A little bit of this and a little bit of that . . .

Happy Friday! I hope it is nice and sunny where you are! It's been raining buckets here. I hope it's not a taste of what this whole weekend is going to be all about. My sister in law is coming down from Romford to spend the weekend with us and we had plans to take her to the beach tomorrow! Oh well, even if it rains all weekend I am sure we will have a lovely time regardless. We have not seen her for quite a few months now and it will be nice to be able to spend some time with her!

Somebody was playing tag again and guess what? I got tagged! Jan of What Do I Want To Cook Today has tagged me in a Six Quirky Things About Me meme. Thanks so much Jan, I just love doing these types of things. I'm not sure if I can come up with six things about me that you don't already know, but I will sure give it a good go!



1. I have an addictive personality so it's probably a good thing that I don't drink alcohol! I used to be addicted to Diet Coke and I guess I must have consumed hundreds of thousands of gallons of it in my lifetime! Now, I'm just addicted to sparkling water, which is probably a whole lot better for me!

2. I love Country Music. I fell in love with it on the school bus to Vocational School when I was taking my Secretarial Course back in the early 1970's. Our bus driver only ever had country music playing on the radio in our bus and it kind of grew on me! I really miss it over here in England. It's not something that gets a lot of air time, although I am quite sure there are a lot of fans over here. Once a month I write to Sky television begging for them to have a Country Music Video channel along with the bazillion pop music video channels they have! I figure if they have an audience large enough to warrant a Classical Music Video channel, surely to goodness they have enough for a Country Music one as well!!! They do say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so I persistently e-mail them every month and poke my finger into them! I live in hope!

3. I have a passion for sweet and salt, and I just love the two together. I recently discovered salted caramel and can't get enough of it! I love eating salted potato chips with milk chocolate and pretzels with chocolate as well! When I was a child one of my favourite snacks was cool aid and potato chips together and to this day I love to eat buttered saltine crackers along with tinned pears! (oh, and unless you have tried a warmed cake donut split in half with a slice of Kraft American Cheese in the middle, you just have not lived! It is a taste sensation not to be missed!)

4. I hate insects, especially spiders and flying insects . . . especially when they get into the house. It drives me up the wall! When I first moved over here to England I couldn't stand the fact that they don't have window screens and I think I drove Todd about mad every time a fly or a wasp got into the house. I still do on occasion, but I often take care of it myself and I don't panic like I used to. About the only two things that make me panic when they get into the house now are wasps and May Flies! I hate them with their gangly legs, and the way they fly right at you. Just like a flying daddy long legged spider that's drunk! ewww!!

5. I love gingerbread men (and fairies). At Christmas time my Christmas tree is almost totally decorated with gingerbread men, and I have some lovely stuffed ones that sit on my staircase to go upstairs all year round. If I could I would decorate my whole house to look like a gingerbread house, but I'm not sure Todd would like that. He might think it was a bit of overkill!

6. I have always wanted a doll house. A proper, wooden, huge doll house that I can decorate to my hearts content with tiny small things and little people. I have wanted one my whole life. When I was a young girl I did have a metal one, but my brother tried to park his firetruck in it and broke it and then it got sat on and crushed . . . My best friend Susan had a huge one. The whole back wall was on a hinge and it opened up like a big door. I always loved going over to her house to play with it. At Hever Castle over here they have a small pavilion outside the Castle proper with a doll house exhibition inside. It's one of my favourite things to see when we go there. I could spend hours looking at each one and dreaming about having one for myself one day. If I ever came in to a lot of money . . . I'd get me a doll house!



So there you have it, six quirky things about me! Now I get to tag six of you, so you all better get running before I catch you! Awww . . . too late . . . Lura, Prudy, Miranda, Holly, Bunny and Gloria . . . you're it!!!



I have some exciting news to share with you today as well. I am a guest blogger today over at Light Refreshments Served. I was really excited when they contacted me and invited me to do an entry on their page! It should be up later on today and surprise, surprise there is a recipe involved! If you want a delicious recipe for my mother's world famous "Baking Powder Biscuits", you better hop on over there later today to get the recipe, see what they're all about and give me a little support! (They're based in Utah, so it probably won't be until later today)

In the meantime I better get my little (chuckle) behind off of this computer and get started on the rest of my day! I'll leave you with another delicious salad recipe to help beat the heat on these dog days of August!



*Avocado, Sweetcorn and Walnut Salad*
Serves 4

This was a salad I found in a little book called, what else . . . "Salads". I twigged it a bit by using toasted walnuts and adding some bacon and tomatoes. It's really, really tasty!

2 cups of sweetcorn (I use lightly cooked frozen, but you can use tinned if you like)
3 ounces of walnuts, toasted and chopped
2 large ripe Haas avocados
6 TBS fresh lemon juice
6 TBS sour cream
4 slices streaky bacon, fried until crisp and then crumbled
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 ounce of walnuts, toasted and chopped (for garnish)

Drain the sweetcorn really well and put it into a large salad bowl. Add the 3 ounces of walnuts and toss together until well combined. Peel, stone and cut the avocados into small chunks. Brush them with a bit of the lemon juice and then add them to the bowl. Toss in the bacon and tomatoes, mixing all together lightly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and the soured cream until smooth. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Pour the lemon cream over the salad, and mix it in lightly. Sprinkle the top of the salad with the 1 ounce of toasted walnuts and serve.



PSSSTT!! I've been meaning to note that the Gingersnap Raspberry Sandwich Cookies won my Make Me Bake Poll last week! Yayyy!!! They are my favourites! I will put up a new poll later on today.



Also a very curious thing happened this week. I got this big box in the mail and inside was a lovely Beatrix Potter Journal! Now, I know I never ordered this for myself, so I can only assume it is a Birthday Pressie from someone out there who loves me! (and it wasn't Todd) So, whoever it was, a very HUGE thankyou from the bottom of my heart! I love, Love, LOVE it!!!

PS- Duckie sent it! Thanks so much Miranda. It's my favouritest book of all time. OH, and Angela KL, if you just take a measuring cup and add either a tsp of lemon juice or a tsp of vinegar and then add whole milk to measure up to 3/4 of a cup, and let it sit for five minutes, you will have sour milk!