Organised Family Fun

Currently writing this with paint splattered in my hair while I get back to feeling anxious about visitors.

We must have started decorating again!

Seriously, if anyone ever tells you to paint that awkward (super-tall) bit of wall above your stairs, just get a man in. I know it's defeatist and lazy but that's where DIY painting gets really hard, even with a tall boyfriend tiptoeing on a too short ladder, I'll tell you though, for our landing, one-coat paint has been our SAVIOUR! - even if a lot of it is my hair right now.


So, I'll be taking you back to a slightly less stressful time a couple of weekends ago, when I felt happy to have guests and actually pretty dang house-proud for the first time since we moved here.

My family on both sides is pretty big, and, particularly on my Dad's side, we're a lot closer than most. I think having my Gran as such a strong matriarch really helps this. My cousins and I used to go on holidays together but as we've grown up this is an aspect that's fallen by the wayside a bit. As a bonding exercise, I thought a girly weekend would be fun, and a nice way to show them my new home.











We had a nice afternoon of fruit picking at Millets Farm, defiantly sat in the less than sunny garden to enjoy Pimm's and a tasty dinner of vegetarian chilli before putting on facemasks and watching 10 Things I Hate About You. We rounded up the evening with The Babadook (which in hindsight should really have been Bend It Like Beckham but there's always next time).



[Because it didn't go on Facebook... ;)]

It was so nice to host guests after such a long time and not have to think about decorating or cardboard, plus, have you seen my main guest bedroom? It's the coolest.

I hope this is the first of many weekends we have like this, family is so, so important and I think it's especially important to take advantage of those bonds if you've got them, there's always time for a catch up. I'm already looking forward to seeing the girls again for my family housewarming at the end of next month, better get down to more painting, right?

Oaty Muffin Obsession!

After having a bit of a sort-out last weekend, I ended up finding one of the notebooks that I'd filled with recipes. It got me a little inspired and this recipe is actually a twist on a recipe card for 'Mini Oaty Banana Muffins' from Sainsburys - I tried those first and they were so good that I thought I'd use up the last few frozen raspberries I had left over from my go at the weekly bake off we do at work.


I kind of like that these could kind of work as something for breakfast because they have oats in, plus there's fruit so they feel healthy. They're probably totally not, but they sure are tasty, and thanks to taking in Innocent's tip from their 'Hungry?' cookbook to whisk each egg one by one, they're really light, I'd definitely say that's my number one baking tip ♥.

I wanted to share this little adapted recipe because it's been a little while and I feel like I've been doing a lot of baking lately.

Ingredients:

• 250g Plain Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 75g Scottish Porridge Oats / & a small handful for topping
• 3 Eggs
• 175g Caster Sugar
• 250ml Sunflower Oil
• Pinch of Salt
• 1-2 Cups of Defrosted Frozen Raspberries
• Icing Sugar for Dusting

Directions:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/Gas 4 and line your muffin tin.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the porridge oats.
3. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, caster sugar, sunflower oil and salt.
4. Once your egg/sugar mixture is blended well together fold in the flour, add in the raspberries and mix.
5. Spoon your mixture into you muffin cases, sprinkle the remaining oats over the top and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
6. Dust with icing sugar and serve.