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Apple Flapjack Teacosy

I found the greatest Apple Flapjack recipe.  It is quick, simple, few ingredients and tastes AMAZING!  I made 2 batches in quick succession and they all went!  I convinced myself that because they contained mainly oats and 2 apples that they must indeed be healthy and I chose to ignore the whole pack of butter and the huge amount of sugar and syrup.  

I love those recipes where you have to melt butter and sugar and syrup in a pan - it's like some kind of magic going on in there!  It's a great recipe for children to make too as it's so quick and there's not a lot of messing around.

I've also been making a lot of teacosies! (I'm never sure if it's one word or two).  I just can't seem to stop. I've hit upon this pattern which I invented and which I now love and have to keep making in as many colour combinations as possible. 

The possibilities are endless.

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Softly, softly

This week has been soft and slow as we have succumbed to feeling poorly with days off school. It has enforced its own pace upon us which has been reminiscent of the pre-school days when you could just snuggle up for no reason in the mid afternoon and read books - complete with funny voices. I know when you are in those days they seem endless and sometimes frustrating. But when they are gone they are gone forever and school life takes over in such a powerful way. Everyone's life becomes about school not just those who have to go. Your working day, week and year is dictated by the school routine, the costumes they need, the trips to be paid for, the homework to be completed, the when and where of holidays. Knowing the next time you will get a cheap holiday is when they have left home! I think we will be seeing the week out at home as little improvement has been made on the health front. There will be more stories, more baking - cheese scones just cannot be beaten! And the newly discovered but non-photogenic butterscotch pudding - who knew, what a texture, it's just so puddingy! I decided on a project for my dusty pink alpaca - a chevron lace scarf. I am finding it slow going and the wool is tricky with the 2.5 mm hook but I am very happy with the look of it and the slow and soft nature of it suits my week entirely.

Unicorns I love them...

I can at last show pictures of the Unicorn cushions that I made for my daughter's birthday.  She turned thirteen at the weekend.  I'm trying hard not to think about that fact and that she may only be here with me for another five years.  Make the most of it, make the most of it...

Anyway she loves Unicorns - who doesn't?  So I set out to make her some cushions for her bed.

I am so pleased with them.  It's been a long time since I did any patchwork and I didn't plan it out extensively before I started, I just went for it and it paid off!  More importantly she loves them too and thought I had bought them (high praise!)

The green unicorn fabric is Heather Ross Far Far Away and the purple is by Timeless Treasures.  

After presents were opened we all enjoyed a delicious breakfast...

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Cranberry Sauce

Well today was the day for the Cranberry Sauce.  I make it every year and it is the most easy thing to make and a million gazillion times better than anything out of a jar from the supermarket.

The smell is everything you know and love about Christmas - sugar and cinnamon and orange and cloves.  Everyone has to stick their head in for a intake of Christmas joy!

All hail to Delia Smith for this 'Christmas in a Pan' recipe.  You don't even need the Port (I never add it).

Every year there are things that I make such as this and my braised red cabbage, and there's always a part of me that doesn't want to do it at first.  I mean, I want it, but I don't want to make it.  There is always so much else to do.  But then something magical always happens, just like birds flying south for the winter, something overcomes me, a primal urge to have to make it and then it just - happens!

Thank goodness.

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Father's Day

There's been a lot of making and baking since Friday, all in the name of Father's Day...

 
 
Today it was bacon butties in bed with brown sauce; a walk in the woods; roast beef and yorkie puds; a full on bake-off to create a lovely Sunday tea - jam tarts, chocolate chip fairy cakes, lemon drizzle cake and cheese scones!

 

 

 

Baking day

I had a moment the other day when I felt sad about the fact that we don't bake as much as we used to.  I remember before both of the children were at school we would spend lots of time at the kitchen table covered in flour. 

Time moves on and our activities change but we still like to bake...

 
Yay, it's the Delia Smith cheese bread which is really easy to make and very scrummy just like a giant cheesy scone really. 

 
Delicious. 

 
Someone is getting very excited about one of those pieces of cheese just accidentally ending up in his mouth!

 

 
The only complaint was that there wasn't enough of it! 

This moment ...

++ this moment ++

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Soule Mama

. . . . . . . .

CASTLE BIRTHDAY CAKE

There was a slight issue with Sunday's birthday party and that was the cake.  I was asked to make a castle cake - which I had made for a 4th birthday - but this time I was going to try something different.  Saturday was exhausting doing all the shopping for the party so I decided to leave the cake until Sunday morning. 

 
By 8am the cake was in the oven.  It was a straight forward all-in-one Victoria sponge cake from the WI - you just can't go wrong!

The cake turned out just fine but then turning it into a castle began to overwhelm me.  I had bought some Angel cake for the turretts and all sorts of sweets and icing and ice cream cones and edible glittler.  The buttercream was sending me into a spin as I just couldn't get it on the cake properly. 

Eventually I decided to give up and go with the back-up plan of a shop bought cake.  However, when I told my daughter she looked so sad and informed me that everyone was expecting a castle cake (no pressure!).  So rather stroppily I returned to the cake and took the approach that if I just covered it in everything I had bought it would be ok.

So that's what I did!

 
It certainly has that kind of "lived in" look about it but you know I quite like that and more importantly so did she.

When I brought the cake in at the party and we sang happy birthday, one of her friends said, "That is the best cake I've ever seen", I had to give that girl a hug!

 

* Family *

 

Family love today. 

Illness has a way of making life so real.  I think most of the time we dawdle around thinking we're present but then the bubble bursts and we find we were just marking time and life becomes so real it is surreal. 

Today there was good news and a happy voice at the end of the phone.  I can hold it together until the phone goes down and then I have a weep.  Joe wondered if I was crying over how good the email from Strada was (2 mains for £10 is worth a tear of joy).

Onwards and upwards.

 

Christmas biscuits

 

Is it ever too early for Christmas biscuits?  I think not particularly when you have such a large collection of cookie cutters sitting in the cupboard waiting to act out their Christmas destiny. 

 

Well ok maybe not all of them have a Christmas theme but the tree certainly, the moose/reindeer yep, the hedgehog - well who doesn't love a little snowy hedgehog?  The chick is dressed up as a penguin, the bat a leftover from halloween and the ice creams because it's such a good cookie cutter and the topping ideas are endless. 

So this was a day well spent.  We also made salt dough but more on that later!