My Favourite Recipe - #BEDM 14

Having missed so many #BEDM posts last week, I've decided to pick and choose from the topics rather than try to catch up on them all.

I rarely do food posts, in fact this is probably the first, but I'm going to share my favourite recipe.

I go through phases of liking different meals but at the moment it's Smoked Haddock and Bacon Chowder. It's prepared in a slow cooker and is so easy. I serve it with crusty granary rolls.

25g butter
1 finely chopped onion
300g diced potatoes
4 rashers diced smoked streaky bacon
750ml boiling fish stock
125g sweetcorn
1 bay leaf
500g smoked haddock
150ml double cream
salt and pepper
(serves 4)

Heat the butter in a large frying pan, add the onion, potatoes and bacon and fry gently, stirring, until just beginning to colour
Transfer the potato mix to the slow cooker
Pour over the boiling stock, add the sweetcorn, bay leaf and salt and pepper
Pop on the lid and cook on high for 2-3 hours or until potatoes are tender

Skin the fish and press it just below the surface of the stock (cutting in half if needed)
Pop the lid back on and cook for a further 30 minutes

Lift out the fish and break into flakes
Stir the double cream into the soup and return the fish
Ladle into bowls and enjoy!

For breakfast I love pancakes, streaky bacon and maple syrup with orange juice and a cup of tea. It's my all time favourite breakfast - except for smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on wholegrain toast but that's our traditional Christmas Day breakfast (neatly covering yesterday's #BEDM) - and yes, I tried it for the first time after Carrie ordered it for brunch on SATC, but the sweet and savoury mix is just irresistible.

When it comes to desserts, I can't pick just one. Chocolate fudge brownie, trifle, cheesecake, pistachio ice cream, Christmas pudding with cream, profiteroles, bakewell tart and custard, fruit salad. Or we could talk about a cheeseboard? Brie. It's not safe for brie to be in my company, especially if grapes are also present.

I'm hungry...

Love

The search for eco-friendly summer footwear...

So, having started #BEDM a day late, I managed 12 days before faltering. Day 13 was a horrible day. My boy cat, Socks, went out at 8pm the evening before and stayed out. And then again the next night. At first I was mildly distracted by his absence but this slowly turned into traipsing around in the rain calling his name, to sobbing and feeling sick. And when he turned up he was as bold as brass, demanding food as if nothing had happened. Little git.

He has since been punished with regular cuddles of varying duration. He hates that.

Anyway going back to the post I was in middle of writing, #BEDM 13 was about being 'green'. I do all the normal reuse / recycle stuff and I buy second hand clothes and have been looking into ethical brands too.

After the great shoe throw out, I decided to find me some eco-friendly summer footwear. My first port of call was Spartoo, as this is where my first pair of 'green' boots came from.

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Once I managed to find the eco-freindly shoes on the website (it took me a while to find the tab - under 'Styles' fyi) I fell in love with these, they're Dream in Green, like my boots, but they're £70.99. Yikes! That's a lot for such a small amount of shoe! There wasn't a lot else in the eco-friendly range of summer shoes that took my fancy (loads of Birkenstock type footwear if you like it, but I'm not keen) so I popped over to Sarenza to see what they had to offer.

I haven't shopped there before, the eco-friendly tab was much easier to find (nestled neatly under 'women').

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These canvas shoes are cute and a possible contender for replacing my Rocket Dogs and at only £25.70 are a good price too. They come in a variety of nice colours but I had to chuckle when I saw they were referred to as 'sports shoes' - what type of sport could you possibly do in these? These were the only shoes, out of 829 styles, that I would consider buying for the warmer months. To be honest there were loads of winter boots in the mix that caught my eye - at more reasonable prices - so maybe I'll end up a seasonal eco-friendly shoe shopper?

My next stop was Style Is, I remembered seeing some nice shoes there... I was greeted with more Birkenstock types, some lovely winter boots but little else for the price I had in mind.

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I like these but the colour is so wrong for me, £60.00. They are available in black and grey however I'm not sure they're versatile enough and maybe a bit 'smart' for summer day wear and *whispers* how do they stay on your feet?

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LOVE these but £62.50. I'd be happy to pay £20 - £40 for a pair of cute daytime summer shoes, I just don't think I'm going to find it the form of eco-friendly footwear (although I will keep looking - I'm aware that my search has hardly been extensive).

Javari have a good selection, which you can see here, but nothing that met my criteria. From what I have seen so far, there's a reasonable amount of choice but few that appeal to me. I am fussy when it comes to footwear. Eco friendly winter boots on the other hand are right up my street, such a shame I already have more pairs than I can fit in my wardrobe, although that's good news for my wallet.

Any brands you'd recommend for a fussy, style seeking shoe addict?

Love

Are you a collector? #BEDM 12

As a kid I collected lots of different things, stickers, pencil sharpeners, buttons, bits of pottery dug up in the garden - all of which are now no longer in existence but I do have one collection that has emerged as an adult. I didn't set out to do this, it just happened.

I collect charity pin badges. It started when my brother left home and I finally got my mitts on the big bedroom, in packing up my stuff I found several badges and chucked them all in a box together. That was the beginning.

At last count - 88 in total

I designed these two badges for local charities, the one on the left is about 14 years old now!

 

One of my favourites - a cat - of course it is.

Two pins in one - double whammy!

Balls *sniggers*

I think I'm drawn to them because they're small, I know how ridiculous that sounds but I have a love for tiny things. Doll houses fascinate me and it could explain my love of tiny clutch bags that are utterly impractical and fit nothing more than a lip balm and a single key inside. Given the choice I go for the smaller version of something every time*. I LOVE a travel size anything.

* Except mini skirts and cakes.

Love

#BEDM 11 Tell us about your 5 favourite books...

This is a tricky one. As soon as I read the subject for today's #BEDM post my mind went blank, I couldn't think of a single book or author!

I have a massive pile of books waiting patiently to be read. I don't favour a particular genre or eagerly wait for the arrival of a new novel from an author. I just go where the reading mood takes me.

I've really enjoy Alex's A Blogging Good Read series as a way to find new books to add to the waiting pile. I took part in September last year, Alex disliked my book but I adored her choice, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer and have picked it up and dipped into it many times since.

I'm currently reading Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. I grabbed this for 50p from a table top sale in my local Sainsburys foyer. Inside it has £1.25 CRUK, so it was bought new, donated to Cancer Research and then donated to Sainsburys, I'll then pass it on. I love the idea that a book gets read more than once and has a story of its own to tell. And the smell of old books - love that!

Before Vernon God Little I read
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larrson
The Girl on the Landing by Paul Torday
The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis
The last two were the result of A Blogging Good Read reviews.

The Night Circus I struggled with, but ploughed on through as so many people told me that it was worth perservering. Sadly, I don't think it was. It was well written and beautifully descriptive and I wonder if I just wasn't in the mood for it. The others on the list I really enjoyed. I'm definitely going to read more by Lindsey Davis, particularly the Falco series. In my head Falco looks like Robert Downey Jr, which I think probably made the book all the more enjoyable to read.

So, not exactly a definitive list, it's more rambling than anything else but I think that just about sums up my reading style.

What are you reading at the moment?

Love

Dream travel destination #BEDM 10

There are many places on this earth that I would like to visit, right now a remote, exotic island with turquoise waters and room service sounds wonderful but there is one place that I am determined to visit before I depart this earth.

The Giraffe Manor, Nairobi.

Back in July 2012 I spent a few days in Kenya before moving on to Zanzibar for my best friend's wedding. During our stay we went on a drive through the Nairobi National Park and then to the Giraffe Centre.

This is where I caught my first glimpse of giraffes in the wild. I don't know what it is about them but I've been fascinated by them since I was little.

I was beside myself with joy when I spotted these fellas.

A little further on we saw this pair just a few feet from the track. To say we spent ages gazing at them would be a massive understatement.

Next stop The Giraffe Centre, honestly, when they handed me food to fed the giraffes with you'd think they'd handed me a pile of diamonds!

This is me feeding Giles - or so I named him, his friend's (me) call him 'G", he head barged me out of the way as soon as I'd run out of food - rude. Bad G.

The kid in pink looked amused but I didn't care, I was FEEDING A GIRAFFE!

He stole a little bit of my heart.

And then this little fella came along, not quite tall enough to reach but made the most of it with his tongue. Doesn't come much cuter than that!

And that's the story of how I come to dream of staying at The Giraffe Manor, as the tagline states, it's 'The only hotel in the world where you can eat breakfast with giraffe'.

After that I'd like to go on safari. I don't want much do I?

Tonight I'm going to dream of dining with the raffies.
Love

Part of Elizabeth's Blog Everyday in May Challenge.

I love twitter #BEDM 9

Twitter is my favourite social media channel.

Total cope out for a post, will try harder tomorrow.

#BEDM 8 My First Job

"A tomato pulverized, is a tomato punished" - best line on Holby City EVER!

I've had some pretty awful jobs in my time but my first was probably the worst. I spent an entire summer holiday packing tomatoes.

I was 13 at the time and I had to lie about my age to get the job - I told them I was born in April instead of August. Earned £1.13 an hour, working from 7:30am - 5pm, with half an hour break for lunch and two 15 minute breaks morning and afternoon, I packed tomatoes into various sized punnets to be sent out to supermarkets such as Tesco and M&S.

I cycled 13 miles a day, with my best friend, to get there and back. We were paid weekly and having about £50 in my pocket made me feel rich beyond my wildest dreams... I also had no time to spend my earnings, when I got home I ate and then slept. At the weekends I slept or sat in the sun, it was a good summer weather wise.

We played the soundtrack to Good Morning Vietnam over and over and over again, any track from the album takes me right back.

I hate tomatoes, always have. I don't even like the sound of a knife cutting through them.

This post is part of Elizabeth's Blog Everyday in May challenge.

Love