little things: the fourth (in which macarons were almost made correctly)

I'm not a very good baker.  I'm certainly an enthusiastic one, but certainly not a good one! I can cook (I think I cook rather well), but where cooking is an art, baking is a science - and like any science, there are rules to be adhered to. Exactly so amount of sugar, this weight of flour. My typical baking style means I will happily substitute this for that and guesstimate the weights and amounts, and sometimes if I...

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little things: the third (in which she went to york at the weekend and had a musical overload)

Saturday dawned a surprisingly sunny day, so I popped into York - a beautiful city that's 45 minutes away on the train from the parish town I live in.  (One of these days, I will stop using my phone as a camera and get a proper camera to use, I swear.) The view from the bridge. The first order of business for me by the time I was in the city centre was to find the nearest Starbucks to buy a pumpkin spice latte - my first...

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little things: the second (in which she reminisces about paris and the summer-that-wasn't)

Winter draws ever nearer, and as I wake up to ever darker mornings in a very cold flat, I look back on our rather non-existent summer with some longing. Yes, it never really quite manifested, and we Brits remarked upon our unusually wet and cold summer (and for us to even comment on it, well, it must be something) with our usual grumblings and put away our sun lotion with a sigh. On the whole, I'm not remarkably fond of summer....

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little things: the first (in which she tries an introduction, and messes up a cake)

I've had many blogs here and there, some private diaries for no ones eyes, some a little soapbox to stand on, some a place to girlishly giggle over this film, or that actor. So here goes another - hopefully one that has a little more success. As far as first posts go, this one will be pitifully short! A little while ago, I tried my hand at making a classic Victoria sponge - except I rather forgot the baking powder. Blasted recipes, always...

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