Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Okay so where do I start?

There's been a lot going on lately and to be honest where do I start? I'll just start with the first random thought that pops into my head.........oops no! Maybe not that one with Patrick Dempsey and handcuffs....okay the next thought then...
Summer has gone, Autumn has settled in well and brought with it rain and some cooler weather, although we've only succumbed once to putting the heat pump on.
Joe seems to be getting on well in the new job, lots to deal with but he'll get there in the end, the main hurdle being to master the use of the computer, he's not really a computer person, they crash or go slow when he walks past....really!
I've been baking, sewing and decorating, not necessarily in that order. We're decorating a spare room downstairs, a bedroom. Joe helps with the prep, I hate that part, and he paints the ceiling. I do the rest he hates that part. I'll share that project soon.

I've been baking...

Banana Loaf

Nice and easy recipe, bananas adding the flavour, baked in a loaf tin and the kids you can lick the spoon
Ingredients
1 and 3/4 cups Edmonds self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon Edmonds baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
75 g butter, melted
1 cup mashed banana


Method
Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl
Mix in sugar
In another bowl beat eggs
Stir in milk, butter and banana
Mix quickly into dry ingredients, stirring until ingredients are just combined
Spoon into a greased and lined 23 cm loaf tin
Bake at 180°C for 45-55 minutes
Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

I used the same frosting recipe as the carrot cake for the above cake.

Carrot cake

 

This carrot cake recipe is the nicest one I've ever tasted I reckon, lovely and moist. I used all of one of the small pots of soured cream.

Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
250ml/8fl oz/1 cup corn oil (rice bran oil works fine)
175gms/6oz/1 cup sugar
3 eggs
175gms/6oz/1 1/2 cups plain flour
7.5ml/1 1/2 tsps baking powder
7.5ml/1 1/2 tsps bicarb of soda
3ml/3/4 tsp salt
7.5ml/1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch grated nutmeg
1.5ml/1/4 tsp ground ginger
115gms/4oz/1 cup chopped walnuts
225gms/8oz/2 large carrots finely grated
5ml/ 1 tsp vanilla essence
30ml/ 2 tblsps soured cream

For the frosting
175gms/6oz/3/4 cup full fat soft cheese
25g /1oz/2tbsp softened butter
225gms/8oz/2 cups sifted icing sugar

I used walnut halves to decorate the top, the recipe suggests making 8 tiny carrots from orange and green coloured marzipan, but I thought that was a bit poncey!
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease two 20cm round cake tims and line with greaseproof paper.
2 Put the corn oil and sugar into a bowl and beat well. Add the eggs one at a time, beat thoroughly into the mixture
3 Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt & cinnamon into the bowl and beat well. Fold in the walnut & carrots and stir in the vanilla essence and soured cream
4 Divide the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake in the oven for about 1 hour and 5 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
5 Leave in the cake time for about 5 mins then turn onto wire rack to cool.
To make the frosting, mix the soft cheese, butter and icing sugar together in a bowl. Beat until smooth.
6 Sandwich the cooled cakes together with a little of the frosting, Spread the remainder over the top and down the sides. Decorate the top.
I only put the frosting between the cakes and on the top, I didn't think there was enough to cover the whole cake.
Enjoy.
  
Gratuitous pet photo, Max & Jinx!

If you follow Sue's blog a little while ago she showed off a new piece of furniture, a display cabinet which replaced the one in the photos below. She was sellin' and I was buyin'
Oak display cabinet in great condition, I gave it a good polish with some wood oil and it looks as good as new again. You'll be pleased to know that I was fine after my display of domesticity!



It didn't take me long to fill it!



A couple of weeks ago we decided to go into Hamilton City Centre to get some lunch, Italian, delish! The restaurant was across the road from the camera shop, how convenient. Long story short Joe bought me a new lens a 150mm-500mm zoom lens....a big bugger... a "Now will you stop nagging me' gift. Pffrt! It's big and it's heavy and my tripod isn't up to the task...I may have to start nagging again. ;-)

It's first outing was a week last Saturday to one of Michaels away rugby game, here are a few shots

Michael
 Scoring a try
 Looking pleased with himself


 Michael and his beloved Waikato Draught beer are never far apart


 
 Himself, the firmly retired ex rugby player

 My lad, or is it Oddbod from Carry on Screaming??
If you would like to see the other 300!!!!! You can look here. Needless to say I'm quite happy with my new lens.


Suesday's are back on!! Yay! On Monday I met up with Sue and our mutual friend Kerry, we op shopped and had lunch, a perfect day. And Sue and I are up for it again on Friday, woohoo.
Not a huge haul but here it all is anyway...
 Pretty beaded bag from the new Hospice shop
 No they are not books because I have enough....move on nothing to see here!
 I'm looking for LPs of movie soundtracks, movie posters are hard to come by here so they are next best thing. So far I have 2! The Sound of Music and this one, it may take a while to get a few so that they can be framed and put on the wall in the TV room.

The best find however must be this big roll of quilt batting! I pay $18 a metre at the quilting shop, this little lot was $20, so I'm pretty happy with that. I will have to make more quilts though. That's the only drawback, hard innit?

And finally the prettiest find was from the Indian shop I bought the dresses from recently, I've been after one of these for a while...a beautifully beaded table runner. Not the best light sorry.



And that's it for now, I still need to blog about my Goodreads challenge, I'm still on track. It's craft tomorrow so I can do an update of all the craftiness then. Annnnd of course the bedroom but I don't have any wallpaper paste so can't do the wallpapering until I get some, so watch this space.

I hope to catch up on your blogs soon too, hope you're all well in the Blogisphere.

See ya, bye for now



8 comments:

  1. That cabinet looks fabulous. Maybe I need a new camera, don't know if nagging the hubby will work though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice newsy post, Sue! Your new camera takes great photos, perhaps I need to nag as well!! Your Suesday looks productive - have fun on the next one! Happy painting :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thought I should do a catch up, I'm not sure what happens to that day to be honest, one blink and it's gone and then I'm knackered after all that blinking! :D

      Delete
  3. Hi Sue, think I will try your banana loaf recipe as have quite a few going black in the fridge. Great photos with your new lens. Your cabinet looks awesome :-) Love that old oak style, you never tire of it. Love your new table runner too. I have two of those "not new" books you have pictured, both great reads. Have a great week Sue

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a nice recipe, hope you like it. I just need to learn how to get my camera off auto!! I've been after one of those cabinets forever, I love it. Have a great week yourself matey xx

      Delete
  4. mmmm yummy baking! Love the new/old cabinet!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow … looks like a great lens … who says size doesn't matter ;0)
    xx

    ReplyDelete

I love reading your comments and I thank you for taking the time to write them. I do my very best to reply to every one of them right here on the blog. When you leave your next comment tick the 'email follow up comments' and then you'll get any replies I leave. Thank you for reading my blog.