Best of June

I've decided to change the name of my monthly favourites to "Best of June" or whatever month because it seems a lot of people use the term "monthly favourites" and I wanted to be a tad different.

1. CRUMBS
Crumbs is a Youtube channel and blog by sisters Claire and Lucy.
They film the most fabulous recipes and I'm hooked, my favourites (and soon to be tested) are miso soup and posh mac and cheese, scrummy!



2. Quinoa
Quinoa is something I have only really discovered this month, and I'm in love!!
I've used it in lots of things, from my skinny stir fry (below) to a salad with tuna, avocado and edamame!

3. Nellie
I won't stop going on about her, I'm a woman possessed, she's adorable.
Today we put the shopping on the floor and turned around to see that she was proudly trotting away with a chicken drumstick in her mouth, she had gone into the bag, into the packet and found her loot. Needless to say we're a packet of chicken down.

4. My new Zara heels
Did I get these a week before they went into the Zara sale? Yes.
Am I bitter about it? A bit.
The photo below is the only real good one I have of them, they're the ones that the world and his wife have, black strappy with a gold heel, they are so beautiful, but definitely the most painful pair I own due to the lack of platform

5. Clean & Clear Morning Energy moisturiser

I've had this for ages but never really appreciated it, it's just your standard fab moisturiser but after you put it on it gives you a "glow", very nice, I need that in the mornings.

Jimmy's Farm

Last night my sixth form ball was held at Jimmy's Farm. Up until reading this post by Emily, I had no idea how well known Jimmy Doherty's farm was.

For those of you that don't know, Jimmy is a Suffolk based farmer who has a television show on channel 4, "Jimmy's Farm".

Our ball was held in their beautiful farm restaurant, a converted barn with beautiful old beams and the large quantity of wood used made it look lovely and rustic



There were fairy lights everywhere, which were perfect with the theme.

There was a photobooth which was made use of by both girls and teachers alike, I can't wait to see the photos.
The farm has their own photographer, which my school regularly uses, called Nick Ilott and we all had fun posing for photos, especially around the cow, yes, that it me milking it.

 

Our starter consisted of canapés, and if there's anything I love it's canapés.
Food that you can pop straight in? Yes please!

We had two of my favourites, Yorkshire pudding topped with roast beef and horseradish and smoked salmon blinis.
The blini waitress lurked around me a lot, maybe I made it too obvious that I was a big fan.

As we sat down we noticed a little present by each of our name cards,

Which contained a little bracelet from the fabulous local jewellery shop, Never Go Naked, whose jewellery, by the way, is so cute and really inexpensive!

Then it was time to eat, I opted for the non vegetarian, the shredded pork with semi roasted potatoes, greens, gravy and a little apple sauce, which was really tasty, and as expected the pork was delicious, from Jimmy's home grown piggies.

My friend Charlotte had the vegetarian option which was equally as delicious, gnocci in a creamy sauce but when I tasted it I soon realised she wouldn't need that whole bowlful, the gnocci was so filling that half the bowl would fill you right up!

Now, pudding.

Pudding was chocolate fondant with ice cream... And I guzzled it down before taking a photo. Oops.

Initially, when I saw the menu I didn't think the pudding would be that great. I think a chocolate fondant is difficult to get right as they can be too dense or too rich. This was neither, the pudding without the ice cream was absolutely perfect and hands down the best chocolate fondant I've had.

Dancing ensued, and I think everyone's pretty glad nobody took photos of that!

How cool is A's dress? I'd look like a giant Tuna but it works so well on her!

The exciting shoe crew

It was a wonderful evening and the social prefects did a fantastic job!

Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

Up until a few weeks ago I had completely forgotten about the whole idea of incorporating fruit and cake, and if I did think about it the only thing that did come to mind was a dense fruit cake.
But after this recipe, my life was changed and I remembered this recipe that I made a couple of times when I was younger.

100g butter (4oz)
225g self raising flour (8oz)
100g soft brown sugar (4oz)
150g raisins or sultanas (6oz)
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons of honey
2 apples (medium to large, I used Pink Lady)
1 tsp. cinnamon
125ml milk

First rub your butter and flour until it's all breadcrumby,

Stir in the sugar, sultanas, eggs and honey,

Peel your apples with a (clean) potato peeler, cut them into boats,

Then chop them finely, or as chunky as you want your buns to be.

Put those along with the cinnamon into the mixing bowl and lastly stir in your milk.

This recipe made 12 generous muffins which took about 20 mins in an oven at about 180 celcius.

  

Grab a fork, but if you're like me you'll probably end up using your hands instead!

This would work equally well in a bread tin but it would take considerably longer.

Thanks Emily for re-evoking my love of fruity bread!

My Year On Instagram

I don't have an iphone, I really wish I did because it'd make my life so much easier, it seems, and they also seem to be better than a Blackberry, but all of these were taken on a tablet, not one I'd recommend unless you understand Samsung (I don't). Hey ho, never mind, these are the photos I've popped up on Instagram this year:

1. Ellie and I at our best friend's 17th 2. Making Banoffee Pie for J for Valentines day! 3. Healthy pancakes with peanut butter.

1. Valentine's roses from J 2. J sent me this of where he was skiing whilst I was stuck revising- Jealous! 3. Making some fruity and plain soda bread.

1. Flowers that my mumma got sent for helping with a horse accident! 2. Pip & Wisp 3. Scones that my neighbour baked, she still hasn't given me the recipe ;)!

1. Amazing cupcakes that someone in my village made. 2. Trialing recipes for my birthday party (hoisin duck) 3. Seriously healthy rocky road!

1. A beautiful bracelet that a friend got me for my birthday. 2. Baking marathon, cookies, treacle tart and brownies (which were in the oven) 3. 1 year ago before our sixth form ball, my ball this year is next week!

1 & 2. Bombarding my followers with pictures of our new pup Nelly. 3. Keri Smith journal, this is so cool, especially if you love art like me! 4. Addicted to frozen berries and to fruit!

I am aware that most of these are of food, that's because most of what I think about is food... Sometimes I go to bed looking forward to breakfast, I lead an exciting life.

Biscotti & Buttercups

For a while now my mum has been a little bit of a biscotti addict, I think it probably started with the ones in Starbucks, but they're a little lacking in fruit for my liking.

This is a recipe that originally started off as one of James Martin's but she has added and taken away to make this our ideal biscotti which basically works on a 200g of dried fruit and 175g of nuts basis.

250g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 beaten eggs
200g dried cranberries
100g pistachios
50g blanched almonds
25g hazelnuts
Zest of one lemon

First measure the flour, sugar and baking powder in the bowl, add half the beaten eggs and give it a stir, then add half of what is left in, keep stirring and adding until a dough forms, I had to use all three eggs but you may not need to.

Then add your dried fruit and nuts, depending on what you want in there, dates, apricots, dried strawberries, maybe even dried apple or mango would work well too!
Zest one lemon and add that in too.

Wet your hands (this stops the dough sticking to your hands) and pour the mixture into a couple of sausage shapes on your baking tray, pop in the an oven at 180 celcius for about 25 mins or until golden brown.

Take them out and let them rest for about 5-10 mins, then get a bread knife and cut into strips, sort of diagonally, as if you were cutting a baguette. Put these back on the baking tray and into the oven for 8 mins.

Take them out again and turn them over onto the other side, and put back into the oven for a last blast of heat for about 15 mins.

While these cooled down (I had just burnt my tongue from snaffling some) I took Pip and Nelly outside, while they charged about I got snap happy..

There you go, a whole load of puppy photos.. Sorry if you're not a dog person.

Anyway, we scampered back for some biscotti, and I had some tea in my favourite and super appropriate mug from my boyfriend's mum!