BEDM 13: A rather tasty salad

Here's my mixed up post for today for BEDM which was all about sharing a recipe or something about food.


Today, I thought I'd share a different salad I made. It was based on one we tried at The George and Dragon in Mountnessing, Essex some years ago and last week, after realising we'd had a pomegranate residing in there for a couple of weeks, I felt it was time for eviction!

You will need:

Pomegranate
Feta cheese
Rocket
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Cucumber
Tomato

CBC dealt with the pomegranate but when I just asked him, he said it was a right pain and someone should do a youtube video on how to deal with them.  I looked and there are hundreds of the beasts! Here's a good one!

I still can't believe Persephone, Greek Goddess refused all food but ate pomegranate- sad!


So you just need to cube up your feta, chop your tomatoes, add in your pomegranate, cucumber, tomato and rocket (I actually used a mixed leaf and rocket bag here- worked just as well!).  Drizzle it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and grind some pepper on top and that's that.

In case you are worrying about the balance of my diet here, worry not.  Alongside the salad- I served CBC and I two slices of wholemeal brown bread with a slice of Lidl Gravalax (smoked salmon with dill on top). It came with a delicious sweet mustard sauce and went very well with the salad.



And to finish off, we had a glass of elderflower fizz too!

Da naaaaa!!!


And in case salads aren't you thing, here's a few other items we have cooked lately:



Top row: Last night: Spaghetti with fried asparagus, pak choi, cherry tomatoes, courgette, green chilli; on top, buffalo mozarella (uncooked) with Greek basil and black pepper)- very tasty
Bottom left: Sunday: it was 9.45pm, I was a bit hungry.
Asparagus, red peppers, pak choi, broccili with left over feta from the salad
Bottom right: very unhealthy Dairy milk marvellous ice-cream. Choc and vanilla ice-cream, mini smarties, popping candy, jellies.


Top row: conghilli with broccilli, sliced tomatoes, shallots, wild-garlic pesto (made by me!) and pak choi.
Bottom row:  Use em ups stew:
tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, tin of kidney beans, green beans, frozen sweet corn, swiss vegetable bouillon, onions, barley and left-over broth mix.
Bottom right: headless Lindt Almond and milk chocolate bunny.


Top row:  spinach and sweet potato dhal with wild rice.

Bottom row: One of those, "What do we have?" evenings:
We ended up with: baked teriyaki tofu; grated carrot, avocado and lime salad; boiled rice; kale wiht with shallots.

Lots of tasty dishes!  We're a little boring in that we tend to eat most of the same vegetables but we always try to make them delicious!

What do you enjoy?

Can you be bothered with pomegranate.

xx

This is my Day 13 post of Elizabeth's 'Blog every day in May' challenge.

BEDM 12 - It's a question of WHO?

I'm back... and it's about Time!
I've switched my BEDM topics so Thursday's one is today  (Fashion, style or Beauty- tenuous) and vica-versa as TARDIS Tuesday must stay!

I was super excited to reach this week's TARDIS Tuesday as I received a wonderful present through the post.

Dear Ang, at Tracing Rainbows saw my allusion in a previous TARDIS Tuesday post to wanting question marks embroidered on my lapels like Peter Davidson's 5th Doctor (Who) and offered to embroider them for me on her super whizzy embroidery machine!  I excitedly posted my white concert shirt I have had since I was 14 off to her and she embroidered it with red question marks AND added red to the collar.

You can see it from various angles! I am SO delighted with it- SO many TARDIS Tuesday possibilities.
When I started putting this outfit together, I wanted something coherent and not TOO costumey as I was going to wear it to school BUT I wanted something bold.

Image borrowed from Tansyrr.com Yay, a blogger I follow!

Thus, I took 6th Doctor, Colin Baker, who also had question marks on his lapels, as my inspiration.  I know I don't look like him, but the longer coat with red emphasis, plus the lapels; stripy, albeit blue stripy trousers and a loud-patterned waistcoat (tank) .

There are many references I DON'T have in here, like the cat brooch, rainbow styling (darn it, should have included my rainbow umbrella!), bright coloured spats on shoes, cat brooch, polka dot neck-tie, louder stripy trousers,  checkered and patterned clashes, pocket chains but that's the beauty of this TARDIS Tuesday milarkey- I have years to perfect, refine, alter, change or embellish an outfit once I've exhausted original ideas!

Only one staff member guessed what the lapels were about but the children loved the tank and the question marks.  And that, my dear friends, for me, is enough success!

Outfit details:
Shirt- Racing Green, 20 years ago, lapels embroidered by Ang Almond.
Trousers-Primark ancient
Spotty Tanktop -  H&M via Char's Blog clothes sale
Red trench- Primark via Charity shop.
Shoes- Clarks

• With HUGE thanks to Ang for her wonderful embroidery (hmmm, wonder if that machine does fairisle-style question marks too..... ;-)   ) 
• A nod to my illustrious leader, Maricel over at TARDIS Tuesday headquarters
• A nod to Creative Mondays guru- Claire Justine
• A look at all of you!  If you have something British blue or perhaps Doctor Who inspired, head over to Maricel and link up.  Sometimes there is a little crowd of us WHO are inspired and sometimes, it's me and some random linkers who don't allude to DW or TT in their posts at all!  But still, it's nice to link up there together!  And if you wear black opaque tights, a short dress from Topshop, chances are you might look like Clara Oswald from DW, wear blue and you can be TARDIS blue. Or be random fangirl tenuous Cosplay like me! But I'd love to see you over there!

xxx






Thursday's  BEDM post is supposed to be linked to Beauty Fashion or Style- so that'll be neither!!

BEDM #6: 10 brilliant blogs

'Share the blog love' was Elizabeth's brief for Blog every day in May today.  

I recently introduced a new blog feature where I highlighted a particular blog I like and listed posts that were favourites from their blogs.  I do think, that since blogging can come across as a very introspective concept, that it is important to ensure you highlight other people for their attributes.

Today, as part of BEDM, I’m going to highlight 10 bloggers or blogs in a nutshell who I think are particularly good at a particular ‘thing’. 

There are undoubtedly many people who either have a niche or are generally great bloggers and I like both types of blog.  Indeed I have many more blogs I could write about for a specific reason or just for general love but nonetheless,  I wanted to highlight 10 blogs I enjoy for particular reasons in a nut shell.  10 is a nice round number!  I have still got a lot of people I want to talk about over time so please don't feel left out, I love you all!

1. Brilliant for historical, informative writing but with a personal edge.

Louse AKA Fundy Blue writes a wonderful weekly post using letters sent by her Father when he was living in cold Canada in the 1960’s.  You get a wonderful contemporary perspective on what his life was like there and Louise painstakingly locates images to help illustrate his points or finds contemporary photos of people or maps from either her own sources or others. It is SUCH an interesting read and so unique in the blogging world. You really feel like you are there with her Father.

http://selkiegrey4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-lansdowne-letters-big-bang.html

2. Brilliant for an expert on Wildlife and its effects on life.

Louise at Ramblings of  a Roachling is SO knowledgeable about wild life and she takes magnificent photos of natural phenomena, flora and fauna, taking you along on her walks.

http://roachling.blogspot.com/

3. Brilliant for zany fashion experimentation and downright hilariousness

AKA Miss Bagz, the wonderful Melanie at Bag and a Beret makes me laugh everytime with her hilarious (and very stylish) way of writing about what she wears. 

http://bagandaberet.blogspot.com/

4. Brilliant for the perspective of a musician

Fil’s place, old songs and memories

Fil is an Irish singer and folk musician who often writes about her time on tour and her life back home, running choirs. She sometimes includes recordings of her music and I think she has the most wonderful voice.

http://fil-campbell.blogspot.com/

5. Brilliant for eating out drooling opportunities

Helen at Positive Fridays, who I met through Lakota’s Faith, Hope and Charity swap a few years ago has evolved her blog into a wonderful description of places she eats out in Birmingham. You can tell she loves food and I drool everytime she posts!

http://www.positivefridays.com/

6. Brilliant for wonderful blog outfit post locations

Sophie in the sticks is SO much more than just outfits, but aside from her beautiful dreamy natural photography, Sophie takes her outfit shots in the most evocative and beautiful locations, taking an outfit onto another level.

http://www.sophieinthesticks.co.uk/

7. Briliant for your daily fix of Daleks

Is that just me? Well,Daleks of the Day always has some fun cosplay, Dalek cake or image to amuse! I even featured on there once dressed up as a dalek!

http://www.daleksoftheday.com/

8. Brilliant for general joie de vivre, loveliness, interesting facts and shoes!

Denise at Denise’s Planet is SUCH a nice blogger (one I’ve met!) and she posts only weekly, thus meaning you can really take the time to read and love her posts, and she always links interesting facts with nice places, really interesting fashion outfits and shoes.

www.denisesplanet.com

9. Brilliant for Vintage wisdom and awesome outfits and no nonsense

Vix, AKA Kinky Melon or Vintage Vix is the absolute Legend of the blog world. She is the Black country’s Vintage queen and finds the most incredible vintage in charity shops and car boots. I honestly don’t know how she does it! She can sniff out vintage like she’s fitted with  high-spec radar, has an absolute photographic memory for vintage labels and gets them for a song! I can rarely find anything vintage but she was born with innate vintage knowledge.

http://vintagevixon.blogspot.com/

10. Brilliant for hilarious chatty blogstyle and hilarious crafts

Katie absolutely makes me giggle the whole time- though she’s been a little absent recently, her blog has always made me snort with laughter. She loves experimenting with crafts, especially round the home and hands on heart, is so much fun! She even managed to get a terrible fox plushie toy into a ‘’Craft fails’ book!

www.hooklineandsinkher2.blogspot.com

Who else should I know about as a blogger?

Kezzie xx

F holes

Today's BEDM brief is to do with the Mexican celebration of  Cinco de Mayo.  Zoe at Splodz Blogz has done an excellent post on this, so please head over there to find out more as I had no idea what it was and I've left it a bit late to find out about it!

So instead, I am going to focus on celebration of a different kind. CBC's birthday!  He celebrated this a couple of weeks ago (maybe a week ago?).  Usually, I have some clear defined idea of what card I am going to make for him but this year, I was definitely scraping the barrel for an idea.  Finally, I decided to make him a card linked to his 'cello. CBC is a very good Cellist.

Image borrowed from
http://musicpartnership.com.au/music-instruments/cello / 

If you're wondering about the F holes reference- please refer to the diagram above for the names of all the different parts of a cello (and violin/viola).  The f holes are so called, because they resemble a fancy 'f'.   I had an idea in my head to make CBC a really simple card using apertures cut in the shape of f holes as you can see above.

What I didn't remember, it being so long since I used one, was how utterly egregious I am at cutting using a craft knife OR a Stanley knife.  Literally, it was a disaster. And when I folded my gate-fold card, I accidentally folded it in half too reducing the stability of the whole card.

Finally, I resorted to a pair of scissors to finish off the f holes and filed the (very) rough edges with a nail file.  I printed f hole shapes onto the card in the first place.  Oh and as you can see, I should have printed them a bit nearer to the middle edges.

It looked MOST sad and pathetic, so I added gold outline stickers to the edges of the card to try and give it a little more sophistication and used a gold Sharpie to try and outline the f hole edges.  

The whole thing was decidedly shoddy, which I warned CBC about, and he laughed lots when he saw it.  It looks better here with a glossy filter and sparkles than it does in real life but am including it here in case someone who CAN cut, sees it as an excellent idea they can use for their own card for a string player and adapt it accordingly! After all, the idea was quite original, it was just the execution of it that was rather dreadful!

Linking to Creative Mondays with Claire Justine in hope that someone sees its potential

This is my Day 5 contribution for Blog every day in May

BEDM #4 Guilty pleasures: What am I?

Oh, slender slices of heaven!
Thin, crispy- sometimes large, sometimes tiny morsels, hiding amongst the metal sheets
That iconic crunch as you descend past gate-like teeth into gullet.
You dance a merry jig upon welcoming taste-buds.
Perhaps a sizzling paprika, an imposing chilli, a gentle salting, authoritative vinegar?
Delicious cheese, pronounced bacon, roasted meat?
Oh the many flavours vie for my love!
Alas though, we cannot be together long-term
You will cause anguish to my heart, medical, it seems.
You must leave my life at some point or at least keep your distance, visit sparingly.
Oh how I wish you were a better companion to my diet!

 ****************

Can you guess what I am talking about?



Crisps of course. Potato chips to international readers. Oh, my greatest guilty pleasure is crisps. I love them to distraction and life without them would be intolerable! I can easily eat more than one bag in a sitting. Woe betide leaving me alone with a family-sized portion of prawn-crackers. They would be decimated, exterminated, obliterated from existence. I make myself give them up for Lent as I know how reliant I am on my daily crisp-fix. And yet, a heart-surgeon told a friend they are singularly the worst thing you can regularly eat for heart care. Oh but that I could resist. Flavour is not an issue- any bag will do although I do have favourites and am not fond of chicken-flavoured ones but they are my most guilty pleasure.

 Over you to you: How do you feel about crisps? What is your weakness? xxx This is my Day 4 contribution to Blog every day in May.

#BEDM 3: Self Care Sunday

I've had a really pronounced headache for two days now- it started on Saturday morning minimally and I thought, "AAAAAH!" as I was getting on the trains for a shopping expedition with two blogging friends. By the time we were 3/4 of the way we were through, I was really starting to feel it and was thankful for the long train journey to shut my eyes and try to get rid of it. To no avail. Napping all evening and trying to sleep, it was not shifting. When it came to Sunday morning, Self Care Sunday felt like it should be "Stay in bed, try to shift headache," and block the world out. However, CBC knows best. He said to me, "Kezzie, you need to go to church," (who'd have thought he'd say that!) to which I groaned and replied, "But I still haven't done the editing of the sermons." Yes, I am admitting it here. I somehow, in a bid to try and help someone at church, somehow agreed to help edit the audio of sermons to remove all clicks, lip-smacks and other issues and then convert to a movie in Movie-Maker and then upload to Youtube. I'm not very technical, I haven't had the software in the right places (I haven't got WMM yet) , keep forgetting to do it and it's become this horrid guilty weight on my shoulders that meant I didn't go to church for 2 weeks. As I told my friends yesterday, I've got about 10 of the wretched sermons to edit. CBC said I should just go which I knew was right, despite the fact my head was pounding still behind my left eye and ear (always there- why?) and be honest. Of course, he's right. I went and despite the headache, I was glad I did. The sermon was spoken by a nice guest vicar on 1 John on Love. God is love. We can show our love for him by showing it to others. And I was needing to hear that. If I am to take care of myself, first I need to love God, show my love for him by showing it for others. The burden on me was that editing: to remove it was to do it, I originally wanted to help someone else with their burden, that's why elected to do it by offering to help originally- to show love for someone else and finally do what I said I would and then this anxiety which has kept me from going will be removed. Of course, the person I had offered to help didn't come up to me and demand where the edited sermons were- I didn't even get to speak to him. Why do I assume that someone is going to be unloving to me like that? It seems I have thought the worst of him AND Him.

Onwards, I came home. CBC decided we should go out to Tiptree to visit the Tea-rooms of the Famous Jam Makers and then go onto Mersea Island. I could have stayed home and lain down to rid myself of the headache, especially as the Ibruprofen were doing zilch but we went. Actually the car journey with the air blowing on my head was helpful, the food in the tearooms restorative and the best of all was walking along the beach at Mersea island (blog post to follow at some point soon with more of Mersea Island).


Oh how could I forget how restorative that sea-air is. As I was blown and blustered around, the sense of throbbing was somehow reduced and I was not aware of it as the painful spots buffeted by the strong wind.  By the time we drove home, it wasn't bothering me anymore.



 You're wondering about the photos? Don't bear any relation to the story except that that's what I wore today.  Well, I ended up wearing this outfit this morning, planned for TARDIS Tuesday and to coincide with Visible Monday, as tomorrow's brief is something more specific for Blog every day in May.  Despite the headache, you can kid yourself that you don't feel quite so bad if you try to dress normal.  Wearing a jumper and trousers might have been better but I didn't.    And I've have missed an opportunity to pose in one of these fields which was on my 'pretty summer blog locations I'd quite like to have a go at' as we passed quite a few in Mersea Island.

What's the inspiration for Doctor Who today?

Well, it's a Clara Oswald inspiration again.  One of her outfits from The Caretaker.  I've actually done this one as inspiration before here, before the advent of TARDIS Tuesday but in entirely different garments from today.

Image borrowed from Doctor Who tumblr

Image borrowed from Worn on tv

I started the day before windy-restorative-hairstyling, with fairly neat hair but as you can see in the photos, it didn't stay like that.

I am wearing the same shirt as Clara- Topshop diamond print shirt (ahem, saddo that I am) and teamed it with Forever 21 mini-skirt and Clarks oxblood shoes and my acorn-anniversary necklace from CBC .

And as CBC and I lay on the sofa drinking tea and reading, I suddenly noticed his socks matched my shirt. Funny coincidence.

Sometimes, Selfcare isn't what you think.

Linking to the lovely Patti with Visible Monday and to Claire Justine with Creative Mondays and finally Maricel at TARDIS Tuesday.  Of course, this is my daily post for BEDM too!

xx

BEDM Day 2: Adventure: Into Swallowship...

Adventures can be as big or small as you want them to be.  If you are a thrill seeker, your adventure will be much overt and extreme than mine. If you have a life full of difficulties, the adventure can be escaping briefly from those. And for those of us in the middle, an adventure is doing something different from the norm, trying something different, visiting somewhere new.  An adventure implies something new!

Well, I always regard any walk as exciting, especially when that walk involves woods or forest- who knows what kind of creatures or magical beings you may encounter. Or finding a new and exciting species of tree, animal or plant.

Let me take you on an adventure...

In the Easter holidays, on Easter Sunday and Monday, I took two walks respectively with my Brother-in-law and then my husband into Swallowship woods above Hexham. Above, since you have to climb the hill to reach them.

There is something awe-inspiring about being surrounded by ancient trees, overlookers over decades and centuries. Who knows what they have seen and what has changed whilst they grow there quietly and wisely.





There is an eloquent quietude which I find unique to the woods.  There is a sense that you are allowed to enter this place of venerable wisdom, rather like entering a library.   And yet, when you raise your voice to utter a word, the trees acquiesce to the request.  The delight of discovering something unusual, the glee at the discovery of a hidden den, an abandoned camp site, the grand mound of an long-established ant colony.





Who built it? When? Where are they now?



The sight of babbling brook and stones guiding you across.



One step...



Two steps...



We come to a brief end, a blanket of green stretches away from the forest boundaries but not today, thank you.



The path descends.  Something is arriving...



Ah, the sight of a glistening river! Find a path downwards, post haste.



Calm, quiet.



Places to climb and explore.



Sites to sigh over and long for warm summers to bathe in.





And by the river, the unexpected detritus left by a previous visitor.  Which book does it come from?



Rest a while at the make-shift fire place left by the previous intrepid.



The sight of a fearless squirrel, scampering over tree bridges.



And finally, as the sun sets, to look forward and back, wondering how to get home safely.


Ah, the woods is a great place for adventure.


xxxx


This is my Day 2 post for Blog every day in May with Rosalilium. The brief for today was Adventure.

Linking to Hat Attack with Judith- the Style Crone with my panama!