Bank holiday blues.

Kimono - Charity Shop

Jeans - Primark

Camisole & Shoes - New Look

This weekend has flown by and this Bank Holiday weekend I was lucky enough to have the Saturday and Sunday off but not today. I'm back at work and I've been told that the weather today is supposed to be lovely. Personally I hope it rains. It serves you right for having the day off! Haha! (I am very jealous)

Saturday we headed out to fetch some gardening bits. I needed compost and few other bits and pieces and I've made a little bit more progress in the garden but I'll update you on that soon. We then went off into town and had a quick look around the charity shops. That's were I picked up this pretty shirt. As soon as I saw it I knew that I would want to wear it as kimono. I am obsessed by them at the minute! I also picked up a few other pieces.

Yesterday we woke up early and headed to a different car boot to the one we usually go to. It wasn't really worth it and we are going to stick to the usual one from now on. I left empty handed. We headed out for breakfast with the Mr's family and then back home. After a quick sit down I headed out again to meet an old school friend and I photographed her lovely girls.

It was such a busy, but lovely weekend. I can't wait until tomorrow for another day off! 

Mothers day: Bacon & egg pie.

So I've started my Easter posts and I thought with just over 1 week to go I should start my Mothers day posts. There's only a few but just enough to hopefully inspire you to make or bake something for mothers day rather than buying some tat from the card shop.

Bacon and egg pie. Yum. My mum used to make this a lot. Back when I was vegetarian she would use veggie bacon but now I'm meat eating again I've used real smoked bacon. It's delicious and you can't go wrong with pie in my eyes. My original plan was to make a spring pie full of vegetables and chicken but since my food poisoning incident I'm still not quite ready to eat it yet. 

You could make leaves or any other little pastry decorations to go on top but I settled for flowers because it is Mothers day after all and mum's deserve flowers! 

You will need:

500g plain flour

230g butter

cold water

pinch of salt

sprinkling of mixed herbs

8 rashers of bacon

4 eggs

salt

pinch of black pepper

sprinkle of mixed herbs

milk, to glaze

Heat oven to 190ºC, 370ºF, Gas Mark 5. Line a 20 cm (8 inch) ovenproof plate or foil baking dish.

Mix flour and salt in basin, rub in fat.

Using a knife to cut and stir, mix with cold water to form a stiff dough.

Turn dough on to a floured surface and knead lightly.

Roll out and use as required below.

Divide the pastry into 2, roll out and line the plate.

Grill or fry bacon until crisp - drain off the fat. Add bacon to the beaten eggs along with the seasoning and herbs if used.

Pour mixture onto pastry, dampen edges and cover with the second round of pastry.

Seal edges and decorate with pastry flowers. Make a hole in the centre and brush with beaten egg or milk, sprinkle a few more herbs on top.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

Serve warm or cold.

There never seems to enough time.

Top & necklace - New Look

Skirt - Vintage 

Well where do I start? Possibly the five craziest days ever. I went out Friday night for dinner and got food poisoning from the chicken. The food poisoning started Saturday afternoon and I have never felt so ill in my life! I won't go into any more detail as it's disgusting and nobody wants to hear it! But that ruined my plans for blogging as I usually plan all my blog posts in the week and photograph them all at the weekend so that ruined everything for me. 

And then yesterday my nephew was born so my auntie duties were needed in looking after my older nephew. I had to do the school run and remember to pick him up! It was so cute how excited he was about meeting his baby brother. So I made the most of being at her house and used her garden for these photographs! 

And that was my crazy long weekend. If you've got any spare time fancy given it to me? I've got far too much to catch up on today! I hope you're having beautiful weather too. These past two days have been glorious. Looks like spring has arrived.

Chocolate marble loaf!

I don't know about you but I have a to bake list. Much like a to do list but for things that I need to bake. This has been at the top for a long while and last Sunday I had a spare day to bake this beauty. You may have seen me on Twitter  asking why marble cakes had so many eggs in it. I've since worked out why. This cake is so deliciously moist (I can't stand that word, but it describes it so well) and the rise of the cake is incredible. Four eggs are needed.

If you watched the Great British Bake Off you'll know that taking on one of the judges recipes is no meant feat. So I was feeling rather pressured making a recipe by the Queen of baking herself, Mary Berry. And to make things a lot worse I tweaked the recipe too! But the changes I made are for the better, I hope, sorry Mary if your reading this! 

Adapted from Mary Berry's chocolate and vanilla marble loaf cake.

For the cake

225g (8oz) butter, softened 

225g (8oz) caster sugar 

275g (9¾oz) self-raising flour 

2 level tsp baking powder 

4 large eggs 

2 tbsp milk 

½ tsp vanilla extract 

2½   level tbsp cocoa powder 

2½ tbsp hot water

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Lightly grease a 900g (2lb) loaf tin. Line with a wide strip of non-stick baking parchment to go up the wide sides and over the base.

Measure the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs, milk and vanilla extract into a large bowl and beat with a hand-held electric mixer for about two minutes, until well blended. Spoon half into another bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and hot water together until smooth. Allow to cool slightly, then add to one of the bowls of cake mixture, mixing well until evenly blended.

Spoon the vanilla and chocolate cake mixtures randomly into the prepared tin until all of the mixture is used up, and gently level the surface. I used the checkerboard technique!

 Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and starting to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack, peel off the lining paper and leave to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Christmas Brownie Bites.

So here it is. The last Christmas food post. But no worries, I've planned a few New Years recipes. I think I've saved the best till last. These little bites are so good. The perfect mix of chocolate brownie and Christmas spice. Topped with white chocolate and holly berries. Perfect. These will be great to hand round after the big Christmas lunch.

Adapted from Good Housekeeping.

175g (6oz) butter

125g (4oz) dark chocolate, roughly chopped

1½ tbsp vanilla extract

250g (9oz) light brown soft sugar

2 medium eggs

100g (3½oz) plain flour

1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp mixed spice

100g white chocolate, melted

edible holly berries, sprinkles, stars

Preheat oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan) mark 4. Line a 20.5cm (8in) square tin with baking parchment. 

In a pan, gently heat butter, chocolate and vanilla until melted.

Take pan off the heat and leave to cool slightly.

 Mix in the sugar, followed by the eggs (the mixture will become smooth and glossy as you mix it). 

Sift over flour and spices and stir everything together. Scrape mixture into the tin and bake for 30min until a crust forms. Cool completely in the tin.

Lift the brownie out of the tin and cut into bitesize squares. Arrange bites on a wire rack set over a baking tray or board.

Cover the tops of the brownie with melted white chocolate and decorate with sprinkles. Leave to set.