Making Madeleines

I love to make Madeleines simply because they're so tasty and super simple.

The french traditionally bake these with almonds but I'm more of a fan of the lemon recipe I use when I bake them. 

Ingredients you'll need: 

2 eggs, 

100g Self Raising Flour, 

100g Caster sugar, 

1 Lemon- juice & zest, 

100g Butter- plus extra for greasing the tin, 

How to:

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 

Put the eggs and sugar into a bowl and whisk until light and frothy. 

Add the rest of the ingredients. 

Then whisk again lightly until the ingredients are all incorporated. Then leave to stand for 20 minutes. 

While you're waiting use your extra melted butter to grease the Madeleine tray and then sprinkle with flour. Like me you might make a bit of a mess but just wipe away where you don't need the flour to be. 

After your 20 minutes are up carefully fill each madeleine mould 3/4 full. Bake for 8-10 minutes and keep an eye on them so they don't get burnt. 

Pop them out of the tray, they should just easily lift out if not use a spoon to just nudge them out of the tin. 

They cool quickly and are best eaten within a day or so. A perfect excuse to sit down with a cup of tea and make a few disappear. 

Have you tried Madeleines with other ingredients, what's your favourite recipe? 

Katy

Strawberry season!

It's finally strawberry season! And the strawberries taste really good, so I grabbed some from our market along with some cherries which looked too good to resist.

I thought I'd make them into something a little sweet! Fruity jelly...

I chopped my strawberries and destoned the cherries in to bite size pieces. 

I just wanted to eat this whole bowl while I was chopping them but I had to resist and get the jelly part ready.

I found these adorable little pots last year in a charity shop, 5 of them for £1 I couldn't leave them behind. They have the sweetest little heart pattern in the bottom and are perfect for some little summer jellies. 

I filled the pots up three quarters of the way with the jelly mix and filled the rest up with the strawberries and cherries.

They'll probably take a few hours to chill and set the jelly, but then you can enjoy them in some of this lovely warm weather we've been having. 

I've even brought out my sunglasses this week to enjoy the sunshine! 

Katy

I Am A Mother Missy Lanning- Daily Bumps

So I wanted to share something with you guys that I love.

I've been watching Daily Bumps for a while now and have completely fallen in love with Brian and Missy, and little Ollie of course. If you haven't checked them out yet then go here and you can see how cute Oliver is every day!

While I'm in the UK and we've already had Mother's Day over here, over in the US their Mother's Day is this weekend. In honour of that and of all the amazing Mothers out there Missy, and Brian, have made an incredible video to celebrate.

I Am A Mother- Mother's Day Special 2014

Portrait of a Mother 2013 (Also check out last years video)

I'm not a Mother yet but for me it's one of my biggest aims in life, to create a little family, hopefully in the future I will be honoured enough to have a little baby or two. 

But at the moment I only know how amazing the Mothers around me are; my Mum, my Gran, my Auntie and other family members who do such a wonderful job everyday. 

So thank you to them for how amazing they are and thanks to Brian and Missy for making such a heartfelt tribute to Mama's everywhere. 

Maybe G and I will start vlogging, what do you think?

Katy

Beetroot

I've been so busy this past week finishing my deadlines for University but I thought I'd share a little love for one of our forgotten vegetables..

I feel like Beetroot is one of those vegetables everyone looks at like it's evil. It looks dirty and difficult to cook and really not worth the bother.
I felt the same until G's dad gave us some from his vegetable patch last year. I was cautious but we roasted it, peeled it and popped it in pasta, you can never go wrong with pasta right? We loved it!

Now we buy Beetroot at our local market all the time to roast for salads, pastas and just general yummy meals.

My favourite way to cook them is with a tiny drizzle of oil roasted in the oven, they take about 45 minutes but come out so delicious and juicy I don't mind the wait. 

If you've never tried Beetroot before start with a salad. 

It's salad season and I couldn't be happier! Not only do I eat a lot healthier when I eat salads but they're also so yummy and versatile I couldn't think of much else for a summer lunch. 

Last weeks salad was just lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and beetroot drizzled with balsamic glaze. (So yummy by the way!) 

So please! Give beetroot the benefit of the doubt, it's good I promise! 

Katy

Weekends..

Hello! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend. 

G and I discovered the best fruit and vegetable stall our local market so we've been going through fresh food at a crazy rate.

On Saturday we made eggs and fresh grilled vegetables. So yummy! Local food is definitely the best kind of food. 

Anthropologie deliveries! YAY! I'm crazy for Anthro and there's always something I could add to my growing kitchen. This cute little egg crate has been on my wish list so thank you for my birthday discount Anthro!

We treated ourselves to a waffle maker this weekend and had such a good breakfast on Sunday! Seriously how have I survived without one of these? Try the lovely Lemon Sugar's waffle recipe for the greatest waffle ever (I promise)!

I also had fun and some down time making the sweetest DIY Hostess Apron from Stylemepretty!

Using fabric that had been looking for a home and tweaking a few things here and there I ended up with such a cute little apron I'll surely be making for everyone I know!

My pleats aren't perfect as this was actually the first time I've ever done them but I still love it! The perfect use for this fabric. 

It's been a crazy Monday and feels like the week should be over already but only a few more days and I'll be (almost) free from University for the Summer! 

So watch out for a few exciting things happening this next few weeks!

Katy!

Blueberry Granola

I've been trying, but sometimes the Easter eggs win, to eat a little healthier recently, so I thought I'd make some healthy granola for breakfasts. And spotted fresh blueberries at our local market so decided on blueberry granola with Flaxseeds and sunflower seeds!

Ingredients: To make 650g of Granola,

350g Blueberries
500g Jumbo Oats
100g Sunflower seeds (ground)
100g Flaxseeds
100ml Agave Nectar
75g Butter melted

Mix together your Oats, Flaxseed and sunflower seeds in a large bowl. Make sure it's all evenly combined. 

Put the blueberries in a roasting tray and pop in a 200' Celsius oven for 45 minutes, half way through squash some of the blueberries down and mix them up.

Next up add in your Agave nectar and melted butter. This should combine them enough that they stick slightly but aren't one big stodgy mess. 

Once your blueberries are done, let them cool and then add them to the Oaty mix. 

Split into 3 pans and bake for 10 minute intervals stirring in-between. Do this 3 or 4 times depending on how crispy you like your granola. 

Pop into sealed boxes and use whenever you want. It will probably last 1 or 2 months. 

This is absolutely delicious served with greek yogurt or maybe on top of a thick fruit smoothie.  

Enjoy!

Katy

Whitley Bay:

I'm 20! Woohoo! I feel like and adult now, it's so different saying twenty and not teen anymore. I had a lovely birthday just hanging out with G, we had lunch and I used my birthday money to invest in a new DSLR camera.

I chose the Nikon D3200 after plenty of research and a couple of test runs in the shops I committed and went for it. So far it works like a dream and I'm in love with the crisp clear images I get in comparison to my iPhone.

The day after my birthday we decided to take a picnic in my new basket (my amazing parents present to me!) and catch the metro to Whitley Bay as G used to go all the time as a kid and wanted to show me the sights.

The sun was shining and it was such a lovely day, I even got my sunglasses out! 

The sky was so blue and it was just lovely to be beside the sea. We were trying to walk to the lighthouse you can see in the distance, St Mary's, where G visited as a little boy. It looks a lot further than it is, we only walked about three quarters of the way there before the wind just got too cold and we headed back. 

This picnic basket was a birthday present from my parents, it's all decked out with green and blue cutlery and plates/cups. It's an antique and it's so perfect I don't know how my Mum thought up something so incredible! We packed up some homemade sausage rolls and popcorn, some carrot sticks and leftover cookies and cream birthday cake (Courtesy of G!). It was delicious but freezing! 

I spent forever testing my camera and getting tons of shots of the waves crashing against the walls. I always love watching this and I'm a little obsessed with the sea, I've loved it ever since I was a kid. Blame several holidays to Cornwall where I'd often wade out into the sea up to my neck and bodyboard all the time.

I loved spending the day soaking up the Vitamin D and enjoying G's week off work.

G and I are going down to Cornwall for our holidays in September and I can't wait, I actually want to learn to surf this year! If anyone has any good places to visit I'd love suggestions? I'm looking for the places that aren't on the guides, the kind of places only the locals know about? 

Katy