gingerandgeorge

Biscuits with moustaches

What - you've never had them before?

You're missing a treat. Seriously.

To find a full set of instructions, head over to the Hambly blog. Or, if you're here for my more or less idiot-proof biscuit/cookie recipe (delete as culturally appropriate), behold:

 

PLAIN AND SIMPLE VANILLA BISCUITS

Ingredients

225g butter

175g sugar (I used brown, but caster is probably better here)

Pinch of salt

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

300g plain flour

 

Instructions

:: Cream together butter and sugar. 

:: Beat in the egg, salt and vanilla essence. 

:: Add the flour to form a smooth, soft dough. 

:: Place in the fridge for 1-2 hours to chill.

:: Roll out on a flat, floured surface, then follow the cutting out/inserting stick instructions here. 

:: Place on a lightly greased or good non-stick baking sheet.

:: Heat oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan oven / 350ºF / gas mark 4) and bake for around 10 minutes, until the edges are just starting to turn light brown.

 

Alternatives

Replace the vanilla with almond extract for a marzipan-ish taste, or with a few drops of orange oil if citrus is your thing. 

 

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Here, there and everywhere

I have, this week, been putting it about a bit. Strictly in online terms, obviously.

If you're visiting here from Amelie's House or Papercraft Inspirations - hello! You're very welcome to stay awhile and look around; if it's more things-to-do you're interested in, you might want to try the Makerie pages to begin with.

If you're a more regular visitor, then of course you're just as welcome to hang out here, but you might also want to pay reciprocal visits to either of those two sites and pick up some happy free stuff. 

The guest post I wrote for Natasha over at Amelie's House earlier this week was in celebration of her blog's first birthday, and included a cute cupcake-y download (no actual cooking necessary). The sharp-eyed amongst you might recognise a few scraps of re-worked vintage wallpaper on the printable cases. 

And while we're on the subject of 'free' and 'printable', I'm just a little bit excited to say you can now download a mini-collection of Christmas papers that I designed for Papercraft Inspirations.

Oh-Ho-Ho consists of five festive prints for use in all sorts of paper-related projects, including a couple which are featured in the December issue of the magazine (it goes on sale next Wednesday). And as I've been working on a bag-related project this week, I thought it would also be fun to turn a couple of the sheets into tiny gift bags.   

You can help yourself to the paper collection here, and the cupcake wrappers here, with extra brownie-points offered to anyone who manages to create something involving a combination of the two.

Go on - I dare you.

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Summer

Today in my garden

:: I finally picked the first of four Discovery apples from our dwarf-sized patio apple-tree.

:: I also harvested a handful of peas, some blackberries and one very large, very early (and very delicious) autumn raspberry. 

:: I found one almost-ripe tomato among a sea of green ones, and wished, not for the first time, I actually liked tomatoes. 

::The pesky foxes snapped a bud off our new rose.

:: I learned that maggots can swim. 

I'll spare you the details of that last little joy, and instead share some prettier evidence - the apple and the rosebud. 

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Month No.8

Hello, August. 

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How do you know you're spending too much time online?

When you cook your boyfriend dinner and the first thing he says after clapping eyes on it is, 'you should take a photo for your blog'. 

I still did, though.

 

(Recipe very loosely based on this one, but with a heap of green veggies and some pesto instead of bacon on top.)

New year, new news

Something to celebrate so soon into the year must surely be a good sign. Not so much the cake (although that, obviously, is a good thing, too), but this happy announcement from the Banana Frog blog. So very pleased to be picked, and looking forward to some fun stamping projects over the next twelve months. 

If it's true that luck comes in threes, and should the fates be paying attention, I'd like for number two to take the form of a generous buyer for my flat, please.

 

The post-Christmas post

Things I have learned in the last 10 days:

• When it comes to edible gifts, it's always good to make a test batch. Because recipe number one looked like this, and tasted even worse.   

  

• Never assume the shop which sells the cookie bags is actually open on Christmas Eve. Baking eleven batches of cookies and making eleven bags from scratch does not leave much time for bag-packing, card-writing or day-enjoying.

   

• How to make chef hats.
• My younger nephew does not like wearing hats.
• If I made my dad a chef's hat, he would secretly be very happy.
• You can make two small-boy sized aprons with pockets and two matching bear-sized aprons from three tea-towels and some twill tape.

(Pic courtesy of my sister.) 

• Cards which are also decorations that can be used in future years are a very good thing.

  

• I will be very glad to get back to normal, or at least what passes for normal here, next week. 

  

Things I still need to learn:

• How to properly set the white-balance on my camera. Blue-grey winter light photos are ugly; correcting them after the fact is time-consuming and, I suspect, avoidable.

 

Things I've been reminded of:

• New Year's Eve is overrated.
• Six family homes in five different locations over three days is too much driving.
• iPods, audiobooks and cheesy musicals make most things more bearable.
• No good deed goes unpunished.

 

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