a homemade pesto gift

So I mentioned in my last post that I was going to do a little series on gifts on the cheap. Of course, I'm not going to tell anyone these gifts cost less than a fiver each, and neither should you. It's the thought that counts. And the effort you put in, of course.

So the next couple of posts are probably my most favouritest to have worked on recently: gifts in jars. I know mason jars have trended all over every design/ party/ diy blog recently and are probably passe by now. I'll be honest with you, I'm not quite sure of the difference between a mason jar and a plain old jam jar.

One Christmas I nearly bankrupt myself financially and effort-wise buying new jars with gingham print lids and hand writing each individual label. You can do that too of course, and it does add a nice uniform touch to your gifts if you are batch cooking. But since this is all about the free and thrifty I would suggest you start recycling instead. Bonne Maman jam comes in jars with those pretty checked lids, baby food jars are great for little treats and my favourite are Douwe Egberts coffee jars because they have glass lids and look adorable with just a spot of ribbon and a tag (plus I get through at leat two a month). For this post I reused those little glass ramekins you get with Gu Souffles:

Whether you're repurposing your jars or not, they will all need to be sterilised. There are a couple of ways to do this; first in a medium dishwasher cycle, handwashed and dried out for 10 mins in a low oven or using your baby sterilising equipment. Once sterilised not even a finger can touch the inside of your jar, once sealed your contents are safe. If you're filling jars with hot content (such as jam) the jars need to be warm (i.e straight from the dishwasher) or they will crack.

Pesto has got to be one of the most overused ingredients in my kitchen, and for years I would buy jars of the slimey greeny grey overpriced stuff week after week. Then I came to my senses, started making it fresh and never looked back.

Traditional pesto is made with basil, lemon juice, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and pine nuts. I will tell you now, pine nuts are ludicrously expensive and not at all in keeping with the thrifty theme. I opt to leave them out mostly, but I had a pinch left over and they look nice scattered over the top of whatever dish you are adding your pesto to.

I don't know whether to give quantities here, I never measure, just chuck it all in a blender, add oil until it's the right consistency and keep tasting. One garlic clove is usually enough, two shop bought packets of basil, or the majority of leaves from a fresh plant. You also get that feeling of smug satisfaction if you grow your own!

And of course, you don't have to use basil. In fact the pesto photographed here is spinach pesto (an entire bag's worth), rocket is good too and I've even seen dandelion pesto. Anything leafy will work, and you can mix a bit of whatever you have.

 To make this gift extra special I added some artisan spinach pesto that I repackaged in a paper bag and tied with a page from a vintage Italian cookery book. You could also use these supercute free printables from Giverslog.

chic on the cheap - the perfect gift dichotomy

Image source: unknown

I'll be honest with you guys, I kinda wish I was the sort of person who could grab a giftcard, stick it in an envelope, biro a name across the front and call it a present. I kinda wish I wasn't the sort of person who decides to handmake all of her christmas presents (for an extensive family btw) with a three month old and an impending cross country move. But two Christmasses ago, you would have found me under the tree, filling jars, stamping cards, painting pottery and making chocolates.

And let me tell you, the effort truly goes unnoticed (in my family at least). And really, I think most of them think I do it because I am cheap (my visa bill from the craft store begs to differ, but whatever)

And this got me thinking, about how to make an appreciated gesture, what the perfect ingredients are for the perfect gift. I came up with this dichotomy:

You will forgive the non-sensical entirely unscientific doodle-agram I hope, but the basic premise is the three elements: Money, Time and Effort - and I think a good gift incorporates at least two of these factors.

See, putting cash in a card fulfills the money aspect, but requires no thought or effort. A gift voucher generally falls under the same category. But say, your friend has just had a baby, you know she is inundated with teeny tiny sized clothes in varying pastel colours and you don't want to contribute to the pile of "thanks but he'll never wear that" - you can supe up your giftcard with an offer to drive her to the store and take care of the little one while she picks something she loves or actually needs. With no extra effort than if you went to the shops to buy something yourself, you have the money input, plus the thoughtful factor and therefore have a great gift.

And of course, with thought and effort you are not required to ease your guilt at crappy gift giving by spending the big money. So when your grandparents are celebrating their 40th anniversary, instead of splashing out on ruby coloured stemware, you could bake a cake inspired by the one they cut on their big day all those years ago.

Which, in a round about way, brings me to a little series I am doing. For a couple of weeks I will be featuring gifts and projects that need a little effort and thought require even less monetary input from you, and are always sure to delight.

So friends, let me know what are your favouritest gifts recieved? What do you think are the key ingredients for a great gift? Oh, and for your inspiration, some budget friendly ideas from the archives:

cuppa tea cookies : Guinness glasses : pancakes in a jar : homemade playdough : Rubber Duckie USB



from the kitchen - a nice cuppa tea

When we were little my brother and I would ask our mum what she wanted for Mother's Day. And every year she would reply with the same thing "a handmade card and a nice cuppa tea". And when we were little we would come home from school on a Friday afternoon clutching our handmade cards, and on Sunday morning we would dutifully head into the kitchen to make her a nice cuppa tea.

Fast-forward a couple of years and my brother and are are (relatively) grown-up, we both have jobs. Our littlest brother hands my mum the card he made at school and a bunch of flowers bought with his pocket money. I hand my mum a box of hand-rolled truffles. My brother slopes in after an hour or two, still in last nights clothes, hand shoved in pockets and after sheepishly apologising for his tardiness and his empty handedness mumbles "can I make you a mother's day cup of tea?"

I don't know where I got the idea for these tea-bag cookies from. I'll be honest, I scrawled a doodle onto a post-it a couple of weeks ago, having seen something somewhat similar somewhere. So I take no credit for the idea.

The recipe is Nigella's cut-out cookies - such a lovely soft dough that promises not to spread when cooking. Just to be on the safe side I followed these steps on rolling and chilling perfect sugar cookies from Sweetapolita. I cut the shapes freehand, thinking about it now, I should have probably made a paper template or at least used a ruler for perfect edges - but I didn't, so all my tea-bags are slightly different shapes. And while I followed all the steps and the recipe exactly, they did spread slightly, but a sharp knife to the edges straight from the oven tidied them up.

Dipped in melted dark chocolate and finished with little tags - just add homemade card action et voila!

And yes, I know I did those handprint flowers once before, but I thought they were so darn adorable the first time!



Blue Skies (and Happy day for Mamas!)

Charlotte xo

from the giftlist - for mother's day

No, this isn't a gratuitous excuse to share this ridiculously cute pic of my kid (but look at his little smile! his little gappy teeth!) but part of the Mother's Day present for my mother in law.

See, the mil is one of those people who's windowsills and tabletops are covered in photos of her family, her four kids and eight grandkids. And I'm a bit ashamed to say that amongst them there is only one photo of little Vin, taken on my brother in law's iPhone and printed onto plain A4 paper. Between my beloved 35mm SLR still encased in my mom's garage 126 miles away and the fact that noone else shares my nostalgic romance with film these days, I just don't have any tangible photos to decorate the walls with.

So I sent the other half out with instructions to buy a digital photo frame and a memory stick with a huge capacity that I have now filled with photos of our little family. The frame has a slideshow option to flick through the hundreds of photos, and of course, can be updated at any time as the little man and our family grows.

And while I always thought that a phot frame was an obvious and unoriginal mother's day gift, I think this little present might just have convinced me otherwise.

Blue Skies,

Charlotte xo

a link list full of caffeine

First, I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone who commented, tweeted and e-mailed after seeing my guest post on Frosting for the Cause. As I have mentioned (several times) I think it is such a great project and worthwhile cause and I hope more people get involved or consider making a donation.

So while I was thinking and obsessing over coffee flavoured cupcakes, my mind wandered to other caffeinated treats:

... like these e-cards from Kate Spade (and while we're loving Ms Spade I love this thermos too)

... and this Je t-aime coffee cup wrappers from Eat Drink Chic that I fall in love with every time I see them

... I have been meaning to make tiramisu since like forever and will most definitely be getting round to it now I've seen these Tiramisu Cups from Sprinkle Bakes

... Vietnamese coffee ice-pops - you know I am obsessed with these already!

... I bought coffee filters witht he hopes of making these coffee filter pom poms spotted on Creature Comforts but mine looked nothing like those lovely white discs... so I used them to wrap beignets with instead

... and of course my Coffee Cakes for Latte Lovers featured on Frosting for the Cause

espresso print via artocrat

I had so much fun when I went out to leave some chalky notes around the streets of South London, I thought I'd do it again.

Little Vin loves getting in on the action, I call him Baby Banksy. Here he is sitting under the most beautiful blossom tree with a little reminder for people to notice the blooms as they pass.

And while I raged at the weekend at the actions of protestors smashing up my beautiful city in the name of their beliefs, I thought reminders to look for the beautiful moments were in order.

And this one, in front of my favourite bench, in my favourite spot with my favourite boy.

Today is the day! Join me for coffee (cupcakes) over at Frosting for the Cause 

guerilla acts of kindness

So I haven't been blogging much lately, but let me explain my absence friends. Firstly I spent a lot of time working on my guest post for Frosting for the Cause - with the post going live tomorrow, I'm actually a little nervous. You should definitely check it out though, if only to laugh at my terrible spelling!

Also, we finally found a new home. After weeks and months of viewing what may or may not have formerly been crack dens, weighing up leaving Crystal Palace where I feel like home for the first time in my life and the desperate need for little Vin to have his own bedroom (hello kiddo design blogs!) we finally found somewhere. And my boy has his own room to sleep in. And it's still in CP, in fact it's closer to town than we are now. So the frantic packing, decluttering and life audit process commences. It has given me lots of post ideas though, so stick around in the next week or so for some great housewarming gift ideas!

And you know, in between all the life clutter, I have been off like a crazed hippy, doing good deeds where I can.

Like these bunches of chrysanthemums and daffodils I trimmed down and rearranged in jam jars to leave on my neighbour's doorsteps. I have to say guerilla acts of kindness are a strange kind of thrill, inconspicuously scouting the perfect drop spot, the fear of being caught, wondering what you claim as your motive when you get noticed. I'm hooked on niceness.



A little sneak peak from my guest post for Frosting for the Cause this Wednesday! Hope to see you over there friends.

Blue Skies (and steaming black coffees)
Charlotte xo

Here's my entry for the Tea For Joy straw styling competition - the task to style these striped paper straws but with a Royal Wedding theme. You can check out the other entries here and the winners here.

from the kitchen - sicilian lemon cake

Wow, I just noticed I have done nothing but bake for the last week. I guess while I've been working on my Frosting for the Cause post, my mind has been pretty cake crazy. There were the chocolate dipped biscotti,  guinness cupcakes,  breakfast beignets (with more chocolate) and now Sicilian Lemon Cake.

I think it is due to the impending Spring, who keeps popping up then disappearing again, that I have been craving the sunshiney yellow of a real Sicilian lemon.

And like I mentioned before, while I was planning my Frosting for the Cause bake-off, I couldn't settle on one recipe, so I decided to make all of them to be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support. And since Macmillan are famed for their fundraising coffee mornings, I decided to go with a caffeine friendly theme.

So while you're sipping your espresso, wishing you were sat outside a street cafe in Roma, enjoy a slice of Sicily in this sunshiney drizzle cake.

Sicilian Lemon Cake:

- Pre-heat oven to 180c

- Beat together the 225g soft butter and 225g caster sugar until pale and creamy

- Add the 4 eggs, one at a time

- Sift in 225g plain flour, then add the zest of two lemons (save the juice for later)

- Mix well until combined - this is quite a thick and gloopy batter

- Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper or do what I did and butter up some mini loaf tins to make individual cakes - pour in your batter and level the top with the back of a spoon

- Bake for 45-50 mins for the large tin, 25-30 for the smaller tins - until a skewer inserted comes out clean

- Meanwhile mix up 85g caster sugar and the juice of 1-2 lemons (I used 2)

- Once your cooking time is up, remove the cake from the oven and prick all over with a skewer

- Pour over the syrupy glaze and leave to cool completeley, still in the tin

I know this isn't a flashy cake, there is no beautiful fondant work or bright colours but let me tell you, a slice with a black coffee, for breakfast, preferably eaten outside, is to die for. I made the big cake and four mini ones and they were gone before the day was over

from the kitchen - guinness glasses

I'm a little annoyed with myself that I wrote this post, then forgot to publish in time for St Patrick's Day. But to be honest, I threw together these little sweetie 'Guinness' glasses as an afterthought, so I am posting them as an afterthought too. I think they'd be quite cute as Father's Day gifts, perhaps teamed with a batch of Guinness Cupcakes?

I used liquorice sticks for the bottom and mini-marshmallows as froth - it might not be the most obvious paring, but really what does go well with liquorice? As I said, they were an afterthought, which is why they're not in proper Guinness glasses (I seriously considered nicking one from the pub though) and I really wish I'd cut the green ribbon into shamrock shapes (though judging my terrible attempt with these swizzle sticks probably best I didn't).

Anyway, apologies for the afterthought, pop back tomorrow when I'll be sharing some lemon soaked goodness to brighten up your Monday.



Blue Skies,

Charlotte xo

Beignets for the Cause

So earlier this week I mentioned that I'll be guest-posting over at Frosting for the Cause next week, if you don't know what it's all about check out the details here.

When I first thought about what to bake for my post, one cake recipe popped into mind straight away. It was the first cake of my semi obsessive baking hobby and is always my favourite. But I rejected it at first, in favour of something fancy, unexpected flavour combinations and lots of sprinkles. But I knew that my first choice was the right one. And as I was thinking about it, some other ideas popped in my head that would be perfect accompaniments. So of course, I made them all. Hence the biscotti of previous post-fame and these lovely little beignets.

I have been thinking on and off about beignets for a couple of weeks now, and fantasising. Majorly. I just couldn't think of anything better sounding than pillowy batter deep fried and rolled in powdered sugar.

I'm not sure it's entirely kosher to dip them in warm Nutella, but since my pancake brunch I have been enjoying a love affair with chocolate spread.

I used this recipe from the frenchfood pages of about.com and while some of my beignets were the size of tennis balls and hours later my house still smells like grease, I have to say my first beignet experience; warm chocolate, strong coffee, liberally sugared - was perfection.

I have a couple more posts before the big day (March 30th, make sure you join me) In the meantime, check out Frosting for the Cause, follow the project on Twitter and if you want to make a donation to Cancer Resarch UK you can do that HERE.

Blue Skies,

Charlotte xo

Help Japan by Jamie White spotted on Design Crush

no post today in support of Bloggers Day of Silence

Donate Here

from the kitchen - shamrock shake

Happy St Patricks Day!

I'll admit that while I'm sure there is some Irish in my heritage somewhere (doesn't everyone have an Irish 'quarter'?) I have spent all day wondering what it is St Patrick did until about half an hour ago, when CBeebies did a re-enactment with five year olds.

So I celebration of my one eighth Irish ancestry and my newly aquired knowledge, I bring you Shamrock Shake - why do McDonald's UK not sell this stuff?

p.s. those are marshmallows in the glass, al la Sweet Paul

p.p.s please ignore my terrible and deformed shamrock swizzler - I hope no genuine Irish people are offended with my attempt!

Blue Skies (and frothy green milkshakes)

Charlotte xo

Bicotti for the Cause

I am super excited because on March 30th I will be guest-posting over at Frosting for the Cause a great project where bakers are coming together to 'bake a difference'. Raising awareness and raising money for cancer charities (all the guest-posters have agreed to make a $25 donation to a cancer charity). Plus all the baked goodies are donated to hostels and hospitals, hopefully bringing a smile to a patient, their loved ones or the people caring for them.

There have been some amazing creations featured already like these meyer lemon beignets, these cinnabon cupcakes (from my new favourite foodie blogger), these pink camo cookies,  these strawberry cupcakes and my favourite hot chocolate cupcakes! There are so many talented bakers and so many touching stories of lives affected by this terrible disease. As you can tell, I'm pretty hooked, which is good because there are at least four months worth of bakers lined up to post, you can sign up HERE.

I had a couple of ideas for my guest-post and me being well... me, I decided to make them all (more lovely things to donate to my chosen hospice right?).  They're all based around the same theme as my final project, like these chocolate dipped almond biscotti (get the recipe here) but you'll have to wait until March 30th when my finished post goes live to see what exactly I've been whipping up in my little kitchen.

In the meantime, check out Frosting for the Cause, follow the project on Twitter, consider taking part and if you want to make a donation to Cancer Research UK you can do that HERE

Guinness Cupcakes for a St Patrick's Day Celebration

I first made these Guinness Cupcakes for father's day last year - under the impression that only dads like Guinness right? And it would appear so, because D has asked for them again and again on a monthly basis. And with it being St Patricks Day this week, I figured I might as well give in to peer pressure.

I first spotted the recipe in Nigella's 'Feast' and was a little giddy at the promise of deep and dark damp and chocolatey. Then I saw them as cupcakes on Patent and the Pantry and they were everything promised and more. I love the way the frosting cuts through the intense cakey richness and (of course) the iconic colouring.

And I loved the fact that I had half a bottle of Guinness leftover, to play around with in some kitchen experiments I'll share later in the week!

Blue Skies (and frothy white heads)
Charlotte xo

a nicer place to be part two

I had so much fun planning and carrying out my random acts of kindness the other week, I have become somewhat obsessed with small gestures to make the world a nicer place. I love that description in 'Amelie' about how she spends her time cultivating small pleasures, and the good deeds she does for the people around her.

So today little Vin and I went on a street art trip with a box of chalks and a pavement canvas.

I feel very fortunate that London is the kind of place where you find street art is celebrated, and it absolutely makes my day to find a little sketch or sticker or a giant billboard sized mural, knowing that someone has created it purely to bring joy.

I also feel very fortunate that in my life I have learned to look out for small pleasures, and can often be found photographing my food, staring at the sky or smiling out of the windows of public transport. I believe blogging helps, capturing the beauty in the every day forces you to look outside of traditional concepts of art and style and design. And being a mother, watching my son look around him with brand new eyes. Let me tell you, I never got so much pleasure from spotting a squirrel before I had Vin.

But the sad thing is other people do not look at the world the way I do. Londoners scurry, commute, head down, blackberry out, headphones on, shut out the world. I truly think some people don't realise the passing of the seasons, the landmarks they don't acknowledge and the beauty they are missing. So I thought a few chalky reminders would bring a few smiles to someone's day.



a doily bib for a baby girl

My friend Lex of Mother Porridge fame and mum to two gorgeous boys recently found out she is expecting a little lady. And while I'm pretty sure no mama wants a pink and sparkly ball of marshmallow fluff for a daughter, I also think after all the diggers, trucks and dinosaurs boy stuff, sometimes you need something a little pretty.

And while I know that a hand-stitched bib made from (white!) crochet might not be practical, I figure it's a girl's perogative right?   

doily bib inspired by this one from Rachel Denbow

a friday link list

Rainbow Cake by Domestikated

did you like the Baking Kit I made for Vinnie? You might wanna check out this awesome nightstand to play kitchen from sweet and lovely crafts

you know we love brunch in this house, like this one and this Valentines one - so you know we love these brunch recipes from Martha

totally inspired by Kate's fabulous rainbow cake we're gonna be making some rainbow cupcakes like
these this weekend

oh yes I love the sound of this Shamrock Shake but if you'd prefer a healthy version, try this Green Smoothie from One Charming Party

and while we're thinking green and lucky how about this clover cootie catcher from A Subtle Revelry


Have a great weekend folks!
Blue Skies,
Charlotte xo