Maz's One Stop Christmas Shop part 1

So, as some of you know, I have been busy beavering away making things like a woman demented, and now find myself in the happy situation of having lots of lovely things to sell at just the time of year when lovely people WANT to buy lovely things for their equally lovely friends and family (plus for some ghastly people who they really DON'T want to buy for, but feel they really have to).

This is where I enter, stage left.

All the items for sale below are made by me.  Any foody things have been grown in my garden wherever possible, and all grown without recourse to any nasty things like weedkiller etc (mostly because I can't work out how to use it without potentially devastating effect on the froggy population - see blog on frog sex above).  The craft stuff is pretty much all one-offs - I have an inCREDibly low boredom threshold, to be honest, so I tend not to make the same thing twice.  That said, if you absolutely love something which I've already sold, I can make you something which is, at the very least, VERY similar.  Fair enough?

I'll also do anything (within reason) (stop it!) to order.  So if you have a niece who loves fishing and DIY, I will happily make her a bracelet, necklace or earrings consisting entirely of fish and hammers.  I'm not snobby like that.

iPad, iPod and phone covers are also entirely personaliseable (spellcheck doesn't like that word.  I don't blame it - I don't like it either.  Going to change that sentence, hang on... *thinks*).  I am also happy to custom-make iPad, iPod and phone covers to your requirements (much better!).  Kindle covers, too.  Or little tiny bags just big enough to hold your phone and your door keys while you walk the dog.  Whatever.  Seriously.  Bring me your requirements, and I will bring you a product!

So, grab a cup of tea / glass of wine / large gin (time of day, degree of dipsomania and personal preference depending), and come shopping with me!

Jewellery first!

Green frosted glass - £8.50

Pink frosted glass - £8.50

Iridescent glass, silvered on one side (see below) with silver star drops - £10.00

(turned to show silvering)

Turquoise cubes - I know they look purple, but they're not! - £8.50

Again, turquoise cubes, not purple as they appear in the photo, with silver star drops - £10.00

Crystal clear glass with freshwater pearl drops - £12.00

£10.00 (also available in burgundy)

Mermaid and Dolphin with turquoise and blue rocailles - £10.00

Terrarium - a mini garden around your neck!  Self sustaining.  Fang shaped £12.00

Terrarium - a mini garden around your neck!  Self sustaining.  Pointed Teardrop £12.00

Other shapes are available, but haven't been photographed yet!  Watch this space, or spaces nearby.

Passport and flip-flops with turquoise rocailles - have a nice holiday! £13.95

Silver stars - £6.00

Crystal clear glass with flying hearts - £10.00

Gorgeous matte gold polymer beads on blue waxed linen thread with mother of pearl button - £7.95

Articulated binoculars and dolphin with iridescent rocailles and mother of pearl bead - £14.95

Warm green glass cubes with green rocailles and hearts - £10.00

White waxed cord with mother of pearl beads and gorgeous matte gold polymer bead - £3.00

Green waxed cord with gorgeous matte gold polymer bead and natural green shell - £3.00

Pink waxed cord with dark and moss green handmade frosted glass beads - £2.50

Baby Boy charm bracelet with stars, feet, pram, heart, nappy pin on blue waxed linen cord - £7.95

(also available in pink for baby girl.  NB - these are intended for mummies - not safe for under 3s)

Gorgeous matte gold polymer beads on forest green waxed linen cord with golden mother-of-pearl button

Green waxed cord with green glass beads and amber (the colour, not the stone!) crystal - £3.00

Blue waxed cord with "Delft" bead - £2.50

Baby Girl charm bracelet with baby feet, hearts, stars, buggy, nappy pin etc - £7.95

(also available in blue for baby boys - NB: these are intended for mummies - not safe for under 3s)

Celestial charm bracelet with handmade frosted glass beads, semi-precious stones and mother of pearl beads, heart and star charms, large blue mother of pearl button all on blue waxed linen cord - £8.95

Gardener's bracelet.

Forest green waxed cord with gardening charms, semi precious stones and glorious purple mother of pearl button - £8.95

(detail pictures below - yes, I do particularly love this one, so maybe snap it up quick if you want it, before I do!)

Gardener's bracelet, secateur and snail detail

Gardener's bracelet, trowel detail

Holiday bracelet with flip-flops, seahorse, sunglasses, semi precious fluorite beads, on blue waxed linen cord - £8.95

PHONE BLING!  These plug into the headphone socket of your phone, adding instant stylish bling to the plainest phone, and protecting your headphone socket from getting filled with pocket lint.  Genius.  And a total bargain.  Add one to your list, no?

Rocailles & bugles in golds and greens, mother of pearl beads and clear blue handmade glass bead finials - £4.00

Sequins, rocailles and handmade glass - multi-coloured - £3.00

Dark purple/green iridescent beads - three strands - £4.00

Sequins, rocailles and handmade glass - blues & purples - £3.00

Sequins, rocailles and handmade glass - multi-coloured - £3.00

Sequins, rocailles and handmade glass - blues & greens - £3.00

Single strand bling - mother of pearl bead with moonstone drop - classy! - £4.00

Sequins, rocailles and handmade glass - greens, pinks & purples - £3.00

Sequins, rocailles and handmade glass - greens & blues with frosted finials - £3.00

Bottle necklaces - more to follow.

Tiny, tiny shells in a tiny, tiny bottle on a waxed linen cord. 

Ideal for that surfy, beachy, relaxed feel.

£12.00

Needle-felted bird brooch in pure merino wool - £5.00

Needle-felted heart brooch in pure merino wool - £4.00

Needle-felted planet brooch in pure merino wool with embellishments - £5.00

Winged heart, needle-felted in pure merino wool with sequin and bead embellishments.

Looks bloody PROPER on a denim jacket.  Snap it up because I'm seriously considering giving it to myself for Christmas and I will not be making another one!  £7.50

Hot air balloon miniature picture brooch in pure merino wool - £5.00

Frosted glass beads with Tibetan silver spacers - £9.95

Dark green/purple iridescent beads with Tibetan silver spacers - £9.95

Dark green/purple iridescent beads with silver spacers - 7.95

I love you postcard and Love/Heart charm on waxed linen cord - £11.95

Dream necklace with palm-tree charm on waxed linen cord - £11.95

Happiness necklace, with heart charm on waxed linen cord - £11.95

Matte glass iridescent beads with silver spacers - £7.95

Pincushion in grey felt with "PINS" embroidered in iridescent thread wot shows up rubbish in photographs! - £6.50

Detail of the above.  Just to show it really IS hard to get a decent photo

Heart brooch, needle-felted in pure merino wool on swivel-set hat-pin - £5.00

Body Scrub

Salt scrub for hands and body made of pure extra virgin olive oil, gently cold-infused with home-grown rosemary.  Ingredients of such high quality you could actually eat it - if it wasn't so gitting salty.  I mean, yuck!  But take a spoonful (using the hand carved coca-wood spoon which is very pleasingly smooth and tactile) and rub it into your hands and/or body, rinse off and pat dry to leave your skin silky soft and supple.  And very clean.  Even if you've been gardening.  £7.50 for a tall jar.

Pennington's Fine Preserves - the edibles!

No preservatives in these preserves, other than British sugar.  All other ingredients, wherever possible and unless otherwise specified, grown in my garden, veg patch or greenhouse.  Just fruit and sugar with herbs and spices.  Simply delicious.

A small selection of the very apples used in the preserves.

Small jars - £3.00

Tall jars - £5.00

The flavours:

Mint Jelly - tall & small - outrageous with roast lamb, in lamb sandwiches, or add a spoonful to your gravy.

Chili Jelly - tall - a delight with cheese or in chicken sandwiches, or a lovely surprise on toast.

Blackberry & Apple Compote - tall - great on toast, in porridge or rice pudding, or mix with apples and top with crumble for instant bramble crumble.

Blackberry & Apple Jelly - small - keep it simple, slap it on your toast.  Or in your rice pud.  Or - stop me now.

Spiced Jelly - small - delicious Christmassy jelly with cinnamon, ginger, allspice and the barest hint of cloves.  I didn't, I must confess, grow the spices.

Sage & Apple Jelly - small - VERY grown up in a sausage sandwich, or with pork of any description.  Really adds some oomph to your gravy with roast pork.

Apple & Ginger Jelly (ginger not grown by me) - small - I could eat this all day.  Mainly on toast.  

Rosemary & Red Wine Vinegar Jelly - small - another cracking one to serve with roast lamb.  Either on the side, in your sandwiches the next day, or liberally spooned into your gravy.  And I didn't, I'm afraid, make the vinegar.  Something to think about, though, if I can ever spare the wine...

Crabapple Jelly - small - Crabapples locally sourced (thank you, Rachel)

Oh, and cordials in lovely tall bottles - photos to follow - £3.00 each

Lavender - great on ice-cream or in cocktails

Mint - likewise

Blackberry & Apple

Rhubarb & Apple

Rosehip - seriously FABULOUS source of vitamin C

Spiced Elderberry - delicious as a hot drink and soothing for sore throats

More things will follow in the next couple of days.  I just need to photograph them!  There will be hats, loads of necklaces, baby shoes, the much-mentioned and henceforth unseen iPad sleeves and phone covers... loads more to come.  But if you've seen something and you think you'd like it, please let me know sooner rather than later.  As I say, there's pretty much only one of anything, so if you wait until the rest of the available crafty things appear here, someone else may snap it up in the meantime.

email me on maz.pennington@gmail.com.

Payment, you say?!  Ah, yes!  Well, cash or cheque if you're close by, or PayPal if you're not.

Postage will entirely vary.  I just couldn't charge as much to post a bracelet as to post 40 jars of jam, so I'll have to weigh your orders and let you know, but I can assure you that I will not be taking the Michael on the postage.  We will just have to trust Her Majesty's Most Royal of Males - er - Mails - not to overcharge us, me old love pops.

Hope you've enjoyed shopping and you'll come back in the next couple of days for another squizz!

Dare to bake bread

I know, I know.  Baking bread is either something you do, or you don't.  But maybe it's something you'd like to do, but you don't think you have the time, or the skill?

Come here - closer - are you listening?  I'm going to tell you a secret.  Ready?  Baking bread is easy.

Here's another one:  It doesn't take very long.

Especially if you do this recipe coming up.  It's for a basic focaccia.  I have used spelt flour, as it's extremely easily digestible by everyone.  I am gluten intolerant, but I can still just about get away with eating this.  Spelt, in case you didn't know, is wheat in it's ancient, non-effed-about-with form.  Whatever anyone says, there isn't a wheat which hasn't been genetically modified, because farmers have always, of course and justifiably so, made hybrids of this wheat with that grass to make longer stems for easier harvesting, or shorter, stouter stems for strength in windy areas etc etc and so forth.  Hence modifying its genetics.  Anyway - I digress.

So - this is done with spelt flour, but you can just as easily substitute with strong white bread flour, if you don't have issues with wheat.

You will require...

For the dough:
500g Spelt Flour or Strong White Bread Flour
Half a teaspoon of salt
A teaspoon of dried yeast
Two teaspooons of sugar
300ml warm water
One tablespoon of olive oil

For garnishing:
Olive oil
Sea salt
Rosemary

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar.  Add the warm water and, using a table knife, mix together.

Oil your hands and bring the dough together to form a ball, wiping it around the edges of the bowl to gather up any loose flour.  Once all of the flour is mopped up into the dough, which should still be quite "craggy" at this stage, add the tablespoon of olive oil and squeeze and squelch the dough until all of the oil is absorbed.  There is no doubt a more technical term for the above.  Nerts.

Sprinkle some flour onto your (clean) work surface or board.  Now over to Number 1 Daughter (she's 9 - if she can do it, so can you):

As she says - stretch it out, fold it back, push it down, turn it through 90 degrees.  Repeat until the dough is silky smooth.

Oil your bowl to let the dough rise without sticking and return said dough to bowl.

Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warmish place until doubled in size.  This, depending on the dough, time of year, blah blah blah, may take an hour or two.  You can leave it in the fridge to rise overnight, if you really need to, but I feel kind of sorry for the dough, all cold in the fridge.  I am aware that this is not logical.

So that bit may seem like it's taking time.  And it is.  But you can go and do something else while it's doing it.  You can go to the cinema, go out for a meal, read the cat the riot act for getting the clean laundry all furry again, or go and wallow in the bath with a nice cold glass of white wine.  Good, eh?

Once the dough is twice the size, or thereabouts (don't get hung up on this - it won't matter if it's three times the size.  Spelt dough tends to rise like crazy), help it out of the bowl and on to a floured surface, and knock it back.

Aha!  Technical term alert!

That just means punch the air out of it.  Easy.  Just punch it or press down with your fingers until it is pretty flat.  Again, I usually feel a bit sorry for the dough at this point.

Now grab a roasting pan or, preferably, a shallow stoneware dish, oil it liberally with olive oil and place the dough into it.  Persuade, through the medium of stretching it with your fingers, the dough to cover the whole base of the dish.  Now prod down, using fingers (or if you have pretty, manicured nails the likes of which I dream of possessing, use a porridge stick or the end of a wooden spoon) to create a series of hollows.

Drizzle the surface, again liberally, with good olive oil, sprinkle with oodles of sea salt and dot with frequent tufts of rosemary.

Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for half an hour, while you heat the oven to 250c.

Bake in the oven for ten minutes at 250, then turn down to 200 for a further ten minutes.

Remove from the oven and eat while still warm, dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

My lot ate this with indecent haste.  I had to remove them bodily from the last small square in order to save some for dinner.  Mind you, they were right - though still delicious a couple of hours later, it was better hot, straight from the oven.  Which just goes to show, it's definitely one of those things which is worth making yourself, rather than buying it - even from the fabbiest deli or the most wholesome farmer's market.

Give it a go - baking makes you feel the BUSINESS!

Divine Chocolate

One of the very nice things about writing a blog is that sometimes it gives you the chance to share information about wonderful things with people who you don't see every day, and whom you would otherwise forget to tell.  This is just one such time.

I am very fortunate indeed that a very good friend of mine had the very good sense to start a chocolate company.  I know, right?!  Sounds pretty perfect - and then it gets better.

It's not just chocolate, it's extremely good chocolate - and you can trust my judgement on this.  I grew up in Belgium, remember?

THEN, on top of that, it's not just extremely good chocolate - wait for it... - it's extremely good FOR you!  Yes, healthy chocolate.  Seriously.  And it tastes divine.  AND - you get to make it yourself!  So you get a chocolatey-delicious smelling kitchen, you control what you put in, and you get to feel all sexy and Juliette-Binoche-like while you're doing it.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Oh, hang on - it does.  It's 100% ethically sourced, so it tastes good, it's good for you, and you can feel good about buying it.  *Sigh of happiness*.

Here's a link to the website - I've linked you straight into the healthy bit, here - just take a look at what it can do for you:  Choc Chick Raw Chocolate Benefits

And here's another link, because there are more benefits:  More Benefits

Oh, and while we're at it:  Antioxidants in Raw Cacao

The reason, dear readers, for which you have to make the stuff yourself is that it is so pure and simple, containing no preserving agents and not containing oodles of sugar to act as a preservative.  It has, once made, a very short shelf-life.  The components, however, have very long shelf lives.  Therefore the best way to get it out there and into peoples' bodies is by selling it in kit form.  Tadaaaa!  Enter Choc Chick!

I've been aware of Choc Chick's products, of course, since the company started.  But Galia (founder of the company and the best friend a gal could have) has just brought out a new kit aimed at children.  This is the Choc Chicos kit, and, being Fairy Godmother to my daughters, she sent us a kit through to try.

Here it is:

The kit arrived on Saturday morning, and as you can imagine, the girls jumped up and down.  A lot.  Usually, when we make "Galia's chocolate", as it is known in this house, we make it fearsomely strong and add things like cardamon, sea salt or chilli.  Oh, or oodles of hot, fresh ginger.  And hardly any sweetening agent.  It's not THAT kid friendly, that way...  Yes, I know.  What a cruel mother I am.

So when the littles heard they were going to be able to make some chocolate themselves, and actually get to eat it - well, you can picture the scene.

Obviously, as I'm frequently out in the evenings, teaching Zumba, doing panto rehearsals, flogging kitchenware or whatever, and the girls are frequently at school during the day, it is easy to let the days fly by and find that planned activities are endlessly postponed.  Character-building though this may be for growing minds (get used to disappointment, kid!), it's probably not that much of a good thing, taken in bulk.  So I promised, rather rashly, that we would make the chocolate before the weekend was out.

Sunday evening came.  We had finished our Sunday roast.  Homework was done, pyjamas were on and His Royal Handsomeness mentioned that he might take His Royal Hairiness out for his evening constitutional.  All was relaxed and sliding nicely towards a spot of Strictly Results on the sofa when a little voice said:

"Mummy, we haven't made the chocolate yet."

The nascent expletive was quickly swallowed, as I did swift parenty calculations:  Promise broken multiplied by disappointment equals death of hope in small children; however, previously tidy kitchen plus chocolatey children equals non-relaxed evening for mummies; anticipated bed-time minus duration of Strictly Results show minus time spent chocolate making equals at least forty minutes ago and time-machine is out of action....  But ultimately promise kept plus sense of achievement from making something delicious equals happy children was the equation which won out.

Out came a saucepan and a bowl, a whisk and a measuring spoon, and our chocolate moulds.  We do have special ones, but ice-cube trays will do just as well, or a shallow dish - anything you have to hand.

Hot water into the saucepan, saucepan on to low heat.  Bowl into saucepan so that its base doesn't touch the water.

While I did this, I tasked the children with opening the box and reading the instructions, and from here on in, they did it themselves:

First in is the raw cacao butter.  It's a pre-weighed amount, so it just all goes in.

It smells delicious - it doesn't taste nice, though!

Straight into the bowl with it.  This is the only bit requiring a bit of patience.  Move it around a bit, and watch it melt.

Next in is the raw cacao.  It's measured in tablespoons, so it's easy for the children to do themselves.  

Looks wonderful - doesn't taste fabulous if you dip your finger in (well, I like it, but as previously explained, I am fairly hard-core in the unsweetened chocolate stakes)

Bit of stirring - we used a mini whisk because it works well - but we didn't whisk it as such:

Time to sweeten it - in with the Sweet Freedom.  This is a fruit based sweetener with such a low GL that it's suitable for most diabetics.  It's easily processed by the body, so it's a far better for children than normal sugar. 

Somewhere along the way here, chocolate alchemy has taken place, and two things which are respectively tasteless and not all that tasty on their own combine with the Sweet Freedom and just become sublime.

At this point, you can add a bit of whatever you like, or leave it as it is.  Vanilla extract is great, as it cons the tastebuds into thinking things are sweeter than they are, so you don't need so much of whatever you're using to sweeten a dish.  Cinnamon does the same thing.  Peppermint extract would be good, or orange zest - whatever you fancy, really.  Nuts, raisins - everyone's a fruit and nutcase.  Rice crispies...  The only limit is your, or their, imagination.

I really wanted the girls to do this whole thing from start to finish, and I found that a really good way to transfer the chocolate from the bain marie to the moulds was using those syringes that come with children's Nurofen.  Delivers the perfect dose for our mould size, too!

We left them on the side to set for five minutes, then put them in the fridge so they'd set a bit quicker.

Now, how long would you think it would take to make raw chocolates, from scratch, on a school night, with two children?  I bet you'd think longer than half an hour?  Ladies and gentlemen, it can be done, from box to fridge, including the 5 minutes setting on the side, in TWENTY MINUTES!  

From box to mouth, an hour.

And I'm sorry I don't have any photos of how the chocolate looked when we turned it out.  From mould to mouth, it turns out, is under a second, and we failed to put a chocolate down for long enough to photograph it.  But I can assure you that they are glossy and gorgeous, and when you break them you get that oh-so-satisfying SNAP of really good quality chocolate.

It is rather satisfying that, although the instruction in the kit use the full amount of cacao butter, you are left with a nice quantity of raw cacao to play with.  Also included in the kit are three cocoa beans.  I'd never seen a cocoa bean - I don't think most people have.  Anxious to waste neither the cacao nor the beans, I set my brain to thinking.  The result - a very decadent (and not dairy-free) raw chocolate ice cream with nibs of crushed cocoa bean.  Lordy - I can't tell you how good...

Is this a good time to announce to you that I have just been taken on as Choc Chick's new, official recipe writer?  So you can look forward to more raw chocolate recipes to follow.

Here's the technical bit:  Choc Chicos kits cost £9.95 + P&P, and they will P&P worldwide.  I think it would be a strange child indeed who was not delighted to find a Choc Chicos kit under the tree this Christmas, or just as a birthday present any time.  So much better than those kits where you just melt down a bar of Cadbury's and make it into gold coins, no?  A nice little additional nugget of information is that Galia's daughter, Ella (aged 12), was in the room while Galia was discussing the trip to Ecuador which inspired the new kit.  Galia was explaining the fabulous colours of the cocoa beans on the tree, the humming birds and other animals that she had seen.  Ella sat down and drew these things.  They now decorate the packaging of the Chicos kit.  

For the adults out there, the non-kiddie-packaged kits range from the Starter Pack at £12.95 through Master, Standard, Party and right on up to Super at £54.95 - with which, my lovelies, you can make a whole heap of chocolate.

You can also buy the ingredients singly, and a small selection of moulds.

Here's the shop link: Choc Shop

So, look, guys.  I can't eulogise enough about the quality of this chocolate.  It is really, REALLY good.    It is definitely chocolate all grown up and out there in the world, kicking some butt.  It is also, however, utterly delicious to children.  It's dairy free - my two are used to milk chocolate (yes, we keep the good stuff for ourselves - again, naughty parents), but they absolutely loved this.  They couldn't believe I hadn't sneaked some extra ingredient or flavouring in there, because, unlike 'normal' chocolate which most of us are used to, this has a distinct and wonderful, pure chocolate flavour and a clean, almost fruity, taste.  You get an intense chocolate hit from a small square, so you don't need to eat stacks to satisfy a passing craving.  You can also feel good about bribing the kids with chocolate in the morning to get them to get up, have breakfast and get dressed for school without moaning.

Remember.  All of the ingredients are raw and unprocessed, which is why Choc Chick chocolate is so very good for you (if you went to the link above, you will already know this, but it bears reiterating, or just iterating, if you haven't been and had a look yet).  

Chocolate companies in general have been touting the new information regarding chocolate being good for you, for a while, now.  What you need to know is that you don't get the same level of anti-oxidants and flavenols even from very good dark chocolate as you do from raw chocolate.  The processing kills the goodies.  You would have to eat so much of it to get the benefits that the benefits would be outweighed by the unhealthy stuff.  But that's not the case with raw chocolate.  It's better for you, and it tastes better.  It's just so win/win it's beyond a joke.

Oh damn and hell.  I am going to have to dig out the kit and make some more, right now.