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Thursday 30 August 2012

Wellies

Living in England a girl needs a good pair of Wellies.. I was having a look today online at some of the well known labels and found a few that I just had to share with you (not in any particular order). I can't decide on which one of these is my favourite, but let me know which is your favourite.
Joules

Hunter Boots

Cath Kidston


Hunter Boots

Joules

Hunter Boots

Hunter Boot - thought it was funny seeing wellies with heels

Hunter Boot - thought it was funny seeing wellies with heels 

Cath Kidston



Snickerdoodles!!!

I learned how to make these delicious cookies in Junior High and came across this recipe today that made me make them right then and there! So here I am sharing it with you guys. Might bring back some memories for some of you or it might just be your first introduction. Either way you got to try them :)



115g / 1/2 cup of butter at room temp, diced
115g / 1/2 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
2 eggs
50 ml / 1/4 cup milk
400g / 3 1/2 cups of plain (all purpose) flour
1 tsp Baking soda
50g / 1//2 cup of walnuts, finely chopped (I substituted this with baking chocolate)

For the coating:
5 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and continue to beat until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then the milk.
2. Sift the flour and baking soda over the butter mixture and stir to blend. Stir in the walnuts. Chill in fridge for 15 mins. Preheat oven to 190c or 375f. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
3. To make the coating mix the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl or plate. Roll dough into walnut size balls between the palms of your hands, then roll in the sugar mixture. You may need to work in batches.
4. Place the balls spaced about 5cm/2 inches apart on the baking sheets and flatten with the back of a spoon slightly or fingers. Bake for about 10-12 mins or until golden brown. Using a spatula transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes approx 20 Snickerdoodles.

Enjoy!

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Our Veggie Box

Martin made us this veggie box this year. It's our first one and the first time growing veggies in the ground like this. Last year we did potatoes in the bag, tomatoes, bell peppers and sweet peppers in pots. The bell peppers didn't really make it but the others did and it was such a rewarding feeling so this year he started us out with cabbage, radish, lettuce, squash and courgette (zuchinni to North America). We had a really bad start to the summer here in England and the slugs ate our lettuce. Dang slugs! Then when the weather got a bit warmer and drier we planted a sweet potato plant, garlic (from last year actually, just replanted it for some reason it wasn't really growing but I think they are now) and winter onions. So let's hope we'll get something out of all this. It's definitely been a learning experience for us and perhaps we won't cram as much into the box and spread things out a bit better next year. But hey ho, I'm sure we'll get a few nice things out of this :)


The planter box my hubby made





Our squash plant

Cabbage at front, courgettes in the back (zucchini to the folks back home)

1 of 5 Tomato plants, next to it is our late summer potatoes

Sweet Potato & Raffa B

Our Summer Potatoes

Last year we decided to grow potatoes in a bag! Yep, that's right, in a bag.. mind you it wasn't any old  shopping bag, it was a grow bag type thing and we got some really yummy new potatoes from it so this year we decided to try again. And we weren't disappointed! We have also picked up some late or autumn potatoes to plant for Christmas, Charlottes there called. How cool would that be, digging up your own potatoes for Christmas dinner. Nice one! Here's pics of our potato crop this year.



The bags we used

Our crop. So delicious!

To find out how we did it, check out: How to grow potatoes in bags and Growing potatoes in bags or potato sacks

Our Summer Garden

I have to apologize for the quality of these pictures. I didn't take many on my digital camera, just been using my mobile phone.







I love growing sunflowers, too bad the slugs love them too



Sunflower twins

a lazy summers afternoon for Rafa B

Our little jellybean



Love,

I'm back!!!

I didn't realise how long it's been since I last posted.. just far too long! I hope now I'll get back into it and continue on as Autumn, Christmas is on it's way but most importantly, I can't forget to share with you our exciting news... this December we are expecting our first baby!! We are super excited and perhaps that is why I haven't been on as I've been a little preoccupied. So anyway, it's nice to be back, I'm looking forward to posting again and will keep you posted on our little growing jelly bean :)

Love,