I baked!.

It's offical name is 'Sour Cream Coffee Cake', although it doesnt actually have any coffee in it. I got the recipe from an American magazine many years ago and just love this lightness of this cake. It has sour cream in it and flavoured by vanilla, brown sugar and cinnamon!. DELICIOUS!.

In other news....remember all those coins a post or 2 back?. Well i got the bags to count them out on friday and completed the task this morning....in about 10months i saved £43.78 in change....just from emptying my purse every 7-10 days!. I will bank £39 tomorrow , as the rest isnt quite the full amount for each coin bag....i'll add to those and bank them, and then begin the pot all over again!. I suspect it would actually have been more than that, as i never did add back into the pot the change i used at the mega crop in Dec....maybe another £5-10?.

I have begun reading one of the books i brought over xmas....Leo Hickmans 'Yr of living ethically'. I hope this is a quick read...its very easy and lighthearted despite its important messages...i'm sitting on the sofa laughing at his turn of speech!.

......wonder if that cakes cooled down yet!.

let the cooking begin.....

mmmmm.....i've just eaten my first casserole in ages. I havent made one for donkeys....the last time i can think of it was when i was training as a nanny 20 odd yrs ago. I have avoided having to make them cos my mum makes such a delicious casserole, so i've always eaten hers!!.
I opened my trusty old Edmonds Cookbook and followed the bog standard recipe, adding peas and parsnips and a splash of red wine for flavour. it cooked for 2 hrs and i had a plateful with lovely mashed potatoes.....yummmmmm!!.

The Edmonds Cookbook is a national institution in New Zealand.....just about every household has one edition or another!......mines about 25yrs old. It holds recipes for every basic dish you'd want, and has an excellent cake and biscuit section.....so many wonderful biscuits that are not even heard of here in the UK!.
I plan on making ANZAC biscuits after i have made a coffee cake that i love!. ANZAC biccies are made with oats, coconut, golden syrup etc and are either crisp or chewy.....which i prefer!.

will share piccies of cakes and biccies as i make them, the casseroles a bit boring to photograph, but will make about 3 other meals, so thats great!!.

what a rip off!!!.

Sometime last March or April i decided to save all my small change....anything less than a 50p piece. I'd keep the £1 and £2 coins, the 50p and then enough change to pay for a couple of trips to the local parking building as the 'lovely' machine there doesnt give back change!.

Every week to 10days i'd empty my purse and add to the pot. I have no idea how much is in there, altho in Dec i counted out £31 in silver change to take to the Scrapmates mega crop as change for people buying things from me!. And that £31 was only half the pot!!.

I decided that as close to Dec 31st, i'd take the pot to my supermarket where it has one of those counting machines that turn your coins into cash. But i ended up with car troubles so last night was the first opportunity i had to do it.

I carried the pot to work in the boot( trunk!) of my car and then after work headed for the supermarket. Having not used the machine before i followed the demo prompt first and thereby making a small discovery.......for every £1 i tipped into the machine, the machine would kindly charge me 7.9p!. No way!.

so i put my pot back into my shopping bag, and carried on with my shopping!. There is no way after saving all that money i was going to give a chunk of it up to pay for using a counting machine!. I shall go to the bank and pick up those plastic coin bags and count it myself!.

Stayed tuned for the results!.

(thats if anyone actually reads this!!).

Happy New Year

about 6 days to late....
(yeah i know i used that heading on the scrapping blog as well!)

Not alot has happen since my last post....i spent a lovely xmas day with my friend Ann and her family before heading home to throw xmas dinner up.....seems to much Champagne to soon can make you vomit....who'd have known!.

I am back at work and trying to sort out the new working arrangements....might have got it to where i start 3 of the 4 days from home which will be good for me mentally and for my business as well. Actually, just thinking as i type....it will be good for getting some of those boring tasks done, like sorting out the bookcase and those boxes that are stuffed with treasures/rubbish.
i have told myself that i have to do all this sorting out now before i find a new place, so i dont have to pay to transport stuff i'm ultimately going to get rid of.

i've opened my last packet of store brought cake today....ginger...its actually yummy, but i beat i can make an even tastier one!. so from next weekend i'm going to have to bake.....oooh!, could bake on a T or W as well...i'm not in that mind set yet, but give it a few weeks!.
I havent tried any new recipes yet, thats another job i've been putting off....finding some recipes to try in my mountian of recipes!.

Over xmas i placed another amazon order and got another soap/toiletry making book, so am looking forward to trying those as well.....especially since i've just started my last bottles of shampoo and conditioner.....best start reading that book!.

right thats me signed in!.
catch you later!.