Home is where Mum is.

Now that my brothers and I have all left home to go to University, the word home has become a bit confusing.  I refer to my University house as home, but my parents house as home as well (though sometimes, to avoid confusion this becomes 'home-home').  I feel very at home in my room at University, and there's nothing quite like being surrounded by all the little things that I've collected; but being around my family is where home is. It doesn't matter whether we get on, or whether we bicker (and with two brothers I can tell you we Bicker with a capital B!), but I'm surrounded by love and to me that's being at home.

The centre guide makes it easier to stitch in the right place

I miss my Mum like nobody's business when I'm away, she's the person I phone when I'm upset, or worried or need advice.  It's because she's only a phone call away that I feel like I can call my house at University home.  So to show her that, I made her this cross stitch for Mother's Day.

Everyone has their own way to cross stitch - lines, blocks, single stitches - I alternate but make sure all the crosses cross in the same direction. I got a bit obsessed with making it very neat and ended up having to undo whole letters after having a gin and tonic and getting a bit mixed up!

I was inspired by some posts I saw on Pinterest around American Mother's Day last year. I lost the posts (silly me didn't pin or like them) but remembered them enough to design my own version.  I haven't cross stitched since I about 12 and even then I could never finish a project, I just got bored and gave up because it looked scruffy. Thankfully, my Mum taught me to cross stitch well (she's a cross stitch demon!) and I could still remember how to do it, though I was probably a bit slower than I should have been!

I didn't quite manage to finish the cross stitch in time, but Mum got it as soon as I got back from University for Easter properly (only a week late and I had a good excuse with Brownie Pack Holiday!). I even managed to sort out something for my brothers' to get her - they paid for the frame.

Casually cross stitching at the train station

I took it everywhere with me - even knitting whilst waiting for a train. I invaded knitting society with my sewing, and had everyone being amazed by my embroidery scissors because they look like a phoenix (apparently - to me they just look like normal embroidery scissor, but what do I know). And I had to give my lacey scarf a break (don't worry I'm still doing it even though I started it on New Year's day!). I can tell you I got some funny looks, probably even more so than when I knit! 

The cross stitch even managed to survive having beer spilt on it! I'd been really careful all the time I'd been sewing it and made sure I didn't have dirty hands, then the day I finished it (in my favourite pub), I managed to spill part of my half of Archbishop's Best on it (from the Black Paw Brewery - my fave!)!

I'm really proud of how it turned out and I managed to prove to myself that I CAN finish cross stitch projects!

V x

I'm listening to: A mixture of BBC 6 Music (as normal) and my driving playlist of Elbow, Patrick Wolf and Mumford and Sons.

Stress Baking: St Germain Liqueur Elderflower Cakes

Recently, I've been really busy with University work, no matter how much I do there's always more to do. As well as University, I always have more to do for my Brownie pack, ah the life of a Brown Owl. It was Thinking Day last week (22nd February) which reminds us to think of others in need and gives us chance to celebrate how awesome guiding is. To celebrate, we attended a Church service and on Saturday we'll be going to a division activity day - I'll get to do some crafts that I haven't organised! 

But no matter how busy I am, I always need to bake. Call it what you like... my favourite name for it is Stress Baking. Or maybe Procrastibaking!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that there're a few things that I can't pass up when they're on a menu: Elderflower, Amaretto,  Crème Brulée, and Lemon Curd.  I'm a wee bit obsessed with each of them. For some reason I've not actually tried to make crème brulée, maybe it should be left until  after my exams, when I have a bit more time. However, I caved to the craving of elderflower and cake and decided to have a try at making some.

I used this recipe from My Button Cake for inspiration but swapped the milk for St Germain Elderflower Liqueur, because you can very have enough Elderflower!  My cream cheese icing went wrong as normal - I can never get it to be thick enough to pipe, it's really sad as it's my favourite icing! But everything tasted lovely and the cake was the fluffiest and lightest I've ever made!

Recipe:

Cake:

4oz Self Raising Flour
2 tsps Elderflower Cordial
4oz Butter

4oz Sugar
2 Eggs
10ml Milk

10ml St. Germain Elderflower liqueur

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Beat in the eggs, cordial, milk and liqueur
3. Fold in the flour
4. Divide the mixture between cake case and cook in a preheated oven at 180C or gas mark 4 for around 15 minutes (until a skewer prodded into the cakes comes out clean)
5. Allow to cool then ice

V x

I'm listening to: BBC 6 Music - the radio keeps me sane and connected to the world!

Durham, How I Love You

Every now and again, I'm struck by just how lucky I am to live where I live.

Durham's such a beautiful city, full of green places and woods, churches and quirky old buildings, and of course the most beautiful Cathedral in England.  I hope that seeing the towers of the cathedral always makes me feel so proud and so in awe.  It's amazing to think about how many people have walked along the same path as I walked today, along the same bridge, sat in the same pew in church... 

The general street layout of Durham has changed so little since this map was made in the 17th century yet the city changes daily, there's always something different. It might be something as small as the blooming of the first snowdrops or as big as the building of a new University building, but we still have the same comforting constants as the cathedral, the castle, the bridges and the churches.

I love calling Durham home.

V x

Daffodils

It's almost spring! I swear I can smell it in the air!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Daffodils - William Wordsworth

That verse of Daffodils is on an ornament in my Grandma's house: so it always reminds me of her and Grandad. Soon it'll be time to enjoy the snowdrops, crocuses and primroses in the woods.

V x

The sound track for this post: this Doctor Who themed playlist - we're doing a Doctor Who themed badge with Brownies this term, so I'm pretending that indulging in lots of DW themed things is prep!

Cooking Healthily at University

So it’s the start of a new term at university and the start of a new year.

Just like everyone else, after all the food I ate over Christmas, I’m trying my hardest to be healthy and not to eat everything in sight. I’ve even got some of the biscuits I was given as a present left!  However the presence of these biscuits and the lovely Christmas / New Year fruit cakes that my Mum and Grandma made me, have meant that I’ve been avoiding baking!

As you can imagine, as I’m in uni, I eat on a pretty tight budget; but that doesn’t stop me trying new recipes and discovering new food blogs. I only eat small portions of meat, so that immediately makes it easier to stick to my budget. Plus, I love hunting for the reduced things in M&S!

I thought that I’d share a some of the recipes which I’ve used over the past few weeks.

Lunches:

For 3 days out of 5, I have to take a packed lunch into Uni, so I gerenally opt for either some roasted vegetables with couscous or a pitta or try and make a salad. When I’m at home I tend to eat quite a lot of soup (it’s filling and really warming on a cold winter’s day). Here’s a few things I’ve made.

Pearl barley and puy lentil salad with sweet potato, broccoli and roasted baby tomatoes, with a spicy mustard vinaigrette dressing – from What Katie Ate

Lentil salads are always a good pack lunch call for me as they fill me up quickly and I stay satisfied for ages

Carrot soup with crisped chickpeas – from Smitten Kitchen

I only did the chickpea accompaniment for this, the soup was beautiful and froze brilliantly

Couscous with harissa chicken chargrilled zucchini and crunchy nutty salad – from What Katie Ate

I’m doing a variation on this for my packed lunches this week (the variation being a necessity, as I could get hold of some ingredients due to snow).

Dinners:

Me and one of my house mates share dinners on week-nights. Normally I make something quick and easy but other times I’ll do something faffy so that I don’t have to do my work!

Gnocchi in tomato broth – from Smitten Kitchen

I just used the gnocchi from this recipe and made my own tomato sauce (like here). It was my first time making gnocchi and it wasn’t the best I’ve tasted but it wasn’t too bad for a first attempt.

Garlicky kale and white bean stew – from My New Roots

I couldn’t get hold of kale so I substituted it for some spring greens and it worked really well (although I used less garlic than stated and it was still very garlicky!).

The biscuits are nearly gone so hopefully I’ll be doing some more baking soon! I got a Great British Bake Off recipe book for Christmas so I should be doing some things from there and I want to have another play with my piping set!  Work will get done though, I promise!

V x

The sound track of my cooking: The Les Mis soundtrack (musical and film – I went to see it in the cinema yesterday and bawled my eyes out / mimed the words to every single song).

Let it Snow!

We've been having some very snowy weather!

I went on a walk so that I could enjoy the white stuff (without needing to get somewhere like normal). It was lovely, and it started snowing half way round. And best of all, I discovered new places just round the corner from my house! There was even a peacock in one of the fields that I walked past!

Clockwise from top left: A little round hut that I spotted: I'm going to have to have a proper explore of it in the summer;  the snowy fields of County Durham; East Coast mainline viaduct covered in icicles - the path went underneath and it was ridiculously echoey; Sparkly snow on (a very icy) country lane as it got dark.

If you've got snow, I hope you enjoy it!

V x

Christmas, Gingerbread, and Lemon Curd

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS! ONLY 2 SLEEPS TO GO!

I've been getting into the Christmassy mood by doing lots of baking. Last week I made Stollen for a Christmas party (it had its fair share of mishaps and I forgot to take any pictures); it didn't all get eaten so I ended up having stollen for breakfast for the whole of the last week of my uni term (living the life :p ). Then the other day I decided to have an experiment: I needed to make lemon curd as part of my Grandma's Christmas present, I wanted to make some biscuits so that I could play with icing, and I wanted to make some thing nice to take for dinner at my friends house. The result of these things ended up with the creation of gingerbread and lemon curd tarts (as well as some star shaped biscuits and a jar of lemon curd)! Then last night I iced the lovely gingerbread biscuits.

The Gingerbread:

I used a BBC Food recipe with a few tweeks: 4tsps ginger not just 2, 1tsp mixed spice added, a little bit of water added (as I didn't have enough golden syrup). These additions were largely personal taste: I'm a big fan of ginger, so I always add more to things :)

I managed to make 12 tarts (round) and a lot (I haven't counted, although I probably should in case they get eaten by one of my brothers) of star shaped biscuits.

If I use the recipe as a pastry again (for the tarts) I'll probably not include the bicarb as the biscuits rose a little bit and had to be squished before putting the lemon curd in.

The Lemon Curd:

I used a Delia Smith recipe for my lemon curd (but used half quantities). It made enough for a largish jam jar full, all the tarts, plus plenty of scrapings for my brothers to steal.

The Tarts:

On the Great British Bake Off, one of the contestants made Key Lime Pie with ginger pastry. Because of my love of ginger and knowing that shortbread can be used instead of pastry for some tarts, I decided to attempt to marry two of my favourite foods in little jam tarts.

They turned out amazingly. They might not look much, but they were delicious :-) and really easy to make too!

1. Roll out the gingerbread as thinly as possible. Cut into circles and place into a floured jam tart tin.
2. Bake for around 3 minutes at 180 degrees.
3. Put around a teaspoon of lemon curd in each tart.
4. Bake for a further 5-8 minutes until the lemon curd is bubbling and the gingerbread is crisp and golden

Icing:

At some point at uni, I'd bought a bag of royal icing sugar, which has dried egg in the powder already, which made making the icing stupidly easy: just add water, like normal runny icing. But make sure that it's stiff enough to pipe. I then had a good play around with my (barely used) piping set and decorated all the biscuits.

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

V x