Delicious Brownies!

The best brownie recipe in my opinion is below. Compiled from a few different recipes and based on an old recipe card I found here is the base recipe:

• 200g dark chocolate, chopped
• 125g butter, chopped
• 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
• 1/4 cup (40g) self-raising flour
• 2 tbs cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup (125g) sour cream

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a square cake pan with baking paper.

2. Put the dark chocolate and butter in a saucepan on low. Keep stirring for a few minutes until chocolate and butter are melted and silky. Remove from heat and set aside for 2-5 minutes to cool.

3. Add the sugar and eggs to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

4. Add the combined flours and cocoa powder and stir to combine.
   

5. Add the sour cream and stir to combine. Pour mixture into your dish.
   

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until brownie is still slightly spongey and gooey. Turn oven off and leave brownie cooling in oven.
   

After the sour cream, feel free to add extra's for a more delicious touch:

1. 100g of chopped dark choc or choc chips and 50-70g walnuts (depending on your taste).
2. 200g of crunchy peanut butter.
3. 70g macadamias chopped and 1 cup of white choc chopped or chips.
4. A few Tbls of Baileys (depending on taste).


If you try this with one of the extra's (I have only tried number 1 and number 4 so far), I would love to hear from you. These would even make a great homemade gift for someone, just add christmas wrapping touches for preschool/ school teachers or coaches etc....

Enjoy,
Lauren X

Craft meets Food - Just Delicious!!!!

Well, I have been so captured by this amazing talented and local lady who MANIFICINTLY combines two of my favourite things food/ baking and craftiness.

The amazing picture above are yes, you guessed it cupcakes! Hard to believe I know. But The Cupcake Gallery have an incredible talent for making some gorgeous creations! Hop over to their website or their facebook page and be in awe at their creations!!! I will stop typing now and leave you to have a look, cause you'll be amazed!

Enjoy;
Lauren x

The Joy of Spring Gardening

Well, for those of us in Sydney, the weather has been quite unpredictable of late. As I sit here on a rainy Saturday night (watching Toy Story and having pizza with the fam) I had to show you these photos. I took the rubbish out and caught a glipmse at what this constant drizzle is doing to our humble herb/ veggie patch.
Now, I know it's common sense, and something that's not new - but kids LOVE gardening. There is something so 'earthy' and pure about the idea of going out to the garden and picking your own produce. We have had herbs for a while, but some new plants have just taken off BIG time.

We don't exactly have a lot of space or a farm to fit massive amounts (yet), but I encourage you to plant some seedlings in your yard whether it's in a pot or in the ground. I find that the seedlings are cheaper to buy than more established plants but also 'take' better than the bigger ones. I find that the seeds take a lot longer and it's harder for the kids to be that patient waiting.

I would love to hear from you and if you have things planted in the garden. What have you planted? What worked and what didn't? What tips have you found helped you in your gardening attempts?

Enjoy,
Lauren x

Baby Cucumber Plants

Yellow Capsicums (well they will be hopefully)

Strawberries

A delicious twist on an old favourite.

Today I have made a giant lasange as we are having friends over for dinner. How do you make lasagne different you ask??? Instead of a normal plain white sauce, making a roasted garlic white sauce instead!

1. Heat oven to about 200'C
2. Wrap a whole bulb of garlic in foil (you can add a dash of oil and S&P, but not necessary).
3. Place into the oven and slowly roast untill it's soft. It took me about 20 mins to do this, but it depends on your oven.
4. Remove from foil and set aside to cool.
5. By hand, remove a garlic clove one at a time and squish the insides into a bowl. Once all the gooey garlic is in the bowl, smoosh (a technical term - lol) with a fork.
6. Make your bechamel sauce as per normal ( have a look here for a recipe).
7. when mixing and whisking it through, add the mashed roasted garlic.
8. Then assemble your lasagne as per normal.

Enjoy,

Lauren x

Vintage Sewing History Made My Day :)

This year I finally fulfilled my new years resolution (that I have made for about 5 years now) and took the plunge to learn to sew. I hadn't ever had much exposure to it and I have loved adding this to another avenue to express myself. Today I inherited two items that are very special to me!

As my grandfather has had an operation recently, I went for a trip with my boys and my Mum to see my Amazing Grandparents to see how they were and I bought some of my recent sewing projects to show and tell (I can't show all of them on here yet ;).

When I told Grandma that I would love to get my own machine one day (soon - hopefully) she offered me to 'permanently loan' her old machine. I had never seen it and then she bought it out for me to see. I was quite taken by the solid timber case, but my heart fluttered when she lifted the lid. It was a vintage black, sleek Singer machine. I was flawed and fell in love!!!



It still has a lot of origional feet and paper work in their boxes too. I have to do some googling to figure it out. If I can't figure it out, I may just take it to my sewing group on Thursday and ask the many 100's of years of combined sewing experience!


Then, when I got home, I was getting something from the garage and came across an empty old wooden sewing box. As this house we are in (as some may know) is my husbands grandmothers house, I asked my mother-in-law if she who's it was. She said it was her mothers and that I am welcome to use it. It has lots of space to put all the little things that I have been collecting over the past year or so ;)




So now I have two items that on top of their inherit beauty, hold sentimental value coming from grandmothers on mine and my husbands side.

Now I can't wait to set up my new craft room/ study in our new place in about 5 weeks and get everything orgasnised!!!! YAY!

Lauren x