Lemonade Scones

I have never made lemonade scones before. Have you? I don't think I've ever even eaten them before. Which is a pity, because they are delicious, and easy! I made them to share with a lovely friend who came over for afternoon tea yesterday - kindly bringing with her some DELICIOUS homemade peach and vanilla jam (I am still swooning! It was that delicious. Did I already say that?).

I think I need to somehow mark my scone cutters with their sizes though (and my cake tins for that matter) because I never know how wide they are, and it is a pain to have to get out the tape measure or ruler every time. Except for the times when I don't, and then I end up with scones that are too big, like yesterday's. But that didn't really matter all that much because they were so yummy!

The ones I made were based on this recipe from taste.com.au... my version was as follows:

300g self-raising flour, sifted

55g caster sugar

125ml soy milk

125ml lemonade (fizzy, not flat - you need the bubbles to make the scones rise or something)

zest of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 220C and lightly grease a baking tray or square cake tin.

Stir together the sifted flour, sugar and lemon zest. Pour in the lemonade and soy milk and mix to a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for a couple of minutes - the dough is very sticky so you'll probably need to add a little more flour. Press into a flat round about 2cm thick and cut out with a 6cm (theoretically) cutter. Place close together on the tray or tin and brush the top with a little more soy milk if desired. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your scones. Turn out and enjoy while still warm!

Herb and Yoghurt Scrub Mask

My sister would be appalled at my lack of high maintenance chickness since Pippin's birth.

Ok so I was never THAT high maintenance (so I maintain) but I do love nice skincare products, facials, massages... Seriously... Who doesn't?? They don't have to be super expensive (though I think you do get what you pay for to a certain extent)... Just nice. I make a lot of my own treatments; you can see some recipes here.

However, I'm so tired these days that I often don't feel like taking the time to wash my face before I go to bed. Also there are still occasionally days when I don't actually manage to have a shower because of running around like a maniac. I do know, however, that I always feel much, much nicer when I do take the time to wash my face twice a day and nicer still when I make myself a yummy-smelling something extra.

So, I'm going to try to treat my skin nicely more often. And I think this is my favourite mask/scrub to date.

Do you have some spare herbal tea sitting around in your cupboard? (No surprise that I have a lot!) Something flowery that includes chamomile, lavender, that sort of thing, would be best - avoid anything spicy as it may be too irritating. Grab your herbal tea. If it's loose leaf you'll need about a heaped teaspoon - grind it up finely in a mortar and pestle, or if you don't have one of those, you could put it in a small plastic bag, seal it tightly, and crush it up with a rolling pin as fine as you can. If the tea is from teabags, empty out two - you probably won't need to crush it as the pieces will be much finer.

Combine your crushed herbal tea in a small bowl with a heaped teaspoon or so of yoghurt - I used plain, but vanilla would also be delicious. You want a grainy paste of a spreadable consistency.

That's it! Now pop into the bathroom, give your face a gentle wash with warm water and then smooth on the scrub mix. Leave it on for a few minutes while you shower (or even better, take a relaxing bath), then rub gently into the skin and rinse off with warm water. You will feel so lovely!!

Lovely Sunday

My husband took Pippin off to Daddy Playgroup this morning, leaving me with a couple of hours All. To. Myself.

There were a million things I felt I should be doing, but instead I made myself a cup of Japanese sencha and ran myself a bath.

I love essential oil blends for bathing... this morning I mixed up a recipe from Judy Chapman's book Spa: chamomile, rosemary and ylang ylang blended into a small amount of milk and then poured into the bath.

I also adore homemade skincare products - so simple, effective and inexpensive. I mixed myself up the following face mask for my poor neglected skin:

1 tsp ripe avocado, mashed
1 tsp plain yoghurt
1 drop chamomile essential oil (diluted in jojoba)

How easy and delicious is that...

And then after some serious soaking time I took myself downstairs for some yoga... something my body has been totally craving for the last several days.

I feel refreshed and more ready to face another week now. What have you been doing with your Sunday?