Nan's Coconut Buns (With Recipe)

Morning all!

It's been eight years since my Nan passed away but she's always on our minds. She was very traditional, liked to say it as it was (i.e. "Emma stop tucking your hair behind your ears, they'll stick out), but one thing I loved was her old-fashioned ways. Dinners there would always be some warming stew and lunchtime was always a cucumber sandwich (with a dash of vinegar and cracked black pepper). I'm very grateful to my Nan for showing me how to knit, how to make colourful scrapbooks and giving me some sewing advice too or I might not be half as creative and craft-obsessed as I am now. She was very independent (my Granddad passed away back in 1994 so she had many years on her own) and was still cycling along the busy Cambridge roads well into her eighties. Every Christmas she stayed with us, which meant every Christmas the pennies would come out for a card game of Newmarket before she'd hurry into the living room to have the TV at full volume to watch every single soap on TV! I love recalling the funny memories you have of family members who have passed, it shows that regardless of how much time passes, you'll always remember them and they'll put a little smile on your face as you do something that reminds you of them.

Almost every weekend when we visited my Nan, she would always have a batch of freshly baked coconut buns waiting for us and we'd polish them off pretty quickly (especially my brother!). For many years now I've been meaning to make some coconut buns like Nan's, so imagine my delight when I discovered her hand-written recipe on a sheet of paper tucked into one of her old cookbooks! I made a batch last week and I have to say they tasted lovely, very refreshing thanks to the fresh orange but I don't think they were a patch on the famous Nanny Skinner coconut buns!

Anyway, here's the hand-written recipe should anyone wish to make them; if you struggle to read Nan's writing (I did have to look twice at a couple of words!), then let me know and I'll write out the recipe for you. They were very tasty and very cheap to make (I bought all of the ingredients in Lidl and their desiccated coconut was very nice). Nan's recipe is to make a cake but I did the same amount of ingredients and it made 24 small buns.

 

Here's a few photos of my baking progress, they were all demolished within a couple of hours of arriving at my Parents on Thursday!

 

 

 

 

Always thinking of you Nan and Granddad xx

 

Weekend

I think the presence of the storms was felt everywhere this weekend, it certainly made for some menacing skies over Newbury on Friday.

Moody sky over the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury

 

Luckily I didn't get too caught out in the rain this weekend and it was nice to have a fresher temperature on Saturday; I hear it's going to get much colder by the end of the week too so here's hoping we wake up to some beautiful frosty mornings as opposed to grey wet clouds.

 

I had a lovely day in London on Saturday at the BBC Good Food show; it's the first time I've been to this show and I thought it was great. We had a presentation with Tom Kerridge and he's one of my favourite chefs - anyone who loves proper British grub is good in my books! He cooked an amazing mussel dish and made it look so easy that I really must try it, I love mussels. There were lots of samples, especially fudge, I don't know how much fudge I ate! There were some really interesting stalls with different combinations of food you wouldn't necessarily put together. I enjoyed it anyway and it was lovely to have a catch up with my friend. We then headed to Covent Garden afterwards for something to eat before catching the train home.

 

 

I didn't get up to a lot yesterday; Jack had some friends to stay for the weekend and they had a late night out on Saturday so they were all feeling a little tired and fragile yesterday morning! I did drag them to the pub in the village for a tasty Sunday lunch and I made some more mincemeat in the afternoon.

 

Cheeky puppy found a cosy place to snooze yesterday on the guest duvet!

 

So a pretty boring blog post today! Now I'm going to have a good read of everyone's recent blog posts to see what they got up to at the weekend, while chomping on some jammie dodgers! :-)

 

I'm very much looking forward to Thursday this week as we're heading to Norfolk for a long weekend at my Parents' home. Barry is excited about running around on the beach, crazy to think that the last time we took him to the seaside he was only 15 weeks old and this time he'll be 10 months old, how time flies. I haven't seen my parents in a couple of months so I'm excited to see them and my brother and his girlfriend are also coming for the weekend too so it'll be nice to have some proper family time. I can't wait for some long walks on the beach to blow the cobwebs away.

 

Have a good week everyone x

 

 

Easy Christmas Crochet Projects

All who follow my blog will know that I was bitten by the crochet bug a few months ago and now love it! It's not the easiest to learn in my opinion but lots of practice is making all the difference.

I wanted to have a go at making some Christmas-related crochet pieces having finished making a scarf for my friend as a Christmas present. Pinterest is amazing for ideas (the link to follow me on Pinterest can be found on the right-hand side of my blog) and I stumbled upon how to crochet a simple little wreath that you could then hang on your tree or wherever you fancy.

The photo below shows my completed wreath with a little red bow sewn on. I'm already starting another one and this next one I'm going to decorate with little beads. You can find a link to the free crochet pattern on how to make these cute wreaths here; I think the pattern is easily adaptable if you wanted to make a bigger version and it is easy to decorate with whatever you fancy. As I say, I'm going to have a go at sewing on some little beads, but sequins would also look great I think.

I've also had a go at a crochet holly leaf which was easier than I thought, if a little fiddly! I'm going to make another, sew them together and I have some mini red pom poms to use as berries to complete the set. Again, I'll probably hang these on the tree. Link on how to make these is here.

 

Next job is to have a go at some of the pretty crochet snowflakes I've seen; I've got plenty of white wool so there's no excuse. I'd like to make a few snowflakes and make it into a garland to hang up somewhere. Watch this space!

 

If anyone else has found some simple Christmas crochet projects please send them my way as I'd love to keep practicing... nice and simple though please ;-)

Homemade Mincemeat

I've had my first ever attempt at making my own mincemeat ready for mince pie making next month. I don't like mince pies, but I do love making them and always just buy jars of mincemeat. However, after some pestering from Jack, I've made my own following a very easy recipe in the latest issue of BBC Good Food magazine.

Ingredients Needed:
1 Orange
1 Lemon
2 Bramley Apples
Candied Peel
Dried Mixed Fruit (Sultanas, Currants, Raisins etc.)
Ground Mixed Spice
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Nutmeg
Brandy or Cognac
Dark Brown Muscovado Sugar
Beef Suet (or vegetable suet)
Empty jars!


I don't usually buy food magazines as it's much easier and cheaper just to browse blogs and websites for tasty inspiring recipes. I do however always buy the Christmas issue of the Good Food magazine because 1) it comes with a free calendar with tasty recipes on, 2) I just like drooling over the food photos! The mincemeat recipe was in their "make ahead" article and I was pleased at just how easy it was. The mincemeat smells amazing and was really fun to make. All you do is chop the apple down nice and small, add all of the other ingredients to it except the suet and give it a good mix. Cover it for a few hours, or overnight if possible, then add the suet. Mix again and then spoon into jars - simple! It's been so fun in fact that I've raided the cupboards to find more ingredients to add and make some more - I made three jars worth following the recipe. Next year I intend on being far more organised to make the mincemeat earlier so it has much longer to mature.

Chopping the apples into tiny pieces was probably about as difficult as this recipe got and tripping over Barry too - he sat at my feet in the hope I'd drop some apple (he's a fruit and veg fan).

Adding the brandy and muscovado sugar turned the mincemeat a lovely colour and the smells were sweet and spicy; the recipe just said to add ground mixed spice but I also added further ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg as these are my favourite spices when making fruit cakes and they always taste so good.

I then had to leave it overnight before adding the suet. I added beef suet as the recipe suggested but vegetable suet can be used too (beef suet is just what's always in our cupboard). I sterilised the jars using the hot soapy water and dry in the oven method - thanks to many of the lovely blogs I follow for the useful tips on sterilising jars.

Here they are all filled and ready to mature in the cupboard for a while. The recipe says they'll last up to a year but I should think just past that won't kill you - I hope so anyway as I still have pickled onions I made last October that I'm saving for Christmas and they taste just fine (again, recipe said keep for a year). I used my nice jars for the mincemeat, I'm keeping my old jars for the pickled onions I'm intending to make, when I get around to it..

Tonight's plan is to make more mincemeat so I can give some to my mum, then I need to get on with making Christmas cards; I've got so much craft stuff that I set myself the challenge of making Christmas cards this year as opposed to buying any. I've made two so far, I'm aiming to make around 30 if I can.

When does Jack Frost arrive?

After a weekend of mist, fog, wind, rain and more rain, I'd like to know when the weather will dry up and get cooler! I don't like this persistent mild wet weather, I hope the frosty but sunny days arrive soon.

Sadly the weather meant Jack couldn't get finished with his shed building, so instead we've almost finished the coving in the main bedroom. Just the tricky chimney breast to do (with 'inny' and 'outy' corners) and then it'll be over to me to caulk and paint the new coving. Our main bedroom will then be complete in terms of decorating. I'm going to buy a curtain pole (and curtains) this week, I'm getting a bit sick of our makeshift curtain (a big duvet cover pinned up!) but until we had finished the painting and decorating I didn't want to put some nice new curtains up. I did buy a book on curtain making as I'd like to give it a go, but I think I'll choose a smaller window instead of our huge bedroom ones (not sure I'll be that good!). We then need to finish furnishing the main bedroom; at the moment we're making do with two clothes rails, a few plastic tubs as bedside tables and a workmate as a TV stand!

I had a much needed hair cut on Saturday after god knows how long neglecting to find a hair dressers. I've had my hair cut by the same lovely lady for so many years that when I moved to Newbury almost 3 years ago it was really tough to find somewhere new (I instead opted to book a hair cut every so often when we went back to Cambridge to delay having to find somewhere new). I have however now found a lovely salon with very friendly staff members. The lady who cut my hair was lovely and it was a relief I have to tell you that they actually listened to what you're after. Hair cuts really aren't cheap anymore though hence why I don't go as often as I should. Jack's so lucky to be able to pop to the Barbers in the next village and have his hair cut for £5 but then it probably takes them less than 5 minutes to do it! Though the hair dresser blow-dried my hair beautifully (something I can never seem to do), it was totally wasted when I left the salon, scarpering to the car as quickly as possible in the driving wind and rain! Jack (ever the gentleman) told me how lovely my (bedraggled and now frizzy) hair looked nonetheless. We then rewarded ourselves with my favourite kind of weekend breakfast; sausage, egg and bacon bap!

I am nicknamed the Bacon Queen!

Other than venturing out to the farm shop on Sunday morning, the rest of the weekend was spent indoors (in the warm). We did brave the weather a few times to walk the dog but even he didn't enjoy the wind much! I finally managed to get my latest crochet project finished; I've made a scarf for my best friend for Christmas in a beautifully soft part-Alpaca wool. I can't post photos of the scarf yet in case she spots it on my blog! I'm very pleased with it anyway and after quite a few hours, it's given me a lot of practice with lots of different crochet stitches. I've been busy crocheting holly leaves and mini-wreaths too that I can either make into a sort of bunting or just hang in various places around the house - photos to follow once they're finished. I have also nearly finished our big crochet blanket for the bed, it's probably at double-bed size now and our bed is a king so just a few more rounds to do. I can't wait to snuggle up in it!

Jack's work colleagues love my baking so I made a giant fruit loaf yesterday which was probably all gone by 9am this morning! I always make mine quite boozy and leave the dried fruit soaking in white wine and brandy for at least a few hours before they go into the mixture so I hope they're not drunk now..

Making Fruit Cake

I didn't get any photos of the big fruit loaf but I did also make some mini fruit loaves, they're so cute! I love everything in miniature! Good things come in small packages, that was what I was always told :-)

Have a good week!

Tortoises

Lola enjoying some pumpkin

 

Just a little hello from the tortoises who yawn and ask when they're allowed to go to bed for the winter! Squirt hasn't slowed down much and is always busy patrolling their run looking for a way to escape (a favourite tortoise pastime), while Lola sits watching her. Lola's day goes like this; emerge first thing in the morning when the heat lamp comes on, bask under it for about half an hour (while fighting for the best spot with Squirt), have a few mouthfuls of breakfast and then plod off back to bed for the rest of the day! Lazy thing! She's trying to tell me that she wants to hibernate but I keep telling her that she's got a few more weeks to wait yet if this mild November weather is anything to go by.

 

Sleepy torts this time of year

 

They've been in their outside run at every opportunity possible (when the sun shines and it's mild) and have been devouring weeds. I've been giving them lots of extra treats such as romaine lettuce and pak choi to help maintain their weight before hibernation. Both have hibernated before but Lola's first and only attempt only lasted a week before her weight dropped too much (they shouldn't lose more than 10% of their body weight throughout the whole wind-down and hibernation process). Squirt is much more successful but has a couple of years on Lola so she seems to know what to do (so is a greedy pig the rest of the year in an attempt to stock up for winter!). I find hibernation very scary and worry a lot about them but it's a natural process they'd do in the wild so I'm keen to make sure we attempt it each year and they're always much better for it the following Spring, so maybe it's proof that it's good for them. There's lots of helpful articles online and the breeder I got my two from is always happy to answer my questions.

 

Dreaming of summer...

 

I'll try and give you a tortoise update a little more regularly moving forward.

 

Good bye, night night from Squirt & Lola as they head off to bed for the winter x

 

Autumnal Food

I hope everyone had a good time on Halloween and watching fireworks on Bonfire Night last night. Our village had a display last Saturday which we watched from our driveway; it was Barry's first experience of fireworks and our nervous little puppy was surprisingly brave. That's not to say he stood with us going "oohh" and "ahhh", instead choosing to head for the safety of his comfy bed where he could watch and listen while playing with his toy. I know fireworks are extremely scary for a lot of pets.

We've had a lot of dense fog this week that hasn't cleared at all some days in our little 'dip' in the Berkshire downs. We've also had a lot of rain this week which has meant I've made the effort to re-stock our freezer with meat that will be perfect for stews and casseroles. We enjoyed a lovely lamb stew one day this week; I love being able to use my slow-cooker. My Nan gave me her old slow-cooker a few years ago and I love it - the older ones are just as good if not better than some of the newer inventions. The settings on mine are very simple; auto, low or high. It has a big ceramic pot that's removable too which is great as it means when I get home I take it out of the slow cooker, make some dumplings and pop it in the oven to finish off the dumplings. If I didn't do dumplings I think Jack would cry! I love dumplings too, very naughty but so good, especially herby dumplings!

My lovely assistant; the slow-cooker

 



Barry is eager for the weekend to arrive as it means much longer walks in the countryside. These dark evenings mean that our usual walk is somewhat shorter, though he still enjoys a good run around the field in the mornings too when Jack takes him out before he goes to work. We had a nice walk together last weekend, lots of colourful berries everywhere.

I also cooked a lovely Halloween-inspired meal last Saturday; Sausage, sage and pumpkin casserole. It's so tasty and this time I did it with some couscous on the side (great to soak up all the juices). I really like pumpkin and would love to try making a pumpkin soup. What do people recommend I do with the pumpkin in the soup? I was thinking a pumpkin and carrot soup?

Things at work haven't improved sadly, and I don't think it will any time soon. Therefore, my de-stress therapy when I get home is to crochet or read a book to switch off, both of which I didn't make much time for. I'm now making more of an effort to have an hour or so of 'chill time' and my little limpet is always by my side while we wait for Jack to get home from work. Once home, all three of us squeeze onto our tiny worn out sofa which is finally meeting its end. It's been in Jack's family since he was little and was kindly donated to us when we first moved into our own place, before coming here to our house with us. It's now falling apart completely and we have finally ordered a new sofa and arm chair which will arrive before Christmas. We're very excited and I've already called dibs on the armchair, it's a perfect snuggle for me (without little limpet) with a good book, though Jack also thinks it'll make a good gaming chair... hmm. I think we've both already said it's going to be pretty difficult to stop Barry from joining us on the new sofa. I think I'm just going to invest in a good throw (mainly for the bottom cushions) to help protect the new sofa from getting worn. He's only allowed up when invited (as opposed to many dogs that beat you to the best spot in the living room!), but he perfects his "I'm so lonely" face from across the room in his bed when he's not on the sofa with us, so we usually give in!

My little limpet

 

 

We're having a quiet weekend at home; I hope the weather will be dry so we can enjoy a nice long walk somewhere. Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Final photo I promise; Barry showing off while playing his favourite game we call "patience/frustration"! He loves it and stays stock-still until given the cue to gobble up all the treats!