Bringing the outside in.............

So it's Good Afternoon from me today......

                                                                                   

  Just flying through to wish you a very happy day...............

                                                                                 

                                                                                   

The sun is shining here and the garden is certainly looking a whole lot prettier.....

                                                                               

                                                                                   
Which means the inside of the house can also look a little bit prettier............

                                                                                 

Always a good thing...


                                                                                 

                                                                               

                                                                                   

Enjoy the rest of your day....and the pretty things it may bring you!!



                                             Janelle  xx                                                                                

                                                                                   

Chocolate Chip Cookies.....White Farm style.............

Hello!! So good to see you again. We are in the kitchen today and things are smelling g.o.o.d. Please come on through............

                                                                               

                                                                                       
                                                                                 
Yes indeed, that is the unbeatable aroma of the good old fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookie you can smell. Would you like one with your cuppa??

                                                                             

Seriously...look at that scrumptious gooey chocolate.....mmmmmmm......

                                                                                 

Ok, so this recipe I begged from a friend years ago, well I asked her nicely and she happily gave it to me, and I have been baking it quite a bit lately. I think everyone has a good stash of choc chip cookie recipes hanging about in their kitchen (or is that just me??) but it's this one that's hitting the spot at the moment.

                                                                               

Would you like the recipe? Yes of course you would.

                                                                                   

As per usual I have swapped and changed a few things to suit myself, it's called creative licence or some such thing, so I'll give you the White Farm version today ok? Ok.......

                                                   Chocolate Chip Cookies  

Ingredients

80 grams butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup self raising flour, sifted
3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup choc bits
1 tablespoon milk

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees

2. In a bowl beat together the butter, vanilla and sugars

3. Add the egg and give that a beat too

4. Now stir through the flours, choc bits and milk

5. Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto greased or lined baking trays. The original recipe suggests "level tablespoons" which is fine but I often prefer to use a biggish teaspoon size and I get about 18 biscuits.

6. Pop them in the oven for approx 12 minutes

7. Once out let them cool a few minutes on the trays then transfer them to a cooling rack

8. You really must try these warm while the chocolate is still gooey.

9. No really, I insist


                                                                                     

Easy yes?!! And I promise you your family will love you a little bit extra after you have baked these for them....

                                                                               

That's if you save any for anyone else. And there's a chance that you won't.......

                                                                                   

Let me know if you try these and how many you eat in one sitting ok??

Enjoy and Happy Baking!!!


                                                           Janelle  xx





                                                                                                                         

How to, or not, paint a doormat.......

Hello there and welcome to another week!!! I have a little DIY to share with you today. The jury is still out as to whether this project is actually a success but heck....let's have a look at it anyway shall we?!!??

                                                                                   

This all began with me wanting to spruce up the deck with a bit of colour for Spring and Summer. At the same time I was constantly coming across pics on instagram and other blogs of gorgeous brightly painted coloured front doors. Since if I want to stay married this is not an option for me I decided a brightly painted doormat could do the trick. I came across a picture on pinterest of some rubber doormats that had been painted in bright funky colours and thought I could so easily do this. Hhmmmm.......

                                                                                 

Ok.....so I'd trotted off in search of a black rubber mat. Simple, I thought, these mats are everywhere. Except they're not. The best I could find was this one which in hindsight (don't you just looooove hindsight??!! It's such a know-it-all...) really is the better option. Less rubber, more grass.

So....on with the painting. Obviously I then trotted off to purchase myself a can of spraypaint (red), with all those grooves and patterns it was certainly going to be the easier option. Again, hhmmmmm........

I didn't actually get a pic of what happened next but let's just say spraypaint and rubber with lots of grooves in it don't really mix.

Feeling rather deflated at this point I turned to my trusty old friend, the can of primer. It never fails me or lets me down. Surprisingly this didn't really take me that long to paint on with a brush and whilst I was waiting for it to dry I was off and trotting again, this time for the can of red paint I was sure was in the shed. Somewhere.

After eventually with the help of my rather amused husband locating this can of red paint I realised that I wouldn't have enough to cover the job. And for the third time....hhmmmmmm....

                                                                                 

                                                                                   

At this stage, throwing pretty much all original plans out the window, I decided to just use the mint coloured paint I had lying about left over from the cabinet I had painted recently. And considering I had started out with the plan to spray paint this mat in a bright red to sit at the front door but ended up brush-painting it mint and sitting it at the side door.....I think  it turned out not too bad............

                                                                                       

   

   

I must admit though I am a tad nervous of people stepping on the painted rubber as I really can't see it lasting too long before things start to peel. But that's ok.....it looks pretty and we have plenty of old chairs around here that nobody's allowed to sit on for fear they will break so now we just have a doormat at the back door which nobody is allowed to step on.......?!......

                                                                               

Well that's it from me today. Longwinded story has finally come to an end and we can all get on with our busy days!!

                                                                                   

Thanks for stopping by....hope to see you again soon........ 

                                                          Janelle  xx                                                                                  

Chocolate Simplicity Cake

Hello there and Good Evening!!!
Squeezing in a little baking post tonight....are we up for it?? Did somebody mention easy-as-throwing-in-a-bowl-and-mixing-chocolate-cake????? Yep...I do believe I am up for that!!!

                                                                               

This is a cake I tend to make a.l.o.t. It is so quick and simple to whip up in those moments that you just need cake.

                                                                                 

Now.

                                                                                     

It literally just calls for you to toss all the ingredients into a bowl, mix it up and throw it in the oven. Done.....

                                                                                   

 In fact it is so simple it's name is.....Chocolate Simplicity Cake.

                                                                                 

Funny that..............


                                                                                   

So......on with the show...............

                                                                                 

                                                               Chocolate Cake                                                          

Ingredients

60 grams butter, melted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup raw sugar (or 'normal' white sugar if that is what you have)
1/2 cup milk

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees

2. Melt butter (I do this in a seperate small bowl so I can set it aside to cool off a bit whilst I am faffing with the other stuff)

3. Place all ingredients in a large-ish bowl

4. Beat. For a few minutes.

5. Pour mixture into a greased and lined cake tin. Sometimes I use your average round sponge tin. You could use a log tin. My favourite at the moment is this round ring tin. I love the way it takes the whole hassle out of wondering "is my cake cooked in the middle??" (doesn't everyone have that hassle??!?) and it's a cute shape. Makes cutting the cake a breeze too. Hmmm...yes.....back to the recipe......

6. Bake cake for approx 40 minutes.

7. Let cool in tin for a few minutes before tipping it out onto a cake rack to cool completely.

8. Ice. Eat. Enjoy.

                                                                                     

This time I just smothered it in a basic chocolate icing then sprinkled coconut all over..... Mmmmmmmmm........

                                                                               

And then licked up the dripping icing from in the middle. Because I'm neat and tidy like that......

                                                                             

                                                                             
Ok.....now it's your turn!! Trust me please.....you NEED to bake this cake. It will improve your life.

Maybe.

Have a Happy Evening..................


                                                                 Janelle  xx
                

A new addition.............

Hello again!! Today we seem to be back to Winter again with cold temps and rain. Rather silly really when just north of us could so desperately do with any kind of cool wet weather to aid in the fire situations. We are certainly thinking of you guys......
So..... this morning I have been giving a little bath and spruce up to this guy........

I found him the other week at the church fete looking all sad and neglected and in need of a good home......

                                                                             

                                                                                 

                                                                                 
And, I thought to myself with a twitch in my hands, a few coats of paint.......white paint even..............

                                                                                 

My favourite part of him......love it.............

                                                                                 

                                                                                 

And the lining is very cute I must say. So, my plans at this stage are to slap white paint all over this then re-line (is that an actual word? Re-line??? Hmmmm....) the inside with a fabric of some colour or type. I'm feeling quite partial to a lovely bright polkadot? Thoughts??

                                                                               

Ok....I'm off to hunt down the paintbrushes etc. And ice a cake. Not with the paintbrush. You know what I mean.

                                                                                   

Have a fab rest-of-your-day....................

See you tomorrow...... hopefully with cake........


                                                                                   Janelle  xx                                                                                                                          

Monday.............

Aaahhhh Monday..........

                                                                                 

                                                                                 

And so it all starts again!!?!!.....


                                                                             

Wishing you a happy and productive week ahead......let's make it a good one!!!

                                                                                 

Hope to see you again tomorrow...................



                                                                       Janelle  xx                                                                            

A Few Dead Flowers............

Hey there!! Friday evening is happening here.....

                                                                               

Always a rather lovely time of the week wouldn't you say??

                                                                                   

The sun is shining through our back windows......

                                                                                 

Dinner is organised........

                                                                                 

And, aside from the odd sporting activity and birthday party, our weekend is looking pretty cruisey......


                                                                                     

I hope you have a fab weekend.....

                                                                                 

See you around soon.............



                                                            Janelle  xx
                                                                                                       

Tea Cake. Again.......

Hello Wednesday!!
Just popping in quickly today to share a flash-back recipe.
                                                                                     

I am always, and by always I mean every week and then some "always", baking this......

                                                                                 

Yep...the good old French Tea Cake

                                                                               

It is such a fall-back, never fail, everybody loves it (until the day they all get sick of the sight of it....what then???!!??) type of cake it would just be silly not to bake it. All. The. Time.

                                                                                 

So get clicking here and bake yourself some cake!!!

                                                                                   

The link I've given is actually for my Apple teacake but it's all exactly the same, just skip the apples....

                                                                                 

 
Or better yet, throw some in!!!  It's delicious either way.....

I hope you like!!!

Enjoy.........

                                                     Janelle  xx