Smiling on Sunday :: Six

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It's been a little while since I've done one of these posts but I've just been so short of time recently. Now things are looking a little more settled in my new job and we've found a better way to walk and drive in in the mornings, it feels like everything is slotting a little more neatly in to place - even if only temporarily.

I must admit, a half-hour drive followed by a mile-and-a-half walk isn't my dream commute but it does the job at freshening me up in the mornings and it's a pretty easy thing to add to my 'fitness regime' (lol).

So, after the mega-high brought by last weekend and aside from a bit of secondhand family-related stress, everything is alright.

IRL:

• Celebrating our friend's engagement - It was so sneaky for Stacy and Pip to keep something like that a secret from us but I guess, knowing that we were going to see them and being able to tell us in person made it all the more special. I know... I'll stop blabbering on about it now but being the first of anything is quite a big deal, especially in such a close group of friends and I'm just so excited about it!
• Finding a new, shorter, less boring walk to work - Sometimes it's the little things but the new walk I've been taking to and from the car this week has been so much better. The old route was one road through a council estate, this one, yeah, it's not amazing but there's a cute woodland surrounded by fields filled with horses and cows. Not a bad way to start the day at all
• Trying to be a better friend - While everything in my life right now isn't completely perfect, catching up with a couple of my oldest girlfriends and hearing that they haven't been having the best time made me feel like it was time to just be a bit more available than I have been. It's lame to say but it's hard to keep track of so many people when they're all over the place doing different things with different time tables. It's easy to get caught up in something else or just your 'own stuff' and even if just occasionally, it's pretty good to be there for someone

Must-Try Recipes:

• Toasted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies - After discovering the delights of Ben's Cookies and finding out that actually, with the right recipe, I can make some pretty killer cookies myself, I'm into trying out a few more recipes, especially ones with contrasting flavours. Also, I recently discovered that toasted almonds might be one of the best things ever, put them in a chicken salad a few weeks ago. Try it, it will change your life
• Bacon & Egg Shengjian Bao Pan-Fried Steamed Buns - There's a stall at the Giant Market in Oxford on Wednesdays and Thursdays that does baos for £1.80. Baos are one of my favourites at dim sum but even my mum buys them frozen rather than making them. Still, it would be neat to give them a go and they don't seem too difficult
• Peach Dumplings - 2 out of 3 sweet recipes? I swear I'm not a sweet tooth, but these peach dumplings just sound like something really special. They get bonus points for being pretty quick and simple too, this will be high up on my list of things to try out in the next few weeks

Lovely Links:

• John Malkovich Recreating Iconic Photographs - I was a little annoyed when I saw this reported in the Metro that they only focused on his celebrity portrait recreations. As a Photography graduate it was much more fun to see his portraits of 'classic art school photos', the Diane Arbus one really tickled my funny bone
• Messy 3D Typography by Allison Supron - Letters made out of cheese, you say? There's something I can devote some attention to
• Lauren's Thoughts on Packing in the 9-5 - Still feeling like I'm in a bit of a transitional period myself, Lauren's post about what it's like to run away to The Dolomites and leave a 'stable career' was pretty poignant. If it's one thing I wish it's that I could be little braver. It's the danger of comparison that can be so detrimental to so many aspects of your life too so I find her sense of adventure incredibly admirable

Hope you have a fantastic Sunday, I'll be heading back to Surrey to spend the afternoon with my mum, lunch is involved ♥

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

At the beginning of the month I was lucky enough to be the winner of the Great British Butcher's competition to win some of their fancy seasonings and rubs - I'm not doing too badly with winning foodie things, after winning tickets to Taste of London back in June and now this, if I only I was this lucky with the lottery (or Belvoir Fruit Farm's Photography Competition, p.s. you can still vote(!)).


I was pretty excited but wasn't really fully aware of what I'd won until it arrived in a huge parcel (which Doll loved), once I got them though, I was even more excited to try them all, TGB were certainly generous.

I won one of each of their rubs and a cotton apron, as well as some beautifully designed recipe cards. They come in Roast Garlic & Onion, Bloody Mary, Lemon & Mustard, BBQ, Apple, Sage & Onion and Curry Crumb and each of them match different meats to enhance the flavours and really help create a great centrepiece for your meal.




They're made with all-natural ingredients, which is pretty impressive considering the variety. I was also really impressed with the size of the tins I won, although I have it on authority that there a plans for smaller tins, great for testing the different flavours rather than committing. I definitely have enough choice to last me a lifetime but I'm sure my family will be pleased for me to share with them every now and then.






We gave the curry crumb a try and it was absolutely delicious, we did it a little differently from the card, adding salad and cooking in the oven rather than deep-frying but the flavours were definitely there. The mango salsa and spice from the chicken worked really well, especially with the tasty mango naan bread I bought to accompany them. Not sure how the others will fair as I feel like I've already found my favourite but we'll see..
Thank you so much Great British Butcher, I'll definitely be working towards trying each tin out and if the Curry Crumb chicken is anything to go by, I sure am in for a treat.

Be sure to check out Great British Butcher's beautiful website and 'follow' them on Twitter and 'like' them on Facebook for their latest updates, they definitely seem like one to watch!

Friday Finds.

I hadn't actually planned making this a weekly thing, but I figured I would at least do it today because it's been a little while and I have a few things to share with you. As well as winning tickets to Taste of London, this has generally been a pretty great week for food, I've cooked proper teatime food every day this week and I'm very proud to be eating so well — that being said, I have kind of being eating all round me a little too so I feel like I should probably pipe down on that front for a little bit.

I have a couple of fun things happening this weekend, we're off to see Josh Widdecombe (off the telly!) in a bit at New Greenham Arts Centre, I've seen him before and he's very funny, I'm very curious to see what the venue will look like. We're also off to see Dry the River for the ninth time tomorrow, this time with just them and a support at an apparently small venue in Reading. I'm looking forward to in generally because my ears do seem to need a regular top up of their beautiful live performances but also because it's been ages since we saw just them, with the last few times being as part of festivals, which isn't quite the same.

Slightly more mundane things that are happening this weekend include; turning the flat upside down in a cleaning frenzy, doing a test run of our new Glastonbury tent we bought last weekend and maybe going on a little walk if the weather's nice. I also plan on at least one lie-in, it's been a major struggle waking up before 7am nearly every day this week, I really need to catch some zzzs.

[Help Ink]
Reason number 1 for wanting to move, although a little unreasonable is that we've run out of wallspace for pretty things, I like the pretty art work we have but I just really need some more...



[Eightbear]
I picked up Eightbear's lovely 'Bears' print when we went to Soho Flea Market a couple of weeks ago but it was really this print that caught my eye first. The 'Bears' print is now nicely framed in our bedroom, replacing a print that I liked but Moon didn't - sometimes relationships are about compromise. Sadly when I saw this print in real life, it was just a *smidge* too big for any free frames we had, see? We need more wallspace. I think this would be lovely for a nursery, not that I'm feeling particularly broody or nesty, I just think this is cute and that I could have easily hoarded it if paper wasn't so flimsy...


[Zara Home]
How great is this cushion cover? Sometimes I really wish I was a bit more matchy-matchy when it came to my interior design choices, and I think the time is approaching where I need to at least think about some new cushion covers for the lounge, but then, I like having lots of different things and this definitely would go with my general animal/cutesy theme that I've unintentionally run throughout my home.


[From London With Love]
Although I get on much better with large bags, it is pretty handy to have a tiny one with your essentials in for a night out. This one is so cute! I love the colour but I don't think I actually own anything that is this colour at the moment. I think £25 for a real leather satchel, even if it is tiny is pretty reasonable too!


[x]


[Kinship Goods]
This is such a cute t-shirt! It would certainly make bringing Doll up with strangers a lot easier. :)
I hope you have a great weekend!

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.

Eggcellent.

Crispy Crackolates
Ingredients:
- 1 oz caster sugar
- 1 oz butter
- 1 oz golden syrup
- 1 oz cocoa powder
- 1 oz cornflakes - we used Crunchy Nut but I like Coco Pops too
For Easter decoration - Mini Eggs - we did three per cake

Instructions:
1. Mix together the caster sugar, cocoa powder.
2. Add butter to caster sugar and cocoa powder and melt mixture in a bowl over bowling water.
3. Once melted add the golden syrup.
4. Add cornflakes to mixture and combine until all cornflakes are covered.
5. Separate mixture into cake cases and leave to cool - add Mini Eggs for decoration as desired.

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Not quite the baking that's been a heavy topic on Twitter today, but a simple recipe that's delicious and easy to follow. I also thought I'd take the time to share these cute 'vintage' cookery books with you. As long as I can remember these were the first cookery books I'd go to whenever baking at my Gran's house, they were used by my Dad and uncles so they're definitely items I treasure. I might be a bit more advanced now but they're still a good point of reference for simple things, I thought I'd share the cute illustrations and neat presentation style with you.

I hope that you had a fun Easter Sunday and got to eat all the chocolate you wanted, I only ever really get one egg nowadays, not that that's going to do me any harm. I went to two car boots this morning in an attempt to bag some bargains for our flat, but returned empty-handed, I'm placing blame on a combination of Easter and horrid weather. I then went for a tasty pub lunch at the Surrey Yeoman with Moon, Chris and Calvert before ducking out of an afternoon of football (phew!). My favourite kind of Sunday, a relaxing yet busy one, although I was a bit of a grump about the early start.

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The books are called 'My Learn to Cook Book' and 'Fun-To-Cook Book', the designs are so 70's ♥




Throughout both books there are helpful kitchen tips.

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It's been a cracking day for catching up with blogs and looking at cute Spring and Easter-related things, here's a short list of my faves.

(via Vice: The Cute Show)

It's Easter Sunday, so it's the perfect excuse (although who actually needs one?) to look at lots of different breeds of adorable bunnies.

A Beautiful Mess: Sundae Sunday — A tasty-looking ice cream version of traditional Easter nests.

Pineapple flower decorations — Chinese tutorial but great photos so really easy to follow. This is definitely one to try, a cute, different and fresh way to decorate cupcakes, I'm pretty impressed.

Baked Eggs in Bread Bowls — I can't understand how I've overlooked Noble Pig for so long, there are so many good recipes to scout out, I only picked this because of the whole 'eggs and it's Easter' thing. I've needed some new recipes for a while and Noble Pig is a more than substantial treasure trove.

Deviled Egg Chicks — These look really cute and would be great for a buffet-style dinner party but after a read-through I'm more than reminded of the mayonegg scene from Arrested Development, which is a bit off-putting.

How To Make Speckled Eggs — I don't see why Easter needs to be an excuse, I'd like to do this all year round.

A Bun in the Oven (via Charlotte Theroux) — Something else that should be standard and not just for Easter, bunny-shaped bread. Generally homemade bread is good anyway but this seriously raises the bar.

Easter Cupcakes — Kim from Sweet Monday sure does bake some nice things, and these bite-size cupcakes are no exception.

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Enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday weekend, I'm so excited about being around the whole Johnston clan tomorrow, it will also be the first time I'm meeting the latest additions to the family, my new twin cousins, Gilbert and Walter.