About ME!

HELLO!!

I'm Christine. I'm a busy mum to 5 year old twins, Robin and Evie and wife to Ian. I also run a property management company. We live in a small village in beautiful, rural Northumberland. I love spending time at home with my family, running and exercising and socialising with my fabulous friends.

When I'm not busy with work, family or friends, my favourite pastimes are cooking and eating (often a combination of family/friends and food). I particularly get so much (too much?!) pleasure from making healthy, nutritious meals from nothing (well, whatever I've got in the house!), making leftovers exciting and not wasting a thing. I HATE waste. I've wanted to start a blog for a few years but time just hasn't allowed it. But I'm very excited about getting it going now and sharing my passion for food with the world!!

I'm very health conscious and want to feed my family good food, on a budget. As you can imagine, time is not something that I have a lot of so my cooking has to fit in with my busy life. Weekday cooking has to be fuss-free and speedy but I still want it to feel indulgent.

I am also a keen vegetable gardener. There is little better than creating a whole meal from produce that you raised with your own fair hands. And in the British weather, it's not always easy. It makes you appreciate it even more though! I would urge anyone to have a go at growing their own. Even if it's just a few of your favourites in pots or some herbs on the windowsill. Do it!

I'm going to try and share some of the recipes that I create and any tips that I have along with general ramblings about food and the good life!

Don't expect fine dining, just homemade, tasty, healthy and wholesome food. Always on a budget! Maybe with the odd flashy, entertaining number thrown in for good measure. The budget won't go out the window though.

I'm very new to this so please bear with me until I find my feet!!

I hope you enjoy it. All feedback very much appreciated!!

Thanks y'all!

Sunday, 6 April 2014

A lemon and almond drizzle cake kind of day

I had chair painting and veg garden plans for the day so, obviously, I needed a cakey snack for break time!!! I really wanted orange and almond but, alas, I had no oranges so lemon it was. 

150g caster sugar
120g butter, softened
100g ground almonds
50g self raising flour
3 large eggs
1 lemon, juice and zest
1 tbsp milk
Half tsp baking powder
Half tsp vanilla extract
A few sliced almonds. 

For the drizzle:
40g caster sugar, 1tbsp icing sugar and the juice of 1 lemon. 

As easy as it gets. Just put all the cake ingredients in a mixer and whisk on high speed until all combined and lump-free. If you don't have a mixer, you can do it by hand.

Grease and line an 8" round tin. 

Pour your mixture in and arrange the sliced almonds on the top. 

Bake for around 50 mins at gas 4, 180c.

Lick the whisk and the bowl. This is essential. 

I use a skewer to check the cake's cooked through. When the skewer comes out clean, it's ready. 

Spike it all over with the skewer and pour over the drizzle. 

For the drizzle: heat the lemon juice. Mix in the icing sugar until all dissolved, add the caster sugar and stir in. 

It's quite a dense, wet cake, which is how I like it. It's deliciously moreish. 



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