felinedream

I have a confession to make. I’m in love with Edward Cullen.

There, I said it. I’m a 30 year old woman who’s in love with a fictional 17 year old vampire. Ok, that makes it sound creepy.

I’m a book geek through and through. I have a thing for literary heart throbs. They do much more for me than movie stars. Give me Edward Cullen, Heathcliff or even Romeo over Brad Pitt (who I actually don’t find attractive at all) or, dare I say it, Johnny Depp any-day. In fact, I was going to put a picture of Robert Pattinson at the top of this post but then I realise that he is nothing compared to the Edward I imagine in my head. I scoffed when I heard that he would be portraying the flawlessly beautiful Edward in the movie of Twilight but, even I have to admit, watching the film, watching him as Edward, I began to see the attraction.

So, this is my new excuse for doing nothing in terms of crafting and baking (or studying, cooking, cleaning) for the past few days. I’ve read the books, I’ve seen the movies, but on Wednesday night I picked up my copy of Twilight and it began again. Last night I finished Eclipse (yes, I did go to work and to the gym and look after the children, but I also managed to read all three books in three days). I’m waiting for my copy of Breaking Dawn to be returned to me, but the break will probably do me good.

I thought I should come up with something to make up for my lack of crafting and baking just now. I could wax lyrical about my growing obsession with the gym, but I wont. I could also go on for hours about work and uni but again, I’ll try to refrain from boring you. So, this is blatantly stolen from Meridian Ariel.

What is your favorite work of horror fiction? One of my favourite authors is Poppy Z Brite and her early work tends to be considered horror fiction. Both Lost Souls and Exquisite Corpse are utterly spellbinding and well worth a read. If I’m honest, I spent my teenage years reading nothing but horror fiction - it went with the goth/mosher image. Stephen King’s IT holds a special place in my heart because it was the first King book I ever read (Carrie was the only book I ever read in German). I should stop now because I could write a book about my love of horror fiction.

What is your favorite work of science fiction/fantasy? That would have to be Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. If you haven’t read this then buy, beg, borrow or steal a copy.

Who is your favourite monster? Vampires. If I had to choose one Vampire in particular, it would be Christian from Lost Souls.

Favourite Horror movie? Oh, that’s a really hard one. If I was only allowed to watch one genre of movie until I died, it would be horror. The Nightmare on Elm Street (parts 1 and 3) would be up there, as would Dawn of the Dead. I’m also a fan of late 80’s, early 90’s horror like 976 Evil, House and Hellraiser.

What horror movie gives you the most chills? I have a thing about zombie films. They absolutely terrify me and I know it’s completely irrational. Romero’s initial trilogy were the best.

What character from any horror film would you most like to play? Mina Harker from Dracula.

Freddy or Jason? Freddy

What is your favorite Halloween treat? I love the mix of horrifically sugary candy.

Ghosts or goblins? Ghosts.

Friendly-faced jack o’lantern or scary one? Scary.

What is your scariest encounter with the paranormal? I’ve honestly never had one.

Do you believe in ghosts? I’m undecided. I did my MPhil thesis on supernatural references in early modern Scottish poetry; specifically those which involved instances of shape-shifting and took place on the blurred boundaries between life and death. I examined some ghost stories and argued that they were social constructs used to excuse dodgy behaviour or account for things which, now, have rationale explanations.

Would you rather be a zombie, alien, or psycho? A Psycho.

Favorite Halloween costume? I once dressed up as She-Ra. My mum made the outfit and I looked ace. In fact, I need to find that photo and scan it so that you can all see the wonder that was my costume.

Best thing about Halloween? Seeing the kids get all excited about dressing up.

Person in your family who most likes Halloween (not counting yourself)? Devin. He keeps going on and on about dressing up.

Are you superstitious? Nope.

If you have read this consider yourself tagged leave me a comment and I will trundle over to read your meme answers and hopefully remember a few more crappy horror movies to gleefully add to my list!

The wonderful and lovely Emma made a visit to the motherland recently (for those of you that don’t already know, this is me coming out of the closest: I was born and raised in Northern Ireland) and returned bearing gifts. She brought me not one, but two loaves of Veda. To say I was over the moon at receiving such delights would be an understatement. I stashed one in the freezer for a rainy day, and that rainy day has come.

The Scot in me declared that there is no finer way to eat Veda than as part of a piece and cheese and jam (or as my dad calls it, a miner’s piece).  Some cheese (today I used applewood smoked because it’s all we had in) and a touch of black currant jam (I’d prefer some of my mum’s home made raspberry though) along with the Veda make for a real taste of my childhood. There are few things I really miss about Northern Ireland, which isn’t surprising as I left when I was 8 or 9, but Veda and Tayto Cheese and Onion crisps really do make me yearn for the motherland.

Today has been a good day. I awoke this morning after having a lie in (Brodie didn’t climb into bed with me until 7.30). I guess the downside was that we’d been at a wedding reception last night and didn’t get in until 11pm. Anyway, this morning was the launch of the new Body Combat release at the gym. I was there for 10am and sweated my way through the cardo heavy routine which I love, love, love. After a brief lunch I dropped my kids with the lovely Barry and kidnapped me a Sara. We went to see writers Alan Bisset and Denise Mira as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. I was in such a good mood when I returned home that I set about baking some cookies. I found a recipe for gooey chocolate cherry cookies which I thought I’d try. Now, these cookies are seriously yummy. The only problem is that I made them a little too big so they are more cakey than gooey.

Ingredients

Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Beat the butter, sugars and egg until smooth, then mix in the flour, chocolate, almond and cherry pieces and ½ tsp salt. Spoon onto non-stick baking sheets in large rough blobs - you’ll get 20 out of this mix (I only got 12 which was part of the problem). Make sure they are well spaced as the cookies grow substantially as they bake. The raw dough can be frozen. Bake for 12-14 mins until just golden, but still quite pale and soft in the middle. If baking from frozen, give them a few mins more. Cool on the sheets for 5 mins, then lift onto racks with a fish slice and leave to cool completely.

During the summer I signed up to do Meridian Ariel’s 80’s Fantasy Movie Swap. I was partnered with the lovely Becca. Here’s where the panic starts. I’m a pretty good baker, and I write (poems, short stories and an endless stream of academic papers) but when it comes to anything else vaguely artistic or creative I tend to strike out. So, I chose a Labyrinth theme for Becca’s parcel and came up with the following:

The resin keyring is layered with purple glitter and some metallic heart shapes and reads ‘Jareth’ in honour of the awesomeness of David Bowie’s character. The brooch has assorted metallic shapes and an egg timer, which sort of represents the time Sarah has to reach the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth.
The mask was inspired by the ball scene towards the end of the film. I also sent some caramel shortcake, pick and mix sweets, wadding and various assorted beads.

In return I received this:

To say I was overwhelmed and utterly delighted with my Kiki’s Delivery Service themed parcel would be an understatement. Look how utterly gorgeous Jiji is:

In fact, I appear to be having a little difficulty convincing a certain young lady that it does not belong to her.

And the rest of my goodies:

A huge thank you to Becca for all my goodies and to Apryl for organising the swap. I honestly can’t wait for the next one.

Yesterday I took a 500g packet of beef mince out of the freezer with the intention of making something for dinner. The only thing I ever make with mince is chilli but I fancied something different. An idea began to form. Burgers. It’s been years since I made burgers, preferring to buy the yummy jalapeno ones from M&S, but it seemed like a good idea. In fact, it was a brilliant idea. The kids wolfed down their mini burgers (served with beans) while hubby and I had our adult sized burgers in rolls with salad. We also put a cube of cheese in the centre of each uncooked burger so that when we bit into them there was lovely gooey applewood smoked.

The recipe itself was fairly simple. I mixed together the mince with an egg, some chives, salt and pepper, a handful of breadcrumbs, an onion (finely chopped and cooked until soft) and some dried herbs . This is the only thing I’ve made in ages that I haven’t done any measuring for so I was pretty proud of myself. The mini burgers took 6 minutes on each side to cook and the adult ones took 8 minutes.

I also made some wonderfully gooey chocolate cookies which we had for dessert with ice cream. Unfortunately the entire batch was eaten so quickly that I didn’t even have time to take photos. The recipe can be found on the GoodFood website.

October week is now upon us. I know I have a cheek to complain about needing a holiday, what with being off for 7 weeks over the summer and having a long weekend in September, but I am really looking forward to a week away from work. As with all school holidays I’ll have Devin at home with me so we’ll be going to the gym (him to the kids classes and me for various classes/workouts) but I’ve also planned to do some outdoorsy things with him. Some of them are craft based so I shall post all here.

To kick off the holidays I did a spot of baking this morning. I fancied having a crack at some chocolate brownies so pulled out Rachel Allen’s Bake and adapted one of her recipes (the only change I made was to use walnuts instead of hazelnuts). I was really worried that I wouldn’t get these out of the tin because they are so gooey and fudgy. They did break up a bit but they still taste delicious.

Ingredients

175g dark chocolate                            175g butter

25g cocoa                                               3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract                           100g plain flour

75g walnuts (roughly chopped)

1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Line square cake tin (approx. 20cm x 20cm) with greaseproof paper.

2. Melt together chocolate, butter and cocoa.

3. In a large bowl beat together eggs, sugar and vanilla. Continue to whisk while adding melted chocolate mixture. When this is combined sift in the flour and fold through the nuts (using a metal spoon).

4. Spoon mixture into tin and cook for 19-25 minutes. Brownies should be ‘dry’ on top but gooey in the middle.

5. Leave to cool in cake tin before cutting into squares.

Alas, today there are no pictures. I have been crafting and baking, honest guv.

Today I had a mass bake. I made Raspberry and Lemon Muffins, Caramel Shortcake and Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes. They were all a disaster in one way or another (although they’re all edible). The muffins weren’t very lemony and, despite being coated in flour, the raspberries sank to the bottom. I also overcooked them a little so the tops are a bit hard. The caramel of the shortcake has some little bits of sugar which haven’t dissolved properly (boo). I also overcooked the cupcakes a little but, more importantly, the icing isn’t quite right. I used my usual chocolate gooey icing but I think it’s a little too sweet. Hmmmm…..maybe I just need to get back in the swing of things.

I have also been crafting but I can’t show you that yet as it’s part of a swap. Crafting is something I don’t really do a lot of and I’ve never made things to give to other people so I’m really nervous about this. I’m happy with what I’ve made, I just hope the recipient is happy.

In other news, it’s reports week at school and I’ve just finished mine. I’m leaving the grammar check until tomorrow though because my head is swimming. I need a holiday.