The Magic of Ordinary Days in the English Countryside 

Hello, friends! There will be no video on my channel this week, as I'm attending yoga workshops (more in the weekly email), but I couldn't leave you with nothing. Last week was half-term here in the UK, which coincided with a heatwave. We visited a splash park, played board games, and rescued Rosie's ball from a deep hole with the vacuum and from under the rose bush with a brush. We also recovered my wedding ring from under the floorboards using a crowbar... and of course, we baked :) All this, along with the finishing touches on the book before it goes to print (eek!), made my days full, but I still managed to edit a little video for you.

I hope you'll enjoy this exclusive, cosy video I made for my readers and email subscribers only. You are my most precious group of people, and I appreciate you so much!

 

Here's the new recipe for banana chocolate chip cookies from the email - it has now become our family favourite: Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cookies. Why?

1) It doesn't require softened butter. We keep butter in the fridge, and I literally never remember to take it out, so I actively avoid any recipes that call for it. 
2) No mixer = less washing. 
3) No refrigerating = faster to make

I added 2-3 more tablespoons of flour because the dough felt very soft. Since I don't have an ice cream scoop, I just shaped the dough into balls by hand. You probably wouldn't need the extra flour if you use a scoop. I baked 12 cookies in 2 batches of 6. 

The recipe also notes you can use oil, but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough. If you try the oil version, let me know how they turn out! 

Now for the chocolate chips. When we baked these cookies for the first time, I forgot the little trick that keeps the chocolate chips on top of the cookie, just like in a bakery. To achieve this, save some chocolate chips, and once you shape the dough balls, pile a few chips on top of each dough ball. As the cookies spread in the oven, the chocolate chips will scatter randomly across the cookies.

One more piece of advice: if some cookies bake unevenly and the chocolate chips bunch up on one side, you can fix it by adding a few chips straight after you take them out of the oven. The heat of the freshly baked cookies will make the additional chocolate chips melt a little and "bond" with the cake, so you'll never know you added them afterwards :) 

Robber's Bridge, Exmoor

As of our walk... it was perfect. If you saw the previous video I shared exclusively with my readers and subscribers (watch it here), you know that the Robber's Bridge has been on my to-see list for a long time. Last time, when we went on our quest to find it, we took the wrong path along the river.

Finding it is not difficult at all, but the postcode from Google Maps is wrong. It leads to a very charming tea room, but it's quite a distance from the bridge. Once you arrive in Oare, facing the church, the sat nav will ask you to turn right (which will take you to The Buttery tea room), but you need to ignore it and turn left instead. Keep driving the very narrow country lane until you reach the point where you need to cross a small bridge, with a clear parking space on the right. That's it, you arrived at the Robbers Bridge.

The bridge is simply enchanting, and there is also a circular walk leading from there. We walked along the lane under the beech trees; I swear it was so ordinary, yet one of the most magical experiences in my life. Aside from the single clip you can see in the video at the 4:46 mark, I didn't take a single video or photo while walking there, holding hands with Andrei, and I think that proves how extraordinary it felt. I just got completely lost in the moment. 

I promise to always share this magic hidden in everyday life with you through my videos, blog, and future books. Thank you for watching, reading and shopping,

Adriana x