Tea Stains and Daisy Chains: blogging

It's been a while

15:38

Autumn (non) Essentials- Things to Eat (Part One)

20:27

So, the plan is to do the 'Things to Eat' section in parts, seeing as a post with three recipes on would probably be a bit too long (and boring).

I know I said these were going to be seasonal recipes, but that may be slightly tenuous I'm afraid. The first recipe I'm going to share is for 'Peanut Butter & Jam Pinwheel Cookies', which I'd like to rename 'Catherine Wheel Cookies', in preparation for Bonfire Night (come one now, that's a reasonable link to Autumn, right?).

These are from The Hummingbird Bakery's 'Home Sweet Home' recipe book, which is full of some truly amazing bakes, although some of them do need A LOT of ingredients!

What you will need for the cookies:

2 x pieces of baking parchment (each about 38 x 25cm)
60g smooth raspberry or strawberry jam
1 tsp cornflour (you may have some hidden in a cupboard somewhere as it's often used for thickening gravy)
100g unsalted butter, softened (stick it in the microwave for 10-20 secs)
100g smooth peanut butter (I doubt it would do any harm if it were crunchy, if that's all you've got)
180g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk (preferably full-fat)
340g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt

How to make the cookies:

1. Mix the jam and the cornflour together in a small bowl until the flour has dissolved. This shouldn't take very long at all.

2. Cream the butter, peanut butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. You can do this by hand if you don't have a freestanding or handheld whisk, but it will be hard work if your butter's not soft enough.

3. Using a sieve, add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the salt. Then mix slowly (using the whisk if possible) until you have a dough.

4. Now place the dough in the centre of one piece of your prepared baking parchment and spread out slightly with your hands. Put the other piece of paper on top and roll out using a rolling pin, so that the dough is sandwiched between the two sheets. Don't worry if your dough isn't perfectly rectangular, but the better it is, the less wastage you'll get at the ends.

5. Spread the jam evenly over the dough to form a thin layer.

6. The next thing you need to do is roll it up like a swiss roll. To do this, carefully loosen the edge of the dough on one of the long sides and use the paper to push it into a roll. Seal the seam and wrap the whole thing it clingfilm. Place it in the fridge for a few hours to harden up. (I didn't actually do this because I'm really impatient and it was still fine, but I think it made my biscuits less circular).

7. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line a couple of baking trays with parchment.

8. Slice your (hopefully) set roll into 2cm thick sections and place on the trays, about 5cm apart.

9. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and allow to cool before serving.

All that's left to do now is light the bonfire/ campfire/ candle and hand these delicious Catherine Wheels round with steaming cups of tea. Alternatively, just scoff a couple yourself in front of a good film.

Harriet x

blog

Blogging tips: What to do...

19:40

You know those days when you just can't be bothered? When you'd much rather be doing something else, like lying down or eating Ben & Jerry's out of the tub? They suck. I should know, because I'm having one of those days today (which makes this a struggle and also fairly hypocritical, but who says you have to actually listen to your own advice anyway?).

It's not that you haven't got any ideas. In fact, what makes things even worse is that you have got lots of ideas, but you just don't feel like it. If you're anything like me, then on those days there's this irritating voice inside your head telling you you must write that blog post/ article/ comment NOW, otherwise bad things will happen. If you don't do it today then that's it, everyone will think you've lost interest in your 'passion' and have given up on this writing lark.

I'm sure there are loads of blog posts out there that would give you (and me) some really useful tips on how to boost the motivation levels. If you really need to get that piece done (maybe there's a deadline or you're a pro blogger or something), then perhaps you do need something inspirational to help you get your head down. But if not, and you just blog or contribute to online magazines for fun, then the 'fun''s kind of gone if you're having to force it.

Even though I only have 2 followers on Blogger and not many more on Bloglovin' (hint hint), I still find myself feeling under pressure to keep my blog regularly updated. But when I start feeling stressed about it, I remind myself that I'm doing this because I enjoy it, so if one day I don't feel like blogging, that's fine. And although it's important to be committed, if I'm not in the mood for writing an article, then it's not the end of the world if I give this one a miss.

So, you've decided to give yourself a day off. What now? Do you sit around feeling guilty and wishing you were as motivated and inspired as so-and-so? Possibly, but don't. Do something else you enjoy. Or, if you still want to keep things blog-related, take photos or plan future posts. But, if you just want to completely forget about it for a while, then go for it; you'll probably find that when you come back to it you feel totally re-energised.

If all else fails, then I suppose you could just write a blog post about what to do when you're not in the mood for writing...

Harriet x

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VERB (regrets, regretting, regretted)

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