Baking adventures

Last week I decided I'd try a recipe from my breadmaker book that I've been meaning to try for ages... Anchoy and Sun Dried Tomato Loaf.  I didn't have any anchovies but I did have a tin of olives stuffed with anchovies just asking to be used up so I went with those instead.  :o)  The olives went in the dough mix but the tomatoes had to be chopped and put in the little compartment thingie in the bread maker to be dropped into the mix at a later point in the process.  All was going well until, after the tomatoes had dropped in, I could smell burning and upon investigation I discovered that goodly portion of the tomatoes had missed the pan and had settled on the element happily smoking themselves!  In order to divert a crisis I whipped the bread pan out quickly removed the offending tomatoes and shoved the bread back in to take it's chance!  The resulting loaf didn't look super promising with it's crater top...

...but happily inside all was fine and dandy:

It was a pleasant loaf, not overtly tomatoey or olivey or anchovy ish.  :o)

Other baking adventures included a birthday cake for my husband which my daughter and I had a great laugh decorating late one evening after rehearsal!  She chose a hedgehog (my husband is into wildlife) and here is our finished creation...

Her eyes are currants and her nose and mouth are sculpted from dried prumes!  Lol  The baby hedgehog minus chocolate buttons was mine since I don't eat chocolate.  :oD  It won't win any prizes for professional cake making but it was great fun to do and much appreciated by the birthday boy.  :o)

Use It Up Challenge January Review

A little behind here (well, a vast one but that's another matter!  Lol) but catching up on my January of using stuff up.  :o)

In the last week of January my total grocery shop was £10.36 which comprised:

• milk  £3.48
• cheese  £4.38
• bread flour  60p
• margarine  £1.90

I also have to add to that a box of organic veg as I forgot to cancel my order!  I usually have a box every other week but hadn't had any for a good while and then had a Swiss cheese moment at the eleventh hour of the challenge!  This added £15.95 to my weekly food bill but I confess it has been fabulous to have all the fresh veg.  :o)

So, my total spend for the whole of January has been £58.66.  On my usual budget I would have spent £240 so I am pretty pleased with that and, even better, I still have looooooooads of stuff yet to use up.  :oD  My daughter, bless her, has valiantly struggled along without some of her most favourite things to eat during January and my husband has been uncomplaining of some of the odd meals he's been dished up!  Having got to the end of January I will be relaxing my grip slightly just to keep the family home harmonious!  I will still be working hard to keep my spending as low as possible though and I will carefully consider any requests for inclusions on the weekly shopping list but they may have to state their case before an item is approved!  Lol