Greetings from New Zealand!

Hello lovely readers! Sadly I was running round frantically trying to sort my unorganised self out for my travels so I ran out of time to say a temporary farewell before I left. But here I am now to say Kia Ora (hello in Maori) and to let you know a little more about what I am doing at the moment :)

I stayed for a week, with Pete, at a friend-of-a-friends just North of Auckland. The couple we stayed with are absolutely lovely and incredibly helpful, having moved from the UK 50 or so years back and been here ever since, so they had a lot of really useful information for us naive folk.

The people here so far seem wonderful! Very friendly indeed. Money wise we are a little short at the moment as my funds haven't transferred from my account in the UK, it seems it has got lost in the electronic world somewhere which is worrying us rather a lot! But Petes money came through so I am a kept woman at the moment!

Recipe Catch-Up

Recently I have been living in Nottingham with my better half and his housemates but came back home in South Wales this week to help my mum with some much needed sorting out of my dad's belongings before I go off on my adventures at the end of September. Sorting out a relatives life into boxes, things to keep, things to give away, things to throw away, can be rather draining to say the least...definitely a job I have been putting off! I tend to live in a bit of a denial world, floating my way through issues by pretending they don't exist..not terribly effective and much to the dismay of my ma! But as she and my dad separated when I was young this job had to be done by me in the end...sigh. Denial world is so much easier!

Due to the above Im afraid I have not had the chance to bake so I do not have a recipe post for you this time round, but I missed blogging so thought I would use this opportunity to update you on some recipes I have made and loved but never blogged about :) Any photos in this post will not be my own, goodness me I wish I had photography skills like these...

Sweet Recipes

1. Lemon Posset by The Stone Soup

I haven't made this one for a long time now, but when I first discovered this gem of a recipe I couldn't stop making it! 3 simple ingredients (cream, lemon juice and sugar) and a stupidly simple recipe creates the smoothest, creamiest, most moorishly citrusy dessert...people will think you are a kitchen genius. I need to make this one again soon

Nyan Cat Cake

Hello lovely people! This is a bit of a random post without a new recipe as such, but my first proper solo cake decorating adventure so I thought I would share it with you :) I also have a fair bit of exciting news at the end too!

It was my better half's 25th birthday last friday, prompting many 'quarter of a century old' jokes, and it was our first birthday shared together so I wanted to try and make it a good'un! I got him a few prezzies, including an engraved pewter tankard so he can act like the lord of the manor, and I also made him a little toy hamster which you can see above (with slightly bent ears there for some reason!), as that is one of his nicknames for me..10 points if you guessed chubby cheeks!

A Lovely Blog Award and 7 Facts About Me

A post with a bit of a difference today!  A couple'a days ago I was ELATED to be told Id been given a blog award called 'One Lovely Blog' by Lynne who runs the absolutely brilliant blog Cook and be Merry. Being so new in the blogging world, it was such an unexpected but incredibly gratefully received surprise. 

There are a couple of little rules that go along with the privilege of receiving this award, these being....

1. Post a link back to the person that gave you the award

2. Share 7 random things about yourself

3. Pass the award onto 15 recently discovered blogs

4. Drop them a note to tell them about it

So here are 15 food blogs that I feel are incredibly deserving of this award for their excellent recipes, wonderful photos, just being plain lovely people or most likely a mixture of them all :)

The English Kitchen

The Fig Tree

The Galley Gourmet

An Opera Singer in the Kitchen

Raspberri Cupcakes

Snippets of Thyme

Zoom Yummy

Lavieen Fribourg

We Choose Organic

Technicolor Kitchen

The Butter Dish

Framed Cooks

The Pastry Affair

Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine

Crustabakes

Phew that was hard, there were so many I wanted to put! And now for the 7 random things about me..

1. My nickname at university is squirrel because of my red hair (dyed unfortunately, natural red heads you are lucky beings!) but it's rather fitting as I am total nut-aholic and a compulsive hoarder

2. Im half a perfectionist but I also have an issue with following things through, ie I like things to be just right once finished but most of the time im plain useless and never actually get to the end. Played piano for 7 years, horseriding for 2, violin 2 years, cello 1 year, rowing 1 1/2 years, guitar 1/2 year (and still dabbling)..you see where im going with this. I have a multitude of half finished sewing projects, one thing I am good at is reading though, I get really into a good book. Basically so far this blog is a huge achievement as ive made it a few months and falling more in love with the whole deal every day, hurrah!

3. I have shocking circulation so have funky purple feet most of the time. It's pretty weird

4. I have given up trying to control my worryingly sweet tooth. I eat on average 2 bars of chocolate, a few slices of homemade dessert, a packet of crisps and a packet of hard fruit candy per day. And then I complain that my new facewash must be giving me spots...

5. The thought of the future scares me quite a bit, but it excites me also

6. It was my childhood dream to own a safari park in Africa one day, and it still is

7. I am a pessimist to be an optimist. I think negatively but don't truly believe the negative thoughts, more try to half convince myself of them. This may sound weird, but if I think 'that good thing isn't going to happen, my baking adventure won't turn out as nice as I would like, it is going to rain today' etcetc then when the good thing DOES happen, when people oo, ahh and the treat is too scrummy to put down, and when the sun shines - it just feels so much more wonderful than if I was thinking it was going to be that way all along :)

So there we go! And just so you don't feel cheated by the lack of a sweet treat in this post I promise you there is a totally addictive chocolatey nutty treat coming up veryvery soon, of which I ate far too much before pausing to take photos, pop back if you fancy finding out what it is you should be making in your kitchen in the very near future! :)

Yesterday

So this is my lovely little house where I live with my Ma that ive mentioned a few times. It really is teeny! I think it suits the nickname the gingerbread cottage :)

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the sort of day where you peek out of the curtains in the morn, smile, and actually want to get changed out of your pj's. I forced on slid into my bikini (that is very much for my eyes only, now ive started this food blog my belly is loving me but my hips are CERTAINLY not!) and toddled off outside to bask in the warmth with my sausage dog Penny by my side

After a depressingly short amount of time I noticed my skin turning an oh so attractive shade of lobster rouge and had to toddle back indoors

And then I did the only thing there is to do when stuck indoors on a nice day...or ANY day...and that of course is to bake :)

What I rustled up happen to be mine, my mum's, and my mum's partners all time favourite cookie treat, basically I don't think a cookie will ever beat them in our eyes and theres not much higher praise I can give than that! I will hopefully be posting about them tomorrow, sorry to keep you in suspense! They are unassuming morsels but are utterly addictive and are totally exquisite, well worth the wait i promise

I hope you are having a sunny, dreamy lovely week so far, and if the latter part is missing - stop by tomorrow to pick up a recipe that is bound to propel your week into an altogether better place :)

ps if you are still reading this, I may just love you, you are brilliant!