And......

.....here's my beautiful box from Anita.It really cheers me up to look at it, it's so pretty

Share your Christmas goodies

As we had such a great Secret Santa this year with the added handmade/altered element, I thought I would share my wonderful gift with you all.

Huge thanks to the talented OLIVE for this gorgeous birdhouse

Lemon Drizzle cake

Here is the Famous lemon drizzle cake courtesy of Emma, Mmmmmmm delicious!!!

LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

175g/6oz butter, softened
175g/6oz caster sugar
2 eggs
175g/6oz self-raising flour
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4 tablespoon lemon juice

GLAZE
Juice of 1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons icing sugar sifted

Beat together sugar and butter till creamy soft and pale.
Beat the eggs lightly. pour into mixture and keep beating.
Sift the flour over the mix and add the lemon rind. FOld this into the mix.
Put the mixture into a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin, bake for 55-60mins.
Meanwhile mix the lemon juice into the icing sugar. When the cake is cooked, prick the cake all over, and pour this mixture over the hot cake whilst it is still in the tin. Remove from tin after 15 mins, leave to cool.

The temps are 160C/325F/gas 3

Hi girls

Thought I would share one of my favourite slow cooker recipes :

Beef Goulash

approx 500g stewing steak

2 tbsp seasoned flour

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 or 2 large onions chopped

1 pepper (green or red) deseeded and sliced

150ml beef stock (I just use a stock cube)

400g can of chopped tomatoes

2 tsp paprika

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 bouquet garni

salt and pepper to taste

Optional - 140 ml soured cream or natural yoghurt to serve ( I dont add this)

Method :

Coat the meat in the seasoned flour

In a large non stick frying pan , heat the oil and fry the steak till lightly browned

Add the onion and pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes

Add the stock, tomatoes, paprika, tomato puree and bouquet garni , season to taste (I find it doesnt need any salt added). Bring to the boil.

Add the goulash mixture to the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours

To serve , pour soured cream or yoghurt over the goulash.

We usually have this with mashed potatoes , carrots and a green veg or two ! Its very yummy !!

First lo of 2008

Olive

Happy New Year!
I'm so excited to start 2008 as a new member of the team, I hope it's a great year for everyone :D

Happy New Year Lovelies , wishing you all the very best for a great new year .

Thought I would post our first challenge for the year here as well as on UKS :

Challenge for January , suggested by Olive , is to keep up with something , so today decide what that something is and endeavour to keep up with it .... be it a layout a day , no stash purchases during January , a photo a day , no chocolate ... then at the end of the month we can , hopefully, all celebrate in the fact that we have achieved something pretty major ! Good luck everyone !

I was thinking that maybe if you manage to stick to your 'whatever' for the month then maybe create a minibook or LO in recognition ....

Good luck, but most of all have fun and dont stress about it !

Anita xxx