Tuesday 19 November 2013

Oven pride event :

I was invited to a cooking event by Ovenpride at the The Cheshire Cookery School and well I cant cook to save my life. I burn oven pizzas , I undercook fish and chips.
Cooking is such an important skill that has just passed me by and well its just not fair on G . I want him to be proud of his mum ( me) and the meals I cook. 

We have just moved house and now have a big new kitchen well I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to learn some skills.

The master class was taught by Kurt Thomas who has had 35 years experience in the cooking industry so if he could not teach me how to cook - there really was no hope for me. 
 
first we were shown the amazing power of oven pride - which reminds me we need to clean the oven in our old house !
  I was amazed how easy it was to use :)


The meal we were given as our task - should we chose to accept ( think mission impossible ) was Kurt's chicken and Tuscan bean stew ( with chorizo ) and a quick sour dough bread.
 
We arrived promptly at 6.30 had a quick cuppa and a chat from Kurt who explained the meal would be easy to make and prepare - this helped to put my mind at rest - just a little.

He then gave a demonstration on how to make the soda bread which we all had a taste of and it was amazing not what I expected

 


Kurt then started on the Tuscan bean strew and then I started to panic big time - we had to chop onion - now having had two strokes my co-ordination isn't the best and I usually end up with plasters all over my fingers so I was really worried.




this was his finished dishes
 
 
Then it was our turn and every one else worked in pairs and just like high school I was all on my own - I looked around for my other mummy blogger friends but they had all paired up .
 
So I had twice the work and so this was going  to be more fun than I thought :(
 
 We were given a recipe card to follow to make it a bit easier.
 
I was that busy baking bread, preparing veg I forgot to take photos of me pounding my dough lol
so i took a photo of the bread in the oven.
 This is my finished soda bread and it was really yummy.
 
So the peeling and chopping began and well i still have both hands and all my fingers and still attached and not one cut in site - that's a good sign :)
 


don't know if you can see from my photos but we used one of these new fangled induction hob which was very space age :)
 Hear it is my finished dish :)
I was so proud of my dish especially as i had cooked it all by my self.
 Hear are some of the other bloggers enjoying there meals.
 
 
All that was left to do was the washing up, which the lovely people at the cookery school did for us.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We were provided with a goody bag for attending this event my review of the items will be coming to my blog soon.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Linen loft

what is linen loft I hear you cry !
think luxurious bedding and towels think  boutique think high end products at affordable prices.

linen loft is a small company which do in home parities  parties and online - for the parties think Tupperware and Ann Summers Jamie at home and you will get the idea . they also sell online at thelinenloft.co.uk   and now sold in a delightful small shop just outside Knutsford Cheshire. Which is just 10 miles down the road from our new home so me and G were delighted to be asked to attend the store opening a few weeks ago.

When we arrived it was not what I expected at all
 
but when I walked in I was amazed
 

As we have just moved house I really enjoyed looking at every thing they had to offer. New bedding towels. We have just gone up to a king size bed and I loved this grey colour and it would work so well in our bedroom. If I had an unlimited budged I would have gone nuts and brought out the whole shop.

Not only do they do amazing bed linen they also have fantastic lounge ideas.


The quality is high but with prices which are more affordable than similar high street shops. Joanne Napier who founded the company explained that she tries to find smaller local or family suppliers to give her products that something special.



One of Joanne's new lines includes a stunning children's range which I think G approved of. Lots of gingham strips with beautiful throws





I could have spent a fortune in hear but with paying two mortgages I don't think H would have been best pleased so I got 2 items

 
A beautiful owl door stop and a Christmas tree candle holder both can be found at www.linenloft.co.uk


Wednesday 6 November 2013

todays the day ......

Todays the day we sold our house :)
Its been on the market since December 2012 , 6 weeks after we got married.

We have been in our new home exactly a month. So on this day we have sold our old house I feel relief because paying two mortgages was a little bit tricky to say the least. Cash flow has been a real issue of late and with the new house boiler on its last legs we were really starting to feel the per strings pulling.

On the other had I feel quite sad as it was my first home apart from my parents , the first Home G has know bringing G home for the first time , our first married home - its where H struggled to carry me over the threshold.  We fed G his first meal , G took his first steps in the lounge.

What we have now is a lot better and we are happy hear. G has even started a regular playgroup.
 
Our old house is now a distant memory and we have to look forward but there is just a slight hint of sadness that comes with it.
G's granddaddy peter helped to do a lot of the decorating and so it H feels a slight attachment to it.
 
Onwards and upwards .


 
 

Sunday 3 November 2013

What did you get up to this Halloween ?

Halloween for us this year for us was a little different as we had just moved house and not really knowing anyone we didn't think it was right to take G trick or treating.

So instead we stayed in brought a tone of swizzels-matlow.com sweets and waited for the trick or treaters to arrive and boy they arrived . We did try to watch a film a new Scooby doo movie but we kept getting disturbed so that's one for this week.
 


We must have had about 30 familys knock on the door which was really nice. Everyone in the new area is so nice and the children are so polite - they all said thank you.

Swizzles mellow would really like know what you got up to this year .
Please could you fill in this short survey, which takes only 3 minuets to fill in and you get the chance to win a prize - this amazing Christmas bundle could be yours.