Embrace the Challenge

Life is a continuous journey of growth and self-discovery. One of the most rewarding ways to navigate this path is by broadening your horizons and challenging yourself. In future posts, we'll explore the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone, taking on new challenges, and the incredible rewards that come from doing this.

The fun way I am challenging myself is through a wonderful program called the Rebel Badge Club. It was a wonderful idea thought up by a woman called Charley, who realised that after you age out of things like Brownies and Scouts there are no merit badges given for hard work.

There are two books with over 50 badges in subjects ranging from baking and crafting through to activism and global citizenship.

I hope to keep a record of my progress through this blog.

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Butter Making

Starting on my Farming badge today, so I made butter. Because that is apparently what I do now. It’s easier than you think to make butter at home. All you need is double cream, a stand mixer and a ton of patience. Optional ear defenders if your mixer is as loud as mine. You put the cream in the bowl of the stand mixer, use the whisk attachment and turn it to medium. Then you stand there for 15 to 20 minutes going steadily deaf from the noise of the stand mixer (or is that just me?). First you’ll get whipped cream, and if you are anything like me you’ll take a spoonful to eat because just what even is impulse control. Then the mixture splits and you’ll think it’s all gone wrong…but don’t panic! Towards the end you’ll notice the butter separating from the buttermilk. If you have one, using a mixer bowl guard is a good idea now. I do not own one, so I got covered in buttermilk. Awesome. Once you can see the butter formed in the bowl stop mixing. Drain ...

A Very Dodgy Pie

I’m working towards my baking badge. One of the tasks is to make a sweet tart. Is pumpkin pie a tart or a pie? For argument’s sake let’s call it a tart! When it comes to pastry making I’m not exactly Mary Berry. I knew that to avoid a dreadful soggy bottom that you need to blind bake the pastry case, though I wasn’t too sure of the timing. That caused the pastry of the finished pie to do a wonderful impression of charcoal. Great. I was going to try to jazz it up with cream decorations but the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’ came to mind. Onwards!

It’s been a while

I’ve had a little time off from blogging for Christmas but I’m glad to say I’m back now! In the last few weeks I’ve been up to lots of new things and even completed a Rebel Badge! To start, I’ve been baking I made this lovely rosemary and sea salt focaccia I also finally used my food processor for more than grating cheese by making pastry for the treacle tart pictured above. Finally, I finished the last task for my craft badge part 1. Part 2 will probably be easy to get too because I’m always crafting!

Catherine’s Rebel Journey

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