Signs of summer

The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days and we have been
out and about a bit, we had bought my son a kite a while ago so took that
out for its first fly! It was great fun! We also found some gorgeous flowers
and things so thought i'd blog them! :)

I love this summery scene of the bench in a field of daisies!

Small sketch

This is a small sketch of my eye I did from a photo a while ago, was very pleased with it, overall :)

Apple pie!

Apple pie is always a favourite in our house, I haven't made one for a long long time, but my partner had got some cooking apples in and I decided to make one!

This recipe is going to be a bit vague so apologies for that! I didn't count how many cooking apples or what weight they were before I started just peeled what we had and that was it! :/

Apple pie filling
Cooking apples
Sugar
Water

Apple Pie Pastry

8oz Flour - I use either self raising or plain - both work.
40z Margarine
Water - to mix
Milk to brush pastry

I peeled, cored and chopped the cooking apples into big chunks, put them in a saucepan with a little water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and sprinkled sugar over the top. Started cooking them on a low heat - increased the heat once the apples started to release their own juices and soften. Once they were completely soft and stewed I left them to cool slightly for a short time.

Mixed the flour and margarine into breadcrumbs and slowly added
the water til it was a dough like mixture.
Floured a board cut the pastry mix in half rolled one half out then laid it in an enamel plate.
I spooned the apple into the pastry, then rolled out the other half of the pastry mix and placed this over the top. I pressed the edges of the pastry down with my thumb to pinch it, then cut off the excess pastry with a knife.
I brushed the top with a little milk.

Baked for 40mins (approx) on Gas Mark 6.

I then sprinkled a little sugar over the top and served! :)

Apple turnover (sort of!)

This time I had a little pastry left and some of the stewed apple so I made my own turnover!

Just rolled out the remaining pastry spooned apple onto half and folded it over! pressed down edges and baked in a cake tin alongside the main pie!

When pie and turnover had baked I sprinkled a little sugar over them both!

I plan to make all little turnovers next time I have some cooking apples in! :)

Website woes

After some major technical issues over the weekend I have been 'trying' to rebuild my site (lifeis.co.uk) things aren't going as smoothly as planned and sadly my site is still down, hopefully will be back soon though, will post when it is!

Egg fried rice

After seeing Taste of My Lifes' recipe earlier today I decided to try and make my own version of egg fried rice, I was thrilled with the result!

I used:

1 cup of rice (didn't want to risk wasting too much if it had been awful! lol)
1 Egg
1 cup of sweetcorn (frozen, defrosted)
2 small onions quartered so they were still nice and chunky
1 large mushroom, chopped

In the first pictures you'll probably notice that the onion and mushrooms aren't in the wok - this is because I cooked these seperately and added them after
I had dished my daughters dinner as she doesn't like either of these.

I boiled the rice as normal and left to cool.I heated a small
amount of oil into the wok and heated it thoroughly, before adding the rice I stir fried this for a few minutes before adding the sweetcorn.

Again I stir fried this for a few minutes to ensure the sweetcorn was thoroughly heated.

I beat the egg in a cup and added a little olive oil.

I moved the rice and sweetcorn over to one side of the wok then poured in the egg, I mixed it up as it was cooking so it broke into pieces, then as it was virtually cooked through I mixed it thoroughly with the rice.
After dishing my daughters dinner I added the mushrooms and onions i'd already cooked and stir fried it all together for a minute or two.

Springtime!

We had a really nice spell of weather here recently, it really
felt like summer was arriving early, all the spring flowers
were bursting out of the ground, the birds singing happily
and thoughts of trips to the beach in the summer weren't
far from our thoughts! Now however I am currently back
to wearing jumpers and a scarf else I feel chilly!
Anyway a few weeks ago during the glorious springtime
we went out for a walk and saw some lovely bluebells, I
need to try and sort out the macro setting on my camera,
but got a reasonable shot I thought i'd share with you :)

Yum!

Wanted to make a cake for a friends visit today, I usually make Victoria Sponge but wanted to do something different this time, so made a Lemon Drizzle Cake!
I found it in an old book of recipes i'd written out years ago now, so can't remember where it came from, but it was lovely!

~Lemon Drizzle Cake~

Cake
4oz Margarine
6oz Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs
4 Tblspns Milk

~~~~

Grease and line 2 loaf tins, put all cake ingrediants in a mixing bowl, you can sieve the flour if you want to but for this cake I don't bother.
Bake at 180c (Gas mark 4) for 30 mins.

Drizzle
4oz Sugar
2 Tblspns Lemon Juice

Mix up the sugar and lemon together and pour/spoon over the cakes whilst still hot!

I removed the cakes from the loaf tins first and placed them on a sheet of greaseproof paper.

~~~~~

Enjoy!

Green fingers?

As I keep posting here we are trying to sort out our front and back gardens at the moment, growing seeds etc too. Today went on a trip to some garden centres and was treated to a lovely Clematis from my parents, I've wanted one for years (We had one outside my bedroom window, climbing the wall when I was little, and I've liked them ever since!) It is the most gentle shade of pink, i'm thrilled with it, can't wait to get it planted now!


Was also bought a propergator and given some cuttings of honeysuckle and another type of clematis (I think lol).

We have a moth!

As we've been doing so much gardening this year we've been keeping any caterpillars and chrysalis we've come across in a big container with fresh soil and leaves in, and yesterday one finally hatched!

It was an angleshade moth, we released it safely into a plant in the garden. Will blog about any others we have :)

Bank Holiday Weekend

Today has been a gorgeous day, definately one of the (if not THE) warmest day of the year so far!
Have been out in the garden today, digging, planting, weeding etc, forecast is good again for tomorrow so am looking forward to another day outside!

I am hoping to make some jewellery this weekend, and do some baking but if the weather does stay as nice as it has been it will be difficult to stay in and not be gardening!

Got some cooking apples in today so will making an apple crumble soon too! Will take pics :)

Not really got alot to say today but had 5 mins so thought i'd post before it was 'days' again!

Getting ready for the weekend!

Its been days (Again!) since I last posted, have kept sitting down to post then getting called away!

It was a friends daughters first birthday last week and I wanted to make her something special that could be kept so designed and made this:
I was really pleased as i've never done anything like this before (designed and made) and over the years i've rarely finished anything either so was pleased to get this done!
Also made her a card, which doesn't show up so well on here, it was smothered in very fine glittery stuff :)

Have my partners mum to make something for next, since beginning to make most of the birthday cards and gifts that we send the birthdays seem never ending!

After a really good run of sunshine recently, yesterday was quite a shock to the system with rain virtually all day! The sun is out again today though, and I have some plants to put in the garden this afternoon!

Mind has gone blank so going for now!