Thursday Things

Otherwise known as “some random things that have been collecting on Lucy’s camera”…

1. You remember the hat Izzy made on Saturday? Well, not many of the children from her school entered she won a prize! I need to work on my enthusiasm I think, ha, when the teacher gave it to me at Tuesday school pick-up I think she was expecting more than my “Greeeeat…what is it?!!” I was very glad I’d brought the car though – it was hard enough getting plant + Toby back to the car as it was…one poor Mother was walking home and her child had won a tree about three times the size of our blackcurrant bush!!

Izzy is very pleased with it though and has been watering it morning and night. If anyone has any tips for blackcurrant bushes (that’s what the teacher said it was anyway) please pass them on. I’m planning on transferring it, somehow, into a large pot at the weekend…but I don’t really have a clue about gardening!!

2. I know this seems to be a “popular” thing in blog-land at the moment, but I have been loving fresh figs lately. I perhaps need to work on my presentation skills (!) but this salad was delicious. Salad, smoked cheese and figs that I grilled for a few minutes with a tiny bit of brown sugar…

3. I had some fun post this morning! I joined BzzAgent several years ago and still get invited to join “campaigns” sometimes. This latest one was an invitation to eat chocolate – how could I say no?!

As you can see, they sent me full size bars of both the Golden Biscuit Crunch…

and the toffee popcorn chocolate…

I opened the biscuit one with my Grandma this morning, and then Liam and I have been working our way through both bars this evening. They are both super tasty but, for me, the popcorn one is the most addictive, sweet & salty and full of popcorn – I can’t stop eating it, oops!! Liam likes the biscuit one best though, the only thing we agree on is that we’d both happily eat either of them! The letter BzzAgent sent me says that they are on offer in Tesco 2 for £3, after that they’ll be about £2.50 per bar I think.

4. Izzy also got some post this morning. We never normally send away for “free” things, but my Dad bought the children a box of Coco Pops when he last visited, and Izzy really wanted one of the bowls that was offered on the back. It did require purchasing another two boxes of cereal but, unlike a lot of these offers, you didn’t need to pay for postage or anything, so we ordered online a few weeks ago…and her tip and sip bowl arrived today!

Haha, as you can see she was very excited…cereal as every snack from now on then!!

5. The final thing that I have been sent recently was a loaf of Burgen bread. They didn’t tell me they were going to be sending me this, so it was another lovely surprise waiting on my doorstep one day last week. They have a new design for their packaging for Breast Cancer Awareness month in October…

The bread is still as delicious as ever! I had some made into French toast, served with my current favourite toppings – strawberries, maple syrup and Philadelphia mixed with icing sugar and vanilla extract – my at-home version of the delicious mascarpone French toast topping we had in London, as we always have Philadelphia in the fridge.

6. I have a new cake to add to our family favourites rotation, alongside lemon drizzle cake and chocolate brownies…gingerbread loaf (without the icing or the stem ginger) I’d promised my Grandma a cake as her birthday present, and she requested that I try to make gingerbread…

We all loved the result – so much so that my Mum has already put in an “order” to make her one to share with her colleagues in a couple of weeks’ time!

What are your favourite everyday cake recipes? No fancy icing required please! I was chatting to Mum today about what cakes she wanted me to make, and we eventually settled on the above gingerbread as well as my usual lemon drizzle cake, but I’d love some new ideas too. I make slightly more labour intensive cupcakes/birthday cakes for special occasions, but the cakes I make most regularly seem to have no icing or just a drizzle…a cake needs to be quick and easy if I’m going to make it time and time again!