dreamy/practical

It's raining!  A cozy weekend with rain* is rare around here, especially these last few years.  There is rain right now and we are so grateful.   Thinking about for this weekend--

Dreamy
:: be cozy by the fire
:: drink coffee with half and half
:: go to a Saturday night movie with Ken
:: watch the Oscars!  My mom is having us over for a little "Oscar Party"!  I haven't watched the Oscars in years, and this year I've seen quite a few of the nominated movies, so it will be extra fun.  Can't wait!

Practical
:: do some key cleaning tasks I've been putting off.  It will feel good!
:: de-clutter.  I always feel like a million dollars after getting rid of stuff.
:: laundry--always!
:: the meal planning and grocery shopping are done for the week.  We have ingredients for cucumber-yogurt chicken, Summer's mustard-maple chicken (we're making this for the second time), and a simple beans and rice dish.

*with all the rain, I'm tempted to bake, but I'm also dieting!  Not sure if I should.  I'll try to resist.  Baking but not eating is not a reasonable option in my opinion!

dinner makes me happy

There is something so grounding and so comforting about making dinner.  I've come to feel this way--supported and nourished by the process, rather than inconvenienced or annoyed--over the last year or so.  Perhaps just because I'm getting older.  And eating a home cooked meal is so bolstering to the spirits.

Here are three meals I've made lately.  The top photo is the beef-barley-mushroom-kale soup from an old issue of  3191 quarterly.  This is my favorite quick weeknight soup lately and I'm crazy about it with cornbread.  By the way, I'm loving making a less-sweet cornbread lately (maybe only a tablespoon or two of sugar in the batch).  I love the way the pure corn flavor shines through when you cut the sugar.  And it tastes fantastic with salted butter.  Yum!

The second recipe is Sweet Soy Chicken & Rice from a new cookbook, The Family Flavor.  Do you get excited about new cookbooks as I do?  I love this one for its beautiful photography and the ease of its recipes.  All the ingredients are ordinary, which I love.  And the dishes are  family friendly.  I loved this soy chicken--next time I'm going to double it.

The last recipe is from Weight Watchers--a very light lemony chicken.  I've made this twice already and have stocked the freezer with chicken breasts so I can have this any time (I love how easy it is to find organic chicken at Trader Joe's, but I have to plan ahead a little).

Up tonight:  I'm making this maple-mustard chicken from Summer Harms.  Can't wait!  It looks so yummy.  By the way, do you read Summer's blog?  She is so inspiring and positive.  I love her (and she just had a new baby, which has been fun to follow).  (Another fave recipe from Summer:  this chili).

What have you been making for dinner lately?

PS--Someone posted the recipe for "sweet soy chicken" here.
The lemon chicken recipe can be found here.
The beef-barley soup recipe isn't posted online, but here's a fun post from Stephanie about how she uses grains.

PPS--I've been doing Weight Watcher's since January and I lost 8 lbs.  So glad about that!  Now to maintain it!!

Hummingbird Cake

Ok, it was a little slow in getting here: my "island inspired" cake.
I was just setting the mood and giving you a taste of island time, that's all...

When I was thinking of what to make that was heavy on vanilla, coconut and tropical fruit, I kept  coming back to this Southern (as in Kentucky, not Cape Town) classic: Hummingbird cake.
The recipe may have originated in Jamaica, but first appears to have been published and made popular in the US in the 70's - clearly a good decade for classics ; )

The traditional frosting for a hummingbird cake is cream cheese icing, but in this case I've made it into a Bundt cake with a vanilla-rich white chocolate ganache.

I've also changed the mixing directions from the original recipe to make the cake lighter in texture.  (When working with mashed banana your cake can sometimes become dense and stodgy  - which makes me think of hostel food rather than holiday food! )

 So, here it is:

Hummingbird Cake with Vanilla Ganache
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create

Preheat the oven to 180'C

Grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake pans or 1  Bundt pan

Ingredients:

300g cake flour
250g light brown sugar
250 ml canola oil
3 large eggs
120g roasted pecans, roughly chopped
60g shredded coconut
1 tin (440g) crushed pineapple, drain excess liquid
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl. Add in the coconut and chopped pecans. Whisk together to combine.

Using a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract.
With the mixer on low speed, mix in the oil. Add half the dry ingredients, then the pineapple and banana, followed by the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake at 180'C for approx 35 minutes for layers or          1 hour for the Bundt cake - or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave in the cake pan to cool before turning onto a cooling rack.

Vanilla Ganache

240g white chocolate
120ml fresh cream (35-40% fat content)
1 vanilla pod

Melt the white chocolate and cream together in a double boiler. Stir until smooth.
Split the vanilla pod in half,  scrape out the seeds and stir into the ganache.
Leave it to set slightly; pour over the cake once the ganache has reached a custard-like consistency.

Finish with a flourish - a generous sprinkling of shaved coconut.

If you're making a layer cake, I'd recommend cream cheese icing between the layers, with vanilla ganache poured over the top of the cake.

How did the hummingbird cake get its name? Maybe it was because that's the Jamaican national bird; perhaps it's the sweetness of the cake. I think it may be the hum of delight you hear when it gets eaten.

: )  

Give it a try and tell me what you think. 

xxM

Shop and Life Updates!

Hi my awesome readers! I hope you're having an excellent week.

I have a few updates to get out of the way!

I'm going to be helping out with an upcoming UK Kawaii project, where a group of us J-fashion lovers will be providing useful articles, a database of the best places to shop for cute items in the UK, and a general hub for those into Japanese street fashion. The team is very dedicated and I can really see this going well. Fingers crossed! It would be great to have more resources in the UK for this sort of thing, and that can only happen if people are willing to support it. I will give more details when the site is ready to launch! In the meantime, you can like the facebook page here.

In other news, I received my first blog review of my online shop, Sugar Trampoline, and I also had my first international order! This is all very exciting for me and as of next year, when I'll have finished university, I'm hoping I'll be able to step my business up a notch and start selling my own brand of clothing. It's all a dream at this point but the support I've gotten so far has been great, so I remain hopeful I can make this work.

I have a few events lined up for this year. So far, I will have a stall at the Reading Vintage Fair on March 30th, and I will also be donating prizes for the raffle at the J-fashion convention on April 5th in London called Enchanted! Somehow I'm managing to get all this sorted whilst still doing my degree so it can be a bit stressful at times, but I love it. I'm finally doing what makes me happy and it's a great feeling.

A sneak peak of one of six prizes I'm donating for Enchanted! I got some pretty packaging and everything! I hope the winner will like it.

I also made a new vlog!

I hope I don't sound too ill/ delirious! I've been trying to fight off a cold for ages now but it just won't shift! I hope it'll go away soon... Anyway, this video is just me going over the fact that getting the "boring" basic items in lolita fashion is important as it'll make coordinating a lot easier. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for checking out this post. See you next time, lovelies ❤

scenes from the past few weekends

I haven't been posting any weekend pictures lately, so here is my attempt at catching up a little bit.  There were various January birthdays--Dieter, Jacob, Ken and Ben are all January boys.  Genrally, my weekends have felt a little "off" to me.  I guess I'm still working to perfect my weekend formula! 

Weekend things I love:

• going to Saturday morning yoga class
• having a family swim at the club
• eating out
• any de-cluttering or cleaning I can force myself to do (because the results thrill me)
• movie date nights with Ken
• making a good Sunday dinner

One little weekend tradition that is very dear to my heart right now is the car washing ritual that Dieter and I have going on.  On Sunday mornings, with very few exceptions, we take the new Subaru to a car wash--the kind where you drop quarters in and spray the car yourself and then dry and vacuum it yourself.  I love having this time with my boy and he is a true help!  Usually we also stop for gas, go get cash from the ATM, and pick up any last minute groceries from the local market (I do the big shopping at Trader Joe's on the way home from work on Fridays).  Aside from spending one-on-one time with my boy, how awesome it feels to have a clean car, a full tank of gas, and cash and groceries for the week!

Are there any weekend rituals you are loving lately?

Homemade Fruit and Nut Bars

You know how stressed I was about going away for a few days without the kids? Well, I have to say that it was the most thoroughly appreciated freedom holiday I've ever had!
If you don't have children, borrow a couple to look after before you go on your next vacation, and then when you go you'll really appreciate what time out is!  After 5 years of full-time-parenting I've forgotten what it's like to have a day without an agenda. I'm still light-headed from the experience. (Although that might be a head-cold. But you get the point!)

Now, though it's straight back into full-time-mommy-mode (and that's a real privilege, too!)
So, while I have a few island-inspired treats in development, this recipe is for a practical, healthy lunch-box snack:

Homemade Fruit and Nut Bars
Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

Preheat the oven to 160'C
Grease and line a 20cm square baking pan.
(Make a cross of baking paper in the pan, and let the baking parchment extend above the sides of the pan.)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dried dates and figs - chopped into small pieces
1 1/2 cups dried apricots, peaches, cranberries, etc - chopped into small pieces
1 1/2 cups mixed seeds and nuts - roughly chopped
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 XL free range egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl, mix together the dried fruit, seeds and nuts with the flour and other dry ingredients.
Make sure that all the fruit and nuts have been coated with flour.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg and vanilla together until pale and fluffy.

Add the egg mixture to the fruit/flour bowl and mix thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 160'C for approx 35-40min.
Allow to cool in the pan.
Once cool, lift out of the pan by pulling up on the sides of the baking parchment.

Cut into bars.
Store in a sealed container at room temperature.

I'm off to pack lunch boxes for tomorrow…

xxM

final thoughts on christmas

 I know it is super late to be posting more thoughts about Christmas, but for some reason I want to go ahead and put this post up.  I've been thinking about our Christmasses and what works for us and what doesn't, and year after year (since we've been doing it this way), this advent calendar is a sweet, fun, non-materialistic ritual that the kids and I get a huge kick out of.  I've written about it each year for a number of years now.  Basically, I have this "vintage" advent calendar wall hanging that my mom made from a kit back in the 70's (or maybe even 1969??) and she passed it down to me a number of years ago.  I love it!  When we were little she'd tie on small gifts or candies, and I've done it that was as well, but about 5 years ago I switched to this "advent village" theme.  Each item is wrapped and tied onto the wall hanging (photo #3) and the boys take turns unwrapping one each day and placing it in the "village" (photo #4).  I have some light up houses that I thrifted and that stable and the vintage bottle brush trees are from my mom.  That piece of blue felt is a "lake."  As advent progresses the village fills in.  They boys have fun arranging and rearranging the village.

We just have so much fun with this.  I've noticed some moms around blogdom feeling frustrated by their advent calendar traditions.  I highly recommend this one!  I keep it a little bit exciting by adding two "new" items for days one and two.  This year it was a wooden shepherd boy and a wooden racoon.  I'm dying to find a snowman someday.  The rest of the stuff is saved items we use from year to year and things from around the house--wooden animals from the farm, etc.

Also, on the topic of Christmas, and then I will move on.  I think we really need to restructure our thinking about gifts and material stuff around the holidays.  My boys don't need that many toys, and what they do need they already have.  Mostly they play with blocks, marbles, Hero Factories (Rainer) and books, art supplies and paper, and games on the computer (Dieter).  I just did a huge room clean-out of the boys' rooms and ended up tossing or donating so much of what they received.  We also donated a lot of books because we just don't have much space for storing even nice books.

I think there needs to be a major paradigm shift around Christmas.  Instead of giving material presents, lets exchange handmade cards and letters, or experiences with each other (a trip to the beach, a meal out, a movie), or plan a trip or something.  I feel so stongly about this!  I wonder if this is true for most kids today--that they play with fewer toys.

As far as what we (Ken and I) got the boys, I had the idea to get them scooters and they were a hit!  Both boys love their scooters and Rainer still rides his in the house as a daily pleasure.  His is a Maxi-Micro scooter and Dieter got a Razor scooter.  The Maxi turned out to be the best.  The boys kind of fight over it a little bit.  Everything else they received has been sort of cast aside.  Sad, but true.  They still totally have creative childhoods.  They draw, build marble runs, build with blocks, take down and reassemble Hero Factories, act out pretend scenarios, read (mostly Dieter) and they are active outdoors and do swim team and take piano lessons.  Having lots of toys is just not part of that.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if  you are willing to share!

A Romantic Meal in Patisserie Valerie

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

I have always enjoyed this day. When I was single I would make silly cards and give them to friends, and dress in pink for the occasion! I've never understood why single people choose this day to be upset. There is much more in life than just romantic love, and I personally believe in sharing it with everyone! Don't be glum... let's all think instead about everyone important to us and try to do something nice for someone today.

❤  ❤  ❤

So, today seems as good a time as any to talk about a meal I had at Patisserie Valerie last Saturday, which was my 2 year anniversary with my partner.

I had never been in there before but knew they did lots of different cakes. It was quite busy on this day, but my partner and I managed to get seats as soon as we entered the cafe/restaurant/whatever it's supposed to be!

We found the table we were sat at far too low for a meal, and we were moved to a different one immediately, without any drama or difficulties. When we were finally settled, we decided to try the winter menu, choosing a main meal and a dessert, which was just under £10 each. Not bad.

We went for bangers and mash!

It's funny how much it looks like slop-- but it was actually delicious! The sausages were good quality, the kind infused with herbs, and the gravy was gorgeous and had onion strips in it. Certainly not the most sophisticated choice of food for a date but the taste is the main thing. We were both quite full after this but prepared ourselves for the dessert. We chose the black forest gateaux.

It was ok (and this is coming from someone who really isn't into chocolate flavoured things-- I usually find them too rich and bitter) and our slices were generously sized.

I don't know that I would go there again but we did enjoy ourselves and it was a nice experience. The people who served us were attentive and well-mannered, and we didn't feel like we were unwelcome or being rushed out. I wish more places had waiters and waitresses like this!

Here's my coordinate from that day.

I feel like I wear Alice's Ribbon Kingdom all the time, but it's such a versatile jumperskirt that I can't help myself. It's so easy to dress up, or to wear on more casual days, and I love that.

Thanks for looking and reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post! Have a great day, everyone ❤

Valentines Cookies: Wet-on-Wet Hearts

This might be a few hours (days?!) too late to be of any use for V Day. I'm sorry about that, but it seems I'm still on island time. It was a great break, wonderfully relaxing; and so it's quite a shock to the system to be back to reality. What - I have to cook? And clean? And no-one's serving me vanilla tea for breakfast?? Not even today, on Valentine's Day??

Quite clearly, I'm suffering from island fever in reverse, and the only cure is another holiday… ha ha... sob…

Poolside iPhone snapshot

So, I'm going to keep this really short and simple, if that's okay with you?

Wet-on-Wet Hearts

Outline and flood a biscuit with flooding consistency royal icing (15second icing):

Outline

Flood

(Red icing coloured with a mix of Red Red and Super Red gel colours.)

Immediately pipe dots of a different colour icing onto the flooded background - use flooding consistency for the dots, too.

Wet-on-wet dots

Drag the tip of a toothpick through the dots - start above the dot and pull through the icing until you have created the heart shape. In this case the direction of pull was from the notch of the heart, anti-clockwise and downwards:

Wet-on-wet hearts

Repeat on the other side:

Allow to dry for 24 hrs before packaging.

I hope you are having a lovely and love-filled Valentine's Day!

xxM

University Lolita Coordinates!

Hey everyone!

I'm feeling pretty positive about this year so far, and have some exciting things coming up soon!

But before I can reveal those, I'll start off with the interview I took part in over at Tartan Kawaii's blog! I was asked about various kawaii aspects of my life. She has been interviewing a handful of others interested in cute Japanese fashions so you should check it out! You can read my interview here.

Next, I thought I would post a few of my university coordinates from the past couple of weeks here. Yes, I wear lolita to uni! It's what I wore on the very first day because I wanted to start as I meant to go on. I have never gotten anything but positive feedback for it (including one lecturer actually researching lolita fashion and having a really good discussion with me about it!) so if it's what you want to do, then you totally should.

Now, onto the coordinates!

Blouse: Primark, Bolero: Bodyline, Skirt: Rabbit Heart Shop, Shoes: Bodyline

This coordinate is from Monday 20th January, which was the first day of term for 2014. I wanted to be cute and yet classy and I think I managed to pull it off. I think I like the sweet/classic hybrid of lolita. I'm not generally a fan of ankle socks on top of tights but it has been very cold and I don't own any lolita boots. I need to sort that out...

Coat: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Shoes: An*Tai*Na

This was the very next day, Tuesday 21st January. I don't really remember what I wore underneath my coat but I wanted to get a picture of my coordinate anyway! When I'm wearing something bright and sweet like this coat I will often counteract it by having simple or no hair accessories to make my coordinate more casual for day to day life.

Bolero: Bodyline, Jumperskirt: Bodyline, Shoes: Primark

This final coordinate is from Monday 27th January. I kept things super casual by wearing canvas flatforms instead of lolita shoes, and not wearing a lolita blouse. I like the contrast of pink and black in this coordinate, though I'm itching as I look at this photo to change to tea party shows and a nice collar! Oh well... you have to dress down sometimes.

I couldn't resist wearing this big old canotier thing that a friend bought for me! I was overwhelmed by such a kind gesture, and it's grown to be one of my favourite accessories!

Do you wear lolita to school/university/college/work? How do you dress down your style for day to day life? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! As always, thank you so much for reading! ❤

Sour Cream Chocolate and Blueberry cake

I'm sitting here with a knot in my stomach - we're going away for a few days (yay!) without the kids (eek!). It's the first time we've left them for more than one night and I know they're going to be fine (they'll be looked after by granny, nanny, auntie and an au pair!) ... but I don't know if I'll be ok!
I really didn't appreciate the ease of travel BC (before children). Now it's stressful to go away with them, and without them. Easier to stay at home and bake.  So, although I am looking forward to a break - I'm already looking forward to being back. Ridiculous, right?!

So, let me just distract myself with chocolate for a bit....

Sour Cream Chocolate and Blueberry Cake.
Recipe adapted from  The Cake Genie / Good Housekeeping Magazine

Preheat the oven  to 180'C
Grease a 23cm Bundt pan

Ingredients:
125ml boiling water
30ml vegetable oil
125ml cocoa powder
165g butter at room temp.
275g caster sugar
2 XL eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
320g cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
250ml sour cream
150g fresh blueberries + extra for decorating


Mix the cocoa powder with the boiling water and oil and set aside to cool slightly.

Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together.
 Add the eggs one at a time, beat well between additions.
Add the vanilla extract and the cocoa mixture. Beat well.

With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the flour and the sour cream to the butter/ egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon into the Bundt pan and bake for approx 45minutes or until a skewer comes out just-clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dark chocolate ganache.


300g dark (bittersweet) chocolate
150ml heavy cream (fat content 35-40%)

Melt the chocolate and cream together in a double boiler.

Allow to cool. Pour over the cake.

Decorate with blueberries dusted with icing sugar.

See you when we get back from our trip.

xxM

Berkshire Lolitas February Meetup!

On Saturday 1st February, the Berkshire Lolitas had a meetup.

The previous night I'd heard it was going to rain, but Saturday dawned bright and clear, so I felt optimistic we'd be in for a nice day. And we were! Though I must say it was incredibly windy.

My hair turned out really nicely that day, which you would never be able to tell given the bizarre things my hair proceeded to do at the meetup. I put in a hair accessory on the way there.

I decided to wear Meta's Vintage Poodle jumperskirt. The last time I wore it to a meet it ended up being super windy, too! I'm not sure why this dress has decided to call upon these natural forces every time I wear it...

I don't think there's an outfit picture of me from that meetup where I don't look derpy in some way! What has happened to my hair?!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun seeing everyone again, including fellow Ox Loli Sammi, and fellow blogger Ophelia! Many selfies ensued!

We were being blown all over the place by gusts of wind but somehow the sky was the most gorgeous blue, and the sun never stopped shining!

Here's all of us being cute and very cold without our coats! We got a great mix-up of styles going on that day.

After the obligatory Forbury Gardens photoshoot, we decided to go have something to eat. Originally, we were going to go to Wagamamas, but it was packed with people. We walked back down the Riverside and ended up at Tampopo, where we'd had our previous meet.

I decided to try the Com Hue, which had pieces of pork, two delicious prawns and lots of squid mixed into the rice. I've never had squid before but I have to say, I really did enjoy it!

The mood was dampened, however, when we were tricked into paying the optional service charge by the waiter who kept insisting we hadn't paid the bill in full. I really wish I had understood what had happened sooner because I'm annoyed at myself for letting it go and not kicking up a fuss! There was nothing particularly great about the service (he managed to get someone's drink order wrong) and I don't appreciate being pressured into paying what is basically a suggested tip. I don't know if I'll go there again. Maybe I should write an angry e-mail... or just take it as a lesson for the future.

Still, that doesn't negate the fact I had a really amazing time. I'm very lucky to have such a lovely local community, and I'm looking forward to more meetups in the future! I'm planning on hosting the meet next month so I had better start putting plans into action!

I hope you enjoyed this meetup report! Thanks for reading ❤

Dirty Colours and Valentines Cookies

It's amazing how often what we're looking for is right in front of us, isn't it?

And I'm not trying to be deep and philosophical here - this is a baking blog; it's supposed to be light and fluffy and taken with a pinch of salt ; )

No, I'm talking about that jar of mayonnaise that you turn the whole fridge upside down to find, while it's right at eye level all the time (cunningly disguised as... a jar of mayonnaise!) 

Or the sunglasses on your head. Or the child on your hip - and you might not believe it, but that one really did happen. Not to me, of course - my husband.

On this occasion it was the clock on the wall. 

Well, ok - it wasn't quite that simple.

I had an idea of the colours I wanted for our Lovebirds / Valentines Cookies class, but couldn't find an image that pulled it all together for me. So, frustrated with the intangible inspiration, I muddied through the task, eventually getting the shades exactly as I wanted. Two days later I looked at the clock on our kitchen wall and realised: oh, hey - there it was - my inspiration. Right in front of me. 

Duh! 

I can't think of any other description for these shades than "dirty". Which is perhaps appropriate (or very inappropriate??) for Valentines Cookies. 

A "clean" colour is one that has very little or no black/grey in it. It is bright and pure. 

A "dirty" colour had been muted/ "muddied" with grey or black. 

To achieve this effect you just add a smidgeon of black (gel colour) to your already-coloured royal icing; mix it in (get over your initial horror as the first streaks of black appear) and repeat until you've got the dirtiness you're after. 

With ivory you'll probably stop after the first smidgeon; with blue and brown you'll need a drop or two more - but go slowly. If you find that you've over done it, add a little of the original gel colour to brighten up the icing again. 

It's a fascinating way to transform a colour. And the common thread of black really pulls all the colours in the project together. 

Just as I've already written about the use of warm and cool colours together, as a rule of thumb - use dirty colours together and clean colours together, but don't mix the two groups. 

Happy decorating!

xxM