Time to Chill #7

New Year, Same Us - After a gentle start to the year, we are back in our kitchens to talk about some "slow resolutions" we're taking on in 2025 - featuring our chillest bake yet, rocky road fridge bars! 

We also discuss how helpful it is to have someone supportive in your corner when
 tackling challenges, and showing you how you can do that with our very own Round-To-It List!

This Episode's Recipe: Rocky Road Fridge Bars

Featured in the Episode:

Hello Fresh Recipe Deliveries (not sponsored)

The Official Flour Power Round - To - It List (Template)

Ian Fujimoto’s Chicken Gnocchi Soup (and his youtube in general, great creator)  -  

Lotty's Veg Box Provider - Riverford Organic Veg Boxes (not sponsored)

Follow along for delicious recipes and thought-provoking conversations - You can find us on Instagram @flour_power_podcast, and listen across Spotify, YouTube, Samsung Podcasts and the RSS Feed on our website https://www.flour-power-podcast.com/ 

Happy Baking!

Transcript

[FUNKY THEME MUSIC]

[MUSIC FADES INTO BACKGROUND]

HANNAH: Welcome back to Flour Power, a baking podcast with two twenty-somethings, just waffling through our twenties together.

LOTTY: Each episode, we choose a recipe to make together, despite being over 150 miles away from each other.

H: Today, we’re making fridge bars – or rocky road – basically chocolate, marshmallows, and digestives –

L: Dream combo

H – That’s what we’re making, with no oven, because... thought we’d be a bit more creative and therefore I think it’ll be useful for people who maybe don’t cook as often? I mean, it doesn’t require any specialist equipment, you need something to bash biscuits up, and a pot to melt things, and that’s it.

L: Yep, it’s easy-peasy, fuss free, and... yeah, you’ve got a little bit of waiting to do but my goodness, trust us it’s worth it!

H: While we’re baking, or in this case, making, we’re going to be sharing our favourite things that we’ve found recently: that could be a recipe, a book, or just something intriguing we’ve discovered; as well as sharing a little fudge-up or two, because we’re human, not perfect, and we make little fudge-ups sometimes.

L: Right, with that being said, let’s get making!

H: And I cannot tell you how nice they are but you have to actually try them, because they are so good.

L: See the funny thing is, I must have made these when I was super little but I have never... like, I have no memory of making these, so this is actually kind of new. Normally I have trust issues with things like rocky road, because quite often they will just add nuts to them in the shops, and so I just avoid it, just in case. But the lovely thing about making it by yourself is if you don’t like something, you don’t have to use it. And something with this recipe is it does call for raisins. Personally speaking, I don’t love raisins, and especially not when they’re masquerading as something that could be a lot nicer like marshmallows, so I’m subbing that out for this recipe here... I don’t know, I don’t personally love raisins at all, but I know Hannah you quite like them, except not in baking.

H: Yeah, so I like a raisin on its own, like, I love a little packet of raisins, I don’t know why everybody feels... everybody. I think that might be an exaggeration. I don’t know why we feel the need to put them in like, cookies, and brownies, and fridge bars, because I don’t want to be assaulted by a raisin when I thought I was having chocolate. [Lotty giggles] Raisins are nice, and they have their place, but not in rocky road, not in my dessert, no thank you! I get people like rum-and-raisin, it’s not my thing, I’m all good thank you very much. So I have also subbed out for marshmallows, and to memory I don’t think I’ve ever actually made it with raisins because I know I wouldn’t have eaten it, ever, in the past? So our recipe, which is a modified version of the Hummingbird Bakery’s recipe, will be on our website as soon as this goes live, so you’re able to just follow along with us, do it with us, have your own and see what you think! Please let us know, I’d love to know if you also love this

L: We’d love to know also if you have any particular family ways of doing this – what do you add in, instead of raisins? Or do you add raisins? Do you add other things as well, like... how do you make your fridge bars your own, basically, we would love to know.

H: So while we’re baking – or in this case I suppose, making? Do fridge bars count as baking? That’s a great debate

L: That is a fantastic debate [H: maybe we could get into this] why don’t we get into this, once we have got our butter going.

H: That’s a great idea. But we’re gonna share our favourite things, a recipe, a book, or just something intriguing we’ve discovered – we also share our fudge-ups. Now fudge-ups are affectionately named by us, but basically they are when you fuck up. And we do that all the time! And there is a lot of shame in feeling like no-one messes up quite like you do? Nobody forgets to do their laundry as much as you do, nobody leaves things in the washing-machine for two days, and you do – and I promise, I also do that. Or Charlotte does it. But one of us –

L: I literally [H: definitely does it] – I literally have a load of towels in the laundry right now that I ought to sort out, so like, you’ve just called me out right there on camera

H: We basically just want to share with you that we’re not perfect, nobody is, how about we stop being so mean to each other and... y’know, in the process it’s been quite nice – for us it’s been quite cathartic, because now when we fuck up, we message each other and we’re like “Oh my god you’ll never believe what I did!”

L: Exactly!

H: And it’s fun, instead of being shameful. That’s what we would really like to change, in the process of doing this podcast, is that you text your friends and you’re like “Oh my god you’ll never believe how I fucked up today” as a funny thing, not a shame thing.

L: I think it also helps not only to reduce the shame when you talk to other people about it, like that shame of “Oh So-and-so didn’t do something on time”, or “So-and-so did this” or whatever, but like that internalised shame as well... I know when I mess up, the first thing I do is I start blaming myself, and I start going “oh my god, I’m such a terrible failure of a human being...” etc., etc., but honestly since we started doing these Fudge Ups and sharing them it’s become a lot more light-hearted, I don’t internalise that shame so much any more. Everyone gets bad days, but it’s easier to laugh and move on, or if something genuinely needs fixing to just get on with the fixing rather than spiralling already, and just – it’s a lot easier, and it’s a lot nicer for everyone involved. I don’t know, I think we live in such a culture of shame, it’s so nice to actually not self-shame and not shame each other for little mistakes that we make. We all fuck up, we all make Fudge Ups, that’s human nature, you know?

H: Exactly that.

L: Right I’ve just added my butter and it’s halfway through melting already, so I’d better hurry up and add my golden syrup – this is going to –

H: Mine’s taking a little bit longer, but I imagine it’s ‘cause Lotty was more prepared than me. [Lotty laughs] Which is a rarity! Just to put it out there, normally I’m the prepared one.

L: This might be a first!

H: This time Lotty was waiting for me, and normally I’m waiting for her [Lotty laughs] so this is new and exciting.

L: Hey! Who knows – this might be the first of many, I don’t know? It’s now 2025, maybe I’m not going to be so late anymore, you never know!

H: I’ll believe that when I see it.

L: Thanks. [Both laugh]

H: I’ve known you for what? Twenty...two years now? Coming up to twenty three? I’ll believe it when I see it. [Hannah laughs]

L: Yeah, that’s completely fair. Um...

H: However, on the topic of [golden syrup squelches] Fudge ups, I thought we might get on with it, just because one of the fudge ups I’ve managed to do this past week is – for anybody who doesn’t know, I have an ex-race greyhound called Olly, he’s very lovely, if you hear footsteps it’s because he’s walking around the kitchen trying to figure out how he can get Digestives off the counter (but he won’t climb up, don’t worry, he’s trying to consider if it’s worth the attempt, don’t blame him for that. But earlier this week, I decided to sit on the bed with him, and I was giving him kisses and cuddles, and so I looked down to give him a kiss on his head, and at the moment that I looked down to give him a kiss on his head, he also looked up, and headbutted me – and in the process of headbutting me, I put my tooth through my lip, it started bleeding, it was a whole thing, it was awful [L: ouch] – I was just trying to give the dog some affection, and it just went really badly for me [L: aw no] I’m not best pleased with my performance! [L: No!] and I reckon he probably had mild concussion. We were both just looking at each other like “oh my god, what have we done?”

L: Oh dear.

H: because we’re both as ditzy as one another.

L: Ok that is my golden syrup in, I’ve lost track of how much is in there so I don’t know whether that’s actually however much [H: The right amount] golden syrup needs to be in there, I’m measuring this with my heart – which is my favourite way of cooking, and is often not compatible with baking! Baking usually is quite scientific, this I think you can kind of just... wing it, a little bit? Which is great. I’m also going to add in my cocoa powder now, and I’m trying something with this: so back at Christmastime, Hannah came down to visit me for a couple days, which was super lovely, and we went shopping at the outlet shops near me, and we were looking at Whittards (the hot chocolate place) and Hannah saw a gingerbread hot chocolate – and Hannah loves gingerbread, it’s her favourite thing, but she’s not always so keen on hot drinks, and so I said to her “You know what? I will just buy this, we can try it when we get back to mine. If you like it, you can keep it, if you don’t like it, I’ll keep it.” I quite like it. And I thought, you know what? I’m going to try making the fridge-cake-bars with this gingerbread, and we’re going to run with this gingerbread tiffin theme, I suppose, and so instead of buying Digestives, I’m going to try this with Ginger Nuts, and see what happens.

H: Oooh, that’s fun!

L: It’s a very different texture – it might be that it breaks my jaw, who knows! But it might also be super yummy so I’m going to see how it turns out!

H: I’m intrigued, that’s fun! Yeah, Lotty didn’t tell me about this, so this is a surprise for me [Lotty laughs] and I’m kind of pissed that I’m not seeing you for like, another three weeks, because I want that.

L: If this works out, I’ve still got more cocoa powder, so I can make more when you come down!

H: Love that. So what was your fudge up? [L: Oh god! [laughs]] I know one of your fudge ups, but I don’t know which one you’re going to share! [Hannah laughs]

L: Um... mine happened this week in the office. On Fridays we have more casual wear into the office, although everyone kind of just wears casual stuff anyway, and I was in a little bit of a rush Friday morning, so I just grabbed the first pair of black jeans that I could find that were clean. I got to the office, all was right with the world, I got started on work, yadda-yadda... I get to 10:30 and take a little break, and I notice that my jeans have a hole – two holes – in very awkward places. And I’ve just been walking around with holes in my crotch! For like 4 hours, because I started work at 7:30 ... and so that was fun. No one commented, which was ... good? I kind of wish someone had told me, because then I just had to pretend my jeans weren’t actively falling apart, all day!

H: At least you noticed at like 10, that’s not so bad as if you’d only noticed when you’d got home.

L: No that’s very true. I debated going to the shops at lunchtime, and buying a new pair of jeans, but I think it would have been weirder to change jeans halfway through the day.

H: I mean, I don’t know what I would have done either, I think I would have just gone for it to be honest... I mean...

L: I just didn’t use my standing desk for the day. I was just like “Y’know what, I’m just gonna sit. It’s fine.” [H: “I’m just gonna sit nicely!”] Yeah. “Nothing to see!” Umm. Ok, so this mix is all nice and melted. It’s very runny.

H: It is, so now you need to wait

L: Oh you wait! Ok.

H: It’ll be really really runny, like it’ll be... like, runnier than melted chocolate.

L: Ok. Do I need to turn this off then?

H: Yep, turn it off – You need to leave it to cool a little bit, because otherwise, as I have learned in previous years by fucking this up: you don’t put everything in straight away because what’ll happen then is that the marshmallows will melt. [L: Ohh] And you want them to melt slightly, but you don’t want them to melt so much that they start to separate the chocolate.

L: This is why I’m glad I’m making it with you. Because otherwise I would have definitely just gone “La-di-dah” and poured it straight in, and everything would have melted.

H: Well we all know that I only know that because I’ve done it. And therefore it’s fine! [Both laugh]

H: So, this episode we wanted to offer you is all about slow resolutions. And this has come about with a couple of conversations that we’ve had, and a couple of things that we’ve done recently, and it’s January, it’s the new year, there’s this like: “Oh, you have to change your whole life! And you have to do everything differently! And you have to do this – and have to eat healthy – and you have to go to the gym, and all of that!” and like, it’s nice to start afresh, but you need to do it mindfully. Because if you do it in a rush, or a panic or a state of frenzy, you’ll struggle to keep up with it. If you put things into your system and your routine that are so much harder because they are so different to where you started, it can be a lot easier to give up. So therefore, we’re going with slow resolutions, that’s where we are. We’re all about building gradual habits, rather than the “New Year, New Me” mindset. The idea that you can restart at any time, you don’t have to wait for Monday, you don’t have to wait for next month, you don’t have to wait for payday, you don’t have to wait for whatever – you can just, wake up one morning and decide that “This morning, I want to do things a little bit differently. This week, I want to just make sure that I’m being a little bit more active, so I’m going to get off the bus one stop early.” Or whatever it might look like for you? That’s more than valid. And every step you take forward, no matter how small, will always count. Don’t beat yourself up about things, slow gradual things end up building bigger progress in the long run. If you take the same small step every day for 365 days, you’ll get so much further than jumping every day for 14 days.

L: Absolutely. I’ve always personally struggled with the idea of new year resolutions because first of all, people always ask you right at the beginning, and then you’re put on the spot and I don’t think on the spot very much, I don’t enjoy doing that, so it’s never been something that I’d stick to. It’s also the kind of thing that it’s very easy to get intimidated at the start of the year, if you set yourself a really lofty goal for a period of time that you can’t really see into, like “I’m going to go to the gym, five days a week and do an hour every day!” and then you turn up on January 2nd to the gym, and everyone within a 30-mile radius has had the same idea as you, you go “oh great, there’s no space, and I don’t actually know what I’m doing.” And so that’s going to immediately create this negativity towards this goal that you’ve just set. In the meantime, saying “This week I’m going to go swimming on Thursday, and I’m going to try going swimming on Thursday next week if Thursdays work for me, if not I’m going to try Wednesday” and working your way through to find what works for you, and then once you’ve got your Thursday evening swim established, go “that’s great, I want to go for a swim on Monday evenings as well, let’s see how that goes” and that slow build up also then helps you build up your stamina with this example for swimming but also just helps you build it into your routine rather than starting immediately and panicking – and I mean, some people can just go “you know what, I’m going to just do the gym, and I’m gonna go.” And they’re very driven and very motivated. And they’re very disciplined. I think to be honest a lot of people also maybe make that mistake of Discipline versus Motivation, and they think that they’re both the same thing, you need both, Discipline when you’re forming these kind of habits is more important: Dragging yourself to the gym even though you don’t want to go, because you know it’ll make you feel better; rather than dragging yourself to the gym even though you don’t want to go because you told yourself you would six months ago. One of these feels a lot nicer to yourself, and it’s... it’s the first one. Be nice to yourself.

H: Exactly. A good example on the fitness side of things is that this year I want to be more active. Now, I’m definitely a girly who likes the SMART goals, and whatever other acronym you want to use, where it’s like you make sure it’s measurable and achievable, and... results orientated...

L: Is it like... Specific, Time... Achievable, Measureable... I’ve forgotten how you spell S-M-A-R-T...

H: Well, you started with S – T, so that’s not -- ! [Both dissolve into laughter] I think you got all the letters, but like... So we – I’m definitely a SMART Goals girly, especially at work, because that’s a really good way for me to measure my progress and be very clear. Now I’ve in the past had the habit of then being a bit too overzealous with those goals and been like “Yeah, I can totally go to the gym 5 days a week!” which I can, I can! In the past I used to go four-five times a week, every week without fail. But, now, in this part of life that I’m in where we have a dog, which is a commitment that requires at least an hour of input from me a day, and recovering from a car accident that was two years ago, it’s like, I need to be more mindful about how I choose to go about these things, because otherwise I’m going to end up doing more harm than good. So, I want to be more active, compared to last year. I will have an actionable target there – I have a Samsung smart watch I wear every day, so I can see how many steps I’ve done, roughly how active I’ve been in the year prior, and that’s what I’m trying to beat. I’m not trying to be at the gym four days a week, or running, or whatever – I don’t really care what activities that means I pick up this year, provided I just try something. It might be that I try swimming and I realise that swimming’s not that good for my back, or, I don’t like swimming because I don’t like the effort that I have to do with my hair afterwards – which might be the case, I’ve never been a girl to care about her hair, or getting wet, but now my hair takes fucking hours, and I just don’t know if I can be arsed!

L: I mean, there’s always things like swim caps – but additionally, swimming is – I love swimming, I will just put that out there – it’s fantastic low impact for your body, so it might be that’s exactly what you need, equally it might not work for you, you never know. I like it, because I struggle with things like running, I always have, but swimming I’ve always enjoyed because it’s less stress for my body. And so I can work with that and I can set myself much more measurable goals than if I’m just running on a treadmill and hating my life... I just. It works for me, I feel much more at home in the water, I’m an advocate for it!

H: I mean, so do I, I love swimming, I’ve always loved swimming, but I don’t know how likely it is for me to consistently swim, taking into condition all the things I’d have to do with my hair before and after, the fact that I would have to come home and wash my hair with other things because I can’t leave chlorine in my hair any more, whereas I would have showered anyway but I also – a couple of years ago – wouldn’t have cared that much? Whereas now I’m doing a really good job of taking care of my hair, and it’s so much more curly than it ever used to be, because I’m taking care of it properly so the idea of giving that up makes me feel a bit odd? But I am going to try it, that is one of the plans – I don’t have to get my hair wet if I don’t want to, I can just be wise about it.

L: Yeah, like swim caps, you know?

H: Exactly, or I just don’t put my head under the water and can just do breaststroke, it doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re there and as long as you’re trying.

L: Exactly.

H: For me, I think it’s going to be eventually just a combination of different activities, because that will keep me engaged. And I’ve struggled with the gym in the past because it feels too same-y same-y? all the time, and then after a while I’m like “Well, I don’t really know why I’m doing this. Like I’m getting stronger, for what? I don’t know what I’m training for.” and that’s what I’ve struggled with in the past. But I would like to get back to weightlifting, because I used to love it, and since the accident I’ve just ... my confidence is gone, I’m so scared of making everything worse, I don’t want to risk anything, so I wouldn’t even try and squat something that I used to squat, or deadlift something I used to deadlift without really thinking about it, I’m so much more aware of my body and so much more aware of hurting myself. So it’s something I want to build my confidence back up in, but that will take time. And I want to do more yoga, or pilates, or stretching-based exercises, that I find are also kind of meditative for me, so that’s where I’m going to go with it so far, and I will check in with the podcast as we go, but I don’t want to put this “This year I’m going to the gym, de-de-de...” No, this year, I want to be more active, I don’t care how that’s made up, whether that means Olly and I go for a really long walk every other weekend, or however this ends up working out for me, but it’s more of a slow resolution. If it takes me all year to get to some kind of routine that I’m happy with, then that’s what I’m aiming for. It’s not an overnight change.

L: And I think that’s exactly the point that we’ve been talking about. Hannah and I started something called a Round Tuit (Round To It) List, tail end of last year, for 2025. Now, the concept of a “Round Tuit” is a family in-joke of mine, where it was something my Nanna used to say: “They were a very rare breed, round tuits, you could get square ones easily at the shops but you couldn’t get round ones.” Um, so... [both laugh] Actually. One second – one second. My Nanna used to have this [plate] in her kitchen. [H: I love that. I absolutely love that.] [Lotty laughs]. I adore it, it’s a whole family in-joke. And so, Hannah and I were talking last year about making something of all the things that we’ve needed to Get Around To for goodness knows how long, and we wrote it all down and Hannah made me sign it – and she didn’t let me get out the car until I’d signed this [laughs] this document!

H: I wrote it like a contract and er... [both laugh] But basically we sat in the car, and this was after we’d been shopping, and it was a really nice evening and it was like 1 am, and we were sat in the car outside Lotty’s flat, and I was like: “You keep talking about all these things you need to get round to, and then, (lovingly) you don’t do them. [Lotty laughs] So how about we just write a list of them, and you’re gonna sign this, and we’re going to keep each other accountable for the things that we said we’re gonna do – we’re going to do them!” And so far – she’s fucking smashing it! Both of us.

L: We both are. There’s something I ought to add here, is that it wasn’t just my Round To It’s, these are Hannah’s as well, this was a joint effort. And it was things that we’ve both been putting off, or things that we’re a bit nervous about, and so we’re basically A. Holding each other accountable, and B. Cheering each other on. And it’s so lovely knowing that I’ve – that Hannah’s got my back, when I need to do these things, and some of them are hard things, and some of them are just arduous. And I know – that She knows that I have her back, basically.

H: it means that we can keep on top of each other in a very nice way [Lotty giggles] But either way, our Round To It List has been a very good place to kickstart us having conversations about what we’re trying to achieve [L: Exactly] And there are things that we just can’t quite get to, or are difficult or a bit more time-consuming – or even something that you just want somebody to hold your hand through, there’s nothing wrong with that. So it’s really nice to have that support.

L: Yeah. Doing something big as an adult for the first time is a very scary thing, and it’s really much easier when you know you’ve got someone next to you – even if they don’t know what you’re doing, or what they’re doing either – just the fact that you’re both going hand-in-hand into darkness together is so much easier and I’m being dramatic there, but it’s just nicer doing something when you know that if you get scared you’ve got someone there. Adulthood is full of lots of big decisions and big journeys – and like, there are so many more that we are going to be on, so... it’s nice knowing that when you have to do something for the first time it’s ok to be scared, and it’s even more ok that you don’t need to do it alone. That’s something that I’m trying to teach myself – because I’ve grown up with hyper-independent parents, who have then taught me to be hyper-independent – save for their loving smothering, because I am an only child – and so all of there attention was just laser-focused on me! But it means that outside of that, I didn’t really learn how to ask for help when I was a kid and a teenager and so now as a young adult I have to learn how to ask for help. And I have to also learn that it is not as scary as up here (gestures to brain) makes it seem. So that’s the other part of the Round To It list is – these are also things that Hannah and I have gone “Ok, these are scary to do on our own – these are scary things, that we don’t really know how to ask questions with.” And just having reinforcements essentially just makes it a lot... maybe not easier, but a lot more bearable.

H: Exactly. I mean, friendship, camaraderie, just having somebody who you can... I can’t understate how great our friendship is, and this is a very similar conversation that we’ve had many times in the last couple months (and we both cried, so I’m going to try not to make us cry on the internet, I will try!) But the friendship that we have is so special, and I hope that the people listening also have friendships like this  - and I do have other friendships in my life that aren’t just Lotty that are also [L: Oh yeah, ditto] valuable and different in their own ways, just to not be like “This is my Only Friend!” I promise she’s not my only friend, I love her to pieces, she’s not my only friend! But the kind of relationship that we have, we only have – not only because of the time that we’ve been friends, but the work that we’ve put in to deal with negative circumstances and differences, and worked through things. We’ve had some very different life experiences, or similar life experiences at different points, and so sometimes when you’re a teenage or very early in your twenties, that can drive you apart from people because they don’t get you: and we went through a little bit of that where we didn’t quite get each other anymore – which was odd, because we used to like basically finish each other’s sentences.

L: We used to essentially be in-sync, as kids!

H: Exactly, so it was quite difficult for us to navigate that, but I am so grateful that we have gone through not understanding each other and not being hateful, or resentful, or awful to one another, which is a testament to the fact that we’ve always cared about each other even if we weren’t on the best terms, we’ve always gotten through it. Always. And I know that you’re a friend I’m going to have for the rest of my life, there is nothing, barring Death, that is going to take you away from me! So like –

L: Absolutely.

H: It’s a really valuable friendship that we have, and I think that sometimes friendship can be portrayed as this magical thing where you do pottery painting together, and you do all these fun activities, and you go for a girly picnic, and it’s all cute and fun and lovely all the time, always! And it’s just not. We’re going to be frustrated with each other, but the – working through it, and continuing to understand each other above all else and listen, has always meant- and led us back to where we are now.

L: Don’t get me wrong, we still do the cute picnics and the pottery painting stuff, but I think Friendship is often portrayed as easy, no effort, you don’t have to think about it. And actually, you do, but it’s less that you have to put in the effort and more that you Want to because this is – maybe this is your Person, or one of your People. You put in the effort because it is worth the effort. They are worth the effort for you to love them, and you are worth the effort for them to love you, you know? [H: 1000 per cent.] Yeah. And that’s absolutely crucial. Like, yeah you can have easy breezy friends, but to get something as deep and meaningful that Hannah and I have, that’s taken a hell of a lot of work, but it’s been worth every single step, it’s been worth every single frustration that I’m sure both of us have had over the years! And it’ll always be worth it, because that’s who we are, and that’s who we’ve worked very hard to be for each other.

H: And you know, I wouldn’t replace this for the world, because there are not many people on this planet who I can text and be like: “I’m reading things in my gynaecology book and oh my god! [both laugh] You need to know this because why don’t we know this about our own bodies?!” – this is coming up in a future episode, we’re going to discuss this topic –

L: Yeah, that’s a teaser.

H: Gynaecology, and like sexual health, and all these kids of things, because I’ve been reading about it a lot. This conversation is coming, I will not bring it up right now, but it’s – stay tuned. Stay tuned. I think we’re ready to mix everything in!

L: Amazing.

H: So I’m going to put my marshmallows in with my Digestives...

L: Ok, I’m going to do that with my Ginger Nuts

H: And just going to mix those in slightly before I add in the chocolate. [L: Mmhm.] I mean, this looks yummy as it is.

L: I’ve gone for very colourful marshmallows. And I love that I’ve gone for colourful marshmallows, because... I don’t know, I just felt like it – and they were also the first ones that I found. I went into this shop, and was like “This is a really small shop, I don’t know if they’re going to have marshmallows...” They did, they had a huge bag! I didn’t need that many marshmallows, but this just means I’m going to have really decadent hot chocolate for the next... like, month or so basically.

H: [scraping sounds] So I’m just scraping it all out of my pan... [taps spoon on side of bowl]

L: Let’s pour that in... Lovely. [small clatter]

H: And then just combining it all... this looks so good. [Lotty giggles.]

L: Yeah...

H: I have died and gone to chocolate heaven!

L: [Laughs] Quote of the episode.

H: And now, the difficult thing is we’re going to have to wait for these to set, and I’m going to hate that so goddamn much!

L: It’s the only problem with this recipe, is it is unfortunately not instant. You do not get magical instant results. But – I do also think that that’s a very valuable metaphor for what we’ve just been talking about, where like – you know, you have to take the time, you have to let yourself wait, you have to let yourself rest, and then what comes out at the end, after that time you have put in, is worth it.

H: And also like. If you’re living at university, or whatever, and you don’t have access to an oven, or you’re a bit nervous about cooking or like, it’s kind of new to you. I genuinely think you could probably do this with a microwave, provided you slowly and regularly checked the butter mixture [L: Oh yeah] in the microwave. So this is a very low- to no- equipment thing, the only thing you have to remember is to get all your fucking frustration out by bashing the fuck out of biscuits!

L: That’s pretty much it, and even that’s not a hard thing to remember. Um, I think I’m going to take a little picture of that, because... Oh. It smells so good! The gingerbread hot chocolate – it smells really really good!

H: I think this is going to end up being more than one tin for me, to be honest, I’m [Lotty laughs] not upset about that!

L: “Oh no, you’ve made too much! What a tragedy!” [laughs]

H: Exactly, it’s the worst possible outcome –

L: - is having too much chocolate-y, biscuit-y, marshmallow-y goodness. I am going to see what happens when I pour it in.

H: and the other thing, that you have to do, is you have to really compact it. Because if you don’t compact it, it won’t hold together, and you’ll cut it open, and it will all just crumble. Which is still delicious, it won’t change the taste – but you do need it to be a bit more squidged in together.

L: You want it to be bars, rather than like trail mix, basically.

H: Oh shit, this is definitely going to need a second tin [Lotty laughs] I’ve got like, loads left.

L: I think I’ve managed to make pretty much the perfect amount for this dish, actually. So I’m very happy with that. I’m really hoping that using this silicone sheet is going to work, I forgot to buy parchment paper, and so we’re using a silicone sheet, that I’ve never actually used before, because Hannah bought this for me just after my oven decided to explode.

H: Oh my god, yeah I did!

L: We’d made croissants for breakfast, and the oven was not turning off [laughs]. And so we just turned it off at the wall. And like – I’m getting a new one.

H: Did I jinx it?

L: No, no no, because it was already on its way out, you remember the dial? Already wasn’t – I was already having trouble turning it off, and I thought it was just a quirk, and I’d fix it at some point in the new year, and the oven said “No, you’re dealing with this now.”

H: it was a lovely Christmas present.

L: Oh yeah. My previous house – the oven did that to me right at Mother’s day, when I was supposed to be hosting, so [through gritted teeth] that was fun. But anyway. So two days afterwards, we’d been talking about baking sheets and more sustainable kitchen swaps, and this package arrived on my doorstep that was – interestingly, had my address, and had Hannah’s name on it. And I thought “Huh, that’s interesting.” And I opened it – and I think I might have messaged you in all caps, because I was so excited, [H: Yeah, you did.] because there was a series of baking sheets, silicone baking sheets, which I’d been meaning to buy for a long time, and a little silicone baking mitt, and now, I got so excited about the prospect of using them that for a moment I forgot that my oven didn’t work. But it has meant that I do kind of value the oven a lot more, after having not had it for a while, and it’s also made me think about the kind of equipment that I do need in my kitchen.

H: My recommendation was – and this comes from another conversation of accountability and having someone you can message, and be like “is this normal? Is this ok? Can I use this” [Lotty laughs. Mic feedback] Is that I got a lovely message from Lotty that said: “The inside of my microwave is rusty, does that mean I can’t use it?” and I was like: “Oh my god, please don’t put anything in it!” [Laughs] Like: “No-no-no-no-no—” So we were having a conversation about this the other night when we were planning out the episode, and we got distracted, as we usually do, and we got distracted on the topic of air fryers, because I have one, I’ve had one for – a couple years, I would say, actually? – and I love mine so much, because we’re only a household of two, but half the time I cook by myself or eat by myself, so I don’t need to make loads of food. And the oven is quite a lot of energy to use to make two cookies because I want some cookies. But the air fryer, I can make cookies in the air fryer, and I can only make two cookies in the air fryer, and it doesn’t use anywhere near as much energy. So we started talking about the option of getting an air fryer instead of a microwave because my air fryer also reheats things.

L: Let’s be honest, I clearly don’t use it enough if I hadn’t noticed it was going rusty.

H: No, you clearly don’t use it enough.

L: I mean – this will probably sound very strange, but I grew up in a house that did not have a microwave. I had not used one until I was fifteen. [Hannah snorts] I didn’t know how they worked. I think my Nana had once tried to teach me how to make scrambled eggs in the microwave and they’d gone so dry that I thought “right, I’m never using that thing again.” And I must have been about six at this point.

H: That’s definitely a “Your Nana” thing, because my Nana made me – my nana... My Nanny, makes the best eggs in a microwave, so that’s not a universal thing.

L: No. I love my Nana to pieces, but her taste is very different to mine. And so yeah. Anyway. I didn’t use a microwave myself until I was 15 and I tried reheating – or cooking peas in the microwave for the first time, when I was doing a summer school, and I cooked them for how long it said on the thing, I cooked them for two minutes in the water, and they came out and they were still frozen. I thought “Oh. I should have just cooked these on the hob, never mind.” And so what’s the point in having one, if I’m not going to use it?

H: No, not if you’d use an air fryer more.

L: Most of the time I’m solo, and so it’s easier for me to just cook for one. And it’s quite hard cooking for one in an oven, you want to cook more, essentially because you have more space. So yeah. Right [mic feedback] I’m going to pop this in the fridge. Check it off your bingo cards, we have an Olly!

H: You’ve been very good! Sit. Sit. Good boy. Can I has your paw-paw? I do make him jump up at me on purpose so you can see him, because otherwise I think you basically just see a little snoot. Go on – alright, off the counter – good boy! Good boy! That’s my baby! That’s my baby! Go on then. You’ve been very good. Good boy. I reckon you got a really nice out loud hearing of [mimics eating sounds]

L: Greyhound ASMR there

H: Exactly. But I think it’s about time in the episode where we cover our Fresh Finds.

L: I’ve been following a creator on YouTube for quite a while, called Ian Fujimoto, who is based out in Texas, and he does very chill, easy-going recipes – mostly inspired by Japanese food I think? But he also just does a bunch of different things. And he’s recently started writing these recipes down on his SubStack, and I’ve subscribed to that, found this absolutely astronomically good soup, that I made, and I can’t stop talking about it because it was so good – it’s his Chicken Gnocchi Soup. I will add a link to the video in the description box, because Oh my god, it’s so good ! it’s just – I’ve been doing a lot of soups, this Soup Season. I don’t normally do a lot, but I’ve been expanding my repertoire and I’ve been doing ones with chorizo and Spanish spices, I’ve done turkey meatballs... the Chicken Gnocchi? Wins. It’s so good. It’s so easy. I love it. So that’s my Fresh Find!

H: And my Fresh Find is not sponsored – but I imagine we’ve not had any sponsorships I don’t know if that’s obvious by the fact that we’ve just started or anything, and the slow progression and improvements that has been happening – so just thought I’d put it out there that nobody’s paid me to say anything – but we started HelloFresh, as part of the New Year. Again, slow resolutions, eating healthier, I didn’t realistically see us going to the food shop every week and buying loads of vegetables when half the time we go to the little local Tesco Express across the road because it’s 7pm and we’ve forgotten that we might actually need to eat today! So [both giggle] I didn’t see us suddenly going to Tesco pre-emptively, or thinking about all the things that we needed to eat, and we have quite different schedules in this house, so that can make it quite complicated. But, we decided to start and give HelloFresh a go. It’s been really good – the food is really good, it’s a decent portion size, you get all the recipe cards and all the ingredients you need for those recipes barring usual kitchen essentials, i.e. they’re not going to send you a little sachet of sugar, they’re not going to send you water, they’re not going to send you oil or salt & pepper. But specific spices, they’ll send those to you and crème fraiche and everything else, and it reduces food waste by only sending what you need for the recipe so you don’t end up having a big tub of crème fraiche that you only needed a third of, and have nothing else to use it for. so that’s been really good, and not having to consider what we make for dinner or what we need and do we have it and all of those things, has removed so much decision fatigue for me, and my partner, and we’re loving it so far. We’ll keep you updated as to whether we keep it up, because the idea was to do it until the end of February, so we’ll see if we keep it going after that. But so far so good. I’m just absolutely loving it.

L: It sounds amazing, I’ve seen a couple of the recipes that Hannah and her partner have been making and honestly they look lovely, it looks genuinely really delicious and it looks very easy to follow, so yeah! Again, not sponsored, but I dunno, HelloFresh? [laughs]

H: I mean, Lotty would love to try it, so if you wanted to like... slide something our way [Lotty laughs] then something could go towards her, that would be great. Because I’ve genuinely loved trying things that I wouldn’t normally necessarily eat and I’m quite a picky eater, so me being like “Hmm, I don’t know if I’ll like that but I’m going to try it anyway” is like a huge thing for me!

L: Yeah that’s amazing. Honestly Hannah, I’m super proud of you for doing that, because it’s scary trying new things sometimes, so go you!

H: Woohoo, woohoo! [Lotty laughs] So now we’re going to do some fun movie – podcast magic, where we go away and do whatever we’re gonna do for the rest of the evening! And then we’ll come back to you in the morning when the sun’s out, and dust them in icing sugar, and give our bars a try, so pop yours in the fridge, leave them, walk away, go do whatever you want, go have some me time, go have a glass of wine, whatever it is that you need, go do that, and then come back to them later! They’re the best.

L: Absolutely. So we’ll see you tomorrow!

L: Welcome back, it’s been a little over 24 hours, and hopefully our fridge bars are ready for the big reveal!

H: Yep, and I mean, nothing’s changed for you, but we’ve changed clothes, we’ve done things... you know. We’re not interested in the movie magic of wearing the same clothes again, so here we are! Next day, ready to cut our fridge bars open – I may or may not have been unable to wait... the entire... 24 hours before we were recording the next bit... [Lotty laughs] and because I had two, I cut into one of them and tried it. So I already know it’s delicious.

L: Well, that’s good

H: But I’ll get mine out of the fridge and we can have a look.

L: Ta-dah!

H: Oh, you were so much better than me at like, being patient though, so no-one is surprised that you waited and I didn’t!

L: Well, honestly it was a near thing, because I really wanted to try it when I woke up this morning. And I deliberately made sure to stay out most of today so I wouldn’t just... sneak into the fridge at one point or another, so [giggles] yeah.

H: Well, you know. I don’t have that kind of resolve. So [Lotty laughs] I tried it already, I know it’s delicious, and we’ll... you know, I didn’t even put icing sugar on it, I wanted to make sure that I did this separately, so I’m going to dust mine with icing sugar. Lift it out of the container, this might be the bit that is difficult – Olly is intrigued.

L: This is the moment of truth. To see whether using a silicone sheet was a good idea, hang on... hang on...! there we go! And it came out in one piece!

H: Woohoo!

L: It is quite stuck to the silicone.

H: Well, at least we’d tried the silicone, and therefore we know for sure whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea.

L: I don’t know whether it was a bit of a risk, but it was definitely ... somewhat unorthodox. You’d use baking paper normally. But I did not have it, because I forgot to put it on my shopping list, and if it’s not on the shopping list it doesn’t get bought.

H: [giggles] in typical Lotty fashion, she forgot something!

L: Yeah! [laughs]

H: I’m not surprised. Notice the lack of surprise in my voice! Right. I’m just going to take that out, I’m just going to move this one out of the way, and chop the other one up.

L: I will say though, Hannah. This time I at least didn’t forget any ingredients, because that has been known to happen. Frequently. On this channel.

H: Yeah we’ve had to do some substitutions on the fly.

L: Hey, I always say [H: when...] if a Jazz musician can do it so can I. And that is improvise. I’m great at improvising.

H: Right, Olly honey, you can’t have this, baby, so you’re going to have to move out of the way so Mummy can try it. The look of disdain that I’m getting from my greyhound, I wish you could see it. You can like, just about see his eyes – let me just – it’s not for you! It’s Mummy’s! Yes. You can’t have chocolate, it’ll kill you. Can Mummy get to the cupboard, or can Mummy go this way? [both laugh] I’m glad I tilted the angle for you to all witness the greyhound refusing to move, because that is a typical trait – go on, move! Good boy. Good boy!

L: Greyhounds as I’ve learned, have two modes: Unstoppable force, and immovable object. [laughs]

H: Yeah, that’s a pretty good summary! That’s a pretty good summary. He doesn’t really do anything else. [laughs]

L: No. Right – I – are we ready to try this? I know you’ve tried it already, I’ve just sneaked a bit of biscuit that um... well, it made a break for it, so I had to eat it, you know? It’s just the way of the world.

H: Yeah, [L: look at this!] let’s give it a go!

L: That is actually really quite beautiful to look at. Love it... [contemplative silence as both eat]

H: Mmm. Mmhm.

L: Hannah – I have to make this for you. [Both laugh.] Oh. It’s so good – it’s all like, gingerbread-y and crunchy, oh this is great!

H: The problem with this ... particular sweet treat, is it’s so moreish. You finish a slice and you’re like “I’ll have one more.”

L: Yeah, it’s dangerously good. So notes from mine: Ginger biscuits, Ginger Nuts work really nicely. Flavoured hot chocolate, like cocoa powder, works really nicely. And I will absolutely be making these again in the near future.

H: I forgot how easy this was to do.

L: I know! These also are not coming with me to the office, so my apologies to my colleagues, this is all mine!

H: I will be eating this by myself, thank you very much! [FUNKY THEME MUSIC FADES IN, CONTINUES PLAYING IN BACKGROUND] While Lotty finishes her mouthful, I thought it might be a good idea to implement in our episodes going forwards our final takeaways. So this is just a section where we will quickly cover two or three, maybe four bullet points at most of our main things that we want you to take away from this episode. So for this episode: Slower self-improvement is more likely to be successful at habit forming. Finding someone who can hold you accountable if you can, is invaluable. Or make your own Round To It List, and share it with us! We’ll have a template for this on our website. Be kind to yourself! Change is hard, and it takes time. Being cruel to yourself won’t make anything easier, better, or more likely to happen. In fact, a positive attitude is more likely to make you succeed than a negative one.

L: Couldn’t have put it better myself – mostly because I flubbed my lines. It’s so hard to be nice to yourself sometimes, but it is honestly the best thing you can do, is just give yourself that virtual hug that you really really need. And be gentle with yourself, ok? Like, we go through enough shit as it is throughout life, you don’t need to give yourself more shit.

H: And with that all said, I will let Lotty lead us on to our Outro

L: Yeah! So you can find us on Instagram at Flour_Power_Podcast, we post on there semi-regularly. We also have a website where you’ll find all the episode transcripts, and all the recipes that we use, and any particular notes that we have, so if we mess something up during recording and we fix it later, we’ll make a note of that. We also have little bonus things on there, so keep your eye out for that. You can listen on pretty much any platform you are able to get your podcasts on, so we upload through YouTube and Spotify primarily, we also have an RSS feed, and you can listen to us directly through the website if that works better for you. We have been Flour Power, I’m Lotty, that’s Hannah – and we will see you next episode!

BOTH: Bye!!