The Wedding Gift

I've just had a wonderful weekend at my friend's Wedding! She is the first of my friends to get married, and I still can't believe she asked me to be a bridesmaid.

Thank you so much for such a beautiful weekend Cheryl, I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Now, I won't tell you what I got as a present (because the happy couple haven't had a chance to find out yet!) but I will show you what it looked like.

It's simply wrapped in parcel paper, paper doilies and ribbon. I think it looks perfect for a wedding and hope you will agree.

Hopefully I will scavenge some beautiful pictures of the wedding soon, so much of it was wonderfully handmade!
xxx

Redecorating My Room

Having just finish University, my mum has kindly let me live with her again. Although I was worried this would crush the independence I had grown whilst living away from home, I've been pleasantly surprise by how happy I am back here.

I think a large reason why I don't feel 'like a child again' is because I haven't move back into the room I grew up in. It's been redecorated.

It took a lot of hard work and patience, but I think my room looks gorgeous.

One of my personal favourite things in the Chest Of Drawers I redecorated. They were once a cheap student storage solution from Ikea....

(Click here for a link to the Ikea product) 

...but after some sanding, priming, painting and new handles, it looks like this!

The beautiful handles were purchased from the Ebay seller Mango Tree

I think the drawers look stunning and fit perfectly in my lovely vintage/Laura Ashleys style room. And even though it has been lots of hard work, it has been well worth it. I feel so at home here, which is exactly what someone stressing because life-as-they-know-it-is-over needs.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to my Mum for making this redecorating possible and for being lovely to live with. Also, thank you James for my lovely shelves!

xxx 

Black Forest Gateau Cupcakes

Cupcakes are all the craze at the moment, so as a present to my family I decided to take the classic Black Forest Gateau as a cupcake.

To make them, I followed this recipe.

Also, although the recipe says it makes just 6.... I managed to make 16??? (Can't complain really!)

This recipe was loved by everyone, so I think it's going to become a regular. 

xxx

Arancini Di Riso (Yum)

I won't pretend that these didn't take a long time...(mostly because I took no shortcuts)... however, they were worth it!

There are several stages to making these.
Firstly you make a stock (I've previously blogged about how I did this)
Then you need to make the risotto (Mine was similar to this recipe, plus chicken!)
Finally you need to make the breadcrumbs, which I did using homemade bread.

(Serves 6)
Ingredients:
400g Risotto
6 chunks of Mozzarella
6 tspns Tomato Chutney
Flour
2 eggs
Breadcrumbs
Salt & Pepper

Recipe:
1) Preheat the oven at 180 degrees and sprinkle flour on a baking tray
2) Roll up the mozzarella & tomato chutney in 6 balls of risotto
3) Cover each ball with flour
4) Beat the eggs and then cover each ball in the egg
5) Add salt & pepper to the breadcrumbs, then cover the balls in this mixture.
6) Place the balls on the floury tray and cook for 25 minutes, until golden.

xxx

Humble Chicken & Mushroom Pie

This is a really simple pie, but really tasty!

Serves 4 Hungry Hippos or 6 Average Joes

Ingredients:

1 Ready Roll Puff Pastry

250g of Cooked Chicken 

2 Rashes of Bacon (optional)

1 Onions Diced

2 Leeks Sliced

400 ml Chicken Stock

3 Tbspns Creme Fraiche

1 Tbspn Granulated Sugar

1 Tspn Chilli Pepper

1 Tspn Mixed Herbs

Salt & Pepper to season

Butter for cooking

Milk to glaze

Recipe:
1) Preheat the oven at 180 degrees

2) Fry the onions & leek in the butter and sugar on a medium heat until golden (add in Bacon when the onions have softened).

3) Add in the chicken, chilli pepper, mixed herbs and season.

4) Pour in the stock and bring to the boil.

5) Take off the heat and stir in the creme fraiche.

6) Pour the cooked ingredients into a casserole dish. 

7) Layer the pastry over the cooked ingredients, roll up the edges and trim off excess. You can use the excess pastry to make leafs etc for a topping. Cut slices in the pastry to allow pie to fully cook.

8) Glaze pastry with milk so pastry browns.

9) Cook in oven for 45min - 1 hour, until pastry in golden. 

To serve I made a cheese and herb mash and roasted some carrots.

Enjoy xxx

Why You Should Buy The Chicken Whole

Well, it's been a little while since I've blogged. I ended up needing to spend all my time studying for finals... but I've still been making, baking and sewing!

This post is about why I buy full chickens instead of just chicken breast, and the simply answer is stock!

Firstly... it looks like this.... 

Ingredients:
1 Chicken
3 Tbsp of Honey

Salt & Pepper

Recipe:

1) Preheat oven at 180 degrees.
2) Season chicken and wrap in tin foil.

3) Place chicken upsidedown and cook in oven for 45 minutes
4) Turn chicken over, open the foil so the bird is exposed and pour honey ontop. 

5) Cook in oven until cooked through and golden on top (around 45minutes - 1 hour)

With the cooked chicken I made:

Chicken, Mayo and Sweetcorn Bloomers on Homemade Bread

Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Pizzas with Garlic Bread

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Secondly, with a full chicken you get to make stock

Ingredients:

Chicken Bones & Left Over Chicken

Roughly Chopped Root Vegetables (Onions, Carrots, Potatoes) 

Mixed Herbs

Salt & Pepper

Water

Recipe:

1) Simply put all the chicken bones, left overs and vegetables into a large pan and cover it all with water.

2) Season with herbs, salt and pepper.

3) Bring to boil and then leave to simmer for 2 hours
(The longer you leave it simmering, the more concentrated the stock. However, always make sure the bones are covered in water)

4) Sieve out bones, meat and vegetables and leave the liquid to cool.

With the stock I was able to make:

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Chicken Risotto, which afterwards I made into Chicken Arancini De Riso 

And I can promise you, every meal was delicious!

In time I hope to blog about the recipes for each of these, but for the time being I hope you are convinced to buy your chickens whole

xxx

What A Tart

Just spent a healthy 3 hours in the kitchen with my housemate (and another one who pleasantly sat and patiently waited for his tarts).

Raspberry Bakewells & Walnut Tarts

These tarts use exactly the same pastry & filling, but the raspberry ones have more toppings :D

Ingredients (to make 12)
 Pastry
   200g unsalted butter
   450g plain flour
   pinch of salt
(okay, we had some left over & made Jam Tarts!)
 Filling
   110g unsalted butter
   110g golden syrup
   1 tsp vanilla extract
   225g brown sugar
   3 eggs (beaten)

Walnut Tart Topping
   1 walnut halve for each tart
   50g icing sugar

Raspberry Bakewell Topping
   50g Raspberry Jame
   50g icing sugar
   1 raspberry for each tart

To make the pastry
1) Preheat the oven at 200 degrees
2) Sift the flour, add the butter diced and make into breadcrumbs.
3) Stir in salt, add 2-3 tsp of cold water
4) Knead mix into hard dough
5) Cling film and leave in fridge for 20 minutes
6) Meanwhile, butter and greaseproof paper a cupcake tray.
7) Roll out dough, cut into large circles (we used a mug) & then press into cupcake tray.
8) Blind bake the pastry in the oven for 20 minutes (Put more greaseproof paper on top of the pastry & pour dried beans into the middle of the pastries to hold to shape)
...whilst that bad boy's baking...

To make the filling
1) Put the butter, golden syrup, vanilla extract and sugar into a saucepan over a low heat until all the butter has melted.
2) Take off the heat. Add the eggs and mix well.
3) Once the pastry cases are done, remove the beans & greaseproof paper from their tops. Pour the filling into the pastry cases and bake for another 30 minutes. (Reduce the oven heat to 180 degrees)
4) Once cooked, leave on the side to cool.

For the Walnut Tarts
1) Make a fairly thick icing (icing sugar + water). Then, using a knife, dribble the icing over the tarts.
2) Place 1 walnut half on top.

For the Raspberry Bakewells
1) Spread a spoonful of raspberry jam over the top of each tart.
2) Make a fairly thick icing (icing sugar + water). Then, using a knife, dribble the icing over the tarts.
3) Place 1 raspberry on top.

So good!!

xxx