Good Intentions!

I've been full of these lately, plans to get the house show home clean, keep on top of the ironing, start more cooking from scratch, healthier eating, in fact eating at all in the day would be a start! Also it's been my intention to bake more, sew more and blog more. I have quite a good baby who will happily sit in her chair with a toy, and will play alone in her baby gym. I think it's me with the problem, mummy guilt! I feel guilty leaving her to play with no attention from me, so instead I'm trying to cram everything else in while she sleeps, which isn't a lot during the day anymore. I shouldn't complain as this means she's sleeping at night instead. Still, it would be nice to do some of the 'me' things. 

So I guess this is an apology to any readers still out there, and anyone who was hoping to start reading about the baby's adventures, as that's another good intention that never became anything! My hope is to be back to regular blogging soon, with some recipe testing, some campervan adventures, and a new topic - baby product reviews. 

I'm Back!

Or at least I'm going to try and be back. With a new baby, housework, baby groups and a desire to get Sock Creations moving again, as well as a new project, I aim to try and find some time to blog too. 

I didn't realise I hadn't updated at all since my scan at 11 weeks. A lot has happened since then as you can probably imagine. To cut a long story short (to save boring you all and to post before baby wakes up!), I am now mummy to 11 week old Alex, a beautiful baby girl. She's also a clever little girl, who is about to also get her own blog so that her relatives who don't live locally can get to share her adventures and catch up on what she's been up to! For anyone who is wondering what it is that a baby does, you can find the blog here. She's still in bed so hasn't written anything as yet, but she's going to start later by telling you how cool her cloth nappies are. 

Here's a newborn shot of my beautiful girl, although she's not this tiny anymore, nor does she look like this anymore! 

Sock Lady plus 1

So I admit to being a bad blogger who hasn't written anything for 3 months now. In fact I can clarify that it's actually almost 13 weeks to be precise. How do I know how long in weeks? Well, almost 13 weeks is also the age of the small human being currently growing inside me. I guess this is one of the reasons I've stayed away from blogging for so long. Not only have I so much wanted to write this post, but I've also been feeling pretty lousy. I don't think my brain would have been much good for blogging. It's only been just about good enough to get me through work, and even then it's been a struggle. Between leaving a load of American colleagues stranded in Cambridge with no taxi to bring them to the office, failing to book a hotel for a colleague for an upcoming exhibition, and randomly crying at my desk, I need to think myself extremely lucky  that I have an understanding boss. If I'd done that in my last job I'd probably have been screamed and shouted at, and the aftermath from the stress would have been far worse than the 24 hour headache I left myself with after the latest mishap. 


Well now you know my news, I guess I should also share a photo of my little man or lady. Unfortunately, he/she seems to have inherited my short genes and was 2.5 mm too short to do the tests at 11 weeks, so we get to see our little wriggler again in 2 more sleeps. What a shame! So here's our mini snowboarder getting used to bending those knees! 

Where have I been?

If I do actually have regular blog readers, then this might be the question that has been asked over the last few weeks. This could of course just be wishful thinking and could just be talking to myself! 


At the end of March we went on another snowboarding holiday. This time to Les Deux Alpes. If I'm completely honest, I wasn't too fussed about going on this holiday, and went along with the plans for my Husband, who really wanted to go. It actually turned out to be the most successful snowboarding trip for me where I actually conquered my fears, broke through my mental blocks and finally mastered the turns I've battled with for the last 4 years! 


For the rest of April I don't really have any excuse for the lack of blogging, apart from being tired in the evenings and busy at the weekends. I don't even have anything exciting to report from the busy weekends as we've been busy transforming our house into a home. This has involved lots of tidying, lots of sorting, many trips to the tip and charity shop, numerous bin bags, and a car boot sale. The result: we now have a tidy, clutter free loft, a super organised under-stairs cupboard, and a bedroom that looks more like a bedroom and less like the junk room it was beginning to become. The next big job will hopefully be decorating the bedroom, although that's unlikely to be before June. 


For now I'll leave you with some photos from our snowboarding holiday, and I'll try and get back to the regular blogging as soon as I can. 

Another Pinterest Meal

Tonight's evening meal was another Pinterest find, that I tried, liked and will be trying again. Unfortunately I'd run out of chilli flakes so I had to leave them out. However, it was another quick & tasty meal to add to my favourites. 

The pin 

The Recipe can be found here

The result

Becoming Willy Wonka

Today was the day my oldest nephew turned 19 and made me feel really old. Today was also the day I tried making chocolate bark for the first time. Right now, you're probably thinking 'What on earth is chocolate bark?'. Well this is another thing that Pinterest has taught me. I first came across bark when I repinned a photo (below) of some that had been shared by a friend. 

Photo from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

So today I set about making this delicious looking treat as a present for my nephew's birthday. Unfortunately the bark in the photo above was made with limited edition M&Ms only available in America. After searching the net for other ideas, I decided I'd invent my own combinations. 

Basically, bark is melted chocolate spread across baking paper and topped with whatever you choose. This can be other chocolates, sweets, dried fruits or nuts. You then put it in the fridge for an hour and then break or slice into pieces. Mine has turned out a bit thicker than the above as I wasn't entirely sure how much chocolate to use for each one. 

1) White chocolate, strawberry flavour buttons & Coco pops

 Tesco have just started stocking these strawberry buttons made by Silver Spoon. 

I started by melting white chocolate, and once that was set I poured the melted strawberry buttons over the top. 

I then topped this with Coco Pops 

2) Cookies & Cream 

For this one I melted white chocolate, stirred in broken up Oreo cookies, spread into the tin and then topped with more broken up Oreo cookies. 

3) M&Ms 

This one is the one I could improve on. For this I melted milk chocolate and topped with M&Ms. In hindsight I feel it would have worked better if I'd stirred the M&Ms in rather than using them as a topping. 

4) Swirled

To make this I melted milk chocolate and immediately topped it with melted white chocolate and then swirled the 2 chocolates together. I then topped with Galaxy caramel bites. 

These were really simple to make and have loads of topping options. I will be definitely be making these again. Thank you Pinterest. 

Another Pinterest Share

I've been wanting to try these since seeing them on Pinterest last week. After being lazy and deciding not to cook the beef we'd bought for Sunday dinner, I decided to try these out. 

This is how they should look, recipe here

I used a 4 hole Yorkshire pudding tin, and didn't have a cutter big enough to cut the circles, so just trimmed the crusts off and cut each slice in half. 

To save on washing up I melted butter in the tin on the hob, and buttered each slice of bread before putting them in the tin. 

Here are mine 

As you can see, the eggs are a bit overdone. The recipe says to cook for 20-25 mins. 

They still tasted good, although next time I'll be putting them in for 15. 

Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Last week I discovered Pinterest, an online pin board where you can create boards of ideas and share them with other people. It didn't take me long to start getting addicted to pinning, and I've started to build up a good collection of recipes and craft ideas I would like to try out. I decided this would be a perfect blog opportunity. 


So yesterday I made chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake bars which were originally pinned from the blog 'My Baking Addiction'. As this is a US recipe I had to work out my quantities first. Luckily we were bought some measuring cups as a wedding present, so some measurements stayed the same. However, if you don't have these, there's a great conversion chart here. I also found this useful for the butter. 


To save you looking it up, 5 tbsp butter converts to 2.5 ounces. I also wasn't sure what Graham crackers were so used digestive biscuits as these are usually the base for cheesecakes. 1 1/2 cups were roughly 1/3 of a 400g packet. Lastly, 325 F oven temperature is about 190 C. 


I'll let you follow the original recipe. However, I would like to share a few photos of the process. 

All the ingredients measured and ready 

Making the cookie dough

I used a round tin as my oblong one was too big for the quantity of biscuit base.

Ready to go in the oven

All baked and cooled

Cut into wedges and ready to eat

These were very sweet but very tasty. Enjoy!

Spanish Rice Minus the Prawns

Tonight's recipe share is from BBC Goodfood. The actual recipe is Spanish rice with chorizo & prawns. However, I don't like prawns so I decided to leave them out. For the full recipe, click here. For my version, with step by step photos, please keep on reading. 


1) Slice one onion and cut one red pepper into chunks. I used a red onion, and a variety of peppers to use up what I had in the fridge. 

2) Gently fry them in 2 tbsp olive oil until soft. 

3) Add the chopped up chorizo 

4) Cook until the oil starts to come out of the chorizo 

5) Add the paella rice and stir so it's all coated in the oil

6) Stir the saffron into the stock and pour into the pan

7) Cover and cook for 15 minutes until the rice has absorbed the liquid

8) Serve, and enjoy! We certainly did! 

This was so quick and easy to make, yet tasted really good. This will definitely become a regular meal in this house. We'll probably experiment with the ingredients too. 

For the list of the ingredients and the full recipe, please click here 

Tonight's Tipple

As you may know, me and my husband have been experimenting with cocktails lately. I've had some friends asking for the recipes to some of the cocktails we've tried. So from now on, I'll try and share the recipes each weekend, just as I'm trying to do with new meals I've been cooking. 


Tonight's cocktail is called Almond Joy. The measurements were in ounces, and it was easier to convert to tablespoons than jigger measures. 

For this you will need: 

1tbsp Malibu/Coconut Rum

2 tbsp Disaronno/Amaretto

2 tbsp Creme de Cacao

4 tbsp cream

ice

Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker, shake and strain into a hi-ball glass filled with ice. 

My verdict: Like an extra strong Baileys!

Enjoy!

A Quick & Tasty Tea

Tonight's recipe share was taken from Sarah's Cake Blog. Last week, fellow blogger Sarah made a delicious looking cheese & bacon plait, in her baking with kids feature. Being a fan of quick and easy to make meals, and seeing the opportunity to grab a recipe and adapt it to my own tastes, I thought I'd give this a go, and as I have no kids, I cooked alone! 


The difference? Sarah used  bacon, white onion and cheese in her puff pastry plait. I chose to use pancetta, red onion, cheese, and some left over peppers. I also cheated by using ready rolled puff pastry. 

I started by chopping the peppers & onion. 

I then roasted the peppers for 10 minutes, and gently sautéed the onions. 

After grating some mature cheddar cheese, I laid the ready rolled pastry on a lightly floured board.

 Using a knife I lightly marked lines vertically down the pastry sheet, marking it into 3. I then started laying the ingredients along the middle section. 

 Using a sharper knife, I made diagonal cuts in the pastry on each side of the filling. 

Using beaten egg to stick the pastry together, I started one end, bringing a strip of pastry from each side, over the top of the filling to create a plaited look. 

I then brushed beaten egg over the top, lifted onto a baking sheet, and baked for 25 minutes at 190 degrees. Sarah baked hers for 30 minutes at 180. I have a fan assisted oven, so you may want to adjust to suit your oven type. 

I served mine with a baby leaf salad, simply dressed with a vinaigrette made of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. 

This is a versatile pastry dish that could be made with just about any filling  you like, would be a great way for using up leftovers, and would be delicious hot or cold. 

Thanks again to Sarah for sharing the recipe first. If you would like to see Sarah's original recipe, click here.