Cookie Baking: Choc Chip Cookies :)

Heyy every1,

Today, I thought I would talk about one of my absolute favourite recipes!
American Choc Chip Cookies!!
This recipe is always a success, ALWAYS!
One of the many recipes by Martha Stewart and because the recipe's on the internet I thought I could post it on here too. I'll also put a link to her website on here, she does have some lovely ideas, not all have very good ratings though, just try things out that sound appetising to you and I'm sure it'll be fine! :)

website: http://www.marthastewart.com/344840/soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies

The ingredients are measured in Cups, so I'm going to post it in grams and to do this I'll use this converter, so if anyone has any other recipes they need to convert into grams to bake or cook this one is quite good:  http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/531168/cups-to-grams-converter?type=Dry+ingredients&ingredient=225g&cups=0.5&btnSub=Calculate&text=

• 288 g All-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 227 g butter ( I always do 250 g, it's worth it ;) )
• 112 g granulated sugar 
• 220 g light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 100 g milk chocolate chips (I often do 50 g dark choc and 50 g milk choc)  

Gas mark 4 180 °C 

The instructions are on the website but all you really need to do is throw it all in an electric mixer (recommended by Martha Stewart herself) , stir in the choc chips, form into small balls, place on tray and then pop them in the hot oven for 8 to 10 mins :) 

This recipe was kindly recommended by a family we know from Canada. They came one summer and we went to a fantastic village festival and when we came home we watched some episodes of Miranda while eating these exquisite Cookies :) We also put some smarties on top of the squidgy dough  before we put the two trays in the oven, but that was the only time I've done that. It's not necessary. 

Ever since then I made these Cookies for friend's birthdays and many other different occasions! I even made a batch last weekend for my boyfriend's family for it was the first time seeing them and I thought it would be something they might enjoy eating. 

I had made them the night before at round about midnight, they are nicest when freshly baked though, but I wouldn't have time to make them in the morning Anyways, they did adore them :D That worked out very nicely indeed!

Another time I brought some into school when it was my Birthday and everyone came up to me asking for the recipe and wanting more but sadly there wasn't enough for everyone to have seconds (we are a class of 31!). 

They are very sweet, I tried using less sugar but that was a disaster. I'm still thinking about making my own recipe for choc chip cookies just so I might be able to achieve the taste I'm aiming for :) 

Mini piercing adventure!

Heyy every1,

I have seen many videos about nose piercings, well piercings in general but mostly nose since I had my helix (top of ear) already pierced and wanted more of a facial one.
Anyhow, some said it hurt, some didn't, depends on your pain tolerance really however I have never heard of anyone's piercing getting caught on a towel or in my case a tissue!!

We arrived at our camping site in Italy in Coreglia Antelminelli, Tuscany and it wasn't really what had I expected. The long journey (8 hours or so) obviously had tired me out and I got quite emotional. Later I actually loved it :D so yeah I had mixed feelings :) anyway I cried and while I was blowing my poor nose my piercing came out!!
I panicked. Cried some more. Tried to put that screw in again, sadly it didn't work and we jabbed mum's golden earring in which was easier as it is straight.
I walked with a throbbing red nose to the reception to ask for the wi-fi code (gosh the technology these days) and also to ask if he (the owner) knew any piercing/tattoo stores that could help me. He had to look it up (his kids are still small) eventually he found one and I walked the very steep hill back down to our tent/house.

I called them. No answer. Left a voice message as this was an emergency and then looked up some more places on the internet. Thanks to Facebook I was able to contact the place that was recommended by the owner and found out that the piercer was coming on Thursday (this all happened on Sunday btw). So I thought ok, if I see a different place while we're exploring then I'll go in, if not I'll go to this place on Thursday. It wasn't a nice sight to see me with this huge earring in my nose but the pain was the only thing that actually got to me.

Later I found out that the piercer wasn't coming at all this month and after going to a bigger city finding 2 others closed I wasn't quite sure what to do.
The lady who does the tattoos said she'd give it a go because she's also doing a piercing course so maybe she'd be able to do it and we made an appointment.

On Wednesday we went to the little town and I was there at 3 pm sharp. We also looked at different shops and had the best ice cream ever!! Mum and Claire (my little sister) both had seconds!
So when I stepped in, the first thing that I noticed was the interior, old fashioned/classy/punk-ish. It was really nice and different from other tattoo places I've seen.
While she was sorting some things out I looked at her designs, they were very original, she did many different things, more for females in my opinion but beautiful. If she's still open for business when I'm old enough to get one, I'm going there!!!
She couldn't get the piercing in, but she gave me a smaller nose stud, also straight for a fiver. Extremely easy to get in, less secure. I woke up one morning when I was back home, excited to meet up with a special someone *wink* *wink* but only to find my piercing had disappeared once again. I stuck the first earring I could find (a gigantic pearl), ran down the stairs laughing and called for Mummy.
We went back up and she searched the floor and bed. Finally she found it with her most magnificent bionic eyes :D

Yesterday I went to my regular (well, -ish) piercer and she thankfully had no problems putting the original one back in. She even said it was extremely easy. So I have no idea what Mum and I were doing even with the help of Youtube!!

Link to the tattoo place (in Italy): http://www.cherrybloomtattoo.com

& a little picture :)

England School Trip - Monday...

heyy every1,

welcome to my next blog post about our wonderful school Trip!

Monday 11th 

Today we didn't do much however we did go to a lovely historic town called Canterbury. The first thing we did was go to the famous Cathedral in which the archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered.
There we got these telephone-looking electronic things to listen to an audio guide. With the telephone we also got a map with numbers so you know which numbers to press. It was tremendously confusing. I remember the voice saying walk up the stairs and you'll see.. and I looked around thinking "What Stairs!?". Not only did I have that very problem, almost everyone did! All the classmates I saw walking past kept asking if I knew where we were.
Sadly we didn't get to see most of the church because the guide wasn't helpful at all and we didn't understand much of what was being said because we didn't know what they were talking about, especially when your most likely to be in the wrong place.
But I most definitely would go again and book a proper tour!

After that we were allowed to go shopping for about 3 hours, which was heaven! :) There was a cute Laura Ashley shop and I bought a present for my mother and after I talked to two really kind ladies who worked there, they even gave me a free catalogue! yayy me :D

Tuesday 12th

Today was the day everybody was looking forward to. We took a train from  Eastbourne to London :D We got off at Victoria Station and then caught a tour bus that guided us through the city.

We also went on a boat and saw all the bridges and then jumped off at the London eye! The view was spectacular! Even though many people were afraid of heights only one of them was truly terrified this was because it rotated very slowly which made almost everyone feel safe. Not much I can really say except that at lunch my little group went to Pizza Express and we thought that based on the prices the pizzas would be gigantic however this was not the case. One pizza had hole in the middle and was filled with salad, we knew that it came with salad but we didn't know that this meant less pizza :(

During our day in London, I found it difficult to realize and believe I was actually there. I knew I was there but it didn't feel real, I don't know how to exactly describe how I felt but it wasn't like I was disappointed, because the city was more beautiful than I expected and I'd without a doubt go again but I wasn't very happy or excited about being there either. It was like the message didn't really arrive.
I don't know if any of this makes sense but I wanted to share this hoping that someone else has experienced this weird kind of feeling :)



Wednesday 13th

This day was more relaxed, we didn't have to walk around much which was relieving after such a long day in London. We sat in the bus for about two hours and had a short break at Sainsbury's to shop for our picnic. Our group bought sushi, salads, Cheese and Crackers but also some snacks which involved scrumptious English chocolates and walkers crisps.
We then drove on to Hever Castle, where Henry VIII's wife (well one of his wives)  Anne Boylan grew up in. The castle was indeed very beautiful however after someone else had purchased it, there was new interior which is a bit 'different' to how it would have been so basically quite glamorised. Also there was a room where they showed many types of torture weapons which I found disturbing. The Castle is gorgeous but in my opinion it wasn't worth going in. The garden however is soooo beautiful, all the bright flowers glow gracefully in the sunlight, there are statues and when you walk on, there's a balcony type deck where you have a great view over a lake.
In this wonderful garden lies two mazes one with high hedges, the other was more interesting. This one was a water maze. You step on tiles and get squirted with water not on every tile only on some. Our teachers said that we weren't allowed to scream, this was almost for us girls impossible :)
Here are some more pictures :)

Thursday 14th

Our last day. This day I was looking forward to most! Once again we hopped on a bus but this time we went to another new place, Brighton!!
And of course it's almost impossible to go to England and not experience English weather! I didn't particularly mind this but it was pouring down with rain. Because of the weather we went to the Royal Pavilion which we were going to go to anyway but instead of going to the seaside we just went shopping in a huge shopping centre.
Let's start with the Royal Pavilion. I really really enjoyed the guide through it. Again it was an audio guide which was really good but it should have been shorter. Often you just want to go further to the next room but then you don't get to hear the special bits and bobs. So you really have to come with a lot of time and patience. If you like visiting castles and historic houses this one is definitely worth going to!
It has a Chinese style to it, I suppose not everyone likes that sort of style but then again not everyone likes everything. It was different than most places you'd think Queens and Princesses would stay in. Queen Victoria apparently only went twice a year or so, this was because the layout of the rooms was and still is a bit muddled up. You don't have a good overview of the whole building. This I found is true however I also found it very amusing. It didn't have the impression that it had to be perfect just because it's meant to be a place for royalty. This feeling comforted me in a way as if The Royal Pavilion had a personality of its own.

After this inspiring walk through, we got to go shopping for a good 4 hours!
Our closest shopping centre is round about 45 mins away from our little village and only has two floors  and even there most shops are kind of boring or too expensive.
We did not have that problem here!
There were 3 floors with lovely shops, many of which you cannot get in Germany! Double Bonus!!
I managed to get everyone at home some presents.
For Claire (11 yrs) I bought a Unikitty keyring (all Lego Movie fans will get this), the horn even lights up when you touch her nose :D I gave this to her on our birthday (we share birthdays) which was only three days after I returned. She adores it (at least I hope she does).
I got Amy a T-shirt with the unicorn from "despicable me" and the smallest of the 3 girls and on it said "It's so fluffy I'm gonnna die". A girl she knows shares this insider joke with her and I hope she wears it to Uni so she can show her!
"In your dreams" is probably what you're all thinking right now :)
For mark I got a jumper, a really nice one with sights from London printed on it and I must say it suits him dearly.
For my special life givers I bought matching coasters one says "Her Ladyship" and the other "His Lordship". I thought I had to buy this as what may not seem quite surprising for those who know my mother and I, we're both Downton Abbey fans and we even tried the "Mama"and "Papa" (the way they say it, I'm well aware that in other languages this means mum and dad) nicknames instead of whatever I normally say but sadly it didn't catch on.


This is the end of my school trip. If you actually got this far :), I hope you enjoyed reading all about it. We all had a great time so it was a huge success. Many of us wanted to stay a bit longer as did the teachers and for them it must have been a quite a stressful time but I'm glad we didn't tire them too much.

Thank you for reading my blog post and I will write again very soon!