A bookmark a week #7 pretty storage

Hello there you (yes, you).

This week I decided to do a crafty project. I bought a glue gun a little while ago and decided to use it to stick some stuff to some other stuff. Logic.

I have many storage problems, I always seem to have too much stuff everywhere so I'm trying to get organised for pretty much the first time in my life. Recently I've been obsessing about perfume storage.

When Ben and I moved house last year, I set up an ikea computer desk that we were no longer using in our room as a sort of dressing table with an old pub stool as the seat. It's not pretty, but it works and I love it.

But where to put my perfumes? I seem to have a few now, not sure how that happened, and since I've always been a bit of a beauty product geek I want to look after them. I've seen on the internet where people said they shouldn't be in sunlight because.... er.... because of reasons that sound utterly plausible, if completely forgettable. But mine are in daylight! Panic!

Yes they are very dusty you judgy mcjudge-pants.

I can't put them in a drawer, they're full of other beauty products and tools, but now I know I can't leave them out either. What to do?

The answer came to me after buying an exceedingly comfortable pair of shoes (crocs in fact. I'm not ashamed). I can decorate a shoebox and use that! I know, I'm a genius. 

I toyed with painting it, then decided it would look terrible and I'd make an awful mess. Then I decided to cover it in fabric. After all, how hard could it be? So I searched and found this.

http://www.restorationbeauty.com/2013/02/diy-storagedecorative-boxes.html?m=1

Looks pretty simple eh? 

Of course my box had a lid and stuff, but I figured I'd just work it out. Not wise at all in hindsight.

So first I assembled my equipment.

Next the lovely Ben cut off an unwanted bit of cardboard so it would be easy to close up on it's end.

Remember, always get a grown-up to help

Then I faffed about a bit as I decided where the hell to start. 

In the end, I decided to just cut some fabric and see what happened. It went to plan for a while.

Almost neat innit?

I had super fun with the glue gun, I highly recommend you get one, it's a satisfying thing to use.

So I managed to cover the box ok and I was fairly happy with the results. I decided then to do the lining with some super cute fabric. 

It was at this point I remembered that I don't have the patience or attention to detail for these kind of things.

I basically just shoved the fabric in the box and glued and cut and cut and glued until it was done. Oddly, it was a giant mess.

I made 2 major mistakes. Firstly, sticking the sides so I couldn't put the excess fabric neatly under the main lining there. This meant it was precariously stuck to the top hanging down, then the rest had to be stuck outside the main fabric on the bottom, looking super-messy.

Secondly, I got scissor happy and cut too early so I didn't have enough fabric to complete the lining on the top of the lip that keeps it closed. 

To be honest, once it was done and stuck I was so sick of the sight of it I just shoved it on the side and left it there to languish.

So sad

However, after my strop had ended, I looked at it again, tried putting the perfume in and, honestly, I don't hate it. It keeps my perfumes out of the sun, it looks ok when it's closed, I have spare fabric left over and I know how (not) to do it for next time. Yay me!

Ooh, fancy (if you don't look too closely)

So, should you try it? If your box is open like on the link then go for it, just take a bit of care on the lining, that's where it gets tricky. Otherwise only try if you have the things I lack, i.e. patience and any kind of expertise.

That's me for now,

Love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #6 potato fritters

This is becoming rather a habit isn't it?

Last weekend I had a bit of time to faff about and decided to embark on something rather exciting (by my standards in any event). I have an absolute love for a certain deep-fried foodstuff, well, most deep fried foodstuffs if I'm honest. 

When I was but a wee lass, my family would get dinner from the chip shop on a Friday. We would only get fish on a special occasion or if we were at the seaside, so we would have something a bit cheaper like a battered sausage with our chips. My wonderful mother, who I don't seem to be able to stop talking about, used to get a potato fritter and I started getting this too after a while because how genius is that? Deep fried potato chips with a slice of deep fried battered potato. Maybe it's my distant Irish heritage talking but I just couldn't say no to it.

Sadly, at some point the chip shop stopped doing these and I have been unable since then to find a chip shop that does. I've had mushy pea fritters and baked bean fritters but nothing can compare to the majesty of a potato fritter.

I'd considered making potato fritters before, but had never found a recipe that made sense to me. They all seemed to involve either making a sort of mashed potato cake or grating potatoes for a kind of onionless hash brown thing. I rejected such foolish ideas without hesitation.

However, during a recent attack of nostalgia, it occurred to me to search for 'battered potato fritters' and to my delight I came across this.

http://www.tartantastesintx.com/2012/07/scottish-recipes-tattie-fritters.html?m=1

While I didn't throw up my arms in celebration and give a whoop of delight, this was purely due to the fact that I was in the canteen at work and I am British after all. Anyhoo, I added it to my bookmarks to be tried when I could be arsed to deep-fry.

As it was the Eurovision Song Contest last weekend, and Ben and I were playing a drinking game along to it, as usual, and I decided greasy carbs would be just the thing to line the stomach. The rules of this game are pretty intense after all.

This is just the basic rules, There are many many more and they can be added at any time in the evening.

This recipe is wonderfully simple. Flour, baking powder, salt and sparkling water. Mix them until they're like batter. 

It was so simple I could even be bothered to sift the flour

Done!

Peel and slice potatoes, well here I went a bit off-recipe because, to be honest, I bloody hate peeling potatoes. It's so pointless for anything but fancy mash. Anyway, the skins are delicious and nutritious. Basically, I peeled 3 potatoes, then decided I couldn't be bothered to do the other. 

Rebel potato!

I did keep them separate to do a taste test, but noticed literally no difference in the end product. Then again, by the time we ate those ones we were pretty drunk.

Back to the recipe, you dip the slices in batter and deep-fry them. I don't have a deep fat fryer, so I just used a big pan full of oil. I also didn't have a thermometer to check the temperature, but I've seen people on the internet checking oil temperature with a wooden spoon so I just did that.

Apparently it's ready when the bubbles all gather around the spoon like that. Seemed to work.

Once it was hot I dropped in the slices. I did them about 5/6 at a time depending on size. First of all they sank to the bottom, but soon floated up once they'd started to cook. 

Mmmmm... fire hazard...

They took less than 10 minutes to crisp and become golden so I took them out and put them on a rack to drain (we don't use disposable paper towels 'cause we're giant hippies like that).

Once out I sprinkled both sides with salt (fancy schmancy sea salt, because I can) and waited for them to cool. This really was the hardest part.

Admittedly they're not the prettiest foodstuff. Maybe if you have proper lighting rather than kitchen lights and an iPhone.

Once they were cool we ate a few each, then realised that 4 potatoes, even with nothing else, was far too much for 2 people. We had them in 3 servings over the course of the evening. I'd tell you they're just as good cold, and I thought they were, but I was too drunk to make a fair comparison. I also dipped a few in ketchup and that was a delight. 

Verdict is you should definitely make these. They are immensely unhealthy so probably only once or twice a year, but they're so good. This was my first attempt at battering anything and the batter was crisp and perfectly chip-shop-like, the potato was soft and buttery and the whole thing was the most comforting, lovely thing.

Mmmm... greasy....

Trust me, they were delicious enough for 2 photos.

Ben can be a bit of a picky eater and even he loved these. Also, they're completely vegan, therefore dispelling the notion that all vegan food is healthy...

Next week I may take a break from culinary exploits and get crafting. I recently bought a hot glue gun and can't wait to play with it. Expect injuries...

Love and kisses,

P.S. Mum, if you read this I'll totally make them when you come to visit.

A bookmark a week #5 milk bath

Hello internets!

I have felt entirely unmotivated to cook fancy things this week. I've been super-busy at work and we went to Ipswich for the bank holiday weekend to see family. We had a super-fun time going on walks, playing cards against humanity (not for the tender spirited!), seeing one of our adorable nephews and eating many delicious food.

Ooh I do love a collage

The unfortunate downside was that it seriously limited the time I have for creating kitchen-type-stuff. And I had such plans too... oh well, that'll have to wait for next week.

The other thing that happens when we stay away anywhere is I inevitably throw my back out. I have a chronic bad back after a rope-slide incident in Llandudno when I was 7 and it sometimes flares up at the slightest thing. Such as sleeping on a bed that's a bit too firm. The bed was fine and not bad at all, it's just that my back is bloody awkward. I swear it's much worse since we got a memory foam mattress and I became accustomed to all the comfort in the world. 

Sadly this trip was no different. I woke up each morning kind of stiff and achy, it faded through the day but the cumulative effect has stayed with me since my return. So what bookmark to try today? Why, this one!

http://www.kitchencraftsnmore.net/milkbath.html

I could do with a soak in the bath, and I have all of these ingredients in the house. In fact, I have better, I have some dried lavender that my wonderful mother (her again!) gave me last year that I can pop in to make this even fancier. I also have Dead Sea salt that my wonderful mother (I reference her a lot, huh?) gave me years ago. It may not be an ideal thing to use, but it beats wasting culinary salt!

Yes that is a tupperware of bicarbonate of soda. I buy in bulk.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't use skimmed milk powder, but sadly this was all I had. I'm pretty sure this was all the supermarket sold as, trust me, I would never buy skimmed milk by choice (blech).

So here goes, take the milk powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and whizz up in my amazing nutribullet. Given that the recipe says 1 cup in total makes a bath and I have 3 ingredients, I used 1/3 of a cup of each. Hooray for maths.

 I didn't mind the cup measurements too much here, although it bothered me that the salt didn't tessellate.

I love that you can see the layers. Small things...

I decided to whizz up some of the lavender, adding it after the initial whizzing, but then to leave some bigger bits and stir them in for added fanciness.

Not so pretty

It went massively clumpy after the whizzing so I had to break it up with my hands, but it got pretty finely whizzed up overall.

I then popped it all into a pretty jar to see if it would make it look lovely. 

Maybe with a ribbon?

Now to pour it into a hot bath and see how relaxed I can get.

Ooh... bits.

Turns out I can get pretty damn relaxed.

It was very pleasant the water felt kind of smooth if that makes any sense. I feel like it was moisturising, but not enough so I wouldn't use body lotion afterwards. And I did.

The biggest downside was the normal one after having a fancy herbal bath. You get all relaxed and soaky, have a lovely chilled out time, then realise you're covered in bits of lavender and have to rinse it all off. Annoying.

I will say that my back felt eased after the bath, although that may have been the unreasonably hot water I used. I always think if you can easily get in all at once it isn't hot enough.

I would make this again as a cheap alternative to a lush-style bath thingy, but next time I would add some essential oil as although the lavender scent was strong when I was making it, it faded pretty quickly in the water.

Verdict? Easy, cheap, quick, nice. Not a bad thing to do of a weekday evening.

Love and kisses,

H.