Other Ones.

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Here are things that are related to other things but don't quite fit in, mostly consisting of what I've cooked.


Is anyone else having trouble getting their tomatoes to ripen? I feel like all the sun did is make them grow and once it got rainy again it took away all opportunity I had to reap the rewards - fingers crossed the sunshine this week will mean I'll be coming back from Ireland with more tomatoes then I can handle. My main plan is sundried-tomatoes but I'm sure I'll be able to think of more things to do, Pinterest is my friend.


I baked a bucket-load of orange and poppy seed biscuits using a great recipe from Technicolor Kitchen, I should have frozen some of the dough for another time but they went so well that I cooked the whole lot in one go, at least it filled the cookie jar.


I got semi-bullied into baking a cake for work for my birthday, it was the best buttercream icing I've made in a long time - rule no 1, always read instructions on the packet.


The second un-birthday cake came for my Gran, whose birthday falls two days after mine. The loaf shape wasn't my idea, rule no 2, loaf cakes take 20x as long.


I surprised my Gran by popping over with my Ma and sister for lunch, I made the salmon tacos which I've mentioned previously on here and they were just as good if not better the second time round, I'm pretty proud of myself.


Suzie is my birthday-twin so it was nice to spend some time with her while visiting my Gran. 18 years old! So glad she's over the health-scare we had a few weeks ago and is back to normal, she sat on my knee for a whole half-hour.


Last but not least is this pretty necklace I got from Moon for my birthday from the lovely Oh Someday. I've maybe talked about Kate Holden's work before before but I love her style and there are so many other pieces of hers that I'm coveting. Unexpected gifts that turn out be to be something you've wanted a while are the best.
Not sure how I feel about this kind of post but I wanted to put these pictures somewhere, didn't want to delete them and didn't want them just sitting on my hard drive either, so there you have it.
Hope that you're having a wonderful Wednesday ♥.

Mr Moon is 24.

I never seem to take lots of photos when it's Moon's birthday, with last year maybe being an exception. To be fair Saturday was a bit of strange one filled with far too much indecisiveness on my lovely boyfriend's part, mainly because he didn't actually want to do anything in the first place. Still, we had a visitor, and then more visitors so plans were to be expected.

We ended up heading to Andover for a look around (which was not good), and then went for a quick drink in Hungerford before heading back to wait for a few more friends to come over to eat Chinese and we should have just stayed in but instead decided that it would be fun to head out, and it wasn't. Maybe I'm getting old but I'm pretty sure that the pub we went to needs to recognise that it's not a nightclub and it's entirely too loud, I don't care if it was Saturday night.

I hope Mr Moon had a nice day though, I think he did really, and he sure was pleased with the gifts I got him and the other gifts he got too. I'm actually still waiting on a t-shirt I ordered him from Society6 but it still hasn't come, has anyone else used them? It's been over a month now and an order I placed for a cushion cover has arrived but my t-shirts still haven't, weird.


The last of my Valentine's flowers still going strong!

His mum got him a steam cleaner to help out with his ironing predicament, I think it's a super idea, but also a sign that he's no longer mummy's little soldier, but an adult, an adult who needs smart clothes. I'm kind of looking forward to him getting it out of the box so I can use it. I did my first proper stint of ironing (I usually just do one item as and when and that's never often in my eyes) and I must say it's dire, why is it that so many people claim that it's therapeutic, simply not true at all.

I was a pretty swell gift giver if you ask me. I got him a fancy malt whisky, some brandy glasses and an Easter egg to name a few things, as well as new pyjama bottoms in a hope that he'll be more inclined to let me wash them.

Doll always enjoys when we're unwrapping gifts but today was an extra-great day because she got to lick some of the leftover cake mixture.



I feel like I did a pretty grand job on this, and today it tasted like a shop-cake. The icing is a lot more purple in person.


More than enough Chinese food for 6 people.
'You don't want it delivered, do you?' – Worst service, best Chinese takeaway in Newbury.

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Peach & Raspberry Cobbler

Here's a peek at last weekend's nomz, I must admit I didn't actually bake anything this weekend because recently I've ended up making far too much for just the two of us - plus Granny Johnston was down for a visit. This stood up pretty well though and was still moist after a fews days but all the juices went into the cake and was a bit mushy so we had to get rid of it in the end.


I used a recipe I found on Fat Mum Slim, she actually calls it a tart but Moon and I decided it was more of a cobbler than a tart or a cake. I was actually pretty chuffed because she mentioned that when she makes it, it always sinks and mine didn't!
I definitely think I'd like to try this again, just either on a smaller scale or when we have more people around to eat it. I've altered the recipe slightly to suit me (see below) just mainly to fit with what I had more than anything else but her recipe is super easy to follow too.


I got these frozen raspberries from Sainbury's where it's 2 bags for £4. I usually find raspberries are very expensive so these are a winner for me, I used the ones leftover from this recipe to put in ReadyBrek for the rest of the week, yum!


Lovely Lidl provided the peaches, a huge tin for a purse-friendly 80p and they're really nice on their own. I whipped up a tasty fruit salad later in the week and used the syrup, it was really good.
Ingredients:

• 125g softened butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cups of self-raising flour
• 4 peaches - cut into segments, but this was because the tinned peaches I had were whole but quite small
• 150g frozen raspberries - honestly I didn't measure these and just used what I had left though, which was about a third of a bag.

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160° and grease a cake tin (mine is around 18cm).
• Combine butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy.
• Add in the eggs and beat after each addition.
• Fold in flour until combined.
• Pour the mixture into the tin and sprinkle the top with fruit.
• Place in the oven and cook for one hour.

It was a little weird baking a cake for a whole hour but it had the nicest crunchy top and it all went so well together. I'd definitely recommend it with custard for a tasty winter pudding.

Rhubarb Crumble Cake.

I knew I would have the share this with you as it's one of the tastiest cakes I've ever made and a great autumn evening treat. I adapted it a bit from this recipe as my cake tins aren't very big and because rhubarb is pretty much heading out of season now. I'm also happy to admit that I cheated a little because it was easier and it was just something simple I wanted to whip up, not a hardcore baking session.




Ingredients:
200g butter
200g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tin of rhubarb
1 packet of crumble mix (easy to make, but just as easy to buy ready-made)
1 tsp brown sugar

These ingredients fit perfectly into an 18cm cake tin.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. Sift your flour into a bowl and cream in the caster sugar and butter.
3. Add the eggs - I find that adding one at a time and mixing them in individually makes for a much lighter sponge, which is well-suited to this cake, as well as being something I hope for in most sponges I make.
4. Add lemon juice and 2-3 tablespoons of the juice from you tin of rhubarb to your sponge and mix well.
5. Grease cake tin and add your sponge mixture.
Drain your rhubarb well and sprinkle over the top of you sponge.
6. Cover mixture with the crumble mixture, until you can't see the rhubarb anymore, and sprinkle with brown sugar.
7. Put in the over for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and firm to touch.
8. Leave to cool, remove from tin and serve.

I love the different textures of this cake and hope you enjoy making and eating it as much as I did, it's perfect with custard or just on its own. I basically made this because Moon set me a challenge to after we were talking about how great lemon cake is while we were watching Nigel Slater (famed for his rhubarb & fish combo), I'm pretty glad it turned out the way it did and I hope to make it a few more times as it gets colder.

Visiting Canterbury.

I can't wait until I am able to drive so I can visit my sister in Canterbury more. It's such a pretty city and I'd love more time to have a walk around and browse it's famous(ish) charity shops. Here are some photos from when I visited her with my Gran for her birthday on Sunday, she's the grand old age of 19 now, that's quite weird.

My Gran baked my sister a cake and it was the first time she's baked one in years, it was quite nice, even though the icing wasn't made in any way I've ever seen before. Lucy actually ended up with four cakes as my Gran baked one, my Mum bought one and she was gifted two from her flat mates, which was pretty nice of them. At least she doesn't need to go grocery shopping for a while. Oh student life.

The packaging for the cake my mum bought was lovely.

The main present I got for my sister was a Quail guinea piggy bank to match the one I have. Plus, students love loose change, right?

We didn't go into Canterbury cathedral but it sure looks pretty from the outside.

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We went to a nice Belgian restaurant called La Trappiste for lunch, it was really tasty.






Lucy was silly and didn't order a large Coca-Cola and instead got this tiny excuse for a drink.







Such pretty houses. ♥

These apples were just growing in the car park, not something I get to see everyday.

This is the cake my Mum bought my sister. One of my favourite kinds of cake, I maybe shouldn't have been greedy and brought it home with me given the three hour train journey as it ended up a little bit squished.

The view from the hill outside Lucy's halls, a little envious as the view from my room in halls was of a car park.

It was great to have some nice weather, especially as it's been so grim this week. I'm sure I won't feel so moany about it once I have appropriate shoes.