31 Oct 2017
October Reads for Halloween
I don’t wanna show off or anything but I really don’t need to dress up for Halloween. Thanks to a deliciously snotty cold, I already resemble a zombie. Don’t be jealous now.
And also don’t try and trick & treat at my door tonight cos all you’ll get is a feverish monster on the sofa who already ate all your sweets and is pissed cos you’ve interrupted the GBBO finale. You have been warned.
Anyway, these aren’t scary books, they’re crime thrillers but they’re both about missing babies which is always a creepy premise; it felt appropriate to talk about them on Halloween anyway.
The Couple Next Door - Shari Lapena
I started reading this in a casual just-before-bed type way and ended up finishing it 24 hours later in a slightly frenzied fashion because WHERE THE HECK IS THE BABY AND WHY IS EVERYONE HORRIBLE?
It was great.
Basic premise is that a couple come home to find their front door ajar, the house dark and their six-month-old baby missing. It’s an easy read, races along and throws twists at you all the way through.
The Child - Fiona Barton
I snapped this one up because it was the same author as The Widow which I read a few months back. It includes a couple of the same characters but is a standalone story.
It starts with the skeleton of a baby being discovered on a building site and jumps between different character perspectives as a journalist tries to find out the truth. It’s pretty dark in places but another one that you read obsessively because you have to know what happened to the damn baby.
Happy Halloween!
29 Oct 2017
Halloween Oreo Cake
Anyone fancy some Sunday baking? Cos, I don't wanna freak you out or anything, but it's already the end of October and the clocks have gone back so it is definitely time to spend your Sunday afternoon baking, wearing a chunky knit and singing Christmas carols.
Halloween has never been a big thing for me but ‘holidays’ are always a great excuse to make themed food right?
At heart, this recipe is a simple, rich chocolate cake but the creamy, Oreo-filled icing is what makes it so addictive. And those boggle-eyed Oreo spiders are the perfect addition for spooky Halloween.
Happy baking!
For Halloween Oreo cake, you will need:
250g self-raising flour
250g light brown soft sugar
50g cocoa powder
250g dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
4 eggs
200ml water
600ml double cream
100g icing sugar
14 oreos
Shop-bought chocolate frosting
Shop-bought vanilla frosting
Pre-heat the oven at 200c.
Mix the flour, cocoa powder and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
Melt the butter, chocolate and water together over a low heat on the hob. Add to the dry ingredients, along with the eggs. Beat until smooth.
Split between two greased cake tins and bake for 40 minutes.
Whilst the cakes are cooling, beat together the double cream and icing sugar for approximately 2-3 minutes or until the cream is thick and solid.
Crush 12 of the Oreos into tiny pieces using a roller pin and sandwich bag (if you fancy letting out some frustration) or blitz them in the mixer.
Fold the Oreo pieces into the whipped cream.
Once they have cooled, spread the icing on top of one of the cakes, then sandwich them together and ice the top and sides.
Create the spiders by splitting the final two Oreos in half and piping white eyes with dark irises on each one, using the vanilla and chocolate frosting.
Stick each one onto the top of the cake and then pipe on the spider legs using the chocolate frosting.
Adapted from original recipe here.
24 Oct 2017
A Weekend in Newcastle
G went to university in Newcastle and lived there for several years afterwards, and he often talks about it fondly. He’s been eager to head back up for a while which was our motivation for planning a weekend in Northumberland. After our night in York, and after visiting my cousin and her gorgeous new baby, we set off up the A1 towards the Toon.
Despite G’s fond talks, I didn’t have high expectations of Newcastle. I didn’t have anything against it but for some reason, I had this assumption that it was a pretty standard city; not unpleasant but nothing to shout home about.
And well, I was wrong. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised.
It’s a city full of character. Friendly people, a biiiiig shopping centre, independent food haunts and beautiful architecture. There’s enough restaurants and pubs to keep a gal busy for a good while plus enough bars and clubs to keep a gal busy for a freakin’ lifetime if that sort of thing floats ya boat – yes, we did see about eight million stag/hen dos.
The look of the centre reminded me a lot of Edinburgh and a little bit of Bath, two of my favourite cities, with its curved streets, big open squares and tall monuments.
Also, there’s a castle. WHO KNEW. (Well, a lot of people. Sorry for being such an uncultured swine.)
The way the Tyne Bridge comes down right into the middle of a street reminded both me and G of the Brooklyn Bridge so, yeah, I did just liken Newcastle to New York. I’m full of surprises eh?
On our way in to the city, the Angel of the North welcomed us with open arms and we stopped off to say a proper hello to her. She looks majestic up on the hill from a distance, but she’s really quite something up close. When you stand right at her feet and look up, the vertigo is real! If you haven’t already seen her, I would highly recommend adding the Angel of the North on to your list of sights-to-see-in-Britain.
We stayed for two nights at the Copthorne Hotel which is a little out of the town centre but still within walking distance. It is right on the river with a side-view of the bridges which G and I both particularly enjoyed. After we’d arrived and slobbed in the hotel room for a couple of hours, we glammed up and headed out on the toon.
(Like, for dinner and stuff. Not owt owt. Jeez, it’s like you don’t know me at all.)
We wandered down the river just as the sun was setting and it was a mighty fine view with all those bridges. Big fan of the bridges.
We’d pre-booked a table at Dobsen & Parnell which I’d recommend if you’re looking for somewhere a bit fancy but don’t want to entirely cripple your bank account – the cosy yet stylish interiors, friendly staff and really tasty food all won points in my book.
G took me into town afterwards to just wander and witness Newcastle on a Friday night which is how I learned that Geordie girls a) don’t seem to feel the cold, like, at all and b) seem to possess the ability to walk up streets which are not only freakin’ steep – Newcastle has hills a plenty – but are also cobbled, in stiletto heels. Seriously gals, I have nothing but respect. I’d have two broken ankles and a hella lot of bruises if I even attempted such a thing.
So that was fun to observe in a bemused, hectic kind of way but we weren’t really tempted to join in.
Next morning, we had brunch in a little café called Violets and, well, it was up there in the top five brunches of Kate’s life. Yeah, I know. Smoked salmon & creamy scrambled eggs with chives on sourdough toast – pretty standard in the brunch world so we all need to find out what they did to make it so particularly heavenly. Also the shabby-chic décor was very much up my street.
We spent the rest of Saturday out of Newcastle and touring the Northumberland coast which I will save for a separate post.
We started Sunday by grabbing a croissant from Pret and sitting right underneath Grey’s monument and looking across Grey’s street (which curves round in this freakin’ beautiful way). G took me for a look round his old university campus, we did a spot of shopping (by which I mean, I bought 3 books in Waterstones), we sat in a square that was randomly showing the final Harry Potter film. We breathed in the city.
I liked it. I liked the feel and the look and the fact that people weren’t manically marching around in a frenzied fashion.
G had discovered that Newcastle has a cat café (2 in fact, plus a dog café) so naturally, I booked us in for lunch. Because if a city has a cat café, I am going to find it. Mog on the Tyne has a simple, chilled vibe and so many characterful cats. My faves included Stan whose tongue hangs out his mouth due to an accident, a teeny kitten called Gladys who was unbelievably cute and a mischievous fella called Gary who stole half my cake (the human Gary could never get away with this).
We took a wander through the quayside market on our way back to the hotel to collect our things and we were both regretful that we couldn’t stay in Newcastle longer.
20 Oct 2017
Dealing with life curveballs
Life is a bit weird. You can be wandering a long, minding your own business, when it suddenly throws you a curveball.
A curveball from something or someone that you don’t have any control over. But throws you off kilter all the same.
And it’s all like wait what? I was just browsing the Lush Halloween range and wondering about what to have for dinner, what’s this for?!
It can happen when everything’s feeling good and calm. It can happen when everything’s feeling shite and it’s literally the last thing you needed.
And there’s really not much you can do about it. No one is immune to a life curveball.
Which is absolutely no help when the adrenaline wears off and you suddenly crash into the reality of how you feel about it all.
The thing is, life is going to pull these stunts. It is going to test you and push you and, yes, occasionally cause you to cry in that really unattractive fashion where you’re not sure what’s snot and what’s tears. Dreamy eh?
I find it helps to put everything into perspective, even when you are crying in that snotty fashion. Unless you have lost a person or your good health, then chances are, whatever curve ball you’ve been thrown, it is not your rock bottom.
Dealing with rock bottom is a whole other kettle of fish.
But this is not rock bottom and you can deal with this. Or at least learn to deal with it. To accept life curveballs are going to happen, accept they may just cause short term drama or have long term consequences. And, either way, when they happen, we do have the strength to get through them.
Have a great weekend, you tough cookie.
14 Oct 2017
How to spend a day in York
Last month, after five days holidaying at home, G and I got up too early for my liking for a pootle up the ol’ A1. The only thing to report from the journey is that when we stopped off at a service station, I had a minor tantrum because my cinnamon bun had raisins in it and I don’t understand why any sane mammal would want this.
As I mentioned before, we had a weekend planned in Northumberland and decided to stop off in York on the way so we could say hello to my cousin’s new baby. Because we were trying to keep things on the cheap side, I booked us a cheerful little cabin (through Airbnb) on a campsite just outside York for £40 for the night. It was adorable.
We didn’t linger much once we arrived late morning as we wanted to make the most of our day in York (it was a short bus ride into town) but I really liked staying outside the city and enjoying a bit of the country air and camping vibe. It was a cosy night’s sleep and we had jam and toast in the sunshine whilst overlooking the lake the next morning.
So here’s what we got up to!
Shopping and Shambles
Once we’d arrived in York, we spent an hour and a half having a good wander. I love all those higgldy piggldy streets complete with cobbles and over-hanging buildings. The Shambles is a famous medieval shopping street and has a Diagon Alley vibe (hence the many Harry Potter themed shops), and we meandered through it; pressing our noses against the shop windows. My fave was the fudge shop because you could actually watch them make the fudge through the window. The smell was unreal! The only downside of the Shambles is that it is absolutely rammed during the day so we went back in the evening, just before it started to get dark, to look round the street when it was more peaceful. I even managed to get a photo without anyone in it which must be some kind of miracle! York has such a wide variety of cute independent shops that are all really fun to meander round – although it’s a challenge to not spend all your pennies (I cracked when we were in the Yorkshire Soap Company and bought a little box of bath truffles).
Lunch at Betty’s
I had booked us in for afternoon tea at Betty’s at 1:30pm. This deserved a post of its own (which you can read here) but it was so dreamy and definitely a must when visiting York.
York Minster
It’s impossible to miss the minster when in York; I don’t remember there ever being a place where I couldn’t see it. We wandered over there after lunch (not far at all – York is very walkable) and it was truly striking when we got up close and could see it in all its glory from the outside. It’s £15 for entry to the minster and the tower trip or £10 for entry to the minster only. I enjoyed looking round the minster but the tower trip was the true highlight and well worth the extra fiver. I mean, okay, I did nearly have an asthma attack climbing the 275 stairs because I insisted on marching up as fast as possible because there were people behind me and I didn’t want to hold them up and I GOT FLUSTERED.
Lol, so British.
But it was 100% worth the faff. About half way up, you emerge onto a railed pathway running along the side of the South Transept roof and you get a glorious view of the cathedral architecture up close. You really feel like you’re in the heart of the building; very Hunchback of Notre Dame. You then keep climbing right to the top of the cathedral where you emerge to spectacular panoramic views of York.
York’s Chocolate Story
An interactive tour of York’s chocolate history. Okay, so we were the only people on the tour without children (when I booked it, I read more than one review that said the group was an even mix of children and childless people but, well, that wasn’t the case for us) but I’m secretly still a child anyway so hey ho.
I was actually really impressed with York’s chocolate story. I booked it for a bit of a laugh but was surprised at how much I learnt; the tour guide struck a really good balance of appealing to both children and adults and managed not to make it all a bit silly. We learned loads of history about York being the home of chocolate, how to properly taste chocolate (fun fact: you should hold chocolate on the back of your hand as it’s the coolest place and stops it melting quickly), watched how truffles are made and got the opportunity to make our own chocolate lollies (okay, that bit was a tad silly but also immensely fun… told you I was a child).
City Walls
Dating back to roman times, walking York’s city walls is a must-do when visiting; I think it takes approximately two hours to walk all the way round (which I definitely want to do next time) but you can easily just pop up to walk a section of them. We decided to walk along the city walls in between finishing our tour at the chocolate story and our dinner reservations and it felt like the perfect time of day. I don’t know if we’d just struck lucky but we practically had them to ourselves and everything was bathed in the soft glow of the setting sun; the minster looked particularly stunning.
Dinner at Guy Fawkes Inn
York is just the place for sitting in a cosy, low-beam pub (which we all know is one of my favourite pass times). After our walk along the city walls, we popped into the Punch Bowl for a cosy drink before heading over to the Guy Fawkes Inn where I’d booked us a table for 8pm (based on a good blog review). Supposedly the birth place of Guy Fawkes and right in the shadow of the cathedral, this inn is atmospheric, cosy and does great food. The real showstopper is their famous steak pie; it was so good. It is full to the absolute brim with steak, baby onions and mushrooms and served with mashed potato and smoked bacon gravy and honestly, it really was incredible. G and I were both in firm agreement that it was the best pie we’d ever had. We’d made the mistake of having starters but even if we hadn’t, I still doubt we’d have been able to finish it.
With tired feet and (extremely) full bellies, we ended our day in York by finding a taxi and heading back to our cabin in the countryside.
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