Our garden 3 floors up

Yesterday I picked up some bamboo type fencing to make our balcony feel more garden like & give it some more privacy.

Mr C wasn't too impressed when I came home with it but after he put it up he was pleased with the results. I just need a bit more for the front panel just less high!

Todays View

Every few months we get up, get dressed, have some breakfast & then open the blinds in the living room to find some large cruise ship moored up outside. Its quite a nice sight to see.
Todays fine cruise ship is the Maasdam from Holland and its quite a nice day for the visitors to be stopping over in Liverpool. The boats always moor up in the middle of the River Mersey & the passengers disembark using the ferry service.

Afternoon Baking

I've been fancying some scones for a few weeks now so when we where at the supermarket the other day we picked up some clotted cream & strawberry jam.

This afternoon I baked the scones. This is the second time I've made them with the Mary Berry recipe and both times I found I needed much more flour than it says (otherwise you end up with a soggy gooey mixture that you cannot knead nevermind roll out!).

Here is the recipe:

Sieve 250g self raising flour & 2 teaspoons of baking powder into a bowl
Add 60g butter - in small cubes
Mix with your hands into breadcrumb type mixture
Add 30g sugar
Put one egg into a jug & add milk upto 1/4 pint (beat lightly)
Add liquid to mix & stir into dough
I added a good handful of Sultanas here (not in original recipe)
Knead dough (you will probably need to add more flour at this point until mixture is more dough like)
Roll out to 1cm-1/2" thickness
Cut into scone size circles & put on a buttered baking tray - use excess milk to brush tops of scones
Cook at 220°c for approx 10 mins or until risen & golden brown

Cool on wire rack

Serve with cream & jam or just butter and a nice cup of tea. Enjoy.

Where has July gone?

Is it just me, or has it flown by in a mist of rain?

Rant...

Another good use of my blog - the art of ranting! I seriously, seriously feel like slamming my little head against an almighty brick wall.

If, in the future, you consider using Northern Rock for anything - please don't tell me I didn't warn you. They are a bunch of monkeys. Can I say that? Is that allowed? I mean I am allowed to express my view right? Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ok. Deep Breath.

It seems that every single time I approach them to fix a problem (that is of their own making & one they cannot simply correct) I end up arguing with the monkey on the other end as they do not understand what I am saying. Even. if. i. spell. it. out. to. them?

My frustrations caused me to write in - I mean if you write to the complaints department you think they would (a) read the letter (b) look into it (c) offer to resolve problems & apologise.

Not at Northern Rock. They just read your letter & reply telling you the same thing as the other monkeys on the phone. Can you not read people?

My second complaint letter will be winging its way back to them tomorrow - just to state the obvious, it points out the four reasons why I am still unhappy with them and why I feel like they have not yet resolved my complaint.

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sorry. Normal blog service will resume when I find my sanity :)

Tasty Tasty Tuna Burgers

You may remember that we made some salmon burgers a few weeks ago & whilst they were nice, we said we'd like to try them with Tuna instead. So on Friday this is what we had and we both agreed that the recipe works better with Tuna and you even get a more 'meaty' flavour too.

We started with some homemade Bruschetta - one shallot, a good handful of organic cherry tomatoes, a tiny amount of garlic & a few leaves of basil - all finely chopped and left in the fridge for a little while. Then served on a few slices of ciabatta and a drizzle of some grassy olive oil.
The burgers were made just the same way as the salmon burgers and this time I left them in the fridge for an hour or so before cooking them. I also coated them in a small amount of flour too & this gave them a good golden colour once cooked. Served on a ciabatta bun with lettuce, cucumber and lemon mayonnaise with a side serving of rustic chips and the obligatory glass of white wine. A perfect Friday night tea.
Mr C said he'd quite like a tomato salsa type accompaniment next time so maybe we'll have to try it again in a few weeks.

I didn't make anything for pudding but we accidentally picked up 2 slices of blueberry cheesecake which went down very well.

The Weather Lottery

A bit more exciting than all this rain.

Mr C signed up in aid of Zoe's Place - it only costs £1 a week (25p per day x 4 days a week) - I think he's been playing for two or three weeks and already he's won 2 prizes. Now I wont be going on any holidays with a grand total of £4 but I think the odds are better than the normal lottery & you know where your % of charity money goes. Top prize is £10,000 too so whilst it may not be millions it's a nice sum to win if your so lucky.

If your interested have a look here

Cakes, Glorious Cakes

Whilst things over here have been a bit busy & hectic recently I haven't had much to blog about.

For example, we went to the opening of the new Red Ape enclosure at Chester Zoo a couple of weekends ago. It was nice. But it rained and rained and erm, rained. And we stood around, stood around and then queued in the rain. Eventually we got in & saw one Orang-utan. Yes one. Then we walked some more in the rain to get some nibbles (ok, not fab) and then hopped on the monorail for free all the way back to the car.

We also helped out at the Zoe's Place summer fete. In the rain. Though I did bake some delicious cupcakes thanks to my new favourite recipe from Nigella. Though they all sold quite quickly so we didn't get a look in.

However, the rain seems to have brought the baking abilities out in Mr C. Would you believe it?
He was quite taken with the one cake he did manage to scoff (the one that fell on the floor, what is it with men?).

So we have now seen two batches of cakes courtesy of Mr C. The first ended up getting left at my mum & dads so he had to make a second batch!!
I cant wait to see what he bakes for my birthday cake ;)