Follow My Blog on Bloglovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10417215/?claim=4sb76hq29hk">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Strawberry Fields Forever

Anything with the word 'English' or 'strawberry' in it, I jump at the chance to use, make it, be it, bake it – anything, really. So when I came across a recipe for 'Old-English Matrimonials' I knew I had to make them!

The name for these bars comes from – you guessed it – weddings! The reason being that these bars are both smooth in parts, and lumpy in others, just like marriage. They were traditionally served at weddings.

For our sweet-satisfaction, though, Old-English Matrimonials are essentially an oat-y-buttery-base topped with a layer of jam, then covered in an oat-like crumble topping. Yum!

The recipe that I used contained ¾ cup butter, but for my taste it was way too much, so for the recipe here I've reduced that to ½ cup, but feel free to do either :)

--

Recipe:

Preheat your oven to 160°C/ 325°F and line a square pan (at least 2 inches deep) with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine 1 ¼ cups of plain flour, 1 cup packed brown sugar, 1 ½ cups rolled oats, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ½ cup of melted butter.

Pat half of this mixture into the pan so that it is a solid mass of biscuit.

Spread ¾ cup berry jam over the base. (I used a strawberry jam that had bits of fruit in it).

Carefully drop balls of the remaining oat mixture onto the bar, and spread it about so that it covers all the jam.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, then cut into bars when cooled.

p.s. Please make these, they are amazingly good!

When I Saw Her Standing There

It's no surprise, really, that I love The Beatles. One particular song that really resonates is 'When I Saw Her Standing There', as the song seemingly points to me directly:

"She was just seventeen/ If you know what I mean."

See, that's me! I'm seventeen. For the moment. 

You see, my birthday is coming up, and I'm rather blue about it to be honest, because 17 has been such a magical age for me. I've loved every minute of it - but I suppose that's just what I said leading up to my 17th birthday, and my 16th, 15th and so on. 

I've just never been one for getting older.

But then the morning of my birthday arrives and I realise like a slap to the face how great the next year is going to be.

18 is a bit of a milestone, but I'm still technically a "teen" so I guess I'll just have to be happy about that. 

For now, though, I thought I'd show you some of my favourite 'little me' photos :) I was a cutie if I do say so myself ;)

Hello!

So hello!

I guess I'll start by saying something about myself...you know, the boring what's your name and age kinda stuff.

I'm Jacqueline (Jacquie, Jax...) and I am 17 years old from Sydney, Australia :)

Me! Miss Chiquilin herself!

My blog is called Chiquilin simply because that's what one of my cousin's (lives in Spain, is absolutely gorgeous I could eat him up!) calls me. Basically, whenever I'm in Spain, I have to eat this most delicious biscuits called 'Chiquilin' and since my name sorta rhymes with it he calls me 'Jacqueline Chiquilin!'

My blog will just be a mishmash of the things that interest me at the time, and I hope will become a sort of time capsule of my thoughts, favourite things, photographs...

I want to be able to look back in two or five or ten years and think 'Oh wow, I remember loving that' or 'how embarrassing! What was I thinking with that!'

It would be such a thrill if someone else in this wide network we call the Internet would love some of the things I do too, because I'm that kind of person - If I love something and think it's wonderful, I want everyone to share in it!

So yep. That's me for the moment :)