sunset featherball

I went on a lovely camping trip in sussex at the weekend with a great bunch of people.

We had barbecues for dinner and breakfast, night time (and daytime) bonfires, games of plate frisbee, and a lot of sunshine.

I hope we can do it again soon...

two scoops

I'm currently working my way through all the different flavours of ice cream at Marrocco's. Yesterday I had a combination of blueberry sorbet and cheesecake ice cream, which was great for a warm summer evening.

















I'm trying to make the most of where I live at the moment so I've been having meals on the beach, evening ice creams, and strolls by the lawns. Tonight I even ran along the seafront to the lagoon. There was a lovely sea breeze. My face is very red now though...

stamps

There are lots of nice stamps to be found in Japan - in museums, at train stations, and on the ferry.

stripes

I finished this springtime striped knit over the weekend.

The plan was to have a jumper that I could take to the beach and use to keep warm after a swim (whilst eating an ice cream).

I'm ready! Now what about the weather...

tins

I have acquired a lot of nice tins recently. In fact, yesterday I came home with three.

Clockwise from top: First aid kit from Berts, Diamond Jubilee shortbread tin from M&S, mini pocket tin also from M&S, Milky sweets tin - a gift from Dan while we were in Japan. 

Always good for keeping things in.

let's cook: samosas

This month my mum and I made samosas as part of our monthly cook-off.

I enjoyed this challenge a lot: my favourite part was folding and filling the pastry pockets. We both made the pastry ourselves and the general consensus was that we would probably opt for shop bought pastry next time (the result just wasn't quite spot on).



There was a bit of inconsistency with the temperature of the oil as I fried my batch, so some turned out golden brown and smooth, and others (when the oil was hotter) ended up slightly bubbly and uneven on the outside.

The overall result was good though, and they provided a lunch time snack for half of the week. I even embraced the curry taste. (It's not one of my favourite flavours).

And my mum embraced the hot oil frying this time (after avoiding it with the oven-baked scotch eggs) and hers came out just as well:

I didn't get to try these unfortunately. One day we'll have to arrange it so that we get to taste test at the same time.

And the scores on the doors from our food critic (my dad):

Mum: 8/10
Debbie: 7/10

Apparently we both got 2 points deducted because there was no meat in them (!?). I think we need a better judge.

Next month we are going for to cook bigos, which I believe is the Polish national dish. One of my favourites!