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Food

High-Five Monday – Summer Puddings (Fruit)

by thelifestylelady July 27, 2015

Good Morning Y’all,

Hope your weekend was super fun and relaxed and you’re starting your week raring to go! Summer means heat which means grill and pool season and often getting together with friends and family. Now Mr L and I have always loved to entertain, but moving combined with the arrival of Little L meant it was on the back burner. However, we are getting our “mojo” back and enjoy nothing more than opening our home, sharing our table and creating great memories with loved ones. So this week’s high-five is for summer puddings or desserts that have, over time, become tried and tested crowd pleasers. Light – who wants heavy when it’s hot – and most importantly easy/entertaining friendly (meaning able to be made ahead.) So if you’re heading to a potluck or hosting a party, all these desserts can be made as sophisticated or simple as you like! These recipes are all yummy, approved by toddler and adult!

1. Pavlova, now Mummy L introduced me to the beauty of this dessert. It is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova; it is a meringue cake topped with whipped cream and fruit. I believe the dessert was created in her honor when she visited Australia and New Zealand during the 1920’s. It is often served as a celebratory cake in both countries and its popularity has crept to the UK. Unless Mummy L discovery it from my Aussie family – I will have to check. I have used many different recipes although they are all very similar. LL top tip is whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks; don’t stop too early. My other tip is to add a mix of sugar to the egg whites, divide the sugar requirement so it’s 50% caster sugar and 50% light brown sugar (if you struggle to find caster sugar in U.S. fine granulated works great.) It makes the meringue more marshmallow-like. Another tip is don’t assemble till before serving, so it doesn’t go soggy or crack. You can have fruit chopped and cream whipped, ready to assemble when needed. Plus it can be made with fruit of the season or whatever your family likes. This is really light and yummy, it’s an absolute LL favorite. Please give it a go and let me know all about it.

Recipe and picture Greg Wallace BBC Good Food.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/711658/strawberry-pavlov

2. Summer Pudding, this pudding is bread, fruit and juice. It doesn’t sound that yummy but it’s a fav in this house. It also requires being made the day before, just to ensure the bread is suitably soaked. It also taste heaps better if you use stale bread. Which is great because sometimes we struggle to get through a loaf. LL top tip is to double-line the tin with cling film or glad wrap, so you ensure no leaks. I also find a loaf tin works very well as you can slice pieces with a bread nice. Another thing I do if I am serving without children or with a teething toddler (joke) is add a tipple of Ameretto or liquor of your choice. It makes it seem more grown up. Again super yummy, light, and a great way to enjoy fruit in a dessert. Let me know how it works for you? I love the color.

http://coffeemorning.macmillan.org.uk/tips-ideas-and-recipes/Recipes/MoreCelebrityRecipes/mary-berrys-summer-pudding.aspx#.VbV6TFg8KrU.

Recipe, Mary Berry. Picture and link courtesy of Coffee-morning Macmillan charity.

3. Tarte au Citron – lemon tart. Now when dealing with French dessert one should use a French Recipe and the Roux brother recipe is outstanding but I could not find a link. My mother in law also makes a wonderful lemon tart. It’s light and tangy and really cleanses the palette. Its a summer must. LL top tip, if you are not great at making pastry, why not buy it? Supermarkets make great pastry now, and I find it’s often more time and cost efficient to buy it, although I do like to make my own occasionally. Another great thing is buying a super zester which makes the job easier and certainly get more from the lemon. You can also make individual tarts which looks super impressive and helps with portion control. Plus the smell and color scream summer. Enjoy and tell me how you find it.

Recipe and picture courtesy of GoodtoKnow

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/270447/lemon-tart

4. Strawberry Shortbread Frozen Yogurt. Now Mr L doesn’t like yogurt but he loved this. I received the recipe in my monthly magazine subscription and thought I must try it and now it’s a permanent favorite. The shortbread adds a little sophistication and strawberries are always glamorous and this again is light and yummy. LL top tip (the recipe has this covered) I used freeze-dried strawberries from Trader Joe but am sure they can be found at various supermarkets. I echo bringing out early to soften before serving. No soft scoop here.

Picture and recipe courtesy of BBC Good Food

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/strawberry-shortbread-frozen-yogurt

5. Baked Raspberry Cheesecake, I had to have a cheesecake on here. This recipe is a keeper, easy to prepare and follow with great results, a real crowd pleaser. Mr L loves everything raspberry so always win win in my house. LL top tip: watch while it bakes in the oven. Baked cheesecakes have a habit of getting caught and you want the top to look inviting and not overdone.

Recipe courtesy of Olive magazine. Image courtesy of secretkitchen.wordpress.com

http://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/baked-raspberry-cheesecake/4533.html

I have noticed as I conclude that all my recipes are fruit-based. I love fruit, and summer fruits in particular, and sometimes you can’t beat a lovely fruit salad as a dessert offering. I hope you don’t think these recipes are too fruity! I shall try to think of some alternatives as a post later on. Why not give some of these a try and please tell me what you think, I would love to hear! Any family favourite recipes you can recommend? Happy grilling and dessert-eating, and please remember sun cream.

Ta Ta for now,

TLL x

July 27, 2015 6 comments

High Five Monday- things that make my life easier

by thelifestylelady July 20, 2015

It is Monday and we all need a little pick me up. It is the end of the weekend (they always go too fast – don’t they?) plus I always wake on a Monday never as well rested as I plan to be, even if I went to bed early enough. I blame this time trauma on always worrying about over sleeping, an issue I care less and less about as the week progresses ;0) So this week I thought I would write about five items which make my life easier and the LL is all in favor or those.

1. Steve Jobs – well more my iPhone… You are probably thinking BORING & OBVIOUS first choice, I would agree, although my phone has all these wonderful apps, bells and whistles designed to make my life super wonderful, but it is the video function I thank Steve Jobs for. The Apple crew have saved me many a tantrum by Little L. They have rescued this mummy from many a palm sweating – in a fact whole body sweating, heart palpitating – panic attack when I can whip out my phone like super-mama and offer a wide selection of Disney Jnr or PBS, which is often met with the words “Dan Dan” (but that is another blog post.) High five Apple thank you.

Lifesaver

2. My Simplified Planner by Emily Ley, this is pure and simply my Bible. I promise to blog about my Bible at a later date but this planner keeps me on the straight and narrow and that is no mean task. All Emily’s products are wonderful and this is the jewel in the crown. Since I had Little L my concentration and memory has not returned to what it was. Lucky me. Mr L tells me I am getting old, but I maintain (with my extensive medical qualifications) that it is hormone-related. So I find this planner is essential to remember who and where I am meant to be. High five Emily – thank you.

3. My Ringly – I hear you ask what? Yes this beautiful emerald cocktail ring (a gift from Mr L) flashes and vibrates on my finger when my phone is receiving a call, what’s app, email, or text. You can set it to alert you to whatever you want. I will blog more about this fab item but needless to say it has helped keep me connected, which can be difficult when you are running around after a toddler. High five Ringly- thank you.

4. Nespresso Machine – if the adverts with George Clooney have not driven you to try this, then I hope this blog post does. Now I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn’t drink coffee till I was thirty. Well, this machine has helped me make up for lost time. I will admit Mr L is something of a coffee expert, so it is down to him that we have this wonderful item. But, needless to say, it gives me many a high at the correct spot when I need it, and has saved this mummy from many an exhausted meltdown. It’s yummy! High five Nespresso – thank you.

5. Barrington – one thing that scared me about becoming a mummy was that I would lose all identity and never have time for myself. I have always tried to look presentable; that is not always the case but emphasis on the word “try”. I love a handbag/purse; my collection could have a blog of its own and when I got my first diaper bag I thought that’s it’s “collection over” and for the first twelve months that was the case. Now that Little L is a little bigger I am going back to my purses and was absolutely ecstatic when I found this company. Again, I will blog in more detail later on but, needless to say, these bags are roomy, stylish and able to carry everything mama and toddler need. Making my life so much easier in a stylish way – love that. High five Barrington – thank you.

Lifesaver

These items are not a definitive list; I have many more things that help, but these were a few. What makes your life easier? What do you love? Get in touch!

Happy Monday

Ta to for now

TLLx

July 20, 2015 2 comments

Food

Cupcake vs Cake

by thelifestylelady July 19, 2015

There is an unwritten rule in Mr L’s current position that you have to provide cakes one day a month. He informs me that the chosen day correlates to the busiest period for his department and whilst I am quite sure that a bought cake would be preferred, I have taken it as a personal challenge to provide something sweet and edible for said day. I have always enjoyed baking, but please don’t read this as a suggestion that I am any good at it. For me, as with any form of cooking, I am more about the flavour than the presentation. I do find baking therapeutic but am often reluctant to bake because the L household is unlikely to consume the whole offering. Now I love the Great British Bake Off – it’s addictive viewing – where home bakers make works of art out of sugar paste. A starring role on that show is not likely to be in my future but I do love a challenge. So far, my repertoire has consisted of muffins, fruit cake and red velvet cupcakes, which is quite diverse.

Now I am all about the cake. Whether its carrot or victoria sandwich (my fav), I love the fact that there is a filling and often more than one flavor. The cupcake – or fairy cake as I grew up with – is an idea wasted on me. I have always wondered if they are one and the same? I am not a baking connoisseur enough to know. I do know when I grew up the fairy cake had very little icing/frosting, whereas I feel now that it outshines the cake. Am I a misery? I do not dispute the cupcake is an item of beauty and has a cult following all of its own. I used to live very close to Georgetown Cupcake in DC and see the lines of people waiting to purchase. I made my first cupcakes for a long while on Wednesday and I was underwhelmed. I will also admit I’m not great at frosting with a bag, despite watching hours of You Tube on how easy it is, and seeing little kiddies making it look pips. I gave up and got out my granny’s old method of using a little spoon and covering them with sprinkles. They certainly didn’t look anything to write home about although Mr L told me they tasted delicious, but he is not going to tell me they taste c*** is he?!

So as I consider my future monthly offering I will return to where I feel comfortable and safe – the cake. Nothing says comfort like a good piece of homemade cake and don’t even get me started on a good old cream tea ;0)

Am I being unreasonable? Do you have a to die-for cupcake recipe? What’s your favorite baked offering?

All this baking is making me hungry!

Ta ta for now

TLL x

July 19, 2015 1 comment

Food

Meal Time Inspiration

by thelifestylelady July 18, 2015

Do you ever get to the evening and this oh C*** its dinnertime and I have no inspiration and even less energy to whip a Martha Stewart creation into fruition. Well that’s me, especially at this time of year, and by that I mean when its hot hot hot! Growing up in the UK where Cicadas frequent the shores more often that we have hot days (you have all seen Wimbledon where it rains for the fortnight.) creating a range of summer meals is less essential. Its not that I am totally incompetent I made it a NY resolution to meal plan, which I did unapologetically with a weekly shopping list and I laminated it! (I love to get that machine out its a little like a clip board it makes me feel important and efficient!) The summer however has me failing. Salad, how many can you have? Before you barrage me with abuse on the beauty of the salad and how it can comprise of far more that lettuce, cucumber and tomato, I do have Mr L (Mr Lifestyle, my beloved) and Little L (my toddler) to keep happy. So what do you make? Mr L assures me that my winter repertoire is quite sufficient for the summer months as we have AC which makes our home the same temp in January as July, but then again he has not been chasing a toddler around and running errands in 100+ degrees. When you come in from that you don’t really feel like eating a winter meal, let alone cooking in front of a hot stove. I love BBC Good Food website because all the recipes are rated and also Pintrest because I love it, although some of the meals I have tried from their have been a flop. So what do you like to cook? What meals make you go mmm? After all there is nothing lovelier than hearing Little L going nom nom nom. So come on help a gal out here share some ideas.

XOXO

TLL

July 18, 2015 0 comment