Goosebumps, that diner#3 and cupcakes

So I spent the day today mostly in the company of Jess, you know, the 10 things gal' from Fairydancer8. First we went to see Goosebumps at the local cinema, it was kinda creepy at some parts, but overall it was just insanely hilarious. Here are some of my thoughts about it:

1. There were far too many lil' kids there and far too many zombies.

2. If you have to fall off the sofa in the middle of the movie, please do it quietly?!

3. A magic typewriter....you're kidding me?

4. There’s a killer poodle, need I say more....

5. Champ, oh Champ, basically he is totally awesome, in scaredy cat/sidekick/says such stupid things

6. Hannah, Zach and Champ make an awesome trio. Think Luke, Leia and Han.... or maybe not like that actually....Think 3 teenagers fighting monsters, being all cool and making sarcastic comments along the way....or at least 2 of them were being funny on purpose!

We went to the diner after that, which obviously meant pictures! This diner has featured in two of my posts already, here and here, so I decided not to take any pictures of the wall posters this time.

We talked about a new feature so I will be revealing that pretty soon. *Oooo so exciting*!

We went back to her house and made cupcakes, and I figured it would be rude not to post some pictures of them. Some things we found out whilst making them.

 

1. Things always take longer in the oven when you stand and watch them

 

2. I am rubbish at icing

 

3. Jess will constantly remind me that I am rubbish at icing

 

 

 

Bit of a mis-matched lot of waffle today! Congratulations if you got through all of that and see you again tomorrow. Millie x

Yay pancake day/Shrove Tuesday

 

Hey, hope you had an amazing Shrove Tuesday, with a load of yummy pancakes!

Pancakes for lunch and pudding! Delicious. What are you giving up for Lent?

Sorry about the rubbish-ness of the photos....and by the way I couldn't think of a better title so, yay?! x

Cheesy straws - Salsa optional....

Hey!

These are the cutest lil snack and insanely simple! x

You need:

Cheese Straws

Left over puff pastry

Cheese

Seeds op.

Olives op.

Salsa

Tomato

Basil

Lemon juice

Salt

How to:

Next time you're making something with puff pastry save the leftovers. Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle, then cut slices about an inch thick. Put on a tray and sprinkle with cheese and any other topping you like. Cook for about 15 mins at 180 or until they go nice and golden brown.

    Serve with humus or salsa. Salsa is really easy to make, just chop up some tomatoes, add basil, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Simples.

Fridge cake Fridays

Hi. Ahh fridge cake....

So simple to make + there is hardly any waiting time! Happy Millie.

You can chuck in any extra left over bits of chocolate from Christmas as well!
 

1. Just melt some butter, chocolate, golden syryp and those left over chocolates in a pan on the hob.

2. Put some digestive biscuits in a bag, seal it, then smash the biscuits with a rolling pin.

3. Mix the biscuits into the melted stuff, adding little bit by little bit until the mixture goes all thick and crunchy.

4. Pour into a tin and put in the fridge or freezer to set.

Dadah!! I did all the quantity's by eye, so just experiment adding different chocolate or marshmallows or even crunchie bars! x

Lip scrub DIY and review

Don't you just hate January weather? Rain, getting up in the morning and get this: it's still dark, Rain, having tea and guess what: it's dark again, Rain, not wanting to go running because: it's dark.... Winter is not in my good books (unless there is snow or you are inside by the fire with movies).

Another thing that I am having trouble with at the moment is dry lips. Anyone else get this?
It is insanely annoying, not to mention painful and looks hideous! To help fight against the evils of dry lips, I use a ton of lip cream and such but this only really helps prevent more happening. What has already invaded my personal space is harder to get rid of. To get rid of flaky bits I use a lip scrub and THEN apply a layer of gloss or protective cream. I don't recommend using a scrub regularly in case of damaging your mouth with constant rubbing but when in need this is a good way of stopping
flaky-ness and making perfectly smooth lips. Wait does smooth lips sound weird?

I never used to use lip scrub until I was given one. It was a LUSH bubble gum lip scrub and I tried it, not because I needed to but because it smelled SO nice!! I didn't use it again though, it basically just sat on my shelf for a while until I actually needed it! Now I use it and it is amazing! I will recommend to anyone in need of a lip scrub and don't trust my advice below on making your own!

 

All opinions and pictures are my own.

 

You can just make a cheap one for yourself using ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard + it is so easy + works just as well as a shop bought one!

You will need:

Sugar
Olive Oil
Honey

How to make:

1. Put a tablespoon of sugar in a bowl. This is the grainy bit that will scrub your lips.
2. Cover with Olive Oil, this is to moisturise your lips and stop them from drying out, so don't add to much, just enough to cover the sugar. The mixture should not be too liquidy.
3. Now add a dribble of honey  to stick the mixture together.
4. If you want now  is the time to add flavouring. Peppermint extract, lemon, vanilla extract are all cool ideas but my favourite one by far is adding a small bit of coco powder. This will smell gorgeous!

Change the quantity's of ingredients you use by how much you want to make. I think doing it by eye is sometimes the best. It will keep in a cold place for a fairly long time, so you could make one big batch to last until spring comes once again and thaws our flaking lips.... drama queen!

Pouring into small containers and giving away as presents is a cute idea and people will certainly be grateful at this time of year! Tie a little ribbon round the top or create a personalised sticky label!

 

Now hopefully we can fight a bit better against the evil of dry lips (forever the drama queen!)!

Millie X

7 days till Christmas - Ice Cream Cake

Ice cream cake

 

You will need:

Ice cream

Chocolate bars

Chocolate drops

Sweeties

Caramel

Any kind of thing like this

 

How to make:

Put the ice cream in the mixer. Break up the chocolate bars and caramel and put in the mixer with the ice cream. Pour in the sweeties and chocolate drops then put the mixer on slowly. You might have to stop and un-gunk the mixer blade once in a while. Pour back into the ice cream pot and put the remaining sweeties on the top or in your mouth.

I know the pictures don't make it look that yummy but it really is. Once you get past the fact that it is practically solid sugar. This recipe is coming to you from me and my little sister. SHOUT OUT.

P.S Oh my gosh, oh my gosh I am going to see Star Wars The Force Awakens tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!
Expect a review some time tomorrow.... x

16 days till Christmas - Continuous as the stars that shine, and twinkle on the milky way....

 

You will need:

4oz butter or margarine

2oz sugar

6oz plain flour

Icing sugar

Water

Bowl

Spoons

Sieve

Measuring thing

Oven....

How to make:

Cream the butter and sugar then sieve in the flour. Bring together into a mix with or without your hands. Just remember not to handle the mixture too much as this will melt the fat and it will become all sticky and you won't be able to roll it out. I speak from experience. Roll out on a board dusted with flour, cut little star shapes. Stick in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. When they have cooled down, mix up a paste of icing sugar and water and pipe it on the top. Voila.

 

 

See you tomorrow x

21 days til Christmas

It seems obvious that within this lil' Christmas build-up there should be some recipes, so I'm kick starting it off, with an amazingly simple to make recipe. It also uses cheap ingredients and is perfect for a gift (plus you can sneak ingredients, whilst your making it - hey, it's not stealing if you call it chefs perks!). I'm calling them Chocolate ball, circles, round, spherical like puddles/splats. I had a bit of a problem with what to call them, as you can see, but basically they're a flat, chocolate, circle. It feels like a bit of a rubbish way to describe them after all the build-up, but hey ho, they taste nice.

You will need:

Milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate

Cranberries/Raisins

Almonds

-judge how much you use by how many you want to make

How to make:

Melt the milk chocolate in a pan on the hob.

 Pour onto a tray covered with baking paper. I am pouring it into little circles but I have also poured it into one big sheet before and smashed it up later.

Chop up the cranberries/raisins/almonds and sprinkle them on the top of the chocolate before it sets. Then put the tray into the fridge to set.

   When the milk chocolate is solid, melt the white chocolate in another pan and drizzle it in zig-zag's over the milk chocolate circles. When the white chocolate has set, repeat the process with the dark chocolate!

 If you did one big sheet when everything has set smash it up into shards.

 If you are going to give them away, put in a paper bag or glass jar and tie with some ribbon!

Children in Need - Pudsey bear cookies

Not donated yet? What are you waiting for, people, its tonight!! If you really want to donate, but haven't had the time to do your bake sale/sponsored silence/sponsored run/sponsored bathe in custard (bathing in custard, sounds soo fun, doesn't it!) then now's most defiantly the time

There are so many different things you can do to raise money for Children in Need and it is not only REALLY EASY it is also REALLY FUN and on top of that could there be a better cause??

Me and my family made some Pudsey cookies and some spotty cupcakes, which we sold to various friends and neighbours and I have to say, they were DELICIOUS and very, very CUTE!

We asked for donations and guess how much we got!!

Roughly £65!! All for Children in Need!!

A few years ago we did this and got about £40. We bought a special kit, with a Pudsey cutter and bunting and a tea towel and a recipe and what not.... So, we used the cutter again and these came out! The recipe is really simple, just, butter, sugar, flour and cornflour, in a bowl, turn into breadcrumbs, then squish together, roll out and cut out the shapes. The bandanna is ready roll icing with Smarties for the spots! Even if you don't have a bear cookie cutter you could print out a bear picture and cut around it, to make the shape. We made the cupcakes with just a simple plain cake mixture e.g. sugar, butter, flour and eggs with a icing sugar and water icing, again decorated with Smarties! The facial features, for the cookies are just black food dye applied with a cocktail stick or if you have a food pen, that's perfect.

Because children in need is tonight, you might have a bit of problem selling them if everyone has already donated, but you can only try!! Ask your neighbours for donations, you will hopefully get more than asking for a fixed price. Obviously make sure you know the people you are asking!!

Good luck with the cookies and remember even if you don't get much money from the cookies, donate something to children in need, which starts tonight at 7:30!!

Rainbow cous-cous

This gorgeous, easy to make, healthy dish is perfect for munching on at a picnic, soaking up the last of the sun and if your family is anything like mine and try to kiss you whenever anyone says cous-cous (kiss-kiss, get it?) it will provide endless entertainment!

You will need:

Just add water plain cous- cous

Cucumber

Tomato

Colourful peppers

Onion

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Top tip: You can use whatever vegetables you find knocking around your fridge, the more the merrier! Whole olives might be nice.

How to make:

1. Pour boiling water over the cous-cous following the instructions on the back of the packet.

2. While the cous-cous is soaking up the water, cut up all the vegatables (minus the lemon)

    into tiny pieces.

 3.Put all the chopped up veg in with the cous-cous and mix with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon.

 Serve with a smile (cheesy I know, but hey!)!

Autumn Days smoothie

Both a warming, by-the-fire drink and a sunny autumn days smoothie!

You will need:
A blender

1 banana

1 large apple

Blackberries 

Apple juice

Ground Cinnamon

How to make:

Cut the apple into small chunks and boil to soften. Put in the blender with the banana,
blackberries, and a small pinch of ground cinnamon depending on how strong you want it.
Cover with a good slosh of apple juice. Stick on the lid (always important!) and give it a 30
second whizz until it is smooth. Lumpy smoothies are disgusting!

EPIC hot chocolate recipe

Its snowing ( well hailing...) outside and you're all cosy with a fire inside, what would just top
it all off is a hot chocolate! An extra special hot chocolate, an EPIC hot chocolate...

Ingredients
2 tblsp of Horlicks,
2 tblsp of cornflower,
3 tblsp of icing sugar,
4 tblsp of cocoa,
100g of grated dark chocolate,

A pinch of cinnamon.

Put all of these in a bowl and mix together.
This will fill a large jar and is enough for 10-ish mugs.

What to do:

Put the kettle on (always a good start)
Place three or four (heaped) tsp in the bottom of the cup.
Fill 3/4 full with boiling water
Top up the last 1/4 with milk
Add lots of big, squishy marshmallows!

Top tip: If your feeling really naughty, grate some chocolate on top as well!

Ahh yummy.............

How to make the best chocolate chip cookies

Do you find that your cookies always come out burnt or dry or just generally not
cookie shaped? Well those days are past! Here's a quick (and delicious) recipe for
perfect cookie shaped, cookies!

Ingredients:

150 grams of unsalted butter

225 grams of brown sugar

300 grams of flour

2 small eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 large bar of chocolate


How to make these things into cookies:

Before you start: Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly.
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays.

Step 1: Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and  beat together.
You may find it easier to melt the butter for a couple of seconds in the microwave
before adding the sugar.

Step 2: Add the vanilla extract and eggs and beat until light.  
Make sure the eggs are small because you don't want your mix to be to runny.

Step 3: Sieve the flour and bicarb into the bowl and stir until the mix stiffens up.

Step 4: Using two teaspoons make small balls of mix and put them on the baking trays
remembering to keep large gaps between each ball.

Step 5: Remember that large bar of chocolate? Were going to put that chocolate in a food
bag ( Take off the wrapper first! ) and take a rolling pin to it. Smash it up into small chunks
then distribute those chunks between the balls of cookie placing 4 or 5 on each one.

Step 6: Bake for 15 to 20 minutes keeping a watchful eye on them through the oven door.
Take them out when they are golden brown and still slightly squidgy because they will harden
up when cooling.

Step 7: Put the kettle on and eat when still hot!

Remember not to eat more than 3 in one sitting due to large amounts of sugar!