pear, ginger & chocolate cobbler .....

 ♥ A bake a month ♥ 

number one

Exciting.

This is a cracker of a recipe

I made it last weekend when Sweet B came home

it's both, fairly quick and delicious

(if you like pears, ginger and chocolate that is ;o)

we all LOVED it

 Serves four

5-6 pears (about 1kg in total)

a generous pinch of ground ginger

1 tbsp light soft brown sugar

for the topping .....

50g plain flour

25g ground almonds

3 tbsp demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp natural yogurt

50g melted butter

2 tbsp flaked almonds, for sprinkling

100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

( I leave my chocolate in the packet and whack it hard on the worktop
 instead of chopping, it's great if you've had a stressful day)

 Note : The recipe actually calls for dark ginger chocolate

 sadly I couldn't get any at my local supermarket

♥ Preheat the oven to 180C, fan 160C, gas 4

♥ For the cobbler topping, mix together the flour,

ground almonds, demerara sugar, baking powder

and a pinch of salt. Whisk in the yogurt and melted butter

 ♥ Peel and core the pears, then slice thickly lengthways

arrange slices in a 20-24cm round or square ovenproof dish, 

toss with the ground ginger, brown sugar and 2tbsp of water 

 ♥ Stir the chopped chocolate into the cobbler mixture, 

then dollop evenly over the pears

 ♥ Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and extra demerara sugar

 ♥ Bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden

 ♥ Serve with chilled double cream or ice cream

♥ enjoy ♥ 

If you give this a go, I would LOVE to know what you think

Mr Sweet scored it 99.9/100
high praise indeed ~ I hear you say
but he is a piggy and eats almost anything!

I have a huge ring binder bursting with recipes

 that I have squirreled away from magazines & newspapers over the years

to be honest ..... it's a mess, pages falling out everywhere

I should deal with that really

shouldn't I?
maybe one day .....
 This particular recipe was pulled out from a Sainsbury's magazine

I hope you are having a gorgeous week
we had a bit more sunshine today
Ooooooh I can feel spring coming .....

Thank you so much for all the hexi cushion love
x

Back soon
BIG love
x jooles x

Hexi cushion Ta-Dah & a natter

Hello lovelies

Hooray ..... we saw the sunshine this weekend

that was so nice.

I hope you had some sunshine too

mind you, I am ashamed by my kitchen windows

tomorrow they will be shiny and clean.

Our Sweet B came home for the weekend

after all of her exam stress she need some TLC

and I was more than happy to supply it

any excuse

we had a go at making rum babas

let's just say we won't be making them again

they were a bit of a fail

hence no photo!

but the process was fun

:o)

I have been meaning to show you my new cushion .....

I've been drooling over all of the gorgeous hexi projects I've been seeing

in blogland and on Pinterest for some time now

 and was itching to give it another go 

 I remember making hexies as a teenager

 Oh yes ..... I was a bit a raver as a teen!

They are SO addictive

I have started a matching one

it will have to be smaller though

 as I haven't got quite enough velvet left to make one the same size

but I think that will be nice

Percy Pecker has been out and about

 what a handsome little fellow he is

he looks so perfect in the snow

mind you, it's almost all gone now

 it was lovely for a while but I am happy to see some green now

COME ON SPRING

 

Wishing you all a happy and creative week

and thanks for your sweet owl comments

you really made me giggle

 

I'll be back in a few days with my first 'Bake a month'

I'm excited

I tried the recipe out at the weekend and it didn't last long

YUM

 

Back soon

BIG love

x jooles x

 

do you ever get the feeling .....

..... that you're being watched???

Some little owls have flown into my shop

there will be a few more making the journey this evening

Back soon

BIG love 

x jooles x

white weekend

Brrrrrrrr .....

It's CHILLY round these parts
but Oh So Pretty
like wonderland
 I think most of the UK has snow, doesn't it?

I hope you've managed to stay warm and cosy and safe

we have been VERY lazy here

it has been good though

Mr Sweet & I ventured out for a couple of snowy walks this weekend

I was glad of my new PINK coat

Yes PINK! 

Oh the joy

We left our lovely boy snug in bed and off we went

Snowy garden .....

There has been a little crochet too

remember the ‘rhubarb crumble’ blanket?
It has been very neglected till recently.

In my mind I had almost finished the squares
felt like I had hooked up around 200

but in reality I hadn't.

Out of the 180 squares that I decided I needed, only 54 had been made

Rubbish. I know.
I was shocked

I'm going to try a complete a granny a day …..

There has been a little owl~ing going on too

My lovely G has been requesting that I make some owls for ages

but somehow I never got around to them

every now and then .....

lovely G ~ "Mum, are you going to make an owl?"

Me ~ "Yes, lovely ..... soon"

lovely G ~ "Mum, you said you were going to make an owl"

Me ~ "I will .....soon"

That went on for a year or so

anyway they are nearly here

AT LAST

it took a few goes to get the shape right
the ears?
the eyes?
the beak?

No. 6 got the thumbs up from my panel of expert voters

(thanks guys)
 

Thank you for all of your sweet comments on 

Professor Twinkle & Mr Starry Sky

my lovely boy helped out with the names too

credit where credit is due

they are good names, don't you think?

I am hoping to have some hooting off to my shop by the end of this week

 There has also been lots of TV watching
whilst eating chocolates left over from Christmas
I LOVED this film

I'd read the book a while ago and the film didn't disappoint

and my perfect TV line-up last night .....
Call the midwife and then Mr Selfridge
Bliss

Sweet B is in the middle of her exams

she has one this morning
right now as it happens
my stomach is doing loop the loops for her

she has one tomorrow morning and then one Wednesday morning

poor thing she is very stressed and run down

she's a dedicated little thing

I just don't know how she does it

she has been revising from 9am till 8 pm
almost everyday since just after Christmas

She has used:
2 1/2 A4 note pads (200 pages per pad)
I think around 300 record cards
and run down 2 1/2 biro pens
she is concerned that she has a dent in her writing finger
I am surprised she has a writing finger left!

I can't wait to have her home to take care of her as only a mum can
GOOD LUCK SWEETIE
XXX

A BIG "Hello" to my new followers
It's so lovely to welcome you here

Wishing you a happy and cosy new week
and what ever you do ~ stay safe
x

BIG love
x jooles x