Claire's Cake Bake & Other Foodiness

Yesterday I picked up some bamboo type fencing to make our balcony feel more garden like & give it some more privacy.

Mr C wasn’t too impressed when I came home with it but after he put it up he was pleased with the results. I just need a bit more for the front panel just less high!

Every few months we get up, get dressed, have some breakfast & then open the blinds in the living room to find some large cruise ship moored up outside. Its quite a nice sight to see.

Todays fine cruise ship is the Maasdam from Holland and its quite a nice day for the visitors to be stopping over in Liverpool. The boats always moor up in the middle of the River Mersey & the passengers disembark using the ferry service.

I’ve been fancying some scones for a few weeks now so when we where at the supermarket the other day we picked up some clotted cream & strawberry jam.

This afternoon I baked the scones. This is the second time I’ve made them with the Mary Berry recipe and both times I found I needed much more flour than it says (otherwise you end up with a soggy gooey mixture that you cannot knead nevermind roll out!).

Here is the recipe

1. Sieve 250g self raising flour & 2 teaspoons of baking powder into a bowl
2. Add 60g butter - in small cubes
3. Mix with your hands into breadcrumb type mixture
4. Add 30g sugar
5. Put one egg into a jug & add milk upto 1/4 pint (beat lightly)
6. Add liquid to mix & stir into dough
7. I added a good handful of Sultanas here (not in original recipe)
8. Knead dough (you will probably need to add more flour at this point until mixture is more dough like)
9. Roll out to 1cm-1/2″ thickness
10. Cut into scone size circles & put on a buttered baking tray - use excess milk to brush tops of scones
11. Cook at 220°c for approx 10 mins or until risen & golden brown

Cool on wire rack

Serve with cream & jam or just butter and a nice cup of tea. Enjoy

Is it just me, or has it flown by in a mist of rain?

Another good use of my blog - the art of ranting! I seriously, seriously feel like slamming my little head against an almighty brick wall.

If, in the future, you consider using Northern Rock for anything - please don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. They are a bunch of monkeys. Can I say that? Is that allowed? I mean I am allowed to express my view right? Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ok. Deep Breath.

It seems that every single time I approach them to fix a problem (that is of their own making & one they cannot simply correct) I end up arguing with the monkey on the other end as they do not understand what I am saying. Even. if. i. spell. it. out. to. them?

My frustrations caused me to write in - I mean if you write to the complaints department you think they would (a) read the letter (b) look into it (c) offer to resolve problems & apologise.

Not at Northern Rock. They just read your letter & reply telling you the same thing as the other monkeys on the phone. Can you not read people?

My second complaint letter will be winging its way back to them tomorrow - just to state the obvious, it points out the four reasons why I am still unhappy with them and why I feel like they have not yet resolved my complaint.

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sorry. Normal blog service will resume when I find my sanity :)

You may remember that we made some salmon burgers a few weeks ago & whilst they were nice, we said we’d like to try them with Tuna instead. So on Friday this is what we had and we both agreed that the recipe works better with Tuna and you even get a more ‘meaty’ flavour too.

We started with some homemade Bruschetta - one shallot, a good handful of organic cherry tomatoes, a tiny amount of garlic & a few leaves of basil - all finely chopped and left in the fridge for a little while. Then served on a few slices of ciabatta and a drizzle of some grassy olive oil.

The burgers were made just the same way as the salmon burgers and this time I left them in the fridge for an hour or so before cooking them. I also coated them in a small amount of flour too & this gave them a good golden colour once cooked. Served on a ciabatta bun with lettuce, cucumber and lemon mayonnaise with a side serving of rustic chips and the obligatory glass of white wine. A perfect Friday night tea.

Mr C said he’d quite like a tomato salsa type accompaniment next time so maybe we’ll have to try it again in a few weeks.

I didn’t make anything for pudding but we accidentally picked up 2 slices of blueberry cheesecake which went down very well.