Coastal Girl to City Girl

I tried to think of a food beginning with ‘Z’ but nothing came to me so I thought Zest would probably be a good ending to the A-Z challenge. I started on a dessert & I’ll end on an ingredient that goes into desserts. Ooh now that made me look clever & imaginative. At school I did food technology as part of my GCSE’s, most desserts I made listed the Zest of a: orange/lemon/lime. Zest seemed to be put in everything & I felt like I was always grating a fruit of some kind. Then it advised in the recipe that you could always decorate the dessert with a sprinkle of Zest. If you watch cookery programmes you can see that by grating or peeling the chefs always manage to use the zest of a fruit. I mean it does give the dessert an extra zingy taste & it does help a good dessert taste that little bit better. I wonder who came up with the brainwave of using the zest. ~~~~~~~~ Well that's it, the end of the A-Z Challenge. It has been a roller coaster r...

I love Yogurt especially Greek style yogurt but unfortunately I can no longer eat it unless I want stomach cramps for days. Recently there was a new Greek style yogurt that appeared & I wanted it badly, each time I saw it advertised I thought yep I’d love that, it would taste divine but I knew I’d be risking my poor stomach. I’m quite good now at knowing what I can & can’t risk eating. My normal chicken kormas are out because of the cream & so now is yogurts. Which is a shame but it’s better that way than to suffer 24 hours down the line. Obviously I miss eating good things like yogurt & I wish the companies made alternatives for those who can’t eat them. I’ve tried searching the shelves but there is no alternative out there. Maybe I need to write to them & pass on my thoughts then if they made an alternative I could finally enjoy a nice yogurt again. 

Ok again I had trouble with this letter & by doing a little search I came up with Xmas cake which I know is a little cheat as its technically called Christmas cake. But hey I always use the word Xmas so here goes… I have no idea why people came up with this idea. We now have birthday cakes, Easter cakes, Mother’s day cakes, Valentine’s Day cakes & of course Xmas cake. A cake for all occasions! To me it’s crazy & to be honest a bit of a con. I feel that the industries pray on people’s feelings etc to make us buy these things at special times of the year where they make billions. Ok enough politics ha! I have never eaten Xmas cake. I used to watch my mum making one every year for the whole family to enjoy, she would decorate it & alongside that she do the Xmas pudding with brandy sauce to pour on top which you then set light to. I would look at the cake & smell it but never wanted to eat it. I don’t know why, I guess it just never really appealed to me...

Wine. Ooh how I love that word & even more so the drink itself. I do enjoy a nice glass of cold dry white wine occasionally. I do not drink red wine or sweet white wine but I do also like a Rosé wine again when it’s cold. I’ve tasted some really nice wines & some really awful ones. But there’s nothing better than on a warm summers evening having a glass of chilled white wine, extremely chilled, in fact so chilled that the glass becomes wet. Savouring the taste, allowing it to slide down slowly & to do the cliché thing of going “ahhh” after each sip. Then you have champagne to put into the mix. At Christmas I drank champers with orange juice which was delicious & a perfect drink to have alongside a good turkey! Yes the good old wine, something that supposedly gets better with age…is there anything more I need say? Ha. 

Vegemite. It’s like Marmite. Or a Marmite alternative. The slogan for it (& Marmite) is you either love it or hate it. For me I hate it. Vegemite I believe you can only get from Australia. You can’t get it in the UK, thankfully! My sister loved Marmite. She used to spread it on toast; in sandwiches & to be honest it stunk! It was thick black/brown goo in a jar. I can’t even really describe the smell, the minute she opened the jar I was out of that kitchen. I really cannot stand the stuff. It looks like grease, smells vile & would never be in my cupboards. Nope I’m not a fan of either & never will be. Instead I’m a hate it fan!

Ok yes I was stuck for a food beginning with ‘U’. A quick search on my phone produced this word: Unagi which is Japanese for eel. Well what can I say about it…I do NOT like eel. Full stop. There… They are slimy, rubbery, long, curly, horrible looking, smelly, just gross really. You get the picture. Would I ever eat eel? Urgh nope! No way! Not in my lifetime. Do I admire those who can stomach it…yes I guess I do because to me it looks chewy & tasteless. If anyone has tried it please tell us all what it tastes like & I hope they don’t say “it tastes just like chicken”! 

Tea. I am a tea-oholic. I love my cuppas. They can’t be too strong & definitely can’t be too milky. They have to look medium in strength & then it tastes divine. I used to drink too many cuppas in a day; I would constantly have my cup topped up & think “ooh I’ll just have one more”. I could never get enough of tea but then I suffered from not sleeping because of the caffeine. Catch 22. You love a good cuppa but have too many & you can’t sleep. I’ve cut down my consumption but sometimes I do crave just one more. I am never bothered as to what tea I drink; I have a cheap branded teabag or a nice PG tip. To me it doesn’t matter & it seems to taste the same. However the other day we got a good bargain on Twinning’s tea. Now there’s a brand that tastes wonderful. Yes I can tell when I’ve had a Twinning’s but normally this brand is so expensive hence this bargain could not be missed. What’s the point of spending £3-£4 on a box when I can get more in a box of a...

Spinach. Nope I’m not Popeye…although his muscle power would be good sometimes. But like Popeye I do enjoy a bit of spinach, even though I haven’t had it in ages. It wasn’t until I saw a lady in Iceland’s buying a frozen bag of spinach that I remembered how much I do like it. I did not know that they now provide frozen bags of the stuff & it may be something I’ll have to try; I mean it can’t be all that bad can it? Yes I know that perhaps sometimes frozen vegetables are not good for you but at other times they are quick & easy to do. You just throw them into a pan of boiling water for a few minutes & bobs your uncle they are done. I will definitely give this bag of spinach a go as there’s no harm in trying it & as I eat it I’ll imagine I’m turning into Popeye & developing very strong muscles to help save the world.  

Rice pudding. When I mention to most people that I enjoy rice pudding I get strange looks & the reasons why no one should like rice pudding. It all boils down to school days & in particular school lunches. Every school lunch contained sloppy rice pudding. Kids everywhere hated the stuff. It looked disgusting, smelt awful & tasted gross. I actually seem to be the only person who enjoyed & liked rice pudding. Ok yes it doesn’t particularly taste of anything special & it doesn’t look appealing but it is a great winter warmer. Heat it up & pour in a bowl, snuggle under a blanket & enjoy. It’s filling but doesn’t over power your stomach. I can understand people’s fear of rice pudding but I feel it’s one of those things that will keep going & going even though you rarely hear about it or see it advertised anymore. I say hail the rice pudding! Plus you can put any topping on it: honey/jam etc, it’s versatile & great to eat. 

Quiche. Ok what is it about quiche that you either love it or hate it (a bit like marmite…& for the record I hate that stuff) anyways I do like quiche particularly the one with bacon & cheese in it. The only thing I can never decide on is if I prefer it hot or cold. When I eat it hot I wish it was cold & just out of the fridge then if I eat it cold I wish it was slightly warm. Yes you may call me odd/strange or fussy right about now & yes you would be right in thinking that! Ha. I like the smell of quiche cooking & then I enjoy the crust around it when it’s hard & crunchy. Yum! I’ve tried a vegetable one but it wasn’t to my liking. So I stick with what I know, love & trust. It may be less healthy with all that cheese & bacon but hey no worries if I put lettuce with it I’ll kid my body into thinking I’m being healthy lol! 

Pimms. It’s Pimms o’clock time. That’s the catchphrase here in the UK for this particular drink. The minute the sun comes out then so does the Pimms. The only way to drink it is in a jug, with lots of ice, slices of fruit: strawberries/cucumber/apple/orange/mint & then top up with lemonade. All I can say is OMG! This summery drink is divine & perfect for warm days & long warm evenings. The fruit in this drink gives it an extra taste that is hard to describe, yes it’s alcoholic but as long as you don’t overdo the Pimms in a jug & put plenty of lemonade in then hey you could drink it all night…just don’t drive! So next time the sun is shining or when it’s warm & you sit in the garden perhaps watching the sun set grab a jug of Pimms, pour yourself one, sit back & enjoy. After all its Pimms o’clock.  

OJ. Not OJ Simpson but orange juice. I’m an OJ addict especially when I’m feeling under the weather. If I have a cold or a sniffle I turn to the orange juice & drink litres of the stuff. My body knows when I need it & will beg me to fill it up with the sweet liquid. I do not like the one with bits in. ooh no way! The bits make it actually I don’t think I can find the right words to describe it so I’m just gonna say yuk! The orange juice I drink has to be smooth no bits just smooth sweet juice. If I’m feeling under the weather I know glasses of OJ will make me perk up & it seems to work within a few glasses, I always feel like I’m glowing. If you probably squeezed me I’ll end up producing juice! Ha.

Nuts. Not as in how I would describe myself but the food nut. My husband loves nuts, he nibbles on them most days & has a habit that makes me giggle where he’ll pour a few out of a packet (dry roasted are his favourite) onto a plate & he’ll pick at them over the evening. Whereas I would pick at them straight out of the packet, I only eat salted nuts occasionally but only if I crave them but my husband will graze on nuts all evening. I used to remember when bowls of nuts were put on bars for people to nibble on, the reason being was that the salt would make you thirstier & therefore you’d drink more making more profit for the owners. Oh yes they were not silly! Until the health facts came out & they found that the bowls actually contained many people’s urine! Yuk. It told people that “hey many people don’t wash their hands” & “that you’re eating people’s pee!” oh yeah we loved them for letting us all know that information! I bet people stopped eatin...

Ooh how I love a melon. A watermelon perhaps with the pink juicy fruit that is so watery in your mouth as you bite into it. Or perhaps a honeydew which contains a sweet flavour in a whitish flesh of fruit alongside the softness as you nibble it. The trouble with me & a honeydew is that I put extra sprinklings of sugar on it before I eat it. I know it’s bad when you’re eating a healthy piece of fruit but for me it gives it an extra kick. I actually do love melon & would happily eat it every day but I’m one of those people who get bored with food & so if I brought a melon I know I wouldn’t eat it all. Anytime I fancy some melon I might buy it as a treat & hope I’ll finish it in time before it can’t be eaten any more or I’ll buy it in a can even though it may not taste the same. Even thinking about melon makes my mouth water & watermelon is always the first thing I’ll eat when I’m on holiday…I actually probably over eat on it!  

Lemonade. I’m normally a cola drinking girl but there would be only two occasions where I would drink lemonade: 1. when I have dry Martini Blanco with ice & slice of lemon topped up with lemonade 2. & when I have an upset stomach…probably from drinking the Martini above ha! But joking aside it does work for an upset stomach. I learnt it working behind a bar & still swear by it. If you pour lemonade into a glass & then stir it with a fork until it goes flat, then drink it. Flat lemonade for some strange reason actually helps ease a dodgy tummy, I have no idea how or why but it does. Sometimes I do enjoy a cold glass of lemonade especially the cloudy lemonade. When I see a bottle of cloudy lemonade I have to buy it then drink it non-stop. It has a much sweeter & nicer taste than normal lemonade. But I haven’t tried cloudy lemonade with the Martini…maybe I should just to see what it would taste like…now there’s a thought.

Kiwi. Nope I’m not talking about the animal from New Zealand. I’m talking about that brown hairy fruit that is green inside. Ok yep it sounds disgusting. Actually it sounds of putting to eat but it’s not, it’s rather lovely. I do really enjoy eating this fruit. As a kid I liked the hairy brown skin, it was odd & made me giggle when I touched it as it kind of felt like that fuzzy felt stuff. When my mum cut it up I would stare in wonder at the green squishy fruit inside. It fascinated me & I thought it looked amazing. I would eat it on its own or in a fruit cocktail. I really liked it & actually I think I was the only one who did! From a kids point of view it looked like frog spawn. It was soft & really squishy to eat. I’d make my mum cut the skin off first then I’d gobble the green fruit up in delight. I do the same now. I’ll buy one or two, spend ages peeling the skin off then slice it up into pieces & eat it, still thinking about how it l...

I have to apologise to my followers & readers. My internet decided to let me down right in the middle of the A-Z challenge! Perfect timing huh! I was being charged extra to go on the internet on top of the monthly allowance…not good at all. So the internet was off limits until now. I have been writing these up in a word document & will now have to flood my blog with each post as I really wanted to complete this challenge. So sorry in advance for the flood of posts. I will also get round to the wonderful comments left by my readers; I appreciate each & every one of them. So here we go with the rest of the A-Z challenge…oh how I’ve missed posting these up… Jelly. I remember eating jelly as a child at birthday parties mixed with ice cream. It was always presented in a colourful paper plate with a plastic spoon. You’d sometimes get a mixture of jellies with a blob of melting vanilla ice cream. Why are jellies mainly suited to children? & why are they given...

A dear friend of mine published her book as an eBook recently. I should have done a shout out when I found out, instead I sent her an email telling her how much I was dancing around for her lol. I am so proud of her though as I know how long & hard she has worked on her book to get it perfect for her audience alongside writing her other books...that will also become available once she knows they are completely right. However now she is giving people the chance to download her book for free until the 11th April. I know how good this book is & how great her writing is full stop so you must go & check her site out.  http://www.ahbrowne.com/2012/04/random-free-giveaway-of-dark-illusions.html  Pass the notice onto friends & family, lets help other writers get noticed & enjoy the books they work so hard on to produce. A.H.Browne is a wonderful, warm, kind & funny lady who will tell it as it is. So why not pop over say hello & show some love...

As a child my favourite thing was ice cream. I would only eat it during the summer months (as I felt stupid eating it in winter…I was cold enough so I didn’t colder things entering my system!) & then I’d be lost for choice when faced with the task of choosing an ice cream. Mr whippy 99 with a flake was always my favourite. The soft fluffy ice cream within a crunchy cone & a chocolate flake. Summers were never the same without having one of these. If I couldn’t have that I’d choose an orange ice lolly or mini milk or a feast. Now there’s an ice lolly. Chocolate wrapped in chocolate filled with more chocolate. Yum…a messy ice lolly but a delicious one! The one I had at home was a Neapolitan…the ice cream of different flavours in one hit. Oh my how tasty that was. Then I discovered Vienetta. Now that was one dangerous discovery lol. I would munch my way through that in days & go back for seconds. I always love the sound of the hard chocolate cracking under t...

Hamburgers. One simple word…yum! I love hamburgers especially with melted cheese on them & a dollop of ketchup. Not too much ketchup though as it spoils the taste! You put just enough in to give it a small kick. I don’t like/need/want anything else in a burger. I don’t like it when they are over filled with onions, lettuce, tomatoes etc & if I have a Macdonald’s cheeseburger then the first thing I’ll do is rip out that slice of Gherkin thingy. Yuck! One time my sister produced a homemade hamburger to me. I eyed it with fascination & with a watering mouth took a bite. Then when I looked down I gasped, to me it looked pink. I talked to her about this but the problem now with chefs is that their burgers are always served slightly on the rare side. I told her to take it away & cook it for longer. Me & rare beef do not gel. If you eat meat then it has to be cooked well & that goes for hamburgers too. I know when I need red meat as my body st...

Dancing During my time at school (which feels like a long time ago now) I took dance as a subject. I loved it & still love it. But I no longer do it. There were always more girls than boys in the class & in fact at one point we only had 1 boy amongst about 15+ of us girls. It was unfair on him, he however loved it & actually was a good dancer. We would start by doing our stretches then we’d move on to the set pieces we either had to learn & perform in front of the others or we would study techniques of other dancers & then have to choreograph our own piece of dance. It was good fun, interesting & in the end important for our grading & exams. I continued to dance at various times…mainly when I’d had a few drinks…but I have never joined a dance class. I know I would actually feel shy dancing in front of others even after doing it for 3-4 years. I get stage fright badly & this effects the things I would love to do. Dancing being ...

Gin. Personally I do not drink Gin for me it tastes too sour. But when I worked behind a bar gin was a regular drink for others. I would offer a ‘double’ or ‘single’ shot, then you’d have to ask if they wanted a slice of lemon in it & ice before cracking the top of a bottle of tonic. Now I’ve seen & been asked for some strange drinks in my time behind a bar, that’s another post perhaps, but one time I actually frowned when someone asked for gin & bitter lemon. Because I was so used to the usual gin & tonic requests this one threw me somewhat. But I served it & continued to serve it from that day on. But I never really grasped the gin & tonic thing. I know obviously people have many different drinks they like & enjoy but gin has that sour taste anyway & then tonic also has a sourish taste so what’s the point of mixing them together & who came up with that idea in the first place? Mind you who comes up with the idea for mixers...

Feta cheese. I love Feta. I’ll throw it into a salad with lettuce, cucumber, olive oil & sprinkle mixed herbs on top. It’s my version of a Greek salad but without tomatoes & olives. I have no idea why I don’t have the whole Greek salad experience except that I can’t stand olives or tomatoes. If I have a salad or sandwich that has tomatoes in I will pick them out. Therefore when I do my own salad I’ll leave them out. Adding Feta to a salad gives it that extra taste & makes it slightly different to the normal typically plain salad. It also seems to give it more oomph & for me makes me want to eat salads daily. In the summer I will happily eat Feta salads with potatoes every day, it makes me feel healthier & lighter. I could easily get addicted to Feta which may not be a good thing but when cut into tiny pieces & crumbled over a handful of lettuce & cucumber it makes a salad more inviting & sounds fantastically delicious right ab...

Scrambled? Fried? Sunny side up? Boiled? Poached? Omelette? Scotch egg? Oh how I despise eggs! I have never eaten them & never will eat them. The smell gets to me first, then the texture, then the sight of them looking all kind of rubbery like especially fried & boiled ones. Ewww. My family loves them though & throughout the years had tried to encourage me to at least taste them…let’s just say they never tried again! I remember my grandparents loving boiled eggs with slices of toast or fried eggs on slices of ham with chips. My mum liked hers boiled or poached & my sister would eat them anyway but especially liked omelettes. It wasn’t until I started waitressing that they really got to me. People would request omelette upon omelette or fried egg with ham upon fried egg with ham. All I saw were eggs, eggs, eggs. They taunted me as I delivered someone’s dinner that had a wobbly fried egg on top where I’d place it down with a smile on face cursing at th...

For some strange reason these posts are taking on a sweet toothed theme! I’ll be the first to stand up & say ‘yes I have a sweet tooth, yes I may be addicted to sugar, but you only live once so what the hell.’ Doughnuts. I love them. I love the sticky sugary icing/dusting. I love the soft doughy texture. But I hate the jam filling. Ok they may sound a little nuts, after all who loves donuts but hates the jam filling. Simple answer…me. I’m basing this in the UK. We for some odd reason fill doughnuts with sticky, gooey jam. It oozes out everywhere & creates a huge (fun) mess, I have no idea why this is done but it annoys me. I know there are many different varieties out there without jam but they are not the same & technically are not (or should not) be called doughnuts. When I was younger I had a solution to this problem. I ate round the jam. I would cut out the middle section (as that’s the only place the jam is located) & give it to my sister....

I was going to write about chicken but decided nope that for me wasn’t interesting enough. So I thought I’d write about something sweet… Chocolate. Yay! Let’s have a big shout out for chocolate. We probably all know we shouldn’t indulge in this deliciously sweet delicacy but we do & when we do it’s extremely enjoyable. Letting a solid piece melt in your mouth for a long time trying to savour the taste as it lingers on your tongue. Or even when you use it for baking & want to lick the chocolate covered spoon or bowl! The trouble for me though is that I’m a chocoholic. A few people know this already about me & we used to have great chocolate discussions about your favourite make or flavour. I would try & explain English chocolate while they would tell me all about the American chocolate…yes they seem to taste completely different. For me though I would happily scoff a whole bar of the sweet stuff without a second thought & I’d also probabl...

Tidal Rave Across countries you wander attacking shorelines with your mighty currents as you rise and fall with new tides sweeping over the dark gloomy rocks which are hidden deep in the ocean sometimes catching glimpses of the sun. Your surface sparkles in the sun as back and forth you wander into the vastness of the ocean skimming the stones with your changing currents teasing the various rocks carrying you into the unknown with your tides. Shimmering against your tides is the brightness of the summer sun where wildlife hides under the rocks as they freely roam and wander catching the fearless currents when they migrate through the ocean. Ships sail across the ocean beating against the tides avoiding your unforgiving currents taking time out in the warm sun in and out of ports they wander navigating around the hidden rocks. Children take home sticks of rocks once they’ve dipped in the ocean up and down they wande...