Two Little Ducks, 22

It's been a while, hectic times all round! I flew back home on Saturday though and now having a lovely relax. Wonderful to have home cooked food, cosy house, tea/hot water bottles/food made for me! Spending my time in front of the fire with my lovely cat Fifa watching highlights from the Olympia horse show = perfect!

Last Friday (can't believe it was only a week-ish ago) some of my bessies from Uni (Ruth, Rach, Loren, Cam and also stowaway Michal!) flew over to Belfast to celebrate my 22nd with me. We had an awesome time!

Friday

I met them all at Europa bus station, and after some screaming and hugging we trekked back to my house. Had some lunch and a catch up then went into town, via a quick tour of my uni. Did a bit of shopping and pitstopped at Starbucks before heading on to the Continental Market for some german hotdog/hog roast/churros/mulled wine.

Loren and Rachel

Camilla and Michal

Ruth, Cam and Rach at Queen's

Ruth getting cosy at Topshop!!

Cam in disguise at Starbucks

Christmas tree loving in Victoria Square

German Sausage times!

Rach and Me dressed up for a night on the town

Saturday

My birthday! Lovely relaxed morning made complete with some present opening - felt very spoilt with lots of fab prezzies, thank you everyone! Then we had BREAKFAST CLUB - traditional birthday celebration from when we all used to be housemates. Loren, Ruth and Rach helped make pancakes, sausages, bacon, egg, toast, baked beans and a few tomatoes!

We then caught the train into Lisburn to LASER FORCE. Retro birthday times, Honor texted to remind me of the last time we went and Stuart entered his name as Sextus (still don't know why, something to do with Latin). Anyway had a GREAT time shooting 8 year olds, my team won and I was in the top 5 scorers ("yeoooo" as the Irish would say). Ruth tried to charm some freebies out of the laserforse man but he called her a psycho.

We hung out at Costa for a while, and I tried an expresso now that I'm All Grown Up. It wasn't bad. Ruth tried to subtley reassemble some failing Christmas decorations using a luggage sticker - noble but unsuccessful.

Then went on to Del Toro for some good food. Yum Yum. 

Finally got the train back and had some Northern Irish friends round, so was great to mingle the nationalities! Connor came and provided Elf, four tubs of Ben & Jerry's, and some flowers :) then Paul gave me a birthday pec dance and we played the cardboard box game.

Me and Rach at PJ o'clock

Lappy time - thanks for all the FB bday messages!

Present times! I look like a blind mole rat in the mornings.

Breakfast Prep!

Birthday Breakfast Club!

Ruth's personal bday dance for me :)

Station photoshoot

Ruth fixing Christmas.. without success

Rach, Cam and Lozzy smiley

Del Toro

Fish Pout!

Mi, Me and Ruthy

Eyebrow Exercise

Sticky Toffee goodness

Specially requested Eton Mess!

WE <3 LISBURN WOOO

Squinting like the letter B...

Dual nationality evening

GOOD NEWS! I saw a dog today

Roses and Ragu!

Sunday

Bit of a rushed morning to Church then on to AJ's for lunch. Connor and I both drove (using his and Grace's car) so had a mad rush of a convoy but it was fun! Then off to the airport for goodbyes :( Rach was flying from Dublin later that night so we went back to the Mcaleer house where she got sexually ravaged by Max the Dog. Then packed her off on the coach - more sad times!

Lunch Dinner Diner

Thankyou all for coming and giving me such a great birthday weekend! Looking forward to seeing you again at New Years.

Hope everyone is enjoying the run-up to Christmas. Remember, it's meant to be about joy and peace not stress! (Easier said than done I know!)

Less than a week to go!

X

A Covert Christmas

Finally we can talk about it in the open! 

It's Christmas time (Mistletoe and Wine...)

Probably my favourite music video of almost all time:

Well, the tree is up in the Coolfin household, it is very beautiful, although most of the praise should be directed here! We had to do an emergency late-night Tesco run for a second batch of fairy lights, but it was worth it, I'm preeeetty sure the whole street is quite jealous.

Fully dosed up on Christmas spirit I took the train down to Dublin on the 1st Dec. Bit of an adventure involving a 1/2 hour walk, 2 hour train journey and a couple of trams! I do like a bit of travel though, accompanied by such classics as 'Sail Away' (Acoustic Version). Have you ever noticed how all songs to do with travel are really sad? I quite enjoy a good adventure, especially on the train.

Connor met me on his lunch break and let me into his flat (he has been on placement down there during the week since about July). I had come armed with all my top-secret Elf supplies so a little festive decoration ensued, and in no time Operation Covert Christmas was complete! So much stealth it's unreal.

In true student style a 90p Tree! Isn't it cute?

Found this in a charity shop for 50p! Perfect for bathroom festivities!

Christmas scented candle - soak up that festive cheer!

A few homemade flapjacks, lots of oats and dried fruit for winter fuel energy!

Operation complete, I love making surprises! 

Conzo deserves it, he has been working very hard on his own down in 'normal' Ireland and spending his weekends doing degree level maths, very proud.

PDA over.

After some meatballs (not just any meatballs - M&S meatballs) avec side salad et shloer we went into Dublin city for a dander around, admiring all the prettzy sparkley lights!

Stopped at Arnotts for some Coff and Carrot(?) cake

Then came home and cracked out some melted choc with some homemade profiteroles. First time I'd tried making them (from my Granny Bab's recipe, passed down through the generations!) and they were yumm-ee (can't go far wrong with cream and chocolate though)

Lovely times! 

Anyway can't believe how sneakily quickly Christmas has been creeping in, it is almost as stealthy as me.

I literally haven't bought one Christmas present yet. Although I went to Starbucks tonight with my lovely friend Ruth and tried the Eggnog Latte - not bad though Toffee Nut still the one to beat.

Looking forward to seeing four wonderful English faces this weekend! :)

Peace bro's XX

Craving Christmas!

So I've been wanting to do a Christmas post now for aboooooutt three months. Yeahh I'm really prematurely excited this year, not sure why. Feeling the magical times approaching! 

Here are some things to be excited about...

Starbucks Red Cups!

Much love for these (although not to the extent to the maker of this website). 

Confession: I've already had all but the eggnog one. Toffee Nut is my fave. Nothing like taking a break from Christmas shopping or just a cold winter's day with one of these in your hand and a lovely comfy Starbucks sofa.

Christmas songs!

Don't they just make you feel happy and warm inside? 

Confession: I have been listening thoroughly already. Of course there is the classic (Mariah Carey) and the new buzz on the street - obviously Buble's new album, which is great. I'm not so keen on his Santa Baby, I think 'Christmas' is my fave. Also been branching out to a bit of a cowboy Christmas theme with Dwight Yoakam - a nice change!

Christmas Wear!

If there is one pattern I love, correction LOVE, it is FairIsle.. so beaut. 

Confession: my Winter jumper has been bought and worn already, I've scrimped on one from Primarni, but they do have some nice stuff out atm. Here are some lovely things I've found online. 

Jumper: Abercrombie (£94), Slippers: Accessorize (£13), OPI Nail Varnish: Asos (£12.95)

Curling up by the fire with a good book!

 So looking forward to doing this when I get home home, we have a proper fireplace and it's perfect next to the Christmas tree, nothing could be cosier! Also nice to swap the book for a good Christmas special on TV, or the Christmas Lecures (love). 

Confession: I have already researched the subject of Christmas Lectures 2011, it's on the human brain. Oooh!

And of course.. just the whole atmosphere.

 

For anyone stuck on Christmas presents check out here, here or here.

If you want a fairer Christmas, look to here, here or here.

But don't miss Christmas behind all the consumerism. Watch this.

And clearly, let's not forget the real meaning of Christmas, even in the run-up to it. What an amazing event we are actually celebrating!

Merry Christmas to you, and goodwill to all men!

Food Adventures

So I've become quite a resident of the kitchen these last few weeks (sorry feminists), I'm not sure why but I think maybe it's a productive form of procrastination?! Slash missing good home food. I love cooking shows like River Cottage, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Great British Bakeoff etc etc and I would love to be a skillful chef! Really been keen to try out new recipes recently - here are some things I've been trying out...

(NB: in case it isn't obvious, none of the photos are mine. But let's just pretend that's how good my food looks).

Potato Rosti

Not an overly healthy dish with a good bit of carbs and oil, but so nice for a change for a hot at-home lunch. I got my recipe from 200 Veggie Feasts but here's a similar one. Top tip: serve with a fried egg on top.

Aubergine Gratin

Another one from 200 Veggie Feasts. Pretty healthy and a kind of carb-less lasagne. I would definitely change my recipe a bit if I did it again though - mine had an overly intense tomato and basil taste. Give it a go though (start here).

Chicken Curry

I'm pretty new to curries so I started with an easy one - here. For such a straightforward dish it was really tasty - and would be a great basic recipe to add to. I added some sultanas and desiccated coconut.

Coconut Flapjacks

I used some of the left-over coconut to add to a basic flapjack recipe (like this). Yummy!

Butternut Squash, Tofu and Pea Curry

And another from 200 Veggie Feasts. Again, quite nice but I'd tweak it if I made it again. Could do with another strong flavour next to the butternut cos it really dominates. Still, a fun adventure! Here's a twist on it using pumpkin instead.

Stir Fry

I've started stir-frying a fair bit cos it's easy, cheap and healthy! Add noodles (wholegrain if you wanna be good!), chicken (season with Mixed herbs while cooking) or whatever veg (sugar snap peas are the best!). A really simple sauce is to mix a tablespoon of Soy Sauce with half a teaspoon of honey.

Couscous

Also an under-rated dish! Mix dried couscous with hot water with dissolved stock cube. Add seasoning/sultanas/roasted veg/lemon juice.... Quick, simple, yum.

Onion Gravy for Bangers and Mash

There's not many recipes I've done a number of times, cos I tend to get bored repeating them! But this is a winner. From Sam Stern's Student Cookbook which I got free from a newspaper! Yummy addition to a simple dish. This one looks similar. Add sage.

Shepherds Pie

A Classic.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter icing and Choc flakes

Created these the other day as a treat for some friends! Just a simple cupcake recipe with added vanilla. Used a crushed Galaxy Ripple sprinkled on the top of butter icing to finish it off! (And some lovely Ikea cases of course).

Hope I've inspired you!

Here's a little something to make you smile. I find it funny how seriously people take food sometimes.