Happy Birthday, blog!

Wow, I started this blog four years ago today! (I can't really say I've been writing this blog for four years as my posts have been sporadic at best ;)

Seems like just two minutes ago that I was writing my first (terrible!) post.

Here's to the next four years! May it be filled with happy stories, recipes and good news. Cheers!

Peaches and Peas

Two of my favourite things about summer: peaches, and fresh peas still in their pods.

Pictures from my weekend: Roxy

Our weekend has pretty much revolved around this little lady. We're quite head over heels with her already <3

Spring Beef Casserole

It's done nothing but rain here lately. We had a beautiful March, and now we're having a very wet April. I have to admit, I kind of love it - not least because I get to wear my wellies often!

Last week seemed to just rain constantly. I didn't feel like going out, so I stayed cosy indoors catching up on some work and lots of snuggles with Izzy. I wanted to make something delicious and warming for dinner, but also something easy and using ingredients that I just had in, and that's how I came up with this recipe. You can substitue whatever veggies you have on hand.

Spring Beef Casserole

Ingredients:

400g stewing steak
1 turnip
1 shallot
2 carrots
Half courgette
Handful sugar snap peas
3 garlic cloves (
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp mustard
100ml red wine
3 oxo or beef stock cubes
1 tsp Hendersons Relish or worcestershire sauce
Black pepper

Method:

Gently soften shallot and garlic in a little olive oil, taking care not to brown them, you want them just to be soft and translucent. Cut steak into bitesize pieces. Toss to coat in the plain flour. Cut all veggies into bitesize pieces. Add to a casserole or oven proof dish along with all other ingredients, add water to just cover all the ingredients and give it a good stir. Cover with casserole dish lid or tin foil. Add to a 180 degree oven for 3-4 hours, until meat is tender and sauce has thickened. Serve with mashed potatoes or fresh bread.

This really couldn't be simpler. I'm a big fan of dishes that you just combine all the ingredients, and leave them to cook on their own!

Mini Apple Pies

Adam and I are quite good at not wasting food. We try not to throw much away. If something is on the brink of being past it's best, I try and use it in something. Meat gets made into a stew or curry or pasta sauce and frozen, old veg is hurriedly added to that night's dinner or juiced, bananas become banana bread and apples generally get thrown into a crumble.

Last night, we had two apples that were past their prime. No good for just biting into, but still good enough to bake with! I decided to depart with my usual norm of apple crumble, and make apple pie instead. I have to admit, I'm not brilliant with pastry though. Tastes good, but I always manage to break the crusts. So I decided to make mini apple pies, in the hopes that would be easier!



Ingredients:

Makes six mini pies

Crust:

130g self raising flour
50g icing sugar
70g butter
1 egg yolk

Filling:

2 medium apples
1 tbsp brown sugar
Pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon

Method

Prepare the pastry. Add the flour, butter and icing sugar to a food processor and pulse until combined and resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, using a knife cut the butter into the flour. Lightly beat the egg yolk, add to the crumbs and stir to combine. Shape into a ball, cover and put in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes.

Core and peel the apples and add to a small saucepan with the sugar and nutmeg or cinnamon (I used nutmeg but either are good!). Add about a quarter cup of water and simmer over low heat, stirring often, until the apples have softened and the water has pretty much gone - you don't want the mixture to be too soggy. I like apples in baked goods to still have a bit of bite but if you prefer softer apples, double the amount of water and cook for longer.

Grease the pie dish, I used a Yorkshire pudding tin for mini apple pies, you could also use a bun/cupcake tin. Roll out the pastry to about half a centimetre thick. Using a pastry cutter or the top of a glass, cut out circles from the dough, you'll need two for each pie. Put the first circles in the bottom, spoon in the apple pie filling (I heaped mine a little, I like a lot of apple!). Prick holes into the pastry lids, then use them to cover the pies. Take a fork and press down the edges.

Bake at 170 for about 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them, you want the pastry to be golden brown but they can burn quickly!

And as if that wasn't enough, you could always add a little cream:

Our newest family member...

Meet the latest addition to our family:



Bert!

Bert is a one year old Boston Terrier who we adopted from someone my husband works with. We brought him home for a couple of days to see how he would get along with Izzy. Izzy is still a bit unsure about him - they get along, haven't fought but she is keeping her distance a little - but we absolutely love him. He's so sweet and affectionate and loves to cuddle up to me!

I've been quite busy with photography related stuff lately which is great! Last weekend I shot a civil ceremony, I had a baby shoot and I'm meeting a prospective client today too. It's exciting!

I'm married!

For anyone that doesn't know, I married my partner Adam on the 27th December 2011 on our 8th anniversary (cheesy, we know!). It was absolutely perfect and I feel so lucky. I wanted to share a couple of photos that I took at the evening reception with my instant camera. They aren't fantastic quality but that's the joy of instant photos I suppose! Our proper photos taken by our wedding photographer will be featured on the Whimsical Wonderland Wedding blog, and I'll be sure to post the link once they're up!















Sorry that it's been a bit quiet on the blog this past month - things were hectic with Christmas and then the wedding! Now that I've changed my name to my married one, I've been working on a new website for my photography website too which has taken up a lot of time, as that's one of my goals for this year - to grow my photography business. Fingers crossed it all goes well! I know it's a little late, but I hope you all had a fab Christmas and New Year. I can't believe it's already been a year since my last New Years post!

The finished product!

My dried apple rings are ready!



I made these for a Christmas hamper that is to be raffled off for work, so I tried to package them up nicely! I put them in a clean, sterilised jar then tied a square of fabric around the top with wool. I hope whoever wins the hamper enjoys them (I snuck one out to try and they're lovely)!

My favourite fruit

So happy to see these in the shops and markets, a true sign of autumn and one of my favourite fruits. Makes me so incredibly excited for Christmas!

A Bonfire Night Repeat

It's Friday!! I'm so excited for the weekend this week, more so than normal! Adam and I have finally got a full weekend off together, which is a rarity. On Saturday we're going to go wedding ring and log fire shopping, then off to watch the new Twilight film! And on Sunday we'll have a long walk with Izzy, followed by a drink in the pub and a delicious Sunday dinner as I have a new recipe that I'm itching to try. I can't wait!

I just thought I'd take some time now to share a few photos from last weekend. The week before had been Bonfire night but Adam's nephews couldn't come to our little bonfire party as they were on their holidays, so we had a repeat last weekend too. There were less people, so I felt I was able to relax a little more and spend a bit more time taking photos things in!





Everything was pretty much the same, apart from I had time to make some amaretto hot chocolate, which was absolutely divine!



The photo with the half-full mug and marshmallow doesn't really do it justice, but I think I'll be making some more this weekend, so will take a nice photo and pop the recipe up next week hopefully!

I hope you enjoy your weekend too, let me know what you have planned!

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. This year is especially poignant as someone that I used to be friends with was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday. It's upsetting enough when you hear about the boys who lose their lives fighting for their countries, but when it's someone you know it's heartbreaking. My heart, thoughts and prayers are with his family today.

Wedding Wednesday: Cakes

Today is less than twelve weeks until my wedding! I'm so excited. I have a fun weekend planned full of bridesmaid dress and centrepiece shopping with my mum and bridesmaids. Today I'm going on a hunt for the perfect wedding cake. With everything else for our wedding, Adam and I have known what we want. With our cake, we're clueless! We really like lots of different cakes, but don't want to spend a lot on one. So many people I know are so good at baking, but I don't want to put the stress on anyone to make ours. I'd like to make it myself, but don't know if it would be too much - especially because I want to DIY so much anyway. This cake is my favourite one:


(Photo by Hannah Millard)

But I think this might be too summery for a winter wedding.


I love this one, and I think it would be quite simple for me to make myself. You can buy plain, ready iced tiers from Marks & Spencer, and then I could have a friend help me out with the snowflakes.



These cupcakes are absolutely beautiful, and I want to have at least some cupcakes, think I'll definitely be making these! I love them.


(Photo & Recipe by Glorious Treats)

Also, there's a local bakers to us who does absolutely GORGEOUS (looking and tasting!) cakes, but they're a little on the expensive side. I'm going to call there on my way to uni today for some prices.

What are your favourite cakes or cupcakes?

A quick thank you

So the winning bid on my Vegan Marshmallows was $40! I can't believe they sold for so much - I was worried no one would even bid on them! Can't wait to make and send them out to whoever won them! I'm also looking forward to seeing how much Katie managed to raise for charity - did you see how much her Fudge Babies sold for?! Amazing!

A lot of people have complimented me recently on my photos, and to everyone who has done I just want to say a big massive thank you! It means so much to me. Photography is a massive passion of mine, and something that I would love to turn into a career (I'm working on it!). I entered this photo of my sister into a photography competition at Uni recently. It didn't win, but I had a really fun time taking the pictures and playing around with my little sis!



Just a short and sweet post today - I'm still snowed under with school work at the minute, but I'll be back tomorrow with a tasty vegetarian recipe!

Introducing Izzy!

I can't believe I've never mentioned Izzy on the blog before!



Izzy is my one year old Lhasa Apso puppy, and the love of my life! I just wanted to make a quick update today, and will be back in the next few days with my third weigh in, a recap of my week and I've got a fun and hopefully helpful post planned about how to motivate yourself to workout!

In the meantime, hope you have a lovely weekend!

Strawberry Picking

Last Sunday, I did something I haven't done since I was a child, but that I've been dying to do for a while - went strawberry picking! It was so much fun; the strawberries were delicious and cheap! And the smell of them... It was heavenly, and like no strawberry you can buy in the supermarket! I've grown quite a few of my own this year, but I couldn't get enough as I needed. I'll be eating strawberries for a long while now - just finished off the chocolate covered ones tonight!