Scrabble Letter Cookie Cutters and Biscuits

  These scrabble cookie cutters are a fun way to send a message to a loved one or decorate a cake. I got a set for my birthday this year – they come in a sturdy metal tin and are the same size as actual scrabble letters. Made of plastic, they let you cut out a square of dough with one side, then turn the cutter over and use the letter to imprint in the dough.   Since you use these to stamp the letters and don’t actually use the letters...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 Week 34

Monday Breakfast yogurt or porridge if time Lunch vegetable soup and wholemeal roll Dinner chicken pie and mashed potato for him, harissa-spiced mackerel with cumin potato hash for me Tuesday Breakfast yogurt or porridge if time Lunch tuna sandwich Dinner peppered beef grillsteak, chips and beans for him; rest of mackerel for me (I have to defrost two pieces at once) Wednesday Breakfast yogurt or porridge if time Lunch chicken soup and a wholemeal roll Dinner out - going to a sci-fi exhibition at the Barbican Thursday Breakfast porridge Lunch...

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D'lish Donut Shopkins Birthday Cake

Do you know what Shopkins are? If you have children then you might… if like me you are yet to become a parent then you can be excused for having absolutely no idea!   I’ve written before about the fantastic charity Free Cakes for Kids – I made a Rapunzel cake for a girl staying with her mum at a women’s shelter who otherwise wouldn’t have had a birthday cake.   Another request came through from the same group that I decided to volunteer...

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Review: Houghton Lodge and Gardens, Stockbridge, Hampshire

On a sunny day Houghton Lodge and Gardens in Stockbridge, Hampshire, is a beautiful place for afternoon tea, a wedding reception or simply a stroll around the gardens. It has an orangery, a manor house, various sections of gardens, a river running through the bottom and – this is the best part – a field with alpacas.     My husband and I considered Houghton Lodge as a wedding venue as it was in the right area and we were quite taken...

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Nigella Lawson's Croque Monsieur Bake

If you like a toasted cheese sandwich then you will love this croque monsieur bake by Nigella Lawson. It takes a bit more time but not much more effort and makes a great brunch or lunch. One advantage over toasted sandwiches is you don’t have to make them one or two at a time (limited by space in your grill or toasted sandwich maker) – you can make a large portion in an oven-proof dish. Nigella’s recipe says it serves 4-6 but I did this for two...

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Meal Planning 2017 Week 33

Finally we had some hot weather at the weekend so the barbecue we hosted for my father-in-law's birthday on Sunday was a resounding success. I'm sure it would have been anyway as it was lovely to have the extended family around (ranging in age from 7 to 70s) but sunshine really did help! We were more sensible about catering than in the past, prompting my husband to wonder beforehand if we had enough food - and we still had leftovers! But we didn't have quite as much left over as usual which was good - though I did plan that we would have leftover...

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Paper 1st Wedding Anniversary Gift Ideas

Everyone has heard of golden wedding anniversaries and ruby wedding anniversaries, but if you’re not married yourself, you may not know that every year has a theme! The theme is supposed to represent the gifts that the husband and wife give each other, and there is a traditional list and a modern list - for some countries they differ slightly but this is what I’ve found online:   Anniversary   Traditional                    Modern...

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Review: The Larmer Tree Gardens, Tollard Royal, Wiltshire

I celebrated my first wedding anniversary in June and as the day fell on a Sunday we decided to go back to our wedding venue, the Larmer Tree Gardens in Wiltshire. We attempted to recreate one of our wedding photos - albeit without the professional wedding photographer as you can tell! We also enjoyed spending the day with my parents, sister and niece, who was still a bump inside her tummy on our wedding day. The weather was glorious on our...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 32

Best laid plans and all that... last week I didn't make a couple of the meals I had planned, one night because I was home too late and the other because it was the end of the week, I was unexpectedly working from home and decided I really fancied roast potatoes, so put some in the oven with a pork chop! It might be August but the barbecue days seem an awfully long time ago.... Monday Breakfast museli with yogurt and tinned fruit Lunch bagel with soft cheese Dinner pork chop with sweet potato mash for me, chicken pie and mash for him Tuesday Breakfast...

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Relax It's Your Birthday Pineapple Stamped Card

I was really pleased when I found this set of pineapple rubber stamps and dies in a local charity shop for £2 - it's a bit quirky and something I would have hesitated to buy, as it's fairly niche - I'm sure there are various designs you can do with pineapples, but most of my stamp sets are more versatile. However, I'm often envious when I see cards people have made with unusual stamps that are perfect for a specific sentiment which is why...

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Waterloo Cafe, Wootton St, London and Photoion Photography School

Believe it or not, I'm really into photography. I say believe it or not because I know that some of the photos on this blog are not very good at all. When I cook a meal from a new recipe for dinner, and want to take a photo, it's often 8pm already and I just want to eat, not faff around with cameras and lights, so grab my mobile for a quick snap! When I do have time I put in more effort - I've got lights, backdrops, an expensive camera and a variety...

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Lemon Meringue Celebration Cake

This cake was easier than it looks to make, and a dream to eat - it looks really impressive and trust me, it tastes even better! The recipe comes from Fiona Cairns’ Birthday Cake book but is also available online here.   Making meringues is sometimes a bit hit and miss; I followed Fiona Cairns’ recipe mixing egg whites with icing sugar, which was a first – I normally use caster sugar. Try as I might, I couldn’t get my egg whites to form...

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