Baking Gingerbread

A little while ago I was contacted by online store Find Me A Gift (www.findmeagift.co.uk) to see if I would like to review this Joseph Joseph food preparation set.

Yes please!  I had been looking at the set for a while (to the point where I have once actually popped the box into my shopping trolley before becoming consumed with guilt - I'm supposed to spend our food money on sausages and things) so I was excited to finally give them a try.

Postage was fast - I emailed on the Friday evening with my address and the postie was knocking on the door early the next morning with my parcel in his mitts.  Super speedy.

I love this set.  Aside from the fact that the colours are gorgeous, the stackability* of it appeals to the [currently AWOL] neat freak in me and saves valuable space in my already groaning kitchen cupboards.

Look at those zingy colours! 

mixing bowl, colander, sieve, pouring bowl and measuring cups

The large mixing bowl is a good size and could take a six-egg cake batter quite comfortably.  I made gingerbread and it was easily big enough for a good wodge* of dough.  The bowl also has rubber feet to stop it slipping when you get busy with the hand mixer.



If you've fancied picking up some of these bowls, it's worth having a look at Find Me A Gift.

Link here

So.  Want to make some gingerbread men, too?  Gingerbread biscuits are enjoyed all year round in our house and not just at Christmas.

It's a dead simple recipe and makes perfectly tasty biscuits.  I have used other recipes involving a longer list of ingredients but this is most consistently enjoyed by people of all ages in my experience.  I found the recipe on the internet a few years ago - sorry if it's yours! (If it is, let me know and I'll do a link back to you).

You will need: 

125g butter

125g soft light brown sugar

200g golden syrup

1 egg yolk

425g plain flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon bicarb of soda

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Beat in the golden syrup and egg yolk.  Sift and stir in the dry ingredients in two batches, press mixture into a ball and knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Cover and put in fridge for about 30 mins.  

Roll out to about 5mm thick (I always roll onto a sheet of greaseproof paper because the dough can be a bit sticky).  Cut into shapes and bake on gas mark 5 (190C) for 8 - 10 minutes.  The longer you bake, the crunchier they will be.  Their colour doesn't change all that much when baked - they are quite pale biscuits.  If they turn brown they are burning!  I bake for the shortest amount of time because we like our gingerbread men to be quite soft. 

Leave on the baking tray to cool for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack.   They will still be quite soft at this point but they will crisp up.   Once completely cooled, decorate however you fancy.  I use strawberry buttons, mini chocolate beans, jelly tots and all kinds of small sweets.  You can also, of course, get creative with the royal icing.  A gingerbread man wearing Y-fronts and a bow tie is super cute.

Keep your eyes peeled because next time I'll be stopping by with a baking-themed giveaway!

Speaking of keeping eyes peeled, I've injured my left eye.  A torn cornea which has developed into an ulcer.  AN ULCER ON MY EYEBALL.  How gross does that sound?!   Quite the most painful and irritating experience.  I am applying eye drops on an hourly basis and even have to set my alarm three times throughout the night to use the drops.  Morale is low.  I'm wearing geeky glasses and a grimace most of the time.  

Sympathy around here is in short supply.  I think the husband's patience started to wane when I woke him up at 4am on Wednesday wailing that I was going blind.  I am a bit of a drama queen but, man, it was scary! :-)

Have a good weekend! 

Nicki 

x

*I don't think these words are in the dictionary, but they should be.  Probably just an oversight.

Goals for 2012

Thank you for the birthday messages!  Was lovely to have them pinging through on my ipad yesterday.  I had the best day.  Mum and Dad joined us and it was so nice to spend the day with them. We had a long wander around Liberty (I didn't know they had such an amazing haberdashery - I could have spent a fortune there) and then made our way to Cafe Rouge for lunch.  The Wizard of Oz was awesome - I really enjoyed it.  Toto was the star of the show in my opinion; such a cutie!  We finished the day with a little rickshaw race along Oxford Street to check out the Christmas lights.

We've taken it easy today and spent most of the day snoozing.  I think I'm coming down with a cold.  Boring!

So, with a brand spanking new year ahead of me I thought I'd make my 2012 goals public.

1.  Bake more.  I'm aiming for a weekly bake, here.  Last year I decided not to bake so often because I thought it was unhelpful to my diet to have such tempting calorific goodies hanging around the place.  As it happens, it made no difference.  It turns out that if I don't bake we have shop-bought treats anyhow, so I may as well dig my pinny out.

2.  Lose my muffin top.  There are three ways that I will achieve this - preferably through exercise as I plan to get fit this year.  I'll diet if I have to but if that doesn't work I'm just going to buy a bigger pair of jeans and get over myself.

3.  Get fit and increase my strength.  By the end of the year I will be able to do at least 10 (proper) press-ups in a row and I'll be able to run for 30 minutes without stopping.  Currently I simply cannot do a proper press-up and get puffed after approximately one minute of jogging.  This goal might be a bit ambitious....



4.  Walk the dog alone.  In the last year I've developed a fear of walking the dog on my own.  Lizzie was pounced on by an over-enthusiastic labrador a few months ago and it frightens me when dogs fight. I've let that put me off walking her on my own but I'm going to man up now and take her during the day whenever I work from home.

5.  Make my health a priority.  My smear test is at least a year overdue and my dentist thinks I might need root canal treatment.  I haven't been back to see him since he said that.

6.  Develop a routine.  A daily routine falls by the wayside when you work from home.  I think that sticking to a routine will help me to achieve more in my week.  No more lunches at 3pm and working at 9pm.  I'm getting strict with myself.

7.  Slow down.  I used to meditate daily and practiced yoga four times a week.  I got so much out of it so I'm going back to my yoga class.



8.  Get creative.  I want to crochet another blanket, some cushions and some jar covers.  I would also like to crochet a cuddly toy for my niece.  I'd like to cover some notebooks and box files with pretty paper or fabric.  I'd also like to get busy with my sewing machine.  There are so many things I want to do!

What are your goals for 2012?  I'd love to know. 

Nicki 

x

Birthday Celebrations

It's my birthday tomorrow!  I love having my birthday on New Year's Eve - whatever day of the week it falls on there is always loads to do and I always get the next day off work to nurse my hangover.  Most people are up for a bit of a party.  Christmas decorations and fairy lights still adorn the streets and everywhere looks twinkly.  Champagne corks pop and sequins are acceptable; expected even.  Need I go on?

A huge plus point is that I get to spend my birthday money in the sales.  A particular highlight a few years ago was a Rick Owens leather biker jacket that I bought at Harvey Nichols.  It was reduced from an eye-watering £1,100 to £300; still spenny at £300, I know, but I've worn it to death and love it as much today as I did when I bought it.  (In fact, I'll be wearing it tomorrow.)  A bargain in my book.  This year I've bought a blinging Swarovski cocktail ring and a dress - both were reduced by 25%.  Hurrah!

We're off to see the Wizard tomorrow.  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  I can't wait!  I adore going to the theatre and love musicals.  It has become a little birthday tradition for me.  It's a matinee performance so we are catching an early(ish) train and stopping by Liberty to empty my bank account before having a long lunch somewhere pre-show.   There will be fizz, there will be sherry and there may even be a smattering of sequins.

My age will, henceforth, be kept secret.

Unfortunately, gingerbread men are not known for being discreet. 

Thank you for sharing my blogworld with me in 2011.  Thank you for sharing your own bloglife with me, too.  It's been fun and I'm so looking forward to next year.

Wishing you all lots of love, luck and laughter in 2012.

Chin chin! 

Nicki 

x

PS  Did these photos take an AGE loading when you clicked onto my blog?  Was it irritating?  I'm so sorry.   I've been given a complicated new camera for my birthday and I haven't yet sussed how to adjust the resolution(?) of the photos.  Can anyone help please?

Christmas Kisses

Checking out until the new year; I anticipate drinking a great deal of sherry, eating a lot of sausage rolls and wupping my sister's ass at Just Dance on the XBox.  

Sending lots of Christmas kisses your way.  Have a great one.

Nicki 

x

Christmas Decorating, Lush Hot Choc and a Sequinned Dress

The trees are up!  My favourite room is the living room.  This year I've used a garland strung with fairy lights across the beam over the fireplace and I love it.   

The first thing I always do when we've put the tree up is run outside and look at the house from the street.  Our house is on a main road and if we leave the curtains open you can see the tree and the fireplace as you drive past.  With the outdoor tree lit up and a little tree in the upstairs window our house looks a bit like a Christmas grotto!  That makes me very happy; it looks so welcoming! 

The tree in the living room is decorated in white and silver.  I was tempted not to use the baubles because I love the simple beauty of a real tree strung with white lights and nothing else but it seemed a shame not to let this little lady out of her cardboard box:

My favourites are the bird decorations.  I like to see the fat little birds nestled on the branches and I love this sparkly wooden miniature bird house.

I've gone for all out tackiness in the dining room.  A small pale pink tree with pale pink vintage baubles and a pink feather boa to cover its plastic legs.  Nestled amongst the feathers is a brightly coloured bauble of Santa in a space jet.  LOVE.

Isn't it difficult getting photographs of Christmas trees.  It's especially hard with an iPhone.  I have asked for a digital SLR camera for my birthday (which is soon!) and I *may* have spied the box for a Canon EOS under the spare bed.... I'm excited to get one but I'm also worried that I just don't have the skills or eye to be a good photographer and it will be a waste of money.  Got any tips for me?

Now, I wanted to tell you about the BEST hot chocolate.  It's nothing fancy, just a bag of little chocolate bits from one of my favourite shops:  Hush.  It is delicious; quite the most delicious home-made hot chocolate I've had.   Coffee is my hot drink of choice but I do like a chocolate occasionally.  

The little sprinkler contains a mix of cocoa powder, ground cinnamon and vanilla sugar.
Delicious and especially nice for frothy coffee, too.

Got to dash in a mo because I have the day off work (yipee!) and am meeting my mum for a bit of shopping.  Well, we've done most of our shopping - it's just an excuse to have a girly lunch together.  I'm so looking forward to it.  

I just wanted to show you a quick outfit... I went to a Christmas party last night.  It was the party of one of Andrew's customers and I had to do the corporate wife thing.  I was so nervous about it - I always worry I'll make Andrew look stupid by saying something daft - so I bought myself a new dress to boost my confidence.  

It is, quite honestly, the most fab Christmas party dress I've ever owned - a sequinned dress from Coast.  (Link).  It's out of stock online but if you happen to see it in the store I can definitely recommend it.  I really wanted a dress with long sleeves because I don't like my upper arms.  This is a wrap-over style with three-quarter sleeves; soft inside too when a lot of sequinned clothes are a bit scratchy.  I wore it with a navy blazer, some high platform shoes and kept my jewellery minimal - just a small pair of pearl studs and a big sparkly cocktail ring.

Dancing (well, swaying really!) with my man to the band singing Frank Sinatra's 'Merry Christmas', next to a big dazzling Christmas tree I felt properly happy.  And Christmassy!  Bring on the celebrations!

Nicki 

x

Blog Swaps

Our internet is down indefinitely.  It is the most frustrating thing.  On Sunday the copper wiring from the Exchange was stolen and the village has been without telephone lines ever since.  It is annoying for me because I mostly work from home and rely on the internet to access my emails, including databases and programmes that I use on a daily basis.  I have had to go into various offices this week, all a considerable distance from home, and have popped over to my MILs this evening to use the internet for personal stuff whilst Andrew watches the football.  I've got Christmas shopping to do that just can't wait any longer!

I thought I'd take five minutes to do a quick update.  I have loads to chat about, as always, but just wanted to say a huge thank you to Angie for the blog swap parcels I received last week.  I took part in the Handmade Christmas Decoration swap organised by the lovely Laa Laa.  I am so glad I did - what a treat to receive surprises in the post!

The parcels from Angie were all prettily wrapped and it was fun opening them all.  Angie had made loads!  A gorgeous white fabric wreath (my favourite gift and it looks beautiful strung with fairy lights), home-made chutney, a lovely home-made card, cosy socks, pretty stars for the tree and lots of other little bits and bobs.  Angie even knitted four small stockings and filled them with chocolates (the actual stockings are exactly the right size and shape for my dog's paws and I've had to restrain myself from dressing her in them.  I know that would be cruel.  She'd slip, right?)

It is the first time I have taken part in a swap.  I admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed to begin with; I got too caught up in trying to second-guess what Angie would like and what would fit in with her Christmas decorating scheme at home.  Also, I have limited sewing and crochet ability - I am very much a beginner and many projects are beyond me.  In the end, I chose to make a few (safe) felt decorations.  Of course, it would have been rude not to include a gingerbread man... 

 The templates for the gingerbread man and the reindeer/moose came from this month's issue of Mollie Makes.  The stocking and mitten templates were downloaded from the internet somewhere.

I, hopefully, made up for my lack of ability by including a few chocolates and shop-bought goodies in the parcel for Angie and wrapped them as enticingly as I could.

I so enjoyed doing these decorations and, after the first one, they were quite quick to make.  I have plans for a heart garland to hang over the fireplace for Christmas.  I also have plans, however, to make a gingerbread house, two Christmas cakes and gingerbread biscuits (watch out for my next post when I'll share my super easy, delicious, recipe!).  Better get cracking.

We are off tomorrow after work to pick our Christmas trees.  I'm excited.  I intend to buy three; one for outside, one for the living room and one for the conservatory.  I also plan to buy a few more lanterns in various sizes to put outside the front door - they look so welcoming with huge white candles.  I will, of course, share pictures when I have finished faffing.

I love reading the blogposts with pictures of Christmas trees and twinkling lights and driving past houses seeing Christmas trees twinkling in bay windows is one of my favourite things about the season... Ahh! Christmas is coming!!

Nicki 

x