i no it was a while back but i feel the need to mention it!

i no this post isnt exactly on time with the goings on with the rest of the world ha!but easter was quite big for us this year so i feel it needs mentioning.

first up(the picture above) ..we make these nest every easter without fail.this year it even happened twice because my sister tried them with her uni mates too,allthough we couldnt find the recipe at one point so she did get her ingredients a wee bit mixed up!this year was different was slightly different though because it was left to me,one of those moment were it 'well do you want me to make them'and everyone says oh i dont mind its up to you.ha try saying 'oh i wont bother then' and there attitude soon changes to 'oh no you must you must'.the recipe did dissappear for a while though and we searched our brains as to which recipe book it was from,there are many different types of these nests on the internet,some with kirspies,some with cocoa,real chocolate,and shredded wheat,but nonone will ever be posted that is the same as ours,or so it seemed,maybe i dint look quite hard enough.our recipe is made with..kornflakes,syrup and drinking chocolate oh and if you dont have the mini eggs dont bother.

so this was the first easter crafting and they went dont a treat of course.allthough they could have done with a bit more syrup mixture the reason i think this part went wrong is that the recipe is measure in tablespoons so when you get to your 20th tblespoon of konrflake one can get a tiny bit confused!

this year mum also had an craving for creativeness and decided to make this rather original cnetre piece.she found herself a twig from our last holiday to the beach,painted it white and stuck it in a block of wood,then she hung these beautiful little wooden hen figures from the branches,and the coloured cuddly buinnies,and then the last minute wonder was the minature lindt bunnies also hung from the branches,this picutre in no way does it justice as it looked wonderful and very orignal,needless to say the poor bunnies didnt last long.

and then here it is the selection of chocolates recieved this year,hahahah oh no though not all there were ohter little bits ands bobs that didnt make it to this photo and that were already being digested by this point but thats still a fiar amount,saying that there are a few bits left.my sister isnt a chocolate eater to be honest so her egg is still left,but she picks when she wants to.the creme eggs went first,closlely followed by the nests and then the eggs and bunnies and the only reason for this i think was because they were out in the utility in a cupboard.

but that wasnt it for easter celebrations,my borther is following in my much adored footsteps of cooking,he is a bit of snob with his cooking though and will never offer to cook tea or anything,he will only offer to cook when there is no limit on expense for his ingredients and if he can go all out and gourmet,what can you expect from my father son!but he did cook a three course meal and everyone said they liked it so hey who can complain,oh yes thats it me,because iw as left clearing up whilst they sat down to eat it...typical...typical typical.

this was his starter,he has done this one ever since he started cooking but the brilliant thing to see is he has imprved it each time it started with a simple chunk of cheese wrapped in bacon and has now gone to this little masterpiece on a plate and now even has a garlic fried cicle of bread.

this was one of the favourites i think plus everyone was starving as he had called them to the table ages before it was ready and the smells were getting to them somewhat.

then the main course,he always cooks lamb always,just different varieties,it was enoyed too. simple mash lamb chops cabbage(i showed him how to chop it delicately,oh yes people get me!) and then a rosemary gravy simple yet effective.

then there was the galxy torte pudding.well done little bro.good round up to good easter i wreckon.

little tear for major lady!

today was a very proud moment for me,not in a sense where it was something major something wowza-ish to anyone who isnt ..mm me lol. but probably lots or some people have seen uktv food,and this year i entered the uktv food's people's cookbook.i entered a recipe from my good old gran,its another one of those looks sh*t,sounds uninteresting,names freaky but tastes amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! and the name everyone will agree is freaky and ha probably wrong is 'splodge' the name of a meal i entered a competion with -was-splodge..i didnt win,i dint get any prize*this may be due to the fact i entered to late and the competition closed before i got there*oops! but i did get it put on the website,now there are thousnads of these recipes on the database they have so it wasnt like thye picked mine out,but it was amzing all the same.

gran died years ago now from cnacr,it was a painful time and instead of finding it easier to cope with it seems to have hit me harder as the years have gone on.each year remebring things i never even took notice of then,different things different parts of her life with us how she was with us and all the little things she said or did to make us happy,which i didnt recognize then because you ust dont do you because its normal to do things with your gran and have her around,how silly and young i was.

i used to think how appreciative i was that she battled her cnacer for four years each time she got some new infection or it spread we thought that was it but she fought and was living again.now i always think of how much pain she was in,i no she wanted to keep on living more than anyhting i can gaurantee that but sometimes i wonder whether she just wanted to stop fighting stop seeking treatment,and this thought must have been there too often at the end when she got seriously ill,and what a thought that must have been to have how hard must that have been for my lovely granny and i didnt notice enough all i new was that i was happy she had fought that part and was still there.i sometimes feel like a weirdo though the fact that i love her more and more each day yet she isnt here for to to get to no her and love her more in that way,its the memories i am remebering that helps me like her more and more,strange.

i hope she would be proud though to have her recipe on a website with all those others!im sure she would be more embaressed to be honest as it was one of her major recipes but its the only one i have the ingredients to in full because she has lots of secrets ingredients in her cooking which i sadly will never no.

they looooooove it!!

in the foodie mood,actually i dont think i could call it foodie as that to me is the sacred word of all those amazing people with there equily amazing posts of food and all things edible on theses blogs,i myself can in no way bare any such crown of foodie-ness.i will have work my way to that point,allthough i do not think i will ever achieve such a brilliant title.

it may seem weird to some to talk about foodie in such high regard,but these are the people that no naaathin,foodie are marvelous people and you only ave to read there blogs,read the passion in which they write about there adventure in there own kitchens and in others,,,,,it is pure genious.

i love cooking,i love looking,finding new ways of doing stuff and learning where they all come from,i have since i was ever sp young.but i could never be considered a true foodie because i simply do not have enough adventures or cook enough,partly becasue there isnt enough money or time for all the foodie places i would like to explore or all the recipes i would like to try,the one thing i do not think i would sturggle with though is where my tried recipes would go,as when i do cook little noses find themsleves pearing round doors and sneaky fingers find themselves in all my food.the pure cheak of it!but i will keep trying to achieve the mini adventures and when i get these small opurtunities i will grab them and take head..oh yes!

so on to todays mini adventure. since i can remeber this recipe has found itself being reproduced againa and again,each time loved and loved by all.it came from my dear gran,she was a wonder for coming up with things that looked,in want for a better word shi*t but tasted yumsquiguilumscious. she is my dads mum and he is one of three other siblings, as he was growing up the family ran a b&B which did marvelous until the day it closed,allthough i cant really say closed because often my granpa has people come and stay agaain,people he met through doing the b&b business,and it didnt close in such official ways it kind of just slipped into a casual affair then just something that happened when and as people needed it.my gran needed cheap food that filled her tall lanky kids up.and so her many awful looking recipes were formed,but to be passed down the line to us they cant have been half bad eh! this one is so simple so so sososososos simple its unreal,and thinking about it you would think yuk,looking at it may not change the first comment either,but upon tasting it everyone has sooned turned there frowns upside down !!!!.

and here it is,actually i dont no whether here it is is the right sentences because i havent quite got to grips with this blogging shizzle so it may be anywhere on the post haha!begger cant be choosers!

and here it is fresh from the oven,-quite literally infact-

you may recognize the ingredients here but just incase lol!it called tuna in pastry or as my cousins family call it tuna turnover.you see all siblings cook it,maybe by a different name but always the same recipe.its basically puff pastry wrapped over a white sauce whcih has had sweetcorn and tuna mixed through it.and we have had all the disgusted comments from people when they see and hear what it is,we have had oh how can those little ingredients make anything taste nice,but ha those sucker were yet to try it and when they did they blushed and muttered there apologies in shame.hahahah my dear granny wins again.

i think she would be quite pleased looking down on me knowing i have dedicated a whole page like this on her recipe,and she's be ndging all the others saying 'look see i am amazing!'every time we make her recipes i no that look in everyones eyes as fora split second we remember her even if we dont no we're doing it,of course this though cant not last too long for the simple matter ,wellby this time the aroma from the dish has made its way to the nose,the fork has ysteriously found itself in the hand,slid sneakily over to the plate,scooped up some lavishly onto its silvery surface leaving gooyiness behind,and found itself in the mouth,and the thoughts now are 'oh my...it never fails'.OH AND OF COURSE THE THOUGHT THAT SOON FOLLOWS THIS ONE IS. 'SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T WAYYY TO HOT TO BE TAKING THAT MUCH IN' ha but this one is soon replaced by the next thought of the new mouthful.

oh i realise that tray may look like it is only the size of a normal pastry but look closer,the pastry is covering one quarter of the hob.its huge feeds the family fine,allthough now mumsy has gotten used to making two because there is always asking for one more slither,and then more to eat cold as and when.

too much to talk about,surely not...!

lots of things have hapened over the oast couple of weeks,actually not all the much especially in comparison to all you fellow bloggers,but i havent been keeping this blog up to date adso have fallen behind.poor form on my account.

but the thing i deffenetly need to work on here is how much i write when blogging..it has always been the same though,i remember in the school days the teachers would always been complaining of students not putting effort into our essays and only writing a few lines,and as they handed out the paper row after row they would say the same thing.'more effort please and more than one paragraph'when it came to me i was the told to write less,this was embaressing as i always got called the teachers pet,fact is i think what i wrote was drivvle anyway otherwise surely they wouldnt have minded sitting for hours sifting through my four page essays. i do tend to find tangents and follow them and then by the time i relaise i am still writing i dont actually no what it was i was meant to be doing.
so when things say summerise or write only a few words i get panicky,how someone can write things in short i do not no. so i will read all the blogs i can and try and work out how to make my thoughts shorter.

mini break!

my first post on here was all abut my family trip to wales. we are now back and have been for a short while,but decide to right about it now because i miss it already.the major thing that happened to us what our roof blew off and back into a neighbours garden,yes thats right the roof blew off.luckily we hadntarrived yet,but i tell you when you get the phone call the night before you set off,telling you oh by the way its o.k its been fixed but the roof did fly off and blew back into someone esle garden.to be honest the look on my brothers face was rather amusing,from thinking

why do they choose to play cricket so close to the sea? boys...

we were joking to pure terror it was commical,but maybe not so much to him,especailly when i splurted out a giggle at his expense.not cool aooerently.my reaction was a mixture, to be wuite honest it was all rather exciting,the thought of the roof blowing off did scare me in some sense but in the other as long as i stayed pinned to my bed at night i wasnt all too panicky as we wernet in the dessert and could get help easily.one thing we did make the decision though was to keep this tiny bit of information from my gran,who gets very panicked and would have come up with some mystery illness like eating an off cucumber to stop her from coming,she was told only after we had picked her up,her suitcases were in the boot,and she was strapped in and a safe distance away from her front door so she couldnt dive out the door and make it back to her house!she was puzzled for a moment then you could see the panick,but then she relaxed,i think she was thankful in the end we didnt tell her.
after the four hour journey we arrived,it was dark by this time which isnt helpful but brother dearest wanted to finish his school day so of course we started our journey later than one would have hoped.andof course stopping for supply and mcdonalds was a must. things didnt start off all to breezy for me as i was already in the process of trying to get rid of a bug that had gone round the family and finshed with me,so when we got there i sped down the hill trying not to slip on my bum and straight for the toilet,i made it in time and was sick!yuk! one thing this did mean though was that instead of trying to think of the usual excuse not to have to traipse up and down the hill helping to unload the car,i was told to sit down and relax,this would have been better if i could actually make this choice and wasnt forced by my body to sit because my stomach was in my throat. i did get up and help unpack though as i did feel guilty about leaving it all to them.
then it was time to make the beds.and my usual ingnious ritual of putting my two single beds together slotting a duvet in the gap carefull so as not to cause an uncomfortable lump,and then stepping back to see my home-made double bed.then into the lounge to set up the electricals and settle in for the night of listening to the sea out the window and thinking what we would do the next few days.oh and there was a bar of chocolate magically found and spread on the table...typical!
that night all slept well...
the next day was like the first day at a new house,everyone was up ealry,trying to get the first look out the patio windows befroe opening them out onto the varinder and checking out the weather and the amazing view.to all our amazement it was soooooooooo hot,not usual for this time of year,so the chairs we got out the shed and the sun-cream was ready waiting to be squezzed if needed,which as it turns out would later be needed lots more than we could have ever hoped,as the weather was beautiful and very hot to the point of needing an umbrella to take time in the shade. as the morning went on lots of things happened all of which involved absolutely nothing!the only outing was to the bakery which only happened becasue it opened at 10:30 am and closed at 1pm but by this time would have been completely sold out.at the bakery we were served the usual tradition,sultana buns,doughnuts,and rolls all of which still warm...i later found when unpacking a sneaky cornsih pasty in there too...then a quick stop at the food store to get a hot chicken,some veg,fruit and other bits and bobs,again later unpackin this i found a chocalte bar!then homeward and to a lazy day at the beach and in front of the t.v because it may have been boootiful outside but soaps are not given up easily in our family not that i complained too much.as the evening settled in the usualy family game commneced turning into the usual family competion through the game,turning into the usualy family argument about competing in the the family game.ha,the chocolate was opened and the t.v switched on for some evening relaxation,the next day was simliar,excpet the evening was taken up byt the must have eat out.

and here comes in some foodie stuff, it was a long hard slog to decide where to go,it is never an issue there is the restuarent down the road that is walked to every time we come to the holiday,this time was different,everyones palettes we in the experimenting mood and so we deicded to go further a field only by five minutes mind to the place newly taken over down the road.on arriving we were nervous,the previous owners hadnt done the lovely little place justice and so we were tempted to turn back atthe last minute but we braved it and didnt regret it.as we stepped through the wooden door such warmth sweeped over us it almost picked us up and took us to the bar area.it was brilliantly lit,very traditional with wooden beams,cream walls,warm lighting and lots of happy people sitting,standng and serving.we were shown to our table immeidately after being shown the bar...clever!...it was quite neatly packed into a section of the restuarent but it didnt seem too bad after we got used to being so close to the people on the next table,which was probavbly due to the fact they were such lovely people.the menus came and we were given enough time to ponder yet not to be checking the time,and i was the person assigned to get up and look at the specials board,which a did t my irritation have to do a few time due to the lacking memory of the family.so the orders were taken by the sweet waitress with a european accent,she later came back and told us there was only one fish left so one would have to have the other option,but then found they had one more fish option which was basically the same anyway.and soon after the meals arrived,just enough time in between ordering to give the impression it ws all cooked fresh,so they are either extremely clever or too good at there jobs.the plates included,white fish delicately placed on a few salad leaves and drizzled with a buttery lemony sauce,antoher fish option which turned out to be the same just a different fish,a traditional stake and ale pie in a proper clay pot,a mixed salad,mixed veg,crunchy chips and a rack of lamb with a rosemary jus'.when the dishes first came out the family was a bit weary as they didnt think there wouldnt be enough for everyone,but in the end after all there rich foods they found it to be just enough and even managed to have room for pudding which they dont always manage due to other meals being to heavy and piled to hasitly on to the plates,so for dessert:there was a lemon and lime cheescake which brought a refreshing twinge to the nose as it was placed by my father,and the creme brulee with a bottom layer of fresh raspberrys and apperently it was the nicest pudding ever!the point of which was proven when my fussy brother dipped his fork in like it would eat his hand if i took more than a lick,slowly raised to the mouth, hovered outside,slowly inserted ready to be taken out if his unsufisticated burger eating mouth said so,and then licked clean straight away...and even dipped back in several times tothe point where my mum had to tell him to b*g off and get his own because it was hers,and at this point gran and dad had to try some too,and all the mmmmmmmmmmm's coming from our table and all the shhhhhhhhhhhh's coming from me because they were a little too enthusiastic for the people next to us,it proved it was a good pudding to round off a good meal,one last knotch on the menu was pops coffee shot,and then it was the bill,which was fabulous considering the sneaky glasses of wine that kept being summoned to the table. all in all everything was enjoyable that night!
the last day was all of the same,except there was a grocery store stop because there were some things you cant buy at the local place like clothes haha!
then it was the day of the long journey home,wont go into too much detail because it was a sad event as it always is leaving our beautiful beach place.
on the way home we took a detour to my sisters place as we hadnt seen her in a while and she had taken off with our ohter car and this wasnt acceptable behaviour since her uni gates are literally at the bottom of her garden!!this took more time than first thought because gran hadnt seen her in a while so she wanted to catch up,and the boyfriend was also there who we hadnt seen in a longer while,oh and one small factor when we arrived at her house she wsnt actually there and he housemates later infomred us she had gone down to the pub for a quick drink before we arrived,pops was happy but hannah was merry enough with drink not to be too bothered by his mood,which lifted after she gave him an easter cake.then back on the road.arriving home was difficult as usual because all we wanted to do was get out the car,sleepily make our way inside and into bed,but the usual at the bottom of the road talk was given "now remeber we all have to help unload and put stuff away" this talk is always given luckily we hadnt been away for as long this time,therefore not having as many bags,therfore not as much unloading ....therefore not so many moans from us all.-the little things in life eh!?-
i was on kitchen duty unpacking the cool box and chucking out all the old stuff,and finding a place for the bakery goods.then bed time and sleep was welcomed by all.not before a few curses as one by one each of us tripped over the bags in the hallway which of course each in turn refused to accept ownership to this stranded bag. the situation was investigated and uponopneing the bag with lots of " er no its your....er i no what my own bag looks like...your the only one that would leave a bag in the middle of the hall"it was found the guilty one was none of us or all of us depening on how you looked at it,because it was infact the bed linen bag.some muttering of sorry were spoken and then we all officially found ourbeds.

goodnight!

too long in the avoidance stage

originally this blog was going to be one of those greatly praised foodie sites,i see so many i look through so many wonderful ones,and each one makes me want to achieve such a blog.i have thought about it for so long now my head ahces,how could i do it how to make it different,but then one afternoon the thought popped into my head,one that may help me to decide where to go with my great foodie blog...i simply dont no enough.i dont have great adventures all over the world tasting all the culinery delights out there,i dont no enough recipes that are different to others on the blogs,and i simply dont have enough experience with knowing what to put or how to put it down.and when i do cook my family have usually indented so many fingers in it that it isnt worth photographing,which could be seen as a complimant or simply due to the fact i have told them tea would be ready at five and then when they actually all get to the table,after someone is late or someone has gone off in a mood because they wanted it at a different time,by this time they have all become inpatient and started dishing themselves there food and gone to whichever corner of the house,of course corners with t.v and tucked in,thus making a pigs ear of my invention. but time might be changing,there have been many discusion and it has been decide something needs to be done about the state of the food in our house and how it is eaten,and so more and more meals have been eaten round the table with eachother,of course with the excpetion there is still a t.v...well come on compramise is the key to any functional family(or for any family that wants to be functional and at the same time please the men of the house.)
to the blog making site i came and thought hey,how many people are ataully going to stumble on my blog and take the time to read it, so from that i thought i'll just call it random doodles because that what it will be,just stuff and more stuff,no real purpose or interest to anyone but something for me to do and look back on and think wow i wrote that or wow that was before i became the most famous blogger of the century haha maybe not but whatever!so that was decided this blog would be full of random cr*p of no iterest to anyone but me somtimes not even that,like a mini time capsule to look back and and think wow i did that or wow i did that!and hopefully as i continue with my foodie passion i will conquer more worlds and there foods and be able to experience some kick ass recipes and amazing ways of writing blogs that make sense and are spelt right,because to be honest when it comes to reading back on what i have written i am not all to great,which doesnt say much of how interesting my post are if i cant even get myslef to read it through.never mind though!

that thought was a few days ago or more infact and i still havent plucked up the courage to go for it,take the leap and accept that my blog may be rubbish and i might realise the fear of being a total failure at everything.then again noone will read this,and since i cant be bothered to read it back there's not problem. is there !? so in baby steps i will try and give it a go and see if i can leanr along the way because i sure have alot of that to do.

and easter is on the doorstep and that brings round lots of stories about my family and there chocolate addictions,all of which i can write down if for no other reason than the fact its something i no much about therefore shouldnt find to har writing about...maybe.

to the first post we go,its like opening a new toy or having something brand new to look at,and so i am very excited about the prospect of my new toy!i have looked on so many blogs trying to get inspiration...and trying to force my limited vocabulary to grow,so to sound more detailed and beautiful as the many blogs i have scrolled through manage so effortlessly.
but maybe that will come as my blog age comes along,i hope so anyway..!

my first post i thought had to be about the weather we are having and the coming joys it will bring.i am not one for moaning about the rain,infact i can often be stared at by my wondering neighbours when i stick my head out our patio door,why you ask and they do too,because i find it quite refreshing,the smells it brings as it washes all the previous troubles away and the fresh smell of new life and new plants getting the first drink,wonderful!plus i find things around our village a whole lot more exciting as people randomly step in front of others dogging puddles only to land in an even bigger and much deeper one,and then the many curses coming from them and the many curses coming from those around them.and my giggles of course as i trample through each and every puddle with pure satisfaction and memories of being worryless and a child.

but as the sun comes i have to admit it does fill my cheeks with the need to spread and show many teeth.and the added extras of this weather is the other smiling faces around me,some troubles manage to dispurse into the sunshine at these times or at least get put to the side to take in the birds chirping, the different colours, and the many holiday brochures we get through our door,all of which are far to expensive but far to tempting to miss looking through.
but the main things that i am looking forward to this year is the usual holiday we go on everyhwere since i have been born and before me the place my dad went to from his birth too,to the same place at the same time......its not a particularly outragious resort,or a place that involves many flights to get to it or anything that involves too much effort really....all it takes is to pack the bags, summer clothes and sun-cream.....Bake some goodies, a must on all our holidays,....Get the beach bag(our huge sack full of bats and balls,spades and buckets and much more....then set off newly bought cds in hand ready for the few hour journey to our family home in wales,england.
now my family isnt one for major long journeys especially with a yonuger brother who still loves the famous 'are we there yet line' but knowing what we have waiting for us at the other end and seeing the hills and green pass us by is allways enough to settle the fidgeting bottoms.
and what waits for us at the other end....firstly a 'i can see the sea' first competition which has got more outragious, suprisingly as we have all got older as now about two mile inland we all shout it just to be first.then when we pull in its not the usual unpacking process,its all hands on deck as we have to hawl our luggage down a hill as our challet is quite close to the beach itself and so you have to go down the beaten track a bit to get to it,but which would we prefer BEING CLOSE TO THE BEACH ANY DAY I SAY !
me and mother usually manage to play our cards riGht and say oh we'll stay down here and unpack,always works always saves our blisters.and then after everything is down from car, the kettle is put on the food crate is unpacked.and the patio doors onto the varander and to the wonderful view to the beach is upon us,and then pure bliss for as long as we can get,without the rest of our family sending out search parties!
And finally it the stroll turning panting our way back up the hill,and to the village bakery where we are known and so is our usual order,and there is always our order wainting when we get there.my job at this time is keeping tempted fingers out of the donut,hot cruss buns and fresh bread and pasty bag,all of which are still warm and so sending smells to there needy noses which find it so hard to bare.
so bring on the summer and our trip to wales.(the picture is on the main pages,gorgeous ey!)