Happy Christmas!

I'm blogging from my very own brand new laptop! I've been asking for one for a while, but I never thought I'd actually get it. I also got a cat onesie yesterday (we always get new pajamas on Christmas Eve) and now I can't wait for food. 

Merry Christmas!

Love, Shay. xo

Merry Christmas Eve!

I can’t believe it’s Christmas eve already! All of our decorations are up (and have been for a week or two) and it finally feels like Christmas. 

I’m really sorry for not posting earlier. I feel so bad, but I've been really busy recently what with exams and illness and Christmas shopping (aka stressing- Christma

s presents are hard work!) I’ve really not had the chance, and I've not really been doing anything ‘blog worthy’ anyway. I have a couple of ideas for future posts, which is pretty exciting considering my lack of creativity/motivation/time.

But that’s okay now, because I’m here and I bring Christmas goodies! Well, Christmas goody, but its gingerbread so you aren’t allowed to complain. It’s perfect for a last minute present, or a Christmas party you might be attending. Or maybe you just want to stuff you're face with gingerbread. Don’t worry, I won’t judge. 

I found this recipe on the BBC website. You can never go wrong with BBC food. I made it a few days ago for my mum to take with her to work, and now I’ve made it again today, just for fun.

Sorry for the crazy collage, I'm still working on my photo skills

Ingredients

·         350g plain flour, plus extra for rolling out

·         1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

·         2 tsp ground ginger

·         1 tsp ground cinnamon

·         125g/4½oz butter

·         175g/6oz light soft brown sugar

·         1 free-range egg

·         4 tbsp. golden syrup

Method

1.       Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into a bowl. Add the butter and blend in a food processor until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

2.       Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

3.       Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

4.       Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a space between them so they don’t morph into one.

5.       Bake for 8-12 minutes (my biscuits were only small, so they didn’t need as much time) or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

                                                                                                                                             

These are some of the best gingerbread biscuits that I’ve ever made, and they're really easy to make. 

Happy holidays!

Love, Shay. xo

December is here!

I can't believe it's December already! I love the end of the year, because it's great to be able to look back and feel happy about what you've done or accomplished. It's also a great time to plan for the future- you have a whole year ahead of you!

I've decided that 2014 is going to be a productive year for me. I've really just been coasting along and scraping by, but I feel like now's the time to get my head down in school and really work hard. I'm going to try and build up a collection of notebooks to help me plan and focus. I'm also going to start saving up my money instead of wasting it.

I really want to start a scrapbook for 2014. I love having visuals to look back over my year, and gathering them all in one place would be the best! Later on this month I'm going to set myself goals for 2014 and I really hope I can achieve them.

What do you hope to do in 2014?

Love, Shay. xo

Good morning starshine

I should really be getting ready for school right now, but I'm putting it off for as long as possible...

I'm currently listening to Gabrielle Aplin (again). Her music is just so relaxing and lovely. I really need to dowload English Rain on to my ipod.

I really just wanted to share this song, now I need to go and finish getting ready.
(Sorry for any typos, I'm not wearing my glasses. I'll come back later and check)#

Love, Shay. xo

Brace yourself

I'm getting braces. I've known for a while that I've needed braces; I've been on the orthodontist waiting list for over a year. But I'm still really sad. Obviously I want straight teeth, and in the long run I know I'll regret it if I don't get them, but I'm still really nervous. I went to the orthodontist today where they did moulds of my mouth and then x-rays and stuff, and it was pretty uncomfortable. They were stretching my mouth here, there, and everywhere. I have to have them for 18-24 months, which kinda sucks. I also have to get four teeth out at the dentist, so overall this is no fun. I'm trying to look forward to the end and I don't even have braces yet! But I think the hardest thing is going to be the food; I was told that sweet treats such as delicioss cakes and cookies are out of bounds- how will I cope?! So to make the most of it I'm going to stuff my face each and every day (okay not really but I wish I could).
Sorry for the boring post, not much is going on right now.

Love, Shay. xo

P.S Have you seen this years John Lewis advert yet? I'm in love. When we first watched it me and my mum were tearing up. It's beautiful.

Pea and bacon soup

Okay. I'm a bad person. I'm so sorry for not uploading sooner, but I feel like my life is pretty hectic right now. The amount of coursework I have to do for school is ridiculous. I need a schedule.
Anyway, I'm here now with a super soup that will warm you right up in time for chilly(er) days. But seriously, it's freezing right now.
My mum made this for us on bonfire night and it was delicious. She said she thinks the recipe was in a Tesco magazine a few years a go, but she's not quite sure. Basically she made this up as she went along. This recipe made quite a lot, but you could quite easily change the measurements to suit you. This is more of a guideline than an actual recipe.

Ingredients
-1 bunch of spring onions
-2 litres of vegetable stock
-1 kilogram frozen peas
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tub of cream cheese
- Bacon

Directions
1) Cook the spring onion in alarge saucepan on a low heat for about 10 minutes.
2) Pour all of the stock into the pan and stir witha wooden spoon.
3) Cafefully add in all the peas. Turn the heat up and wait until boiling.
4) Add in salt and pepper to taste.
5) Using a handblender whizz until smooth - your soup will be quite runny at this point.
6) Add in cream cheese and whizz again. Add as much cream cheese as you like, or until the soup is your desired consistency.
7) Cook your bacon and chop it up. Stir it in to your soup.

Done! It's soo easy to make and really tasty too. You can take the bacon out for a vegetarian soup if you like, or use parma ham for a different flavour. It really is up to you!

Love Shay. xo

Billington's brownies

A couple of weeks ago my mum sent off for a free Billington’s cake tin. You literally only have to buy two packets of sugar then go on the website and enter the codes. I’m actually not 100% sure if they're still doing this, but if they are you should go buy some sugar. 'Cause it’s a free cake tin, right?

Anyway, it had these little leaflets inside that had a recipe for brownies, and I know ive already posted a brownie recipe before but they were technically supposed to be cookies. Plus these are much more ooey gooey. And it’s a totally different recipe.

You can find this recipe here.

Ingredients

250g Billington's Unrefined Dark Muscovado Sugar (of course any dark muscovado sugar would work)

200g unsalted butter

350g 70% dark chocolate, chopped into pieces (I used 200g milk chocolate and 150g dark chocolate. This was purely because dark chocolate isn’t my favourite thing in the world)

3 medium eggs

50g self-raising flour

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5, line a tin with baking parchment.

2) Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

3) Whisk the eggs until pale and fluffy. Add the dark muscovado sugar and whisk until thick. Gently fold in the chocolate.

4) Sift in the flour and fold in until the mixture is smooth.

5) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until you see a paper-like crust on top. There should still be some movement in the centre of the tin.

6) Remove from the oven, leave to cool, then cut into squares.

These brownies were really soft and gooey in the middle. They went great with a spoonful of ice cream, and my family pretty much devoured them in a day. I blame my brother.

I also reheated one in the microwave (for about 45-60 seconds), and it was fab.

See you soon!

Love Shay. xo