My secret valentine

Hi All

It is that time of year again, the only day in the year where you must show the one you hold the dearest in your heart how much you love them? This is usually done by mixing loads of cheese, fluff and a good sprinkling of tat and voilà! You have Valentine's Day. I am sure you can tell by the undertone running through the start of this post I really do not hold Valentines Day with much regard, I believe every day is an opportunity to show the one dearest in your heart how much you love them and this day is an overrated commercial, bleed your pockets dry suck fest, which I have no intention of being a part of! However if you are anything like me then you are really secretly hoping this is happen at your home while you are at your 9-5….

Yeah I know I am a contradiction, while I do not believe in the hype and cheap petrol station roses which surround Valentine's Day, I am all for someone genuinely putting themselves out there and showing or telling someone else how they feel about them. So my heart goes out to the young man who could be right at this moment swimming through the shark invested waters in London!? To get to my house and leave me a box of chocolates. As it is 2012 my tastes have changed so hopefully they are from Hotel Chocolate.

Bye for now

PB x

Baby! It's cold outside!

Hi All

A few weeks back, I was sitting down on my sofa enjoying whatever delights were showing on the TV, when I felt an icy breeze blowing across my feet. I don’t like the cold, not one little bit, especially in my house I am one of those people who firmly believes when you are in your house you should be able to walk around in shorts and T-shirt, not keep your coat, hat and scarf on with a hot water bottle strapped onto your body! So with this icy breeze blowing in from under the door, I decided to wage war against all things breezy, icy and blowing in from under doors. My first attempts with an old towel and lightly taping a plastic bin liner to the bottom of the door, failed to do the job in hand, and also look extremely unattractive. So off to the shops I went to find a draft excluder, the one I found was cute but the price wasn’t. So Instead of trying out a bit of haggling in a major department store and embarrassing myself, I went straight to YouTube and found a tutorial by Debbie Shore of Thimble Lane on how to make a doggy draft excluder, (I am sure you could retrain for any new career using videos from YouTube?) As PB senior had caught wind (pun intended) about what I was doing, an order of four doggy drafter excluders came my way. Using scrap material which had been hanging around in a box for years I put this together.

 Not bad huh! As you can see mine doesn’t have any ears or a tail, I could make out this was intentional, but it was because I could not be bothered to cut them out. So while I have one down three more to go and with the Russian cold and snow sweeping across the country at the moment, I think you all should watch the video below, find some old fabric and whip up a few of these and join me in the battle to fight all things breezy, icy and blowing in under doors

                    

Bye for now!

PB x 

28 Days later

It is now 28 days into the New Year. I am sure some of you are full throttle into your New Year’s resolutions, or you have already thrown in the towel? Well it has taken me all these weeks to decided what I wanted my resolutions to be. Usually each year comes and the week in-between Christmas and New Year’s ends up feeling like a pressured one, as everyone is asking you what are your resolutions, or telling you theirs without being asked, so if you’re not stating you are planning to re-train as a tiger tamer and will be learning the classical version of the Nahuatl language which was spoken by the Aztecs on a Wednesday evening. And not forgetting the usual of get fit stop eating crap. Then a look of, ‘boring!’ will surely be fired your way. Well most of the time these resolutions are usually plucked out of the air, the list is far too long, and some of them are only on the list to look impressive! So this year I planned to start with a few and If I need to revaluate or add some more, then I will. So what has all this got to do with baking and avoiding the dishes?

Well, over Christmas I had managed to stay clear from wheat for most of the holiday, (this is not including my fair well tea and chocolate Hob Nob dunking party I had on New Year’s Day) which I felt much better for doing. So starting 2012 I am going to be wheat and gluten free! I know I kind of mentioned something like this before, however I have always given myself a non-expiry date free pass, which has always lead me into an episode of wheat binging and days of bloating and discomfort.

So here's to 2012 living less bloated one day at a time!

Bye for now!

PBx  

Happy 2012!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

BYE FOR NOW!

PB x

Mistletoe And Wine

Well the big day is finally here! If you’re like me and are planning to get the roast in the oven by 10am, or follow Gordan Ramsey's Christmas Cookalong Live (I wish!) and planning not to be in a sugar coma by the early afternoon (because the tin of sweets just can’t stay there on the table and be mistaken for decorations, now can it?) And say to yourself, your not going to overeat, then overeat, and then proclaim to everyone at the dinner table your not going to eat anything until New Years…

Well it is good to plan? But we all know this isn’t going to happen! So when the so-called planning becomes a figment of your imagination, and chaos is beckoning and family members start getting grumpy, I always start to sing Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe & Wine to break the mood, as this was my tune! When I was little. Although the first reaction is usually annoyance, it all so makes everyone reminisce. So crank this at full blast and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Bye for now!
PB X

Polar Bears

I was mesmerised this morning by the most cutest Polo bear cub I’ve ever seen. I was thinking I want one. Then I remembered I am not 5 years old anymore and it will grow up and be bigger than me!

Although this is the cutest polar bear, it is not my favourite, as for some strange reason I love creepy stalker polar bear from the Birds Eye adverts! Have a watch and you see why?





Bye for now!

PB x

Leon's banana bread

Hi all

On my way to the 9-5 in the mornings, I like to pop on my trainers so I can get off the tube a stop early then walk it into the office. I am sure you’re thinking, good for her trying to keep healthy and fit. This is just a side benefit as the only reason I am getting off early is for the shop Leon’s spelt and banana bread! Oh my gosh! I cannot explain how incredible this tastes; it is a sweet dense, smooth slice of bliss, which has telepathic powers, as it tells me to eat it before I reach the office! So when I saw Grazia magazine had printed the recipe I had to make this. In the orginal recipe it had pecan nuts, vegetable oil, and natural yoghurt. I had to change these due to what I had in my fridge and cupboards.


Ingredients

50g Walnuts
150ml Grapeseed oil
200g Dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
350g/5 ripe skinned bananas
75g Plain soya yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
225g wholemeal spelt flour
½ Banana peeled for the top
1-2 tbsp of caster sugar for the top

Preheat the oven at gas mark 3/150oc. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper and put to one side for later. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper, spread the walnuts over the sheet and toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Leave to one side to cool.

Whisk together the oil, dark brown sugar, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mash the 350g/5 bananas roughly. Add the yoghurt and mix well. Sift the bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon over the yoghurt mix then add the salt.


Add the banana and egg mixture together stirring well. Add the flour (I didn’t sift the flour, as I wanted make sure I kept all of the wholemeal) Chop the walnuts in small pieces and add to the mixture.
Pour mixture in the prepared loaf tin. Slice the half of the banana length ways and lay over the cake. Sprinkle the caster sugar over the top of the cake, I only used one tablespoon as I thought this was enough for me, if you want to add all three tablespoon you can.


Bake in the over on for 45-50 (mine took a little bit longer) or until springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean when inserted. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool.

I found the bread tasted better the next day, although not exactly the same texture as the one I purchased from the shop. So although I will be making this banana bread more often, I still will be getting off a stop early.

Bye for now!

PBx