On My Way

Hey

I'm so excited. Today I start my holiday and yes I'm a big kid. Disneyland Resort Paris here I come!!! I'm going to try and DisneyBound everyday which definitely made my packing a lot easier.

The Colour of Minnie, If You Moust You Moust, I'm All Ears

I've also done my nails with the vintage Minnie OPI colours. I'd try out all the colours before had and decided on Colour of Minnie. It definitely stayed on my nails better which is good as I have a tendency to chip my nails as soon as I've had them done. My sisters going to have all three colours on her nails for the holiday.

xxx

Bubbling Hot

Hey

I ended up cooking today as will be away on my normal cooking night. I started with my dessert today. I made mint choc brownies from my Brownie Bliss cook book to use up the After Eights that I had unopened from Christmas. They were orange After Eights, so they ended up tasting more of orange than mint.

Mint (orange) Choc Brownie

The other thing that I loved about this brownies apart from they should taste of mint if done with normal After Eights, is that there are no nuts in them which I really don't like (I end up picking them out normally).

After the brownies were out of the oven, I then started on my beef stew and dumplings as the weather hasn't been great the last couple of days. I took along time but it was OK once the stew was in the oven. The dumplings were also good as they have no suet in it, so would be good for vegetarians.

Almost finished - just need to brown the dumplings

Finished stew - still bubbling away

xxx

Into the Open Air

Hey

So for this bank holiday, I went off to the cinema and for drinks and cakes at Carluccio's. I'd always wanted to try one of the huge meringues since I saw them when I was on placement at Chelsea and Westminster as there was a Carluccio's opposite next to the bus stop. As there were lots of amazing cakes and tarts to choose from, I ended up sharing a meringue and a rich chocolate tart with my mum.

Rich Chocolate Tart and Raspberry Meringue

We went off to the cinema afterwards to go and see the new Disney and Pixar film Brave. Although I had seen the trailer loads of times, I didn't really expect what happened to the mother to happen. It has a great soundtrack and the beautiful scenery of Scotland is captured brilliantly. Definitely deserves a watch for any Disney fan.

xxx

The Song of a Hundred Toads

Hey

So this week, I decided to cook Toad in the Hole for dinner and then melt in the middle sticky toffee puddings.

I used the recipe from a recipe book that I got for Christmas - Grandma's Best Recipes. It has lots of good traditional basic recipes in them. I don't think it turned out too bad for a first attempt.

The sticky toffee puddings I made we a bit of a cheat as they were a packet mix that you just had to add eggs too. I was slightly disappointed as they weren't as melt in the middle as I would have liked.

xxx

Cup Cakes

Hey

When I had to cook this week, I decided to try and do my interpretation of a butterbeer cupcake. I first thought about doing them after having butterbeer at the Harry Potter Tour. Earlier in the week I was googling recipes that I could combine to make the cupcakes I wanted, and whilst doing that I found on someones blog their butterbeer cupcakes. They look very sickly but also yummy, I will probably end up trying that recipe at some point.

For my butterbeer cupcakes, I initially made butterscotch cupcakes but had to use Caramac as I couldn't find butterscotch chips.



Baked butterscotch cupcakes

I then made a cinnamon glaze, and drizzled over the top of the cooled cupcakes.

Drizzled cinnamon glaze

I then made up a vanilla and crushed shortbread butter cream to top them. I however used royal icing instead of icing sugar, so I could pipe the frosting how I wanted to, I kind of had to scoop it on top in the end. They still tasted good.

The finished product!!

xxx

Omigod you guys!

Hey

So while I'm home for the summer, my sister has me being her personal photographer for her "outfits of the day" which she posts to her blog. Well she put one of the pictures from the weekend on to her instagram and then the designer of the bag that was in it (Rebecca Minkoff), shared it and now its got more than 4000 likes. Can't believe a photo that I took on my sister's phone has been seen by that many people. How cool :)

xxx

Your Name on a Grain of Rice

Hey

While I'm home for summer, I've been given a night a week where I have to cook dinner. My sister has Wednesdays (although she has been out for the last 3) and I have Thursdays although I cooked today this week.

Night I attempted to make paella for the first. The first time I tried it was last year when I was in Spain and I quite liked it minus the seafood, so I made a chicken, chorizo sausage and pepper paella. I put a bit to much stock in it this time but its a learning curve. I served it will a tomato and herb bread which I didn't make.



First attempt at Paella

It didn't look like there was as much extra stock once it had been served up.

I have also been collecting the Cake Decorating magazines, so I made an apple cake that was in issue 20 for pudding. I need to turn the oven slightly next time as I have a fan-assisted oven which temperatures were not given for, so the apples on top caught a bit.

It doesn't look to bad once it's dusted with icing sugar

xxx

Rock The Games

Hey

OMG how amazing have the Olympics been so far!!! Last Thursday I had tickets to go see the women's team foil. Team GB did OK, but the Italians just dominated everyone (kind of would expect that as they took gold, silver and bronze in the individual).

South Arena 1 - ExCel Centre

Semi-Finals

I did try to wear red, white and blue to support our team.

Me and Simon

Last night was an incredible night for British athletics, and I'm so jealous as some of my uni mates had tickets for it. Great achievements for Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford!!!

Talk about best seats in the house

And then today, Murray took gold in the men's single. He so deserved it and perhaps now he can go on and win one of the majors. Look out Wimbledon, Murray's coming next year!!

xxx

I'm Busy

Hey!!

Finally I am home for the summer and I'm not rushing off anywhere soon. For the last two weeks I've been up and down to Ascot to go to a graduation, to a flying school in Oxford, helping sorting out a hosue for an open day and off to the Excel Centre for the Olympics!!! Photos and details of my day there should follow shortly once I've got them off my camera.

I at least got to spend some time in Windsor which I do love to do. They still have the Kitchenaid I want in the cooking shop (although a different colour) and I love to spend ages in Huttons looking at all the quote frames and signs.

Windsor Castle decorated for the Olympics

 I was also hoping to get to go to Windsor at night as they are doing a light display on the castle to celebrate the GB rowing team. However someone had too much to drink last night,so couldn't take me. I really should attempt to drive up there in my little car. It's never been on a motorway :S

xxx