Saturday Coffee Morning!!! DAILY WISDOM 10 INCLUDED!

Hey guys, welcome to another Saturday Coffee Morning!

We’ll kick off the morning with a nice and easy recipe to savour with your favourite hot cuppa! Today I’m going to be making…..

Scones with jam and clotted cream!

Prep: 5 mins

Cook: 10 mins

Serves: eight

Ingredients:

• 350g self-raising flour, plus more for dusting
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85g butter cut into cubes
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 175ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• squeeze lemon juice (see Know-how below)
• beaten egg, to glaze
• jam and clotted cream, to serve

Method:

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7.
2. Tip 350g self-raising flour into a large bowl with ¼ tsp salt and 1 tsp baking powder, then mix.
3. Add 85g butter cubes, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs then stir in 3 tbsp caster sugar.
4. Put 175ml milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs until warm, but not hot.
5. Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and a squeeze of lemon juice, then set aside for a moment.
6. Put a baking sheet in the oven.
7. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife – it will seem pretty wet at first.
8. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4cm deep.
9. Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. You may need to press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four inches
10. Brush the tops with a beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray
11. Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam and cold clotted cream.

There you go! It’s a very easy and delicious recipe and is a circle of heaven when eaten with a coffee or tea.

Right, go make your hot cuppa, get your scone and I’ll meet you here in a few minutes….

Okay, so I’m going to start with a nice book review:

The lost sister by ML Rose

Review:

For 15 years, Detective Chief Inspector Arla Baker has hunted for Nicole, her lost sister…

Today, a woman lies with her throat slit open in Clapham Common Park. There are three black triangles drawn on her body. DCI Arla Baker is called in to investigate.
Soon there is another body, killed in identical fashion, in the same location.

Arla knows a vicious serial killer is stalking the streets. But what does the killer know about Nicole? For Clapham Common is where Nicole disappeared fifteen years ago. Arla refuses to accept Nicole is dead. She will not rest till she finds her sister.

As another body appears, it’s clear that the killer is hungry for more blood.
And Arla is not the one hunting this crazed psychopath.
Arla is the hunted.

As deep secrets of the past begin to unravel, so does Arla’s grip on reality. It’s not just her career on the line.
It’s her life…..

It’s a chilling, great book, so do buy it for free on amazon!

Okay, so we do Daily Wisdoms, which I’m going to do now. Just for Saturday – I put the Daily Wisdom in the same post as the Saturday Coffee Morning – usually I just make a new post for it. So here it is, to read while stealing the last scone…

Daily Wisdom 10:

‘Beware of what you set your heart upon, for it surely shall be yours..’

Emerson

When we’re doing something, we can tend to be careless, reckless and do things without thinking. Doing things with passion however, is a totally different thing. Whatever we are passionate about, what ever we set our mind and our heart to, and work towards our goals, we will always, always succeed. Now that you know this, let’s try to not set our heart and mind on small things – let’s think big! When you’re passionate – no one can stop you. When you’re passionate we can achieve what seems like impossible to do. If we set high goals, and actually want to achieve those goals and we push our sweat and work into it, our reward is success. So your voice matters. One passionate heart could change the world and make it a better place. So go for it. Set goals. And achieve.

That was our daily Wisdom for today, hope you enjoyed that and whilst you’re slurping down the remains of that hot drink – here’s some advice for aspiring writers!

Start small – I would say to start with writing short stories and sending them to magazines, family and friends and asking for constructive feedback. That’s the best way to start.

Read your work aloud – to either yourself or public. Not only does this boost your confidence, but you’ll also spot any mistakes. You can play around with the words on your tongue until you feel comfortable with their places in the sentences and another piece of advice would be to get other people to read the work back to you. This way, you could choose if it sounds good and get a good idea of what the person reading thinks.

Stay inspired and motivated – you can take a look at our daily Wisdoms for both inspiration and motivation.

And for my last piece of advice, I would say 1. Write first, edit later and 2. Never think that you’re the worst writer, but then never think that you’re the best… This is how every writer or great author should think.

Thank you so much for joining us for another Saturday Coffee Morning – please drop a comment below and we would love feedback and to hear your thoughts! Stay safe and healthy and please don’t hesitate to drop a question down below!

– Phoenix