Week Twenty Six

Well I once again had a busy, busy week. So busy, in fact, that by Saturday I was so out of it that I managed to snooze away the whole of the afternoon. I can't lie - it was a great cat nap. Once again, this is a food heavy week, but I don't imagine you've come to expect much else!

Just as an aside, I'm delighted to say that the video I posted about earlier in the week won my magazine £500! So a big thank you to anyone who watched it or shared it, that really makes an enormous difference to us.

I hope you had a lovely week :)

Monday - Ben got some good news about his postgrad, so we cashed in our Tesco vouchers and went for lunch at Prezzo.

Tuesday - Ben took me for ice cream at the beach!

Wednesday - It's mandatory to go the whole hog when you have a friend round for breakfast.

Thursday - Love a good photo booth

Friday - A sneak of my dress for grad ball which arrived in the post when I was down in London. It's pink and sparkly and so not me, and I LOVE it. 

Saturday - It was finally time to take baked camembert to the next level.

Sunday - The International Market came to town!

Help!

I love science, I absolutely do. I plan on spending the rest of my life trying to persuade other people to love science. But I write this blog as a distraction from science, as a way to clear my head. And so I don't normally bring science into it, other than maybe a quick photo of the day now and then. 

But I break my rule, just this once, today.

 I depart from my "normal" blogging and ask you a favour. I'm currently Editor-in-Chief of a student run science magazine, which you can read here. We print around 6000 copies a year, which are available for free, all around Aberdeen and sometimes further afield. 

We provide unrivalled opportunities for students to get into science writing, into science communication (I definitely have my position to thank for my last job and my future post-grad). However, we are completely self funded, relying mainly on selling advertising space and sponsorship.

We're currently in the finals of a competition run by RBS, which could mean we win £5000. 

£5000 will fund the magazine for a full year. But we only win £5000 if we have the most views on our video, after that it goes down and down and down... So, after much more waffle than I intended, I get to my point. 

Please watch the video above, and if you can, share it! Both my team and I will be forever appreciative. 

Week Twenty Five

I had a busy, busy week, spending the start of the week with Ben's family, then heading on a whistle stop visit to London for the UK Conference for Science Journalists, before flying back to Aberdeen to start packing things up. 

The coming week is just as busy, I'm clocking in as many hours as I can at the museum before I leave, then I'm back in London on Thursday night for an awards ceremony. I can't wait for next weekend when I'll be able sit still for a while. Are you really busy at the moment, or are you enjoying a bit of down time?

Monday - Looking for Harry at Durham Cathedral.

Tuesday - Inadvertently continuing to look for Harry...

Wednesday - My first conference!

Thursday - Trying to clean this guy - he's meant to look like this but the poor thing has been gathering dust for goodness knows how long. 

Friday - Mmm pudding!

Saturday - Starting to pack my flat up, and I realise that I have a recipe book shaped problem.

Sunday - I went to Sainsbury's for eggs and came back with a really cute rucksack for my summer holiday! I've been searching for the right one for ages, and I'm so pleased I found the perfect one at such a good price!

Blueberry Jam

It's blueberry season! Although native to America, blueberries are grown in Britain, so you can pick them up really cheaply between June and September. And when you have lots and lots of fruit on hand, what could be better than making jam?

Jam has a bit of a reputation for being tricky, for needing lots of special equipment. Luckily for you, this recipe couldn't be simpler.

Blueberry Jam
500g Fresh Blueberries
375g Granulated Sugar
Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon

1. Coat your blueberries in the granulated sugar in a pan and add the lemon zest. Then squeeze as much of the juice as possible out of the lemon and start to heat, stirring as you go.

2. Your blueberries will go through stages. For a good five minutes they'll be bobbing about in the lemon juice and you'll be absolutely convinced that there's no way it could ever become jam, not if you left it for a thousand years. But it'll start to bubble more violently, and then, after about 15 minutes, you want to take it off the heat. As well as the bubbles starting to die down a little bit, the jam will quite thickly coat a very cold spoon.

3. Pour your jam into a jar with a decent seal on it and pop it into the fridge, where it'll last for about a month.

4. You can enjoy your jam in sooooo many ways; on toast, on ice cream, or my favourite, on crackers with goats cheese. The sweet blueberries and the tangy goats cheese are the perfect combination, and it's a great little afternoon snack.

Week Twenty Four

The focus of this week seems to be food. I'm okay with that, I have to be honest. Food is good! Have you tucked into anything particularly tasty this week?

Monday - Prepping for jam making - stay tuned for the recipe this week!

Tuesday - I went to Edinburgh without a coat, and Edinburgh decided to remind me what a silly move that was.

Wednesday - Prepping for some serious baking. 

Thursday - A deliciously refreshing and zingy lemon sorbet at Zizzi's.

Friday - Bake bake bake.

Saturday - So proud of the cakes I produced for my boyfriends parents 30th wedding anniversary. 

Sunday - Croquet?

Blackberry and Elderflower Pimm's O'Cake

Pimm's is the first alcoholic drink I ever remember being allowed to try, and actually enjoying. I was about eleven at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park with my parents. We'd paused our long day of wandering around the show at the Pimm's tent, and because I was so fascinated by all the fruit floating around the jug, I was allowed a tiny little glass all to myself. I felt terribly grown up! It became a bit of a ritual; every year we'd go to the flower show and spend an hour or so of the day just lounging around with Pimm's, enjoying the sunshine (or huddling under a big umbrella...).

My love has not diminished since this first introduction, and a tall glass of Pimm's and lemonade overflowing with ice, strawberries, cucumber and mint leaves is still, I think, the ultimate way to enjoy it. But with my love of cake, I couldn't help thinking a little bit more outside the box, particularly when I came across a bottle of the relatively new Blackberry and Elderflower Pimm's in cupboard. And what could be better than a moist, fruity sponge cake laced with a little bit of summery naughtiness and covered fresh fruit? I'd argue not much.

Blackberry and Elderflower Pimm's O'Cake

225g Unsalted Butter
200g Golden Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
225g Self Raising Flour
Zest and Juice of One Lemon
Handful of Fresh Mint Leaves, Chopped
50ml Blackberry and Elderflower Pimm's
100ml Blackberry and Elderflower Pimm's

Fresh Summer Fruits and 250ml of cream whipped with 50g Icing Sugar to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line two 10" cake pans

2. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time.

3. Fold in the flour, then the lemon zest.

4. If you're lucky and have some mint in your garden, head out on a mint hunt - it grows in very obscure places! Otherwise you can pick up fresh mint in the supermarket with ease.

5. Wash and chop the mint you collected, and add half of it to the cake mixture. Then add the 50ml of Pimm's and the juice of the lemon you zested earlier.

6. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. Whilst still warm, drizzle the 100ml of Pimm's over the flat bases of the cakes.

7. When completely cool, sandwich together with half of the whipped cream, making sure the two soaked surfaces are the ones next to the cream - this way you get a pretty pink pattern around the cream when you cut into it! Top the cake with the rest of the whipped cream, summer fruits of your choice and the remainder of the chopped mint leaves.

Week Twenty Three

 

Monday - After finally picking up the Wilton 2D the day before, I gave the classic rose cupcakes a go.

 Tuesday - Attempt 1 of the week - a little bit lumpy, little bit overcooked but not too shabby.

 

Wednesday  - A nice surprise through the post from my lovely Mum.

 

 

Thursday - Home time!

 

Friday - A proper Friday fish and chip supper.

 Saturday - A Vivienne Westwood dress for under £100? It'd be rude not to really wouldn't it?

Sunday - I dragged out a pair of ridiculous heels I wore when I was 15 and took them out for Sunday lunch.

A very pleasant, very busy little wee - hence the lateness of this post and lack of posts in general. I'll be bck on it soon, I promise, I just fancied a break from blogging while I was at home visiting family. I hope you all had a lovely week, and got a chance to enjoy some of the glorious sunshine!

Revisiting the Sand Dollar

I've taken you to the Sand Dollar before. It's my very favourite place to eat, and last time I took you for breakfast. But today I'm taking you for an evening meal. I was lucky enough to be visited by some very old family friends, and after a glorious day in the sunshine at Balmoral, we headed the best place in Aberdeen for dinner. Sad that she couldn't make it, Mum had surprised us and arranged for a bottle of bubbly to be waiting for us at the table. Cheers!

We were first presented with some canapes, a bowl of tapenade and some hunks of bread to start us off. The pastry on the canapes was perfectly crispy, and although the pesto was good, the smoked salmon was the star of this little show.

The following starters consisted of "one of the best bruschettas" ever tasted, a creamy seafood bisque and chargrilled pigeon. The pigeon was perfectly pink and served with rocket, toasted pine nuts and balsamic dressing - to die for. And whilst the servings weren't meagre, they weren't so large that you couldn't find room for mains (and dessert!) too. 

Onto the main event. Scottish hake with pearl barley risotto and fennel. So good. Flaky fish, wholesome risotto, zingy fennel. A really summery dish.

Crusted lamb loin with roasties, veg and red wine jus. The satisfying crunch from the crust contrasted nicely with the pink lamb.

Char grilled rib eye steak with thick crunchy wedges, onion rings and peppercorn sauce, described as "melt in the mouth".

Finally, dessert. A bit stuffed, we shared warm chocolate tart with clotted cream, and a balieys cheesecake, topped with peanut butter sugar and raspberry dust. When we ordered we anticipated loving the cheesecake and finding the chocolate pretty standard. But although the cheesecake was good, the tart was a thousand times better. The warm chocolate and the clotted cream were not a groundbreaking combination to be fair, but the quality really made it.

And to finish? Scottish tablet. An enormous sugar hit, ever so naughty, but ever so delicious. We had a great evening, it was a perfect way to round off a great day, and so kind to be taken out for a treat. The Sand Dollar is definitely worth a visit if you're ever up in the Frozen North.

You can find the Sand Dollar at:

2, Beach Esplanade, 

Aberdeen,

AB24 5NS,

and you can find their opening hours on their website here.