June’s Using it Up!

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I was using June as an opportunity to use up different beauty products. I’m not the only person doing this, Cornflakegirl has also been using things up! I’m like a magpie when it comes to buying new products, anything new and ‘shiny’ and I WANT it. I have a handful of products I regularly rebuy but I like trying out new things. Considering I don’t buy high end stuff (sob, I wish!), this means my habit is a relatively inexpensive one. The downside to this is what while everything does eventually get used up, I tend to get side tracked and start using new products before finishing the ones I was using. So I have tons of half used bottles and jars lying around. So I rooted through my stash, throwing anything that couldn’t be used anymore and pulling out the stuff I could use in June. Let’s see how I did!

Not too bad I think! I managed to finish off a Dove deodorant, Pearl Drops toothpaste, a face scrub, a L’Oreal Perfect Clean cleanser, Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel, Lush Vanilla Dee-Lite Body Lotion, Trilogy Cream Cleanser, Jelly Belly Shower Gel and Lush Olive Branch Shower Gel. I also finished Schwarzkopf Liquid Silk Gloss shampoo, a small Boots Soltan Factor 25 sun cream and a lip balm. That’s 12 items!

I enjoyed doing this, I only bought new deodorant, shampoo and conditioner (the conditioner has gone AWOL, I think it’s been robbed from me!). I think I’ll do this again for July, I still have loads of bits and bobs lying around to finish up.

Ireland: Should I stay or should I go?

Australia. There’s probably more Irish there at the moment than Australians. It seems to be the place for Irish people to emigrate to and yet, despite the fact that several of my friends are over there right now, I have zero interest. Sure, I would like to visit Australia at some stage, but I don’t want to move there. Though when I say this to people, even close friends, they look at me like I have two heads or something. When my boyfriend returned after spending 4 months there, one of the most common questions he got was ‘Would you go back?’. And most times he answers ‘No, not without Breige’. Cue people turning to me with an inquisitive look on their face. Which quickly turned to shock when I said I had no intention of heading out there anytime soon.

Why is this so shocking? Why is it such a bad thing to want to be close to home? Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel and can’t wait until I can jet off somewhere again. I’m not one of those people who never wants to leave their county, let alone the country. But Australia isn’t a priority right now. If someone handed me a wad of money and said ‘Here, go travel!’. Europe would be first on my list. Which apparently is ‘boring’ as it’s on the doorstep and I can go there anytime. But it’s what I want! And people seem to sneer at this for some reason.

I don’t want to leave Ireland like my grandparents had to. I’ve lived here most of my life, it’s my home and I’m damn proud of it. Especially after the international spotlight has shone so brightly on us recently, I can’t tell you how happy I was that the Queen of England and Barack Obama’s visits went smoothly. The atmosphere here after that was amazing, a mix of hope, pride and happiness. There was no talk of IMFs, recessions or bankers, just the sheer pride of being Irish.

As much as I want to stay home and help rebuild the economy, it’s looking worse as the days go by. The timing for my college graduating year couldn’t have been worse. We went into college during a boom, when jobs were plentiful. One of the first things that was said to us in college was that everyone in the course who had graduated that year either went into a job or into further studies. 4 years later and it’s a different story. Even after a year, there’s still so many of us unemployed. It is disheartening and at the same time frustrating, because my generation didn’t cause this recession and yet we’re suffering for it. Suffering for something we had no control over.

It’s no wonder that so many people I know are now living abroad. And it’s in my mind more and more everyday. Should I stay or should I go? By the end of this year, unless things pick up, I might just have to go. Where to? I don’t really know. London maybe, or perhaps Canada. Australia? I might not want to go there, but the way things are, I might not have a choice.

Foodie Friday: Yoghurt Pancakes

I always find that I buy large tubs of yoghurt, forget about them until they’re just going out of date and then think ‘How the hell am I going to use these up?!’. I usually turn to my trusty Yoghurt Cake recipe (which I shall post another time), but the other week I was bored of this and off I went to Google, to see what other ways yoghurt could be used up. And yoghurt pancakes was the first thing that popped up. Now when I make pancakes, it’s usually crepe style ones, but recently I’ve been dying to try out American style thick fluffy pancakes, thanks to AtebyAte and Babaduck. So this was the perfect excuse!

The recipes I got back were American ones (natch), so there were no metric measurements. So I used the measuring cups I have. While I usually like to using metric measurements and use my weighing scales, for a recipe like this that doesn’t need much precision, measuring cups are perfect!

Yoghurt Pancakes

Adapted from http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Yogurt-Pancakes

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

2 cups (1 large tub) plain yoghurt (I use vanilla)

1/4 cup water

1. Combine dry ingredients into one bowl and stir. Combine wet ingredients into another bowl and stir.

2. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until it is completely combined with no lumps.

3. Heat the frying pan with some oil. Pour batter in using 1/4 cup.

4. When bubble form on the top, flip over and cook the other side until golden brown.

5. Enjoy!

You can also sprinkle extra ingredients on top of the pancake at step 3, like fruits or chocolate chips. I served mine with golden syrup! Definitely a wonderful weekend treat!

What recipes do you like to use when there’s yoghurt to be used up? I’d love to hear them in the comments below. Don’t be shy!

Update

Put simply, May wasn’t my month. It started off well, with my boyfriend’s return from Oz but quickly went downhill. I was involved in an accident. Something I luckily managed to walk out of pretty much unharmed. It could have been a hell of a lot worse though. So it’s because of that I haven’t been inspired to post anything here. I have a list of things as long as my arm to write about but zero motivation for the moment.

Besides the above, here are some other things I’ve been up!

-Finishing up work, just a few more weeks left before it’s all over. I really need to start thinking about my next move!

-Reading. Lots of reading. Just finished the new book from Dave Gorman called ‘Dave Gorman vs. The Rest  of the World’. Makes me want to play Connect 4 or something.

-Using things up. It’s something I meant to write about before but never got around to it. I don’t have any particular loyalty to beauty brands, when something new comes out I want to try it. That leaves me with loads of unfinished bottles of shampoo and shower gel. It all gets used up in the end but it sure takes up a lot of room. For the month of June I’m going to try use up as much odds and ends as I can. And also not buy anything new unless it’s all gone and I need it. So far so good!

-Pinning. It’s addictive

That’s about it really. Boring right? May turned me into a hermit. I have lots of other stuff to write up, I’m hoping this will help get the creative juices flowing again. I also have so many blogs to catch up on too! I’ll hopefully get around to that by the end of the week.

Eurovision Party!

I LOVE the Eurovision! Sure, it’s cheesy, cringey and camp at time but it’s good fun for all the family. I have fond memories of watching it as a child and now that I’m an adult I love the fact you can have a big old party! I had one last year at a friend’s house and while I unfortunately can’t go all out again this year, I thought I’d share some of my ideas so you can host your own!
Fancy Dress
I love fancy dress parties and Eurovision is a great excuse for you. You can either dress as past acts or else dress up people from the countries.

Past Acts

ABBA (short skirts, long hair, hippish)

Johnny Logan (white suit!)

Gina G (short sparkly dress)

Bucks Fizz (rip off skirts!)

Ruslana (Wild Dances song, Xena Warrior Princess vibe)

Lordi (scary monster masks and costumes)

Scooch (air hostess)

Cliff Richard

Michael Flatley (Not a contestant but sure ya know!)

Terry Wogan (or Marty Wheelan!)

Countries
Spanish senorita
French mime
Irish Leprechaun
Irish dancer
Scots kilt
Dutch girl with clogs
Heidi
Gladiator
German beer maid
Russian doll
German Lederhosen
French Maid
French can-can dancer
Viking
Matador
Greek God/Goddess
Mafia
There’s always someone who won’t dress up, throwing on a funny hat or mask will suffice! Terry Wogan mask was found here.



Food
If you want to go all out and have some food, buffet style is ideal. Again, try and represent different countries with different foods. Not that difficult thanks to the likes of Aldi and Lidl!


Some suggestions
Italy: Lasagne, mini pizzas, pasta salads
Belgium: Chocolate, paté, waffles
Greece: Lamb kebabs, feta cheese, pita bread, baklava, Greek salad
UK: Pork pies, Cornish pasties, sandwiches, scones, fish and chips, shortbread
France: Quiche, baguettes, cheeses
Germany: Sausages, Black Forest Gateaux, Pretzels
Spain: Paella, tortilla Española, Chorizo
BBC lists some recipes ideas here and here. I also got some of my ideas from this site here, which is great for Eurovision party ideas!

Drinks
Bucks Fizz! Though anything goes here really. Wines from France and Spain, beers from Germany, English and Ireland, spirits like vodka (Russia, Sweden and, Poland), English gin, Irish and Scottish whiskey, Liquors and other drinks such as Baileys (Ireland), Pimm’s (England) and Jagermeister (Germany). It’s safe to say Europe has the drinks aspect of things covered. You could mix up cocktails, the BBC 2008 Eurovision guide as some listed here. Or you could throw together a quick punch in the form of sangria.

Decorations
Flags and maps! This website has flags, you could search for an updated list of countries playing in the final if you wanted to put in some extra effort. You could also search eBay and other party sites for flags, bunting and maps. If you have kiddies going to the party, maybe you could get them to colour in some flags before the party begins? You can camp things up a notch with some disco balls and glitter too!

On the Night
BBC website has scorecards which you can print off and give to each guest so they can give each entry their own marks. One way to add some competition is for everyone to choose a country to support at the beginning of the night (either by drawing countries out of a hat or by just choosing). It can add great excitement when it comes to the scoring section of the night. If you want you can also have a prize for the person who has chosen the winner.
If this is a child-free event, then Eurovision is really the perfect excuse for drinking games. If you Google Eurovision drinking game, you’ll probably get a good few hits, here’s one website I found. Another way I searched was through Facebook (I think there’s a Facebook drinking group for nearly anything, I found one for RTE News!). Anyway, this was my favourite Eurovision drinking game found on Facebook. Or you could make up your own rules, I’d love to hear some of them!

After party
So the Eurovision is over for the night, what to do now? Why, stick on some past Eurovision tunes and dance that’s what! (or you could have a karaoke contest too!) Here’s some suggestions
Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz
Hold Me Now - Johnny Logan
Ooh Aah (Just a Little Bit) - Gina G
Hard Rock Hallelujah - Lordi
Boom bang-a-bang – Lulu
Waterloo – ABBA
All Kinds of Everything – Dana
And here’s a snapshot of my Eurovision playlist.

The good ol’ BBC have some playlists suggestions as well, or you could of course also splash out and just buy the Best of Eurovision CD!

I also made a list of general cheesy Euro pop for when we got sick of Eurovision stuff. Bands like Aqua, Vengaboys, songs like Macarena, Saturday Night etc. If anyone wants a picture of that playlist, I’ll gladly upload it.

I think the best advice really is to have fun. I really wasn’t this organized last year but everyone had fun. One of the best costumes were the last minute ones. If you do have a party, let me know! I’d love to know how it went!

I got some of my ideas from these wonderful sites
http://blog.alism.com/the-eurovision-party-pack/
http://www.joel.co.uk/eurovision.php
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/party/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/2008/index.shtml

Pig Cake!

Sorry about the huge break, I personally blame the two Bank Holidays coming after each other, work and my boyfriend coming back from Oz. I got side tracked big time!

So I spoke about this on Twitter before, about how I wanted to make a pig cake for my sister’s birthday. That is, a cake in the shape of a pig, not made out of pork! For Christmas I got a giant cupcake mould and on the box there was a picture of a cake decorated like a pig.

So I decided to give it a bash. Except I never really stopped to think about what I was going to make the face of the pig look like. This then caused a mad dash around the pick ‘n’ mix section of the local garage! And resulted in a pig head cake instead of the entire pig!

The finished result! Now, I think he resembles a pig (vaguely), but my brothers and father thought he looked like a fat mouse! And proceeded to mock me over it. My sister was happy with it and that’s the main thing. And he tasted nice too!

On a side note, I think he looks a tiny bit like Mr Blobby sans ears!

Vodka Pasta!

 

Ever had a recipe just follow you around? One you keep seeing and then find yourself dreaming about? I’ve had that recently.

It started when I saw the Pasta Alla Vodka Recipe on The Pioneer Woman a while back. I was intrigued by it but put it to the back of my mind. I was reminded of it again though when I watched the recipe being cooked on YouTube by Laura Vitale, from Laurainthekitchen.com. Then on Wednesday, I saw it on Babaduck Babbles and was drooling at, even looking at the recipe on Thursday to drool some more. Friday I treated myself to Donal Skehan’s new book, Kitchen Hero and lo and behold, what’s the very first recipe in the book? Vodka Penne! So that night I made myself a dish and it was so good I made it again Saturday for lunch!

And one of the best things about it is it’s super quick and super simple to make!

Vodka Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients

350g Penne

25g Butter

125g bacon, chopped (or pancetta)

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

4 tbsp Vodka

200ml Double Cream

3 tbsp tomato purée

Salt and pepper, to taste

Freshly grated cheese (parmesan is best, I only had cheddar)

Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Method

1. In a large saucepan, cook pasta as instructed.

2. Heat butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add bacon bit and fry for 3-5 minutes, until golden.

3. Add in onion and garlic to bacon and fry for 1 minute or so.

4. Add the vodka and allow to simmer for a minute before adding tomato purée and cream. Simmer gently for 5 minutes until sauce has thickened.

5. Test the sauce for taste and add salt and pepper accordingly.

6. Drain pasta and add sauce. Mix well to make sure the sauce clings nicely to the pasta. Place in serving bowls and garnish with grated Parmesan.

7. Dig and enjoy!

Adapted from Kitchen Hero by Donal Skehan (who in turn thanks Lorraine Fanneran of La Cucina restaurant in Limerick).

This sauce is beautiful, the right combination of creamy and tomatoey. It’s thick and clings to the pasta nicely. Don’t just use penne, in fact I didn’t either days I made it. First night I used Fusilli (a mixture of white and brown) and on Saturday I used Tripoline. And I’d just like to point out that while I may not have had any fancy pants Parmesan to use, the vodka I added was Grey Goose *increases fanciness of dish x10*. Though saying that, I don’t think it really wants what kind of vodka is used (correct me if I’m wrong!).

Go on, try it, you won’t be disappointed. I’m not the only one enjoying the craze these days, Mammy’s Kitchen had a bowl yesterday and was equally impressed as I was!