CHOCOLATE DIGESTIVES

 Homemade Chocolate Digestive biscuits

............no argument from me 

Who doesn't love a chocolate digestive

RECIPE

100g medium size oats*

50g wholewheat flour

50g plain flour

100g cold butter 

50g light muscovado sugar

pre heat oven to 190c 

If you have medium oats place in food processor along with flours

*if you only have jumbo oats (as I did) place them in the food processor

and blitz for a few minutes to reduce their size

add butter and blitz

add sugar

blitz until it comes together in a dough

turn out onto lightly floured surface

roll to 5mm thick and cut with 7cm cookie cutter

(makes 14-16 biscuits)

bake for 16-20 mins 

cover in chocolate if desired 

they are honestly nice either way 

 

recipe adapted from country homes and interiors

Lemon Ice Cream

This is tart, sweet and very lemony

DELICIOUS

First you need to make the Lemon curd

(you could use bought Lemon Curd, if you had too)

LEMON CURD
75g butter

150g sugar

zest and juice of 3 lemons

1 egg

2 egg yolks

place butter, sugar, zest and juice into saucepan and heat gently until sugar is dissolved

Place eggs and egg yolk into bowl and beat well

pour egg mixture in a slow steady stream into butter mixture stirring constantly 

keep heat very low

continue stirring until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon

leave to cool

When the curd is cool
whip 75 ml double cream

add your cream to the lemon curd and fold in until combined

Pour into your ice cream maker

If you do not have an ice cream maker
buy one!
(great deals on ebay)
I know it seems like one of those purchases that will gather dust
but really making your own Ice cream is incredibly easy
and you can really have fun with flavours
The results will be much appreciated by all around you I promise
and it really is pretty fool proof

OR
Place in a container freeze and remove every 30 mins to stir out ice crystals
for about 2 hrs (4 times)

But
you will not get the same creamy consistency as you would with an ice cream maker

 

Somewhere

So I found a place for the little table

It is on the upstairs landing 

Previously a lost, lonely and unloved part of the house

As landings, entryways, corridors so often can be

 

but with the newly stripped little table 

some books, flowers, indian wooden beads and my 

Bold & Noble

print

this now feels like somewhere

Have a great weekend 

x

Baci di Ricotta

These are little puffs made from Ricotta, eggs, cinnamon and lemon zest

deep fried

and dusted in sugar

crispy exterior

light fluffy centre

what more do you want from a dessert?

RECIPE

200g ricotta

2 large eggs

75g plain flour

1 1/2 tspn bak powder

pinch salt

1/2 tspn ground cinnamon

1 tblspn sugar

1/2 vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

Put ricotta in bowl, add eggs, stir until smooth

Add all other ingredients and stir to form a smooth batter

Heat a shallow frying pan with clean vegetable oil

when a small piece of batter sizzles and floats 

Drop tspn sized dollops of batter into oil and fry 4-5 at a time

turn when golden (this will happen pretty quick)

and fry for about a minute on other side

remove to a plate with paper towel and repeat with rest of batter

sprinkle with icing sugar 

and eat 

IMMEDIATELY

enjoy

x

Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson FEAST

Etsy Home Accessories

I am doing some home improvements at the moment 

for 2 upcoming events, (more of which later)

I seem to have too much furniture and not enough accessories

Not a bad complaint I guess

and likely a symptom of having moved thousands of miles twice 

in the last 2 years, all unnecessary extras- gone

Anyway I am in the market for some new rugs and cushions 

These

Morrocan rugs

caught my eye on Etsy 

These are a little out of my price range though 

Also liked these Kilim cushions

and these Suzani Pillows

particularly like the colour and texture of this bottom one
that one might be going in my basket

while searching I came across this seller

who had some very interesting pieces

although some of it is a bit out there for me 

I do like the idea of 

covering dining chairs in floral fabric
edit - see a how to post here 

and 

appliqueing a pattern onto a plain background

in fact I have a chair in need of repair that might just get this treatment

Christ Church Cathedral Tiles

The other night I was in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin at an event
I was struck by the incredible encaustic tiles on the floor
I have been to Christ Church before
but somehow had forgotten the beauty of the tiles
The above geometric patterns were my favourite but the animal representations
 are quite famous and popular

birds

dogs

foxes

I would love to tile my kitchen floor
These tiles are quite costly
but they will last a lifetime, actually longer than a lifetime

Love this patchwork floor from HERE

and this one from HERE 

They are also used a lot in hallways

 image from Architect Design

was thinking these more geometric ones from
 Abbergavenny reclamation
for my kitchen floor?

one day !

Caramel Shortbread

Loosen your belt 

crumbly shortbread, creamy caramel and chocolate 

Yum!

INGREDIENTS

100g sugar

200g butter

250g Self raising flour

50g cornflour (cornstarch)

400 ml can condensed milk

200g choc- milk or dark (I use half milk and half dark)

METHOD

Heat oven to 180'c

Line a 20cm x 30cm swiss roll tin with parchment paper

combine butter, sugar, s r flour and cornflour in a food precessor until it comes together in a dough

Press into tin evenly and bake for 20 mins

remove to cool

Meanwhile you want to make your caramel 

Place your tin of condensed milk in a pot and boil for 2 hours 

When caramel is ready and shortbread is cooled tip caramel into a bowl and stir vigorously until it becomes smooth

I find half a tin is enough but you can use the whole tin if you wish (it can be a bit sickly and too much of a good thing, 

you can store the remainder in the fridge and use for a delicious ice cream topping !) 

melt your chocolate ( I melt it in the microwave, the trick to this is to take it out while there are still lumps and then stir until smooth)

Spread over caramel, leave to cool 

Place in fridge

If you want to cut it into even squares you will need to let it come to room temperature before cutting

heavily adapted from Rachel Allen's Chocolate peanut squares

Spring Flowers

Spring is bursting

Last week in Ireland temperatures were 20 centigrade

record breaking highs

 One of my favourite things to do is pick flowers from my garden

This is something I really missed while living in NYC

It is amazing how something so simple can give so much joy

Currently the House is filled with blooms 

Living Rooms

the red flowering brances are Quince and are from a friends garden

Bathrooms

This is "cooks blue" from Farrow and Ball that some of you gave me advice on 

over on Facebook

really lovely colour

Study

The purple wallflowers and red tulips are from my mothers garden

In other exciting news I think my Wisteria is going to flower this year for the first time

As it takes 4 years on average for Wisteria climbers to flower

I AM BEYOND EXCITED !

I am pretty sure these are flower buds 

Amaryllis

Enjoying the full bloom of my Amaryllis

and the promise of more to come

all photos

Helen James

The frost is coming

The last 2 mornings we have had a thick frost on the ground

they say this winter is going to be a deep freeze

My back yard at 7am

Alex Vervoodt, Wabi Sabi and the little woodwormed table

The movers have been and gone

My treasured possesions are now on the high seas

slowly making ther way across the ocean again.

We are living a spartan/glamping existence

for our final days in the city of New York

and you know what,

 I like it

Less stuff means less tidying up

Less noise

This also coincides with my recent purchase of

 this beautiful book

and some further research into the japanese philosophy of

Wabi Sabi

(this is a great piece about it)

I feel like I found my soul

 I cannot get enough of the scrubbed wooden floors, Does anyone have floors like this in their home?

Some years ago a little house in the local village was being demolished

I looked in through the windows and saw an old cracked belfast sink

after a little detective work I got in touch with the owner who told me to go in and take anything I like

I recovered a little desk, some old iron hooks

a mirror, the beflast sink

and a small woodwormed table.

I treated the table, to halt its destruction and set it in my kitchen

I texted Mr HJD who was away travelling:

Is there something wrong with loving a little woodwormed table THIS much

I sat and stared at it for days

I rubbed the worn patina on its face and traced the woodwormed furrows with my fingers

So now, in one week,

I return to my little woodwormed table

and the old familiar patina of my life in a little village in the middle of Ireland

and while the hottest new restaurant will not be opening
their next outpost there, any time soon........

I can't wait.

x

H

All Images from Alex Vervoodt Wabi Interiors