steam bake

Warm, crusty, hot-from-the-oven loaf. Yep, it sounds amazing and in real life it was rather darn good too. Here is Wendyl's recipe that I tried:

25g butter
1 tblspn salt
1 tblspn sugar
400ml boiling water
1 tblspn active dried yeast granules (not Surebake)
100ml water - blood temperature
6 cups white flour

Put butter, salt and sugar in a large bowl and pour over boiling water.
Stir in the butter until it has melted and leave to the side to cool down.
Sprinkle the yeast over the lukewarm water and whisk with a fork. Set aside for 10 mins until the yeast goes frothy.
Stir yeast mixture into the butter mixture and stir in nearly all of the flour (the rest goes on the bench). Your dough should be able to be kneaded easily and leaves the bowl clean.
Knead for 10 mins by pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand and then rolling back towards you.
Rinse your bowl out with hot water so that it heats up, dry and coat with oil then put the dough into the bowl and pop it in a warm place for around an hour until it has doubled in size.
Push the dough down gently (don't punch!) then cut it in half and mould it into two oval shapes.
Put your loaves side by side on a greased tray and leave to rise for 5 mins.
Slash the tops with five deep cuts and put on the middle rung of the oven. Boil a jug of water and fill a roasting pan and put this on the rung directly under the loaves. Close the oven door and set the temp to 200 celcius. Bake for 40 - 45mins. Eat with butter and honey straight from the oven.

Next post I'm going to rave about my new Yoga classes. Be prepared.

chewy oats

These little treats are the easiest afternoon tea snack and lunchbox addition.

75g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
75g brown sugar
75g porridge oats
75g polyunsaturated margarine
1 tablespoon golden syrup
cooking spray


Put your oven on to 170 celcius.
Sift the flour and bicarb soda together then add the sugar and oats
Melt the marg and golden syrup in a saucepan then turn off the heat and add the dry mixture
Mix it all together and put tablespoon size dots on a baking sheet sprayed with the cooking spray
Be careful to leave enough space between each biscuit so they can spread out. Flatten them down a little bit with your fingers.

After 15 min or when they're golden brown take them out and let them cool on a rack.


What a crazy week at work. It has been exhausting and has meant that I have severely neglected my blogging!

place. mat.

Sun! Spring is here and is very very welcome. I whipped up these placemats today as a small gift. I used The Crafty Minx pattern but would recommend increasing the sizes from the recommendation in the book.

Glad for a sleep-in this morning and some domestic duties. Hopefully if the sun continues tomorrow we will be out on the water enjoying a brisk morning.

busy hands

Hurrah! I'm excited about cleaning. Sad I know, but my first order from Wendyl's Green Goddess has arrived. The starter set is fantastic and covers most cleaning requirements of an average home. The label of each product has a (super simple) ingredients list and instructions on how you can make it next time. Also, they smell amazing with their essential oil aroma bases.

No major projects taken on this week as work is leaving me in a bit of a daze. To keep my hands busy with mindless activity I whipped up this tie/scarf last night. Wore it today and loved the bright red.

Other musings:
Have recently discovered roast parsnip. For nearly all my life I thought I disliked parsnip, turns out I was wrong. Lovely.

The internet chews up so much time, where do the hours go? Pinterest is the biggest time waster of all for me at the moment. I'm building my own boards and will link them soon.



Handy hint:
Do you get the mineral build up at the bottom of your kettle? Easy fix, chop a lemon into quarters, fill the jug, boil it and leave overnight. Empty the lemon pieces and water in the morning and rinse. Shiny new kettle. Yay.

toaster tidy

I finally came across a project where I could use my kitchen-themed fabric that I picked up at a fabric fair a few months ago. The retro colours in stripes and a utensils print are so cute and now I get to admire them all the time.
The pattern is from sewmamasew. C was a bit confused as to the purpose of covering the toaster but you don't have to explain aesthetics!