An update on Baking

One thing I have been proud of since being back is the amount of baking I have managed to do.  I haven't managed to keep up with all that many of my resolutions post-GYIL, but the best one is probably the baking. A couple of times I've baked for the sake of it, sometimes because I really wanted something sweet and recently because there has been an occasion.  I still don't feel I have managed all that much, but I am still trying.

This week I went to Sainsbury's and had a great time in the baking aisle buying all sorts of ingredients.  I feel I have a very well stocked cupboard now with lots of decorations.  I have this  week made a couple of batches of Judith which I have been pleased with and decorated merrily.

My cake of choice to make these days is a banana loaf - probably because its the only one I actually like to eat.  Hoping to make it today so will try take a photo and add in.

I'm enjoying my Mickey mold.  We have got into a nice tradition of having cheesy red (or yellow!) muffins on a sunday night - yum yum.  I liked making muffins before GYIL and in fact they were the only things I felt confident making.  Pleased to be carrying on with them.

 On the other hand.... cookies.  These have not been so sucessful...yet!  I love chewy cookies but am struggling to make them.  I've started with simple recipes, but now feel I might have to go for more technical recipes. 

 The cookies spread out so much and went thinner than I hoped so I tried making them in cookie molds to keep them thicker.  It was a bit of a strange result and I wouldn't serve them to others, but they were great for me!

 

I have kept trying with the shortbread, though I have now given up on the mold.  I was really proud of a batch I made and took to Birmingham and then took the leftovers to school.  But them I tried to make a batch yesterday which was a disaster.  Sadly I only have a photo of the disaster batch... I think it may have been because I rolled it a bit thin then didn't chill in the fridge long enough.

  

I have made bread a few times with this recipe and easy ready to go bread flour.  I'd like to do this more often so that I feel more confident.  I haven't got my head around the timings yet which puts me off making them often.

 Popcorn has happened a few times - I took this photo to show the various successes.  Lesson this time: don't heat the kernels by themselves for too long.

And to share at the end.  I am pleased to be trying with baking, but I am under no great allusions about my achievements or expectations.  Especially with a wonderful sister-in-law who can whip up such great creations!

Christmas is coming!

This year I have really enjoyed seeing the signs of Christmas coming! I am not someone who gets annoyed at Christmas starting too early. I think a bit like autumn I am enjoying it more this year after missing out last year. I can't remember all the dates but I did enjoy noting the 'firsts':
- first time I heard Christmas music in a shop (3rd December in Mothercare)
- First sighting of a Christmas tree (whetherspoons in Cowley)
- First time seeing Coca-cola advert (I've still not seen John Lewis advert yet!)
- First Christmas lights on houses

This year I went to the Country Living Christmas Fayre in London one Saturday in November where I loved getting to do some Christmas shopping. A few years ago I read on a blog of someone who did all their Christmas shopping and cards  by December 1st so that they can enjoy the festivities in December. That really appealed to me and is something Ive strived to do since. This year I got closest to it. I did a fair amount of shopping and wrapping and wrote all the cards I was in possession of and addressed them.

This weekend I have been in Birmingham with some friends which has been fun and we visited the Christmas markets. I also bought extra cards so my plan is to wrap and write tonight watching Strictly while John is at a gig. Maybe we might put up our decorations this week too.

Autumn Days

Started this post 16/11/16

I have really enjoyed Autumn this year.  I remember doing so my first year at Uni, possibly because I'd been away the autumn before.  It's now just getting to the stage where I feel winter is nearly here/upon us.  For the most part it has been a dry autumn.  The leaves turned colour slowly and we had a couple of weeks where the trees really seemed ablaze.  Now the majority are off the trees.  We put the heating on for the first time last week - we had been feeling proud of keeping it off for so long.  We live in a new flat so it always going to the warmest it can.  It had got so late without heating that I then became reluctant to put it on, and was determined to just put my new slippers on, Peru jumpers and dressing gown.  The thermometer in the bedroom did dip below 16 degrees for a while.  We had the heating on for a few times but I think now its off again.  I thought it would be the mornings where I really felt it, but actually the mornings have been fine!

Continuing 26/11/16

There were a few Christmassy things I had wanted to say, but I think I might save them for another post now.  I had already heard my first Christmas music in a shop!

I will conclude with some photos of autumn leaves that I have been enjoying.

PS Am sitting in my new slippers and dressing gown and have put the heating on.  For the most part it is still off, just occasionally putting it on in the room we are in. 

Life Lately

Unfortunately the Blogger App on my phone seems to have got a bug and automatically shuts down within a few seconds of starting a post.  I'm using that as my excuse for not writing all the blogs that I have got going around in my head at the moment.  I'm using this nice relaxed afternoon to get on with some jobs and also have a go at some nice blogging. 

I thought I would start with a selection of random photos of nice things that I have been upto and see where I go from there.

Here are some cookies I had a go at making.  Still room for improvement, but at least I've tried!

John is not as much of a keen reader as I am, so I always find it exciting when I spot him choosing to read. Here he is in the kitchen reading one of his birthday presents.

 Just looking cute this afternoon on our lazy Saturday.

 Playing on of John's birthday presents - the game 'Splendor'.

I was pretty entertained that we could just travel with our backpacks last year, but we were this far from travelling light for half-term!

Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Group

This post and event fits with quite a few of my return from travel resolutions. Whilst out with Rose Hill Runners (exercise check!) one runner mentioned the event that the Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Group were holding that Thursday 29th September at the Rose Hill Community Centre.  I was keen to go as it fitted with doing local community things and also Eco things. John was kind enough to come with me. We arrived just on 8pm and I was pleased there was someone inside directing us to the talk. She said to someone else 'its standing room only' and I wondered if that was a joke. But it turned out to be true and they were awaiting another delivery of chairs which we were delighted to see arrived curtesy of our larger than life neighbour. There must have been over 100 people in the room. 

I enjoyed, as I often too, smiling to myself and marvelling at the assortment of people there who are quite different from the circles I normally frequent. And yet I was feeling that these were in theory the sort of person I was hoping to become more towards. The chair person of the group started by defending the photo of her in a car saying it was the local electric car share. 

The talk was by Alan Rushbridger whom it turns out many people have heard of. He was Editor of the Guardian and is now Principal of LMH College. He wasn't a good speaker and many in the audience couldn't hear. I was glad that I just could. He spoke about the reasoning and planning of the 'Keep it in the ground' campaign that he instigated at the Guardian which I was disappointed to realise I had completely missed. I felt pleased that they had run the campaign. 

So an interesting evening and very pleased that I was able to go and be part of it. 

Folk at the Isis

I'd love to know what this group or this event is really called. But it's fun to be here. We've only been a couple of times before. I think they meet on the second Friday of the month at the Isis tavern. It's a great thing to witness and although I'd loved the ability to be able to join in, it's also wonderful that I can enjoy it fully from a spectator's point of view. 

It's an evening in spontaneous music and joining in with whatever instrument you have brought. There's singing and poetry and Viking hat wearing! It's often quite noisy and there's still people bringing food round. It's filling up more and more as people come out of the cold.  I love the feeling of people joining in. We currently have a rendition of 'all about the bass' and earlier we had a tune that I'm sure I enjoy dancing to in Scottish dancing. We are sat slightly round the corner here so it's mainly listening rather than watching. I did enjoy the sight of the kazoo and tiny tambourine though - that's maybe what I could aim towards! 

I really enjoy the feeling I get at times like this of both feeling I'm in a scene in a film and also like this is proper life and these are the moments I need to treasure. A special feeling that both lifts my heart and can make me a little teary too! 

 This last one was taken for the viking hat in the background. "Thou shalt respect the hat and thou shalt not hog the hat".

Baking - Shortbread

Baking - I really enjoyed having the time to learn to bake a bit in Uganda and want to try to make the time to do it now as well. I want to keep practising the same recipes until I can do them quicker without having to keep checking the recipe. 

I decided to try and record some of my baking attempts on here to kind of make myself feel I'm achieving something! Several years ago I was given a shortbread mould for secret Santa. I tried using it once and wasn't very successful. I tried it again in September on return from GYIL. Again, I couldn't really get it out of the mould - but at least the shortbread tasted ok! I did a bit of googling and found lots of people had had the same problem with this mould. So I tried again using some of their suggestions. It wouldn't come out initially but after a little prod with a knife out it came in a few sections. 

The trouble was I had totally changed the temperature and timings so I've no idea what really worked. And it was more crumbly this time and dough-y too! And I decided to add some chocolate this time too. So some more experimenting to do before I could feel confident to serve it to someone!! 

But at least I'm trying!