Random Facts

Here are some random facts about veggie carrie and myself....

1. We once had office rooms next door to each other

2. We love coffee, but only the one that comes in big cups with lots of fluff and chocolate and sprinkles hmmmm

3. We have done ALOT of mundane statistics work (i am talking piles and piles of the stuff)

4. I had the pleasure of attending veggie carrie's wedding, as she did mine 2 years ago (also i have to confess i kept asking her in these 2 yrs to hurry up and get married so i could come to her wedding!!)

5. She got me addicted to blogging, and now baking too!!!

6. TV serieses!!! I follow everything from Neighbours, Desperate Housewives, Heros, The Apprentice etc

7.University- I think we both have fond memories of one particular location where we both lived, worked, made lots of friends, ate lots of panini's, and eventually moved away from.

x

Smells like summer!

So I am visiting home this week. I came laden with cupcakes of course, two batches for my brothers and sister to try- chocolate with mint buttercream, and coconut with mascarpone frosting. Both I can reveal went down very well!!!! Although perfectionist that i am, thought the mint ones looked a little 'halloweeny' and the coconut icing was a bit sloppy. Not that I think anyone minded. Its nice to finally have other people to enjoy my creations! Also the weather is finally warm (fingers crossed it stays that way), it actually smells like summer, as I am writing on my laptop, sitting in my old bedroom, windows open, curtain wafting in the breeze, smell of freshly cut grass, and barbecues, and children playing outside, the icecream man van jingle in the distance hmmmmm i love summer!

ps apple cake looks delicious too

Dorset Apple Cake

According to Google Analytics/Sitemeter, my most popular blog entry by far is my entry about Delia's low fat carrot cake. I've been baking again tonight, this time I made a Waitrose recipe for Dorset Apple cake. I hadn't even heard of a Dorset Apple cake until I saw this recipe in Waitrose. It was surprisingly simple and delicious. It just needs some accompaniment, such as fromage frais, clotted cream or vanilla ice cream. It reminds me of a Breton cake really, in its simplicity and appearance. There is a Breton apricot cake that I still want to make, but today was a British baking day. Having said that, Veggie Hubby and I did go to a French market, where there was even a stall selling Breton biscuits and crepes. There were many other stalls, including a cheese one as I had predicted, and a bag stall where I got a new black and white bag.

May Day

It is May! Wow, isn't this year just flying by? It hardly seems that long ago when I was in Canada at Christmas. To celebrate this new month, we have a lovely and welcome bank holiday- so no work on Monday. Even better was that I worked from home today, so it is almost like I have a four day weekend. Bliss! Shouldn't all weekends be three or four days? It would be a better balance like that I feel, as two days just isn't long enough. Having said that, my new job is still a novelty so I don't mind it too much, as it's different every day. It is having driving-free days that I appreciate the most about weekends.

VH and I haven't organised ourselves well, as we have no plans to go away this weekend. I wish I was seeing some friends or family (perhaps we'll pay my sister a visit???). We do have a few things to do though, as there is a French market all weekend in the local park. I am not sure exactly what this market involves but being French I am imagining it is most likely food (I would bet £10 on there being cheese). I love German markets at Christmas, they sell all sorts of unique things, and I am hoping that this market has things other than food. Talking of food, I am going to make a 'Dorset apple cake' too, I haven't baked for a few weeks since I started my job, and thought I'd give it a go as I have most of the ingredients here already.

Veggie Hubby and I may also escape this small town and look for somewhere else to live that is a bit more lively, and closer to work. We have somewhere to live in mind, so want to check it out, and there happens be a few shops there too. I look for a 'Godmother' dress whilst I am there - well I needed a special dress when I got married, so I feel that I need a special dress for becoming a godmother too... (any excuse).

London Tuesday

I just got back from a day out in London. Veggie Hubby came into London with me, which was fun. I had to attend a seminar in the afternoon, but decided to spend some extra time in London after work.

VH and I wandered around Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, then went out to Pizza Express for dinner. It was a nice meal, but there was surprisingly little vegetarian choice, and even things that should have been vegetarian, like an aubergine parmagiana and a spinach and ricotta cannelloni weren't. Also, there were a lot of people eating out in that particular restaurant that we randomly happened upon on a Tuesday night. I would never have imagined that so many people would be eating out on a Tuesday. I also noticed that most people were in groups of two women, and that we were one of the only male-female couples there. I do miss going out for lunch with friends.

Anyway, it felt good to be back in London, and when I was on the Underground I felt like I'd never been away, despite having not been into London for over a year.

Ice cream Saturday, TV Sunday

Recently I seem to have lost inspiration for my blog and blogging, I don't know why but I'm much preferring to read other people's blogs than contributing to my own. I think it is the impact of my new job which seems to be eating up my time and energy. Blogging seems too much like extra work. Or maybe it is since we lost internet connection for a week, and I got out of the habit. I do want to get back into the habit though, so here goes...

Summer seems to be coming at last... or at least so it seemed yesterday. It was a lovely day, and Veggie Hubby and I went for a walk in the park and had an ice cream. Our first ice cream of the year! I always see this as a good marker for summer. I can't even remember having an ice cream last summer - oh yes, I remember, there wasn't a summer in 2007! The weather was pretty much miserable all year, even on my wedding day. Today, it is rainy again. So it has been a bit of a TV Sunday for Veggie Hubby and I. Right now, it is last night's 'Britain's got Talent' (does it, really?). I think we need to get out more. Saying that, we are off out!

The lure of baking

I couldn't resist. I have put off baking thinking I would at least wait till the weekend, however the lure of baking just got too much, especially since I have been browsing cupcake blogs again. So i made these carrot, cardimom and pistachio cupcakes today. I must say using the icing piping tube is very fun! However I dont actually like eating my creations myself, I always find food made my someone else to be more appealing!! One slice of chocolate catastrophe cake please!!

Weather

Oh how I have missed my blog! I admit I am getting too busy with my job, and feel exhausted when I get home eleven hours later, so my poor blog has been getting rather neglected.

Today is St. George's day, England's national day. Being English, we don't celebrate it or even get a holiday for it, it goes by sadly unnoticed. However, I will note it in one way, by talking about what British people do best... the weather. This morning, it was very rainy and miserable. It made my commute my longest yet (a colleague said the traffic gets much worse in the rain, as most parents drive their kids to school) - it took a staggering one and a quarter hours for 15 miles (24km). I was practically sitting in a traffic jam the whole way, how I hate commuting. There is an alternative route which has less traffic but it scares me as the roads are incredibly hilly and wild, when I go that way I feel like I am driving on a roller-coaster, but it is probably quicker. What do you think I should do: a) slow traffic jam route or b) scary hilly roads with less traffic?

Anyway, I digress... back to the weather. It got very sunny before long, you wouldn't have thought it was so rainy not so long beforehand. I am loving the summery weather, and especially the longer days.

It was also Veggie Hubby's birthday a few days ago, and he made this fantastic catastrophy cake! His catastrophy cakes are becoming quite a tradition. He makes one every birthday, be it mine or his and I just love them - they are so funny! They never turn out right, but their imperfection makes them perfect to me.

Dating Veggie Hubby

Just came back from a date with Veggie Hubby (of course!). We went for a yummy meal at an Italian restaurant a few steps from home that I have always been very curious about. I don't think we've been for a proper date since we married, but think we should go out more often, as just because we're now married doesn't mean that we shouldn't date anymore, right? This was our first married date I believe (I don't think that going for the occasional drink or pub meal counts). I had a glass of white wine and am feeling a bit tipsy now.... Veggie Hubby is probably more tipsy than me as had he two drinks, but then he is more accustomed to drinking alcohol than me, as he appreciates it more. The main meal was ok, I had a mushroom ravioli (not many vegetarian options) and almost Veggie Hubby had veal with mushrooms. The waitress then brought out a large trolley filled with a tempting selection of absolutely delicious looking desserts. How could we could we resist? We shared a slice of delicious chocolate cake with cream, which was one of the best cakes I have tasted as it had chunks of chocolate in it mmmm. That was certainly the highlight of the meal. Overall the meal was quite over-priced I think, but definitely worth it once in a while.

Passing time whilst commuting

When I commuted into work in London, I travelled in by train. This was a 1.5 hour journey each way. I initially just sat doing nothing, but before long I started reading to pass the time. I really enjoyed reading all of the free London papers. I think newspapers are often the best to read on a train journey as you can dip in and out of them, and it doesn't matter too much if someone is distracting. It was also useful that there was a library right next to my work place, and despite being small it was the best library I have ever used, as it stocked such a range of new books. I suppose I could have bought an iPod or MP3 player, but I preferred to read. Being silent seemed to fit in with the mentality of people commuting into London; I have never been on such quiet trains.

Now I am driving to and from work everyday on a 45 minute commute either way, and this will get longer next week when the schools re-open after the holidays. At first I was driving doing nothing else, and concentrating on the driving as it was a new route, but before long I felt confident enough to start listening to music. When driving, in general I prefer listening to easy to listen to music, nothing too upbeat but rather music that relaxes me, that isn't too distracting. At the moment, I enjoy listening to albums by James Blunt, and Duffy which I bought last week. Today I bought Take That's album so I will be listening to that this week. If I am not careful I will end up buying an album every week! I don't feel too guilty, but see buying albums for my commute a bit like buying lunch, an essential part of working life.

Cupcake Obsession

I must confess I had not really looked at any blogs before VeggieCarrie's. Nor had I baked since I became busy with my baby. However I was inspired by the yummy looking desserts on this blog, and it seemed to spark my interest. So much so, I must confess that I have become highly addicted to cupcake blogs!! I had no idea there were so many out there, or that it had become such an art! In America especially they seem to love these sugary bites of yumminess, people actually queue outside the street in front of some bakeries. Anybody who has seen pictures of these cakes will understand, they are little works of art, the icing is the best bit, so many colours, varieties and sprinkles!! So i decided to bake! However encountered many of the same problems as Veggiecarrie, firstly i needed all the proper equipment. Then i realised supermarkets only stock the basic products. SO in the end its taken me about 4 weeks to collect up all the beautiful gold sprinkles, and coloured foil cases, and sugar flowers. Then my next hurdle, Almost Dentist Hubby declared cupcakes were a, for girls. b, pointless as shop cakes are tasty too, c, can be made by anyone as all you need is some icing and sprinkles!!! However, he soon changed his mind when i presented a tray of my mini whipped date and cream cupcakes! even cutybaby gobbled a few up!!

Prickly Pets

Veggie Hubby wants a cat. A basil plant doesn't quite cut it! He keeps bringing back adverts from the local paper for rescue cats, and searching on local cat rescue websites. I find his love for cats really sweet. When we went to baby-sit for my cousins a month ago, he loved their cat, and my cousin diagnosed that he needs a cat! One of his housemates had one when he lived in Liverpool, it was her only redeeming feature actually as she refused to pay her share of the bills or to wash her dishes. She named her lovely black cat...Cat! She was undeserving of such a lovely pet, Veggie Hubby often ended up taking care of Cat, and now misses Cat a lot as he will never see her again. He took some photos of Cat on his disposable camera, but when we took them to be developed they weren't there. My cousin is right, Veggie Hubby does need a Cat replacement. The problem is that we move around too much, and when renting it is difficult to find somewhere that will accept pets. I grew up with lots of weird and wonderful pets. Tabby the cat; Indy, Pip and Thursday the jirds; Nessy, Daisy, Sugar and Spice the guinea pigs; Merlin the chinchilla; Trojan the rat; Sky the dog; degus and countless fish. Veggie Hubby never had his own pet.

On BBC breakfast this morning, I saw that people now want to keep hedgehogs as pets. I do find this a bit strange, hedgehogs are cute but not exactly cuddly, who would want to stroke one? However, I don't really understand why people would want to keep reptiles either. Animal welfare groups are apparently in uproar, but I don't think that keeping tame hedgehogs is any worse than keeping any other pet. I believe that a lot of people aren't responsible enough to keep pets whatever the pet is. They are usually looked after by children who aren't the best owners. My niece has got a new badly behaved dog Gus, who I have yet to meet. Veggie Hubby pointed out that a dog can't be well behaved if it is being raised by her! Even as a child I wasn't the best pet keeper... I nearly drowned my pet jird Thursday in the bath once, managed to rescue him, and then tried to dry him off with a hairdryer but it was too hot and made his eyes bleed. I still feel guiltly about that to this day.