Vanilla Extract

Homemade vanilla extract. Who knew it was so easy? I didn’t, but really all you need is some alcohol and vanilla pods! I only made the one bottle and I gave it away as a gift this Christmas but I plan to make it again. I love the smell of vanilla when I’m baking and mixing it into my other ingredients. This was so simple to do and the smell was incredible as it was left to sit and colour and ferment. I highly recommend trying this out if you’re a vanilla-lover. Plus, you can keep topping up the bottle with extra beans and alcohol and it will continue to ferment as vanilla.

Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours! I hope your holidays are filled with lots of good fun, yummy food, and time spent with loved ones x

Homemade Peppermints

These are homemade peppermint creams. Rather than having the coloured ones a solid colour, I liked the idea of making them swirled, taking on a marble effect. They’re a nice treat to have around Christmas time and I’ve also packaged some up to giveaway.

 

Festive Chocolate Bark

I’ve been busy all week making and baking all sorts of things to be giving away for gifts this Christmas.

Chocolate bark is a pretty simple thing to make. It’s often the most simple of things that turn out the best.

I made two kinds here: a festive holiday white chocolate one, adorned with pistachios and cranberries (all red, green, and Christmasy!) as well as a milk chocolate one with almonds and apricots.

You can use any chocolate, any nuts, any fruit and volia- it’s a wonderful gift for others or to enjoy yourself this holiday season.

Holiday Smoothie

It turns out even my smoothie is feeling the Christmas love…

I ended up getting some cranberries at the shops because I love sour and tart flavours and I thought that these would be a great addition in a smoothie. And I’m finding that I much rather avocado mixed in over a banana for its creamier texture. So I have a holiday smoothie along with the other ingredients I generally put in- coconut oil, chia seeds, orange juice, and some sort of yogurt, amongst some other varieties of fruit.

Candy Cane Cookies

I had completely forgotten about these until the other day and once I had remembered, I knew I’d have to make some (despite having a list of other important things to make that I had hardly started!)

It’s amazing how a smell can you take you back to a certain memory or a time in your life. As soon as I had added the variety of extracts to these cookies (a wonderful blend of almond, vanilla, and peppermint) I was brought back to when I was a little girl. I always made sure to leave some of these out for Santa. I believed they were his favorite because they were always the ones gone come Christmas morning, year after year. Oddly enough, these were also my brother’s favorite…

Coconut Oil

I think it’s high time I write something about coconut oil…

Coconut oil is something I have been using for about a year now and I use it in some size, shape, or form everyday. It has a host of health benefits when consumed and is also great for implementing into your beauty regime. Now that I’ve discovered it, I don’t think I’ll ever be without it. I generally aim to have about 4 teaspoons a day (consumption wise)

Here in the UK, I use a coconut oil from Tiana. When looking for a coconut oil, I think it’s important to make sure you seek out an organic, pure, unrefined, raw oil to gain the most of its benefits.

Some of the ways I consume it/use it are:

• To wash my face- I use it in along with honey and baking soda for a wonderful facewash that leaves my skin soft and moisturized (sometimes I even rub this mix onto my skin and leave it as a face mask)
• In my tea- I never have ever liked the taste of green tea but I now enjoy it with coconut oil added; I have about a teaspoon per cup of tea
• Substitute for butter- When I first started having coconut oil, I experimented with it in many ways and one of the things I tried was toast + coconut oil + Nutella= chocolate heaven
• In smoothies- add a tablespoon and whizz along with your other ingredients
• Frying- mainly for sweet foods, like when I make french toast, I melt some coconut oil before putting the bread in; it could also be used for savoury food such as when frying veggies, etc
• In my porridge- When the milk is heating up, I put some coconut oil into the mix
• As a make-up remover- My eyes are pretty sensitive now to anything that goes near them and coconut oil does the job of getting rid of the make-up without making my eyes red and irritated
• On my eyelashes- on that same note, sometimes if I’ve had a lot of masara on, after I’ve washed my face, I’ll lightly put some coconut oil on my lashes to condition them
• As a body moisturizer- Since trying to go all “clean” with the products I use on my skin I will generally use coconut oil as an all over body moisturizer after my shower. Rubbed inbetween my hands, it sinks into the skin wonderfully (especially good after shaving legs)
• For shaving your legs! This can get a bit messy as the oil can clog up your razor, so just be sure to rinse it well with hot water inbetween the job
• In my hair- When I get to the end of a jar, I’ll literally clean it out and get every last drop of coconut oil by putting my hair in there and scraping it all out! I rub it into the ends of my hair and let it sit there before I hop in the shower. I also sometimes use it with my conditioner (just rub it in along with some conditioner in the palm of your hand) as well as an oil for the very ends of my hair once I’ve towel-dried my hair (use caution with that one- you need a MINIMAL amount to tame split ends, otherwise you risk looking greasy)

Those are the main ways I use coconut oil everyday but I tend to find new ways for its use. I’m interested in using it as a sunscreen come summer (though I’m a bit weary of that one- still researching it!)

If you haven’t tried this wonderful oil, I’d highly recommend you do! Coconut oil is one of the best things I’ve invested in this year.

Signed, sealed, delivered

No one writes letters anymore. It’s all Facebook, Twitter, emailing, texting, etc, etc, etc! All sorts of social media have taken over the idea of ever picking up a phone (to make a call that is) or worse still, sending out a letter. And I know it’s obviously much more efficient to send an email, but I do appreciate the time and effort that goes into good old fashioned snail mail.

When I was growing up, one of my best friends moved away, and we kept in touch with letters. That was the only way of doing it because we didn’t have email yet. (We were 8 and 10 respectively!) It was so exciting to receive post at that age, knowing you actually had mail that was addressed to you. Even after we did eventually get email, we still continued on with letters. Over the years, we’ve kept in touch when we’ve been in different cities, countries, and continents, and to this day, we still sometimes send letters.

I was pretty excited when I was browsing in Fortnum & Mason a while back, and found that they carried antique-like stamps that you imprint with wax. They come in initials and my husband and I decided to get an “M” for my new married name.
With Christmas just around the corner, I’ll be taking advantage of sending all my cards on their way with these lovely little seals.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh So Very Chocolatey Pancakes

Last week for me was a long, slow, difficult week to get through. I did have a better weekend and now that it’s Monday and the start of a new week, I’m starting afresh.

When I feel down, I crave comfort food and things that aren’t really meant for breakfast or for dinner but are just what I feel like having. These pancakes were something I decided to start my day with last week. Not all organic, not gluten-free or dairy free, pretty much all around full of lots of bad stuff but they tasted really good. These were filled with chocolatey goodness- milk and dark chocolate chips and cocoa powder- lots of it. I rustled this up in the morning and ended up eating them throughout the day. They were just the sort of thing I needed that day.