Schedule: Week Commencing 23 November 2009

As part of being a FlyBaby, I’ve allocated different tasks to different days of the week. In addition to the tasks that I do on specific days every week, each week also focuses on a different zone in the home – this week it’s the master bedroom – so there will be additional tasks for that room too. I’ll take great satisfaction in ticking all these off my list!

This week, my schedule looks like this (these are in addition to my daily “routines”) split into three categories of tasks – “general” (tasks I do on this day every week), “specific” (tasks that are specific to this particular day) and “zone” (tasks relating to the focus zone for this week).

DAY	GENERAL	SPECIFIC	ZONE
MON 23/11	* Change bedding * Clear out bag and wallet	* Bake ginger snaps * Defrost sausage casserole	* Clear chair
TUE 24/11	* Water plants * ERRAND DAY	* Defrost mince * Pick up prescription	* Clear my side of the bedroom
WED 25/11	* Empty all bins	* Defrost Bacon * Bake egg custard	* Clear Dale’s side of the bedroom
THU 26/11	* Clean bathroom mirror * Clean shower screen * Mop kitchen and bathroom floors	* Defrost turkey breast steaks	* Clear desk * Clear nightstands
FRI 27/11	* Paper purge * ERRAND DAY	* Defrost pork leg steaks	* Clear craft drawers
SAT 28/11	* Clean fridge * Plan menus * Grocery list	* Defrost chicken goujons	* Clean window and sill
SUN 29/11	* Check grocery list * Grocery shopping * Vacuum whole flat		* Vacuum pack clothing

 

Recipe: Almond Shortie Mini-Bites

Almond Shortie Mini-Bites
Serves: 50
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:
1 oz ground almonds
8 oz plain flour
6 oz butter
3 oz caster sugar
2 tsp almond essence

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C and lightly grease baking tray
2. Mix together the ground almond and flour, then rub in the butter to a crumbly consistency
3. Mix in the sugar and almond essence
4. Bring together in a dough and turn out onto a floured surface
5. Roll out to ½ cm thickness and cut into rounds using a small cookie cutter (I used my 1 ½ inch cutter)
6. Place on the baking tray (slightly spaced apart) and bake for 30-35 minutes
7. When cooked, let them rest on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool

The Verdict:
I didn’t have enough ground almonds for the almond biscuits recipe, and I wanted to try something out that I could use for parties, so I adapted the 3-6-9 Shortbread recipe and decorated these mini biscuits in four different ways – some with cherries, some with almonds, some drizzled with melted chocolate and some half-dipped in chocolate. They are definitely very more-ish and because they’re just little, they’re literally bite-sized morsels perfect for parties or for boxing up as foodie-gifts (which I think I might do in the run-up to Xmas!). A very tasty 5/5!

Namecheck on OperationBeautiful.com

The message I sent to Caitlin (the person who runs the OperationBeautiful.com blog) along with the photos I took, has been posted on the blog today. I am so chuffed!

Have a look HERE.

And here are a few more Post-its I left around town at the weekend:

Share your beauty – Smile!
(on a film poster for Bright Star at Belmont Cinema)
(I especially liked that I’d managed to post it under the tagline, which reads “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”.)

Your beauty is dazzling – Shine on!
(On a wedding magazine at Asda at the beach)

How do you spell awesome? Y.O.U!
(On Pregnancy and Birth magazine at Asda at the beach)

Recipe: Very Ginger Snaps

Hang onto your tastebuds – these are spicy bad boys!

Very Ginger Snaps
Serves: 20 – 30
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
225g self raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tsp ground ginger
125g butter, cubed and chilled
100g caster sugar
100g golden syrup

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C and lightly grease baking tray
2. Sift together the flour and spices, rub in the butter to a crumbly consistency, then stir in the sugar
3. Heat the syrup till just warm, add to the flour mixture and stir to form a stiff dough
4. Shape into small balls, space them out on the baking tray and press them down with your fingers
5. Bake for 20 minutes
6. Remove from oven and leave to “rest” on the baking tray for 10 minutes
7. Cool on a wire rack

The Verdict:
I adapted this recipe from one I found in the November 2009 issue of the free Asda magazine.

The original recipe called for bicarbonate of soda, but I didn’t have any, so I omitted it, and I increased the amount of ginger because I like a very strong flavour (only two teaspoons were listed). On top of that, I increased the cooking time because after the 10 minutes that were stated, they were still raw. However, with my modifications these turned out absolutely, tastebud-explodingly gorgeous! They’re crisp on the outside and slightly soft in the middle and the flavour packs plenty of punch too. These will become regulars in our house for sure, although I may up the baking time just a little more to see if I can get them to be crunchy all the way through! A ginger-tastic 5/5!

Recipes: Chocolate Cake and Peanut Butter Cookies

Over the last few days, I’ve tried out a couple more recipes and thought I’d share the results here.

The whole cake and one delicious slice!

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Icing
Serves: 8 – 12
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 – 60 minutes

Ingredients for Cake (recipe source):
6 oz softened butter
6 oz caster sugar
3 large eggs
5 oz self raising flour, sifted
1 ¾ oz cocoa, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Ingredients for Chocolate Buttercream Icing (recipe source):
3 oz soft butter
6 oz icing sugar, sifted
2 oz cocoa, sifted
1 – 2 tbsp milk

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C, lightly grease cake tin and line with greaseproof paper
2. Put all cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat together till smooth (do not over-beat!)
3. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 45 – 60 minutes, till well risen and a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean
4. Remove from oven and let cake sit in tin for 5 minutes before running a knife round the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool
5. When cake is cool, make the buttercream icing:
6. Beating the butter till creamy
7. Add the icing sugar and cocoa to the butter gradually, mixing well
8. Add the milk and mix well
9. Pipe or spread onto cake

The Verdict:
Baking a cake from scratch is one of the items on my list of 50 Things To Do Before I’m 50, so I was anxious for this cake to be a success (my attempts in the past have all been disastrous, from sunken cakes,to over-cooked, to raw in the middle, to just plain disgusting!).  My buttercream icing was a little on the sloppy side, as I accidentally spilled a little too much milk into the mixture (that will teach me to measure directly into my working bowl!), so I couldn’t have piped it. Just as well it was fine being spread on the cake instead! I also only had small eggs, so I used four of them and it all worked out fine. The cake was lovely – moist and chocolate-y without being overpowering, and hubby has declared this simple recipe a keeper. Judging by Xander’s face, he liked it a lot too! A surprisingly easy 5/5!

Judging by his chocolate-y smile, Xander definitely liked the chocolate cake

Slightly disappointing peanut butter cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies
Serves: 20 – 30
Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients (recipe source):
175g peanut butter
90g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
125g self raising flour
desiccated coconut to coat

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C and lightly grease baking tray
2. Beat peanut butter (I used crunchy) and butter together until well mixed and creamy
3. Add the sugar and beat again
4. Gradually add the egg and mix well
5. Sift in flour and mix to a firm dough
6. Roll cookie dough into walnut-sized pieces and roll in the coconut to coat
7. Place on baking tray and flatten slightly
8. Bake for 20 minutes until golden, then cool on a wire rack

The Verdict:

The original recipe called for coating the cookies in cornflakes but a) I didn’t have any and b) I prefer coconut, so I used that instead, and the cooking time in the original recipe is also listed as 10-12 minutes, but this left my cookies pretty raw. Also, I thought there’d be a fair amount of “spread” as the cookies cooked, but the first half of the batch pretty much remained as slightly-flattened balls, so I flattened out the second half a lot more. The writers of the recipe must get some pretty big walnuts, as they say the recipe will make 20 cookies – my walnut-sized balls totalled 30.

Anyway, the upshot is, I’m still searching for the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe as this wasn’t it. They were quite tasty, but not what I’m looking for and I won’t be bothering with this recipe again. A slightly disappointing 3/5.

Schedule: Week Commencing 16 November 2009

As part of being a FlyBaby, I’ve allocated different tasks to different days of the week. In addition to the tasks that I do on specific days every week, each week also focuses on a different zone in the home – this week it’s the bathroom and livingroom – so there will be additional tasks for that room too. I’ll take great satisfaction in ticking all these off my list!

This week, my schedule looks like this (these are in addition to my daily “routines”) split into three categories of tasks – “general” (tasks I do on this day every week), “specific” (tasks that are specific to this particular day) and “zone” (tasks relating to the focus zone for this week).

DAY	GENERAL	SPECIFIC	ZONE
MON 16/11	* Change bedding * Clear out bag and wallet	* Bake chocolate cake * Defrotst sausages and bacon	* Clean and tidy towel shelves * Clean window and sill
TUE 17/11	* Water plants * ERRAND DAY	* Going to see Chicago at HMT with Leni	* Clean and tidy toiletry shelf Clean toothbrushes Clean hairbrushes
WED 18/11	* Empty all bins	* Slow cooker – sausage casserole * Defrost turkey breast steaks	* Sort makeup bag * Clean makeup brushes * Clean living room window and sill *Clean TV and TV unit, coffee table and bookcase
THU 19/11	* Clean bathroom mirror * Clean shower screen * Mop kitchen and bathroom floors	* Bake biscuits * Vacuum pack Xander’s clothes * Defrost portion of chlli	* Clean sofa * Polish fireplace * Clean mantelpiece and pictures
FRI 20/11	* Paper purge * ERRAND DAY	* Take books to Book Crossing point * Take clothes to charity shop * Defrost diced pork	* Scrub Xander’s chair * Vacuum Xander’s playpen Tidy Xander’s toys
SAT 21/11	* Clean fridge * Plan menus * Grocery list	* Defrost beef joint
SUN 22/11	* Check grocery list * Grocery shopping * Vacuum whole flat

The Domestic Goddess Guide to Stretching the Pennies

Since I became a Stay-At-Home-Mum, we’re down to a single income – something I’ve not had since I was single! Pre-baby, we were DINKs (Double-Income-No-Kids), and we got used to having both wages coming in regularly, so it’s been a big change and we’ve had to adjust very quickly, but I really think we’re getting there. Here are a few things we’re trying in the hope of pinching the pennies and stretching the pounds just a little further:

1. Meal planning and bulk cooking are my two life-savers. Whenever I have a day I know I’m going to be in town for a long time, I set up a meal to cook in my slow cooker (chilli, curry, stew, broth, whatever) and make enough for there to be several portions extra so I can freeze some. That way when I unexpectedly get detained and don’t have time to cook dinner, I have my very own microwave meals to hand! As a result of this, I never buy ready-made meals any more, which cuts down costs and helps the waistline because I know exactly what’s in my food. And because I know what we’ll be eating over the course of the week, I know exactly what I need to buy when I’m grocery shopping. I write a list and I stick to it!

2. When cleaning, GO NATURAL! It’s amazing what you can do with vinegar, lemons and bicarbonate of soda. Take a leaf out of your granny’s book and use them for cleaning – its way cheaper and kinder to the environment than commercial cleaners and you get excellent results. Since I started doing this, the skin on my hands is much softer as I’m no longer using chemical cleaners! Have a look HERE for some Green Cleaning Recipes.

3. Learn to bake. I’m saving a fortune on biscuits, cakes and pies since I took up baking and again, no nasty additives that you get with ready-made stuff. And homemade cookies really do taste better, Don’t be afraid to use the “smart price” supermarket brands for your baking – it’s WAY cheaper and the results are still great (I use flour that’s about 25p for a big bag).

4. Learn to sew. If you can stitch up a burst seam and sew on a button, your clothes will last longer before they’re relegated to the scrap heap. And if you can do your own alterations too, well, you’ve just saved yourself a trip to the tailor AND the money you would have spent there. You can get a small sewing machine for well under £50 and it’s worth the initial outlay when you can save so much money by using it. I don’t have my sewing machine just yet, but I’m planning on investing in one if Santa doesn’t bring me one for Christmas!

5. Get crafty! If you’re at all arty or creative, consider making gifts for birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions. I cross stitch and do a little sewing so I’ve made a few gifts for family and friends – personalised bookmarks, cushions, pomanders etc. They all look lovely I tailor them to the individual’s tastes – if I’d had to buy them I’d have spent ages searching for something and then a heap of cash to buy them – saving time AND money again! I have a stock of cross stitch and craft gear at home so I only have to occasionally pick up specific items I need for certain projects, but they usually cost just pennies and not pounds.

There are loads of other ways to cut costs, but these five are particularly relevant to me and I just thought I’d share them with you. If you have any others you’d like to share, please do leave a comment – I’d love to hear them!

Bookmas Gift Exchange

A few folks over at The Book Club Forum are taking part in an exchange of bookish gifts – sort of like a Secret Santa – and I finally wrapped mine ready for sending today. Obviously I can’t show or tell you what’s in it just now (in case my recipient reads this post and the surprise is ruined!), but I thought that in the meantime I’d post a picture of the present all packaged up, so here it is!

I went for a simple look – magenta tissue paper and gold ribbon with gold ribbon curls at the centre knot and a couple of silver stars stuck on for good measure. I didn’t want it to be anything too elaborate, as it will be getting popped into a plain package to be sent through the post and I didn’t want to risk decorations getting damaged, so simplicity was key on this occasion.

When we all open our gifts (which I believe it to be on Christmas Day, although I could be wrong – I’ll have to check that!), I shall post photos of the gift I sent as well as what I received in return from my own Bookmas Secret Santa.

Recipe: Apple Pie

The whole pie
- once it was cut it didn’t last long enough to take a picture of an individual slice!

I figured it was time to attempt a classic and one of my all-time favourite desserts – apple pie! Now that I’ve got the hang of pastry, it’s a whole lot easier!

Apple Pie
Serves: 6 – 8
Prep time: 20 minutes (plus 30 minutes resting time for pastry)
Cooking time: 45 – 60 minutes

Ingredients:
12 oz self raising flour
pinch salt
tbsp sugar (plus sugar to taste)
6 oz vegetable lard
60 – 100 mls milk
3 – 4 large Bramley apples
ground cinnamon to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200C and lightly grease a deep 9″ pie tin
2. Mix together the self raising flour, pinch of salt and tablespoon of sugar
3. Rub in the vegetable lard to a crumbly consistency
4. Add the milk a little at a time and mix with a metal knife (the old “chop-chop-stir) till it comes together in a dough
5. Lightly knead the dough then wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes
6. Turn out the pastry dough onto a floured surface and roll out to approx 1/4 inch thickness
7. Line the pie tin with the pastry and trim off the excess
8. Re-roll the pastry to the same thickness for the upper crust
9. Peel, core and slice the apples (cut the apples into quarters, then you should get 8 – 10 slices of apple from each quarter)
10. Place the apple slices into the pie tin in layers, liberally sprinkling each layer with sugar
11. Sprinkle ground cinnamon on the top layer
12. Lay the upper crust on the pie, press the edges to seal and cut off excess (if desired, you can make decorations with the left over pastry – I made three leaves)
13. Brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar and prick a few holes in the upper crust with a fork
14. Bake for 45 – 60 minutes until pie is golden (if you like your fruit firmer, only cook for 45 minutes; if you prefer it softer, leave it for the full hour)

The Verdict:
This was my first attempt at apple pie and I was very surprised at how easy I found it and very pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was! I like my fruit with a bit of “bite” left in it, so I only baked my pie for 45 minutes, so the fruit was juicy and firm, rather than soft or mushy. I didn’t blind bake the base on this pie, but it all turned out beautifully anyway, with a perfectly cooked base and upper crust. My sister also agreed this was a keeper although she begged me not to make her one to take away as she would eat it all herself! I have to admit, it didn’t last long! A resounding 5/5!

Schedule: Week Commencing 9 November 2009

As part of being a FlyBaby, I’ve allocated different tasks to different days of the week. In addition to the tasks that I do on specific days every week, each week also focuses on a different zone in the home – this week it’s the kitchen – so there will be additional tasks for that room too. I’ll take great satisfaction in ticking all these off my list!

This week, my schedule looks like this (these are in addition to my daily “routines”) split into three categories of tasks – “general” (tasks I do on this day every week), “specific” (tasks that are specific to this particular day) and “zone” (tasks relating to the focus zone for this week).

DAY	GENERAL	SPECIFIC	ZONE
MON 9/11	* Change bedding * Clear out bag and wallet	* Bake apple pie * Bake biscuits	* Clean oven and hob
TUE 10/11	* Water plants * ERRAND DAY	* Call Mam to say “Happy birthday!” * Appointment * Defrost mince	* Wipe kettle, toaster and crock pot * Clean microwave (inside and out) * Clean and tidy cutlery drawers
WED 11/11	* Empty all bins	* Bake biscuits * Bake Quiche	* Check dates on all foods * Clean and tidy pantry cupboard
THU 12/11	* Clean bathroom mirror * Clean shower screen * Mop kitchen and bathroom floors		* Clean and tidy pan cupboard * Shine copper-bottomed pans
FRI 13/11	* Paper purge * ERRAND DAY	* Take books to Book Crossing point * Take clothes to charity shop	* Clean and tidy under sink cupboard
SAT 14/11	* Clean fridge * Plan menus * Grocery list	* Mums and Babies lunch meet	* Clean and tidy crockery cupboard
SUN 15/11	* Check grocery list * Grocery shopping * Vacuum whole flat	* In-laws for lunch