Henry VIII

A present from my housemate. I like teapots, but I adore Mr VIIIth. A perfect gift!

It's marvellous to be a girl...

I've had a rough couple of days...pretty horrendous to be honest. One of those weekends that makes you curse the gods for making you a woman. Cramps, nausea, mood swings, calorie counting and  frizzy unmanageable hair. The loud dance music next door and heat only exacerbate things and you just want to curl up into a ball and hibernate. Well and truly in a fettle.

Luckily Karma did me a solid. I came out of this terrible funk today and so far have had a day that has just made me love being a girl. I walked into work with my headphones on and an umbrella. I didn't even mind the drizzle, it was just nice to taste the lovely fresh air. I had the office to myself today as my boss was on holiday. I stuck my headphones in and listened to Francoise Hardy and imagined I was sitting typing up minutes somewhere more exotic.

I snuck out on my lunch break and headed to a charity shop, not really looking for anything in particular. I was lucky enough to snap up a beautiful striped body con dress with long sleeves and a black and white gingham summer dress for less than £8 for the pair. By this point the pity party was well and truly ushered out of the door.

New dress. I quite like how the squiggly light hides my 8am face. Bonus.

I got home and decided to have a vegetarian bacon sandwich for tea. Why the devil not! I then found myself ironing and having a sing-song followed by washing my whites in the bath with Jermaine Stewart on repeat whilst waiting for some biscuits I was baking in the oven to cook.

Now I'm going to sit in bed and read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I ordered this on the Internet a few weeks ago and it got lost in the post. This only increased the severity of my desire to read it. Anyway it arrived on Friday and I  can't put it down. So I'm going to make a cup of chamomile and lavender tea and crack on. So yeah, sometimes it's pretty bad being a girl, but days like today make up for it. I'll never scoff at 'the simple things'  again.

A Very Foodie Couple of Weeks

It's seems like all I've done the last few weeks is eat, attend events about eating or think about eating. It's all getting a bit too much and I don't think the top button on my jeans has much give left on it. Oops.

It all started with a surprise Sunday meal at Cafe 21, which is right down on Newcastle Quayside. It took us a little while to find it, but oh my was it worth it! I had souffle and I have honestly never eaten something so fresh and perfectly cooked. It was beautiful! Michael opted for Sunday lunch, which he said was the best he had ever had. We're going back there next weekend and I'm seriously considering fasting for a few days before so I can gorge myself and opt for 3 courses.


We then attended Cake Book Britain, which is part of EAT! Festival. Unfortunately it was moved from Saltwell Park to inside of a stadium due to flooding, which was a real shame. I was looking forward to taking a picnic. There wasn't as much food on offer as I anticipated, but I enjoyed some rhubard and vanilla juice and gooseberry and elderflower lemonade. We watched the cake map being assembled and the winner was Shakespeares Globe Theatre.

 Last Sunday involved another foodie event. I went to tyhe Ouseburn Festival Feast, which was held in the courtyard of a very fine looking hotel. I came away with a chilli and chocolate macaroon and a feta, pea and mint savoury muffin...which was absolutely AMAZING. Michael spotted Sol Campbell, who apparently used to play football for 'his' team, Newcastle United.

 And finally, sometimes it's just nice so slob around in your scruffiest clothes and gossip with a friend isn't it? My friend Gemma came over and we ordered takeaway and watched The Devil Wears Prada. My fortune cookie made me chuckle, it says 'Your winsome smile will be your sure protection'...heres hoping!

Lemon and Elderflower Shortbread

I made some Lemon and Elderflower Shortbread and it was ever so easy!

I wish I had more attractive plates. =[

The taste to effort ratio is something that is quite important to me. I'm lazy and I like things that are quickly prepared and even quicker in the oven. I found this recipe online whilst browsing for something fun and easy to make.   As a bit of a fusspot I'm naturally a big fan of fussy tastes so when I spotted the word 'elderflower' my heart did a little flutter. I'd just recently spotted elderflower cordial in Waitrose and bought it as a treat. It was gone in a matter of days. Still...when I spotted the cordial on the recipe I knew just where to buy it. Sometimes I find recipes and they have the most obscure ingredients that you wouldn't find anywhere. I wonder why the devil they conjure up such madness, but anyway...I sourced the cordial rather easily.

This is what you need:

• 150g butter (I bought unsalted, but plan to test out with soya butter soon)
• 75g caster sugar 
• 225g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of one lemon
• 2 tsp elderflower cordial

I preheated the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. I'm lucky enough to have a gas oven, they're the greatest.

Mix the caster sugar and butter till it goes sort of creamy.

  Pop in the flour, salt, lemon zest and elderflower with your creamy mix and stir until it turns into breadcrumbs.

I hate touching food in general. You'll usually find me screwing up my face when a bit of cold bean juice gets on my hand or looking like a lunatic wrapping my veggie bean burger up in a million napkins in Burger King. I don't mind sweet stuff so much so I was ok when I used my hands squish the mixture into a dough. Not using a rolling pin (apparently it over-works the dough) I pressed the dough out until it was 1cm thick and placed it a tin. I guess if you had some nice cookie cutters now would be the time to use them...

Pop the biscuits in the fridge for 15 minutes. This stops the mixture spreading as much in the oven. Then bake for 25-30 minutes until pale golden-brown. They should be firm round the edges but soft in the middle. Senastional. I topped with some leftover lemon zest and a tiny sprinkle of sugar, let them cool and then packed them up to take to a car boot sale I was helping with the next day.

Oh Sicily...You're Breaking My Heart!

Oh gosh, I've been home almost 2 weeks after spending  a wonderful week in Sicily. My tan is fading and I almost can't bear looking at the pictures of the glorious weather considering how bleeding miserable it is in the NE postal region at the moment.

Prior to my trip I bought the Lonely Planet guide to Sicily and had very high hopes indeed for all of the things that I wanted to do ranging from cycling and honey tasting at Mt. Etna to sampling Pistachios, visiting catacombs, Mafia tours and watching puppet shows. Sadly, time (and the Sicilian public transport system) was not on our side this time, but I still did 90% of the things that I wanted to do and  it was far better than I could have imagined. We even stumbled across a car boot sale and I picked up the most adorable little 'Le Petit Prince' case for 2 euros!

The landscape was so beautiful. I loved how you could  look in one direction and there would be the bluest water and then you turn around and there are giant grassy hills with caves and terracotta buildings pressed into them.

I have several photo's of some very English graffiti. This was by far my favourite and became a landmark that we used to navigate around Palermo!

We discovered a Sunday car boot sale (one of my favourite past times at home) and I bought a beautiful little case for 2 Euros.

Sunflowers. I bought some for our hotel room.

Chocolate on chocolate covered in chocolate. How do Italian people stay so thin?!

Even though it was 30+ degrees I insisted on trying Italian coffee. I chose whipped cream instead of milk and it did not disappoint!

The Catacombs in Palermo.

Choices!

Michael explained that these blocks along the entire shore were anti-tank blocks. Sicily has a bit of a history of being invaded...Normans, Greeks, Romans, the Spanish etc etc. I guess that's why the culture is so amazing and the food so good!

We spent a few lazy days at the beach. It was nice to doze in the sun and swim in the sea. I finally managed to crack this swimming lark as well...

Kite flying at the port.

We ate at a restaurant just next to this church. So pretty at night time!

I really wanted to see a performance at this theatre, but the season ended the day before we got there. Boo!

The port

The old gateway to the city

There were little shrines dotted allover the place.

A very Agrabah-esque market that seemed to go on forever.

The 'underbelly'. We got a glass of red wine for 1 euro. There were loads of different takeaway food stalls ranging from fruit to some strange looking purple octopus. Also, please note the 'Rude' graffiti. One of my most favourite/used words ever.