Eye Spy... My secret (food) shame

This week Jade is revealing bloggers secret (food) shames...

This theme coincided with my re-discovery of a childhood favourite, thanks to a dated Women's Weekly recipe book - "The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits", which reminded me of a simple, yummy but not very sophisticated (or beautiful?) food shame...

The work in progress....

(Now, I don't want to start an argument with the makers of this book, but do the following look like biscuits to you?)

Ready for the oven...Hmmm... Honey Snaps

60g butter

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups cornflakes

(optional - 90g unsalted peanuts)

Melt butter, honey and sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat. (Combine cornflakes with peanuts.) Pour butter and honey mixture over cornflakes and mix until they are well coated. Spoon tablespoonfuls into patty cases. Bake in moderate oven for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and stand 15 minutes to firm. Eat...

Thanks Jade and Cindy for Eye Spy for another week... hop on over to Just needs salt to check out Jade's secret (food) shame and bug and pop to see Cindy's and check out the other bloggers playing!

Pay it forward...

Look what arrived in the mail this week, all the way from Germany...

A beautiful quilt and the cutest bag, wrapped in pretty paper and then brown paper and hiding in amongst it a postcard from the lovely and talented Natasha of Haines blog fame. I can't believe I got a quilt that Natasha made for my pay it forward gift and also as a congratualations on the birth! How lucky am I? Well, Cohen has claimed it as his...

Thank you so much Natasha!

In other quilting related news, look what else I scored... Mum very talented and lovely mother made this table runner out of beautiful Japanese prints. Isn't she clever?

I love it!

PS. I ate them...

...and they were yummy.

Eye Spy... something delicous

Although life with a 2 month old baby is busy, I have managed to do a bit of knitting and some baking, around the feeds, naps, nappies, washing etc. There have been cookies, cakes and cupcakes of late...

Handmaiden has confessed her love of sweet things and offered us a taste of something delicious... and tempting...

I had promised to share my next 'thrilling' baking day, and although I didn't make meringues, I made something similar... my first pavlova!

It turned out better than expected and survived the trip from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba. Once there it was smothered in cream, strawberries and blueberries... but then the baby wanted a feed and I forgot to take a picture... so here is the idea... something delicious indeed!

Image: Sweet Almond

Also delicious...

Image: Hoot Owl

Thanks Handmaiden and Cindy for this weeks eye spy!

Hmm... what do we have here?

When I came home from a recent trip to my mothers house it looked like I had been op-shopping, when in fact it is just that my darling mother is having a clean out. She really is encouraging my 1950's housewife side. I came home loaded up with recipe books, icing nibs, cookie cutters... Also amongst my free acquisitions were these meringue tubes, once belonging to my grandmother, that will be washed and eventually put to use again... One side of the original box has a recipe, the other side has (I think) the best ever slogan-

"TALA" KITCHENWARE

FOR THRILLING BAKING DAYS

I promise to keep you informed as to when I have one of these 'thrilling baking days' and make some meringues....

Also gifted to me is this wonderful KENWOOD mixmaster that has to be at least 20 years old. I remember it well from my childhood and know it has produced any number of delicious Christmas cookies and pavlovas. Now it is my turn... ...so to test it out I quickly made a chocolate cake, and let me just say, it tastes much better than it looks...

I love books....

Did I mention that my beautiful sister has great taste in books? It figures, as she has a degree in literature, but maybe it is just that we have similar tastes? Anyway, among the pile of books she lent me recently is this-

'In Other Words'

A language lover's guide to the most useful and intriguing words from around the world by C.J Moore.

The title needs no further explanation, so without further ado, here are a few words I found intriguing....

esprit de l'escalier (es-pree de less-kal-iay) (idion) French

A witty remark that occurs to you too late, literally on the way down the stairs. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations defines esprit de l'escalier as, "An untranslatable phrase, the meaning of which is that one only thinks on one's way downstairs of the smart retort one might have made in the drawing room."

(And I'm sure we all have felt that before and yet may not have not known that the French have a word for it...)

schadenfreude (shar-den-froi-da) (noun) German

A compound word consisting of Schaden meaning "damage" and Freude meaning "joy". This is a dirty, cackle-rousing kind of happiness derived from someone else's misfortune. We're all disgustingly guilty of enjoying this emotion at some time or other.

(Moi? Never...)

uitwaaien (oot-vay-en) (verb) Dutch

A most useful and attractive verb meaning "to walk in the wind for fun". It conjures up a charming image of eighteenth-century Dutch landscape paintings.

Don't you just love language? If you know the meaning of any intriguing words I would love to know them...

Eye Spy...A small object

The Crafty Librarian is right, small objects are as a rule cute!

I have been meaning to share the following small objects for awhile now, and now I have the perfect excuse... thank you Crafty Librarian...

How cute are these? They are small candy fruits in a tin that my beautiful sister brought me while over seas. But they are so cute in real life that I haven't been able to bring my self to eat them! I should though really, shouldn't I? It would be a shame for all that sugar to go to waste, especially if the ants find them first...

Should I eat them? Would you?

I can't wait to see everyone else's small objects! You can check them out too thanks to Cindy. :)