Making three ingredient scones

I am rather partial to a scone. Whether it’s plain, fruit or cheese. With afternoon tea, or with soup (the cheese ones obviously). If you’re a cream then jam, or a jam then cream kind of person, I don’t mind.

I read a recipe recently, in the Sunday papers, about a three ingredient cookbook. It clearly stuck with me - one of the recipes was for scones - and I developed a scone craving. So while MOH cut the grass I gave it a go.

Can three ingredient scones, really work? The answer is kind of. Probably not for scone aficionados, but I think they’d be good for a scone craving, a bit of a science lesson or if you ever had the need for impromptu scones.

3 INGREDIENTS: LEMONADE, DOUBLE CREAM AND SELF-RAISING FLOUR

Yes, that’s right lemonade and cream and flour. And it works, weirdly. It fizzes too, hence the science lesson comment before. The recipe called for the flour to be sifted. Usually I wouldn’t bother, but given it was already a cheat recipe, I did. And quickly remembered why I usually don’t.

I do bake, but with more of a rustic style. Usually I can manage scones though. This time the mixture was quite claggy and my cutter was struggling, so they weren’t all quite as scone-like as perhaps they should be.

They taste ok though, with not unexpectedly, a hint of lemon.

Some looked like scones (see above), but others just looked as if they had a comb-over.

They taste like scones though. And one added to our lunch, means there’s less chance I’ll be hunting down some chocolate.

What do you think? Would you try them?

Add your personality with Identity Papers

It’s another archive post today, this time from the 2017 Grand Designs Live show at Excel. It’s crazy, I remember this wallpaper like it was yesterday, and so I was pleased to see that the company, Identity Papers, were still in business.

It’s another one from the Design Arcade, which gives people two or three metres by one metre to display their wares, and share their ideas.

This wordsearch paper was brilliant. Without the white picture frame the random letters wouldn’t have made any sense at all as you wandered by.

Digital wallpaper printing makes it all possible, and it’s completely customisable. At the time, and again now, I thought this would be a fun approach for a downstairs loo, or as an alternative to a blackboard wall in a kitchen, or playroom.

Speaking to the people on the stand at the show, yes it made that much of a mark on me, I remember them saying that it all started with the words. And I can see why.

The wood effect wallpaper on the adjacent wall and on the lampshade are also wallpaper. The woodgrain geometric shapes can be mixed and matched, I think they’re a much more subtle approach, but for me the real star is the word search paper.

The other style that I was keen on was the photo grid wallpaper, which again is entirely customisable and would make a really special memory wall. The wallpaper books below show what a vibrant option this could be.

You can tell I’m a fan, but what do you think?

Would you use customised and very personal wallpaper in your home?

I think the challenge would be, what words to include, what would the theme be, and how much checking you’d need to do to make sure no unintentional rude words crept in by mistake. That could be embarrassing!

The outside loo

It’s been a bit quiet here this week, which is reflecting real life right now but also because I haven’t known quite what to share. I’ve been editing and sorting photos, and reminding myself that I still have my 2016 photo yearbook to complete. But that’s also led to the rediscovery of these photos, and it’s not quite the outside loo you’d expect.

This outside loo is at the National Trust’s Killerton, and is really more of a cabin. It’s a godsend too when you’re part way round the garden, for me, it was handy following the wasp sting and somewhere to try and remove the smell of vinegar.

I wasn’t quite expecting this though. It was rustic, but stylishly so with plenty of modern touches.

The wall tiles, the floor tiles - though I think the grout was a bit overly rustic for me - and as a fan of maps, I thought that was a great touch on the back wall.

The lights had that contemporary feel too, and looking up it was very ‘au naturel’.

So a shed, or cabin, with style. And an outdoor loo with a difference, that’s for sure.