A Cup Of Tea & A Catch Up

Whoops! That was a longer break from my blog than I had planned. There I was having a ponder over what content I actually wanted to have on my blog and suddenly it was nearly the end of August. Nothing has actually changed content-wise as yet, and I can't promise to post on a regular basis on what is now the run up to my wedding (exciting), but I'll try! There has been lots going on, mostly wedding things, but I've saved most of that for a wedding related post. There will also be a post about my hen party in Bath, but for now, here are some of the smaller things!

Red shoes! They were on sale and I needed them for my hen party dress. They are wedges and surprisingly comfy. 

We went to stay with our friends, and they cooked us a lovely meal, this was our starter, just look at those yummy colours!

Dave McPherson ran a Pledge project to create a new album (Pledge Music is like Kickstarter but just for musicians) and here it is. Everyone that pledged had their name popped in the booklet (below), see there I am. It's not that exciting I know, *but it is a little exciting for me*

Naughty Fiance brought home doughnuts! 

Card-making (You can see the finished card in a previous post; yes it has been that long since I've posted).

Wine suggestions for our wedding breakfast. Jo and Thierry from Cellar Magneval came around to our house with the suggested wines for us to try. We had a wonderful time and may have been a little tipsy by the end of the evening, which was a bit of a shock seems as the bottles were all still really full. 

We visited my parents in Norfolk for a catch up, and so that we could check out the hotel Rob is staying in for the wedding and see our registrar. While there we took a little walk around Titchwell Marsh. It was great to see the sea. 

I made brownies, they had mayonnaise in them instead of fat. They weren't the best brownies in the world, but they were still brownies! :)

 Spontaneous online shopping, Rob Ryan zine. 

 Wedding invite chopping. 

German chocolate from my English friend, living in Germany, working on an American base. These were delicious, honestly, they lasted minutes.

Never sure what to make of Hershey's chocolate, there is no denying it has a distinctive tang, but here is the thing it also has a higher melting temperature. I like my chocolate solid, from the fridge, and during our hot weather I was getting quite distressed about how quickly my chocolate was softening up, until I had my kisses, perfect for heat waves! 

I've wanted this book since it was published last year. Fubby treated me to a few things from amazon, so I chose this, the alphabet stamps (don't be fooled they are just pretend vintage), a couple more books and the Hot Chick DVD (I don't know why but I can watch it over and over).

We have a new teapot. We decided after having a lovely but rather expensive breakfast in Guildford that we could probably do it just as well at home. Fubby made bread for toast and we bought an infuser teapot so we could have our own loose leaf tea. It is a lovely turquoise/teal colour and I'm a little in love with it. Now I just need to convince the other half to try more tea, other than just breakfast tea.

Finally, it was Fubby's Stag last weekend, so I was staying with my friend. She just happens to live near Stateside Candy so we popped in and picked up some treats. I haven't opened my Lotus biscuit spread yet, but I did try some in the shop and it's amazing. I know once I open the jar it isn't going to last long, so I might try and save it until after the wedding, especially after looking at the calorie content, crikey, but then what was I expecting, after all it does taste that good! Oh Fubby survived. 

Adventures In Chocolate!

The other week, as part of a birthday/christmas present from my friend Gayle, three of us headed into London to take part in a chocolate workshop from My Chocolate. Tucked away in a basement room, at the end of a long corridor, we found ourselves surrounded by jars containing sweet treats, and table that looked like this (look up), not too shabby. 

Our host for the evening was Davies, he guided us through all the practical chocolaty bits and pieces, and told us lots of interesting things about chocolate. The first thing that we made as a group were chocolate martinis. We each had to decorate our glasses with melted chocolate swirls before mixing and shaking up the provided ingredients. 

We were then taken through various pieces of chocolate that had been put out in front of us, discussing textures, flavours, percentage of cacao and countries of origin etc. We were also able to try cacao nibs and some 100% cacao (I think...I could be wrong... you noticed the glasses of Presecco on the table right?).

  

We made our own slabs of chocolate, which we were able to flavour and decorate. I chose cherry and decorated with nuts, as I thought those would be a pretty tasty combination, the white chocolate was purely because I like white chocolate. 

We were given a ganache to pipe out onto our baking sheets, but the nozzle on our table was cut a little big, so they came out more like cute little poos, rather than little piped blobs of cuteness. 

While our little poos were firming up slightly, Davies showed us how to make American chocolate fudge. We were given a slab of the chocolate fudge, and what I believe was Gianduja, to decorate alongside our truffles. What followed included rolling, dipping, sprinkling, rubbing (transfers), and possibly asking for more marshmallows when our table ran out, after dipping them in the ever present bowl of melted chocolate and eating them throughout the night, (how were we supposed to know that we'd need them again later?). 

I was pretty impressed with my selection of chocolates, although it turns out I'm not a fan of crystallised rose petals, (fortunately I only made one of those). 

 Gayle's treats. 

Lydia's treats.

The evening concluded, with us packing our chocolates into boxes and bags, whilst enjoying a chocolate and dessert wine pairing. I didn't think I was a fan of port, but it goes so well with chocolate, it may be my new hobby (yes, you can absolutely have chocolate and port as a hobby). I think we also tried some marsala (but don't hold me to that).

It was a fabulous evening, which I would highly recommend. There was a lot of information to take in, and trying to fit it into just three hours, did feel a little bit rushed. It also may have been a little bit lost on us, as after several glasses of Presecco, we did turn into ever so slightly inebriated giggling young ladies (okay so 'I' may have been giggling slightly more than everyone else). That isn't a complaint though, it was the best fun I've had in ages!