Flapjack bonanza= flapjack follow up

Yep yes yess sss yes sir, sireee I have been baking those flipping fantastic, fabulosa flapjacks again! But I DID feel really really bad at not being able to post the recipes: coyright don't you know, so I did some surfing on your behalf- just in case you didn't have a flapjack recipe to hand.

The results fron google were in the many hundreds of thousands, but I would check out the www.bbc.co.uk/recipes section and also- surprisingly- www.marksandspencer.com

The latter have a'' sticky seeds & raisin flapjack'' that is very close to those I have been making.

It's amazing the variety out there in the ether! You can add an egg or some flour: self raising for some but plain for others or even ground almonds but the basics are always the same:

LOTS of oats and butter or margarine, some sugar- brown or muscovado is best- and some golden syrup or honey and possibly any dried fruit or seeds you fancy!

The above is the apricot version repeated but with all quantities tripled this time: it made 20 ''breakfast bars''. This was made on Saturday and by Monday 7 pm there are only 5 left.....

JJ absolutely adored the cranberry and raisin version and those were all gone by Sunday early evening. The girls never had a look- in. Sooo I made the above and honestly it takes less than 30 minutes to concoct!

You melt the butter or margarine and dissolve the sugar/syrup mixture over a low heat, then add the oats and dried fruit/seeds and press into a greased baking tin. In oven for 15-25 minutes and voila: flapjacks that everyone loves! And quite healthy too: depending on the type of margarine, the amount of sugar and those lovely seeds: I recommend sunflower and sesame!

I had no idea it was all so quick and easy! Mind you mine seem to crumble easily and aren't quite as chewy as shop- bought cereal/lunchbox bars.....Maybe have to change it around a bit or leave it in the oven a bit longer?

There IS the odd ''perfect'' bar as can be seen below. I calculated about 150 calories per bar when I made the ''20's'' batch.

One final whicked thought: on surfing I found SOME people drizzle them with melted chocolate...oooooh aaaaah THAT 'll be the weekend version!

I have finished one of the samples for the magazine and wil be writing up the pattern tomorrow but alas I can't share it with you yet... My other task is to continue to tackle the chaos that is a 9 year old's bedroom..... There's so much ''stuff''!!!

When I grew up I had ONE teddy bear who was very very VERY well loved and ONE doll: a baby doll as my mother did not approve of ''Barbie''. I had lots and lots of craft and art materials and a never ending supply of paint, paper , pencils and glue and I made lots of the characters I wanted to play with. Those paper dolls you dress with paper clothes ''hung'' onto their shoulders with paper ''tabs'' were my favourite and I spent lots of time drawing and cutting new clothes or drawing scenery for them to ''live'' in.

Now everything is ready made and plastic, many many ''ponies'' and Barbies- hardly ever played with- the ''go go's'' are the current craze so much so that they have moved into the wooden Noah's Ark she had as a Christening present. ( all bright painted wood and very lovely)

The poor paired animals are scattered far and wide: HOMELESS! and no longer in pairs. AAAAh.

Mind you she does make ''houses'' and ''shops'' out of shoe boxes for the latest craze- pony, bratz doll or gogo / whatever next to do their thing in so maybe not so much has changed after all?

First week of back to- new- school!

It's been a week now, since the girls went back to school....Or in one case: when my eldest started at her grammar school....Oaaaaah that was the day I took a picture of her looking ooh sooo grown up in her new school uniform with fancy new shoes from ''Office'' no less!

And that's when you stop for a moment to remember and savour the time: the day she was born and how utterly ecstatic I was for at least 72 hours!( the midwife got really worried about my euphoria), the day she went to nursery, the day she started at her primary school ( new uniform and photo taken in the same place as for the latest photo!) oooh HOW time FLIES by.

Now I take her to a bus and she gets on and - gulp- off she goes with her friends all by herself and NO! I'm not allowed to wave or hug ( we did that at home before we left) and then of course I have a good ol' cry..... Stomach is all in knots and yes truly I AM happy, ooooh as long as she's allright and the first day goes well and she makes new friends, and and and...

Come home and sniff the freesias- ''why are you sniffing mum? ''Miss youngest is so sweet: ''Oh I'm getting a cold....''Let's walk to school! And this we did! And after that we cycled every day- so much better than the hurried dash we did in the car when I had to dash off to work in an office.
The lovely sunshine has been amazing hasn't it? It even reached 30 degrees C here the other day: from 2pm onwards and at 9pm it was still 20 degrees c, most strange but LOVELY.
I'm so proud: my washing is out before 8 am- could be because we are all getting up by 6.30 am!

There's a flipside to being a mum at home: JJ has been feeling the pressure and I do get sooo cross and the unreasonable hours that are just taken for granted! The other day there was a ''crisis'' and he came home at 2 am- no it's NOT that- and continued to work on his laptop till 4 am! Then there's the ''conference calls'' most evenings at 11 pm because he works for a huge American company and that's when THEY are awake and working. But what about the fact he's already worked from 7 am to 7 pm?!!! Working directive, PHUUUH, is not enforced is it?

Back to my lovely sunflowers to calm down! Miss Y had a day out to celebrate a Guides Centenary at the weekend: she came home a tigerrrrrr!!! For filling sandwiches with healthy but interesting things I have been sprouting seeds: here's my cress only 1 day later: Will follow up with the one the day after....And her's the broccoli seeds: they take longer but are really delicious.
Have been springcleaning and sorting stuff that has been ''low priority'' for the 4 years I have been working in an office and the house is beginning to feel sooo much nicer: even Miss E has noticed and is loving it. My piano playing is finally progressing well ( I started in January) and the dogs are relishing their 2 -longer and more countrified -walks a day, Lucy is by my side all day wherever I go she goes too. She's been known to wait outside the WC and scratch at the door if I take too long.... Then when I was crocheting in the garden:
TOTAL RELAX-A-DOG. There's a head at the far left just above one of her front paws. I can't yet share my latest makes in the crochet department because- gulp in amazement- I have sold a few of my patterns and now they have to be secret until published. Sorry ! But I'll do more really soon! I have to remake the samples in ''editor's chosen yarn and colours'' and am currently about halfway the first one.
See? There really was a dog, woken up she's wondering when I'll sit up straight again so she can go back to sleep...

Now for some baking to welcome home the hungry scholar/pupil : I tried 2 recipes for flapjack type bars intended for snacks and lunchboxes! I have been utterly astonished that our scholar is not frequenting the freedom of the school cafeteria daily but has chosen to eat lunch outside with her new friends.

I confess I have NEVER made any of these before, but I wish I had because it couldn't be EASIER!

I made ''sunshine bars'' from the WI cookbook: Best Kept secrets of the WI- Healthy Heart by Elspeth Smith but I made them with cranberries and sultanas: it makes 18.
And also the fruit and nut bars from WEIGHT WATCHERS- Fast and Fabulous book by Louise Tyler; I omitted the nuts and used increased amounts of chopped apricots instead- this made only 6 bars and my tin was too big for the mixture.
Guess what? They didn't last even a day, the apricot ones that is. We all had one each to try and then Miss E had a second one ''because she's growing and it helps with homework'' and then the remaining 2 went into the lunchboxes for the next day. Poor JJ didn't get a look in. Mind you he LOVES the cranberry ones which also include sunflower seeds and sesame seeds... oooh yummy!
GOING GOING GONE!

Feeling poorly : dizzy spells due to a cold

Lots to catch up on, but a head cold has floored me with dizziness so I'll be back soon.

Mittens and socks: a triumph!

A real crochet post this: FIRST the scarf Miss Y made herself, entirely by herself except for the pom poms which I helped with. It's Marble Chunky and a 6 mm hook and ALL dc ( USA sc's).



She made it in the evenings/afternoons while watching Blue Peter etc and it's over 1.5m long and 16cm wide ( about 20 sts). I am oh SOOO PROUD of her , I'm fit to burst! And the added icing on the cake is she loves it too!!!



So to complete the ensemble and part of the ''getting ready to go back to school'' ritual I made her some mittens to match.

These are in the same Marble Chunky and the pattern is from a book that has come out recently: it's called: CROCHETED GIFTS and is by KIM WERKER, published by Interweave Press but available from Borders or Amazon in the UK.

Beware it does use USA crochet terms. It also features patterns by many famous USA crochet designers so you may find a favourite included, it reflects very different styles due to this wonderful mix of contributing talent!!!

These mittens were a BREEZE to make: very quick and easy and so comfortable too. The book gives patterns for children's and adult sizes.

She's even worn them already when we cycled to school very early and there was quite a chill in the air last week. Now way back in the summer of 2005 in Delft I had a go at making crocheted socks, I'd got the yarn at my dream store in Delft-De Wolgaarde in the centre of town- and I had brought with me a book on crocheted socks, a USA book.

I taught myself the'' ESC'' : extended single crochet stitch which is a dc with an extra bit added in and crocheted in the evenings while the kids slept when we visited Delft at Half Term.

The result was interesting but HUGE!

They did not fir me but JJ!!!So I did start sock #2 but was no longer very motivated because JJ does not care for his socks, always losing some etc. He didn't fancy them as a present and I could not quite figure out how to adjust them! I have very small feet: a size 3 or European 36 and fit into kid's shoes and socks easily.

I moved onto other things as you do, especially as working with a 3mm or smaller hook is not my fave thing to do and the fine yarn makes it a lengthy project( another ''NO NO'')

Then along came the Cecily Moebius and I did it in stash yarns but then I bought some sock yarns to do it ''properly'' and found that my lovely soft Silk and Wool Regia yarn had a variegated effect that was too widely spaced. I mean that when you work the stars it looked awful! 2 white and 2 blue'' petals '' just didn't look right so it was frogged.

BUT BUT BUT this is lovely SOFT yarn so I decided to give socks another chance: a 3mm hook was found and I tried the socks in the book abovea pattern by ROBYN CHACHULA this time.

They are called RAVISSANT SOCKS. And as you start from the toe up I could adjust the pattern to fit!!!
You can see I'm very chuffed with this! This is as per pattern , but as I had yarn leftover but not sufficient for sock # 2, I extended the leg to cover half way up my calf. ( NOT pictured)
They are warm and very soft and ooooh soooo comfy and look and feel GREAT inside my crocs or my boots!!!
Here's my foot and heel doing a little JOYFUL dance: tralaaa trala tralaaaa!

Then it was off to order a second ball of yarn from Ilkley: and you know what? It arrived the NEXT day!!! TERRIFIC or what?! Now I must just sit down and crochet sock # 2.........

Oh and yes there's the heel: you crochet it last and thus when it wears out you can easily rip it out and replace the worn out bit just like that! It's so clever and practical and the shell stitch is fun to do- better than endless ongoing ''esc'' anyway....( as per the JJ sized ones...)

ESC means ESCAPE in my book and when it goes on for too long that's exactly what I want to do!

Science Museum day trip, cupcakes and moebius.

About a week ago today we all went to London for a day at the Science Museum.
I had finished the moebius scarf on the Tuesday after our return from Yorkshire so It's about time I showed it to you: TA DAH!!! It's like a cowl and VERRRRRRY SSSSSSOFFFFFT!!!
And therefore very warm too. No I didn't wear it to the science museum, I DID take 2 new little projects along to do on the train and while waiting , on the tube or in queues and more of this later!
The moebius WIP pictures are within the Yorkshire posts and the pattern is in issue 1 of Inside Crochet magazine, it's called CECILY.









On the way to the museum we stopped by the Hummingbird Bakery on Old Brompton Road to sample some of the infamous cupcakes for ourselves and the kids had been looking forward to this enormously as they have been baking from ''the'' book.
Alas the bakery itself was a dissappointment: it was very small, the staff unhelpful ( to put it mildly) and it stank of a strange disinfectant.....No comfy worn leather sofas to lounge on while sipping a latte and enjoying the delightful cakes...
We chose one cake each and hightailed it to the sunny pleasures of the gardens of the Natural History Museum!
Here are our choices clockwise from top left: red velvet( Miss eldest),chocolate cupcake( ME!),
vanilla cupcake( JJ), black-bottomed cupcake( Miss youngest): mmmmmm can't wait!

Yummy but the dark cake was too bitter for her and she didn't like the frosting much.

Mmmmmmmmmm, yummy- well mummy thought so but again she didn't like the cream cheese frosting...7 out of 10.( mum gave it 9)

All gone. And just to show the amazing redness of the red velvet: Voila.

Then a quick goodbye to the lovely building in which many happy hours have been spent on previous holidays/half terms and onto the Science Museum!

Such lovely brickwork isn't it? And such an abundance of incredible detail!!!I 'd like to stop and draw....oooh mu-uuu-um come on! A quick photo has to suffice for now.

Hours of happy experimenting later and including a rocket show with Newton's laws explained and demonstrated and a ''pringles rocket '' hitting the ceiling we went to the IMAX cinema to watch ''fly me to the moon'' in 3D.

HUGE spectacles were provided and we settled in to wait for our amazing SPACE experiences.

As you can see I'm crocheting while we wait: a trendy triangle mesh scarf for ''going to secondary school'' girl. Having completed project # 1: a neck pouch for her mobile phone on the train journey into London( 1 hour)!

Project details and photos in the next post I promise. We also watched DEEP SEA 3D and I can heartily recommend both, the space one has cartoons that can get a little annoying to adults but keeps the kids happy and the deep sea is absolutely amazing!!! It's like diving without the hassle: I even felt out of breath until I told myself firmly that NO! I WAS NOT ACTUALLY UNDER WATER!!!!

Fish and weeds float and swim all around you.

The cinema screen is 10x that of usual cinemas or the height of 4 double decker buses apparently.

What a lovely day in London: we are so very blessed with our marvellous musea and cultural treasures! My favourite is the V&A but that'll wait for another time....

See you for lots of CROCHET in the next post I promise but for now there's the last moments of madness with the kids before they go back to school in 2 days- and counting.......

Baking, Hummingbird style and daydreaming in style.

We've been back from Yorkshire one week now and it's been a lovely lazy week, I had this GREAT idea of replacing the dreaded ''b'' word with another b word: BAKING!!!

Sooo BEWARE and be WARNED because a LOT of baking follows here: all done by my kids.

And all from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook as mentioned in a previous post.( re COOKIES)

First was a joint effort( 6 were made by each) on the vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting: they were absolutely DELICIOUS and we had leftover frosting on our sandwiches that day!!!

Next - a day later- was the RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE BROWNIE which is pictured as in the book above. It's quite complicated and involves 3 stages but my eldest coped amazingly and TA DAH : produced THIS!!!This is as just from the baking tin and it's VERY BIG! We cut a portion to resemble the photo:

ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY SCRUMDIDLEY-ISCIOUS!!!! But sooo rich that we could not eat such a portion: about 1'' or 3cm squares were more our ''thing''.

Can't see the 3 layers here as the chocolate rose up the sides in the tin thus ''hiding'' the cheesecake!

TAH DAAAAH! The pink raspberry cream is a little too runny as she'd got up early to whisk it and finish off the production after it had ''set'' in the fridge overnight.... Didn't know how much to whisk it and how firm double cream can become if you persist....

But you can see the 3 layers here! And here! The cream layer is a New York style BAKED cheesecake. I've grown up with the jellified lime/lemon variety and had not had a baked one before: YUMMY!

About this time or the day before we treated ourselves to ( I've ALWAYS wanted one as we had one where I grew up) a swing seat for the garden!!! This was also becuase our ''proper'' swings had to be removed to allow for the ENORMOUS trampoline the kids had been pestering us for for aaaaages. So to compensate: VOILA!

And it's been terrific! Early morning cuddles in our PY's, cups of tea, lying reading a book, or sitting daydreaming( oops sorry ''planning'') for hours and hours. Giggly times with all 4 or 3 of us or even 6 when both dogs join us. Just swaying gently and looking at the garden and it's sooo restful, peaceful and relaxing! Even allowing for some crochet it stays VERY relaxing.

Speaking of crochet I have started to design a swing cardigan for Miss Youngest in her favourite colours and have- of course- called it the raspberry cheesecake cardigan!

Here is a bit of the Yoke with a bit of inspiration ( mmmmmmmm, a crocheter needs sustenance!)

We treasured these sunny days and admired the garden view from the swingseat:

Like I said: ALL the family have already enjoyed this soooo much I'm really glad we made such a lovely impulse spontaneous purchase.

Ah: Lucy keeping guard while the master sleeps.

WHO are you staring at?Don't point that at us, he may wake up!

A few days later- when we had finally eaten all the scrummy cheesecake-brownie it was Miss youngest's turn for a solo baking performance.

Not to be outdone she rejected my lemon loaf idea and chose a 2 layered ''lemon bar''which also involved juicing citrus fruit and a lot of ''zesting''.

And here they are: another tastebud tickling moment. Fabulously fruity these are more whicked than they look as you don't want to know the amount of butter that went in!

But ooooh they really are soo VERY GOOD to eat!

I can see these being made for lunchbox treats very soon!!! Or weeknd walk treats, or picnics, or...oooh do I need an excuse?!

Then we had a playdate day and the lovely hot sunshine did a runner and it bucketed cats and dogs! So what did they do? BAKING!!!

This time it's the MARSHMALLOW cupcakes with marshmallow frosting.

These perfect little cupcakes had a core removed and melted marshmallows inserted- what a STICKY job!!!! Still they did it.

Topped with vanilla- oooh the smell was divine!_ frosting with lots of tiny pink and white marshmallows. Sorry the photo does NOT do them justice.

Almost but not quite?

How about this? They didn't hang around very long!1,2,3,: all gone!

Back soon with some more baking and more CROCHET!!! I have finished the moebius- but not yet photograped this and made a mobile phone baglet- see you soon?!