Dyson that 'looks like a Stormtrooper') wants to come out and play.

X

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It's Friday Ali! Why so forlorn?

 The chocolate cake is finished!

...sob

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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

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 13 to 16!

I think I [finally] am feeling better now, my head seems to have cleared  a lot and am sleeping better so [again, finally] got my finger out with catching up posting about my t52mmmc challenge.

First up Week 13 - bumble bee scarf! 

 A Christmas gift for a friend to honour his much treasured sweater of the same stripes which was worn all the time, two decades ago.  Wear and age caused it's death as can happen with well loved clothes made of wool.  This was also the bugger that caused the wrist incident, I used acrylic wool on bamboo needles and it was hell.  Punishment for not using pure wool and the opposite of the scarf I knitted at the same time for myself with Rowan Big Wool made of 100% merino which was a dream to knit.  Last year I knitted one similar to this in black/white stripes and didn't have any trouble, different yarn brand, different experience.  Acrylic does have it's place and is great for crocheting blankets for my Biscuits to wrap themselves up in playing caterpillars and the like.

Week 14 - a week of birthdays!

Coffee and Walnut Cake* (which I've always detested until I tried this one!) for Mr Biscuit.  Birthday biscuits* which I have made every year of my Biscuits' lives (they say they expect them till I'm too old or too incapacitated to make them and I am NOT allowed to try anything fancy like filled in icing, it has to be messy and covered in sweets, glitter etc or else.  Suited me fine this year as my sprained wrist meant I struggled and this too is the reason for Youngest Biscuit's birthday cake* not being made in the shape of anything needing rolled icing but in the shape of a child's mud pie, worms and all.

I also baked pretty pink cupcakes for a dear friend but with organizing her birthday meal, I forgot to take photos before they were taken away or indeed scoffed for pudding.  

A very busy week indeed especially in a bandage and always during school holidays.

* from Cupcakes from a Primrose Bakery.

* from Nigella's Domestic Goddess.

* easy chocolate cake (x2) from Nigella's Feast.

Week 15 - granny square cushion front!

Making new cushions for the sofa.  This is the cover that I needed to fix the mistake in if you remember.  Wishing I had pressed it for the photo, ever the perfectionist!

Week 16 - empire biscuits! 

I think some would call these german biscuits but they've always been empire to us.  I always make plenty of dough when I am making birthday biscuits so I can freeze batches and these biscuits are the main reason why.  I got away with love hearts in a house of males as we all agreed they were the best shape out of the haribo box, almost went for the fried egg.  Scrummy!!

That's all for now.  Still loving this challenge!

I shall leave you with a couple of caterpillars I managed to photograph one day...

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The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Week 9!

Another week and another make.  We went for a lovely walk along a local canal and took tubs with us, just in case, and luckily we found lots of these...

and with a thrifty, home made Christmas in mind and an offer of five half bottles of vodka I decided to get these together...

and make some of this...

I also plan to make a cranberry version too as I still have two bottles of vodka left.  I've made the cranberry one before a few Christmases ago and it went down (excuse the pun) very well.  They are such easy things to make, fruit, sugar, vodka and a couple of months of shaking the jars daily at first, then weekly later, a decant through a sieve into bottles and that's it.  You can use the drunken fruits up if you like, my father-in-law puts his raspberries which have been steeping for months in gin, in his Christmas trifle.  It sure adds a kick!
Here is what it looks like

...the vodka has already taken on the vibrant colour of the brambles and they have plumped up drunkenly with the vodka.  I may even try a wee taste of it myself.  I have only drunk vodka properly, twice, the first time at uni and my flatmates claimed I became very argumentative and aggressive so I tried it a second time as and experiment and I felt argumentative and aggressive so I haven't partaken in it since but I wonder if I've mellowed with age (it has been fifteen years) and should give it a try again.  I did try some scrummy shots in a vodka bar in Edinburgh before uni and I was fine then and I have lovely memories of cola cube, soor plume and chilli flavour shots, ice cold and head clearing.

I got the quantities etc from Nigella's Kitchen book and have a recipe for a cranberry and a lemoncello vodka from old Good Food magazines.  If anyone would like them get in touch.

Of course I have assumed you all know brambles are blackberries and you didn't need me to clarify!

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Plasma ball fun!

It was, it really was.  

I was secretly thrilled when my Biscuits declared they would like to spend their save pocket money on a plasma ball but who knew the potential for photographing in the dark.  Please indulge me, these images, to my mind, are very, very cool.

Close ups!

 

 When the menfolk thought it would be fun to place their foreheads on the ball!

 Hope you liked them!

Can I leave you with the wonderful new Nigella cookbook, I think my favourite of all her books already.  I confess to wandering around my house hugging it, with a huge grin on my face for a good five minutes when it arrived (I hate dour, soor-faced delivery men!!) before I even considered opening it.  Unfortunately my mum was coming so I barely got a look at it until Friday night but when I did....there's a problem though, what to make first?

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I've just received an e-mail to say........

...that this most anticipated item...

image from amazon
...has been dispatched and is on it's way!!

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

It's a bit much! 

Breathe Ali, 

BREATHE!!!!

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The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Week 6!

What a glorious day we are having up here in my wee piece of Scotland.  I hope all you lovely folks down south are blessed with such good weather on your bank holiday, fingers crossed.  I never look at forecasts so am oblivious...

Last weeks make was these...

 yummy, scrummy, in my tummy [lots] brownies!

Not to be too decadent, they have bananas in them, so healthy really if  we discount the butter, sugar, chocolate and walnuts.  I love brownies, especially the edge pieces that are slightly over done.  I had forgotten all about this recipe from a long ago Good Food magazine and my Biscuits find them less rich than the ones we usually bake from Nigella's Domestic Goddess or Jamie 'O's Cook with Jamie.  I love the ease of making, of stirring lazily and the soothing smell of chocolate warming in the pan.  I want one now so am thrilled I had enough sense to freeze some.

I am stuck a little on this weeks make as I am reaching into the realms of Christmas making - I know it's early but if I don't start now I'll be a 'baldy, crazy lady' Ali, like the scary cat lady from the Simpsons, ready to crumble in a heap in the corner, wanting  never to see Christmas again and I can't have that!  No way No how!!  I give myself a huge list you see and this year, I'll capitalize that again for effect,   THIS YEAR  I am determined to get ahead, hence the problem.  I don't want to be showing them all in detail on here in case the cat gets out of the bag but it's what I'll be mainly making.  I'll maybe have to play that game with the photos, of really close up parts of the makes, making it hard to tell what the full thing is.  But that would defeat the purpose really as of course I want to show them...aaah!!

Ach we'll see.....

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I cannot get enough of....

...tins!!

I am obsessed, addicted and enthralled by them and goodness Marks & Spencer know how to produce exceptional ones!

Here is their latest addition to my collection...

All you need is tea and a custard cream!  

I've said it before, here.

Isn't it wonderful?  Measuring over ten by seven and a half inches and holding four hundred grams of biscuits, it cannot fail but delight the senses!   

Sigh!!

Husband Biscuit despairs and asks...

"What will you do with this one?"  

Duh!!  

Does it really need saying ladies? No, I agree but I said anyways..

"Put stuff in it!" 

"What stuff?"  

I tell him to wheesht and eat up the contents, confounding, confusing and distracting him from a brain taxing (him not me) display of plain silly good cop questioning.  

   Sigh!

             Tins!

                        and                

                                 Sigh! 

                                     Custard Creams!  

By the way if any of you fancy making a homemade version, there's a fantastic recipe in Nigella's Feast.  If anyone would like the recipe let me know and I'll e-mail it to you.....it will be worth it, I promise!! 

X

Pancakes.............Munch! Munch! Munch!

 

A song by Eldest Biscuit, Billabong the Mad

Pancakes for Breakfast

Pancakes for Lunch

Pancakes for Dinner

Munch! Munch! Munch!

It's funny how catchy the tune is that goes with it.  He made it up months and months ago but every now and again it pops in my head.  Sometimes we march round the house singing it in our big voices in celebration of the joy that is pancakes!

So yesterday we made pancakes for breakfast, I say we as we all did.  Sometimes when I say 'we' I mean 'I' with them hovering in and out the kitchen asking when it (whatever it is) will be ready.  Out came the ingredients and the blender.....

 

  

....we could make it the old fashioned way with a jug and a whisk but my boys don't like these things to take too long and do like to use kitchen gadgets whenever possible, so we always make it in the blender following the recipe in 'Nigella Bites' or available at her website here.

After letting the batter sit for a while as suggested, Eldest biscuit took on the duty of making on our ancient hand-me-down griddle (we do love it so!) and with the best pancake spatula in the land from Viners.  It makes a difference, especially as the size of it means small hands never have to go near the hot pancakes or griddle at any time.  It makes my eldest feel very confident in making them for only the second time.

  

How chuffed does he look?

He makes a right old mess which I always have to clean up..........just after this photo was taken Youngest Biscuit appeared wondering what was taking so long and they decided between themselves that they couldn't wait any longer and off they went with a pile of warm pancakes each......

.......leaving me to finish off making them on my own.  By the time I was done they were finished and I sat on my own while they were off playing again.

Such is life!

When it comes to eating there is one thing we MUST have with our pancakes.....

  

..........ooooh we love Golden Syrup!!!

Hope you all got to stuff your faces like we did!

X

Love is in the air.........

I hope you get your......

hearts desire! 

Happy Valentine's!

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More Christmas fun!

Saturday afternoon was spent making our 'stained glass' biscuits for the tree.  It is one of the rare times Hubby joins in with baking and he likes to be in charge of the boiled sweeties. So the menfolk got on with the bashing in the pestle and mortar whilst I prepared the dough from the Christmas Tree Decorations recipe in Nigella's Feast.  My Hubby is very methodical and precise ("ahem...slow", she coughs) and therefore colour coded the bowls as best he could.

The boys then got on with rolling and cutting out of the dough.

My eldest, Billabong the mad, is very good at this job. I guess he's methodical and precise ("slow"!!) like his daddy.  Check this out......

He is good!!!

Youngest biscuit helped daddy place the bashed sweeties into the biscuits (no relation).

 Made sure to place a hole for ribbon.

 

The smell from the oven was amazing!

They are pretty!

Yesterday we danced and decorated to Bing and the result fills us with tummy warmth that will last into the New Year!  Ho ho ho!

 Merry Christmas

X

A Christmas Tradition..........

I lurve Christmas! 

You will hear me say this so very often in this blog. There is no 'Ba Humbug' in this household; it's simply not permitted.  No matter how busy or stressed I get I will not stop loving Christmas, in particular the traditions.  Here are a few of ours.........

Only bought once a year along with the Radio Times in which I still circle, with a biro, all the programmes and films I am excited about.

Nigella -the bringer of such goodies.  I use other books and recipes but for Christmas baking Nigella is Queen.   I always make and bake....

 cookies for the tree -  my boys enjoy this tradition even now at eight and six when other baking endeavours have lost their appeal.  I figure the pestle and mortar bashing of the boiled sweeties is key to this.

Christmas Cupcakes - mine look more like puddings and I wish I had a real photo to show you. ( partly the reason I decided to start a blog - up till very recently I never took photos of anything and really wish I had of many, many things I have made) I always cut out sugarpaste holly leaves and frost them with edible lustre and roll little berry balls for the top.  It's such fun!! I could eat these all year round but force myself to only bake them once a year.  I do usually make at least 48, sometimes more.  My friends and family would hunt me down if there wasn't a batch for each of them and also these....

mini apple pies (mince pies- yuck!!!) and...

Rocky Road - I combine the 'Christmas' and 'Express' recipes.  Heaven!! and each year on the Eve when my friends come round.....

a ham - in particular Nigella's Ginger Glazed Ham which I will be making again this year as it was so good last Christmas Eve. If you want the know-how check out Nigella.com for books and recipes.  

I also bake Christmas tree shortbread with my boys for their teachers. I know they would be disappointed if I made something else (a delia recipe). It is an essential part of the festivities that my kitchen ends up with a layer of icing sugar over everything in it because I have been baking so much.

Another tradition that I HAVE to partake in every year is Harry Potter.  I read the first four books my eldest's first Christmas and since then the build up to the big day HAS to involve re-reading (now) all seven.  I hear sleigh bells, I smell cinnamon and log fires, I taste buttery pastry and turkey and stuffing sandwiches on white bread.  Each year I lose myself in the magic of Harry Potter and in turn Christmas and all it's glory.....fairy lights, carrots for the reindeer, tins of colourfully wrapped chocolates, bulging stockings, friends and family and my boys' faces when they see Santa has been and they have been good all year!

 

X 

p.s the Doctor went a bit mental.  The Ood, Wilfred, Donna, Lucy Saxon and THE MASTER in the Christmas trailer! OMG Christmas is gonna be sooooo cool!!!!! and I'm sure I'll cry!!!!