The Vintage Magpie

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are to die for... ever since we were given the recipe, new batches have been made as soon as the last has run out!

Lauren even whipped up a few for Grandad's birthday last week, and added a few chopped brasil nuts to keep him happy :)

It's a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe, from his Family Cookbook, so all credit to him.

Here it is :

HUGH'S CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients : 

 

100g of good chocolate

125g of unsalted butter

100g of granulated sugar

75g of soft brown sugar

1 Egg

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

150g of plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

 

Method :

Preheat oven to 190C/gas mark 5.  

Line baking sheets and chop chocolate into small pieces and set aside.

Heat the butter in a small saucepan very gently until melted.  Meanwhile, put both types of sugar in a mixing bowl and pour the melted butter on top.  Beat well with a wooden spoon.

Break the egg into the bowl and add the vanilla essence.  Beat the mixture until well blended.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and stir thoroughly.  Add  chocolate chunks.  You should end up with a sloppy mixture.

Dot teaspoons of the mixture onto the baking tray, leaving plenty of space inbetween as they grow to a large size.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Leave the cookies on the tray for a couple of minutes to allow them to harden. 

Best served warm.

 

DELICIOUS.  Go bake a batch!!

xx

 

Valentines Girl...

Here she is! 

A beautiful girl for Valentines! 

I have designed a new larger size pattern for her, she stands at 10 inches tall, and is bigger all round than my previous bears.

She is made from the most beautifully soft off-white Schulte viscose, so wonderful to touch.  She is filled with soft polyfil so is totally huggable, and has a little steel shot in her saggy belly and limbs for weight.

I have aged her so she has a well-loved appearance, so she has faded brown markings and a little faded pink blush on her cheeks to match her brown and baby pink ribbons, which have been aged as well. 

This girl is a true sweetheart, and she is a One of A Kind, Limited Edition 1 of 1.

Here you can see her next to my pocket size 6 inch and medium size 9 inch bears.

I have had to hide her from my girls, as they are trying to persuade me to keep her!

She is sitting in my Etsy shop, hoping to find someone to love on Valentines Day!

ADOPTED, thank you  xx

 

Have a great weekend everyone xx

 

In Progress...

I have been working out of my comfort zone this week, on making a larger bear.  I enjoy pushing in another direction sometimes...

I have been working on this Valentines sweetheart .... she is bigger and she has longer fur than my other bears.

A few tweeks here and there and she should be ready tomorrow...

See you then :) x

Beautiful...

This is Maggie our youngest cat... she's a mixture of persian and tabby, her mum half persian and her a quarter I suppose.

She is just so perfect, beautifully soft and fluffy with the perfect tabby markings.   And boy does she know it!  She considers herself far more important than any other occupier of the house, her mother and the two dogs included. She wafts around, nose in the air - quite happy to swat any dog's nose that happens to get in her way!

She has a habit of sitting on our computer chair at around lunchtime, day in day out, letting us all appreciate her beauty ;)  and stays there fast asleep until just before the children arrive home from school, when she takes her leave to find somewhere 'quieter' to settle down until teatime :)

Hard life.

Cats... you gotta love em.

x

Her Mother's Daughter ...

It appears that Lauren is skipping down the same path as her mother.. as she cannot pass up putting someone else's cast-offs to good use... and immediately sets to shabbying them up with a gorgeous splash of Annie Sloan paint :)

Isabel churned out a mountain of unwanted goods from her bedroom recently.. most of which have now found their way into Lauren's room... after a certain amount of upcycling!!

Lauren : 'After I've painted this box could we line it with some pretty paper before I put my treasures in it?......'

Me : .. promptly scooted off to find some vintage flowery wallpaper !!

That's my girl !!!

Have a great week everyone :) xx

x

Reclaim Life's Simple Pleasures

I'm loving this book... although I've only barely started it.

The book blurb ...

'This book is packed iwth ideas that will help restore the balance in your life, reconnect you to the seasons and other people and - quite literally - not cost the earth'.   

SOLD.

So, upon inspection it is filled with little tips on enjoying your free time .. for free or close to it.  Highlighting the things that we so often miss, or dont have time to do... 

for instance : 

Compile a Recipe book

Watch the sunset

Browse a museum or gallery

Spring clean .. (not yet thanks :o )

Write Proper Letters...

How to light a proper fire...

Bring back teatime ...

Silly things, obvious things, but things that have a meaning - and its nice to have a little nudge sometimes to get these things started. 

And there a few seasonal recipes thrown in too.

"Where did the weekend go?" ... I think we've all asked this question.  I do every Sunday night when I'm ironing the school uniforms.

"How have we let this happen?  How has the odd simple chore - putting up a shelf, filling the fridge, mowing the lawn, keeping out bodies in some sort of shape - mutated into a long list of duties that dominate the weekend?  Since when has our favourite pastime been trailing round the shops?  When did almost every weekend activity - from sports to children's birthday parties - start to entail parting with huge wads of cash?  Most importantly, where has all the fun gone?" ...

HERE, HERE !!

I'm downing tools this weekend and plucking a few ideas from this book to get us started :)

Have a good one everyone xx

 

 

The Open Road..

We stole some time last week - Mr F and I, .. when we both should really have been attending to the more mundane aspects of life - but the sun came out and she was too much of a temptation ;)

So we packed a sandwich and hit the road.

And paid a visit to one of our dearest friends ... Dartmoor.  As always she was in fine fettle, ready to to wash away the stresses and strains of our every day existence.  She always has something new to show you and something familiar to make you heart swell.

She takes you away from the hustle and bustle of the towns and nurtures you with the ebbs and flows of the countryside.

We stopped at Dartmeet.  

And we just sat on the grass and listened.  All we could hear was glistening water flowing across rocks ..

and the chirping of the birds in the trees... blue tits, robins, chaffinches and more.

You can't buy a trip out like that.  But you can stumble upon it... and it was truly blissful.

Hope you stumble upon some bliss in your week :) xx

 

Three Lil' Princes ...

Three One little prince is left sitting in my Etsy shop... waiting to share their hearts on Valentines Day...

Pop over and take a look, every girl needs a prince!! xx

Two Adopted, Thank You x

A little snippet ...

Here is a little snippet of my kitchen!!

Late last year we had our boiler ripped out as she was over 25 years old, and a new one put in out of the way... which left a nice big amount of wall space which was obviously meant for new shelves..

So, I was a very, very happy girl when I ran into this old shelving unit which was just perfect for what I needed.

Up went the jars and the fairy lights and it has made one very happy girl :)

Now for the tiling... which needless to say, although it was on my to do list for before Christmas, didn't get done.

I'm thinking cream and red tiles.... 

I shall let you know when they are up!!

xx

Loop Loveliness

My lovely friend Asti leant me a new book to pour over, and man is it a true joy :)

Loop is a yarn shop in London... a very, very beautiful yarn shop in London, and it sells the most beautiful yarns .. including Juno Fibre Arts yarn, which is hand-dyed by my friend Asti, and used for many of the beautiful patterns in this book - hence the lending of the book.. if you follow my drift.

Not only does it have some beautiful patterns, the photographs are inspirational too. 

So I shall be picking up my neglected needles, and giving this a go... a gorgeous cowl... sorry you can't see it very well here as it is so dark, but believe me - if you saw it you'd want it too!

And - jump for joy - its a free pattern from the Loop blog, so you can grab it here.

Oh, and you can see more piccies from the book and lots of other Loop loveliness here too.

Happy knitting :)

xx