Morning munchies!

This morning Abi and I were peckish from something a little different from our usual weetabix, so I had a flick through some recipe books (just to make sure I was along the right lines for quantities) and came up with these Breakfast Muffins.

Now, I don't want to disappoint anyone, so i'll make it clear now- these are *Proper Breakfast Muffins*, no moist, unctuous goo, no sugary-sweet treatiness, just a beautifully hefty crumb with the slight chewiness of oats and sweetly juicy bursts of dried fruit. Gorgeous warm from the oven for breakfast, possibly dripping with melted butter...maybe even some jam or lemon curd on the side, too...

Breakfast Muffins (makes 12)

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups Plain Flour

1/2 cup Oats

1 cup Sultanas or Raisins (or any dried fruit, I suppose, as long as you chop it to raisin size!)

3/4 cup Sugar

2 heaped tsps Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Bicarb of Soda

1 tsp Ground Mixed Spice

Wet Ingredients:

2 Clementines (juice of)

50ml Light Flavourless Oil (we use groundnut)

Make this up to 200ml total liquid with milk (whatever sort you like- we used soya)

2 Eggs

Preheat your oven to 200ºC

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl

Beat the 2 eggs in to the container with the other wet ingredients.

Add all the wet ingredients in to the bowl with the dry and combine. Try not to over mix as this can toughen the crumb, even leaving the occasional swirl of dry ingredients peeking through the mix is ok!

Divide the mix evenly between the 12 cases (they'll be about 3/4 full).

Bake in the middle of the oven for 17-20 mins.

Serve warm.

Tips:

If you don't have any clementines, use 100ml fruit juice.

To boost the citrus flavour (it's very subtle) add the zest of the clementines (or whatever other citrus fruit you may have used).

If you have time, you could soak the dried fruit in the fruit juice first to make them extra juicy- just strain the fruit into the jug before topping up the juice with the other wet ingredients, and stir the fruit in to the dry ingredients before combining the wet and dry together.

The wee man...

Mister Angus is doing pretty well after his trip to the vet (he was on a drip for 2 days and got lots of medicine to make him better)... he's been back for a wee while now, and has finished his course of anti-biotics and is well and truly back to his mischievous teenage self!!

He has a little burn on his lip from being so sick, it looked like he was wearing pink lipstick and the vet didn't know if it would turn black again... but it is healing nicely, and he is almost back to his old self.

... not long now 'till he turns one! We will need to plan a serious partay, right? Maybe an Angus shaped cake? ;)

Thanks for all the well-wishes and get well soons!

A@a*r xo

A sneaky snippet...

...of our brand new pattern- being sent off for sampling in the next few days, we're hoping it'll be added to our range, as cushions and *cough* quilts (honestly- they're coming soon!) this autumn.

Four brand new colourways (stone, olive, charcoal and chocolate) and quite a different style of pattern to our existing range, we really hope you all like it as much as we do :)

Spiky, jutting elderflower leaves contrast with slim, elegant agapanthus blooms to create a pattern simultaneously regally traditional and strikingly contemporary. We've been playing with scale on this one, too...and, so far, there isn't a size when this one doesn't work!

You'll have to wait until after sampling before we show you any more than these little snippets...don't want to give the game away too soon :)

New Stockist... Unique Boutique Company...

We're delighted to announce another stockist of abigail*ryan tea towels...

The lovely Cornwall based, Unique Boutique Company, sister site to the amazing Unique Home Stays has a fantastic selection of our textiles now live on their site! We LOVE the photographs they have taken of our tea towels and how they styled them... I'm always a sucker for a nice stack of linens!

... some other beautiful items on the site include stunning ready-assembled hampers like this Green Fingers themed bundle, and their gorgeous Pure Wool Blankets. There are so many beautiful items on this site that would make amazing gifts, or even just elevate a romantic picnic to utter perfection! Well worth bookmarking and remembering for that special occasion! ;)

On a little side note, we are currently out of both colours of our Rhododendron tea-towels (bottom two shots), but Unique Boutique have BOTH in stock, so head on over to their site if you are keen to pick some up!

Thanks so much to Jess @ The Unique Boutique Company for letting us share her beautifully styled images, and for choosing abigail*ryan products for her lovely site...

A&R

Get well soon Angus...

It's been a long day here at a*r HQ... we woke up to a very poorly puppy indeed.

Angus had been very unwell in the night (he had been ill the day before... Ryan had named it the poopocalypse, but today was poopmageddon - for SURE)... ugh...

We rushed our limp and out of it wee chap to the vets in a big blanket, after a nice warm shower to clean him up and try and warm him up, too - and he has to stay there overnight on an IV fluids drip and has had lots of medicine to make him feel better.

Thanks to the lovely vet at Vets4Pets in Carrick for taking such good care of him.

Please keep your fingers crossed he will be better and home with us very soon. We miss the wee guy! :((

xo!

New Stockist - SMUG...

Here at abigail*ryan HQ, we're always delighted when we get a chance to work with a new stockist- and we are absolutely delighted to be adding the fabulous concept store, SMUG, to our list!

Based in Camden Passage in London's Islington - SMUG is run by the lovely Lizzie Evans (pictured above) who has an eye for all things stylish, and has transformed a regular shopfront in to a light and airy destination shop space full of Vintage finds and beautiful goods created by the young design talent Lizzie loves to scout... the shops stock varies from original 50's Formica furniture, and paisley eiderdowns (I spied those lovelies in the middle shot!) to exclusively commissioned items from designers such as Donna Wilson and Matt Pugh...

...and now, abigail*ryan tea-towels! We hope our brightly coloured kitchen textiles will make a great addition to this gorgeous shop. We can't wait to pay it a visit ourselves...

Thanks so much to Lizzie for choosing our wares!

Abigail@abigail*ryan

Silver Lining...

This poor little rose had been broken from its stem during a recent wind storm, so we brought it inside and are hoping the attached buds will bloom.

Sad though it is, it has made a very pretty little accent to the kitchen. Every cloud, I suppose... :)

ryan@abigail*ryan

Don't let anyone tell you...

...romance is dead!

A heart-shaped tray of sweet, caramelised, just perfectly tart, roasted rhubarb transformed into a tray of heart-shaped, sweet, caramelised, just perfectly sharp, roasted rhubarb tarts...

Pretty, delicious and pretty delicious they were, too!

(and the scraps made very yummy sweet-spiced bread sticks to whet our appetites :))

ryan@abigail*ryan

Creature Feature...

We received a very lovely email today when Jenny contacted us to let us know that we'd been featured on her website, Indie Quarter.

The article is lovely, and we really appreciate her time and effort :)

To read the full article, just click HERE!

ryan@abigail*ryan