The weekly round up:
A garage clear-out – oh I do love a tidy! Everyone has a dumping room(s) right? – please say this is normal? Generally, Mum and I are hoarders, we don’t give up things without a lot of careful consideration, but when things break or are discarded in our house, they pass through a ‘processing’ system. Dependent on the item in question, and location (upstairs or downstairs) it goes something like this: tuck it away in a corner of the front bedroom, after a few months (years) in the front bedroom, it is relocated to the study, then from the study it eventually meets it’s not quite fate, residing in the garage, once there, it generally way outstays its rental period.
Needless to say, our garage had accumulated multiple items over the past few years, from clothes, to old shoes, large boxes and ancient/broken/discarded items from the house. Having clobbered my shin on a predatory box for the umpteenth time earlier in the week, I bit the bullet and committed to a Spring clean – in Autumn (an Autumn clean). I feel like there is room for further tidy-age but OH WOW, the difference, I keep walking in there just to experience the SPACE! Honestly, my life is so wild!
A Biscuit bonanza – this week has been all about biscuits. Like bread, I find the process of baking biscuits so cathartic and rewarding… and obviously the outcome is delicious. On the menu this week was gingerbread (see below), almond biscuit thins – the Destrooper style ones (I need to share the recipe once I’ve just tweaked it a bit), mince pie biscotti, and vanilla tuiles – just like the ones you get from the supermarkets, I think they call them biscuit curls? So good! I won’t lie, I have some mild biscuit fatigue right now but so worth it!
A gift guide – I’m terrible at receiving gifts at Christmas, I just feel guilty, and I don’t know how to react. I also am fairly useless at buying things for others, I can only think of things I would like to buy for myself (so egocentric)! Having seen various people sharing their gift guides, and getting some inspiration myself, I decided to try and compile a gift guide of my own. I’ve not quite finished yet, but I’m hoping to share it with all of you in the next week (stay tuned).
Mushroom pasta - I watched an episode of ‘Simply Raymond Blanc’ on Netflix featuring Angela Hartnett who I love. She made a simple dish of fresh tagliatelle pasta with cep mushrooms, parsley, garlic and lemon juice - I was salivating watching her make it. Naturally, I had to have a go myself on Friday evening, and it was every bit as good as it looked. I love the simplicity of Italian cooking, great ingredients, treated with love = ultimate comfort! This is your sign to go make some pasta, fry some mushrooms, chuck in some cheese and parsley and have a jolly lovely time!
Egg mayo sandwiches - homemade soft brown Barm cakes/baps/bread rolls, filled with egg/homemade mayo/capers/dill, crips for crunch and salt - SIMPLE.HONEST.GOODNESS.
That’s about it from another wild week in the life of Steph… I know I’ve been a bit silent in regard to my general wellbeing of late; I hate to sound dramatic, but the last few months of assessments and talking has been quite traumatic and really exhausting. I’m currently coming to terms with various things that I want to talk to you about more in due course, but for now, I am just taking some time to get my head around things properly myself. And BRRrreathe!
All that is left for me to say is, I hope you are all doing ok - I know this pre-xmas period can be a tricky old time for some people… if that’s you, please know that you’re not alone and I for one am sending loads of love and hugs to you all!
Steph x x x
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