Merry Christmas to all my readers! I hope you had a great day yesterday and have some time to relax and enjoy spending time with loved ones this week. We were able to visit both my family and my husband's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - including seeing his nephews and my one-month-old niece - and I've been thoroughly spoilt in terms of presents (my husband did good: Mulberry, Lulu Guinness and Ted Baker boxes were all under the tree - not handbags but a wallet, a vanity case and shoes). My sister gave me something cool - a Blog Planner...
Monday, December 26, 2016
Thursday, December 22, 2016
As I mentioned when I posted about my Christmas cake, I was sent a selection of cupcake toppers from My Cupcake Toppers for review. You can order icing or rice paper toppers with pictures of anything from Christmas to Eid to baby shower, Disney princesses or football teams or even Breaking Bad, the TV show. Prices start at £1.20 for 12 standard rice paper cupcake toppers up to £6 for ones made of icing. As well as that, you can design your own...
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Every year I say I'm going to make a Christmas cake and Stir Up Sunday comes and goes (I'm never sure if that is just for Christmas puddings or Christmas cake as well), and then by the time I am ready to do it, it's only a week or so before Christmas. The idea of a Christmas cake - essentially a rich fruit cake - is that you soak the fruit in booze (usually brandy) and then feed the cake with more alcohol over several weeks. So it's not really something...
Monday, December 19, 2016
I can't believe it's Christmas next week!
The year has really flown by, with one obvious major highlight - I got married in June! Which seems such a long time ago now... the last few weeks and even months have been so busy, I'm hoping things will settle down a bit in the new year.
Where are you all spending Christmas? We are going backwards and forwards between my family and my in-laws which means I'm not cooking this year. Normally I'd at least...
Sunday, December 18, 2016
I made this anniversary card for my parents using some very quick shortcuts - it looks like it would have taken a lot longer than it did!
I think I got this pack of three rolls of tape from The Works - the intricate patterns are really nice and the tape just needs peeling and cutting off to the right length, it's so easy!
I used the tape to make a border along the top and bottom of the card, and used a heart topper...
Saturday, December 17, 2016
I've made broccoli and stilton soup before but not used Cheddar in it. I decided to try another recipe from 'America's Most Wanted Recipes' - I went through a bit of a phase of using this book a few months back - and like many of the recipes in this book, it called for velveeta cheese. You can't get this in the UK and after reading a description online I decided that Cheddar was relatively close in flavour and texture.
Unusually, as broccoli soup...
Friday, December 16, 2016
The Sonoran is a desert in Arizona and this pasta dish is described in 'America's Most Wanted Recipes' as 'dressed in a spicy Southwestern cheese sauce'. As usual I did my own take on it, leaving out ingredients I don't like (jalapeno peppers and black beans) which probably changed the recipe a fair bit, and I couldn't get hold of the American velveeta cheese in the ingredients list, but I really liked the way this turned out -...
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Back in the summer I had a lesson at the London Barbecue School with a group of other bloggers, courtesy of Branston Pickle, which you can read about here. We tried out a few recipes and this is one I decided to try at home.
These chicken tacos have added zing from Sweet Chilli Branston Pickle - I love sweet chilli chicken so even though the recipe on the Branston website said to use the regular small chunk pickle I decided this one would be...
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
It's been a couple of years since I've had time to make my own Christmas cards - at least. This year I had a week off work in November to use up annual leave and spent most of the week tackling tasks around the house, but I did allow myself one whole day to do fun things - and spent a good part of that day making cards.
I've mentioned before that I got a great discount on a three-month subscription to three different card making...
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
I haven't actually done any proper baking for ages - I've been far too busy at work and with other things to do at home. Since I treated myself to the latest Great British Bake Off cookery book recently I realised I wasn't going to have a lot of chance to bake from it so decided to try one of the savoury recipes. I was intrigued by this roasted vegetable pie which used cashews as a form of protein, and decided to make it but change some of the...
Monday, December 12, 2016
This week there is a planned train strike. I only live about 9 miles from where I work but it takes at least an hour and a quarter to commute each way - often much longer, thanks to the disaster that is Southern Trains. So many trains are cancelled or delayed, and I've lost count of how many strikes there have been so far this year - it's unbelievable. Luckily most strikes have been conductors rather than drivers, which means most (but not all) of my trains have been running. However, this week there are three days of drivers strikes...
Friday, December 9, 2016
Dreamgirls is one of the best musicals I've ever seen and you really must see it if you get the chance! Starring Amber Riley, best known as the wonderful Mercedes from Glee (yes, I'm a fan), it opened a couple of weeks ago in London's West End. I bought tickets literally the minute they went on sale at the beginning of this year and managed to get two seats in the third row for last Saturday night.
I took my mother-in-law, as she loved the Dreamgirls...
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