Bit of a Baking Fail

My mom is an amazing cook and baker and she often sends me recipes that she thinks/knows that I’d like.  This is one that she sent me a while ago and I just got around to trying out, and sort of failing at. We're calling these Bordey Bars. 

First I gathered the ingredients:

- 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)

- 2 cups of firmly packed brown sugar 

- 2 tsp of baking powder

-1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tsp vanila extract

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 large eggs

 

Pre-heat the oven to 350F, or about 180C.  Grease a 9x13 inch pan and put aside.  

Melt the butter and then mix with the brown sugar until totally mixed.

Add the baking powder, salt and vanilla and mix well.

Gradually add the flour and mix, this should make the dough very stiff.

Wisk the eggs in a seperate bowl and then add slowly, mixing well.

Spread the batter in the pan you prepared earlier and bake for about 30 minutes.  The edges should be golden brown and the middle still soft. 

Let it cool completly and then cut into squares and enjoy!

Mine tasted fine, but as you can see they were a bit on the burnt side.  What went wrong?  I think that part of it was that I halved the recipe.  I really think that the first time you bake something you should do it by the book.  I don't think this was my biggest problem though, I think it was the pan size.  I should have used my very functional, but slightly dull clear Pyrex dish.  The dough was just too thick to cook properly and it took ages, hense the burnt edges and top.

Mr Grumpy didn't dislike these bars, but he prefers some of the other things I make so I don't know if this will be on my to bake list again.  

 

Ilfracombe

I love me a road trip.  I get horrible motion sickness but I don't care, I still like to go.  As a backpacker it can sometimes be really difficult to truly get off the beaten path.  Some thing just can't be seen via a bus, you need your own set of wheels.  

So one morning we took off and went headed to Ilfracombe.  This was to be my first trip to Devon and Sommerset. Before we left we made a Tesco's run and picked up our usual road trip fair, water, crisps and brioche.  Might be a bit odd for a road trip, but it makes us happy.

Our first pit stop was Bristol, where my husband had attended university.  We checked out the harbor as it had been redone since Mr Grumpy had last been there.  We also got some super cute cupcakes!

                    

Suddenly, as I was singing the wrong words very loudly to some song or another, Mr Grumpy asked if I would like to go to Cheddar Gorge.  I didn't know what it was, but I was game.  Cheddar Gorge turned out to be a beautiful drive thru what must have been almost mountains.  We also checked out the touristy bit of town, tasted some cheese, cheddar of course, and bought the biggest thing of cider ever. 

When we made it to Ilfracombe we checked out our hotel, it had seen better days but was fine for  a night or two. Ilfracombe was pretty dead, but we managed to find a couple of good pubs and spend the evening trying different types of cider. 

                                                                                                       

The next day we drove around a few of the other nearby towns, but most of them were shut up and we soon ended up back in Ilforcombe.  We really lucked out that night and were able to join in a pub quiz.  We came in fourth!  Well, it was out of 4 teams.  But in my defense the questions were extreemly Britcentric and I wasn't much help.

The next day we left early, but made a pit stop at the Thatchers brewery shop.  We bought even more cider.  We seem to collect alchol much more quickly than we consume it. 

When we got home we were tired, but it had been a great trip!

Finally

I am so excited to show you this.  I don't think I've found any Utility China since August.  The guy who had boxes of cheap china has stopped coming to Spittlfields and I haven't had any luck on eBay or in charity shops.

This was an eBay find and I never thought that I'd win the auction, but here it is, in my home.  A Woods Ware Jasmine vegetable tureen. 

The backstamp was really faded and didn't show up on  my camera.

This tureen matches beautifully with its Beryl counterpart:

But how many vegetable tureens does one person, or a two person family need? Well, I feel that the minimum is 5.

I also feel, that when I find more, I'll buy those too.  Who knows, maybe one day we'll have a really big Thanksgiving dinner and I'll use them all at once, instead of them taking turns, usually two at a time, for Sunday lunch.

How much is too much?  And how often do you use your vintage china?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations!.

Ay Caramba!, Barcelona

This summer Mr Grumpy and I took a trip to Barcelona to celebrate his birthday.  We have very different views when it comes to travel.  I like to run around and visit every museum in existence, and Mr Grumpy likes to sit around in pretty squares eating and drinking.  Luckily for Mr Grumpy, this was my 4^th visit to Barcelona so I’ve done it all, and it was his birthday, so we did only what he wanted to do.

Now, I’m a backpacker.   If you want to read about my 20 months around the world go here.  Now that I’m older and not saving for a big trip the little trips can be a bit more extravagant, plus, I wanted Mr Grumpy to have a really good time. Its really amazing to stay in a nice hotel and eat fancy food without breaking the budget.  However, I will always miss the feeling of freedom that long term travel gives you.

Our first stop was Bar Mut.  This place was awesome.  Seriously folks, if you’re a backpacker with a tiny budget this is where to splurge.   I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that I hadn’t heard of Bar Mut until this trip.  When in Barcelona order tapas, lots of tapas.  We had potatoes, hammon, tomatoy bread, olives and the best thing ever.  I don’t really know what it was called.  The dish consisted of shredded potato, ship and warm egg yolk.  It was incredible.  I will go back to Barcelona for a 5^th time just to eat at Bar Mut again.

  

We also spend some time in a market off of Las Ramblas.  You gotta appreciate all the fruit and the ham and just all the loveliness.

Mr Grumpys one and only requested tourist attraction was the Barcelona FC stadium.  We spent quite a bit of time looking at old pictures, trophies and exploring the different levels of the stadium and the locker room.  I would have never thought of a stadium as a tourist destination, but it was better and more interesting than I had though originally.  Mr Grumpy really enjoyed it.

Right before we left for the plane I found a shop selling hammon, not just any kind, the type that comes from pigs fed on acorns.  I’ve wanted to try this for ages.  It was amazing, but a bit weird to eat ham out of a paper tube.

Now this is not a good guide to Barcelona at all.  If you’re going for the first time check out Sagrada Familia, the Medieval Museum, Mont Juic, the Catalan Museum and Gaudi Parks.  There’s loads more, but that would keep you good and busy for a few days.  I thought I should include some pictures from one of my trips a few years ago.  The first is overlooking the city, the secound a part of the Bari Gotic area, , and the last is some crazy street performer on Las Ramblas.

What’s your favourite tapa’s place?

Happy travels!

Pyrex Pyrex and More Pyrex

Morning!  I hope everyone had a wonderful week in thrifting.  I still haven't been buying the quantity that I would like to.  Most of my recent finds are Pyrex, and while I do love it, I am yearning for some more Utility China.

This lovely and wintery Pyrex dish was found for £2.99 in my neighboring town.  I feel that you can never have enough bowls, which is good, because I collect them.  I don't think Mr Grumpy feels the same, however, I often catch him using them, so I think he likes them secretly. 

 

This bowl has some age/brown/usage marks that I can't seem to get rid of, any suggestions?  This bowl also has a mini me, that I found months ago here.

 

This is another local find and it made me squeal with glee.  I have seen pictures of these split casserole dishes on other blogs, and I must admit, I coveted them.  On eBay they seem to be far more than I'm willing to pay for them so I always passed.  I couldn't believe when I found this for £2.99.  I grabbed it and payed before they could change there minds! 

And a closeup:

The lighting right now is really bad, I think the top picture is a little bit more true to color.  I so hope that I find the other versions of this!

Anyone else have luck this week?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl.

I'm Back!

Oh my goodness, it’s been ages and I’ve missed you.  This is has been a crazy summer.  Mr Grumpy and I have done a lot of travelling and my hours at work have been CRAZY.  On top of that, I haven’t been buying as much.  I feel like recently the price of Utility China on eBay has sky rocketed.  Believe me, I know how lovely this stuff is, but there is a point where it’s just not worth the money.  Amber over at Fashion Police wrote a really interesting post about people paying stupid prices for clothing and shoes on eBay here.  I totally agree with her.  Therefore my buying capacity has really diminished. Hopefully this is a fad that will end sooner than later.

So, here are my finds of late:

I convinced Mr Grumpy (promised him lunch) to take me over to the neighbouring town to do a bit of thrifting one Saturday.  I came away with a few books and this pretty butter dish, unfortunately it was missing a lid, but at about 25p (it was marked down) I couldn’t have cared less.

A few weeks later we took a weekend break to Ilforcombe and explored some of the other towns in the area.  This matching bowl was found in Tiverton, I think.  I must have walked into 10 or 15 different charity shops in almost as many small towns and this is all I came out with.  It definitely made the trip worthwhile, especially at £1.49!

Last weekend Mr Grumpy and I were killing time in our little London satellite town before getting haircuts and he found this matching gravy boat!  Considering that I already own 3.5 Utility China gravy boats, I almost didn’t buy it, but had to in the end.

Here’s the collection all together!

Does anyone know the name of this pattern or where there’s an online catalogue, like Pyrex Love in the US, where I might be able to research it?

It’s great to be back!

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl.