Pitcairn Honey: A Review

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I’ve been fascinated by Pitcairn honey for a while. I have no idea how I first heard about it, but once I had, I was hooked on the concept. This honey is produced in very small quantities, and is one of the rarest honeys in all the world. It’s only produced on Pitcairn Island, which is where the survivors of the mutiny on the Bounty now live. Now, to me, that’s amazing. This tropical island, near New Zealand, received a grant from the UK government in 1998 in order to fund beekeeping on the island, and I think it was money well spent! Untitled
This honey is pretty hard to get hold of. You can order it directly from the island, but the shipping is expensive, and it takes a long while to turn up. I’m the only person who eats honey around here, so the idea of bulk buying honey from a tropical island seemed a bit insane, even by my standards, so I’d pretty much given up on getting any – until I found a pot in Fortnum & Mason last year! My lovely friend Lorraine bought me a pot for my birthday – and it was pretty steep, at £10.95. For novelty value (and because I wasn’t buying it…!) I thought it was a good deal – and then I tasted it.

My goodness.

This is the best honey I’ve ever had in my life.

I’m not a honey expert, but I do love eating it. My favourite kind of honey is the set type, on toast, but I love runny honey on yogurt, as a sweetener – I even love honeycomb. I’ve tried manuka honey, local honey, lavender honey – I’m a fan of honey, let’s just say that. But this honey is like honey made by the gods. It’s got a very weird texture – it’s grainy, and neither very clear, not set – and I think by the time it’s arrived in the UK, it’s slightly fermented as well, but the taste of it is just amazing. There’s a definite tang of tropical paradise in there – you can really taste the blossom of the island’s mango, guava and passion-flower trees. I even love the strange texture – it’s especially good on hot toast! To be honest, I’d never tasted a honey before with such a distinctive taste and personality – there’s no way I’ll ever forget the taste of Pitcairn honey. It’s a shame it’s so expensive, but then again, I’d happily pay £10.95 again for such a gorgeous product! Untitled

Studded Slipper Shoes

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I’ve fallen in love with the slipper shoe trend! I’m a massive fan of ballet flats, and these are a great, updated version! Check out this little collection I made at Polyvore:

Studded Slipper Shoes

Creeper shoes, £25 / London Rebel kitten heels, £32 / River Island slipper shoes / Flat shoes, £35 / Slipper shoes

My Holiday to Cornwall: or, How To Put On A Stone in a Week

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So, I went to Cornwall for the first time in my life about two weeks ago. I had a blast, visited some amazing places, ate some amazing food, but in the process I destroyed my bank balance and my waistline! The next month is going to involve some serious recovery… IMG_4005

Whistles’ Biker Jackets

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My favourite trend this autumn has to be the biker jacket look. And Whistles is right on top of the trend, with a collection of four collared leather jackets, which retail at £295. Very pricey, but the point of jackets like these is that they are durable and last for years… At least, keep telling yourself that while you hand over your credit card. Which one would you pick?

Whistles Biker Jackets

Lunch for under 200 calories

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It’s always tough to find low calorie breakfasts and lunches when you’re dieting… Actually, scratch that. It’s tough to find low calorie breakfasts and lunches that will keep you full when you’re dieting. But, if you focus on protein (which has been proven in study after study to keep you feeling full for longer than carbs), you’re onto a good start to constructing a great, filling meal. Yogurt is a great start for breakfasts, and eggs are a great start for lunches.

I have to admit, I was a little snobby about separating out egg whites and discarding yolks. First of all, it feels like a waste, and secondly, the white not only has no taste, but it actually seems to smell more ‘eggy’ than the yolks! But, I had a go on Jillian’s quick fix diet from Making the Cut, which involves eating six egg whites with spinach every morning (seriously, blegh), which inspired this lunch. Basically, it’s a simple omelette made with one whole egg and one egg white, filled with low calorie, tasty veggies. It’s simple to make, it comes out at under 200 calories, it’s good for you, and it’s filling. That’s a lot of win… Untitled

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 100g mushrooms
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 50g frozen spinach
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg white

METHOD

  • Chop the mushrooms and tomatoes.
  • Heat half the oil in the pan, then fry the mushrooms. Halfway through the cooking, add the tomatoes.
  • Meanwhile, defrost the spinach in the microwave.
  • Add the spinach to the pan, and heat through together. Turn the mix onto your plate.
  • Rinse the spinach bowl and whisk the eggs together.
  • Rinse the pan and heat the rest of the oil.
  • Add the eggs, allow to set at the base, then push the edges to the middle, sliding the eggs back to the edge, as you make a normal omelette.
  • When you’re done, add the filling, then turn out onto a plate.

CALORIES: 183 per omelette

Speculoos: Manna from the Heavens

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I’d heard of speculoos before – they’re not very well-known here, but chances are you’ve had one. They’re those delicious, cinnamonny little Lotus biscuits you sometimes get with your tea or coffee in a cafe. They’re called caramelised biscuits here, but speculoos is another word for them – and they’re also known as Dutch Windmill biscuits in the US, Australia and New Zealand. I adore them, so of course, I make sure never to buy any, because I will devour the whole lot in an incredibly short amount of time.

Imagine my delight when I found out you can make a spread out of them. Untitled

Is there anything more deliciously dangerous than a spread made out of biscuits? I don’t want to know about it if there is.

I discovered this in Le Pain Quotidien, and promptly horded the jar, before eating a whole bread basket spread with the stuff. It was glorious! Then, I bought my own jar! Untitled

I wish I was joking when I say this, but I had eaten the whole jar in a week. And by that, I mean working week. My only regret is that there’s none left. IT WAS DELICIOUS!

I Actually Won Something!

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Oh my goodness! I actually won a competition! I can’t believe it, but it’s true!

Hobbs ran a competition which invited people to post their Ascot Ladies’ Day outfits on Twitter using Instagram. I’m not really a Twitter user, but I do have an account, so I Instagrammed a pic, bumbled about trying to make it work – and lo and behold, I won a £200 Hobbs voucher! Here is my winning entry: IMG_3095

I love my Britannia hat even more now! And, I love Hobbs as well! Thank you, Hobbs!

Hind’s Head

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What better place to go after a good day of racing than The Hind’s Head in Bray? The Hind’s Head is Heston Blumenthal’s pub, so when I realised how close it is to Ascot, I suggested a trip there! Luckily, we were able to get a reservation, and arrived a little early to wander over the road and check out The Fat Duck, Heston’s more famous restaurant.

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It looks incredibly unassuming from the outside! You can’t peer in through the windows, which is great news for the diners, but not as fun for us gawking tourists. IMG_3043

This sign doesn’t really give much away… IMG_3046

But this one doesn’t need a lot of fancy detective work to figure out! IMG_3050

Here is the famous Fat Duck sign, and in the background is The Hind’s Head! IMG_3058

The first thing we did went we got in was order a drink from the amazing menu while we waited for our table to be ready. IMG_3063

They were hugely expensive, but I spent my returned stake money on the strawberry sweetshop, and I don’t regret a thing! IMG_3061

Delicious! I would also have really like to have tried out some of the historical punches… but, a girl’s gotta eat, too. IMG_3064

We supped our drinks, and by this point had removed our hats – not really pub wear, even in Bray! IMG_3067

This was the menu: IMG_3068

It was hard to decide against the steak, but I already know what steak tastes like, and wanted to try something different! For starters, it was scotch eggs all round: IMG_3070

I had to try these as everyone was raving about them, and they were delicious (and cheap, too *ahem*…). The quail’s egg in the centre was still runny, and the pork was incredibly rich. The coating was deliciously crisp. There was certainly more than enough, even though the portion was small. IMG_3076

For my main, I had the steak and kidney pie (with triple fried chips, because. Chips). It was tender, delicious, and very, very rich and savoury. Yes, I know I decided against the steak because it was a familiar thing, and so is steak and kidney pie, but I wanted to see what Heston would do with the traditional recipe.IMG_3077

I HAD to have the chips with it, mostly because I’d heard so much raving about them… IMG_3075

Needless to say, they were great – crispy to the point of being crunchy! IMG_3081

Rachel and Lorraine both had the mushroom macaroni with ‘slow cooked hen’s egg’. I was pretty jealous because it was delicious! The slow-cooked part for the hen’s egg put me off – I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be soft. But the deep, meaty, mushroom flavour of the macaroni, and the gorgeous runny yolk was a match made in heaven!

Lorraine tried one of the specialities for her dessert – the quaking pudding! IMG_3083

It came with a little piece of card explaining the history of the pudding, which was very light – like a hot panna cotta. The caramelised banana was a great touch. IMG_3082

My pudding was called ‘English strawberries, soup and sorbet’, and I partly ordered it because I had no idea what it was going to be! IMG_3084

It was a nice mix of strawberry syrup, white soft cheese, sorbet, and the fresh strawberries. A refreshing end to the meal! Actually, no – it wasn’t quite the end, because I ordered a coffee afterwards! It came with an incredibly strong-tasting block of jelly – I think it was passionfruit, but I’m not sure… IMG_3086

One bite was enough, it flooded your mouth with flavour. Delicious!

All in all, our trip was very enjoyable. The food was very rich and full of flavour. It was expensive, but it was worth it for the novelty value! If I went again, it would be to share the experience with other friends and family, because the food, although fantastic, is not fantastic enough for me to justify the price again, nor the journey. But I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to try Heston’s food without shelling out Fat Duck prices.

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Ascot Ladies’ Day!

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I love Ascot Ladies’ Day… Let me revise this. I love wearing a hat in the company of other, well-dressed hat wearers. I just really, really, REALLY love hats. But, I never wear hats. If you knew me, you might be surprised how much I love hats, because of my general lack of headwear. So, Ascot Ladies’ Day is the day I pay a wedge of cash to someone to let me into a field wearing a hat, so I can feel no shame all day long for indulging in my frivolous love of hats.

As it’s Jubilee year, this was my hat of choice:

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This is the Hobbs Britannia hat, and the moment I saw it in the paper, I had to have it. I bugged the hell out of the Hobbs customer service team until it was released, and as soon as it appeared on the site, I ordered it immediately. Then, it became the centrepiece of our grand scheme to colour co-ordinate for the day. I always go with two of my friends, Rachel and Lorraine, so it was decided that we should wear red, white and blue. I immediately bagged red, because it’s my favourite colour and I decided I needed an excuse to buy another red dress. I forgot I already had three. Rachel bagged white, and Lorraine went with blue. Then, we decided to each have one accessory with the Union flag on it. I already had my hat, so shoes and a bag were the obvious choices. For my wedding, I actually wore a pair of Union flag shoes, so Lorraine decided to track a pair down for herself.

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Rachel bought a really cool Union flag purse by LDC (and it was so cool I had to buy one too), and we were all set… apart from the dresses. At first we were all going to buy the same dress in different colours, but the one we had in mind just needed too much alteration, and the blue and the red weren’t particularly strong. So, we abandoned that idea and Rachel ended up with a beautiful white ASOS dress (that she won in a competition!) and Lorraine borrowed another ASOS dress from me. I wound up buying a pretty lace dress from Pepperberry. IMG_2929

Hilariously, I spent ages before the event agonising over whether everyone else would be wearing this hat, because I’d seen it in the press a lot after I bought it, and it was a fairly obvious choice considering even the venue was decked out in the flag to celebrate the Jubilee – but no one else was wearing it. Someone else did have on the exact same dress as me, though… Typical! IMG_2930

Here are Rachel and Lorraine – I cleverly cut off Lorraine’s amazing shoes, because I’m awesome at photography!

Needless to say, we had a great time. We won a third of our stake back, which is great, and we even got to stay for the singing around the bandstand! IMG_3037

If anyone has any other British hat-wearing events they can recommend to me, please do!

Six Weeks to OMG: Abandoned!

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Yes, I gave up.

To be honest, my main reasons for starting this diet was to see whether it was as damaging as it appears. I do like to give people a fair chance, and even though the book is full of rhetoric that I don’t agree with, about being in competition with your friends, feeling good based only on your appearance, and the like, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. For the record, I certainly don’t agree that you should ever indulge in these ideas, even if some of us do actually think this way from time to time. It’s not healthy, and it’s the way that eating disorders are created.

Even as an ‘experiment’, I found it difficult to keep up. It seems to me that the way the diet will actually make you lose weight is through extreme exercise and low calories. I already know how to do a modified version of this, and any more just seems excessive to me.

I’m not going to condemn the plan, because I believe you should make up your own minds about it, but I certainly won’t be using many of the tips in my everyday life. As a short term experiment, it was fun for a while. As a way of life, it’s a surefire recipe for misery…