Easter Sunday

Mum and dad came round again and this time it was my turn to cook dinner. We spent the day in the garden as the weather was beautiful. Dinner was traditional Lamb...with a twist.

Lamb with a Red Wine Sauce

This is a recipe I have had for many, many years. In the original recipe it was made using Lamb Noisettes, but I use a leg of lamb for five. If using a leg then cook on low for about four hours 

Make holes in the lamb with a sharp knife and push in slices of garlic and small sprigs of Rosemary. Drizzle with a little oil and cover. Place in a hot oven and turn down low after about five minutes. About half hour before serving remove cover and turn up oven. 
If your making the potato recipe below you need the oven at 220C (gas 7)  anyway.
For the sauce
Rosemary
6tbsp red wine
6tbsp lamb stock
1tbsp redcurrant jelly
2tsp tomato puree
Add the above to a saucepan and stir until jelly has melted then leave to simmer for about five minutes.
Now I like to thicken my sauce by adding a little cornflour.

I serve this with a Potato bake
1 1/2 lb potatoes scrubbed and thinly sliced, put in boiling water and boil for five minutes.
Drain and rinse with cold water. 
Spread out in a low sided dish and pour over 1/2 pint of single cream
Dice up 1/2 oz butter and dot on potatoes. 
Add seasoning and bake for 20 minutes.

We have this with asparagus and peas.

My final recipe is for fairy/cup cakes

When making cakes the easy way (apart from a cake mixer which is a must for me) you need to work out the ingredient amounts. 
So for each egg (large) you want 2 oz of the other basic ingredients.
For this occasion I'm using 
5 eggs
10oz caster sugar
10oz self raising flour
10oz margarine

I also added a few drops of Almond Extract (always try to get extract and not essence as essence is not the real thing)

Mix sugar, margarine and Almond extract until the colour has changed to a light cream colour
then add flour and egg as follows
one egg (I always crack my eggs into a cup just in case on is off) 2oz flour then mix
Repeat until you have used up your eggs and flour.

Easter 2019

The weather this week has been amazing! Well, if you like very hot (hotter than Miami!!) I was planing a lad-back weekend food, family, cats and some doll time. 
Food was wonderful
Friday mum made Cornish Pasties to eat in the garden.
Now apart from the obvious they are from Cornwall, a few interesting (I hope) facts.
You can only call a Cornish pasty 'Cornish' if it comes from Cornwall. So OK, ours do not as such come from Cornwall BUT my mum was evacuated in the second world war to stay in Cornwall. She was lucky and the family she lived with were wonderful Auntie Doris and Uncle Cyril lived in a big house in St Agnes and had no children. They took in my mum and her older sister Joan. As a child I have many fond memories of staying with mum at Auntie and Uncle's home in the summer. Auntie Doris made award winning pasties and she passed on the recipe to my mum.
The pasty was a traditional dinner for tin miners. The pasty would be savoury one end and sweet the other with a pastry strip through it to stop the two from mixing. These days they are one or the other and not mixed. As the food was encased in pastry it would stay warm for many hours. Great for a picnic. 
You should never eat a pasty from a plate with a knife and fork, they are designed to be eaten from a paper bag. A grease proof bag is best as the pasty, if made properly will be running with juices.
To start with the pastry has to be right a mix of flaky shortcrust.
Then for the inside beef skirt diced and any fat removed
Potato, Swede and Onion either small diced or grated. 
Salt and pepper and a knob of butter (to help with making it beautifully moist)
Now for the secret ingredient, this I have never found in another pasty.... Parsley!  

Next up home made scones...by me. Again a traditional Cornish food. I found this recipe years ago in a magazine and it's pretty much fool proof!
These are buttermilk scones with NO fruit, why do you need fruit when you have jam?
This recipe makes 12 scones
1lb self-raising flour
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
3oz butter, cubed
3oz caster sugar
2 large beaten eggs
1 carton buttermilk

Now these are English measurements you will need to google what you don't understand.
Preheat oven 220C/200C fan/gas 7.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.  

• Measure he flour, baking powder and butter into a bowl. Rub with your fingertips until the mixture looks breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. 
• Mix the eggs and buttermilk together in a jug and pour all but 1 tablespoon into the flour bowl and lightly mix together until combined-it should be a fairly moist dough.
• Lightly sprinkle the worktop with flour and gently knead the dough until smooth and soft. Roll to about 1 inch thick. Use a 2 1/2 in round fluted scone cutter and stamp out 12 scones.
• Arrange the scones on a baking sheet and brush the tops with the reserved egg and milk mix.
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes until risen and lightly golden.

These can be frozen when cooked and if you don't eat on the day a quick whirl in the microwave will make them as soft as fresh baked.

Now for the filling.... Well any jam will do but Strawberry is the most popular (although my favourite in Raspberry).
In Cornwall you put the jam on first but in Devon it's the other way around. NO BUTTER!
The cream is clotted... Cornish clotted cream is amazing. OK, I know you can't buy real cream in America, but I do understand you can get a cream thing from UK stores or Amazon.

Brighton misshapes PART TWO

Just Noticed I did not post part two of our Brighton misshapes
We stayed in our room and the leek was fixed. The hotel did want us to avid the 'wet' airier so gave us the room next door as well.
Saturday was DIVERSITY DAY and in the afternoon we made our way by taxi to the Race Course  where the tent had been put up for the Diversity and Moscow State Circus show was to be. Or NOT!
On arrival we were informed that the show had been cancelled. The wind had stopped them from putting up the tent and the rain had been so bad the tent pegs would not hold! To say we were disappointed is an understatement. I had purchased met and greet tickets and on one was sure what would happen, to greet or not to greet that was the question?
About thirty of us waited in the race course bar as negotiations went on. The people waiting included people who flew in from Spain and some very disabled people from Yorkshire. 
After a while we were told that a refund had been issued for our tickets and that the Meet and Greet could not happen as we had been given a full refund?
Having been told Ashley was in the building I asked if maybe he could just pop in and say hello?
After a while Danielle (Ashley's mum)  and a couple of the other mum's came in to say how sorry they were. I have over the years met most of the mum's so I knew who they were. Everyone was upset and my Amy was in tears too. I told her to go give the mum's a hug as they looked so upset, naturally she did as did Sophie. This broke the ice, the mum's were so worried that people would be upset and cross with the boys (like they could do anything about it). I again had a word this time with Danielle asking if maybe Ashley could come in for a quick hi and bye. She said she would see what she could do and a few minutes later he came in 

Yes, he came and all was again well with the world (for my girls anyway) Then it was over and Ashley had to go. 
Outside afterwards we called a taxi to take us back into town. 
When the driver arrived she said a car near the gate had two of the Diversity guys in it. The car pulled away and went into the tented area. Our taxi driver pulled across the gate so the guys could not get away and Amy, Sophie and I went over to say hi. I think the guys were a little WTF??? But once they realised it was Sophie and Amy they were fine (although a little shocked as Amy ran behind the car just as Jordan started to reverse poor guy I think got a bit of a fright) Anyway it was Jordan and Perri and we had a quick chat before letting them go on their way.
Oh, and I did tell Amy off for running off on her own.
Back in town after a nice lunch we completed our shopping and made our way back to the hotel.
The view now the storm had passed

I did well with the doll shopping

Along with plenty of Christmas present shopping.

My Kittens

Holiday in Brighton... yes, we had some Oops moments PART ONE

PART ONE
Last week we went on a short break to Brighton. We stayed at the Holiday Inn as usual and the staff remembered us (funny that) no problems this time with having 'our' room happy to say. So checked in and had some lunch at the Stock Burger. Now mum and I are not burger people but the burgers here are really very good. 
After lunch went for a little shopping in town. Then back to our room and unpack next stop China Garden the best Chinese food EVER!
So all going well (too well) back to our room and unwind watching TV soon we were ready for bed. It was just after 10 in the evening and, as the weather forecast had said the wind was howling as a major gale blew in. We have a room with a balcony looking out to sea so it was pretty noisy. A chair was banging against a wall I thought it would be a good idea to move it. Opening the door and the wind took my breath away but with a little determination I walked along the balcony and retrieved said chair putting it on it's side against the wall so it no longer blew around. Then turning I had to walk into the wind, now I'm no little person but the wind buffeting against me I just could not move! It took all my strength to make it back into the room.  
Now ready for bed I sent the girls to clean teeth and was just turning towards bed when I heard a 'plop'? Puzzled I looked towards mum who confirmed she to had heard it....then there was another...and another. Walking over towards the door and looking up it was clear to see ....water was coming through the ceiling. Now we were not on the top floor but as I had said before we was at the front of the hotel with balconies. I guessed that the water was some how coming through from the balcony above? It was!
Next we phone down to reception and they found two rooms for the night Sophie in with mum and Amy in with me. the rooms were adjacent but not adjoining so 11 at night and we are wondering the corridors in our night clothes!!! In the mini room looking out at the side of the hotel the wind was still howling and rattling the windows, I thought I would turn on the TV and block out the noise a little so Amy could sleep. By now all this had got to much for Amy and she was pretty upset. TV DID NOT WORK! Phoned down to reception and a guy came up but could not make it work, he offered us ANOTHER room but by now I had had enough and just wanted to rest or even sleep? 
Anyway in the end Amy got to sleep and I think I must have slept a little. 
In the morning we returned to our room and checked out the damage. It was still dripping but it had stopped raining, even if the wind had not stopped.

Towels very wet, but we did not want to move rooms so hotel gave us the adjoining room with a connecting door. So mum and Sophie had the 'wet' room with Amy and I sleeping next door. The ceiling was fixed that day and no more water, as to us we had a wonderful day shopping in the wind but no rain.

Me and my dolls

So after taking pictures of my OOAK dolls and getting out all the IT, Momoko, Ruruko, Dynamite etc dolls 

Along with my cat supervisors 

it was time to set them up in a larger area in my garden...again the cats turned up for inspection! 
 
 
Then it was time for Barbie, I divided the Barbie's up a little as there are quite a few!Starting with the dark haired dolls 
 

By now it was mid afternoon and I was starting to panic, ALL the dolls needed to be put in place and photo's taken before it got dark. There was no way I was leaving my dolls out over night so it had to be done in one day...my daughters were instructed that they would be required to help ..... 
AND THEN THE MADNESS REALLY BEGAN! 
Now when I post the next bit you might need a nice drink...maybe a few headache pills and a LOT of time!  

It's All About Dolls

Over the last few MONTHS I have rounded up all my 'Priors'(play with) dolls. Clothes removed all got a bath and hair wash a few got a trim if required. Them I checked them all off against my doll photo list, yes every doll when they come to live with me gets a name tag and a mini photo shoot so I know who they are. Going through all the dolls I found a few with no name (I guess the snook in when I was not looking?) Other appeared to be twins or even triplets...the extras where removed, well there heads, bodies donated to another head. I like my dolls to have movement. OK, so dressed in swimwear, underwear or summer clothing, sorted into groups, FR, Ken, Homme, Momoko, Red haired Barbie's...you get the idea it was now photo time. But why take a few group pictures when it would be soooo much fun taking a picture of all the dolls together. So holding back the men in white coats I started at 10'oclock on a bright Sunday morning. The weather forecast was for a warm mid 20's day. NOT! It was VERY hot! Poor dolls were getting a right hot flush going (And I'm not saying what was going on with ME LOL) 
OOAK dolls 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then I added in some Momoko's, Ruruko's and Dynamite dolls 
 
 
Then the rest of the Integrity dolls 
 
 
I started on my own but after a while I needed the help of both Amy and Sophie..... 


EXTRA PHOTO'S