Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Good morning sunbeams!
It's a gloriously sunny morning here. We've come away for the weekend to stay with friends.

It's lovely waking up in a different house. Houses all have their own noises don't they, different creaks and squeaks! The birds here keep on swooping past the window.

I can hear noises from the kitchen, I think Mr Lardshow may be dispatched shortly to hunt out some coffee and croissants...

So I wanted to show you the pressie that we brought down for our hosts. I made a mini version of the Blueberry and Lime drizzle cake. After covering the kitchen in drizzle in an exceptionally dim manner I wrapped it up in brown paper and string. A few sprigs of lavender finished it off. Splendid I thought, splendid.

I hope everyone's having a lovely sun filled weekend. Love. Love. xBx

Thank You Biscuits

Just a quick post to show you all the biscuits I made today with the brilliant letter cutters that we got from Portmeirion.

 I think they may be one of my favourite baking gadgets I've ever bought. Such a simple, effective idea. You use the 'open' end of the cutter to cut the basic shape then push the letter imprint into the dough. 

When the biscuits are baked you're left with these fabulous letter shapes that are just begging to be filled with icing. I love the fact that the letters are all different.

I use little squeezy bottles that we got from hobbycraft to do the very precise icing. I start off with the lightest shade and then darken the icing each time i start a new set of letters.

The finished biscuits. I did three different shades of blue this time. I think they look really effective.

So these biscuits are for the ladies at Pain Management. It's the last day of the course tomorrow and I just wanted to say thank you to them for all the amazing things they've taught me. Most importantly they've made me realise that life can go on, you can have a wonderful life with pain. Your life won't be easy but you are entitled to a beautiful life and you can get there with a bit of pacing...They are the best medicine I've ever been prescribed. xBx

Yorkshire Puddings To Die For

You don't get yummier than this...

Hello there my lovelies,
Well it's finally happened, the rain has stopped, the sun is out and I hate it already. I'm already missing my three layered outfits not to mention my knee high socks. The cold will be back soon won't it? Tell me it will, I miss it. It's nearly winter time, it must be!

So To help us all feel that little bit warmer I thought I'd write about one of mine and Mr Lardshow's favourite dishes. The honourable, deliciously proud Yorkshire Pudding. NOM!

Now Mr Lardshow likes to pretend that he is a Northerner, but in truth he's just an East Midlander with a funny accent. When it comes to Northerness I think I have the edge as my Paternal Grandmother was born in York and grew up in Leeds. That's proper Northern that! You don't have to have a little bit of Northern in you to make and enjoy Yorkshire Puddings but I don't think it can hurt, can it!?!

So to the recipe, very simple, nothing fancy, just a few key things and you can have perfect puds every time...

Ingredients

(Makes 4 puddings)

100ml milk,
2 eggs,
70g plain flour,
Pinch of pepper and salt,

I like to make my mixture in a plastic bowl that has a lid. I weigh out the flour and make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into the well and mix in until you have a thick, lump free batter. Then gradually add the milk until you have a thin single cream consistency.

Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Interestingly, Mr Lardshow's mum says that the heat from the pepper is what gives the pudding a kick and the heat from the kick is what makes it rise and go pop in th'oven.

So once the mixture is made, pop the lid on the box and put it in the fridge until you are ready to cook the yorkies. If I'm super organised I'll make it in the morning, the longer it's had in the fridge the better the puddings seem to turn out.

The puddings take a good 20 - 25 minutes to cook and you can't open the oven door once you've put them in so you need to be organised with your timings. We tend to put them in when we've taken out Mr Lardshow's meat to rest, I put the plates in to warm at the same time as the puds.

I put the tray in the oven to get it warm and then when it's time for baking I take the tray out and put it on top of the hob. I hate gas so we use an electric hob. Turn the hob up to the hottest setting, pour some oil into the pans and very bravely watch until you see smoke coming off the pan. As soon as you see the smoke pour the batter into the pans. The smoke will continue but DO NOT PANIC this is what you want. Once all the batter's in, gently put the puddings into th'oven and leave them. Pour yourself a glass of pretend wine and wait for the sloppy liquid to transform into the most delicious pillows of goldeness.

Enjoy my lovelies...

P.S if anyone has any ideas for me to blog about please let me know, Mummy Dearest has come up with a lovely idea that I'm going to get started on but lots more ideas would be very welcome!

How To Eat The Perfect Scone

Hello all,

Recently it has come to my attention that some of you have been struggling with the very delicate task of scone eating and I want you all to fret no more, I am here to help you all out.

Raspberry jam and cream, simply delicious

I've baked scones twice this week, the first batch was fine, lovely and light inside with just enough of a bite on the crust. The second batch, baked in a rush when Cath popped over for coffee and a chat, was a disaster, hard, uncooked little hockey pucks. Not even the birds would have touched them! I don't really understand what went wrong with them. I hate that. I like to know how I can improve my baking. Maybe it was because I rushed them and used too much flour when rolling out? I have to say I am a firm believer that if you cook when you're stressed or not in the mood, you won't end up with lovely baking...

So to the important matter at hand, how to eat the perfect scone. First things first, the pronunciation of the word scone. There is only one way to say this word and quite frankly on a donkey if you can't say this word in the correct way you should not be allowed to even contemplate eating them. The word is SCONE said in the same way you would say GONE. None of this SCONE rhymes with MOAN business. OOF! There you've been told now carry on.

I like to eat my scones (remember, you should be reading this and saying the word so that it rhymes with 'gone') slightly cooled out of the oven with jam on the bottom and lashings of clotted cream. None of this butter underneath the jam malarkey that Mr Lardshow seems to think you should do. NO that is wrong and is almost a crime against bakery.

Summer clearly doesn't want to visit us this year so I feel we should bring summer to us, through the medium of scones. Go on, be a devil and have one, lashings of cream and ginger beer in a frosted glass on a picnic blanket on your living room floor.

Enjoy! xBx

Tag. Tag. Tag.

The finished tag

Hello all,

I've been quiet on here lately. Sorry. This infection has knocked me about quite a bit. Everything is taking me double the time and that's on top of me already being a slow coach!
Anyway Mr Lardshow took me out for a drive the other day and we picked up some lovely wrapping paper covered in little gift tags.

I thought I could use them to make my own gift tags for Christmas and birthday presents. They're lovely and there's loads of them, so they should keep me going for ages...now who's birthday is it next? xBx

Blueberry and Lime Drizzle Cake

Delicious Drizzle

Hello all,
Still feeling a bit rough here but I'm insisting on carrying on. We've just done cake club and here is the cake I made for it. It's my second attempt at a drizzle cake, my first attempt was a brick, used as a doorstop for a while! This was a much greater success though. The recipe made a huge cake that I have to say is absolutely delicious, thankfully there's loads left so Mr Lardshow will be taking some to work tomorrow. apparently some of his colleagues want to join cake club. Who am I to say no? I used some of the duck eggs we got the other day and they really have made the cake light and fluffy but not too rich.

So the cake is made up of 250g caster sugar, 4 eggs, 250g plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, zest of 2 limes, 200g blueberries and 225g butter all those beautiful, magical ingredients that when whizzed up together in the kitchenaid turn into gorgeous goodiness (Yes, I know it's not a word).

As the eggs came from a farm I made sure i gave them a good wash before cracking them open.

I thought they'd crack open really easily but the shells seemed really tough.The yolks were huge and such a glorious sunshine yellow.

So you cream the butter and sugar together and then gradually add these perfect eggs, if the mixture looks like it's about to curdle just add a spoonful of flour and it will come back again. You then need to add the rest of the flour and baking powder ooh and the lime zest. I managed to fill the kitchen with lime zest and covered my pyjamas in it, ooh lemony, sorry limey fresh! Make sure you keep back a spoonful of flour to gently toss the blueberries in. This helps to stop the mixture turning grey and keeps the blueberries whole and not mushy in the mixture.

Line your cake tin on the bottom and the sides and plop the mixture in and then pop the cake in th'oven as Mr Lardshow would say. It's a long cook, I struggle with not opening the door all the time to check it's cooked...

While you're waiting for it to bake, get on with the lime drizzle, for this you will need the juice of 2 limes and 100g of icing sugar. Now you should you use a thin skewer to make holes in the top of the cake, however I don't have one so I used a knitting needle...it was clean I promise!

OOH! OOH! TAKE THE CAKE OUT OF THE OVEN!!!!!! 

Sorry, I forgot that part, the cake will take about 50 minutes, you'll know it's done when a fork that you've poked in it comes out clean.

So leave the cake for 5 minutes and then spoon the drizzle into the holes that you've made and leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

Now make the icing, more limes and icing sugar! 5 tsp of lime juice and 125g of icing sugar. Take the cake out of the tin and plate it up. Drizzle the icing generously over the cake and down the sides if you can. Sprinkle some lime zest over the top. Put the coffee pot on, slice, eat, enjoy. 

Done!

P.S This makes a cake that will last for a good few days under a big glass cloche, a tin went to work with Mr Lardshow for Simon, Marlon and the rest of his work colleagues who are literally wasting away in their office. There's also plenty left for Pain Management Group tomorrow. NOM!

Love Cat Love

I am not a mad sad cat lady I am just a lady with cats...
That's what I keep telling myself anyway...

I'm not feeling too great today, back off to the doctors later. Boo Hiss.

I've been trying to find some inspiration about what to post today, nothing exciting is coming to mind I'm afraid. Let me think...We got some fresh eggs, duck eggs! We got a new mattress (Heaven on a bed frame!) I appear to have started a cake club with my pain management friends and it's still raining here. That's it.

So because I have no exciting news I thought I'd post about the cats that fill my days with love, nibbles, snoring and nagging for food.

If you visit our little white house, within moments you will be greeted by Finn and if you are wearing black he will soon become your best friend, curled up on your lap, ready at a seconds notice to roll over and dazzle you with his whiter than white tummy. He's just this minute graced me with an extra special tummy rub...bliss.

 If you stay for longer and end up going to sleep he will climb up onto you, he's not fussed about where, normally the most uncomfortable spot for you and commence snoring. His snoring seems to have got louder and heavier since the introduction of the meat shelf into the house. Anyone else seeing a correlation there?

 Then there's Huckleberry, our little Bear. Finn gives his love freely and seems to know when you need that little bit of extra love. he's outstanding at knowing when my bad kidney needs a good pummelling. Berry however is more like the stroppy teenager of the family. She runs around like a mad thing, barging into rooms, miaowing loudly and then dashing off again...we think it's hormones!

She is the most beautiful cat I have ever met. I know I'm biased but honestly she is. She looks like she has a mask over her eyes and wears an off the shoulder black evening gown. All she needs is a tiara and she'd be all set for a night out on the tiles.

Because Berry is such a different cat to Finn when she does choose to give you love it just fills your heart with joy. You think, "She's chosen me! She wants to love me!" Over the years I've realised that it isn't that she doesn't want to be affectionate it's just that she wants to be affectionate on her terms and if that means some Berry cwtching on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night when you've woken up for a quick wee then so be it!

Finn waiting for the taps to be turned on for his morning drink. Note the grumpy 'I haven't woken up properly' look

I know that as you read this you will have been thinking 'sad cat Lady' and that's fine. I am a cat lady but I'm not a sad one. I think I definitely would be without them. I spend the majority of my days, in my house, alone apart from the telly and random phone calls from cold callers. My cats genuinely keep me going and I love them all the more for that.

Mash Lollipops

Hello all,

It's been a slow day here, I seemed to sleep through the morning. I say seemed, I did. It's taken me hours to get moving today, I seem to live my life in reverse, I wake up more as the day goes by. Much to Mr Lardshow's annoyance, especially at 11pm!

Anyway, the washing got done and it is out! I know people, out, and it still hasn't rained! Yet...

Tomorrow I'm hoping to find the energy to go back to yoga, I really enjoyed it last week and I really want to get some strength back in my weary, knackeredy body. Then, hopefully, Jill and Sandra from my pain management group are going to come over for some coffee and cake in the afternoon. Can you tell that talk form the dietitian had absolutely no impact on us whatsoever.

We're going to have this;

just out of the oven...

All iced up...I really want a slice...

Almond Tart. Don't tell Mr Lardshow though. He hates almonds. Shame isn't it. We are going to feel duty bound to eat it all up! I really hope they come, we were all talking last week about making links with others in the group and I'd love to find some people to spend time with during the long days.

Dinner tonight is mash, veg and a turkey steak for him...I didn't know you could have turkey steak but apparently so...I haven't really got the energy to make a fancy dinner, I managed to do the mash but that's about as exciting as it's going to get I'm afraid. Would you like to see the mash? here it is...

You just have to have a mash lollipop, it has to be done. How else would one know if it was perfect? Sadly one lollipop turns into seven and then there's hardly any left! 

I'm going to sign off now, there's gravy to be made and mash to be tested. One last pic for you all, this is our lovely, blissful little kitchen. 

The best present my parents ever gave me. 

Thank you xBx 

Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken, Lay A Little Egg For Me!

OK I think I need to admit something to the group... *stands up and takes a deep breath* "my name is Beth and I am an egg addict, I need help!"

I fear they want their eggs back!

I am desperate to get some chickens of my own but until then I'm going to have to make do with visiting my fabulously feathered friends at the farm.

Geoff the chicken trying to get in the car with us

Valerie the Bantam

We just happened to pop by the farm as I had gone into 'I've only got 4 eggs left in the house and I might run out' panic mode, I'm the same with milk, you just never know, do you? I got out of the car with my collection of pennies to put in the egg post box and as I looked through the box on the wall to hopefully find some bantam eggs poor Mr Lardshow was trying to prevent a steady stream of chickens from getting into the car!

As we herded the chucks out of the way another car approached, trundling down the lane. The chickens went clucking mad! As the people in the car got out, more and more chickens streamed through a gate. They obviously knew the people in the car!

 

Daddy's home and he's got food!

We asked the farm owners how many chickens they had, they have 'about' 200! can you believe that? But they're not all cooped up in a barn, they're roaming free around the farm, in the fields and outhouses. How wonderful is that? Happy chickens = happy eggs = Happy Betsan!

Happy Eggs

 So the question for all of you out there, hopefully reading this is...Do you think it's possible to have a house chicken? Finn and Berry wouldn't mind would they?

Happy Happy Chucks

The Flame!

Well hello there my loverducks, 

No posts for a few days, life has just run away with itself over the weekend, having people to stay is hard work isn't it? Just getting out of bed is hard enough for me most days!

Anyway I'm back and I have exciting news. Firstly my lovely friend Em is coming for tea, the pizza dough is rising by me in bed, the recipe said a warm place, so we're both tucked up under the duvet! Secondly we saw the olympic flame! 

Photos taken by Mr Lardshow

Now I'm not really one for joining in with the crowd and cheering along madly but there seems to be a wonderful feeling falling over the country at the moment. We all, myself included, are feeling a great sense of pride that the Olympics are taking place here in our beautiful land. There's also the knowledge that this may be the only opportunity we will have in our lifetime to see such events. 

Saturday morning and the alarms went off extremely bright and early, thanks to my Mother's amazing navigational skills we travelled in convoy and avoided all the traffic and closed roads and managed to get a nice little pitch next to a roundabout in Streethay. Mr Lardshow's mum and I rested our weary legs from the short walk on the camping chairs we'd taken, we had some funny looks off the local policemen but I think they were a bit fearful of what would happen if they told us to move. So we were ready and waiting, the buzz from the crowd was amazing, there was an incredible sense of anticipation in the air. 

After a while the convoy started to pass by us and eventually a coach with the torch bearers stopped in front of us. Panic set in, were we going to miss the flame? I say panic set in. Several of the crowd started to move to make sure they wouldn't miss anything. I didn't! I'm a professional when it comes to sitting in a chair, you sit in it and let others panic around you, you don't move, ever! Thankfully there was no need to panic because amazingly we had managed to position ourselves in the perfect spot.

We were sitting directly in front of where the torch was going to be passed on. Our torch bearer was a young lad called Jack. He was brilliant! Full of confidence, posing for photos, letting small children come and have their photo taken with him and the torch. 

The look of pride on Jack's face when his torch was lit was just a joy and a privilege to see. I'm so glad we managed to get out and see it. It was well worth it. Who knows maybe one day I'll be able to tell my granchildren that even though I didn't get to compete in the Olympics I did get to see the Olypic torch. 

The torches

Can I urge anyone reading this, who has the opportunity to still see the torch relay to go. It really is a spectatcular sight! Go, you may never get the chance again...

Jack

A big thank you to Mr Lardshow for letting me use his photos from the day, if you'd like to see some more of his amazing pics, please feel free to have a look. Just click on the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lardshow/