Rainy Days!

What a dreadful week its been, Rain, rain go away, come back another day! Its been such nasty weather the last few days its hard to get motivated to do anything never mind go to WORK ;( But I did it and its Friday ;) All week I've wanted to do nothing but curl up in bed with reruns of Gilmore Girls and episodes of Gossip Girl! My new favourite program right now and I can't believe I only discovered it last week is Revenge. However my Boyfriend also likes it, so I've been waiting for him to get home the last few nights to watch an episode.

Anyway tonight when I got home I decided to make some hot Chocolate to warm me up and as a treat. I've tried many a hot chocolate. I've made so many from scratch and so many instant ones. But I always come back to my favourite one which is Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate. I know some of you out there will accuse me of cheating but you know what, Sometimes you got a cheat a little!

A Cup of milk (I use low fat milk but that up to you)

3 Teaspoon's Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate

I sometimes put an extra half spoon in depends on taste.

A few marshmallows again depending on taste

Put the cup of milk in the microwave for 2 minutes

Take it out carefully and add the 3 teaspoons of drinking chocolate

Mix and put back in the microwave for another 2 minutes, Keep an eye on it you don't want your milk to burn.

Add Marshmallows and Enjoy!

Perfect for a nice cosy evening in front of the telly!

Elizabeth Arden GIVEAWAY!

Hi all you wonderful beautiful people! (Was that to much?! haha) I've nearly reached 50 followers and I just wanna say a big thank you to everyone who has followed me!

I've decided that coming up to 50 Followers I need to give a little back. So In honor of 50 i'm doing an Elizabeth Arden Eight hour giveaway!

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Essentials:

Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant
Eight Hour Cream Intensive Moisturizing Hand Treatment
Eight Hour Cream Lip Protectant Stick SPF 15 

As this is my first Giveaway, I will open it internationally

Right here's what I would like you to do...

Follow here on my blog

Follow my Facebook

And lastly Follow My Twitter

Comment with your user names and an email  to contact you if you win.

This GIVEAWAY is open till the 13th of May 2012.

Good Luck to everyone.

Nailed it! Or did I?

I love nail varnish. But does it love me? I’m never really sure. I take my time, First I do a under coat. Then I do about two coats of the colour I want. Its really depends on the colour or brand whether it needs a third coat. And then I do A top coat. It looks great for about a day and then it slowly goes down hill chip by chip. Of course then I just have to take it of straight away because there is nothing worse then chipped nail varnish.

And even still I take a little time to put a little varnish on and even if it only lasts a day, I take pleasure in it.

Colours are my guilty pleasures I love colour then brighter the better. I find that even on the greyish days a bit of colour on your nails does your mood so much good, well a little anyway, Its not magic it can’t solve everything but it can help! Right now I’m into pinks, oranges and you know what some nudes as well.

My favourite brands range from affordable to not so affordable. From Catrice to Chanel to Barry M.

Sometimes if I’m feeling flush or just want to treat myself I take myself down and get my nails done. General if I’m going to treat myself I get the two weeks shellac. This normally lasts me around three weeks depending on growth. I love the look and the place where I go have some really lovely colours. I have a few favourite colours, which I normally stick too. When I get this done my hands look girly and to be honest I don’t have girly hands. I have piano fingers as my grandmother used to say to me. She was being kind because there just long and manly in no way girly!

Catrice Utli Mate Nudes 030 My Café Au Lait Notre-Dame

I use a Clear Hardening Varnish for underneath

And I use a Marks and Spencer's Top Shine for on top.

This is an OPI Strawberry Margarita

What's A Girl To Do?

What's a girl to do? This weather is playing havoc with my lips and hands to very important parts of my body! ;) One minute its raining the next its sunny. Is the weather ever going to settle into summer once and for all! Knowing my luck the answer to that question is "Hell No!" To add to problems I work in a library and books, paper prove to be accurate drains all the moisture from our skin.

My Lips have been so so dry and I have been trying my best to do what ever possible to repair them. I got a great tip from a woman who worked at the Elizabeth Arden counter in boots on how to exfoliate your lips. You get a Soft toothbrush and a wet it a little and brush it over your lips for a few minutes ever second night. And when finished Put a dab of Elizabeth Arden eight hour cream on before bed. By the end of the week and just in time for the weekend your lips with be pooty perfect! I use the Eight hour cream as a lip balm, its amazing if you can get over the smell, which I of course did years ago and have never looked back. An Eight hour cream costs 31.00 Euro. I know I know expensive lip cream you say?! However here is Eight great ways to use Eight hour cream....

1. Alleviate dry skin. 

2. Great gloss for lips. 

3. Highlight eyelids, cheeks and shoulders. 

4. For after shaving or waxing. 

5. Shape brows into place. 

6. Soften rough, dry cuticles. 

7. Antidote for rough heels and soles. 

8. Best in-flight moisture booster.

So the last few weeks I have been using whatever hand cream is to hand. I have my favourite of course but I'm not fussy when you need some hand cream ya need some hand cream. The first is Soap and Glory Hand food and it came with a hand soap also. Its not going to break the bank. And it smells pretty good like all Soap and Glory products. I got this as a free gift in Boots at christmas, so not 100% how much this set costs. But a hand cream on its own will cost around 5 euro.

The second is Molton Brown Relaxing Yuan Zhi Its actually a body cream but i only use it on my hands. Its Expensive but its so worth it as its smells so good and your hands are like silk after using it a few times.

I love love love this one. This is priced at a whopper 17.95 euro. I think i got mine in the outlet so it would have been a little cheaper.

And last but not least, My number one favourite is the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Hand cream. If you have never tried it, get on with it. It doesn't have the smell like the original eight hour cream. You use it once a day and you will see the benefit of it. Where some other creams you need to load up on it a few times a day, this one is you really only need to use once a day. However I usually indulge and use it a few times if I can remember that is. This is priced a 20.80 but so worth it as you only need a little pea size and will last you ages.

I hope this has helped you folk out there who are having the same problems as myself ;)

Easter Delight

Its Easter, yes its Chocolate time haha This week a few things happened one being my food processor's motor burnt out. I was making pizza dough for good Friday poker night with the family. I finished the dough of by hand, my muscles are now slightly bigger hehe Anyway I was gutted. So i went out today with my mother and we picked out a new one.

So many shiny parts, I didn't know what to use first!

I decided some Easter Buns would be a good first work out for work out for my new food processor. These are extremely easy to make, I've been making them since I was a kid with my mother and we all used to fight over licking the bowl at the end. 

Easter Buns 

14 oz Self Raising Flour

8oz Caster Sugar

8oz Butter/Margarine

4 Medium Eggs

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

A few drops of orange food Colouring

A few drops of Orange Essence

Preheat the oven at a medium heat. 

This recipe will make 24 buns 

Icing

6oz icing sugar

2/3 tablespoons of water

A Drop of Orange essence

A drop of Orange food Colouring

Whatever Decorations take your fancy 

 Beat the Butter and Sugar together.

Fold in the eggs, and the add Flour spoon by spoon

Add Vanilla and orange Essene. And then add the food colouring. Use as much or little as you want. Depending on the colour you want your buns to be. 

This mixture will make 24 buns, Put into the oven for 15-20 Minutes. You know they are cooked when they are golden and raised.

 While your buns are cooking haha get your icing sugar and water. Be careful with the water add only a little at a time, you don;t want it to runny. Beat it into the icing sugar with a spoon. 

Add the Colouring and the Essence 

 Until its the Colour and taste you want it

Put the buns on a cooling wire and when they are completely cooled down. And then ice them with as much or as little cing as you would like.

Now for some Chocolate Bunnies.

I bought these fab moulds on ebay They have a good range of them.

You can use whatever chocolate takes your fancy, Put what ever else takes your fancy into them. I used Dairy milk Chocolate, White chocolate and Marshmallows.

 I melt the Chocolate in the microwave, the trick is to do it slowly and take it out ever minute and give it a good mix. Do not let it burn, this can happen very quickly so keep an eye on it. 

This is really messy so make sure your hands are clean, You will need to use your hands.

Put them into the fridge for an hour and they should just pop out.

I made these for my family this year instead of buying Easter eggs. They don't look perfect but then home made is not always going to look perfect and that's what I like about these. They taste amazing. 

Have a Happy Easter, I hope you all have an amazing day with your family.

Chocolate Brownie Delight

This week the weather here in Dublin has been beyond Gorgeous. The sun has been out and everyone has been going around with smiles on their faces because if the sun is out then it must be summer? Right? Well we'll see how long it lasts. I've lived in Ireland for 30 years I know how it goes :-) 

Anyway my point being it was hard to get my arse into the kitchen to make some delish treats .Instead I took a half day from work today and took myself out my back garden with a few blankets and a book. I had just finished a lovely girlie book which  I will admit are my guilty pleasure and I was just starting the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I had finished the first book last week. Well in advance for the film coming out last weekend, but yet to see it. This weekend fingers crossed. I did a review for The Hunger Games for work on the YAPS blog check it out if you get a chance.

I eventually got myself into gear and started my brownies. Now I am one of those people who are always on the look out for the best brownie recipe ever. I've made brownies time and time again. So I try use a different recipe ever time i make brownies or I try add something to the recipe to make it better. 

I found this recipe awhile back, not sure where but it so easy my boyfriend could even get it right and that is saying something. Although he's not the worst at cooking he's also not the best :-)

Now I use the American Measurements (cups) for these brownies as its very quick and now weight scales is needed. You can Convert them here.

Ingredients 

1½ cups sugar
¾ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder 
3 eggs
¾ cup butter, melted
½ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
¾ cup chocolate chips
Marshmallows (optional) 

Now before we begin, Chocolate! Yes Chocolate is important. And these brownies will only be as good as the chocolate you use! Just think about that when you are gathering your ingredients. 


The assembly is about as easy as you can get. Combine the sugar, flour, salt (if using unsalted butter), cocoa, eggs and melted butter and mix.

Do this by hand, until the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the wet, and stop. You don’t need to beat it, and you want to avoid producing gluten from the flour. This will make it Chewy like bread and you don't want that.

Now its time to add in the chocolate chips and whatever else takes your fancy. Play around and see what works for you. I throw in some marshmallows this time and it worked out really good but its whatever works for you. Mix them in real good till they are covered in the Chocolate mixture.


Line a 9×13 baking dish with grease proof paper. Grease the paper with either butter or I like to use Low fat spray hey why not something healthy to add to it. I over-do it a little because I want to be absolutely sure it doesn't stick. As long as you cover the bottom you should be good, as it will pull away from the edges while baking.


Poor your mixture into the baking dish and using a knife or the tip of a rubber spatula spread it out. 
Bake at 325° for 20-30 minutes. It’s done when a toothpick/ or old knitting needle inserted in the tallest part comes out clean. Keep in mind you’ve got chips in there. If you hit one with the toothpick it will have melted chocolate on it. You might need to poke a couple of spots to make sure you aren’t hitting a chip.


Very Carefully Take the paper out of the dish and Peel the edges and let cool for a few minutes before slicing. I get very impatient and cut it before and it usually crumbles but it still tasted damn good. 

I hope these brownies go down a treat just like they did with my girls at tea.


Let me know how you get on.


Until next time 
Elle 

Hello and welcome...

Well here goes nothing! For the last few months I have been thinking and wondering if I could start a blog and keep it going. I then realised there was only one way to find out and that was to take the plunge and go head first into it. So here I am my first post. YAY!! haha ok down to series business here. The one reason I want to start this blog was because i spend my weekends baking for my family and thank god I come from a big family where my baking is very much wanted and it also means I don't have to eat it all myself. Although my boyfriend Dave would if he could.  Also I thought it was a good way to share some tips I've picked up along the way.

Another passion of mine is reading. I work in a library and When its home time my bag is always full of the newest book to put in my list of to read shelf I have that's now probably three of four shelf's. I read everything and anything but my favourite would have to be young adult or even a little romance and maybe some supernatural. As you can tell I can't even make up my mind whats my favourite it so there you go.

I have many loves, food and books are just two of them so i'll start of with them.

When I got in from work today, I hought I was just fit for bed. However when i got in the door and felt that Friday feeling I decided to make Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops as I like to call them.I had my parents coming up for a cup of tea so I knew they would go down a treat.

Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

Ingredients:

250g / 8oz Self Raising Flour
125g / 4oz Caster Sugar 
50g / 2oz Chocolate Chips
1 Level Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Large Egg
150ml / 1/4 pint Milk
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
125g / 4oz Margarine

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C/325°F/Gas 3.
2. Melt margarine and allow to cool.
3. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients.
4. Mix the egg, milk and vanilla essence into the cooled margarine.
5. Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix to make a very soft mixture.
6. Spoon into bun cases, making each case about two thirds full.
7. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

Recipe Notes:

Makes 12 muffins if using bun cases or 8 muffins if muffin cases used. 

They Turned out great and where ready just as my parents walked in the door.

My aim here is to post something once a week maybe twice if life allows. I hope you all enjoy my first ever post and if you do please pass it on to a friend.

Thanks for reading
Elle