All posts filed under: Eats

Recipes and ideas

Make, eat, read, plus bracelet prizes!

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Today has been a lovely cool day again with lots of rain which has made my garden happy! I made some ‘Double Coconut Muffins‘ this morning with the addition of mini chocolate chips. I am so happy to be able to switch the oven on without the air conditioning having a nervous breakdown! This is a quite delicious recipe and I recommend it highly, I am even thinking it would work without the coconut, and with blueberries or even more choc chips. What are you reading at the minute? Do you have a list of books to read? I have a Pinterest board full of them! I want to read the new book by Rachel Joyce called ‘Perfect‘, but I am going to have to order it from the UK as I can’t stand to look at the US cover (the rose). It is not published here for ages and I want to read it NOW! Ahem. Yes, I do judge books by their covers, that rose cover looks like a 1980’s sleazy crime novel …

Sno cones

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Sno cones. They get me through swimming. There, I said it (kinda), I don’t like swimming. Which is unfortunate because we go almost every day. I dislike the clothing rules, I would happily jump in if I could wear leggings and a t shirt, or any all covering item.  In fact if someone could invent fabric that didn’t cling like plastic wrap when it gets wet, that would be great! I hate hate hate the chlorine in my eyes and my hair (getting drier and drier here). Not to mention the tight, dry chlorine skin effect. Maybe this is as close to Botox as I will get, the chlorine tightened face.  Tight but dry, lovely if you are going for the reptilian look! I digress, (don’t get me started on swimming, now you know). Sno cones I do like, I like to choose the crazy flavours and see what mix I can make.   The crunchy icy treat with way too much colour and sweet syrup. My favourites are ‘coffee and cream’ (here in Brentwood …

My Grandma was ace!

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My Grandma was ace!  She was a baker, knitter (you know the professional knitter who can watch TV, hold a conversation and still knit a pair of socks) and a gardener.  Her name was Mary and she lived in Waddington, Lincoln, UK. My Grandad owned a red Mini and whenever me and my brother went to stay for a week over the summer, we loved going on a trip into town (the heady destination of Lincoln) in the back of the  mini with Grandma and Grandad. The first thing that springs to mind when I think about my Grandma is that she was a wonderful cook and especially her baking.  So many delicious pies and cakes and biscuits.  She always welcomed help from me as far as I remember, even when I was little I would help sift flour and put the weights onto the scales. She had a little stool which I could stand on while I was helping and I am happy to be the proud owner of  it now.  Lovely reminders like …

June 2013 Photo a day

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I cannot believe how fast June has zipped by (I am sure I say that every month!).  At the same time, when I look back at the photos from the beginning of the month, they seem so long ago. We have been on holiday to Cape Cod for two whole weeks, then I was back in St Louis for about 10 minutes and I was off to New York for the Alt Summit and a lovely weekend in Brooklyn. It has been hot and cool and wet and stormy. I followed the A Month of… prompts from Just B Australia for most of the month, but by the last week I was back to Fat Mum Slim.  Apparently it is harder to break a habit than I thought!  I do enjoy the FMS prompts though even though they do circle round on a regular basis, but that just makes for a new photo challenge, n’est pas?! Well, here are  my June daily snaps. 1. Tea 2. Story. 3. Fabric 4. Party.  Pie from Marion’s Pie …

Mint & basil & sun tea

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I have a mint patch with aspirations to take over the world, one garden at a time. So, before it achieves that, I thought I would put a few handfuls of it to good use. Mint tea sounds nice, but mint, basil and lemon with some honey sounds like a summer dream in a hammock. Mint and Basil Sun tea 2 quarts water (I used filtered, but tap or stream water will be good too I am sure) 2 handfuls of mint 1 handful basil 1/4 cup honey 2 lemons – juiced I am taking these measurements as a start as I expect to need more lemon or mint or something (vodka?!). Wash the herbs and give them a squeeze to release the herby flavour. Mix everything together and put the tea in a sealed glass jar or two and stand it in the sun for a couple of hours to brew. I would think this would also work in the fridge, but then you would have to call it ‘fridge tea’ to avoid misleading …

Veggies from the Garden

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We are back in humid St Louis and the garden and flowers are looking great thanks to our neighbours watering skills. I planted garlic way back in October last year and I harvested this weekend.  It is now drying in the basement.  I am fairly sure I will be roasting some sooner rather than later. So far we have dug all of the garlic, some turnips and the snap peas and snow peas are wonderfully ongoing.  I love to have a big mint patch and a healthy parsley plant, so that I can make mint tea and add the herbs to salad.  My basil is doing well, in fact I think I feel home-made pizza in the air!  Even the cucumber plant has itsy bitsy cucumbers growing. We are going to have lots of turnips, but I really don’t know what to do with them!  Mash them with potatoes or add to a stir fry.  I did see a recipe for turnip crisps which I may try.  I will let you know how they turn …

More fabulous finds and Hanger B Eatery

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I can’t wait to hang these on a pendant or two when I get home to my jewelry equipment, they even have natural holes. I have also collected some more smooth shell shapes and pebbles which I am hoping to drill and make jewels from. We found these empty oyster shells attached to rocks at the local beach. They are like little ready made display items or little ornaments. Yesterday Bodhi wanted to bring back a big sea star which was a bit whiffy to say the least. After a lot of huffing and puffing he was persuaded to leave it and I said I would find him a more desirable sea star, expecting to make a trip to the gift shop which sells dried out sea critters. Little did I know that today I would find this teeny tiny fella washed up and dried out with some seaweed. We ate at Hanger B Eatery today and they had this fab weather station! My favorite is ‘tornado = no stone’! Hanger B at Chatham airport …

May photo a day 2013

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May 2013 photo a day.  Here is my round up. We had birthdays, sun, storms, field day, yard sales galore and lots of growing which may be why there are so many green pictures this month. It was also the month that the A Beautiful Mess app was available, so I have had a little play with it in some of the daily photos. Day 1. I bought this!  Field trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, I wrote a post with photos here. Day 2. Morning Ritual.  My gym bag waiting at the door. Day 3. This is really good!  A reflection on the fact that I made my first star rather than the wonky result! Day 4. In my cup. Day 5. Paper Day 6. Broken Day 7. Something beginning with f. Day 8. Shape Day 9. A snack Day 10. Stars.  Better stars this time! Day 11. A smile.  I smiled when I snagged these vintage spools at a yard sale. Day 12. Mother.  Me, my brother and Mum in the 70’s!  I …

Iced coffee

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Today and yesterday have been hot ones here in St Louis, up into the 90’s – phew! So I decided to make some iced coffee and add in some flavour. I bought some cinnamon nibs from Penzey’s Spices in Maplewood and I mixed them into the ground coffee before brewing.  I didn’t grind up the nibs, just left them whole. To make the orange coffee, I added fresh zest to the ground coffee.  I brewed both coffees and left them to cool. To ensure coffee all the way to the bottom of the glass rather than watery ice cubes, I make coffee ice cubes. Add milk and sugar if you like.  I do.  If you like black coffee, I would pour over a splash of fresh coffee to get the ice cubes melted a little bit, so you at least have something to drink! Do you like iced coffee?  Iced tea?  Do you add any extras?

Morning smoothie and Grandma’s Biscuit Cake

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Somewhere in the recesses of my brain, I remember that protein is an ideal post workout foodstuff. With that in mind I often make a yum scrum smoothie after a kickboxing or spin or weights or cardio class.  Want to try it?  I have finished mine, so I can’t share, but here is the vague recipe. Post Workout Smoothie Half cup milk 2-3 dessertspoons yogurt 1 big dessertspoon almond or peanut butter 1 dessertspoon Nutella or drinking chocolate power I banana Whiz it all up with a hand blender or in a blender of your choosing. Confession time.  I had almost finished this before I remembered to photo it!! Ha. So here is a glass nice and full. This is my favourite glass and it used to be my Grandma’s. It is a teeny tiny glass which stands about two inches high and I think she drank Sherry in it!  I finished the last of my smoothie in it today.  Cheers Grandma! Appropriate then that I am also making and sharing Grandma’s Biscuit Cake recipe …