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11Aug

Coconut and tapioca ice-lollies

Many recipes are brought to life due to nostalgia. Who here has never felt the urge to cook something that took you back in time? Whether it was a food from your childhood or even a dish that you tried in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago I am sure many of us have tried to see if the result will match up to the memory. When summer arrives my husband and I can’t get enough ice cream and recently I have found quite a few ice cream shops that have dairy free flavours, but two years ago that was not an easy thing to find. It was either lemon or strawberry and that was that. I almost stopped going to ice cream shops it was getting so boring. And then we got an ice cream machine as a wedding present and our lives were revolutionised. Ok maybe I am being a bit dramatic. I started to make our own dairy free ice creams, experimenting with new flavours and it turned into a serious addiction. Problem is the machine has to live in the fridge for 12 hours before being used and our freezer is teeny tiny, so this
3 mins read
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27Jul

Linzer Torte

This week my aim was to find a recipe that would help me to use up at least a little bit of the redcurrant and vanilla jam I made a few weeks ago. The jam turned out pretty well and redcurrant is one of my favourites, but I was looking for something to highlight the taste of these little guys even more. I don’t think I have ever shared this bit of information on the blog but my husband and I have an allotment, or Schrebergarten in German. I am a city girl, born and raised in a city with over a million inhabitants and at the other end of the scale is my husband, who grew up in a small village with a population of 800. He grew up surrounded by nature and now that we both live in a city apartment he grows frustrated not to have a green space, especially during the summer. He wanted to be relaxing closer to nature and not having to drive miles to get there.  So about four years ago he came up with this allotment idea, a piece of land that gives people in the city the opportunity to have some
4 mins read
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20Jul

Lavender and Cypress foot soak

I never thought I would say this but I cannot stand how hot it is in England at the moment. I actually heard an Australian girl complaining about the heat over here in the UK. If the Aussies are complaining then s**t just got real. It is one of the most amazing summers I have had in England since I arrived almost 12 years ago (yikes!) and the Brits go nuts when the weather is like this, mainly because it always seems too good to be true and you need to barbecue everything you have in your fridge and eat all the Magnums you can before the rain comes back. It is Carpe Diem as Keating envisioned it. I am myself planning a last minute beach holiday in the West coast, consequently all my sandals and dresses come out but I always face the same problem: my feet. A massively overlooked area in my body especially after months of hiding it under socks and boots they don’t always look their best in the first few months of sunshine. So I did a little research on the basics of homemade feet treatments as I was sick of my maintenance work which basically
3 mins read
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04Jul

Pastel Caprese

I love London and I hate London. I popped to the capital to meet some friends yesterday, it was the first back there after not visiting for about six months. London always makes me try really hard to fit in, this entails not looking bright eyed at all the sites, at how busy everybody seems to be or how cool and organic their style is. Deep down I want to be one of them but can’t quite pull it off. Londoners are a different breed of people, they move faster and they don’t make apologies for who they are, and the city embraces that. All that hustle makes my blood pump faster. On the other hand I do not enjoy the pressure I feel when I am there, that if you are an underachiever the city will swallow you. I sat next to a lady with a Gucci handbag while she ate her sushi and I tucked into a bar of Tunnocks. I felt so out of place…but why really? A bar of chocolate caramel makes me so much happier than a Gucci bag. And a lot happier than sushi! I think that city would swallow me, I am not
4 mins read
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27Jun

Batida de coco

I feel that not a lot beats watching football with a great little snack by your side. However a special drink makes all the difference, it helps the most tense of hearts to relax which is no easy feat during the World Cup, these matches are tense! So this week our World Cup recipe is one that is very popular in Brazil, but not as well known abroad: Batida de coco, or coconut smoothie. Don’t know if smoothie is the right word as it contains a little booze, batida would be translated as beat or blitzed. I am pretty sure you’ve all heard that Brazil has some spectacular natural treasures, and when it comes to fruit there are just too many to name it, good news is I start to see them more and more in exotic fruit markets, and that is the case with the main ingredient today: fresh coconut. In the last few years fresh coconut, together with its water, has become the new super food for celebrities, but before that many only ever heard of shredded coconut and coconut milk. So if you ever walk by a market with exotic fruits try drinking the water from the
3 mins read
710 Views
20Jun

Mango Caipiroska

It has been a busy week, I have worked 40 hours on top of going to University (I am currently studying to become a nurse) and it was hard to juggle both, let alone think of a social life.  My long hours have meant I have missed a few of the world cup matches, thankfully I have caught glimpses of a few matches while some of my patients were watching it. I rushed home yesterday to catch the second half of the England match (they have a special place in my heart) and was so nervous watching it, almost as nervous when Brazil plays, but they disappointed me when they lost yesterday. But on a brighter note our Seleção has kept their momentum and I can’t wait for our game on Monday. This Caipiroska is the perfect drink for this coming week, not only because of its glorious colours (!) and I am so excited to tell you guys about it! Caipiroska is a vodka version of Caipirinha. For those who don’t know what Caipirinha is, it is one of Brazil’s biggest exports and my favourite drink. It is kinda like a Mojito but better (sorry, Cuba). It is made with Cachaça, a liquor made
3 mins read
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