Run, Anna, Run!

This time next week I will be setting off to run my very first 5K race… and I’ve chosen to do a Pretty Muddy Obstacle 5K Race For Life to boot!

Now I had been training with the objective to run the whole thing… and I do still intend to try but my physiotherapist banned me from running a few weeks ago while we work to treat a knee injury I sustained from, you guessed it, RUNNING!

I was actually really enjoying my training.  I have been using a Couch 2 5K app program to get me from being unable to run for 30 seconds and I made it as far as running for 5 minutes without stopping! (Sadistic app that it is it gives you two minutes of walking to recover and then off you go running for 5 minutes again!)  The objective is to get you to be able to run for 35 minutes non stop by the end of the program but I’ve only made it halfway through so far.  Once I get this knee problem fixed I fully intend to pick up again and learn to run properly!

Now, there is one very simple reason I am doing this:
To raise funds for Cancer Research UK.

To that end I would be endlessly grateful to anyone who could spare even as much a £1 to help me reach my fundraising target.

You probably don’t know me but I bet you know someone who has been affected by cancer.  Cancer took my Gran from us and it tried to take my baby sister when she was just 19 but she fought back and won!  It’s only down to the endless research done by groups like Cancer Research UK that we have the treatments available that have meant my sister is still with us today… and that is worth any amount of pain I know I’m going to be in come next Saturday!

So please, dig deep, it couldn’t be simpler to help me reach my fundraising goal simply click the link below:

Anna’s Just Giving Page

Or you can even donate by text:

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Tortilla Pizza/Flammekueche

Sometimes you need pizza… sometimes you need pizza 5 minutes ago!  Sometimes you’re just craving a little something, a light meal, a pick me up.  These Tortilla Pizzas can be thrown together in next to no time with whatever ingredients you have lying around.  I would say the only things you definitely need are going to be tortillas and cheese, the rest is pretty variable!

I tend to go for a flammekueche rather than a pizza.  I like the creme fraiche base rather than the tomato but as I say, this is a very versatile recipe!  And quick too, which is it’s real selling point for me!  15 minutes and you can have a freshly cooked pizza!

A pizza stone does help here as you can get the underside crispier but if you don’t have one it’s no biggie, the edges will still get nice and cripsy!

Serves 1:

1 tortilla
2 tbsp creme fraiche or passatta
Toppings: Whatever you like!
I went for 2 mushrooms, sliced, 2 slices parma ham, shredded, 1/4 onion, sliced

Grated cheese to finish

– Turn on the grill.
– Take a tortilla, spread it with creme fraiche or passatta.
– Add your chosen toppings.
– Scatter with grated cheese.
– Grill for 5-10 minutes until all of your toppings are cooked and the cheese is golden and bubbly!
– Enjoy!

Ombré Birthday Cake

For my Birthday BBQ I made a 3 Layer Pink Ombre Cake and a dozen cupcakes as favours too!

I’m really happy with how it turned out!  I’ve never tried anything like it before but I was pleased to see how my technique worked out!  I wanted to minimise waste and washing up so I came up with my own way of creating this cake effect.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it anyway, there was barely any left by the end of the evening!

I made a huge batch of cake mixture…

…And about 2kg of buttercream!

The colours worked wonderfully!  Nice and vibrant!

I tried to keep things nice and tidy, having assembled the layers I then piped round to fill in the gaps.

Which meant that I had a smooth surface to spread the rest of the icing over.

So here’s how I did it:

Makes 1 x 3 layer 7″ Layer Cake and 12 Cupcakes

500g unsalted butter, softened
500g golden caster sugar
8 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
500g self raising flour
3 tbsp milk
pink gel good colouring*  (I have that awful salmon pink one so you need to add violet to make it a nicer colour!)
grape violet gel food colouring*

500g unsalted butter, softened
1 kg icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

1 jar seedless raspberry jam

– Heat the oven to gas mark 4.  Prepare 3 7″ sandwich tins (I use silicone as they come out flatter and are easier to turn out.) Line 12 muffin holes with paper cases.
– Cream together the butter and sugar in a LARGE mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
– Add one egg at a time, mixing well between additions.
– Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
– Fold in the flour until all combined with the wet ingredients.
– Add the 3 tbsp milk and mix well.
– Fill each cupcake case to halfway with cake batter.
– Put 1/3 of the remaining white batter in the first greased cake tin.
– Add a bit of the pink colouring about the size of a sweetcorn kernel along with a slightly smaller amount of the grape violet and mix thoroughly into the batter to achieve a light pink colour.  * If using nicer food colouring then use your judgement on the blend you want.
– Put 1/2 this mixture in the second cake tin.
– Add more pink colouring and more violet colouring and mix well to get a really deep colour.
– Put this remaining cake batter in the final tin.
– Put everything in the oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
– Turn out your cakes upside down onto cooling racks and take the cupcakes out of the tin to cool.

– Put the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and milk in a LARGE mixing bowl and beat until thoroughly combined, light and airy.

To assemble the cakes:

– Trim any domes from your cake layers to give you flat cakes.
– Put a smear of buttercream on the base of the cake stand or plate.
– Place the darkest layer flat bottom up on the cake stand or plate.
– Spread with an even layer of buttercream.
– Spread raspberry jam on the top of the lighter layer.
– Place the jam side on top of the buttercream.
– Spread another layer of buttercream over the flat bottom of the lighter layer.
– Spread raspberry jam over the top of the white layer.
– Place the jam side on top of the buttercream.
– Fill a piping bag with white buttercream and make a 1/2″ hole to pipe from.
– Pipe around the cake between the layers to fill in any dips or gaps between the cakes layers.
– Smooth round this with a palette knife to make a smooth sided cake.
– Spread a good amount of white buttercream over the top of the cake and down over the edges using a palette knife to spread a smooth even layer of white buttercream over the whole cake.
– Now take about a cup of buttercream from the main mixture and put it in a separate bowl.
– Add pink and grape violet food colouring to acheive a nice deep raspberry pink colour.
– Put it in a piping bag with a 1/2″ hole.
– Pipe a ring of pink buttercream around the base of the cake.
– Now take a pallette knife and spread the pink buttercream up the side of the cake in small swirling circles so the dark pink melds with the white to give that faded ombre effect.  Don’t swirl all the way to the top, only go about 2/3 up and leave a nice band of clean white buttercream at the top.

– Take some raspberry jam and put it in a squeezy bottle with a cone tip.
– Inject jam into the centre of each cupcake.
– Take the remaining buttercream and put it in a piping bag with a large star tip.
– Ice each cupcake with a swirl of buttercream covering the jam hole in the centre.
– Add sprinkles white the buttercream is wet.

 

 

 

My 30th Birthday BBQ

To celebrate my 30th Birthday over the weekend I threw a small BBQ party in my garden.  The weather had been glorious all week but come the weekend rain was predicted.  Never fear!  I had a plan!

I have an extendable awning for over the patio and I stretched a shade sail over the lawn to provide an even bigger canopy propped up with a pole in the middle and anchored to the fence posts on the corners.  This way most of my garden was sheltered and I could happily set up everything under cover in case of rain! A few shower curtains filled the gaps over the food and drink stations.

I set up a little bar so people could help themselves to drinks throughout the evening.  I am so in love with the drinks dispensers!  I set them on cake tins to give them a bit of elevation.  I also went the plastic and paper cup route.  No point in crying over smashed glass!

I went to town on the flowers and decorations!  A few sawn pallets stacked up made a nice little coffee table on the lawn (and helped to stablise the pole!) My flower arrangements were made up of peonies, roses, rhododendrons, chrysanthemums and sweet william with rosemary for greenery and fragrance.

I had plenty of seating set up so people could suit themselves and lots of cushions and blankets to keep everyone comfortable.

Darcy got a little bit overwhelmed by all of the people but he soon bounced back and mingled with the guests stealing bits of BBQ!

I got all crafty for this shindig too!  A polystyrene wreath covered in cocktail umbrellas decorated the front door to greet my guests.

I cut out letters from black posterboard and then covered it in gold glitter paint for the ANNA 30! and DRINKS signs.

I kept things nice and simple and self service through the night.  I had got Tesco Bumper Party Bags of BBQ food, which were excellent value and had everything you could need! Everything got cooked in the oven and then served buffet style.  Paper plates and pink plastic cutlery meant that at the end of the night cleanup was simple!

The cake went down very well!  I went for a 3 layer ombre victoria sponge.  Darcy helped to clean up!

 

All in all a wonderful evening filled with fun,friends and food, what more could a girl ask for?

Upon Reaching My 30th Birthday

  

Things I have learnt and wish I had known sooner:

You’re brushing your teeth wrong. 

No, really.  Electric toothbrushes shouldn’t be used to ‘scrub’.  You glide it over your teeth.  And you’re probably pressing too hard.  Stop that.  Also, floss.  It’s important.  Mouthwash should be used at a different time to tooth brushing.  Pop a bottle in your desk at work and have a swish after lunch.  Your enamel thanks you.

You really need to exercise more and sooner. 

I was very late to wake up to the fact that I hadn’t inherited my mum (and sister’s) metabolism.  So I got fat.  It is much harder to lose weight than it is to stay healthy.  Exercise often and from a young age… even if you’re not fat… yet.

Meditate.

A lot of shit will happen in your life.  That’s just a fact.  So when you’re stressed, burnt out, frazzled and insecure having a tool to help you rein in that mental spin cycle is worth its weight in gold!

Eat well. 

I don’t mean a diet of lean protein and vegetables with organic kale smoothies every morning… I mean, if you like it, sure, go for it.  But don’t be afraid of food.  Food is nourishment.  You nourish your body and your senses.  Relish that piece of cheese, or square of perfect chocolate.  Heck, enjoy that emergency bar of Dairy Milk or glass of wine!  Just make good choices and don’t demonise food.

Spend more on your clothes.

Yes, Primark is full of pretty things that you just have to have.  They will fall apart.  Or be see-through. Or be made of the tears of children.  Instead of a wardrobe full of crap buy good quality classic clothes that will last.  Experiment with your own style for sure but don’t buy rubbish!

Declutter.

Stop hoarding.  Yes, you have really good memories of that skirt from high school… are you seriously ever going to wear it again?  Should you have worn it in the first place? Probably not.

Be selective with your time. 

You don’t have to say yes to everything.  You don’t have to be friends with everyone.  Your time is valuable.  If your job is making you miserable, change it.  If you yearn to travel to Brazil, make a plan to allow you to!  Nothing is impossible.  Life is short.  Enjoy it!

Money isn’t everything. 

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s important and it’s so easy for things to go awry with it.  But try not to let it stress you out too much.  Don’t live beyond your means and don’t spend so much time working that you have no time to use the money you work so hard for!

Don’t let other people make your choices for you. 

It’s your life.  You choose how you live it.  Don’t let other people’s issues drag you down.  Try to be the best version of you that you can be.  Don’t let other people dictate to you what your happiness is.

… so that’s that.  That’s what I’ve got!  May be in another 30 years I’ll have got a handle on all this myself!

Anna xxx

Lime, coriander and chilli chicken with tomato, red onion and sweetcorn salsa

A long name for a simple dish but this recipe for Lime, coriander and chilli chicken with tomato, red onion and sweetcorn salsa is a lovely, refreshing take on a basic favourite.  Pepping up a simple chicken breast and salad with some zingy flavours brings a whole new dimension to it and I could eat this healthy meal every week at the moment!

 

Serves 4

 

200g cherry or baby plum tomatoes
1 small red onion, diced
1 small tin sweet corn, drained
1 tsp coriander leaf (fresh or dried)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 small red chilli, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice

4 chicken breasts
1 tsp coriander leaf (fresh or dried)
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tbsp olive oil

Salad, avocado and creme fraiche to serve

– Slice the tomatoes into quarters and put into a bowl.
– Add the onion, sweetcorn, corianders, chilli and lime juice and give a good stir.
– Set aside and leave until you’re ready to eat.  If you can make this a couple of hours in advance, great, otherwise the half hour while the chicken cooks in the oven will do nicely.

– Heat the oven to gas mark 5 (Or turn on a health grill!)
– Take your chicken breasts and score lines into the top being careful not to cut through the whole breast.
– Place the chicken in an oven proof dish sprinkle over the coriander, chilli, lime juice and oil.
– Rub this mixture all over your chicken.
– Bake for 30 minutes or simply use a health grill to cook for a more charred look.

– Serve with salad, avocado and creme fraiche.

Aspara-bacon Quiche

Ah, Quiche!  The poor quiche has a bit of a bad rep simple because it has a bit of a funny sounding name!  But we should not mock the quiche for it is delicious!  Throughout the summer months I will frequently have one in the fridge just waiting to be grabbed for causal lunches, a picnic, a light supper.  It’s a very versatile dish and once you have the basics down you can whip one up in no time!

This little quiche is an asparabacon quiche.  Asparabacon is one of the finest flavour combinations so adding it to a quiche seemed like a brilliantly obvious step!

I’m not going to lie though, I think I’ve had it with pastry!  I CAN make pastry, sure.  It’s not that hard… but I hate it.  It’s just one of those fiddly jobs that I just don’t really enjoy.  I think that these days you can get some good ready made pastry at a decent price in any supermarket so I may just throw the towel in and go for an easy life!  We shall see!

There’s an entire bundle of asparagus in this small quiche, which is a lot, yes, but ASPARAGUS! Fresh, British Asparagus too!  If you want to dial back the asparagus that’s cool, but why not indulge yourself a bit?

 

Serves 4 / Makes 1x 8″ quiche

150g plain flour
50g butter
25g trex (or just 75g butter)
1-2 tbsp cold water

6 large eggs
200 ml milk
1/4 tsp salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 bungle asparagus spears, trimmed of the woody end
125g smoked bacon lardons
25g grated cheese

– Put the flour, butter and trex in a mixing bowl and rub together with your hands until it forms a breadcrumb consistency.
– Add the water a little at a time mixing until it comes together into a dough.
– Shape into a flat round, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
– Heat the oven to gas mark 5.
– Roll out the pastry on a floured worksurface into a rough circle.  It should be about the thickness of a £1 coin and large enough to cover an 8″ sandwich tin with a little overhang.
– Gently pick the dough up using the rolling pin and drape it gently into the 8″ sandwich tin, lightly press down into the edges and smooth up the sides and over the lip making sure there are no trapped air bubbles.
– Cover the pastry with foil and fill with baking beans.
– Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.
– Remove from the oven and gently remove the foil and baking beans.  If it won’t release evenly put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.
– Bake uncovered for a further 5-10 minutes until the pastry is just cooked and has lost that sickly pale look!
-Prepare your filling: Whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together in a jug.
– Scatter the bacon and asparagus evenly over the pastry shell.
– Pour the egg mixture into the pastry shell.  If you’ve got it right and there are no holes this is where your filling should stay.  If you’ve got it wrong, well, that why it’s on a baking tray!
– Scatter the grated cheese on top.
– Pop it back into the oven (if it’s leaking get it back in as quickly as you can so that egg seals the hole!)
– Bake at gas mark 5 for 45 minutes until the egg is set in the centre and the top is a golden brown.
– Leave to cool completely before running a sharp knife around the edge of the tin to loosen the pastry.
– Place the bottom on a sturdy bowl smaller than the tin and press down evenly to unmould it.
– Run a sharp knife between the pastry and the tin base to separate it.
– Serve and enjoy!