Chocolate and Almond Biscotti

Mix 300g plain flour, 75g cocoa powder and 1 tsp baking powder in a large bowl.

Add 100g chopped plain chocolate and 50g chopped almonds.

In another bowl cream together 225g granulated sugar and 75g soft butter.

Gradually whisk in 2 eggs.

Stir the dry ingredients into the butter, sugar, egg mixture until you have a stiff dough.

With your hands make two logs about 12 inches long, flatten them slightly then place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.

Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then cut diagonally into slices, about 2cm thick.

Eat all of the yummy crumbs.

Arrange the slices on the baking tray and bake for a further 10 - 15 minutes until crisp.

Cool on a wire rack.

Maths Birthday Card

I nicked this idea from a card I saw in a shop.

It's just some printed backing papers, and I've rubber stamped some sums on a piece of card.

This is for my eldest son James who will be seven on Friday.

I think it's a very useful idea, obviously it would work for any age!

Baked Cheesecake

My first cheesecake!

To make the base I crushed 12 digestive biscuits and mixed in 50g caster sugar and 50g melted butter.

Then you need to press the mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a cake tin. Mine has a removable bottom, or you can use the springform type. Leave to chill in the fridge a little while.

Blend together 300g soft cheese, 50g caster sugar and 2 eggs. 

Pour on top of the base and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes, or until it is set.

Allow to cool and top with fruit.

I used fresh strawberries, and made a syrup by boiling 1 tablespoon strawberry jam, 1 tablespoon golden syrup and a splosh of water. I allowed this to cool a little then poured it all over.

Father's Day card

My Dad is a man with simple interests; lager, tv and fishing.

So here is his father's day card, made by chopping up some fishy paper and arranging the bits. 

The greeting is handwritten.

Felt Bag

You won't find much sewing on this blog. It's not my forte, and I don't own a sewing machine.

But I decided I wanted to make something for my daughter Poppy's birthday - she's two on Friday. This is my attempt at applique.

The flowery fabric is cut from the back of one of her old blouses (the front was all stained!) and the felt and buttons came from the vast collection of stuff I can't help but collect. So apart from 80p for half a metre of iron on interfacing this little bag has cost nothing except an hour or so of my time.

I think I am going to put a few little trinkets in it for Friday - hair clips and beads, girl stuff.

Slightly rubbish crochet flower

A while ago I decided to learn to crochet, and I have a blanket using the granny square stitch as a work in progress.

But today I had the urge to attempt to crochet something else.

I did have a pattern, but as soon as I got to the part of the instructions I didn't understand I decided to just wing it. (I'm not good at failing, and you can't fail if you move the goalposts!)

Practice makes perfect though, and boy, do I need more practice!

Swinging

Haven't scrapbooked anything for a while, but here is a page featuring Anthony on the swing at Granny and Grandpa's.

Pretty plain and simple; I think I might have to add some more stuff if I can decide what it actually needs!