Hello Friends! I don’t know if there’s a dessert that screams Valentine’s Day more than chocolate covered strawberries do! They couldn’t be easier to make or more delicious to eat, and would make the perfect little edible gift this Valentine’s Day, since it’s less than a week away now!

YOU WILL NEED

Strawberries

Melted chocolate (I used milk chocolate)

Chopped walnuts (or other goodies to coat the strawberries!)

DIRECTIONS

First, line a baking sheet with wax paper or parchment paper (you will need this later to lay the strawberries on). Next, melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water (you can also do this in the microwave, of course, I just always seem to burn the chocolate when I use my microwave! I think it might be a good idea for me to look at something like this Best Microwave Australia 2021 guide to look for a new microwave, because at this point I’m not sure if it’s me or the microwave that’s causing me to burn the chocolate. If you want to go the extra mile, you could even use a chocolate melter!), pour it into a small bowl, and let it cool for a minute or two. Wash and dry your strawberries (I like to leave the leaves on, I just think it looks prettier) and chop the walnuts (you could also use almonds, hazelnuts, sprinkles, melted white chocolate, or anything else you can think of!) then dip them into the melted chocolate, letting the excess chocolate drip off, then dipping them into the chopped walnuts. Lay them on the prepared wax or parchment paper and let them set completely. To package them, place each strawberry into a mini paper muffin liner and place them all into a small box. Wrap with a big bow and you have the perfect little edible Valentine’s gift! (…. or you could always eat them yourself if it’s too tempting!)

For more fun Valentine’s Day ideas, check these out!

Left: Heart Shaped Puff Pastry Pockets (recipe) Right: Strawberry Layer Cake (recipe)

Left: Valentine’s Day Paper Garlands (tutorial) Right: Felt Heart Ornaments (tutorial)

Have a great week, Everyone!

I will be linking to these awesome blogs!

Hi Everybody! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you will know how much I love to bake bread! I love baking all different kinds of breads, but the no-knead recipe is one of my all-time favorites. I’ve made a couple different flavor versions of it, and have another one to share with you today! This oatmeal bread has a great earthy flavor and is super hearty; it would be perfect alongside a big bowl of steaming hot soup on a cold wintery night!

YOU WILL NEED

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup plus 2 tbs rolled oats

1/2 tsp dry yeast

2 tsp salt

1 5/8 cup water

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, 1/2 cup oats (reserve the oats for topping the loaf before baking) and water. (I used 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour, but you could reduce the amount of whole wheat flour to 1/2 cup and increase the amount of all-purpose flour to 2 1/2 cups if you prefer it.) Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 12 – 20 hours (I usually make the dough the night before, then bake the bread off the following day) in a warm spot.

2. Once the rising time is up, uncover the dough, and you should see lots of bubbles on the surface (the dough will be very wet and sticky, but don’t worry, that’s exactly what it should look like). Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface, and quickly shape it into a round loaf. Sprinkle it with more flour, then cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rest for another hour or two, until it has doubled in size.

3. Preheat your oven to 450 deg F, and place a Dutch oven or covered casserole dish inside it as it heats up. Once the oven is preheated, carefully take the dish out, and quickly place your loaf in it (optional: you can sprinkle it with the remaining 2 tbs of oats at this point), then cover the dish and bake for 30 minutes. Then, take off the lid and bake for another 15 – 30 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap your fingers on it. Let the bread rest and cool before slicing.

*Recipe Notes: If you prefer less of a “whole wheat” flavor, reduce the amount of whole wheat flour and substitute it with all-purpose flour as mentioned above. My recipe also uses more salt and dry yeast than the original recipe does, but you can check out the original here.

For other no-knead bread recipes, check these out:

Left: NY Times No-Knead Bread (recipe) Right: No-knead Pesto Bread (recipe)

Left: Whole Wheat No-knead Bread (recipe) Right: No-knead Bread Bowls (recipe)

And speaking of cold winter nights, this is what it looks like outside right now… it’s a bitter cold wintery day, so a big bowl of soup and some of this freshly baked bread is definitely needed!

Happy Baking, Everyone!

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Hey Everyone! Happy Weekend! I wanted to stop by and share some of my favorite things from the past month with you today. I love the fresh start that the new year brings with it. Sometimes our minds and our bodies need to hit that refresh button and start over with a clean slate. Many people choose to revamp their homes to enable them to feel these ‘fresh start’ feelings. This might be with a home improvement or two, remodeling the kitchen or bathroom, perhaps even some fancy new decor like wall art! In fact, my friend has just bought herself cheap personalized neon signs, because she absolutely loves that retro vibe for her home. I’m surprised she managed to get such good quality for such an affordable price, these things are usually quite dear! It got me thinking actually, and I have been having a little browse online myself. There are just so many options for us online these days, the world, or the internet, is our oyster! And so that is why I’m going to be giving you a couple of clues as to what has worked for me this past month.

Whether it’s a healthier lifestyle or another goal you’re trying to reach, the beginning of a new year always seems to bring renewed hope and energy. For youngsters, it is mostly spent playing with their new gadgets and getting the utmost enjoyment out of it. My friend’s son got a drone like the ones from https://www.drdrone.ca/pages/mavic-mini for Christmas, and he has been a bundle of laughter and smiles ever since he opened it. I guess for us others, we’ve got a fresh start, a clean slate, a new leaf, and brand new year!

I always revamping my wardrobe in January too, I feel like it gets me ready for the new year. None of my new clothes will feature in this post, I’ll save that for another post, but I will let you in on a little secret. I’ve recently got an american express blue card, which means I get complimentary 2 day delivery from loads of retailers and it means you can buy tickets for concerts or sporting events before the general public can! Pretty nifty! Another little teaser is that I’ve been loving sportswear recently. I’ve bought a few athleisure items and I’ve even found some tracksuits for men that I’m going to buy for my partner. As I said though, the clothing will be in another post!

I hope you’ve had a great January, here are some of the littler but just as important things that I’ve been loving this month…

Left: Bright yellow flowers on my desk to brighten up a gray day. Right: A fun little project for 2015 (you can see how to make your own memory jar here).

Left: So it turns out that my husband read my Christmas Gift Guide for Bakers that I posted before Christmas, (you can see it here) because I found a couple of the items I listed in it under the Christmas tree! Including this marble rolling pin I had been wanting! Right: No-knead Ciabattas. I don’t know whether to call this a favorite this month, or an “un-favorite”, since I’ve been trying out different recipes and methods to bake the perfect ciabattas, but not quite successfully yet. Do any of you have a good recipe? I would love to know!

Left: Jo Malone’s Wood Sage & Sea Salt scent. This is the freshest and most beautiful smelling perfume, and a current favorite. Right: Denim on denim. Too much?

Left: Are any of you fans of Call the Midwife too? I loved the Christmas special this year and re-watched lots of the old episodes after Christmas. Right: And while watching Call the Midwife… lots of tea, of course!

I hope January was a good month for you and that 2015 has been off to a good start! What have been your favorite things this past month? I would love to know! Have a great February, Everyone!

Hello Everyone! How has your week been? Snow-covered? I hope you all had a good one, and that you have some fun plans for the weekend! I can’t believe the first month of 2015 is almost over… how fast did that fly by! It’s been a good year so far, and my 2015 Memory Jar (you can check it out here) is already filling up with lots of wonderful things that happened this past month! And speaking of wonderful things, let me tell you about this sandwich. I love grilled cheese sandwiches; whether they’re stuffed with just plain cheese or lots of other things, you can’t go wrong with gooey cheesy goodness oozing out of crispy toasted bread! This is a delicious little twist on the classic grilled cheese, filled with spinach, strawberries and some nice creamy Brie cheese that melts everything together into utter perfection as the sandwich cooks! Definitely a wonderful thing.

YOU WILL NEED

Fresh bread (white, sourdough or try this one)

Sliced Brie cheese

Sliced strawberries

Baby spinach leaves

Butter (for spreading on bread)

.DIRECTIONS

This recipe barely needs directions, but here’s how to make this sandwich! You will need two thin slices of bread, buttered on one side. Top the bottom slice (buttered side down) with thin slices of brie, spinach leaves, strawberries, and then another thin layer of brie slices, then top with the second slice of bread (buttered side up). Cook in a pan like a classic grilled cheese sandwich, for a couple of minutes on each side, until the bread is golden brown and the brie is oozing out of the sides! Serve with soup or salad!

For more sandwich deliciousness, check these recipes out…

Left: Chicken & Pesto Croque Monsieur (recipe HERE), Middle: Mushroom & Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese (recipe HERE), Right: Grilled Nutella, Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich (recipe HERE)

Have a great weekend, Everyone! Happy Cooking!

I will be linking to these awesome blogs!

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend, and that 2015 has been good to you so far! I don’t know about you, but this time of year is probably my least favorite of all; when winter starts feeling bitter cold and never-ending, and spring seems to be nowhere in sight. But as with most things in life, it’s the little things that brighten the world up. Like this sweet little teapot flower arrangement! This pale shade of blue and sunny yellow are one of my favorite color combinations, and roses and hydrangeas are some of my favorite flowers; the perfect way to brighten a dark and dreary day!

One of my favorite things about arranging flowers is that you can have fun with it and be as creative as you want with the colors, flowers, and the container that you arrange them in! Since I’m a big tea lover, I have lots and lots of teapots (because you can never have enough, and because my mom shares my love of tea and supplies me with cute teapots regularly). Besides their obvious use, you can also use them to arrange flowers in and make sweet little arrangements like this. Little teapot arrangements like this would be so fun for a tea party, a bridal shower or a girly dinner party!

You could of course use floral foam and place it inside the teapot, to insert your flowers into, but I just filled it with water and arranged the flowers. I used pale blue hydrangeas, white roses and sweet little miniature roses (I’m pretty sure that’s not their scientific name…!) and grouped them in little bunches, with the shorter stemmed flowers around the rim of the teapot, and the longer stemmed in the center, to build a dome shape for the arrangement. Remember to cut the stems at an angle, so the flowers can drink up as much water as possible, and they’ll stay fresh for longer.

If you’re looking for more ideas, check out my other flower arrangements here! I hope you all have a good rest of your week, thanks so much for stopping by A Homemade Living today, see you again soon!

I will be linking to these awesome blogs!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to A Homemade Living! I’m so excited to finally let you see my new site that I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks! You can still find all my old posts with my recipes, crafts and tutorials on here, and I’m looking forward to sharing lots of new ideas with you this year! I hope that 2015 has been off to a good start for you, and that if you made any new year’s resolutions, they are going even better than you expected! As much as I love Christmas and the whole holiday season, once it’s over and the Christmas tree and all the festive decorations are put away, I’m ready for the new year and for a clean start (and warmer weather. But that clearly isn’t happening anytime soon). I wanted to share a fun DIY project with you that’s a great way to start the year with the right mindset. I remember a couple of years ago, lots of my friends were writing “grateful journals”, writing down things they were thankful for every day. I loved the idea but never got around to doing it myself, so I thought I would do something similar with this 2015 Memory Jar idea. What you do is fill the jar with pieces of paper containing good memories and things you are thankful for over the course of the year, then look back at them when the year is over. Sometimes, simply focusing on the good and remembering to be thankful even for the little things, does more for the soul than we realize!

YOU WILL NEED

Glass jar

Glitter

Mod Podge

Paintbrush

Clear tape

“2015” stencil on paper (hand-drawn or printed)

DIRECTIONS

1. First, choose your jar (big enough to fill with lots of pieces of paper over the course of the year!) and make sure it’s clean, since you’ll be applying glitter onto its surface. (I used a clean candle jar, you can find my tutorial for how to remove wax from candle jars here!) Next, create your “2015” stencil. Either print the numbers on a piece of paper or hand-draw them. Place the piece of paper inside the jar (with the letters facing the glass so you can trace them) and position it where you want it, then secure it with some tape.

2. Using a paintbrush, fill in the numbers with mod podge one at a time, sprinkling each with glitter after you paint it with the mod podge. Carefully shake off the excess glitter, and let the glitter dry completely. Once dry, do another coat. Paint over each glittery number with mod podge again, and sprinkle each with glitter again. Shake off the excess glitter again, and let the jar dry. Then, paint each glittery number with a layer of mod podge one last time, to make sure all the glitter is stuck on well, and to give the numbers a smooth finish. Let the jar dry completely and clean off any excess glitter with a piece of soft fabric or a cotton ball. And once you’re done, it’s time to start filling the jar!

I hope that 2015 brings you lots of new adventures, things to celebrate and happy memories! Have a great week, Everyone!

I will be linking to these awesome blogs!