Hello Again!

I'm not sure if there is anyone left out there but if there are, hello! 

I'm hoping to restart this blog as a bit of an experiment to see how it goes. At the moment, I tend to use Instagram to record things which I'll still do but this will allow me to go further into things and waffle on a bit more if I'm so inclined.

As before, it is likely to mostly cover the crafty side of things. There have been various changes and I no longer really scrapbook just down to time restrictions really. I've focused more on sewing as my main hobby for a variety of reasons, and as I am also now writing full time, there's only so many hours (especially when you throw Fibromyalgia into the mix).

Incidentally, if you do want to keep up on how the writing is going, hop over to my Facebook Author Page here which is probably the best place to find the latest news about that. There's also my website here which shows all the various places you can find me lurking! If you love a romcom and/or a romance, I'm your girl!

So! Time to crack on and let's see how it goes!

Have a wonderful day and look forward to chatting soon!

Love, Maxi

Jam Session

No, not the cool, hip rock star kind, but the rather yummy produce-something-you-can-eat kind, which I think is indeed still cool and hip - rockstar or not.

During the past few weeks I have been keeping an eye on my Dad's allotment whilst they were away. Luckily it wasn't during the heatwave this time so a lot of the time it was looking after itself. It was in the meantime, producing a tonne of tomatoes, in addition to my own plants at home. But more of that in another post (suffice to say, there was some tomato soup in their fridge ready for them to have for lunch when they got back!). The allotment was also offering up the odd bit of fruit as plants started to head for autumn.

We had already had a delicious rhubarb, strawberry and blackberry crumble...

Yum!

After that, there was a little bit of odd things - none of it was enough to do much with on its own. I pondered on what I could do with it, and came upon the idea of making some jam.

I don't know about you, but for years, I was always under the impression that jam making generally involved some magic. It just seemed to loiter in my head as some very fine art that the likes of mere mortals as myself would never be able to conquer.

Well, turns out it's not quite so much of a dark art as I thought! I've not made loads of jam and the first batch I made several years ago was probably a bit thick really - but still edible for a first go, even if you did sort of have to cut it into sticky chunks...

I was taking a bit of a risk on this batch really too as I didn't have an actual recipe with quantities or anything and who knew what the mixture of fruits was going to taste like. You know, some mixes work and some are a bit off. Either way, the fruit was just sitting there so there wasn't much to lose.

After a bit of scouting around for sugar quantities, I went for a basic theory on adding the same weight of sugar to fruit, with a good splash of lemon juice for good measure. I then prepared the fruit:

* One stick of rhubarb (fairly thick)
* One bag of frozen gooseberries, thawed (these had broken down in the thawing process but going in a jam, it didn't seem as if it would matter too much
* About three blackberries (I know!)
* A small handful of yellow raspberries - these are delicious and a much softer flavour than traditional red one. I think they are called 'All Gold'
* One punnet of plums
* A few bits of pear

Everything but the pears, which had started to turn a bit soft and the plums were from the allotment. These two items had come in my veggie box. Dad doesn't use any sprays up at the allotment and the box is an organic one so there was a distinct lack of nasties to go in my jam mix - marvellous!

I cooked the fruit down, probably a little bit further than I intended because I had forgotten completely that I had it on the heat and got distracted doing something else! Scooting out to the kitchen when I remembered, the fruit was fine and hadn't stuck or anything. I splashed in the lemon juice and added the sugar, stirring it all the time until it dissolved completely.

This resulted in loosening the mixture quite a lot. I turned up the heat until it was boiling but only slightly and then turned it down again for a little longer. I know various recipes say to 'boil rapidly' but frankly, as soon as it started to boil, the stuff was flying out in all directions! A lower heat seemed the best option. I kept stirring for a while, until it started to get to a more 'jammy'* consistency (*technical term), and then popped a blob on a cool saucer and quickly placed it in the freezer for a few minutes.

When it came out, I could push the jam and make it wrinkle a little, before it scooped up onto my finger. Obviously I had to taste then, and gosh, it was delicious! I think it probably depends a bit on how you like your jam. If you like quite a runny (not liquid!) jam, then this stage is fine, but for a slightly thicker jam, you could leave it to cook a bit longer. I quite like a 'loose' jam as I find it is easier to spread. So, take the pan off the heat, grab a couple of sterilised jars and a jam funnel and...



Ta Dah!

 

 

As I say, I didn't have loads of anything so it only made two pots, but that's fine with me. The one on the right has been jazzed up a bit because I couldn't get the label off properly originally and I'm giving it to the parentals (it was mostly their fruit after all!) so a bit of pretty paper and double sided tape later - fit for presenting!

 

 

Munched!

 

Excuse the munching marks on this one, I forgot I was supposed to be photographing it before I dived in! There was a little too much jam to fit into both pots, so we had to each have a bit of bread and jam for supper. What a shame! 



I'm really glad I overcame the 'fear' of making jam. I may well have just been lucky with this batch and the next one might be awful but who knows? It seemed to work this time just fine. Obviously the fruits I was using had enough pectin to make it viable - something with a lower level like strawberries, might be a bit more tricky. The key thing is, just to try! I'm really glad I did.

I'd love to hear about any jam making you've been doing, or any recipes you've just come up with to use up leftovers that have turned out great!

Happy crafting!

Love, Maxi

Back After A Blogging Break - With Tomatoes!

If you follow this blog regularly, you'll have noticed I've been absent for a little while. Apologies for that. I had some craziness going on with my writing and it ended up forcing the blogs to the back burner. But I'm hoping to be able to get back to blogging more regularly so for those of you that have stuck around - thanks! And I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts!

So! We've actually had a bit of a proper Summer in the UK which after last year's washout, and the fact that Winter seemed very reluctant to exit stage left, has been a pleasant surprise. The garden has been a bit odd though, as because it stayed so cold for so long, things have taken a while to get going. I have a bunch of tomato plants which are now doing pretty well, but none of them have got a heavy crop, and I think it's because they just couldn't get going early enough.

 

This was the scene back at the start of June. They were still looking a little pathetic and sorry for themselves. One of them in fact died off a short time after this was taken so a replacement was popped in his place. As you can see, I planted them in old chimney pipes. This allows me to put them in deeper (as the bed is fairly shallow) and also helps keep them from drying out too much. They don't look the prettiest but frankly once the tomatoes take hold, you don't see too much of them.

 

I also have a few in pots and they've all done pretty well so far, considering the very late start they had coupled with several weeks of 30 degree heat! We've had a few small pickings so far, mostly from the few 'micro' varieties but on Friday I got a bit more of a decent picking of both tomatoes and chillies.

 

 



The chillies are a jalapeno variety and the tomatoes are Red Alert, and Golden Sunrise. I'm still deciding what to do with them, but I think they may end up as soup today. I often use a Delia Smith recipe which turns out well each time.

 

One thing with recipes for tomatoes - they often call for the tomatoes to be peeled, or the mixture to be sieved after blitzing. I think this is a personal thing. Two main recipes I use call for them and I don't do it with either. I have done in the past but it's fiddly and I found, unnecessary. So long as you blitz it well enough, you're not going to have bit bits of skins floating around anyway. But, as I said, it's a personal thing. If you don't want seeds and skins, then sieve away!

 

Well, that's it for this post. I'll be back with some more updates on food, gardening and crafting soon!

 

As always, I'd love to hear from you and how your crafting, gardening and cooking is going!

 

Love, Maxi x

 

 

 





Kiwi Muffins

The good thing about muffins, and cakes in general, is that they are great for using up any fruit that's looking like it might consider going a bit ropey in the next couple of days. And this was how this recipe came about.

 

 

Even though it's not a strong taste, they are definitely something I'd make again, should I have the need to use up some more stray kiwis. They're really easy to do - just use a standard muffin recipe, and bung in some chopped up kiwis (peeled). A couple of light stirs just to incorporate them into the mixture and you're done!

 

 

Happy baking (and eating!)

Triple Chocolate Muffins

These are definitely a favourite in our house, and so easy to make. I use the same recipe, taken from the book on mentioned in this post and I've never known them not to turn out well. Having said that, I'm sure the next time I make them will prove the exception to the rule!

 

 

Really quick to make and bake, and delicious to eat!

 



Lemon Meringue Pie

So, for the first time ever yesterday I made a lemon meringue pie. I've always loved this pud, and when hubby worked in London, from time to time he would return home with a slice of this most delectable goody from Borough Market's Konditer and Cook. Frankly, none I've eaten has ever beaten theirs.

Yesterday, we were visiting friends and I was bringing pud. Lemon meringue pie is a favourite of theirs too, so I thought I'd be brave and have a go! Not perhaps the best idea to experiment when you're taking it somewhere but there we are. I launched in regardless - and this was the result!

 

 

I didn't think it looked too bad for a first attempt. It probably could have done with a little extra cooling time but having not started it until the afternoon, and it being a bit of a fiddly dish, I didn't have time so there was a little juice running out when we cut into it, but apart from that, it was a success! Seconds were even asked for so I was over the moon.

 

The recipe I used was this one from Good Food. I was looking for an easy one and in the midst of my searching, one from the Good To Know website suggested using a pre bought base and a jar of lemon curd. Yes, I suppose that is easy, but frankly if you're buying all that, you may as well just buy the whole pie premade! Anyway, this Good Food one had a lot of good reviews and it wasn't difficult, so if you're thinking of having a go, I'd recommend the recipe.

 

And sorry there aren't any pictures of when we cut into it, but with three kids and three adults waiting on it, there wasn't much chance of that so you'll just have to take my word on it looking, and tasting really rather yum!

I was thinking of trying it again, and maybe using a lemon and lime mix instead of just lemons next time. Anyone got any other ideas or suggestions?

Plum Crunch Cake

More baking! Although I have to admit I made this one a little while ago but didn't get around to putting it up on the blog.

It's an excellent recipe for using up some fruit that might be looking past its best a little. I actually had some plums to use up, but I should think it would work just as well with something like apricots, and even apples.

As you can see, I made two and froze one. It froze really well - no complaints when it was time to be pulled out and eaten. The recipe itself was torn from a magazine and had been sitting around for a while so I was glad of the chance to try it out.

The sugary syrup is poured one when they come out of the oven and then left to set, hence the 'crunch' part of the title. Of course, you could leave this bit out if you wanted to cut back on the sugar content.

The only downside with this cake is that it's not so great for transporting - probably not the best for lunchboxes (although hubby did manage it just fine. I can't say if all of the bits stayed on but they certainly got eaten, detached or not.)

Any other fruit you could think of that would be good for this recipe?

Grape and Apricot muffins

Continuing with the 60 Jubilee Bakes project, the latest creation is Grape and Apricot Muffins. Now, I have to admit, I wasn't entirely sure how these would turn out as this was a case of using up fruit that was starting to look a little soft and forlorn. So, I just took a basic muffn recipe, and bunged in the halved grapes and chopped apricot at the end, giving it just a few little turns with the spoon to make sure they were all nice and encompassed.

They turned out really well and went down a treat. I hate any food going to waste - which in this household, it doesn't usually get a chance to, but if things are beginning to look like they are thinking about going a bit squiffy, I will generally either a) make soup out of them if they are vegetables, and b) if it's fruit, then they're generally headed towards a tea loaf or some muffins. Give it a try!

We are actually getting a little rain tonight which is certainly welcome for the garden which is looking a bit parched. I'm hoping we'll get enough to fill the rain barrel up again but I've a feeling we're going to miss the main bulk of it. Still, something is better than nothing!

And for those of you wondering, I am still hoping to get back to adding sewing-type-entries at some point. I'm without a machine at the moment, as I think I've mentioned but that doesn't stop me planning! I've also got a few papercrafting ideas that I'm itching to try out so I'll be back soon with those!

Have fun in whatever crafty way you can!

ps - Go TeamGB!

Baking Chocolate Chip Cookies

Choc chip cookies are rather a favourite of my hubby, and as I seem to have collected a few different recipes for them, I thought I would make a start on whittling them down to the best one.

This recipe is one I've had a while, and I think it was from Prima magazine originally. I have to say that the picture they showed was a lot more brown and chocolately looking than mine, even though I followed the recipe to the letter.

Apologies - I cannot find a way to make this picture go upright on this post.

Hopefully you still get the idea!

As you can see, mine were just a normal colour rather than the deep chocolately brown shown in the magazine picture. So, not sure what went on there. They aren't the traditional sort of flat cookies like you might buy in a bag in a supermarket - these are more like a cross between a cake and a biscuit. And, by the way, they were a hit!

Does anyone have a favourite choc chip cookie recipe - and why is it your favourite? I'd love to hear from you!

Blueberry muffins

Another of the recipes to add to the Jubilee Baking Project pile is blueberry muffins. This particular recipe is adapted from the Summer Fruit Muffins recipe in Susan Reimer's book 'Muffins - Fast and Fantastic'. I've had this book for years, and it gets used a LOT! You can our favourite recipes by which pages are the muckiest! My copy looks like this but it looks like there's a snazzier version with pictures also available now. It's a book I highly recommend.

Needless to say, they didn't last long!



Bad Blogger!

I know, I know. I am a Bad Blogger! There's been rather more of a gap between posts on both this, and my writing blog (http://www.scribblermaxi.blogspot.com/). Life got a bit hectic (well, more hectic than usual) and this combined with some under-the-weather scenarios on my part, and a poorly laptop hasn't done well for my blogging.

So, please accept my apologies and I do promise to do better (I feel like I should be doing a Girl Guide salute, even though I only made it as far as Brownies, but I seem to think that the Promise was the same... I promise to do my best...).

I have been undertaking various baking adventures, so have some more pics of the results to upload. The tomatoes are coming on apace in the garden, although some flippin' Summer Type Weather wouldn't go amiss if any of the Weather Gods are reading this.

Sewing has been a little sparse lately due to me being 'between machines'. I have a shortlist of ones I want to try before I invest, but it's finding time to do that (and waiting for deals!) so in the meantime, I have been pondering on whether to get the prep work done on a bunch of various projects so that as and when a new machine is welcomed into the fold, I can just get whizzing. I mean, the cutting out is really the tedious bit, isn't it? Anyone have any other ideas how I can keep the creative sewing juices going until I can actually sew?

Thanks again for sticking round, and I'll be posting again shortly. And don't forget to let me know about those good ideas!

More Jubiliee Baking - White Farmhouse Tin loaf

Another recipe from Dan Lepard's 'Short & Sweet' book. This loaf uses what he calls the 'half sponge' method. You can start off the yeasty bit hours before you need to do the rest so it's a good one to do if you have to go out or you could do it the night before.

There's definitely more work in this one than the Easy White Loaf I did here but it's still not hard. I did mix up the dough when it came to it in my Magimix to save a bit of time because I'm not keen on the whole rubbing in method. That phrase just always takes me back to school Home Economics lessons!

Having said that, it still wasn't difficult, just a bit more fiddly than the other one. Taste wise, we weren't able to tell the difference between the two. Just because the Farmhouse loaf has fat in it, I imagine that one would keep a little longer - but that doesn't seem to be a problem we are having! The loaves are only small anyway so never really get a chance to go stale, as you can see from the fact I had to photograph the last few slices before they too disappeared!

All in all, another good recipe from this book. I'm eager to try the Cheese and Chive version of this one soon.

Nostalgia Baking

One of the things I remember baking at home when I was little was butterfly cakes. You know the ones, where you chop off the top, fill the dent with butter icing and stick in the 'wings' made from the divided cake top.

Feeling a bit off colour the other day, I was reduced to daytime television. This is not a good thing in general so I went channel hopping to find something a bit more enlightening to watch and came across one of the food channels showing Mary Berry baking cakes. I missed the whole Great British Baking programme but hers is a name I remember from my childhood too. So I sat happily ensconced watching some delightfully nostalgic baking.

When I felt better, I took that a little further and made some of my own butterfly cakes. Something I haven't done for many, many years!

Happy memories :)

Banana Cake Fail

I'd love to know if anyone else has tried the 'no fail' banana cake from Kirstie Allsop's most recent book 'Craft'. I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means but I can generally make cakes ok. But somehow, I managed to get this apparently super reliable cake to flop.

Abandon ship! We're sinking!

When I put it in the oven, it had a sort of 'souffle' type texture to it which was fine - my favourite pudding has the same type of texture and that comes out great (ok, now I'm wanting to make that...yum yum yum) but as soon as this came out  it just started sinking and didn't stop! Despite being a recipe for a 2lb loaf tin, four bananas are called for. This seemed quite a lot, and more than other banana cake recipes I've used (which have all worked) call for. I do wonder if it's a bit much for that size cake.

Either way, I can't say it's something I'll be trying again. I'll stick to previous ones I've made that I know work but I'd love to hear if anyone else has had success with this recipe or if it's just me.

Citrus Bake

Onward with the Jubilee Baking Project and today's post will be short and sweet because it's past my bedtime quite honestly, but I wanted to catch you up with a recent baking creation.

This recipe was one that had been in my 'To Try' file for many years, and I just hadn't got around to making it. Mostly because I don't always have clementines in the house, which this cake requires. However, thanks to a friendly offer from the supermarket, and an attempt to get more Vitamin C, I'd stocked up on the aforementioned fruit. So, when I was flicking through, deciding on what to try next, this one was ideal.

The recipe was cut out from a magazine, and was so long ago now, I couldn't tell you which, or even begin to guess.

The cake is made with clementine zest as well as lemon and lime juice, and then the topping is basically a buttercream made with clementine flavoured sugar (bung the sugar in the food processor, add the clementine peel and press go!). The overall verdict was a 'probably not make again' in the end, which is quite unusual in this house, especially when it comes to cakes and goodies. It just wasn't special enough to go into the 'Yum' file for us. Having said that, it did of course all get eaten!

We shall see what verdict the next creation brings!

More baking!

I was having a bit of a Domestic Goddess moment yesterday (well, in actions if nothing else!) and as a result, have made another addition to the Jubilee Baking Project.

Yum!

As you can see, a little bit has already disappeared so I thought I'd better photograph it before the rest went. Well, you have to test these things, don't you?

In the previous post, I mentioned that an earlier attempt at bread making many years ago resulted in cannonballs, rather than bread rolls and it rather put me off trying again. We don't eat a tonne of bread but we do need it for sandwiches, etc, and it's a little worrying when you read about all the extra ingredients that go into a simple loaf of bread like preservatives and so on. Not having much success with my bread making attempt before, I'd been pondering on investing in a bread maker.

In the meantime, I saw the new(ish) book by Dan Lepard, called 'Short and Sweet'. I have to say I've no previous experience with his recipes and this was the first I'd heard of him. Looking up the reviews though, I found out that he writes a baking column for the Guardian newspaper, and that people were pretty thrilled with his recipes. One of the recipes was for Easy White Bread.

Thanks to some vouchers, I was soon the owner of a copy. This is something in itself. I have plenty of cookbooks and stopped buying them some time ago because there are so many recipes online, and you often only end up making a few out of the book. But this one had such good reviews, I decided to go for it, with the bread recipes a major factor in that decision.

Easy White Bread is the first recipe in the book, and also the first one I've tried out of it. And it worked! Yippee! I made bread! I made edible bread! Thank you, Dan!

I was also playing with the sewing machine yesterday, so I'll update you on that shortly.

Anyone else got this book, and if so, do you have any favourite recipes from it yet?



Jubilee Baking Project!

I've been thinking about doing some sort of project for my crafty blog but couldn't decide what to do. I really admire people who are able to whizz up sewing projects with superb speed and ease, but I'm not that quick at sewing (although I'm really hoping to get a bit more speedy with practice!).

So, in light of this, I thought a baking focus might be good. I also really wanted to tie it in with the Jubilee celebrations somehow. Not being of a particular sporty nature, the Olympics aren't really a great cause of excitement for me. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee on the other hand is more of an interest, and so it's with that in mind I came up with my plan; to create 60 baked goodies within the Jubilee Year. (Having said that, I'm never exactly sure when the 'year of celebration' starts and finishes. Is it just 2012?)

I did think of just doing baked goodies, as in cakes, etc but I really wanted a bit more of a broader scope than that so, with luck, I'm going to also attempt some breads. My hope is that these turn out better than my last attempt many years ago. I attempted to make bread rolls but at some point in the process they morphed into cannonballs. It rather put me off, but having recently got a new baking book, the bread recipe from which everyone is raving about, I thought I might have another go. Stay tuned for the results...good or bad! (please be good, please be good!)

In the meantime, this afternoon I made brownies with a yummy crumbly fudge topping. I am ashamed to admit that two (small!) pieces have already fallen onto my plate during the evening...

This recipe was taken from Prima magazine.

Anyone else doing any special projects for the Jubilee year? I'd love to hear!

Fruit muffins and Maltbread

Baking time yesterday! I still have another cake to bake, which I ought to go and do in a minute. It's a tea bread and the dried fruit should be nicely stewed by now! I'll report back on that one later. In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in the goodies already in existence.

Severely depleted number since yesterday!

I'm quite a fan of making muffins. Definitely more the making of them than the eating of them, which suits my hubby just fine as then there's more for him. They are so quick to make up, you don't need any equipment like you do for fairy cakes (although they are my fave!) and you can pretty much just chuck in what you like as the 'extra'.

That's exactly what happened here. I had some grapes that were beginning to lose their firmness and some dried apricots that needed using up so I just mixed up the basic mix I always use and bunged in the fruit. The grapes went in whole and I snipped up the apricots with some scissors into more 'bite size' pieces.

Between hubby and a visit from my parents earlier today, they seem to have been depleted in numbers so I'm taking that as a good sign!

Also on the agenda yesterday was a new recipe from the 'To Try' file.



Deeply Dippy

This was looking really fab until I had to open the door (it was either that or no tea!). Then it took on a rather dippy appearance (and yes, I realise that with that caption, I've probably rather dated myself!). Still if the proof is in the pudding then the evidence suggests that a verdict of 'yummy'! It's definitely gone into the 'make this again' folder. Although next time I'll try and keep the oven closed for the full amount of time.