How did you imagine your life would look when you grew up? What were your dreams and, more importantly, have you achieved them?

I’ve found that as I’ve got older, my dreams have changed. Whereas once I might have imagined myself in some high-powered job, or living in a mansion, (what is it with being a kid and wanting to live in a mansion?!), now I’m quite content pottering about watering my plants and buying cushions.

Fiancé too has pretty simple dreams. (Which is why we get along). If I had to compile a list of his top ten best things, it would go something like this:

  1. Me (natch)
  2. Somerset County Cricket Club (generally)
  3. Marcus Trescothick (specifically)
  4. Peanut butter
  5. Music
  6. Banana flavoured things (If you’re ever in Bristol, the banana gelato at Swoon is amazing)
  7. Books (especially biographies)
  8. Looking inside churches that we find when we are out for a little drive
  9. Imagining he has a pet polar bear
  10. Watching reruns of classic comedies

(I’m not sure of the order of the first three.)

He is especially happy when I manage to combine two of more of the ten. For example, I have set up a Goggle alert for ‘Marcus Trescothick’, so when any interesting Marcus related news breaks I can act interested and knowledgeable about cricket, thus combining the entire top three.

This sort of scene would get him excited – it’s a cricket pitch with a church in the background to look at:

university building Oxford church and cricket pitch

If we were sat together at the edge of this picture, watching Somerset and eating banana ice-creams while a small polar bear slept at his feet, he’d be just about in heaven. I think it could probably only be improved if he got to actually play for Somerset County Cricket Club. This really would be living the dream. View Post

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If you enjoy these chocolate and peanut butter cookies why not try my homemade bourbon biscuits?

Belle is a bit of an entrepreneurial baker. Quite often, if she’s feeling a bit short of cash, she’ll whip up a batch of cookies and go door to door around the square selling them to our neighbours. She hasn’t quite grasped the idea of the costs involved, preferring to see the ingredients in the cupboard as fair game, but I admire her spirit.

This weekend we had friends coming over, so I set Belle to work. We decided to make chocolate and peanut butter cookies, a recipe we found on the Flora website. A few people I know have started using Flora Cuisine for baking lately, and singing its praises, so we thought we’d give it a go. It’s basically runny margarine, so is ideal for kids to use in cakes, biscuits and flapjacks as it’s already nice and soft. View Post

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