Thursday, 15 May 2014

Favourite Spaces and Places : International blog Swap


Hi, my name is Cate, and I'm the blogger behind the purple door - I keep the memories of my 5 children, and share the memories we make together, as well my musings about re-finding me. Thank you Claire for having me here!

When Claire suggested we write about favourite places, I thought long and hard. What sort of places did I like to go that were different from what she might see in England? The answer was simple, the beach!

We've lived close to the beach for a long time, but having our own business and young children meant we forgot it was there.

The sun beats down, the waves crash, there's no phone signal, I can hear the kids laughing and playing with dad.

Even Sophie enjoys the beach.

These photos are from a recent Saturday adventure to Bribie Island

For more beach and life snippets, follow Cate on instagram, or facebook, or even pinterest

You can read Claire's post over on my blog ______________________________

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Slow cooker Pulled Lamb #RTChallenge






  • Everyone but everyone is doing pulled pork which in itself is a delicious dish but I like to jazz my food up and do my own thing.



I have created this recipe as part of the Red Tractor Challenge as mentioned previously , the lamb I used came form Aldi.

  • "Aldi are committed to sourcing a wide range of Red Tractor assured food for their customers with 45 % of it's products stocked from British suppliers. Aldi has a great range of 100 % British Lamb allowing shoppers to serve up only only the best to their close friends and family. Aldi is one of the only Uk retailers to offer a 100 % British Red Tractor Lamb range all year round"


  • Ingredients 

Preperation time : 15 minutes 

Cooking time a good 8 hours on high 
  • Pulled Lamb
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • A leg of lamb ( that will fit in a slow cooker !)
   300 ml of vegetable stock
  2 sliced onions 

Redcurrant Mint Dip
  • 250g natural yogurt
  • 2 dessert spoons of refs currant jelly that had port in it 
  • small handful mint leaves, chopped
  • Pitta bread sliced in half 
  • Iceberg lettuce washed and shredded



Method

 Put the garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and lemon in a blender with 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp black pepper in bowl and use a hand blender to roughly chop or put in a blender if you want it smoother.

Place the lamb in the slow cooker it may take a bit of jiggling.


Scatter the onions around the lamb.


Make up around 300 ml of stock ( a vegetable one if a good base )


Mix with the garlic , common etc mixture and that add to the lamb in the slow cooker.



Once the lamb has cooked in the slow cooker after a good 8 hours removed it from the slow cooker leaving the gravy etc behind. You can always turn that into soup if you wish,


Shred the lamb as you would when doing pulled pork and then serve in pitta breads also side the recurrent mint dip


For the dip  mix the yogurt , chopped mint leaves and recurrent together and chill to you are ready to use it.

Monday, 12 May 2014

8 AM Looks likes Like This








This is not even a sponsored post , not even product placement but just 8 AM in a field having a coffee and breakfast!

That is normal isn't now ?

I'm finding my way in life doing my own thing.

Amazingly some folk don't understand me.

Some actually dispise me.

This has been a theme since school.

Though it doesn't bother me as I do have friends.

I have my down days like anyone , life isn't always a field of dreams but I am going to damn well try.



Saturday, 10 May 2014

What Does Silence Look Like?

Standing tall






A 5 minute pedal down the lane leads me  to bliss , I love 5 minutes it leads to snap descions of serenity.

And 

Quite frankly.

I love it.

Where else can 5 minutes lead to this.


Or this. ?