Recipe: Morning Muffins

You know what I love to do when trying a new recipe for the first time? And I should really do this more often because it's so helpful. I like to print off a copy of the recipe and scribble notes all over it. 

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm better than...in this case Martha Stewart, but sometimes in the kitchen you have to do things your way. 

For the sake of demonstration I'm going to show you what I mean. My changes will be in bold.

Morning muffins

Makes 12, 15

Ingredients:

1 1/4c plain flour

1/2c brown sugar

1/2t baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1/2t baking powder

1/2t nutmeg

1/2t salt

1c rolled oats

1/2c raisins, 3/4 c

3T olive oil

1 egg

1/3c milk

4 medium carrots, shredded, 2 large carrots finely grated

1 medium banana, mashed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray. Line 15 muffin holes with cupcake liners and spray with oil. Beat together flour, sugar, bicarbonate, baking powder, nutmeg and salt until combined. Stir in oats and raisins. Add oil, milk, egg, milk, carrots, banana, and whisk until blended.

2. Fill each muffin cup with 1/4c batter. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 23-25 minutes. 25-30 and you want to make sure the base is definitely cooked so it might be necessary to crank the heat down a little and leave it in longer. Cool and enjoy.

Yay me!

Id like to interrupt the regularly scheduled Crafty Cravings programming to take a minute to talk about me! 

So I've spent almost six years of my life slaving away at a job that ranges from boring, to frustrating to pure hatred. But now for the light at the end of the tunnel...I got a job! A proper career job for the future rather than just one for money.  It's only a temporary part time position but it's a start. So be proud of me peoples! 

I'm not great with change and I'm more than a little terrified but you know what? I'm going to be great at it. I hope. 

Project: magnet board update

So here's the update I promised on the second magnet board.

Using command mounting tape I stuck it to the wall. But first I used a glue gun to stick some ribbon across the top and bottom to pretty it up.

Voila. Finally to add an extra touch ( and because my markers aren't magnetic) I sewed...and not well coz I suck at sewing, some pen holders. My first attempt involved sewing strips of fabric into each other. My second attempt involved looping the material and sewing one line across it. Neither look fantastic but work as planned.

Project: magnetic boards

So there are some really cool magnetic things out there, but my mum won't let us put stuff up on the fridge and I don't have any magnetic surfaces other than my chalkboard in my room. I didn't want to use my chalkboard for too many magnets or things like that...it's not that big! So I looked around...and decided on a new project. 

I bought two baking trays from Kmart, $5 and $8 each. 

Luckily one came with a hole in one side like this. 

So I threaded a ribbon through it and hung it up with a command hook. 

 ( the picture is my notes for a tinkerbell costume so I wouldn't forget my idea)

I was going to cover them in fabric to pretty them up, but I didn't have any pretty fabric and didn't see anything good whilst I was out shopping so I decided it didn't really matter.

The other tray is a dilemma. I'm having lots of ideas and I'm not sure what to pick. 

Option 1: attach mounting hooks or tape to raised edges and stick it up with the raised base sticking up. ( think sticking a baking pan upside down)

Option 2: attach mount to bottom of raised base and stick up with the edges raised and the base indented. (Think sticking the pan to a wall with the side you would cook on visible)

Option 3: pick either way of mounting but paint around the edges to add colour.

So what's your verdict? Any suggestions?

I shall post an update once the second tray/board is up.

Recipe: Choc Pear Pudding

Ok so I will admit to stealing this off Nigella. So it's not my recipe, but that doesn't mean I can't share it...because it is damn delicious!

Ingredients:

125g soft butter

25g cocoa powder

25g caster sugar

150g plain flour

2t vanilla extract

1t baking powder

1/4t bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

Salt

1 can of pears.

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Drain pears and arrange in a greased tin.

 This one was perhaps a little too big but it doesn't really matter.

3. Blitz all other ingredients in a food processor or whisk together with electric beaters until it comes together as a soft consistency.

4. Spread mix over the pears. This is not easy and will not look pretty. I personally prefer to use my (clean) fingers as it allows me to spread it over the biggest part of the pear better. Nothing has to be fully covered though, Nigella herself will say it doesn't have to be perfect!

5. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Take it out earlier if you prefer a squishier pudding type of batter or leave it in the full length of time if you'd rather have it more like a cake with pears in. Either way is absolutely fantastic and goes great with ice cream.

Told you it wasn't pretty and admittedly not my best effort topping wise. 

Trying new things

So I've always thought when cooking with wine that white goes with chicken and red goes with beef. So when my boyfriend found a slow cooked roast beef recipe he wanted to make (translation : he wanted me to make it) I was a bit put off as it calls for white wine. 

But I decided to put my wine-prejudices to the side and try something new. Eek! 

The recipe is a cheaper cut of beef, in this case blade, cooked in beef stock, white wine, and whole grain mustard with onions and carrots. It's seared off first then left in the slow cooker for over 6 hours. 

The result? A tender juicy piece of meat with plenty of sauce that can easily be turned into gravy.

I personally am not a fan of slow cooking veggies like carrots and potatoes so next time will exclude them. But does anyone know if that will affect the taste of the sauce and meat? My gut says no because carrot and potato aren't particularly flavoursome on their own but I'm willing to listen to other's wisdom...

So my overall lesson 'don't be prejudiced or afraid to try something new with food'. A slightly edited version of this will be going in my cookbook! 

Bookworm galore

So I'm going to let you in on a terribly kept secret...I love to read. When I say I love reading I'm going to expand on that for you.

My 'library' currently contains 315 books. I would have more but before I had enough money I used to sell my books to get discounts on new ones. Then I found online shopping and MUCH cheaper books so now I can keep them all. My books are spread across 3 bookcases because I absolutely have doubling them up on a shelf, unfortunately I still have to because I have little space and lots of books.

Of that 315 books I only have 46 that I have never read. This number seems large because I recently re bought the famous five and secret seven box sets of my youth and have yet to get to them. This means only 14.6% of my library is unread.

This year I have read 109 books, though that number will likely reach 110 by bedtime. This is 34.6% on my library read in 9 months! My current goal is 120 which at the time of setting was half my library but I guess now I shall have to up that number to 158 by the end of the year. At my current pace I think it'll be tight but possible.

How do I read so much? I have multiple books on the go. One smaller one in my handbag ( Five have plenty of fun by Enid Blyton). One in the bathroom for reading in the bath or on the loo :-p ( Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich). And finally one in my bedroom which is the one I'm typically most absorbed in. Currently I'm half way through Kresley Cole's Untouchable. And I love it! So I read a range of genres from young adult and almost kids books from my childhood, to paranormal romance which is definitely not fit for kids! 

I hope one day when I have my own house to have a proper library and it HAS to have a sliding ladder!!!

Project: chalkboard

So I recently decided I wanted a chalkboard. But the decent sized ones are so damn expensive. My mum recently replaced a black whiteboard we had in the kitchen because none of the pens showed up against the black. So I grabbed the 'blackboard' and a can of chalkboard paint ($10 from typo) and painted myself a chalkboard. 

I painted it with three coats to ensure an even coverage and then painted the edges with silver to neaten it up. Then once it had dried I rubbed it down with a piece of chalk and wiped it off. I read online that covering it in chalk first will prevent that oh so annoying occurrence of still being able to see what's been written after you've attempted to wipe it off. And it worked too. When I wipe off chalk you can't see what was written...yay! 

Finally the board was complete but I still had the issue of hanging it up. I didn't want to screw it into the wall so I had to improvise. I tied string through the holes in the back and hung it up using command hooks. But then it kept falling. Finally the string snapped and I was close to screaming. I bought MORE hooks and triple threaded the string and finally it stays up. 

The magnetic nature of the board still work and I bought a bunch of pretty magnets and using some scrap material and a magnet I made a little chalk holder. 

So this is the finished project!