Making chicken feed of my mortgage

nattypants

Just caught up fully with your diary MWC - poor wee Miss F going blind in one eye:(

Guinness choc cupcakes do sound rather marvellous though

muddywhitechicken

nattypants wrote: »

Just caught up fully with your diary MWC - poor wee Miss F going blind in one eye:(

Guinness choc cupcakes do sound rather marvellous though

Thanks NP

Rather marvellous is a bit of an understatement for the cupcakes :rotfl:

Leftover Scotch broth for dinner followed by crumble (over-ripe pear, plum + apple from the fruit bowl and a handful of rhubarb + blackberries from the freezer) & custard. I also added half a packet of crushed gingernuts and a teaspoon of ground ginger to the crumble topping :drool::drool::drool:

muddywhitechicken

If anyone's interested here is the recipe for the chocolate & Guinness cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing (aka Hope & Glory Happy Cakes from Essential Magazine's jubilee edition earlier this year)

Preheat the oven Gas Mark 5/190C
Put 200g caster sugar + 40g cocoa in a large bowl
Melt 100g unsalted butter + 100mL Guinness over a gentle heat then whisk into sugar and cocoa
Beat in 1 medium free-range egg followed by 4 tbsp sour cream + 1 tsp vanilla extract
Stir in 150g plain flour
Stir in 3/4 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Divide between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 25 minutes until springy to the touch
Leave to cool

For the icing, whisk 125g softened butter, 3 tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 200g of icing sugar together. Add another 200g of icing sugar and whisk until fluffy. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe onto the cakes (like a Mr Whippy ice-cream). Top with 1/2 a mini Flake

I wouldn't normally buy (or even look at) Essentials magazine but I was flicking through it whilst in a supermarket queue and came across this recipe - I'm so glad that I did as these cakes are amazing... and only 424 calories each... :rotfl:

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi will definitely try your recipe. Love your diary and love hearing about the chickens. I had 4 Peggy,Penny, Bunty and Babs. Unfortunately we moved and had a small garden so they went to a new home. I do miss them they have their own little personalities. Don't miss cleaning them out though. My husband wanted to sort the garden out and not have them digging and eating all the greenery.

muddywhitechicken

Mrs_Money_Penny wrote: »

Hi will definitely try your recipe. Love your diary and love hearing about the chickens. I had 4 Peggy,Penny, Bunty and Babs. Unfortunately we moved and had a small garden so they went to a new home. I do miss them they have their own little personalities. Don't miss cleaning them out though. My husband wanted to sort the garden out and not have them digging and eating all the greenery.

That must have been so difficult Mrs MP - I can't imagine a life without chickens now.

One of my original girls was called Bunty. We got them 2 days after moving here and they had free range of the garden. The garden had been neglected by the previous owner and was on the to-do list but 3 chickens completely trashed it :rotfl:I decided to reclaim the garden so we built a large walk-in run and fenced off the bottom of the garden for them before having turf laid and planting lots of new plants. I'm a bit of a soft touch so I still let them into "my garden" occasionally, mainly in the winter when they can't do too much damage

moneycurious

Poor Miss F , sounds like she is getting worse.
cant wait to try the recipe!!! x

muddywhitechicken

moneycurious wrote: »

Poor Miss F , sounds like she is getting worse.

I'm less worried about her than I was a couple of weeks ago - fingers crossed I'm right - she seems happy enough at the moment

muddywhitechicken

A quick update as I need to pack for my trip and iron something to wear tomorrow - I'm being picked up in 8 hours time :eek::eek::eek: I should then sleep the whole way to the US of A (I'm packing my blank Christmas cards in my hand luggage so I can something useful if I don't sleep!)

1 egg from Miss B

Gnocchi with pesto, chargrilled artichoke, peas & rocket for dinner

muddywhitechicken

Packed - tick
Facial - tick

Soooo my performance review went well after a slightly worrying start...

Line Manager: "What grade are you?"
Me: "I don't know, the bottom one? I've been downgraded twice since being interviewed for the job 3 years ago." (Harmonisation with US, not me being carp )
LM: "I don't think so." Tap, tap, tap on laptop... "sh!te, you're on the lowest grade!" :rotfl:
Me: "Anywhere else I'd be happy to be at the bottom as there are more opportunities to climb up the career ladder but there's no chance of promotion here."
LM: "Hmmm... I see that you have rated yourself as outstanding in some areas."
Me: "Yes but I'm sure I'll end up with an overall rating of meets expectations."

He didn't disagree with anything I wrote or my overall rating of exceeds expections so hopefully that's what I'll get once it has been reviewed by senior management in the US. He also said that he thought I should be several grades higher. If I do get regraded I probably wouldn't get a pay rise as I'm quite well paid already but it could result in better benefits. And I had really lovely feedback from one of my colleagues

muddywhitechicken

Hello from Washington DC :wave:

Just for the record yesterday was a NSD. I've spent £3.95 of my own money on a magazine today, all other spends are on the company CC (including internet access )

I don't know whether to have another nap or get some fresh air... I think I'll go for a walk and then I really must do some preparation for my presentation tomorrow...