This bank holiday I...

1. Went to the anti-coagulant clinic every day

As I mentioned in my post on Friday, my INR reading had gone down, i.e. not the right direction. This has meant my warfarin dosage has been bumped up and a visit every day to keep an eye on it. I am also now injecting myself with Fragmin, a fast-acting anti-coagulant, in an attempt to thin my blood out more quickly. Injecting myself was a quite frankly terrifying prospect but it's not a big deal anymore, I just have to grab a load of fat on my stomach (I knew there had to be a good reason for me being overweight!) and stick the needle in. It doesn't hurt too much, just a little scratch and I feel very brave when I do it.

At the time of posting my INR is stuck resolutely at 1.7 and has been for the past 3 days. It just doesn't seem to be onboard with the whole concept of thinning out. I'm now taking 10mg of warfarin, which is a pretty hefty dose, and injecting the fragmin every day. I'm back at the clinic on Friday afternoon so fingers crossed there'll be a 2 on the machine!

2. Went to a barbeque.

We were undeterred by the rubbish weather because we are hard. BBQs suck when you're on Weightwatchers because there are way too many points on offer. It is very annoying. But I did my best and had quite a bit of the sweetcorn because that's all good. It was also one of the first times I was surrounded by drunk people and not being one of them. It was strange. And annoying.

3. Attended a stitch-a-thon.

One of our Stitch & Bitch group is off to Ghana for a couple of weeks in August to a charity she worked with before. They are currently trying to raise funds to buy a landrover to get between villages and we held an all day stitch in at a cafe in Hull. We had a little bucket and told friends and family and people came and stuck change in our bucket and admired our stitchery activities and we managed to raise £115. Not a bad day considering we basically wanted an excuse to sit about and stitch all day. I managed to start and finish this piece for the exhibition at the end of the month.
4. Did some crocheting.

Oooh what does that picture look like? Does it look like I've joined all my squares together? Oh hell yes. I managed to join all my squares together after a lot of dramatics and eye-rolling and squeals of temper. Now there is just the edging to do (no idea what I'm doing with that) and it is finished. Can't quite believe it.

5. Revelled in getting an extra day off

Although I generally think of work as something which gets in the way of doing the things I really want to do, I have to admit that sometimes it has its benefits. One of those being that we get an extra 3 days holiday a year for free - usually the Tuesday after the last bank holiday in May, the Tuesday after the August bank holiday and a day at Christmas. I didn't do much with today, especially as it's rained all freaking day but any day at home is better than a day at work.

6. Picked up two visitors
Mum is off to stay with my sister for a few days so we have taken delivery of Fred and Lily. So far they have mainly slept. I keep going in to the bedroom and fussing and poking them but they've been resolutely boring. This is why they bug us at 3am - they sleep all frickin' day.

7. Got my bake on
Haven't baked since starting Weightwatchers because the thought of finding out how many points were in the stuff I was making made my brain bleed a little bit. However, the WW website has some recipes and today I made banana and Malteser muffins. Only 4 points each, thus eliminating the guilt out of eating something 'bad'. I will be rewarding myself with one tonight because I just found out I've lost another 2.5 pounds (meaning there's officially 10.5lbs less of me than there was 3 weeks ago).

I'll show you productive

A quick check of the calendar last week revealed that this weekend would be the first one I would be spending at home in 4 weeks. That left me with 2 warring factions of my brain;

Side A: Oh my god brilliant you must sit about and do knack all and celebrate the fact that you don’t have to go anywhere or see anyone
Side B: Do not waste this weekend.

The fact is that I’m not really brilliant at just sitting around. Don’t get me wrong I can veg like the very best of them but sometimes I just get a little itchy and don’t like the feeling of just being slumped on the sofa staring blankly at the television. Hence even when I’m watching some incredibly mind expanding programme like The Hills or Hollyoaks, I’m usually doing something else whether it be cross stitch or crochet or, less often, ironing.

I decided to please both sides of the brain. There would be time for vegging but I was determined the weekend would not be completely unproductive.

Saturday included the very boring task of going shopping. For the first time ever I planned out in advance what we would be having for tea this week and needed a few extra bits. Then it was time to make start on a friend’s birthday present.

Her birthday was the day before mine. As in 3rd April. And I saw what I wanted to get her in February. I bought it and congratulated myself on my superb organisation powers. Then I promptly forgot to get around to actually making the damn thing. If only one thing would be achieved this weekend it would be the making of the guinea pig.

Yeah. I bought a little ready to sew up kit and made her a guinea pig. Because she has guinea pigs. And, you know, I’m hilarious.

I’d put this off because I looked at the instructions a while back and nearly gave myself a brain aneurism trying to figure out what in god’s name it was on about. Luckily for me, the boyfriend speaks Incomprehensible Sewing Instructions so he was there to let me know what I was supposed to be stitching to what.

The end result? Probably the funniest gift ever. I don’t know why but every time I look at it I want to dissolve into giggles. Just look at him.

Fred was slightly less than impressed with my efforts but I’m hoping my friend will appreciate it and forgive me for being a month too late.

I thought Sunday was going to be a write off because I had a night on the town on Saturday but I must be getting sensible in my old age because I jumped in a friend’s taxi at midnight, rather than keeping on going until the early hours. (Truth be told I would have carried on partying like a rockstar but there’s one thing you need to know about Hull. There are no taxis. Seriously. There are none. Don’t even think about going out without booking one to come home and even then it most likely won’t turn up.)

Things weren’t looking brilliant on Sunday. I spent the morning lying on the floor where I’d fallen asleep (I was trying to fix my bad back, which hadn’t totally appreciated me going out in 4 inch heels. Tell you what though, alcohol? Best painkiller ever. Didn’t feel a thing all night), watching Hollyoaks and thinking really hard about getting out of my pyjamas.

I had a sudden spurt of energy about 3pm and got my backside in the kitchen where I made Simone's Cherry & Sultana cake. The verdict? So so good. And even better still warm from the oven with a cup of tea. Oh. My. God.

I also made a Spinach & Ricotta Chicken Lasagne which J had featured on her blog a while ago. You have got to try this out. It was beyond good. What’s beyond good? Oh I know....ACESOME. I felt like I’d actually made an effort in the kitchen, I felt most smug with myself, especially seeing as there was an incident a month ago when I tried to make lasagne and it didn’t go well and I may or may not have actually cried about it. I feel I’ve put that ghost to rest now. Pictures? Erm, no because I was shovelling it in my face. AND there’s some in the freezer to have on a day when I’m lazy.

And lastly, I finished another piece for the Embroidering the Truth exhibition. I’m on a roll now people, five completed and 2 more months to go. I’ve actually got so many quotes stored up that I’m going to have to start picking favourites because I’m not going to have time to do them all.

(I overheard this one at the Post Office when a group of girls were talking about a fancy dress party they were going to)

So I reckon that qualifies as the perfect balance. Productive? Yes. Lazy? Yes. (I never did get out of my pyjamas on Sunday. Well technically I did but that was to shower and put them back on again. Yeah I’m kinda gross.)

'Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

...And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Except that there seemed to be a lot of activity going on in the kitchen...

It feels as though I haven’t been more than 10 feet from the cooker in the past couple of days. I’ve been overcome by the need to bake.

You see the thing is I quite enjoy the making bit (kitchen disasters and mess aside) and the feeling that you’ve produced something but then I’m never that fussed about eating any of the produce.

I’m a savoury girl and my heart lies in a packet of crisps. Cakes and buns and muffins I can take or leave.

However, the rest of my work colleagues are most definitely in the ‘take’ category and I was ordered to produce sweet things for the little Christmas Eve party we’re going to have tomorrow at lunchtime. I had a recipe for Christmas morning muffins that I got from who knows where. On the internet somewhere is all I can tell you. I thought these would be lovely and festive with cinnamon and nutmeg and cranberries and orange zest all thrown in there.

“They sound nice,” said my colleagues. “but also you should make those Marshmallow ones again.”

“But they’re not really festive” I said

“MAKE THEM” came the reply.

So the electric whisk and my crummy scales have never been busier. I have obeyed my orders and made more marshmallow cupcakes. Only 6 though, they are quite frankly the most fiddly buggers I’ve ever made and I don’t enjoy gluing my fingers together with melted marshmallow – they can fight over them between themselves. But I also made the Christmas morning muffins because I wanted to make those.

Then I had to make some more Mincemeat cake. I made this at the beginning of the year with an old jar of leftover mincemeat when I’d just started getting in to baking. It didn’t quite come out like Maria’s seemed to but it was very tasty. I made some at the weekend and it was an unexpected hit with the boyfriend and work people snaffling most of it, leaving me with only 1 slice to savour. This cake is so good with a cup of tea and I’m looking forward to indulging tomorrow afternoon when I finally get to leave work and come home for Christmas.

Then my rooting around in the cupboards unearthed my Christmas tree cookie cutter. How had I forgotten about him?! Clearly I had to use him so out came the books again as I searched for a quick cookie recipe. The Hummingbird Bakery book obliged me and I set about covering the kitchen in a thin film of flour. And then came the fun bit – the decorating!!

And now it’s time for this little baking fairy to put away her muffin trays and her baking trays and her mixing bowls. She can clean the kitchen properly tomorrow afternoon, right now she can’t bear to face the devastation that she has wreaked in there. Or maybe, just maybe, the baking fairy’s boyfriend will clean it all up during the day seeing as he’s not in work. She just has to close her eyes and wish as hard as can be...

Marshmallow Cupcakes

Well it's happened again.

I'm sick.

AGAIN.

The Cough has returned.

This time last year I got a cough. Which was weird because I never get coughs. And it got worse and worse and I ended up with antibiotics for a chest infection.

The thing is. It's never really gone away. It's got better and I've been ok in myself but if I've cleared my throat it sounds as if I'm a 60 a day smoker with less than a month to live. And occasionally, every time I get a little cold it pops its ugly, mucusy, phlegmy head up again.

So he's arrived back again, out of the blue with not a word of warning which is rather rude in my books.

And I'm sick of him. Him and his horrid ways.

And I sound like a man.

I have antibiotics and Mr Doctor Man has got me booked in for chest x-ray next week to see if we can figure out where he's hiding.

It's left me feeling rather miserable with myself. I'm supposed to be going out tomorrow with the girls for our Christmas night out and at the moment my appearance is looking doubtful and there's nothing like the prospect of missing a night out to put me in a FOUL mood.

So.

To make myself feel better I got my kitchen groove on and made some rather hideously girly cupcakes with marshmallows and pink glitter on them. That's right. Pink. Glitter.

These babies are from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and they are marvellous although fiddly to the max. Remember me saying how I hate mess in the kitchen when I'm baking? I probably should have figured it out, I mean I had to melt marshmallows, hollow out the middle of the muffins and spoon it in. What was I thinking?!

There was marshmallow all over the spoon. There was marshmallow on the hob. There was marshmallow on the tea towel. There was marshmallow on my fingers. When the boyfriend came home he pointed out the marshmallow in my hair.

But MAN they taste good!

I would recommend this book to everyone. The recipes are mega easy (marshmallow meltiness aside) and they just take a little bit more effort than your bog standard cupcake and they look amazing. I mean hello? Marshmallows? Pink glitter? Can you go wrong?

NO!

Sweet & Simple Bakes - Snow-flecked Brownies

“I haven't baked anything in AGES” I announced a couple of weekends ago.

“Okaaaaaaay” said the boyfriend, with more than a hint of trepidation.

You see I enjoy the baking. I like creating sweet things, it’s fun and then when everybody likes them you get a lovely warm glow inside that makes you feel wanted and seeing as I’m a people pleaser I’m all over it like a rash.

However.

As much as I love the baking there’s an equal part of me that hates it. Know why? It’s messy.

MESS! Argh! It drives fear in to my inner core. For some reason I don’t end up messy myself, I’ve never had to wear an apron, it’s just everywhere else gets covered! And I seem to use about 45 bowls and every single utensil we’ve got in the drawers. I put the beaters in to the mixture and for a week afterwards I’m cleaning flecks of batter off the walls and the cups on the mug tree. And god help me if the recipe calls for me to use my hands. You might as well as me to put my hands inside someone’s body, it fills me with revulsion. I honestly, honestly have to take a deep breath before I start doing it. I actually have to gear myself up. Probably why I don’t make a lot of cookies and scones. Muffins are a hands-off concoction.

Anyway.

I decided to have a go at this month’s Sweet & Simple bake, snow-flecked brownies. I’ve only tried brownies once and they were a total disaster so I was a bit nervous about attempting this one.

Everything was going swimmingly. My chocolate and butter were nicely melting in a pan, I had my eggs cracked in to my bowl with my vanilla essence and just needed to add the caster sugar.

...

...

...

...

...

Have you ever knocked 350g of caster sugar ALL OVER your kitchen?

I don’t recommend it.

It. Was. Everywhere. Including the bottom of my feet which was driving me round the bend.

The boyfriend came to the rescue with the hoover (or rather I screeched at him to get the hoover, it’s a wonder he stays in the house when I’m baking) and all traces of it were cleared away. Almost. I’m sure I keep feeling it between my toes when I’m in there.

I could have given up there and then. But I am brave.

And luckily had a new bag of sugar.

It wasn’t a complete disaster although I had to massively increase the baking time. This was rather inconvenient as it cut into a very important transatlantic telephone call that I was having with of one of The Americans about the forthcoming trip to England. Cue calls to the boyfriend to go and check how they were doing.

The mixture was in for about 1 hour and 10 minutes and I still felt it was a little too gooey on the inside. The trouble was it was almost burning on the top whilst still liquid inside so I ended up covering it in tin foil and that seemed to do the job.

I have to admit I’m in the minority though. Everybody seemed to love them and especially loved the gooiness in the middle although there was general consensus that maybe 5 minutes more would be good. I’ll also halve the recipe if I did it again because I had way too much brownie goodness than I could handle!

So I still feel a little unsure where brownies are concerned but things could be getting better.

I’m definitely not speaking to the caster sugar though.

If you would like the recipe then please go here

(Apologies for the crap photos but I don't seem to be at home in the daylight these days!)

Sweet & Simple Bakes - St Clement's Drizzle Cake

After last month's disaster I was a bit wary of getting back in the kitchen again but apparently you have to get back in the saddle after you fall off so I had no choice but to get my behind back in to the kitchen again.

Someone in the office is about to go off to have an operation so that was all the excuse I needed to bake this delight and bring it in for everyone to share.

And I was in luck because everyone liked citrus flavoured cakes and absolutely loved this cake.

It was just the right amount of citrus flavour and had a lovely golden colour from the orange and lemon zest.

All in all - a success!! Unfortunately I only had time for a couple of hurried photos before it all disappeared - but I guess that's never a bad thing.

The recipe can be found here.

A big thank you to Rosie & Maria who have been a little quiet on the blog front lately - hope you're both well and know that all of us appreciate the effort you guys go to to provide us with a new challenge each month!

Sweet & Simple Bakes

Bring on the muffins!!

After making the apple crumble at the weekend I remembered that I quite liked this baking malarkey and stomped in to the kitchen to see what took my fancy.

I still hadn't tried anything from my Hummingbird Baking cookbook which I got for the rather bargainous price of £4 (it's about £12 in the shops so saved myself plenty of pennies). Everything in it looks so good and I would love to go and visit the bakery down in the London place but until then I decided to content myself with having a go at some muffins.

I went for the hazelnut & chocolate muffins, which I almost passed by until a quick glance down the list of ingredients revealed just what was in these bad boys. The one and only Nutella!! (Or if you're cheap like me, generic hazelnut and chocolate spread from your local supermarket.)

They came out so well, I was so pleased with myself. They are probably the finest looking muffins I have ever produced. Usually my muffins look like they've been hit by a car or that they've been made with the help of a 3 year old but these were great. Perfect shape and lovely neat icing. I should have got some hazelnuts to decorate the tops with but I was too lazy I'm afraid.
The recipe said it would make 12 cupcakes and a note in the front of the book says that they are based on American cupcake sizes so to use muffin cases. Now I did and I only got 6 muffins. Maybe I have super large cases?! Who knows. Either way it was probably for the best as this way there's only been 6 to scoff instead of 12!

I present to you - Hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1.5 tsps baking powder

pinch of salt

40g butter

120ml whole milk

1 egg

6 tbsps of Nutella

(whole, shelled hazelnuts to decorate)

Frosting

175g icing sugar

40g butter

30ml whole milk

80g Nutella

Method

- Preheat overn to 170c

- Put in flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter and beat until everything is combined

- Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, beating well until everything is combined. Add the egg and beat well.

- Spoon mixture into cases until two-thirds full and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until sponge bounces back when touched.

- When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with dollop of the Nutella, before placing the top back on (it will stick up a bit but don't worry, it's going to get covered in icing!)

For the frosting:

- Beat icing sugar and butter together (my god be careful, the whole kitchen was covered in icing sugar powder by the time I was finished!). Slowly pour in the milk and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy. The longer you beat the lighter and fluffier it becomes.

- Stir in the Nutella by hand until evenly mixed into the frosting. Then spoon over the top and finish with the hazelnuts.

Et voila! Eat to your heart's content!!

How to cure a hangover.

You might have guessed from my last post that I was the tiniest bit hungover on Saturday this weekend. I should have known it was going to happen, my last words to the boyfriend as I left to go to the pub was "I won't be late".

I mean it really all depends on your definition of late. In between finishing my undergraduate degree and starting my Masters degree I spent a year back in Hull, working to fund the upcoming degree. I did work all the time but I also went out all the time and 'late' by my definition meant about 4am.

2am was just a regular old coming in time. But whatever...

I have tried and tested many hangover remedies in my time. I think I hit on some quite good ones this weekend.

1. The crisp method

A very good tried and tested method of old. I rely heavily on this remedy, to the extent that I will make sure that I have crisps in the house before I go out. I'm pretty sure there is a medical explanation that backs me up on this one. Something about salt. Although I thought that a hangover is caused by dehydration and I thought salt dehydrated you....anyway I'm no Dr but I know I felt rough and half way down a big bag of bacon rashers I felt a hell of a lot better.

2. The good boyfriend method

He did his job well this weekend. No berating or laughing at me for the state that I was in. He supplied me with bacon in the morning, bacon rashers mid-morning, left me to sleep in the afternoon, sorted out dinner in the evening, put in (and unloaded) two rounds of washing and was generally wonderful.

3. The something to keep you occupied method

I felt too tired for reading, I didn't think I'd be able to concentrate on what was going on. So I decided for my fall-back 'keeping me occupied habit'. Cross stitch. The stitch of cross. And it did keep me occupied. Oh and by the way, Christmas has already begun in this household...

4. The baking method

Definitely one to try only if you're not feeling queasy. Luckily the hangover was not on the borderline of vomiting so late afternoon I decided that it was time to get in the kitchen. I needed to feel as if I'd been productive and hadn't wasted an entire day. Also Autumn is most definitely in the air and I needed something comforting to keep me feeling warm. However I was well aware that I wasn't up for a grand design so I went for the easiest thing I can do - a bit of apple crumble.

Add all those together and you will have your hangover cured.

(you could possibly need the help of some paracetemol during the day)