Treasure Trove Thursdays : Sunshine and kisses

A little snapshot of my bank holiday weekend. Nothing unusual apart from going to the wedding of a lifetime. Full of tears and laughter, I haven’t attended a more special wedding in my life. I’m currently feeling a little bereaved because it was just the most delightful and wonderful day, but it was over all too quickly.

I was in spring cleaning (more like office organising) mode all last week:

There is still plenty of work to be done but there are some colourful and pretty side effects of sorting through paperwork. Even though this went straight into the recycling!

On Sunday, there was a big meal to be had, during the preparation of which I had the opportunity to compare three different vegetable peelers. I’ve never really used any in the style of the colourful ones. The all-metal one was mine, inherited from a previous landlord. Having more than one peeler in one’s possession makes a lot of sense if one does not want to prepare meals alone. I have in mind to acquire a new cheerful plastic one sometime soon!

…and Monday transported me to the “epic” wedding (not my usual word for a wedding, but one that’s been banded around Facebook ever since the big day!) It was truly special day for me personally, a really meaningful event that I’m not expecting to forget for a long time to come.

As a real bonus, the wedding took place in the most beautiful setting, which we were able to take full advantage of  and relax in. Absolutely perfect. Only thing that could have improved it for me, was remembering to bring my sunglasses! We had some beautiful sunshine, it’s something special after the long long winter. Every ray of sun is like a sparkle of magic and makes me feel so alive.

I’m still glowing from the beautiful day. Pity it was a work day afterwards and we could not stay on till very late as we had quite a way to go afterwards.

Did you have a bank holiday? How was your weekend? I can’t believe another week is almost over again. We’ll be half-way through the year soon and I feel like the year’s barely begun. Anyone else feel this way?

Peanut Butter Cookies for a sunny day

Greetings all! This weekend I told you I would be baking. But it almost didn’t happen. Firstly, I decided a lie-in on Saturday would be good. It was indeed. Secondly, the weather was not the same beast as depicted in the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, shared on Friday. In fact, it was quite different with not a cloud in the sky:

As a direct consequence of the aforementioned lie-in, fewer hours in the day remained for me to take advantage of the weather. There was a risk that baking would not get a look in. But it did.

The ingredients and method were really quick, simple and gluten-free to boot. I followed a recipe I pinned here, but reduced the amount of sugar included because I prefer things to be less sweet.

While preheating the oven to 180°C, I mixed together one egg, half a cup of sugar (I used granulated brown cane sugar), one cup of peanut butter and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. I initially disliked the mixture a lot. It was gooey, sugary and didn’t look like it would amount to much. But as I mixed it, my biceps ached and the goo became a delicious smelling crumby golden ball:

The mixture was then easily rolled into small walnut -sized balls as suggested in the original recipe. I got 23 out of these quantities. To create the cute pattern on top, I simple pressed down gently with a fork to form a criss-cross pattern. I found the peanut butter oils were sufficient to prevent the fork from sticking to the batter if done carefully.

The cookies only need 12 minutes in the oven to achieve a lovely crumbly texture with a very slightly chewy middle. They are very soft when they first come out of the oven, so I transferred them immediately onto a cooling rack  by pulling the non-stick baking sheet with cookies on top and sliding it over. I then sprinkled a teaspoon’s worth of extra sugar on top for a little extra crunch.

These cookies are great if you want something easy and quick. I can imagine they’d be great on a hot summer’s day, when you don’t want to spend long in a hot kitchen. I can’t say I actually know what that feels like though. Spring sunshine with a chilly breeze blowing will have to do me for now I hope you give the cookies a try and enjoy them too!

Another great thing about these is, that they are at once salty and sweet. A great combination. Their peanutty richness also means that you don’t need to eat many with your cup of tea. I’ve still got over half left. That’s win-win-win in my book! If you made some now, we could meet for a virtual tea and cookies meet-up

#waitingforspring

twitpic.com/cdovq7 Brrrr. Hey Mr Snow please check your calendar, it's almost April.. #waitingforspring—
this is lemonade (@ThisIsLemonade) March 23, 2013

Today I woke up around 7. I remember hearing a car pass by and thinking, sounds like the tyres are on a wet road but it’s not rain, sounds sludgy. Yes, that is how I wake myself up early on a Saturday morning.

When I peeked out of the window, sure enough, a winter scene greeted my bleary eyes. It was snowy, in fact there was a mild blizzard blowing.

I’m following the #waitingforspring hash tag today after clicking on it and finding some humorous and positive takes on this unyielding wintry weather.

Spring has sprung – the daffodils have been out for over a week now – but it is really struggling to kick winter out! What’s the weather like where you are?

I wish you a safe, sheltered and warm weekend indoors unless you actually like trudging around in the cold…

Frivolous Fridays: Get your groove on!

OK. If you have not thought of what to do this weekend, here’s a suggestion. How about making some music. This Incredibox webby app is great. You can’t beat box? Well, let me introduce to you some dudes that can:

Screenshot of my dudes: click through to groove to my composition!

It’s really fun, I was hooked. And if you are really proud of yourself, you can pay €0.69 to download your masterpiece. Here’s mine.

Happy weekend!

TGIF!

I’m very thankful to have made it through the week. I hope your week has been alright too. Thank you for your well wishes, I’m still sneezing a lot, so you may be more at risk of becoming ill than me now, if you come anywhere near me. I‘m on the mend though!

Funny how some humble Hobnobs and a hot cup of tea can bring comfort to a soul. This was tea-time today. I don’t know why, but merely looking at the oaty crumbs makes me happy!

I hope something simple makes you smile this weekend.

Sneak peak : getting crafty

Finally I’m getting down to something I’ve been meaning to do for months. Something to be shared soon

Hope your week is going well. We’re almost at the weekend! Take care.

Relax…

I can’t remember where I stumbled across this old news, but I’ve listened to the three music tracks below a few times this week. They were ranked as the top three most relaxing pieces of music in the world last year, based on how the rhythm influences your heart rate among other things.

The first one is officially the most relaxing. According to Lyz Cooper, founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, it “contains a sustaining rhythm that starts at 60 beats per minute and gradually slows to around 50. While listening, your heart rate gradually comes to match that beat…And there is no repeating melody, which allows your brain to completely switch off because you are no longer trying to predict what is coming next.“

I don’t work well to music in general because I get immensely distracted anticipating what is coming next. It’s worst with songs because I start singing along to them in my head (if not out loud). But I also get very distracted by people around me talking, walking around, making random irregular sounds by sighing, picking things up, putting things down, dialing a phone number…

We had some fun in the office yesterday afternoon after lunch. A few of us were feeling particularly tired and zoned out at the end of a long week, so we decided to put the music to the test. It just so happened that some sunshine started streaming through the window at the same time, after the lunch time downpour.

Some of us felt all too ready for a weekend lie-in as a result and one colleague found the first tune annoyingly boring!

I really enjoyed the resulting atmosphere however. It was so nice to be able to relax into the remaining tasks of the day. I think these three are going to be my go-to tunes when I find myself unable to focus whilst blogging too…let me know what you think. Do you work well to music or are you easily distracted by it?

1. Marconi Union – Weightless
2. Airstream – Electra
3. DJ Shah – Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)

(Links via Soundcloud)