Tips to the Perfect Soup.

It must have the onions fried in butter.

You must add more garlic then you would expect. The garlic must be chopped into large pieces and added in just before the water.

Vegetables should be fried with the onions for at least 5-10 minutes before then adding the garlic chunks. Then water.

Always make sure you add a generous amount of stock. Little stock equates a tasteless soup. 

Blend to perfection. 

Sundried Tomato Bread.

Last week a spent a fair amount of time down in Glasgow. It was wonderful to see people I haven't seen in a long time. I did a lot of shopping while I was there, which was inevitable and satisfying. I also did a lot of eating. The last night in Glasgow I stayed with my friends Sally and John and we made pizza for dinner from scratch. It was delicious and made me want to try my hand at making bread. So I thought I would try a loaf and add one of my favorite things into it, sundried tomato's. Here goes;


You will need:


750g of strong white flour
2 teaspoons of salt
25g of butter (I use Lurpak)
7g of Dried Yeast
450ml of warm water (half boiling, half cold) 
2 tablespoons of oil (I used to oil from the sundried tomato jar)
Half a big jar of Sundried Tomato's cut into little pieces
Cracked Black Pepper.


Once you have all the ingredients out, mix the flour, yeast, salt and butter together in a big bowl. Then, stir in the water to make a soft dough. Add the oil and sundried tomato's and knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes. I added the cracked black pepper as I was kneading it. 


Once kneaded for 10 minutes place back in the bowl (below) then cover and leave...

...until it is doubled in size. This was about 30-45mins. Then, shape it how you want and place on grease proof paper in a tray. Cut the top for effect if you like.

Preheat your oven to 230 degrees celsius and bake for 30-35 minutes. My oven, unfortunately likes to burn things so the top of my loaf was a little overdone. 

Saying that, It still turned out very well and tasted DELICIOUS. 

Below, I made an open sandwich for my lunch with the fresh loaf. I toasted the bread slightly then added home made pesto, home made hummus, sautéed mushrooms and then topped with baby spinach leaves. I also garnished it with balsamic vinegar and cracked black pepper. It was a beautiful lunch.

I found you.

It has been a little while. Life has overtaken. Life is being fun. I've been working. I've been starting a band. A band which I am extremely excited about. Going from folky to indie pop and having a lot of fun creating light hearted, up beat and fun tunes. Kinda the opposite to my solo venture.  


The other day I found a bargain and I also found what I had been looking for. Jackets. I know it is 'summer' but when I see something I want, I HAVE to have it. Even if it is not suitable for the season. 


I purchased this Vintage Faux Fur jacket from the Tayside Recycling center's charity shop in Dundee. It was only £5. It's a little big but you can get away with it being oversize by wearing it over a dress and tights with boots in the winter. It also need a button to fasten it. 

I got this blazer from H&M when I was visiting Glasgow last week. I've seen quite a few people wearing something like this with the patches on the elbows and thought this would look perfect with shorts and a top in the summer or over a short dress. This morning I went for a little jaunt down the Perth Road charity shops and I wore it with these little mustard shorts I got from Topshop and a long white vest top with a print on it. 

I am going to try and post more regularly. Especially coming into the Autumn and Winter. They're my favorite seasons for fashion. 

Tim Burton.

Tim Burton inspired fashion. 

And some people call me emo...

Apple, Wensleydale and Hazelnut Salad with Lime Vinegarette Dressing.

Everything is covered in snow at the moment, more snow then I have probably seen combine in my lifetime. It's so pretty. And this should be a recipe for some sort of hearty soup or scones or something to that effect, but no, after playing in the snow this morning I felt like salad for lunch. So here we go. 


First I would make the Lime Vinegarette dressing. 


In a jar, mix;


2 Tablespoons of Lime Juice
4 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar 
4 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon of Wholegrain Mustard
1 Clove of minced Garlic
Salt and Pepper

Then shake...

Next you will need;

1/2 Baby Gem Lettuce

1 Red Apple

1/4 Red Onion

Wensleydale Cheese (A good chunk!)

Hazelnuts (A small handful)

As you can see from the pictures below, I placed the Little Gem leaves in the bowl first then placed the rest of the ingredients chopped up ontop. Then, I drizzled the Lime Vinegarette overtop. 

Fairy Cakes.

It is a friend's Hen weekend this weekend and we are starting the celebrations with a tea party. I'm not into baking, it is just something I have never been good at. But I had fun making these. Actually the idea for these came from one of the kids at the school I work at as we were making fairy cakes last week. And they turned out pretty cute. I'm not sure how they taste however. Anyway, this recipe made 18 fairy cakes and Iced them all.

Ingredients.

125g Butter

125g Caster Sugar

125g Self Raising Flour

2 Eggs

2 Tablespoons Milk

I Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Beat the Sugar and Butter together till light and fluffy. Then add the egg (pre-beaten). Add flour gradually, then add the vanilla and milk which will smoothen the mixture nicely. 

Put it into cup cake tins and bake for about 10 mins on 180 degree's celsius.

Icing.

280g Icing Sugar

150g Butter 

Drop of milk

Dash of vanilla

Food colouring of your choice

Put the butter in a bowl (do not melt but make sure it is soft) then add the icing sugar. Mix together a little then add a drop of milk. Mix this in with vanilla. You might need to add a little more milk but you shouldn't need more then a few drops. Also, if like I did here you want different colour icing place in separate bowls to add colour. 

Once Cupcakes are cooled then ice them and add decorations if you wish.

Enjoy!

Blair Waldorf.

I hope you're all watching this season of Gossip Girl. And I hope you're all just loving Blair. I am envious of her; of her BEAUTIFUL clothes and of her beau Chuck Bass. Yes, I took the hook up at the end of last weeks episode as confirmation they are back together.