Because Sundays are made for baking. These are biscuits from a her name was greta recipe.
Delicious!!
A few minor variations to the recipe. Mainly in that I had white chocolate in the cupboard so I used that instead.
And I didn’t have enough butter, so I adjusted the mix at the end and added just enough milk to create the right consistency.
I’m looking forward to crumbling these over some vanilla ice-cream.
That’s if there’s any left!!
On a hungover Saturday, the Mr dragged me out to dinner and away from my tracky daks and tea (hangover essentials).
The promise was pasta and pizza. The place was Piccos. I didn’t even know where it was, even though it’s just 2 minutes up the road. Turns out I used to run past it all the time.
The location isn’t idyllic, but the attention to detail inside more than makes up for the location.
From the handwritten menu on the wall, to the table numbers, to the umbrella stand, every little detail had been thought of and executed beautifully.
We were unprepared as usual, so it was water only for the table but we’ll know for next time (and there will be a next time).
After the promise of pizza and pasta, we had to choose. The pizza menu had so many delicious items, but I couldn’t go past the bbq chicken, with capsicum and onion. It’s one of my favourites.
Mr Polka-dots&Sparkles, had the linguini cabonara.
The food was good, just what I felt like. And we were able to take the rest of the pizza home (which is great because I can never eat a full pizza).
But looking around at all the different foods around us, next time I think we’ll be a little bit more adventurous.
I really wanted to take photos of everything, the whole place was just so cute.
It’s a keeper.
I don’t have a green thumb, but my significant other does.
As we were on the go on Saturday we stopped at a garden store.
Picked up a couple of bags of potting mix to fill some Tuscan style pots that my mum had given us a while back and were unused.
We also picked up some veggies and some flowers (because all my flowers I had previously planted had been destroyed by the storm which always follows me planting anything).
We (I say we, but I was more of a supervisor), planted some roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, celery, carrots, and begonias.
We get so little sun it’s really hit and miss as to whether they’ll flower or grow or die. But I have a reminder in my phone for the 10th December. If everything goes all right we’ll have some home grown carrots for dinner.
And my boy being the handy man he is, is building me a little fence for our garden.
It’s going to be our home sweet home.
I love domestic life sometimes.
Now I have a new name, you’ll need to update your subscriptions.
If you don’t already follow me, bloglovin is an awesome way to keep track of all the blogs you may follow.
The number 1 reason why I’ll put a blog into bloglovin and not my google reader? I get to scroll through the blogs in context.
polka-dots & sparkles
beks xx
well not quite a new look just yet (although I did cut my fringe today which aparently makes me look like more girlish).
But a new name!
I had blogged before about identity struggles, and how I didn’t want to be known as musicfoodlife. So I’ve taken the plunge and changed the domain name. I’ve updated my instagram, twitter, google+, and urbanspoon links. I didn’t quite realise how many places I left my little calling card.
I’m a lot happier now. I think this name is definitely more me and less formal.
Now to update banners and the theme a little bit. All the fun parts.
Please drop me a line to let me know you’ve found me – or if you can’t find me let me know (somehow!)
love and sparkles
beks xx
And putting the time to good use.
After weeks of not having a washing machine, and waiting (not so) patiently for a spare that was coming from the in-laws rental property we had a washing machine to pick up.
Not the one from the in-laws which we were hanging out for, but one from the Mr’s brother, who had one sitting in their spare room for about the same time that we had been looking for one. The Mr and his brother play golf together on a fairly regular basis, in which time I’m sure they have to talk about something, but it wasn’t until his girlfriend and I were talking and the penny dropped and we now have a washing machine.
Sunday mornings at the laundromat had become a little stale. It’s a strange crowd of people waiting for the liquor store to open.
So we had a washing machine, all we had to do was pick it up. So we drove to the in-laws, picked up their trailer, drove to the brothers, picked up the washing machine, dropped it off at home, and then dropped the trailer back. A pretty long round journey. A one dishcloth length journey.
I had picked up this pattern before we set off. It was short enough that I could view it on my phone and easy enough that I wouldn’t have too many dropped stitches to try and pack up whilst driving.
I’m not too happy with the pattern. It’s not really as symmetrical as I would like. The increases and the decreases don’t really match. The grey wool is Homemaker Acrylic from back before I knew what good wool was. It’s really whetted my appetite for washcloths. I like the instant gratification of them. In fact I’ve knitted a few more between Saturday and writing this post.
The finished one in Moda Vera Marvel Orange is for my mumsi. That was started and finished on Sunday. It’s her birthday soon, but after I finished it I remembered I’m meant to be buying her a GPS because it’s her 50th. I might wrap the GPS in a washcloth?
The one on my needles in Moda Vera Marvel Blue is waffle knit dishcloth. I’ve had a bit of trouble with this pattern. I’ve frogged it 3 times now because I missed a pattern row. But my concentration isn’t all that great after 3 wines and watching a game of football which is decided in the last minute.
I wish we had another driving holiday planned. Last years drive to Adelaide and back (7100kms) would have been great for knitting. I don’t think it will take much to convince the Mr to go driving somewhere, it’s just a matter of when.
And just to make it clear (if anyone was thinking otherwise) I’m not actually driving and knitting at the same time. I make a very good passenger.
I used this recipe to use up a cooked chook that I had bought last week.
Little ramekins of goodness.
I modified the recipe somewhat, as it called for chicken thighs and I had half a cooked chook.
So cooked some onion, bacon, and frozen peas.
Then some tinned mushrooms in butter sauce for the sole reason that, that’s what I had in the cupboard.
The rest of the recipe I followed, mixing flour and water together before adding that and chicken stock and milk to the chicken already in the pan.
That went into ramekins, then covered in puff pastry and into a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Then a glass of wine, a hundred from Hughes in the cricket, and some delicious chicken pot pies were ready to be devoured.
Some gardening, some knitting, some reading, some sewing, and most importantly some eating.
The antithesis of starring 5 songs on it’s first listen through (see ) is starring none.
I really wanted to love The Rapture’s new album.
Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks (their first EP but not the first in my collection – I’ll admit that much) was a solid EP hinting at the brilliance that was their debut Echoes.
Pieces of the People We Love was a great follow up, chock full of songs to dance to (including one of my favourite lyrics “too esoteric for a Saturday night”). It was a bit of a departure from their debut but I still loved it.
Tapes (their DJ album) was my running soundtrack for ages.
In The Grace Of Your Love sounds like they’ve used up all their tricks.
They’ve relied on their individual sound to carry them through, but there’s no substance.
Nothing that makes me want to get up and dance, and nothing that makes me feel like conjure up of thoughts of that magical moments when they play Open Up Your Heart at a festival.
Sail Away opens the album and whets the appetite for what’s to follow, but then the rest of the album fades away into nothingness.
Miss You comes the closest, with the signature handclaps that made Pieces of the People We Love, but it sounds like rapture-inspired rather than The Rapture itself.
Everything else seems to falls away into the abyss.
I hope that I’ll pick up this album in the peak of summer with fresh ears and rediscover it, but for the minute it remains a little unexciting.
I made myself a cupcake to celebrate.
Take a cupcake and listen to some Shortwave Set.
polka-dots & sparkles 