Hello all, I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.
I spent a bit of time baking:
I made the peanut butter brownies from Sweet Vegan .
They were for Sunday tea and they were very popular. So gooey and yummy.
I also made some scones for my parents as they are finally back from their travels. These turned out better than I had hoped- I wanted to use the recipe from The Great British Bake off book , but then (too late) realised I had no eggs. I used Orgran egg replacer, and they turned out fine. Duh, I know it is called egg replacer for a reason, but it still impressed me!
I have also started to make some starter dough for some sour dough bread. I am following this recipe (after seeing it on the TV)- I read loads of my baking books but none of them had a real sourdough recipe (e.g. no added yeast).
You have to “feed” the dough with more flour and water every day, so that is what I have been doing so far, and the above pic was from this morning. It is actually bubbling (although you cannot probably see because I tipped the flour on top) which is amazing as there was no added yeast. I am still on step 1 though, it is a long project!
Baking is pretty good for me because once I have weighed everything out I can sit at the table and get on with it- no heavy lifting either! But I need people to give all the baking too! 🙂 I have a friend visiting tomorrow so I will make something for her too. I have ordered myself some fabric squares and I am going to start (once they arrive) sewing them together to make a patchwork quilt. Or maybe just sew them together and then use it as a duster? Just kidding! Anyway that will keep me occupied.
Today I was very lucky as my parents invited me over, so I got to have breakfast and lunch with them, and lots of company in the day time 🙂
I got to see all their photos (they went to New Zealand), and as a prize for looking at them all (they always do that!) they gave me this really pretty necklace which is apparently a good luck charm (I need one at the moment!) and some mammoth chocolate bars.
What sort of souvenirs do you bring back from holidays? (For yourself or as gifts). I used to collect mugs/ cups, but we ran out of space a long time ago, and I never like getting rid of them so have an abundance of pen holders (e.g. cups in the living room etc), so now we try to buy a magnet from each place we visit. But I find it hard to choose nice presents for my parents/ other people.
Awww that’s a lovely present from your parents- I love that they reward you for sitting through their photos! So funny!
I don’t collect anything per se but I do like to bring home magnets for my parents’ fridge. I think I’ll have to start doing this for my own fridge though as it’s looking pretty bare!
p.s. Those brownies have made me crave chocolate like nobody’s business!
Mmm those peanut butter brownies look so good – I’m not surprised they were popular! I’d eat the whole tray to myself!
I love sourdough and am very excited to see how this turns out! 🙂
I find it so difficult to buy souveniry type presents. I like to bring a nice mug back too but for others, it really depends. Magnets can be fun and I love your collection that you showed! I brought one back from Russia which is my favourite souvenir – it’s a hollogram of Putin and Medvedev (depending on which angle you look at it), so funny!
Jewellery is a really good souvenir from holidays because it doesn’t take up much room in your suitcase and you can keep it for a long time.
All the baking projects look good. I fancy making some sour dough bread, but I don’t think I have the patience! I bet it’s delicious when you’ve finished 🙂
Yum! Glad to see you’re finding projects to keep busy. I love to bake too, and often freeze it because we can’t eat it all fast enough either, especially breads, etc. Good for you for contemplating a quilt! I made one before my daughter was born, it was a lot of fun…and took a lot of time. 🙂
Gorgeous necklace and I hope it does bring you luck 🙂 I can see just how gooey the texture of those brownies is, they look so good … and you’re not the only one; I was amazed by how well the egg replacer worked too!
Aww, that necklace looks really pretty 🙂 the photos from New Zealand must’ve been great too!
& those brownies look amazing!! I so wish that Liam liked the peanut butter-choc combo!
Liam and I didn’t actually bring a souvenir back for ourselves from our honeymoon to Barcelona. We got a *little* sunburnt on our penultimate day 🙁 so it was all we could do to buy gifts for everyone else, we didn’t have any energy left to think of ourselves! We bought t-shirts for the children though…Izzy’s building up quite a collection as my sister bought her one in Rome and a friend bought her one in Australia…although they won’t be so much use as she grows…a necklace is a much more long-lasting gift! 🙂
I always bring my mom back a shot glass from wherever I travel. She collects them and has a ridiculous number displayed in the basement of my parent’s house. There are some pretty unique ones!
A shot glass is a fun idea- don’t take up much space I suppose. One of my friends always buys a thimble for her mum as she collects them.
Yes my parents are a bit tongue in cheek about holiday photos- they always protest about seeing ours (in a jokey way) and so they like to give a gift as a reward 🙂 When I was little my Grandad used to bring us back t-shirts which I loved, but I would not wear that type of thing now I don’t think.
Oh, and keep those fingers crossed for the sour dough too! It looks tricky!
Sourdough is fantastic fun to make! I really want to start another starter. Be warned, on Day 3 or 4 it starts smelling like nail polish remover! Keep going though! Nothing beats homemade sourdough.
I usually try to bring earrings back from abroad. They are small, and also usually get noticed by people when you’re back at home. I love being able to say “oh, I got these in New York” or “I got these in Bombay” 😀 markets are some of my favourite places to go when I go overseas, and so it’s a great excuse to go and visit them.
I love bring home bits and pieces from my holidays, usually postcards and tasty food! 🙂
I’ve always wanted to try making sour dough, Huge FW has a recipe in River Cottage Everyday that I might try. Those peanut butter brownies look amazing!
Phil- thanks for that- I smelt it this morning and it did smell rather weird- I was going to google it as it smelt nothing like normal yeast. But I will keep going 🙂
Earrings are a good idea too- I have some nice flip flop ones from Florida but they irritate my skin a bit.
Laura- Sweet Vegan is a brill recipe book- it does have a few healthy options but mainly just quite decadent recipes.
my grandparent always used to bring me back a huge toblerone from duty free & an item of clothing, so i have a draw full of t-shirts & jumpers that i’ve never worn!
These days when mum & i do our christmas weekend we look for a christmas tree decoration but we failed in Oslo this year as there was a distinct lack of Christmas markets!