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Chocolate covered strawberries are my new signature dish. Any party, shin did or barbecue that has a 'bring a dish along' vibe will be graced by chocolate covered strawberries from now on.
I've already made them twice this year; I made a batch on New Year's Eve for our New Year's at home and I made another batch for a baby shower last Saturday. They are so easy to make, so pretty to look at and so tasty to eat that I have decided this is going to be my go-to party dish for now on. And all you need to make them are three ingredients: strawberries, a bar of milk chocolate and a smaller bar of white chocolate (optional!).
Now you can use any chocolate but I will silently judge you if you choose anything other than Cadbury's dairy milk.
Method:
- Wash your strawberries and lay them on a tea towel, dry each one with a paper towel. This helps the chocolate to stick on.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper
- Boil 2-3 inches of water in a small pan, break the milk chocolate into pieces and put them into a glass bowl. Put the bowl in the pan and melt the chocolate, stirring frequently. Once all the chocolate is melted take the bowl off the heat.
- Dip each strawberry in the chocolate, shake off the excess and lay the strawberry on the baking parchment
- Melt the white chocolate using the same method
- Spatter the melted white chocolate over the strawberries for a chaotic marble look
- Place the tray in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.
Optional:
8. Dunk rich tea biscuits in the left over chocolate. Eat the lot. Tell no one.
Gilmore Girls – Another party I am ridiculously late to! My friends convinced me to watch it saying I would love it because it is wholesome, Autumnal, quirky and quick-witted. They were perfectly right and I have been binge watching it since I started the first episode. It's quite refreshing to have a host of central characters who may be flawed but are actually good at heart rather than another set of dark anti-heroes! I love all the towns people of Stars Hollow and their peculiar ways and intense town meetings. I have just started Season Five; my current feelings are that I love Lorelia and Luke, Rory needs shaking, still not seeing the appeal of Jess, and Kirk and Lulu are adorable!
The Crown – I am only one episode in on this lush drama, retelling the history of Queen Elisabeth II. It is beautifully told and the first episode is heartbreaking as King George is slowly coming to terms with his imminent demise. I was talking about this show with my Granny, who is in her 80s. She was saying how it brought back a lot of memories for her and her childhood. She remembered how disappointed her father was when Churchill lost his office. She says they have captured the events in a very faithful way to history. I am looking forward to watching more and then nattering it over with her again!
It Follows - I had a night in on my own the other week and in a moment of pure stupidity I decided to watch a horror film! It Follows is about a girl called Jess who is being stalked by a monster. The monster can take on the appearance of anyone but only it's potential victims can see it. It stalks it's prey at walking pace – so Jess can run away easily but the monster is relentless and will constantly walk towards Jess until it finds her. It is a chilling premise and it is a scary film that has a lot of depth and creativity to it for a monster movie. A film that was more creepy, than terrifying. A few days later and I'm still thinking about it.
How to Get Away with Murder – I really loved the first three episodes of this series. The plot moved quickly and Annalise is amazing! Fierce, vulnerable and an epic woman of stature. But I haven’t been able to keep up with it – the scenarios just felt too unrealistic, especially in how fast paced each case was being wrapped up and resolved in court each week. It just felt a bit silly and Wes was kind of annoying …. How to Get Away with Murder has slipped to the bottom of my list.
Anne with an E – Anne of Green Gables is one of my favourite books from my childhood. And I have never seen an adaptation of it so I was excited to see this one. The cast is absolutley perfect, especially the actress who play Anne – she is exactly as the book describes, red hair, gawky and she has a pinched look that tells you that she has been underfed. I love that this adaptation is taking it's time and has stayed very true to the books. Where they have taken liberties is in filling out Anne's background with the blackest paint possible. Anne is not just overly-dramatic and prone to flights of fancy, she is a damaged young girl who uses her imagination to cope the traumas she has faced. It adds a deeper layer to the story but it is heartbreaking to see on screen. I find the flashbacks quite hard to watch even though they are not too graphic or violent – it's just hard watching a child so unloved. However, this makes Anne's new home with the Cuthbert's even sweeter to see.
These were a Christmas present from Rob and I have pretty much worn them every day over the holiday. My hands and feet get cold all the time and very often I go to bed with two pairs of socks on to keep them warm, so comfy warm socks are a guaranteed big hit with me! My Mum admired them so much that Rob bought another set for her so she could have some of her very own.
The second piece of knitwear I have been sporting is this 
Country Rose is a brand sold through the Edinburgh Woolen Mill which is truthfully known for catering to older ladies, but there are more than a few hidden gems in the selection that are worth looking at. The specialise in bright cheerful clothes with patterns inspired by the countryside. They are a bit different than what you find on the High Street but they have a lot of classic shapes and styles; think navy pinafores, chunky knit cardigans and mustard coloured knee length socks.
I really like the pattern on this cardigan and although you can't see it on this photo, there are little flecks of blue and red embedded throughout the beige material. There is an awful lot of detail and it feels like the most perfect thing to wear on these frosty mornings. I also particularly like how these colours go with my red hair - I am still learning which colours clash and which coloured compliment my new ginger locks!
I find more and more my eyes are drawn to bright patterned chunky knits and cardigans that I am now going to have to start resisting the urge to pick up more. A little bit of colourful pattern is charmingly quirky but a lot easily descends into crazy cat lady - which is a look I think I could pull off, now that you mention it...
It drives home to me that that there are many fearful reasons to not do the right thing. You might be misunderstood, you might fail, you might feel alone. Some of your fears may very well be valid; people do get jealous of success, so why not just stay mediocre?
But letting your fears dictate your choices is a pretty poor way to live a life. I am so adamant that I don't want to enter 2018 with a sense of fear, no matter how great the challenges are that lie ahead. Instead I want to let faith direct my choices and decisions. If you are ruled by fear you will always be mindful of the hundred things that can go wrong, but if you are ruled by faith you only need to think of one wonderful thing at a time.
Faith tells me that God is a Good Shepherd who has led our church faithfully to this point and He will lead us to take the next step, and the one after that. Faith tells me that God wants to build His Church in love, beauty and strength so I am filled with hope. Faith tells me that although my church is full of all kinds of different people with different viewpoints and experiences, that in Christ, we can have unity of the Spirit to move forward together as a family.
Faith tells me that even when I feel inadequate to be part of leadership that Christ is the all sufficient chief Pastor, and as long as I stick close to Him, I will be enough, just as I am in Him.
Faith, not fear, is all it takes to face the next step...and the one after that, and the one after that.
Time and Date: A wet, cold and miserable afternoon on Thursday 5th's January. Started preparing food at 3pm, meal was ready to serve at 5:30pm.
Expectations: Were low. I have made beef stew several times before but with very mixed results. Sometimes the meat is too tough, sometimes the potatoes are too hard and nearly always; my sauce is very weak and watery. My experience of cooking beef stew has been, in a word, frustrating.
Difficulty Level: Easy - especially with the pictures in the book., I would have made things even easier for myself again if I had chopped up all of the veg and ingredients before I started instead of doing them as I went along. The one thing I did differently this time is that I set aside the meat after I had browned it. Normally I skip this step to save on washing up.... which might be why I had problems before!
Any Personal variations to the recipe: I added a leek and a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce.
Results: A hearty warm stew, with soft potato chunks in a rich thick sauce. Hurrah! This felt like such a win for me, especially because Rob loves a good stew and has had to step in several times in the past to rescue my watery offering. (His stews always turn out fine)
Who ate it: Rob, Orla and I ate it for tea yesterday with garlic bread and then had the left overs for lunch today with slices of buttered Tiger loaf. I was especially pleased that Orla happily ate a bow full, leaving only a few of the bigger chunks of meat. Nearing 2 she is getting more particular about what she will and won't eat, so finding something that she seemed to like is a big hit with me!
Would I make it again: Already adding it into our family meal planner.
My Dad sent me a link to this reading challenge a few days before the end of December. It has 26 different book prompts to read and is from Hannah Braime's blog, which you can find 
I thought it would be quite a fun thing to do with my Dad. We both love reading and I owe him for introducing me to some classics; he used to read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to me as bedtime stories. It will be interesting to see our different choices and how we get on with the challenge.
The first prompt is 'A book that you read in school'. There were a few tempting choices; Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Handmaid's Tale, To Kill a Mocking Bird... But as I love all of these books and have read them again in the last few years I decided to choose a book that I haven't read since High School; Shakespeare's Macbeth.
I know technically it is a play rather than a book but I am sticking to my choice because I really want to re-read it. By the way, how fitting does my fancy page-marker look with this beaten up spooky looking copy of Macbeth! It was a Christmas present from my good friend, Anna, that she discovered at a craft fair. If you are interested the maker is called 
So, what are your New Year Resolutions? And if you have any tips for celebrating any of these holidays please share them in the comments. I'd love to hear from you!
I've been blogging on Word Press for five years on a blog called 
Over the last couple of years my blogging became more and more infrequent until I pretty much stopped completely. Life got in the way, I suppose. I was having little sleep, trying to get the balance of work and home right and I was working on a qualification that ate up a lot of my head space. There really wasn't time to make cookies, let alone blog about them!
But I really, really missed it. I'd forgotten how much fun blogging is and how much it pushed me to try new things and tackle projects. I'd forgotten how having a place to document the things we do as a family makes me more determined to do fun things. And eventually I decided it was time to pick it up again. I made some lists and very sweetly (or pleadingly) asked my web-designer-husband, Rob, to set me up with a new blog for the New Year. He kindly obliged and is working on sprucing this place up further with a proper logo to come soon!
So, here we are 2018, it's now 9:36pm on the 1st January and I am back to the blogging world and am ready to start sharing again what is happening in the life of my little family.
Stay tuned!
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