Big Blogger Party Outfit

Big Blogger Party Outfit by stephanie-mamo featuring a black off shoulder dress

Black off shoulder dress
$10 - missguided.co.uk

Paul Frank monkey purse
$8.09 - bankfashion.co.uk

Studded belt
bluebanana.com

Growing Larger!

Sorry to say this Blogger, but you have been outgrown!  This website has moved to 

www.missmamosworld.com

You can find my antics there from now on, if you had this address bookmarked,
you might want to change that!

Coffee, Walnut and Maple Loaf Cake

I posted a picture of a slice of cake and a brew last week on Facebook which seemed to get a few people talking and I promised I would share the recipe with everyone so, here it is...

Making it's debut on the internet is my favourite afternoon tea cake.  It's gone down so well with the whole family, and all our friends that everyone has been wanting more.

You will need

CAKE

200 g of sugar
200 g of butter
200 g of self raising flour

4 x free range eggs
2 tablespoons of coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water
1 x handful of chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons of maple syrup

TOPPING

One handful of chopped walnuts

4 tablespoons of maple syrup

METHOD

Grease a loaf tin and preheat the oven to gas mark 5

Mix together the topping ingredients in a small bowl and pour into the bottom of the loaf tin

Beat the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy
Beat in the eggs and sift in the flour.

Fold the mixture gently until the flour has been incorporated.

Add the dissolved coffee chopped walnuts and maple syrup.

Are the mixture evenly into the loaf tin on over the walnut and maple syrup topping.

Bake the cake for 25 to 35 minutes.
Test the cake with a skewer after 25 minutes.
Once the skewer comes out of the cake clean it is cooked correctly.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for around 30 minutes.
Then remove from the tin, remember this cake already has a topping so turn it out upside down!
Continue to cool on a wire rack.
Serve with a lovely cup of coffee or a cold frappe.

Jammy Git Sponge

It's no secret that I love good jam.  I like it on toast, on bread, on scones and in tarts.  My favourite jam of all time is the Tesco finest Hedgerow conserve.  It's a mixture of all my favourite fruits. Apples, blackcurrants, blackberries and raspberries. It's a truly delicious. I have been meaning to bake with it for quite some time.  I thought that would be no better way to celebrate this jam than by putting it in a cake.  I tried several methods. A plain Victoria sponge with the jam as the filling, jam tarts, a jam and cornflake cake...none of them were doing this jam true justice so then it hit me.  I'll bake the jam INTO the sponge mixture!  It worked amazingly.
And after the whole cake being munched by everyone who popped over, I decided to bake it again and share it with you all.

You will need

200 g of sugar

200 g of butter
200 g of self raising flour

4 x free range eggs
3 tablespoons of good quality jam with fruity bits

METHOD

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5
Grease 2 x 8" cake tins

Beat the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy
Beat in the eggs and sift in the flour and add the jam

Fold the mixture gently until the flour has been incorporated and the jam is mixed in.
Divide the mixture between the 2 tins

Bake the cakes for 25 to 35 minutes.
Test the cake with a skewer after 25 minutes.
Once the skewer comes out of the cake clean it is cooked correctly.

Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for around 30 minutes then transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled

Make up the icing packet as per the instructions and mix in with the lemon curd, spread half of the mixture evenly onto one of the cakes and place the other cake gently on top. Spread the other half of the mixture thickly over the top of the cake.

BBQ Pulled Pork

I'm really into pulled meat at the moment, it's easy, you can leave it all day and then go back to it and serve with something quick that creates a delicious meal.  I've been meaning to try making my own BBQ pulled pork for ages and never got around to it but today, I took the plunge and decided to try it as I had loads of things to do today so a quick and easy dinner was definitely on the cards.  It took about 15 minutes to prepare and then was left to cook for about 4 and a half hours.  It's really tasty and great served with some fresh crusty bread rolls and chips, maybe a salad if you're feeling colourful

(You should eat salad, it's good for you and tastes good - but not as good as this pulled pork!)

You will need

3/4 pint of tomato ketchup
3/4 pint of water
1/4 pint lemon juice
1 tablespoon of BBQ Sauce
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of smoked sea salt
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 1/2 grated onions
2 cloves of crushed garlic
5ml Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey
1.4 kg boneless pork shoulder

Method

Add all of the ingredients into a large pan and bring to the boil, turn the heat down low and put the lid on, leave it for 4 hours.  Turn off the heat and remove the fat from the pork and shred the meat with a fork. Once shredded, put the meat back into the pan of sauce and continue to cook on a low heat for a further 30 minutes.

It's delicious on it's own with chips or rice, it can be used as a filling in potato skins, you can use it on pizza, with pasta or just in a sandwich.  Whichever way you choose, this is truly delicious and so easy to make both on the hob and in the slow cooker.

Hire, Buy or Borrow?

We're still desperately decorating our whole home, yes...STILL!  I mean if I'm truly honest, we've not done very much more at all with it being school holidays! We've been looking into hiring the items we need or buying them outright.  I've discovered a new website called Hire Jungle that allows you to hire the stuff you need and hire out the stuff you don't!  It's like online shopping but you have to give it back.  It's really rather clever, you just tell the website where you live and what you're looking to hire. I was quite impressed at how simple the concept is. Why had someone not thought of this sooner?  There are a wide range of items available are hire ranging from garden furniture and barbecue equipment to cement mixers and other building tools.  The location and price of each item is available by clicking on the classified advert within the site.  The layout is easy to navigate and I am yet to find an item that we could use that isn't listed!  Actually I'm rather impressed with some of the other peoples junk that we can hire out. I am considering hiring out a few unused items that we have a laying around in our home  and the best part of it is that it is completely free to post an ad and there is Zero commission.  It's a win/win situation really, getting paid for renting out your unused stuff! I know I'm meant to be searching for decorating equipment but a huge tent that is available to hire out would be perfect for a festival next year.  The blog at hire jungle is filled with great hints and tips for DIY too. Even if you're not hiring from a user or hiring something out yourself, there are some great tips and advice available.

The design of the website is similar to a few online advert sites, it's simple, everything you're looking for is there and visible straight away with no hassle of searching the site to find what you want.  Hire Jungle also boasts a 24/7 help desk to assist you with anything you may need.   Hire Jungle is also only available to people in the UK and offers Geo-location to find products and services in the areas closest to you. Adverts even have the ability to contain video so you can see the product working/assembled and give you a better idea of exactly what you're hiring.  The FAQ section gives you all the information you could need too, it even gives warnings about online scams and payments in detail to help put your mind at rest.  

I'm getting on at Misteright to find unused stuff in his garage already! I've got a list of things I can hire out already!  It's better to earn money from something you don't use instead of earning some hoover dust.  Misteright is getting on at me to finish my research on hiring items Vs buying them new and after looking at Hire Jungle, I think we will be hiring some things and buying some new.  

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Guest Post - Lego Cupcakes From Super Busy Mum

OK, so I'm supposed to be at work but I've had to come home early due to suffering another bout of Labyrinthitis - I've got a lovely guest post from Debs over at Super Busy Mum to keep you entertained until I feel better. It's a fab recipe and I'm going to be making some for my friends kids very soon!

We are a big family that loves to get messy & bake in the kitchen. We've always something sweet & delicious that's been mixed and baked by little hands and made with love. 

Recently we made something new, not our usual rice krispie buns or mint aero cheesecake {which is to DIE for by the way!} but we made Lego men cupcakes! 

I sort of cheated on this one and bought in some madeira cupcakes, because, I'll confess...I had zero time to bake my own recently so I figured I'd cut a cheeky corner. So here's what you'll need to make your own Lego men cupcakes:-

- Cupcakes {either baked at home or store bought}

- Royal icing

- Yellow food paste colouring

- Marshmallows

- Yellow smarties {we just bought 2 tubes and picked out enough yellow smarties for our lego men}

- Black icing pen

First of all I got my cupcakes, took a knife and cut off the tops. Giving a nice even surface for our marshmallows to be perched on later!

As those where done I hired my beautiful daughter Ellie to whip me up some deliciously bright, yellow icing. She's a champion stirring is my daughter!

Now you get your marshmallows...and this is the super duper messy part! You dunk them into the fondant until they are completely covered. Put them all on a plate, and pop them in the fridge for around 30 minutes to let the icing harden. 
Once they are ready, take them out and they are ready to have their little lego heads assembled. 

Once the iced marshmallows had set it was time to make them into our little lego men! We iced our cupcakes and then placed a marshmallow on top of each cupcake.

We then picked out all of our yellow smarties, dipped them in the leftover icing and popped them on top of the marshmallows. Making them look like little heads of lego men!

Next we took our black icing pen and had lots of fun drawing on their little faces! My daughter especially so...her tongue was out in concentration and everything.

So there you have it. A quick and cute little baking tutorial for you to make your very own little Lego men cupcakes! I think these are super cute & they tasted great!

My Ultimate Summer Driving Playlist

The kids are off school, the weather is getting hotter, that can only mean one thing...

SUMMER IS HERE!

And as the Summer holidays get started, so does the car. That means I have a responsibility to make sure we have an Ultimate Summer Driving Playlist that suits everyone who is travelling in the vehicle!  It's usually just Misteright, The Boy and Me but we often have extra passengers when we go for days out in our Big Red Bus of Fun.  Good job we have a stereo that plays MP3 from a flash disc.  That means we can fit a whopping amount of music on there, which is the main reason that my playlist is so long. My second reason is that we are a family of music lovers and we LOVE most genres of music. Some people call it eclectic, we just call it a broad range of tastes!  Some songs are meant to be played loud but we are usually that annoying family who are singing along loudly with all the windows open! I have even been known to teach kids the words to songs by The Levellers just so they can join in!  On a serious note though, having a driving playlist could actually help save your life! THINK! research suggests that almost 20% of accidents that occur on major roads are related to sleep or tiredness.  Long motorway journeys can lead to a lack of concentration so take a few precautions as a preventative measure! Listen to music that you love to help you stay alert and focussed whilst driving and STOP when you feel tired, the cost could be huge.  Be a responsible driver!

You can listen to my tunes on my Spotify playlist by clicking here!

Track List

Down Under - Men At Work

Sell out - The Levellers

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud) - The Beautiful South

Staying Out For The Summer - Dodgy

Satisfaction - Benny Benassi presents The Biz

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk

It's My Life - No Doubt

Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams

Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meatloaf with Elaine Foley

Freebird (Live at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum)- Lynard Skynard 

Something Good - Utah Saints

STARSTRUKK - 3OH!3 featuring Katy Perry

Southern Sun (DJ Tiesto Mix) - Paul Oakenfold

Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) - Garbage

The Day We Caught The Train - Ocean Colour Scene

Song 2 - Blur

What's Up? - 4 Non Blondes

This is my entry into the MoneySupermarket.com Ultimate Summer Driving Playlist competition.  I received £20 for taking part and if my entry is the winner, I'll win an iPad for Misteright's Chrimbletide prezzy!

The Kitchen Saga

We need a new kitchen. It's been on the cards for a while now. The worktop that holds the sink up is falling in. I can stick my arm down the gap no problem! There are bits of wallpaper falling off the ceiling because the clever person who lived here before we did decided that textured wallpaper on the ceiling in a hot kitchen would be so much better than artex! It's not that my kitchen is a nightmare, it's huge and the layout is amazing, it's just my appliances that are starting getting a bit tired and certain parts are starting to fail.  It's a mish mash of old appliances and new plates, pots and pans. 

My fridge freezer is my most used and unloved appliance.  It doesn't drain properly when it's full and it doesn't drain at all when it's empty.  I have to spend at least 15 minutes each day swishing the water puddle out of the bottom and into a bucket.  I used to clean the plunger and drain with a bicarb and vinegar paste.  That always fizzed the blockage out instantly.  This stopped working about three weeks ago and now I'm seriously considering purchasing a new one.  It's hard work making a decision though and combined with the fact that I have always had a hand-me-down fridge from someone is giving me a headache. I don't know which one to pick. I just want a fridge that works; one that doesn't growl and grumble when it's full.  It needs to do it's job and look nice in its place. I do know one thing; I want an American Fridge Freezer, preferably one with an ice dispenser on the front! I'd love it to have double doors too.  It's like a small bit of new kitchen luxury. I'm really craving that at the moment! I won £150 of shopping vouchers last week and my fridge and freezer are both busting a gut.  It sounds pitiful to hear it moaning and groaning every time I open the door. I suppose it just boils down to the fact that my kitchen is the most imperfect room in my home. I love the space but I don't love what it's filled with.

One day, my kitchen saga will be over. I will have an amazing new and lovely kitchen with shiny new appliances and loads of new cooking equipment. I just want to spend my life in the kitchen with my iPad, listening to music and cooking lovely food! Until then, it's just me, my sinking kitchen sink and the whirring of the broken fridge!

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"Before I Kick The Bucket" - My Budget Bucket List

Everyone has a list of things to do before they kick the bucket.  Mine isn't exceptional, it doesn't contain a shed load of unbelievable activities that I'm never going to do, it's just a few simple things I'd love to have done before I pop my clogs and take my mortal self from this earth and enter the realms of whatever happens next! So, since I was asked by the lovely Lucie over at Our World and Autism to take part in this challenge too I thought now was as good time as any to write this down!  I have some budget items and a couple that would cost a small fortune but I included them anyway, I thought it would be more fun like that!

My extravagant bucket list item is a round the World trip, I'd love to stop off on a few continents and do some really cool stuff!  These places would definitely be included in the trip! This trip could be possible if I won the lottery, or a horse came in with ridiculous odds, or I had an ITV call... but sadly, I don't have THAT much spare cash just laying around yet!

I'd love to watch the sunrise on Miami Beach. I tried to do it when we were last in Miami but I didn't manage to wake up early enough, next time...I'll have to stay up all night and then sleep later!

I'd love to go to a vineyard and make wine by squishing the grapes with my feet! I love stamping on things, it's so therapeutic and I love good wine, this would be much fun! This could be costly, although, Misteright has some friends who own a vineyard in Germany so it wouldn't cost as much for accommodation!

I would absolutely LOVE to go surfing at Bondi Beach  It's not the kind of family thing I was wanting to do, more a when the boy leaves home, I'm going with Misteright, WE ARE GOING SURFING! Since flying to the other side of the world takes an age, I'd feel obliged to stay there for a few weeks too! We have a friend who now lives in Oz and her pictures are amazing. I want to see the whole place before we leave...I'm thinking ROAD TRIP!



I want to have a private beach picnic on a secluded beach somewhere with my Misteright. I don't care where this beach is, so long as it has no one else on it and not many people know it's there!  I mean preferably on a private Island somewhere, maybe Necker Island, but that whole Island is owned by Sir Richard Branson and I don't know him personally or know if he would lend us it for a day or two.  We'd even camp on the beach and sleep under the stars. This is the kind of stuff my dreams are made of, and most of them involve hot, sunny, amazingly beautiful beaches! If money was unlimited then I would do this first!

I'm a friendly kind of girl, I love talking to people.  Since I was a child I have always been interested in how people greet each other and so I like to learn to say Hello in different languages. Before I kick it, I'd like to be able to greet anyone no matter what language they speak! So far, I can say hello in 11 different languages, admittedly, I need to brush up on the pronunciation but I try! This would be a great addition to my round the world trip. It would be EPIC to talk to people in each country we visited. Hello is a universal greeting but it's how you say it that counts!

Before I kick, I'd love to do an underwear shoot for a magazine that's actually published!  Not because I want the world to see me half naked but because I think it would be brilliant fun!  This wouldn't cost much, in fact they would probably pay me to do it! So I guess, it'd be free!  That would be EPIC, I could make money and cross something that is actually achievable off my list AND if someone is gonna pay me to do it then I can use the cash towards our round the world trip!


So these are the things I want to do before I kick it and this is my entry into the Budget Bucket List Competition hosted by Money Supermarket.  I'm tagging Kaye at The Brink of Bedlam, Jo at Given to Distracting Others & Jane at Compers Grapevine if they want to take part, they could win an amazing cash prize!