Come Dine With Me

Months ago at work, we joked about hosting a 'Come Dine With Me' evening, having everyone over for a lovely little dinner party. Well of course, I was nominated to be the host so when Dan and the Bee took themselves off to the North West for the weekend, it was (almost) the perfect time to host our little soiree!

The Menu

Pomegranate Mojito Cocktails

To Start

Mahon Mushrooms

The Main Event

Beef and Proscuitto Lasagne with Garlic Baguettes

To Finish

Coffee Gelato with a Chocoalte and Caramel Crumb

I think the girls enjoyed their meal, it was such fun making it and having a good old girly gossip with yummy cocktails and strawberry wine!!

Catching Up

 As usual, the week after a holiday is a busy one. Catching up on washing and settling back in a home. Unfortunately, back to school and work too. Camilla (the camera...!) has been firmly rooted in her camera bag, but I have been snapping on instagram, so here's what we have been up to.

The new, 'emergency' boots I bought on holiday have become a great pair of garden boots! Easy on and off when the lawn is a litle damp! The basket was giving me a helping hand too, as usual ;) It was so nice to come back to my little (and I mean little) garden empire. It has come on so much from starting out with nothing at all. I can't wait to show you how it looks in a few weeks!!!

We returned from our holiday late Friday evening and Saturday was a fine day, so we decided to have a barbeque, the first outdoor meal in our new house, very exciting! We had yummy (and healthy!) kebabs with a range of salads followed by marshmallows, of course!

Sunday featured a last minute nip in to the city, I was treated to some goodies from lush. A lavender scented bubble bar, very fitting for our wedding anniversary.

And in the evening, we went to a local restaurant to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. They even had wheat and lavender in jars and bottles on the tables. It was far too perfect. 

 And then when we were home, we snuggled up and watched The History Boys, brilliant film!

 Tuesday we made fajitas. Mr Bee was very excited to assemble his own dinner. It was glorious.

 Breakfast on the go. A strawberry and oatmeal smoothie from my new breakfast recipe book. YUM!

Soup Wednesdays. I made roasted tomato and basil soup for dinner and baked a delicious pesto swirl loaf to accompany. It was divine!

Nicer weather! Our afternoons after school have been blessed with a little bit of sun! Three evenings this week we have been able to sit and play in the garden. We have been dreaming about days like these. 

And lastly, a beautiful bit of cow parsley on the school run. Beautiful!

So that is a little snippet of our week. What have you been up to?

Start as you mean to go on

 The word on everyones lips at this time of year is the dreaded new diet, detox or exercise regime and of course New Years Resolutions. As you will probably know, we already have a fairly good diet, we eat lots of fruit and veggies by making everything from scratch but over the Christmas period, we have indulged. Not necessarily on 'bad' foods but on particuarly rich foods and not as many fruit and vegatables as we would usually have so upon our return from our few days spent up north, we stocked up the fridge, fruit bowl and veg box with lots and lots of goodies and I have planned nearly three weeks worth of meals already.

This Weeks Menu:

Mushroom, Spinach and Potato filo pie
Warm Winter Salad
Chickpea Curry
Sweet Potato Shepherds pie with red lentils
Carrot, Orange and Mint soup
Parmesan Chicken salad
Vegetable Soup

Mushroom, spinach and potato pie

So this is how we start as we mean to go on, with 52 weeks packed full of delicous, home made, healthy grub!

Christmas 2014

 Started on Christmas Eve with with an enormous amount of delicious food before the small one went to bed and Santa delivered lots and lots of goodies.

Then Christmas morning there were lots and lots of delightful gifts! A new bike for Mr Bee, not one but two Frith hares for me and lots of lovely goodies for Pappy too.

 Then Christmas dinner. Smoked ham with a ginger beer glaze and lots of trimmings - piggies, sausage meat and abundance of roast veggies.

  Then more gifts at Nana's house in the evening.

 Followed by a delicious molten chocolate pudding before bed!

Many, many, many thanks to everyone who has made our Christmas Day special, we have been well and truly spoiled with so many goodies. It has been the perfect first Christmas in our new home. 

Seasons Greetings to you all :)

Sunday

Things are still proving to be a little hectic for us which isn't leaving much time to update this old friend unfortunately. Please remind me to schedule in a Photo an Hour to get myself back into the swing of blogging the ordinary. However please be prepared for more little breaks whilst we begin to find our feet in the coming weeks.

Our weekends have been busy. This weekend has been filled with another photo sesh, far too much window shopping and lots of time in the kitchen. Today we visited Market Bosworth for a good old scope and went for a leisurely walk around the battlefield. Pappy made his specialty paella and I baked a cake for what feels like the first time in forever, even though it has probably only been a week or two. Without wishing summer away, I am truly looking forward to the autumn and winter favourites to grace our kitchen and our tummies. Plenty of cakes, puddings, soups and stews.

Hooneymoon

Our week, in brief.
For our honeymoon, we chose a quiet week in the sleepy Cotswolds. We had a lovely little lodge near Cirencester as our home for the week but spent our time visiting little villages, swimming all afternoon and spending the evenings out on our deck watching the sun go down with the wildlife nearby. It was truly perfect for our little family.