Meey baby Loki!

So we spoke to our landlord and got the go ahead for getting a cat....so meet baby Loki!

We went for Loki (Norse god of mischief) because we didn't want something that sounded too silly shouting it outside (Buttons didn't really do it for us!) turns out the name suits her nature. We brought her home last night, let her loose and my god she is a cheeky little thing! constantly playing and running around everywhere!

She settled in so well. No pining for her mum, luckily she's very well litter trained so hopefully we won't have too many accidents!

We got a really cool cat bed/ scratching post/ play den for her........she managed to sneak into our bed 3 or 4 times last night, so in the end just gave up trying!  it was lovely being woken up at 5:30 am by a kitten that wants to play!

I have a feeling she will be featuring in a lot more posts now!

Crumble time!

I went to my nan's the other day and ended up raiding the apple tree and brambles down the side of her house and decided to make a crumble. When I was little I always made crumbles and cakes with her.

You can do crumble with pretty much any fruit I think and the recipe is pretty universal.

250g sugar
200g plain flour
120g butter or margarine
Fruit!

1. Chop the fruit up into chunks and pop into a saucepan with 3/4 of the sugar and simmer until soft. Put the fruit into the dish.
2. Mix together the rest of the sugar with the flour and the butter until you get breadcrumb consistency.  (The best way really is to use your fingers - this was my fave bit as a kid!).
3. Pour the crumble mix on top of the fruit, don't pat it down, it needs to be loose, and pop it in the oven for 20 mins.
Can't really go wrong with a good old crumble! 

Yummy yummy! A good crumble always goes down well! i'm going to do a strawberry crumble next!!  

Pulled pork

I'd been fancying having a go at pulled pork for a while now. I got a new slow cooker book called "I <3 my slow cooker". Its a really good book, it has recipes for sauces, soups and puddings too!

2 tbsp brown sugar (I used caster sugar because that was all I had)

1tsp paprika

2tsp rosemary or thyme
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Boneless pork shoulder (I couldn't find shoulder so I've used fillet)
2 sliced onions
185ml dry white wine (I used dry cider)

1. Combine the sugar, paprika, herbs,  ginger and lemon zest and rub onto the pork.

2. Put the pork, onions and cider (or wine) into the slow cooker and cook on low for 12 hours.

3. Remove the pork from the cooker and wrap it in foil and leave to rest for 10 mins. Keep the iuices covered in the slow cooker to keep warm.

4. Put the pork on a plate and pull apart with 2 forks, and serve with mash or chips and use the juices to make gravy.

It was nice. I don't know if I'd use this exact recipe again, it wasn't as flavourful as I was hoping (might try something tomato based next time) but the gravy is what made it I think. It went down really nicely with an Oak aged or vintage Cider!

To Longleat!

So a few weekends ago i went with a friend to Longleat. When i was young a day trip to Longleat was THE day out, and i can't remember the last time i went!

We went on a Sunday for about 10.30 and we really did get there at the right time - all the animals had just been fed so were out in the open!

Bongo's!

The car survived the monkeys....luckily it was such a hot day they didn't seem too bothered about picking apart cars!

This ostrich was inspecting every car that it came across!

Aaaand then came deer feeding time.....

They were everywhere.....i think more food ended up being snorted back into the car than they actually ate!!

It was nice to see the lions not asleep!

They were a bit grumbly because they had food!

I don't think I've ever seen the wolves in the times I went as a kid so to actually see them was amazing!

They had a "walk with the penguins" section where they just had a little penguin waddling around - soo cute!!

I think one of the best bits of the day was the birds of prey show. There were vultures, owls and kites, it really was amazing!  Didn't get any pictures - we were too busy ducking as they flew over us!

It was such a good day out! 

Somerset Foodie Show

So i was scouring groupon a month or two ago and came across an offer for 2 tickets for the Somerset Food Show in Wincanton.

I think this was the first of the food shows but it was certainly a good start! The weather held up luckily so it was a lovely day out! 

Watching some Chefs do a full 3 course meal in about half an hour!

There were also a lots of craft stalls as well as food stalls!

There were some really interesting food stalls  - even an exotic burger stall selling Zebra burgers!

We saw punch and Judy - it's a lot more violent than we remembered!!

Potato on a stick that is bigger than your face!

We also saw the "Cumberland Giants": 2 men wearing inflatable wrestlers who basically ran at each other and made them fight.....really weird but hilarious!!

There was a stall selling the most AMAZING fudge!

The Zebra burger stall - i had one and it was surprisingly nice!!