Ikea picture shelves

while looking to decide what to do with all the kiddie books in the house I came across an article in using ikea picture shelves and propping the books up. I liked the idea but didn't have enough wall space in my sons room. It did make me think that I should be doing this for all the photos and prints sitting about my room. 

so off to Ikea I went (anyone that knows me knows this is not unusual). I originally intended on getting two large Ribba shelves but when I was there I decided three smaller ones staggered might look a bit more interesting.

what do you think? 

I had a lot of white frames already and each were different so I decided to stick with one colour to bring it all together.  

I can actually look at all the lovely pictures that had been propped against my bedside table. 

Orange Chocolate Truffles

I wanted to make something for my friends that did not have peanut butter so that Mt hubby could eat too. So I went for Orange Chocolate Truffles.  They are so simple but lovely.

Ingredients
1 orange
200g Milk Chocolate - good chocolate  
100mls of double cream

Method
zest the orange and sqeeze all the juice out.  Simmer in a pot until the liquid has reduced to 1Tbs

Bring the cream to a simmer, not a boil.

while doing this grate your chocolate and put in a bowl.

Add the cream into the chocolate and stir in the centre until the two ingredients start to come together.  Then stir in all the chocolate.  Add the orange and do a gentle stir.

Pour into a shallow container and refrigerate.

when it has been set for a few hours scoop out with a spoon and roll in balls.  Roll in icing sugar.

these will keep in freezer for 1 month or the fridge for 4 days.  

Mmmmmmmmmm......... these are out of this world.  

Stay tuned as I have done rasberry and also Maple syrup and pecan ones as well.
 

vintage crate book box

For too long now there have been a lot of books cluttering up my tv unit. I decided I wanted something that's a bit different that could be moved from one room to another. This is the perfect solution. 

Crates seem to be very popular and easy to purchase in the USA however I found it very difficult in the UK to locate any new crates. I found a supplier of 1940s vintage french crates and thought I would get one to assess the quality. 

It arrived very grubby and rough quality. (what did I expect it's vintage) I had to do a lot of sanding and cut my hands to ribbons, I wanted to do it by hand as I didn't want to sand it back too much.

Originally I was going to paint it all the purple colour but after sanding I really liked that the wood looked 'authentic' without trying. Of course it looked authentic - IT WAS! 

I painted the inside with two coats of 'Annie Sloan Clalk Paint' in Emile (even the colour was french) and used two coats of the soft clear wax inside and out. It gave the wood warmth and it soaked up a lot of wax but it was worth it. 

For the wheels I wanted them to be in keeping with he rest of the piece so plastic wheels just didn't cut it. These polished brass wheels just set it off.

As my father in law said little did a french farmer know as he made this 75 years ago that his crate which was quickly made utilitarian box for transporting produce to market would be used in a modern living room in Belfast in 75 years to store books!! I think that's pretty cool. 

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta with Bacon

I had read a recipe on Pinterest from cookie and kate and thought I would give it a go. not to diss the vegan idea I was just wanting 'more' so I used chicken stock and yummy maple cured bacon mmmmm. 

ingredients

1.5 pounds of small cubes of butternut squash

1 brown onion chopped

300mls chicken stock

pinch of cinnamon

pepper

chilli flakes (omit of you like)

5 rashers of maple or smoked back bacon (cut in strips and fried off)

1/2  cup of pasta water

pasta 

1. fry the onion, cinnamon and butternut squash in the pan with some oil until the onion starts to soften this should take 10 mins

2. add the chicken stock and pepper and simmer for 20 mins. During this time fry off your bacon and boil your pasta. 

3. place butternut squash mixture in food processor and whizz into a purée 

4. return back to the pan and stir in the bacon. 

5. add water from pasta (starch is a thickener) and stir. drain pasta and add to the purée to toss.

6. plate up and enjoy! 

this is so creamy no need for cheese or cream added so nice low fat recipe. my hubby the Vegetable Avoider loved it so has to be a thumbs up.

Rum + cupcakes = 30th birthday treats

I love rum and cupcakes so when I seen the recipe for strawberry daiquiri and mojitos cupcakes I had to make them for my friends. I got a lot of compliments so I hope you try them and love them. I've only included the daiquiri recipe but the first photo is the mojito cupcake. I thought the strawberry ones were 10 times nicer than the mojito. 

Ingredients

the sponge

100ml white rum

170g caster sugar

150g strawberries

40g butter

120g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 large egg

120ml milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract 

frosting 

80g butter

250g icing sugar

1/2 tsp lime zest

4 tsp milk 

4 tsp of the rum reserve

method

1.add the rum and 10g of sugar into a pot and bring to the boil. reduce by half. chop the strawberries into small pieces and soak in the rum for 30 mins

2. add all the other sponge ingredients into a bowl and mix (If only I had a kitchen aid). the recipe calls for stages but I found the same results by combining all at once. 

3. drain the strawberries from the rum and safe the liquid. Spoon the strawberries into the mini cupcake cases.  Pour cake mixture into the cases. 

4. Bake at 170•c for 14 mins and test. spoon the rum reduction over the cupcakes (really moistens and adds more flavour)

5. add all the frosting ingredients and mix. ( the original recipe didnt mention the rum reduction in their frosting ingredients and I'd used it all in the sponge first time round. the frosting in enhanced with the rum - lets face it most things in life are).

6. pipe the frosting and eat :-) 

taken from hummingbird bakery 'cake days'. 

hummingbird bakery banana loaf

I have started getting a fruit and veg box delivered on a weekly basis so I had extra eggs and bananas.  not that I need an excuse for banana bread! 

I adapted the recipe from 'hummingbird bakery cookbook' 

250g light brown sugar

20g caster sugar

290g peeled bananas

280g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1tsp nutmeg

140g melted butter

handful of choc chips

poured into 1lb loaf tin and into the oven 170•c for 1hour. 

Sunday cooking

being a mum to an 18 month old and working full time it's hard to find time for trying new recipes. I always try to set some time aside on a Sunday to try different or long recipes.

today I made BBQ beer pulled chicken from fat girl in a skinny body. 

http://www.fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.com/2012/05/bbq-beer-chicken-crockpot/

I have made this three or four times and love it.

 for the BBQ marinade I used jack Daniels 

smokey sauce. I used the honey one the time 

before and liked it even more. one thing I did 

find was the sauce is too runny when doing the 

recipe quantities so I reduced the amount of 

marinade by one cup and added extra garlic 

mmmmmmm!! I know it's probably not how it's 

done in the states but I put it in pitta pockets

so I don't loose a scrape.