2013 in pictures

I'm afraid my friends, I was no better at blogging in 2013 than in 2012.  I started off well, but then, as always, life got in the way.

As you will see from the photos that follow, I did plan to tell you about my exploits, but only got as far as collecting the evidence.  So, to give you some idea of what I got up to in 2013 I have created some collages for your perusal - I hope you enjoy them...

Is a change is as good as a rest?

As some people are aware baking is my passion, but I have also been known to make the occasional greetings card and am a great fan of beading – or more specifically making beaded jewellery.  In view of this and my desire to get back to doing more of it, I have been thinking of re-naming the blog ‘7^th Star Emporium’.

Now it’s not, at this stage going to be an ‘emporium’ in the true sense of the word:

Emporium (medieval Latin from Greek emporos = 'merchant') is a term used to denote a store which sells a wide variety of goods as well as a marketplace or trading center in ancient cities such as the agoras found in ancient Greece. 

However, if I can get my act together and you see anything that takes your fancy, I will be more than happy to sell it to you or even custom make something for you, so don’t be shy, please ask.  I may well set up an online ‘emporium’ at some stage, which has always been my plan, so keep checking back if you are interested.

What inspired me to make this change?  I went on a wrapped loop workshop a little while ago with a lovely lady called Carol at the Brentwood Bead Shop.  

It turned out to be a one to one session, which was great as it meant Carol had the time to show and re-show me how to make some lovely wire loops and shapes without disturbing anyone else!  I’m a bit heavy handed you see, so I kept snapping the wire, which was really irritating, but I did get the hang of it in the end.  

We made a bag charm, which I was thrilled with, so I bought some new wire from the shop and will take my new found skill and play with some of the trays and trays of beads that I have in my craft room – hah, get me!!  It’s actually a cabinet in the spare bedroom, which is where I do my crafting, but a girl can dream!

Mandy xx

I want something healthy for breakfast with seeds...

...and no wheat, is what Andy said to me a couple of week ago!

Sadly my hubby isn't the greatest at eating breakfast, but in order to get himself on the right track he's decided that a flapjack and a smoothie would be the way forward, so I went about finding a simple recipe I could knock up each weekend that would give him his daily flapjack, and here's what I found at http://www.healthy-magazine.co.uk/

Makes 8-10, takes 25-30 minutes

Ingredients

75g unsalted butter or polyunsaturated spread (I used Bertolli Light)

125g runny honey

25g demerara sugar (I leave this out and they taste sweet enough)

250g rolled (porridge) oats

a handful of seeds (I use pumpkin and sunflower seeds)

a handful of chopped ready to eat dried fruit (I use apricots or berries)

 
Method

1. Butter or grease a 20cm (8in) square loose-bottomed baking tin. Preheat the oven to 180˚C/fan 160˚C/gas 4.
2. Put the butter, honey and demerara sugar (if using) in a small pan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat.
   
   
   

   

   
   
3. Measure the oats into a large mixing bowl (with seeds if using). Pour on the honey mixture and mix together well.
4. Press the oat mixture into the prepared baking tin, levelling the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
   
   

   

   Before baking

   
   

   
   

   
   

    
   

   

   After baking

    
5. Cut through the flapjack while it is still warm to mark out between 8 and 12 fingers or squares. Leave in the tin on a cooling rack until completely cold, then transfer to an airtight tin or container to store.
   
   

   

Andy decided he didn't like them with both fruit and seeds (I did though!) so I alternate, one week seeds one week fruit - I've left him in charge of smoothie making...oh my poor blender!!

An adventure in the west

Hello All,

Today's morsel is about a little trip I took a few weeks ago to see Donny & Marie in Cardiff - yes, I did say "Donny & Marie in Cardiff"!

I have never been ashamed of the fact that from the age of 9 I was pretty besotted with the dreamy Donny Osmond.  I had tons of posters up in my bedroom and avidly watched The Osmonds cartoon on a Saturday morning, so when the opportunities arise, I do like to go along and see the still dreamy Donny doing his thing in concert and this time was no exception.

To tie in with this special treat I went and stayed with my friends down at Langtry Country House as they'd take taken the weekend off so we could have some girlie time - actually, we had a mini Christmas and it was fab!  We had a home made Chinese buffet for Christmas dinner, followed by a homemade 'flaming' Christmas pud, it was scrummy!  I would post a photo, but all you can actually see is a blue flame, which to be honest could have been attached to anything!

To make our trip to Cardiff that little bit more worthwhile (as if D&M weren't worthwhile enough!), we made a bit of a day of it and booked in for Afternoon Tea at the Pettigrew Tea Rooms, which are the dream of a lovely chap called David, who has a great blog called 'I Want to Bake Free', it was one of the nicest Afternoon Teas I've had for a while. 

 

We were greeted by David and shown to out reserved table, good job we booked as they were turning people away the whole time were were there because they were full!  Waiting for us on the table was a selection of mis-matched vintage crockery, all neatly set out and ready to be used. 

We ordered a full Afternoon Tea for 3 and waited with great anticipation and very hungry tummies.   We could order a variety of 5 different sandwich fillings and they must have all been made fresh as we did wait a little while for them, but once they arrived they were just great!  Served on a tiered cake stand all nice and neat with a lovely fresh scone each on the top plate. 

Once we had finished the delights on the cake stand it was time to to choose one of the many delicious looking cakes from the cabinet, so as is my way lemon drizzle was my choice and it definitely lived up to its image!

If you're ever in Cardiff you really must check out the great place and David's blog - I can't wait to go back!

http://www.pettigrew-tearooms.com/

Throughout 2013 I'm hoping to get my act together and post some more recipes - so watch this space!

Take care for now.

Mandy x

In a nutshell

Ok, so I will admit it – I’m a rubbish blogger!!  

I did try, or should I say, I did have the intention to try to be better at it, but as you can see I failed miserably.

So, to make up for my lack of literary competence during the second half of 2012, why don’t just give you a potted version of events, a few photos and the promise to do better in 2013…is that ok with everyone?  Good – here goes then…

For many, the highlight of last summer has to be the Olympics!  In my home town, round the corner from where I was born and grew up, I was a very proud girl!   

To be honest, I wasn’t much bothered initially, I didn’t get into the build-up, I didn’t even go out to see the torch, but once I sat down to watch the opening ceremony, I was hooked!!  I was checking results throughout the day, popping down to the basement at work to catch the events I was particularly interested in, gymnastics, men’s diving etc.  Then when the rowing and cycling were on while I was at home, I was right there in those boats and on those bikes giving it my all to get across the lines, whether first, second or third!!  As for that very special Saturday evening when Jess did it in numerous ways, Greg did it in the sand (for the gingers) and Mo did it over a long distance, what an amazing feeling it was watching and being on Facebook with all my friends raving about it – as a certain Aussie dancing judge might say it was A-MAZ-ING!!!

With a heavy heart and severe determination I tried day after day following the close of the games to get tickets for the Paralympics (‘Plympics’ for short) but I had absolutely no luck.  Then a call came in from some very lovely friends, to ask if I would be able to use their tickets to the opening ceremony that evening as one of them was poorly, “of course” I said,  “anything to help” I said.  So on 29^th August 2012 my nephew and I (Andy was working, so unable to accompany me, much to his displeasure) went along to the Olympic Stadium and sat through a really fabulous evening of dancing, cheering and vigorous waving.

The following weekend the same friends asked whether we would like to go along with them as they had some spare tickets, which we did, and a great time was had by all.  We saw some inspiring athletes do amazing things in their chosen fields and it was a brilliant experience!

The rest of the year pretty much went by in a bit of a blur to be honest - however, here are some snippets in a (pretty large) nutshell:

Andy and I like to take advantage of Groupon/Travelzoo deals for weekends away or nice meals, so a few months ago we went to Roux at Parliament Square to experience one of their tasting menus.  It was a good menu and Andy even managed to eat the course with beetroot in it, and he enjoyed it!!  Will wonders never cease?!

Roux tasting menu

Terrine of duck, quail & pigeon

Gurnard, prawn & boudin'Buride'

We also went back to visit Ben and Jen at the Sharing Supper Club, which as always was fabulous.  Their Tuscan evening is a real delight and we are looking forward to going back to sample some of Ben’s other culinary delights in 2013.

Chef Ben at the SharingSupperClub

One of the major evens of 2012 for me was that I went and got myself a new job!  No longer do I walk the floors of the NSPCC National Centre on the edge of the City of London, these days I trundle up and down the creaking staircases of the Young Foundation in Bethnal Green, back in my old manor.  Yep, born and bred, man and boy…who’d have thought I’d end up working 10 minutes walk away from the house I grew up in – not me, that’s for sure!

Arthur & Sammy

In the latter part of the year our branch of the family grew by two - Andy felt the need to have a pet and as I am allergic to cats and most dogs, he decided that guinea pigs were the solution, so in early November we adopted Arthur and Sammy, two very cute and rapidly growing piggies.

Moonstone Cottage

And so to Christmas, which was spent in the most beautiful little cottage in Glastonbury called ‘Moonstone Cottage’.  Andy and I had booked ages ago with a view to having a nice quiet break away from the hustle and bustle of families at Christmas, and I have to say, that’s exactly what we did and we were joined by our friends Tim and Clare, who also wanted and quiet time over the holidays.   Our host Katarina was lovely and made sure we had everything we needed on our arrival, including a bottle of wine, a bottle of bubbly and a scrummy Scandinavian ginger cake.   Our time was spent eating, drinking, watching movies and playing games – isn’t that what Christmas is all about?!

The first Christmas cake I've made since my school days - it was very boozy!

Blogging - how often should you blog?

Hello my friends,

It's been a while I know, but so much has been happening over the summer, it's been difficult to find time to sit down and write about it all.

I've noticed from some of the blogs I follow that lots of people blog weekly...where do these people find the time?  They must be so well organised!

Anyway, what I've decided to do, is try (and I emphasis TRY) to tell you all about my summer pursuits in a series of blogs over the next few weeks.  The thing is, I've been taking lots of photos for my blog during my adventures, so it would be a waste if I didn't at least tell you a little bit about some of them now wouldn't it?

In July we ventured north to York, as both Andy and I had only been on flying visits before, and we've been promising ourselves a trip together for ages.

York Minster

 The journey there was awful!  It rained all the way up the A1 and we weren't very hopeful of seeing too much of the city to be honest.  However, once we arrived at our little guest house the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the weekend, it was glorious!

Now as most of you know, I'm a keen baker and always need to go the places where the good cakes are, so on our first evening we went to Betty's of York...where else?!!

Thankfully there wasn't too much of a queue so we were seated and plowing our way through the scrummy looking menu in no time.  I chose a Chicken and Bacon Rosti and Andy had the Alpine Macaroni.  They were both really tasty dishes, but I have to say the portions were somewhat small for the the price.  

 Anyway, before I decided on a  dessert, I had to take a good long look a the trolley - well it would have been rude not to!!  Everything on it looked so tempting, and I opted for a fresh raspberry tart (I do love a raspberry!) and a nice strong cup of coffee, which was the perfect way to end our meal I thought.

On the Saturday morning we went for a nice stroll into the city and visited The Treasurer's House.  Now no visit to this place with my husband would have been complete without taking the cellar tour.   On this tour we learned about how in 1953 an 18 year old plumber called Harry Martindale was working at the Treasurer's House and stumbled across the ghosts of a Roman Army, as you do!  I have to admit it was really interesting and I'd recommend it if you ever visit York, even if it's only because you get to wear a hard hat and go through a tiny underground tunnel!

A room in The Treasurer's House

On Saturday evening we had booked to go on a food tour called 'Dine About' which was great fun.  We met the group in a nice bar and I even had a champagne cocktail, which is not like me at all!  We were then taken on a tour around the city and ate a 4 course dinner, with each course at a different restaurant and we met some really nice people too.  It's a shame there aren't more of these tours in other places we've been to, as we'd definitely do it again.  For more details, go to http://www.dineabout.co.uk/

Champagne Cocktail

All in all our trip to York was a great success...until we were on the way home, when we got a kink in one of our tyres, which meant calling the AA out about 20 minutes into our journey.   Still after an hour wait for him to arrive, it didn't take the 'man that does' very long to sort us out before we were on our way south once again.

I would most definitely recommend York if you love historic cities like Andy and I do, we will certainly be going back there again!

Take care for now

Mandy xx

The first ever 7th Star Baker Basic Baking Workshop

So here's the thing, it's raining like it's monsoon season and I'll be damned if I'm not going to still wear my summer clothes in July and August!  It's not even cold really, a cardy is fine when I leave at 7.00am for work each day, so all I need to make sure is that I have my brolly and my sunglasses with me and I'm good to go!

Since my last post I have presented my very first Basic Baking Workshop with a lovely lady called Caroline.  Now if you were thinking to yourself 'I didn't realise the 7th Star Baker ran workshops' join the club!  This all came about through Caroline's husband Wess.  

Wess used to work at the same place as me and we meet sometimes on the train in the morning.  We happened get talking one day about them moving house and my aspirations of owning a tea room, which led on to the 7th Star Secret Tea Room and he thought that it would be something that his wife Caroline would be interested in, so I gave him my details and said she should drop me a line and I'd put her on  my mailing list. 

There followed a series of email exchanges with Caroline and I about her desire to improve her baking, and around whether I had any baking tips, then lo and behold we made a date and the first ever 7th Star Baker Basic Baking Workshop was arranged!

On the day we made a Victoria sandwich and some chocolate cupcakes, very basic stuff, but a good introduction to baking and great recipes for practising.

Throughout the workshop we talked about how weighing your ingredients is key for perfect results, that knowing your oven is a particular skill that needs to be mastered because they are all different, and that experimenting is the best way to work out your timings and temperatures. 

 

As it turns out Caroline is quite creative, so decorating the cupcakes was something she really took to and enjoyed a lot.

I'm pleased to say that Harrison, Caroline's cute little boy, loved the chocolate cupcakes so much that he didn't even want to wait until they were decorated before trying one!  I have also since heard from Wess, that his particular favourite was the Victoria sandwich, which he ate almost all to himself.

So there you have it, an account of my first Basic Baking Workshop.  If you think this is something you would like to have a go at, please do drop me a line, or if you want to try out the recipes that Caroline did, here they are courtesy of www.bakingmad.com

Victoria Sponge

Ingredients

Sponge

175 g unsalted butter

175 g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

175 g self-raising flour

Filling

3 tbsp strawberry jam

500 ml double cream

Method

1. Set the oven to 180C/gas 4. Lightly butter two sandwich tins, each with a diameter of 20cm.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, and then slowly add the beaten egg.

3. Fold in the sifted flour and spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool and then remove from the tins.

5. Whip the cream until thick and use it to fill the sponge with the jam.

6. Dust liberally with icing sugar to serve.

Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes 

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

200 g	Self Raising Flour
200 g	Light Muscovado Sugar
6 tbsp	Cocoa Powder
3 tbsp	Dark Chocolate Chips
150 ml	Sunflower Oil
100 ml	creme fraiche
2	Eggs

For the Icing

100 g	Butter softened
200 g	Icing Sugar
1 tsp	Milk
1 tsp	Pure Vanilla Extract Blend
	Chocolate Flavour Strands to sprinkle

1.      Pre heat oven 170°C, fan oven 150°C, 325°F, Gas Mark 3.

2.      Line two muffin tins with paper cases.

3.      Place the flour, sugar, cocoa and chocolate chips into a large bowl. Add the oil, creme fraiche and eggs. Beat together until smooth and slightly fudgy. 

4.      Fill the cases 3/4 full and bake the cakes for 20 mins until well risen. 

5.      For the butter icing: In the bowl beat the butter with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Gradually mix in the icing sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and sufficient milk to give a fairly firm spreading consistency. Pipe or spoon onto your cupcakes.

Until next time take care and happy baking!

Mandy xx