Something is rising in the North...

I decided today for breakfast to treat the family to freshly made bagels. Four hours in the making I can tell you it was all WELL WORTH IT!. Paul Hollywoods book, 100 Great Breads didn't have a recipe for them, so I did a search online and found a recipe by Rachel Allen. I've seen her on tv, and she's pretty good, so I thought I would give her bagel recipe a try. I woke up quite early around 6.30 to start the dough. (Millie was still sleeping so I didn't want to disturb her) As the recipe stated I could use a mixer or do it manually, I decided to try using my dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer (as normally I am quite the traditionalist and like to make anything bready by hand) So needless to say as long as it took to make these bagels, they were absoultely the BEST bagels I have ever eaten.  I'm not sure now if I will be able to eat another supermarket bagel again. Millie finally got up about the time that the proving had finished, so she was able to help me with the rest. It was a fairly easy recipe to make and I highly recommend it! Millie below shows you how easy it's done!

The proof is in the rising... Now that's a nice dome

Punch down the dough on a lightly floured surface

Divide the dough into 7 portions

 

 

 

Poke a hole in the middle and place on a prepared baking pan.

 

 

They need to prove again for another 10 mins or so, Time for a cuppa!

Boil them in water, this gives them their chewy texture- Careful there Millie, we don't want to poach you!

Brush with an eggwash, add topping and bake in the oven- OOOh they look so tempting

There you go! Sesame seed bagels- NOM!

The human's breakfast, scrambled eggs, juice and freshly baked bagels!

Lavroche It!

I meant to post this last week, so will be doing a double post today. I remember when I lived in California and we had a shop in Poway called Trader Joes who used to get in wonderful foods from around the Globe. One of these items gems were little crispy crackers called Lavroche, hailing from Cyprus. Sadly after I left the US I never had them again, until last week. I was looking though Paul Hollywood's book, 100 great breads when I came across the recipie for them.
Much to my delight (and sore hands from a lot of kneading) they came out exactly I tasted them before!
Perfect with Dips, Millie and I shall be making them again.

Brush them with an egg wash to give them a lovely golden colour

The are cut traditionally into odd shapes, Oh so light and crispy!

Serve with dip- NOM!

Today, we shall wear... BoHo

Ok the weather isn't co-operating to get nice light. This is the best I can manage today sorry.

I love this look on Millie with the Mohair wig. The outfit are bits from My Scene Barbie dolls, the shoes are My Scene Barbie doll shoes (you just snap of Millies feet and slide them in) Because they were oversized on the Barbie dolls, they look perfectly scaled for Millie. Earrings and necklace by ME!

Does my bum look big in this?

The Great Makie Bake Off

Today, the new preorder slots have opened up at Makielab - 100 new Makies are going to be made available for you to design and buy. This is part of the makie cruel summer collection.
My Makie Ted has been ordered so hopefully will have delivery of him within 3 weeks :)

In all the Excitement, Millie decided to do some baking to celebrate the arrival of the new Makie

Yum- They look delicious

But as we pan out....

Um.... Millie when I said that we are baking for Makie, I meant ONLY for Ted, not the whole 100 new ones!!!

Actually I think I did MOST of the baking and Millie supervised as Project Manager. They are actually baked goods I made for a friend who has a wheat intollerance. I have a son who is a Coeliac and bake for him all the time. Believe it or not, ALL of the above items are gluten free (including the mini victoria sponges with real french style buttercream. I also made 4 different muffins- Blueberry, Apple Crumble, Banana and Cheese and Bacon. I made Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate chip cookies(12 dozen cookies in total)

Some Hairy Experiments...

Just felt like doing something today other than SORTING. I wanted to test out some fur I had purchased so decided that I would try it with different wig patterns

 Pattern #1 - This one has more or less a left or a right side parting.

The left or right part wig

Pattern #2. This is the same fur, only using a pattern that gives a centre parting. I had some fun with this one.

No Fringe- A Bit scraggly?

Pull down a few strands and we have a fringe

Nicer with a fringe don't you think?

Add a bit of hair gel 

The tall SPIKEY look

We can style it back again (hair product still in) for a bit of a bouffier look

I look very 80's doncha think?

And Finally- The mad Scientist look

After the The Van de Graaf Generator experiments

The hair product hasn't seemed to affect the wig but after a few stylings it might be worth a hand wash with some soapy water, rinsed out and left to dry.

Pattern #3- This one allows for the hair to sit a bit longer at the back, no real partings but gives a bit of hair in front of the ear, which I could make a bit longer into sideburns for boy dolls. It sits nice and even all over.  I have to wait until I get Ted printed before I can try out facial hair and sideburns. That is ONE line Millie refuses to cross :O

A nice look- and my slippers are comfy!

I AIN'T having no sideburns!!!

Surprise!!!

A new friend arrived today for Millie. A lovely present from my dear husband Paul. I had pinned this dear little Wicket on Pinterest a week or so ago and he arrived to me today all the way from Spain! They are beautifully made and the person makes other characters too. Pop over to Peludossa to see what else she has to offer

Just a trifle bit busy...

...Of late. The whole move to the boys to their own bedrooms have been fine, but alas, the sorting and weeding out of things from the two other rooms into ONE room is another story. I can see light at the end of the tunnel - hopefully I will have something positive to report in the next few days!

In the meantime, poor Mille has felt quite negleted, so yesterday we decided since our friend Jamie was coming to visit, that we would make one of his favourite desserts - Trifle. It light of the current Olympics, Millie has decided to treat this like a sporting event...

The placing of the raspberries have to be just perfect...

Of course everything had to be just the right distance... Can she do it?

Making the final adjustments- Each Raspberry has to be placed equally appart to get that perfect score

She's DONE IT- Perfect score of 10 across the board from the judges- Millie gets gold!

Enough of that- Lets get stuck into it!