This week I have mostly been eating...

Here is the basic idea- once a week I will be listing the meals that we had the previous week. You can read my motivation for this here . I am not going to detail recipes but I will state (or link where possible) the sources for them, otherwise they are my own recipe. If anyone does read this and wants more details then please just comment.

Assumptions: I have not made the basics e.g. pasta, rice, noodles, chips bread unless stated. Everything else is made from scratch unless marked as bought (b) or eating out (r)

Monday: A selection of nibbles from Bolton Market

Tuesday: Huevos a la Plaza - Sprouted Kitchen

Wednesday: Aubergines stuffed with lamb and potatoes - Sainsbury's

Thursday: - nibbles

Friday: Salt Cod - Rick Stein

Saturday: Pasta (r) - Antonellos

Sunday: Pork in cider - Waitrose

Little Owl 

Bolton Food and Drink Festival

The Bank Holiday weekend was the tenth annual Bolton Food and Drink Festival, where the town center gets taken over by market stalls and marquees selling all sorts of edible loveliness. Full details of it can be found on their website here.

This year we had remembered in advance that it was on and therefore planned to go into Bolton on the Monday specifically to enjoy it. Additionally James Martin (the chef off Saturday Kitchen) was doing a cooking demonstration for only £8 so we bagged ourselves a pair of tickets for that too.
The whole event seemed even larger this year than in the past, with stalls all through the center of Bolton and around Le Mans Crescent (yep Bolton is twinned with Le Mans!)  offering everything from street food from all over the world to cheeses, breads and meats to take away. It was also nice that there was  a lot more seating provided to take the weight off while stuffing your face.

After a quick reccy of what was on offer we headed in to see James cook. The whole demonstration was about an hour and he did several different dishes in that time. He started with a harrisa seabass with bulger wheat salad. While that was cooking he made a quick crab salad and a vegatable pickle to go with some fresh herring which was impressively cooked with a blowtorch. "A proper industrial one mind not a little cake one". It was then time to show off some sugar work, in theory to show how straightforward it all was even by using someone's walking stick to make a sugar spiral and candyfloss. The final piece was a very fast summer pudding which looked lovely. The recipes are meant to be listed on the festival's website but I can't find them at present. If I can locate them I will link back to them. The seabass is definitely one I will be trying.

After watching all this food being cooked our stomachs were rumbling so we headed over to a souvlaki stall that was extremely popular and joined the queue. It was exactly what we needed, though I would have personally preferred it to have more of a kick.

As the weather was not the best we decided to pick up a selection of goodies and take them home to eat in the warm. We bought some lovely walnut bread and a tomato focaccia (I didn't note the name of this stall sadly) and then an alternative chicken and chorizo pasty from the Cornish pasty company. To finish it all with we bought two cakes from the Little Round Cake company. Then it was off home for a lounge-based picnic topped up with some cheese and pate we already had in.

I would definitely recommend going (with an empty stomach) again next year, it is a shame that Bolton can't host this kind of market more regularly as there is more to try than you can do in one go. My main tip would be if you see something you fancy then buy it, we found a great Portuguese stall but when we went back to buy some of their custard tarts they had totally sold out.

This week I have mostly been eating...

Ok this should have been posted on Monday, but Bank Holidays and the like and it all escaped me. However here it is now a little bit late.

Here is the basic idea- once a week I will be listing the meals that we had the previous week. You can read my motivation for this here  . I am not going to detail recipes but I will state (or link where possible) the sources for them, otherwise they are my own recipe. If anyone does read this and wants more details then please just comment.

Assumptions: I have not made the basics e.g. pasta, rice, noodles, chips bread unless stated. Everything else is made from scratch unless marked as bought (b) or eating out (r)

Monday: Soup (b)

Tuesday: Salad - I just can't remember what type!

Wednesday: Fish Cakes (b) and chips (b)

Thursday: Spaghetti Bolognese

Friday: BBQ feast (b) with coleslaw (b) and potato salad (b)

Saturday: Seared Tuna with Mediterranean couscous - Jamie Oliver

Sunday: Guinea Fowl and Butter Beans - Rick Stein

Little Owl 

Mid Year Resolution #3

Shopping!

So this is the last of my 3 resolutions and in a weird way possibly the hardest (I will totally take that statement back when I am lying on the floor dying after my next run). No more clothes/shoes shopping! 

This was actually my first resolution, made after I had sworn not to buy a dress for an upcoming family wedding and to wear something I had, only to buckle in the weeks before it and get a dress, shoes, bag and wrap. I realised it was ridiculous to have all this stuff that I never wore that I was adding to with more things that I wouldn’t wear and swore to stop shopping.

I think fashion/style/dressing-up is something I came to quite late in life compared to many of my friends and as a result I love the thrill of buying something new. However the Scottish sensible part of me doesn’t like to part with my cash and so I am a sucker for a ‘bargain’ even if I end up with half a dozen cheap outfits costing more than one quality piece. The other problem I have is that (especially with nicer things) I save them for an unknown undetermined event. I regularly pick something nice out of the wardrobe to wear then decide not to, in case I need it for something specific and it is in then in the wash or I damage it, even if all I have coming up that week is a trip to the supermarket. I realized the drawers are full of nice things that I never wear and that I keep just buying repeats of the same old basic things to get that shopping thrill- enough is enough!

I have got a few caveats on this though- I can still shop for essentials if they are needed -not wanted but needed. E.g. if I ripped all of my tights (quite likely) or all my white T-shirts ended up pink after an unfortunate washing machine vs sock incident. Equally if I get any vouchers I am allowed to spend them and can accept gifts if anyone wants to buy my anything… hint hint.

I have to admit this hadn’t been too hard at first, we hadn’t been to Manchester or the shops at the weekends and Mr Owl had also decided to pause any shopping so he can have a bigger splurge on a new watch later in the year, so we had been supporting each other. However at the weekend while the car was getting its MOT I had time to kill, and popped into Zara ‘just to see what autumn styles were in’. I think the fact I walked out with nothing is testament to my stubbornness, either that or I couldn’t find the till due to my teary eyes at all the nice things I can’t buy- stupid resolutions. (If there are any Zara people reading this and feeling sorry for me please see my caveats above- my ban excludes gifts so send me all your lovely new stuff please…)

I am now almost 2months into this and just hope that I can hold strong for the next 4. I have my birthday in November so can hopefully use that to get a few nice pieces. As a side challenge to this, it will hopefully force me to be more creative and innovative with what I have and to try and channel some of the new trends without buying anything new. Meantime I think I will avoid temptation by staying away from the shops and trying not to browse online (hastily closes open browser window). Any tips on staying strong in the face of all that suede and 70s loveliness that is this autumn appreciated.

Mid Year Resolutions #2

Skincare!

I should have an amazing skincare regime all things considered, and would like to be able to recommend all sorts of wonder products here, but I don’t and if anything I want you to give me recommendations! That is why I am making skincare my second mid-year resolution.

  I have always had eczema, apparently since I was a small baby when I had to regularly visit the hospital, and can’t remember a time when my skin wasn’t itching, red and flaky. This has therefore meant a lifelong love/hate relationship with my skin. For a long time doctors told me that I would grow out of it when I hit puberty as ‘nearly all children did’, until turned out that I was one of the exceptions. Looking back I don’t know why I didn’t do more to get help with it, but the GP would prescribe me Aqueous cream and steroids to manage it and I would try to remember to apply it. At that age it was mainly on my arms and legs and I put up with it. At university it could be bad again, I remember sitting sobbing on the kitchen floor in our student flat next to the freezer holding bags of frozen peas on my hands where I had itched them raw to try and numb them.

As I have got older, my eczema moved to affecting my face a lot more, and this was perhaps motivation to try and find other things to use on it. I quickly determined that the aqueous cream I had been relying on for years was probably making my skin worse and have changed this but I have also found that most products I tested seemed to set it off. So I am stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. I am desperate to try out anything that I think might improve my skin, especially on my face, but fed up of spending all my money on products only to find that they make me flare up horribly and are of no use to me. The irony is that when my skin is behaving it is actually really good and doesn’t need much care at all.

I suspect I have several other posts I could write, and will write, on this but for now my focus is to get better at using what works at the moment and then I can start experimenting with different options more carefully to see what effect they have.  So here is my ‘routine’ at present, with my goal being to stick to it more rigorously in the next 6 months and see what works and what doesn’t.

Morning

Clinique Soap and Clarifying Lotion: My mother got me on to Clinique a long time ago as they always had a reputation for being good for people with eczema and I have  found their products to be fairly good but affordable. I use the extra mild soap to wash my face (can’t use the liquid soap) and then the clarifying lotion is excellent for removing any remaining dry cells.

QV Cream: I have been using this for about 2 years now as my general all over body moisturizer and it is better than the last ones I had, though like all emollients I find that it builds up on repeated application during the day. I apply a thick layer of this all over.

Suncream SPF50: If I am going out then I always apply this. At the moment I am using the Soltan Sensitive or Baby suncream as I find that is the least irritating. A suncream that doesn’t irritate my skin would be the best find ever! Combined with an SPF lipbalm too.

Clinique Moisture Surge: This goes on last when I remember. It has a nice texture and soaks in to really help plump my skin up. 

Clinique Turnaround Serum: I alternate this day on day with the Moisture Surge. I prefer to use this but I find that if I use it every day my skin can react a little so I swap between them.

Clinique All About Eyes: Self explanatory I hope.

Day

I always carry a pot with me full of QV cream so I can reapply during the day as needed (every hour or so)

Night

Wash again with Clinique and apply QV cream

Clinique Moisture Surge Overnight Mask: I apply this just before going to bed to help my skin get through the night.

Bioactive Organic Manuka Honey Cream: This was something I read about recently for helping people with eczema. I use this overnight as an alternative to the Clinique. I can’t decide yet if I like it or not. It does sometimes make my skin hot/tingly when I apply it, but it does have a nice texture and seems to moisturize well overnight.

Just writing all this out has made me itchy, so I am off to wash my face off to try and cool it down. Hopefully if I can stick to doing all this I will see an improvement in it over the next few months. If anyone has any wonder products that they recommend then please let me know.

Little Owl