Conversations through the middle

Life from a (slightly) more mature perspective

Mary Berry’s Cookery Course – A step-by-step masterclass in home cooking – review

For fans of Mary Berry and Bake Off this book is one for the Christmas list.
 
Mary takes us through all kinds of dishes, from starters to mains, soups to salmon, and each recipe features lovely photographs to whet your appetite (and show you what the result should look like, handy if like me you’re not a great chef). There’s also step-by-steps, which are something I always look for in a recipe book, especially if it’s something I haven’t cooked before and I’m not sure how it should look at the different prep stages.
 
 
 
I love the blurb for the book, which states: “Technique Masterclasses and Secrets of Success features show you how to do things ‘the Mary way’… Find out how Mary gets her roast chicken skin so crispy and how she ensures her apple pie never has a soggy bottom…”
 
Crispy chicken skin – yum; soggy bottom – there’s nothing worse for chafing.
 
I hope to try out one or two of the recipes in the next few weeks and when I do I will post pictures of my efforts on here.
 
Mary Berry’s Cookery Course – A step-by-step masterclass in home cooking, is published by DK and costs £25. Mary also has a website – who knew? It’s at maryberry.co.uk 

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Burghley Horse Trials 2013

I meant to upload these images from this year’s Burghley Horse Trials a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never. I cannot tell you who is who in the photographs, also I took loads of pix but only a few are any good.

Jock Paget was the winner this year (with the help of Clifton Promise of course). He’s a very skilled horseman and he’s very good looking, what more could you ask for in a man? Unfortunately we didn’t get to see him accept his trophy as my friend Kelly and I were only there for the cross country day.

Next year we plan to take a tent and camp for the entire weekend! Imagine, three days of world class horses, no driving home after, and wine and sarnies for tea outside the tent. Can’t wait.

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Lots of lush lovelies by Lush

On Thursday I popped down to Carnaby Street on my lunch hour, as you do, to take a look at the Christmas collections from Lush for this year. As far as I know these are in the shops now – I think they launched yesterday – but if they’re not then they won’t be long.

There are so many good things coming up this festive season from Lush, some new, some old friends. The Christmas penguin is one of my favourites; he’s a bubble bar you just crumble into bath water and his design is inspired by the smallest penguins in the world, found in Australia (I know, who knew they had penguins in Australia). But… I don’t think I could crumble him, it would be too cruel.

The Christmas Eve bubble bar is definitely going on my shopping list, along with a bottle of fizzy wine, for a relaxing night before the big day (I will not still be wrapping presents this Christmas Eve, I will not…) and the Rose Jam shower gel is making it’s way into my bathroom in the next week or so. Rose is one of my favourite fragrances, it’s also good for more mature skin thanks to anti-ageing antioxidants. This shower gel also contains Argan oil, Sicilian lemon and goji berry juice – I’ll be doing a review on it once I’ve had a chance to try it out.

Gift-wise the guys at Lush have been super busy. There’s something to suit all budgets, all along three themes: glittery Ziggy Stardust, fireworks (reminiscent of the packaging designs I remember from childhood) and traditional William Morris. There’s baubles, cones, boxes and festive knot wraps containing everything from a couple of items to the monster Wow that has one of every Christmas item (except for three fresh products that have to be refrigerated, which is a good thing). I’m not sure how many that is, but having seen the size of the box it’s quite a few!

Just a peak at the selection of gift sets for Christmas 2013 from Lush. Wow is the bad boy on the left

While I was there I watched a video of Lush products being made – it was just like a cookery video. I know they use fresh ingredients and are cruelty-free, but I hadn’t realised that putting the ingredients together to come up with their lovely products is just like cooking. If I can find the video on You Tube I will post it later.

Dot has just come into see what I’m doing and has declared the Magic Wand Bubble Bar “awesome”. Funny that, when I saw it at the launch I thought ‘oh, I wish Dot was still into fairies, pink and dress up, I would love to buy her that for Christmas’. My tween, much like any other I’ve ever met, is super cool, into X Factor and make-up, and thinks I grew up on the Ark (and know nothing). It just shows you – my baby girl is still there, hidden inside that shouty, pouty, hormonal volcano of a 12-year-old. Awesome.

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Getting down with the kids – me and Maybelline Baby Lips

I love these lip balms I picked up in Boots on Thursday. I don’t think I would have bought them if it hadn’t been for the fact that they are now apparently the must-have in high school and Dot has been going on at me to get hold of them for a while.

That was easier said than done. Every tween and teen in the country, or at least in our corner of Essex, has shopped out the local Maybelline stands – I tried Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Super Drug and even Boots in Chelmsford, but nothing. Then, travelling through Liverpool Street Station this week I had a brainwave, surely the cosmopolitan big city would hold lots and lots of the sought-after lip stick?

Yes, there were loads of them – and they were buy two get one free, so I bought a Pink Punch and Cherry Me for Dot and chose a Pink Punch for me as my freebie.

It looks fab on Dot, but I wasn’t sure how it would look on me as the colour in the tube is rather vivid. However, it’s fine. It is smooth, non-sticky and feels very moisturising. The colour comes through as more of a subtle sheen than a scary pop and it lasts a fair while (unless you’re a 12-year-old and you eat it off as soon as you apply it that is). The fragrance is not too sickly sweet, but it is obviously one of the reasons Baby Lips appeals to kids.

I am told there are other colours available and one very eager tween is searching the internet for them and adding them to her (already substantial) Christmas list.

This first image is swatched in daylight, the image below is with a flash. My arm model for the day was Dot
who said “you better use my arm for the swatching as my skin is younger than yours and yours looks too dark”.
Kids huh, who’d have ’em

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