Lost On The Heath

Josh and I thought we'd take Josh's dog Poppy for a walk over Dunwich Heath.

It's such a large piece of land and we walked at least 10 miles in and out of woodland and heather (and kept an eye out for any lucky white heather).

Some were keener than others...

When you get inside the woods itself, it's filled not only with oaks, but these enormous trees that grow straight up like bean poles.

Here's a size comparison for you, midget Lottie vs Trees.

I wore my new favourite things ever, my Levi shorts from Beworn.

Not only do they not show any cheek like my Topshop ones (not a fan of that, thank you very much) but they're cheaper and comfier too!

We found a stream trickling through the forest, I think it looks like a fairy land..

But then a little further up I found a log that went across the stream, and obviously I had to have a climb..

Whilst I clambered, Josh stayed on dry land with the camera ready to snap a picture of me if I fell in.

Which I didn't (I think J secretly hoped I would), the inelegant moves I executed kept me dry and we continued on our walk.

..Mid dance..

Now, I didn't stay this much of a happy chappy for long, because leading off the main paths are little exciting and inviting looking trails just waiting to be explored.

 And as beautiful as it might be, unless you know exactly where they come out, you could be walking around the wood for a very, very long time.

 Anyway, I pursuaded Josh that this would be a good idea, 2 and a half hours, 2 blisters, 1 grumpy/hungry/thirsty girlfriend and labrador later, after going a bit "Wuthering Heights" and roaming the heath for several hours, we were back at the car. 

Luckily, we both now see the funny sides and the silver linings but at the time I was not amused.

Tiddly Banoffee Pies

The other night J and I had a date night, just a trip to the cinema to see "The Big Wedding", which was pretty good, but seeing as he's in the middle of exams right now we can't see each other as often as we'd normally/like to.
Anyway, one of his favourite puddings is Banoffee Pie. It would be risky for the inside of my bag if I had tried to sneak a whole pie into the cinema so I made a small batch of my trusty short crust pastry that made just over 7 pie crusts that I laid over cupcake tins.

3 oz plain flour
1.5 oz butter
About 4 tsps. water

1 can of boiled condensed milk (or dulche de leche)
1 banana
Whipped cream (optional)
Grated chocolate

After making your pastry roll it out and use a cutter to cut out circles that cover the cupcake tin holes like you would if you were making mince pies.
With the point of a sharp knife gently prick the pastry so that it doesn't rise and pop in the oven (200 celcius) for about 15 mins.

You can use a can of condensed milk that you've boiled yourself (keep the tin sealed) or you can use a precooked one like the one below!

 




















Grab a teaspoon and dollop the caramel in the cases, depending on how caramelly you like it (J likes caramel so I went overboard slightly).

Mmm don't they look good??

Then eat the rest of the tin with a spoon by yourself whilst watching a movie. I won't judge you.

 

 Slice up your banana and plonk/arrange artistically on top.

You could go for several half slices, for more bananary tastiness but I was in a rush.

 

Add a good amount of whipped cream if you have some and sprinkle with chocolate (or chocolate powder in my case).

I don't think they are exactly the same as a normal banoffee pie base, because that's with golden syrup, butter and biscuits, but they're really easy for you to eat, and perfect for cinema sneakin'.
I did actually catch J fit one whole into his mouth so they went down a treat!

 

Alternatively you could leave the banana out and eat them as a caramel jam tart!

 

AWOL

Okay, so a slap on the hand for me, I know that I've neglected you but not only have I been trying to get my head down and work for my looming exams, I've also fallen ill, feeling like my head is full of cotton wool isn't fun but the batch of freshly baked red velvet brownies are improving my mood, it might be case of hypochondria, but it also could be glandular fever- Which sucks.

To make up for the lack of blog post, I thought I'd share some recent photos with you.

I love polka dots, and after seeing this post by Rose, I thought I'd get some fun jeans, they're super inexpensive (hello there student discount) and they have an elasticated waist, not ideal if you wear shorter tops, but they look nice with a big jumper (plus you can eat as much as you like in them - perfect).

Sadly, one of our dogs passed away, but I took this of Millie on a walk a few days before, she always had a thing for going down holes, but nearly upturned herself this time.

One of my favourite things is sushi and luckily for me, my mum travels to London a lot for work, a few days ago she surprised us buy bringing my sister and I our favourite boxes back from Wasabi. I could live off of these boxes, this veggie one is my favourite of favourites!

 This weekend was so beautiful that J and I went down to Aldeburgh and Thorpness. Thorpness has a huge boating lake with lots of little channels winding off and islands to moor up to. J rowed me around whilst I basked in the sun and pointed where I wanted to go... Sorry J!

 

I have found one of my new favourite recipes on Emily's blog. Her tuna burgers are so tasty, I made them for my family which went down really well, but then the other night I made them for J and I.

My one is the first one, very green because I'm trying to be really healthy then the below (and out of focus) one is J's who didn't have avocado but had sweet chilli instead!

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We had a local cake sale yesterday to raise money for charity, my offerings consisted of rather rustic jam tarts and carrot cakes but one amazing lady made these:



Aren't they works of art?
She even made the flowers and leaves herself!

 
They were almost too beautiful to eat, but I thought I'd add that my rustic carrot cakes were the first to go (very smug).

Summery Picnic

 

Today my lessons finished at 11.00 and to take advantage of the beautiful weather, I met J at his school and walked down to the river for a picnic in the local park.

I've mentioned the Suffolk Food Hall in a couple of posts, and I stopped off there to get our picnic.

 

Whenever I go their deli tempts me in with their tartlets, they tend to change every time I go, varying from chili beef tartlets to salmon with cream cheese and broccoli.
This time I went for spinach, nutmeg and ricotta.

And roasted vegetables with mascarpone.

Tartlets are probably one of my favourite things and both of them were delicious, the nutmeg and ricotta added an essential kick but the roasted vegetable tartlet was perfect if lacking a little seasoning.

 

 

 

I also grabbed a sausage roll, remembering how much J likes them.

 



 

 

The food hall also sell lots of unusual (unusual to me, anyway) treats, I found two "flavours" of these crisps, tangy and sweet, as you can see I went for tangy and they were really good! It isn't often that healthy treats taste great!

The obligatory dried mango.

In their bakery section not only do they have the most delicious smelling baguettes, loaves and rolls, but they also do pastries, which often change as well, bar their staple scones and brownies.

J has a certain penchant for caramel, so when I saw this, not only was I rather excited (I lead a simple life) but I had to get it too.

On a side note, all their tasty treats in the deli or tea time goodies come in these little cardboard parcels.
Just be me that gets excited by things like this?

 

Anyway, I had got J a caramel and popcorn tart.

It was almost a bowl made out of sugar encrusted pastry, piled high with caramel topped with toffee popcorn and drizzled with more caramel.

 



Now, when I bought this I had expected the caramel to taste like boiled condensed milk, or dulche de leche, but in fact, it was quite odd and almost tasted alcoholic, I don't know if it was just because it wasn't what I was expecting but I was a little disappointed.
Someone managed to put it away though!

We attempted to walk off some of our lunch with a stroll along the Deben.

But that idea was halted when we spied a huge park and an ice cream stall, J got mint, and I got toffee.

Writing this has given me a real hankering for one of those tarts, I might have to stop off on the way to school tomorrow!