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!!

Sugar doughnut mini muffins

So! it was my Birthday last weekend (ripe old age of 23 now!) and in our office the general unspoken rule is that on any special occasion tasty treats must be brought in! So i scoured the internet and found this recipe whilst on exploring www.stumbleupon.com. All i can say is that they went down very well!!

Sugar Doughnut Mini Muffins

Time: about 30 mins

Makes: 20

3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (or cinnamon/choc chips - anything really!)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

To coat:

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and grease a muffin tin with butter or oil.

2. Beat together the sugar and egg until well mixed. In another bowl mix together the flour, vegetable oil, milk, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder and nutmeg (or other flavouring). Combine the two mixtures and mix well.

3. Divide the mixture across the muffin tin (i used just over a tablespoon per muffin) and bake for about 10 minutes - until risen and cooked!

4. Melt some butter and spread the sugar on a place. Brush the top of the muffins with butter, then roll them in  sugar then leave them to cool on a wire rack.

Loved making these - they were so simple and quick to make and they were really light compared to normal cupcakes or mini muffins - definitely recommend!!

Me & Candi-Cloud: Hybrid Brownies

Candi-Cloud: Hybrid Brownies Candi-Cloud and I made these amazing brownie-muffin hybrids! I found the original recipe on stumbleupon.com and just knew it had to be done!! 

Here's her blog post!

I'm Back!!

Amazing panoramic views on top of Poet's Walk

Hello again!

I've been away for a while - moved into a small flat with the OH about a month ago and just havent had time. MY GOD moving is stressful! There's the packing up your life, transporting it all and then you've got to unpack it all again!

We're in Clevedon now - it really is lovely being right next to the beach

Clevedon beach and pier

Luckily we don't really have much stuff so unpacking only took 2 days! There was a rather epic battle between the OH and an Ikea chest of drawers.....at first it looked like the drawers were winning, but after a quick dash to the neighbor's to get a pair of pliers and a hammer - man won!

We've expanded our family and bought some more fish..... we named them Cletus and Opal (one guess which one is Cletus) the OH loved Cletus at first sight - for me it was more pity because he looked so sad! love them all now!!

Cletus

All the fishies!

Now we're settled in i'm planning on doing some more proper cooking and posting a bit more! i'm hoping to find some quirky little places around Clevedon i can share as well!!