My Life as a writer - When I'm not scribbling

I love comfort food, there are certain meals that are just so homely and warming that they just make you feel at home. Carbonara is one of my go to comfort foods, I love the richness of the cream sauce and the saltiness of the ham.  I also love to add vegetables to my dishes in any way I can.  Usually in carbonara I add mushrooms, garden pea, seasonal veg such as asparagus and so on. So the other week I was watching Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night with top chef Jamie Oliver.  One of his recipes was taking traditional carbonara and turning it in to a cake.  once cooked it looked delicious and I remember seeing something similar before done with spaghetti Bolognese. I had some time this week so I thought I'd give this recipe a shot, Jamies Recipe can be found on his website here: www.jamieoliver.com I adapted it slightly to suit my taste - you will need a loose bottom cake tin and set your oven to 180c (fan) Ingredients olive oil to line the tin 90g of mixed cheese

The world is a busy place so sometimes it's nice to slow things down and catch up with the important people in your life Every month or two I get together with my closest friends and have a girls night in.  Going out is great, I love going to restaurants, to the theatre, to the movies but sometimes being out socially doesn't give us a lot of time to catch up fully on what's going on in everyone's lives. So we will do things like; Have Afternoon Tea A 'formal' meal A buffet with board games This Saturday we had decided on a Games Night, so this is how I prepare; Generally cleaning my house  Setting the table  Preparing the food  - baking cakes, cooking pastry etc.   As we use the evening to catch up and relax I tend not to cook a formal meal, I create more of a buffet that we can snack on throughout the night as we talk.   I love cooking and baking so this gives me a chance to try out new recipes and relax in my kitchen I make sure I

It's shrove Tuesday this week, the start of the run up to Easter. Time to use up all the things that are traditionally not eaten as part of Lent. So pancakes are the traditional food of the day, in my family, we have pancakes as the evening meal on Shrove Tuesday. The recipe we use to make our pancakes is; 100g Flour 2 Eggs 300ml Milk  a pinch of salt Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together, let stand for thirty minutes.  When you are ready grease a frying pan and heat spoon in the batter and move round the pan until you have a circular shape  Cook for around 1 minute flip to the other side and cook for 1 minute until golden brown.  Keep them warm on a tray in the oven until you have all your pancakes cooked.  Part of the fun of pancake day is the assortment of toppings you can have.  These are my top five.  Top Five Pancake Toppings; 1. Traditional Lemon and Sugar A squeeze of fresh lemon and a dusting of sugar is a simple, delious and

I write books, I love writing books and the flip side to that is I love reading books.  So I thought I'd do a little post on the books I've read so far this year and what I thought of them; 1. The Stylist - Rosie Nixon  Follow Amber Green as she is catapulted from her designer retail store job in to the world of celebrity stylists.  Hired to assist Mona Armstrong the top celebrity stylist through a jam packed awards season.  The ultimate dream job becomes more of a roller coaster drama with designer wardrobe.   This book is at its heart a finding yourself story.  Not unhappy with her life but not truly satisfied Amber's luck is in when she makes a slight mistake which brings her to the attention of Hollywood's go to stylist, whose life on the outside is nothing short of amazing.  It's the ultimate look at a the greener grass and finding out all is not what it seems.   Amber grows as a person and becomes more confident in her ability and who she is.  She

In life we are bombarded with images and sales pitches on things we should want, aspire to have, save up for or buy immediately. Sometimes it's nice to take a step back from all this and just appreciate what we have and find ways to enjoy life that do not add to financial stress etc. Anyway, I was thinking about the things in life that mean the most, I enjoy the most or simply make me feel safe, comfortable, confident, and a lot of them are just simple things.   So I guess there's some truth in simple things can mean the most. Here are my top five simple things; 1. Going for a walk with my dog Hero Hero is my baby, he's an amazingly intuitive dog, he's loving, he's cuddly, he's soft and he's always by my side.  He's also infuriating when it comes to the ten minutes before his walk time - oh I swear he doesn't need a watch he can tell the time and he has an unhealthy interest in cushions - which somehow always end up in my garden. I oft

I know a lot of people invest heavily in handbags - I'm not one of those people, I tend to change my bag a lot, and well I don't want to pay thousands of pounds for something I take to my day job where it may well get damaged.  But I do like to have nice bags! I 've discussed in an earlier post what my style is so when it comes to bags it should be no surprise that my current bag is quite a classic shape.  Granted it has the pompom flash of fun but other wise it's a classic black tote. So, what's actually hiding in there; 1. My purse My current purse is from Fiorelli and is black and cream.  I like this one as it has a lot of spaces for my cards and a clear pocket where i keep a photo of my parents which I like to have with me all the time - since I lost my dad this is a precious keep sake. 2. My Phone Like most people my phone is never far away from me.  I'm currently using an I Phone, which I love as it connects me to my network of laptop, PC a

I've been seeing and reading a lot of things lately about Hygge, which I've heard described as the feeling or mood created by taking genuine pleasure in the simple things in life.   There's  pictures of cosy knits, warm drinks, soft materials, books and baking. I think the concept of Hygge is a beautiful one from what I've read so far, it's something I plan to read more on in the coming months. From what I gather I think a lot of us have higgle in our lives maybe we just don't realise that that is what it is.   I can look back over things my grandparents used to do, like sitting together of an evening reading their books in front of the fire and eating freshly baked cakes or treats.  They just enjoyed those quiet moments together and if they were stressed it wasn't something I ever saw, I saw the quiet relaxed moments and maybe that's what Hygge was for them. Anyway, I was looking at the pictures of some of the beautiful cakes and biscuits and star