Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whilst at home this weekend Scott and I baked gooey chocolate chip cookies and they were scrummy!

Usually when we decide to bake I end us baking and Scott fafs about, but this time he was very helpful and helped equally which made the biscuits/cookies extra special. Cookies are extra specially nice when their warm and the chocolate chips are still soft, and they remind me of break time in school where we'd all que to get the best warm cookies form the canteen!

Ingredients:

250g (9oz) plain flour 

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

170g (6oz) unsalted butter, melted 

200g (7oz) soft brown sugar 

100g (3.5oz) caster sugar 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

1 egg + 1 egg yolk 

250g (9oz) chocolate of your choice, chopped into small chunks

Optional - Desiccated Coconut  

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170°C / Gas mark 3-4. 

 In a big, dry bowl, sift your flour, bicarb & salt together. Set to one side.

In a separate bowl mix together your sugars & butter. 

Next beat in your eggs & vanilla extract.  Add to the dry mixture and stir thoroughly! you can add your chopped chocolate and nuts/dried fruits if you fancy (hazelnuts are good!!).

Line a baking sheet with greasproof paper and make small ball shapes out of the dough. Place on lined baking sheet quite spaced apart and cook for 10 - 13 minutes (until they are lightly bronzed at the edges). I sprinkled a little desiccated coconut on some but thats up too you!

Leave to cool on a wire rack (if you can!!)

I really like separating the yolk from the white!

I had mine once they had cooled slightly but were still soft and warm :) yum!

Scott was a big fan too and has devoured quite a few already :P...

A weekend at home..

I was lying in bed on Friday morning in Uni, and had not planned anything for the weekend. so I thought why not go for for the weekend?! It was a very spontaneous decision resulting in me packing like a maniac and hot and bothered-ly (new word) running to catch the next train at Leicester Station. But it was well worth it as I had a lovely few days with the family :) I was also glad to use a washing machine that dosnt charge me £2.50 to use each time i wash my clothes... Uni problems..

Anyway! i pulled my weight and made a lovely roast Lamb dinner for us on Sunday which was very scrummy, and went for a lovely walk with Scott, mum and the dogs.

I love the colourful orange carrot peelings! I roasted carrots and parsnips with butter, olive oil, and honey and they were DELICIOUS! Have I ever said that my favourite vegetable is a parsnip? If not i'm saying it now! Theres is no comparison to a overly roasted parsnip :)

I just drizzled a little olive oil over the lamb, seasoned it and added a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden!

Mum took a few snaps of us on the walk! This never happens.. I'm usually the irritating one that likes to take pictures of EVERYTHING ...
Scott and the dogs were quite excited to be walked ;)...

I really like this photo of Scott, and Ella running on ahead as she does :)

Molly (Seabear) patiently waiting until we turned around so she could carry her lead home ... this happens every time, and she refuses to walk unless we let her carry it :)

The girls and myself! I wasn't expecting to be snapped in my lovely painting coat and farmer wellies but this is the kind of terrible dog walking outfit I usually wear so theres no point kidding anyone I guess!

And lastly Molly basking in the delightful, stinky, Sheep poo ridden pool she manages to always find on any walk we go on....

Simple Brownies

Chocolate Brownies..... Need I say more?

They `re my ultimate cake, yes I have finally decided (for now at least) that brownies are my favoruite kind of cake. I've never been a massive sponge fan, and I'm defiantly a chocolate lover, so naturally I tend to dip towards brownies as my go-to cake when i'm out.

I've made brownies a few times myself, but never really found a recipe that worked quite right for me - until now people :)...

 Ingredients:

185g Butter

185g Dark Chocolate

85g Plain Flour

40g Cocoa Powder

100g chocolate (white,milk,or dark)

3 Large Eggs

275g Caster Sugar

Method

Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over some hot water (on the stove/hob) or in the microwave if you prefer. Leave the melted mixture to cool.

Preheat your oven Gas Mark 4, or 180C   Line the bottom of a 20cm square tin (or the nearest size you have).

Mix together the flour and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl mix together the eggs and caster sugar. It's best to use a hand mixer/machine so the mixture becomes thick and creamy.

Poor the egg/sugar mixture into the cooled chocolate and butter. Fold in gently (I hate this bit). Chop the 100g chocolate into chunks (I use a sharp thick knife on the chopping board to do this). Sprinkle over the mixture, along with the dry ingredients and again fold.

Poor carefully into your lined tin. I topped mine with a few chopped pistachio's! 

Bake for 25 minutes. (ours took a little longer as Scott kept opening the oven.... The mixture should be left a little gooey, but if its still wobbling when you take it form the oven, give it another 5 minutes or so!

This is the pretty marbling effect that happens when your 'gently' (Im so impatient with folding) the brownie mixture.

I drizzled a few chopped Pistachio nuts on the top for a little colour pop! But you could try and nut or dried fruit you fancied! Cranberries and freeze dried raspberries work great too.

And then it's ready :) Ideally you should leave the brownies to cool before eating as they do taste better that way and are a lot easier to cut!

Chester Zoo Day

Today Scott and I went to Chester Zoo and we had a wonderful time! We last went over a year ago and thought it would be something fun to do before i go back to uni next week. As you all can probably tell, I'm a little bit in love with animals, so the Zoo has always been one of my favourite days out.

Firstly we saw the elephants, They're one of my favourite animals at the Zoo, the way they plod slowly around and do little funny things. What made them extra special this time was that there was a little baby Elephant which had recently been born. He was so adorable and I spent a good 20 minutes just gawping at how cute he was!

He's so tiny in comparison to his mum!

I know I shouldn't say it, but I really love this picture of us both :) 

I really like the spectacled bears at the Zoo, but the last time, and this time they haven't been there! :( However, Scott decided to cheer me up and we both had a got at being speccy :) The problem is.... Scott can do it really well and i'm awful!

My fingers are just too small :/

I poked my self in the eye and snotted a little. The glamorous adventures we have!!! Again so flattering...

This is our hand comparison. No wonder I can't blooming do it :P

I loved these orange mushroom/fungus' growing on a log in the zoo. The colour was so vivid.

This is my awesome Satchel I got for my Birthday last month. I'm in love with it, however I'm used to having a small bag and not carrying much around but Scott now takes advantage and stuffs things in it :P But its really nice having a proper leather satchel. (Cambridge Satchel company). As i've had my cheapy version H&M one for a year now and wishing for this :) 

Flamingo's are also a favorutie of mine! They're colour is just so random compared to all the other aniamls ! Also they remind me of the plastic ones that are stereotypically in American people gardens. i really want a plastuic one too actually... but anyway! They also amuse me when they stand on one leg?! Why do they do that?!

Here's my imitation of the flamingo's ;)

I bought a 'grabber' in the shape of a flamingo form the gift shop. I've always LOVED grabbers, and they've always been my toy of choice in zoo's/ aquariums since I was young. Here is Seabear looking rather confused by the contraption. I wanted to take her to the Zoo and even googled 'Can you take dogs to the zoo' but unfortunately you can't.

Scott and the flamingo :)

The penguins are also awesome, but hard to take pictures of as they don't stand still for two minutes. Also I was a complete dope and had my camera on the wrong setting for half the walk round so I apologise for the poor photography this time!

Scott likes reading all the plaques! I liked this one showing the skulls of the zebras.

Finally the butterflies! They're very pretty but my camera steamed up in their enclosure with condensation so I couldn't take pictures. I had to use my phone which worked better than anticipated :) i'd really recommend the Zoo for a day our with families, boyfriends etc as we both thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Christmas on Instagram

Here are just a few pics from my instagram account! I'm still rather a little obsessed with Instagram and find myself taking pictures too often with it. My profile is 'BETH2852' if you're curious :)

 I was making cranberry sauce in the first two pictures, fruity curry in the bottom right and stuffing for christmas day, bottom left.

 Scott and I went to the christmas market in Manchester again this year. The mosaic floor is in the town hall, and Scotts in front of the market and town hall. Below is Alfred my cat and Seabear my lazy doggy!

Scott and I over Christmas, and below a Christmas wreath from Manchester, and to the right the most incredible english breakfast we made a couple of days after christmas.

LLandudno beach with the doggies

I can't believe how much I've missed walking the dogs these past three months at uni! I know how lame this must sound, but it's something I've always done and it's actually a really relaxing time to think about life and also a good way to keep healthy (I'm so unhealthy at the moment and need to sort myself out!). As soon as I got back home i've immediately gone for a walk with the doggies and Scott to the beach and it was lovely.

I found this rock that has these amazing marks on them that look like footprints! Being on a footwear design course has made my life basically revolve around shoes... I'm even seing them in rocks now?!

Talking about being unhealthy... Scott and I went for a rather enjoyable Big Mac meal at McDonalds. Being a student you get a free cheeseburger with a meal so I always get one and give half each to the dogs so they too can have a special little treat. This is probably why my dogs are so fat, but it really is very occasionally...

I'm not sure why my hairs looking so blonde here?! I haven't dyed it for agers! Which is very unlike me!

You probably know by now how much I like taking shoe pictures of my feet so here's another one....

The dogs adore water, wether it's the sea, a lake or even a mangey dirty wet puddle! So it's always top priority when we go for a walk to find somewhere wet. Molly (Seabear) is getting very old and hobble-y nowadays but she always gets a spring in her step near the sea :)

i'm not sure what's going on here....

Ella always gets excited and runs along the beach ahead of the rest of us , leaving just her sandy footprints for us to follow!

Seabear looking quite inquisitivie here ..

I found some neon fishing wire on the beach, I loved the colour so much I had to take a photo next to the natural stoney coloured pebbles.

More shoes and feet, as the obsession grows....

I like taking pictures of moss. And mould. And rust...

Ella kept her head on the backseats the whole way to the beach (30 mins drive), and spent the journey home collapsed in the boot as she was so tired from all the running. She and Molly also steamed up the car with a rather fowl wet dog smell which is never pleasant, but we still take them to the beach regardless!

Scott skimming stones :)

The only dowside to walking the dogs. The hideous task of collecting their .. erm ..droppings... Scott fortunately is very good with this sort of thing :) And I had some nappy bags especially for this occasison :/ So we were safe from being fined this time.....

I'm also due a trip here with my best friend Georgie, as it's almost a tradition we have to come here on boxing day, dressed in some strange attire and listenning to the Disney soundtrack.. Small pleasures..

 :)