Reluctant Chef Seeks Easy Recipe

After my amazing day with Joe Bloggers a month or so ago, my ears pricked up when an email came through from the lovely Rachel asking if I wanted to be involved with their latest blogger challenge!

With their last challenge having me tapping into unknown (and rightly undeveloped) sewing skills, I was interested to see what the latest one would push me to do.

"I want you to cook up the 'Taste of Newcastle," she said.

"No problem," I said.

Ah. 

My kitchen may be the one room where I get a little house proud about, but I certainly don't really cook there. I heat things up. I put the oven on. But if I have to assemble things? Oooh, step too far that! 

No. I'll do this I thought, might bring something out of me. Or, you know, be a funny blog post to write!

Rachel arranged for the ingredients to be sent over, and I was bowled over by the AMOUNT OF STUFF:

It sure was nice to have a full fridge of COLOUR for a day or two!

I was tasked to recreate a Buffalo mozzarella with Parma ham salad, with asparagus, pea purée, mint, and cherry tomatoes drizzled with lemon and lime olive oil! I KNOW! Very fancy!

So, I began! And straight away had to check Google to see what 'Blanch' meant, as I was sure it was a character in Coronation Street! Ahhh, so boiling and cooling the asparagus. In salt. Ah. I didn't have any salt, but that was okay, the asparagus turned out lovely in the end, so no salt required!

With that task tackled, I turned to finely dicing the onion. I drew blood, I cried (onions man, THE ONIONS), but the onions were diced, as fine as I could get them, and 'sweated' in a saucepan. My interpretation of sweated was closer to burnt, but I like the charred taste it added so we're good!

I added the peas, but forgot to defrost them first, so quickly through in the cream, in the hope that would help heat the peas up... 

When I realised the cream was boiling, I had flashbacks to episodes of Master Chef and Bake Off and the word curdled echoed in my mind! QUICK! OFF THE HEAT!

Phew. Now what? 

The next step involved the assembly of the newly borrowed food processor which the parents hadn't even taken out of it's box yet!! I was running out of space in my small kitchen and resorted to storing things by throwing them into the other room (in this case, the empty box) - Perhaps should have done this prior to starting this all off, but never mind!

The recipe had the onion, pea and cream mix being blitzed in the food processor to a puree. YES! Status engineer achieved as I had assembled correctly, and it all was mixed perfectly!

And that was the cooking bit finished. The rest of the recipe could basically say 'Put the rest of the ingredients on a plate'

I opted for the rustic look:

In comparison with Chef's:

However, it more than passed the taste test! I now know how to cook asparagus, I know how to make a delicious pea puree too!

I have one question:

Where was I meant to put the mint?!

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

A Jean Style For Everyone

If you've been in a social media sabatical, I'll forgive you - otherwise - where have you been?!

This weekend saw the launch of the 7 Bloggers competition - for your chance to win one of the 7 Style of Jeans shown above, all you have to do, is tweet with the following hashtags.

By rights I should be asking you all to vote for my jean type, but I can't bring myself to do it! All the jeans (and the women wearing them) are amazing for different reasons! So make your choice, tweet your favourite style of jean, and be in a chance of winning a pair!

1 - Bootcut - #evejeansgirl

That's me! Look, in all my glory! Wearing the long length, and looking rather short next to Em does make the jeans look a tad too long for me, but I'd rather a too long jeans leg than a too short one!

2 - Skinny - #chloejeansgirl

The gorgeous Em, looking super stylish in her skinny jeans.

3 - Flared - #phoebejeansgirl

The agile Steph, with her jumps (HOW HIGH!?) and perfect flared jeans - I had a pair of these from before the campaign was even mooted about - and I wish I'd got the longer length jean here too.

4 - High Waisted Skinny - #lucyjeansgirl

Another Steph, this time wearing the high waisted skinny, which I'd be interested to try myself - looking very sultry in the middle of us!

5 - Wide Legged - #pixiejeansgirl

Shali, the giggler of us all, judging by the photos of the day, killed it in the wide legged jeans - which looked perfect teamed with her platform boots.

 

6 - Relaxed Skinny - #sadiejeansgirl

Hollie, the beautiful sweet Hollie looked BANGING in the relaxed skinny, whether they were turned up or left down.

7 - Boyfriend Jeans - #chelseajeansgirl

Mrs Casual herself, Becky, was the perfect choice for the boyfriend jean, and, with their added element of distressed knee, would be a great addition to any wardrobe.

So, don't choose Eve Jeans because I've asked you to, choose any of the above jeans because you want to win them!

Get tweeting, sharing your love of #sbdenim and this amazing campaign

Much love my lovelies, 

K x 

I'm an #EveJeanGirl

The day is here! 

After the teaser video above was launched a few weeks back, it's been rather quiet on the #sbdenim front - until today!

Today the 6 lovely bloggers and myself, endorse a jean style from Simply Be's Denim hub. 

The humble bootcut.

The jean we were told in the late 90s balanced out our hips, and became the go to denim of choice for thousands!

I feel it's fallen from favour a little, instead we reach for the boyfriend, or the skinny, or the jegging. 

But the bootcut has it's place too. 

Teamed with a simple and sexy bardot top, you'd have a classic look:

Or how about going a little statement, a little out of your comfort zone perhaps, with a bold colour:

But you have the feeling of comfort with your faithful bootcut jean - it's like they're a fashion gateway into more adventurous dressing!

So my lovelies, are you an #EveJeansGirl?

Much love, 

K x

Denim with a Twist

The words "denim jacket" always bring to mind the same shape to me - the classic shape:

Which is great for the cool summer nights, but I'm in the market for a transition jacket - one that is lightweight but a little bit more practical. 

This Parka by Curvissa hit all the right boxes in what I was looking for - a hood, longer length, but still lightweight and summer-y. 

The new denim collection by Curvissa is more of the same - taking classic ideas, and giving it a bit of a twist - from the pinafore dress to the denim trenchcoat!

Teamed with a summer tunic, I opted for the double denim look, with my bootcut jeans:

I opted for this coat in a 24, as my sizing experience with Curvissa was a little hit and miss, and I have to say I feel it's little tight to wear with layers, but with this lightweight tunic and jeans, I feel it's just about right!

There is a zip fastening which goes the length of the jacket, but by just fastening the press studs I managed to avoid the bunching at the knees! 

While I see me wearing this open more than anything, as that way I can show off what I'm wearing underneath, it is nice to know that I actually can fasten it to no great sacrifice to style or looks should I need to!

Thanks to the Curvissa team for allowing me to take this collection for a test run! See what the other ladies chose of the new Denim Collection:

Katie
Nikki

Gemma

Hollie

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

I was gifted this item, but my views are my own

Blogger Love

Today, the plussize blogger community have come together in an amazingly positive way - thanks to the wonderful Debz for being our rallying cry - and today, the 20th March, is the day to share the blogger love!

I wanted to share my WOWness over the beautiful Abi (hence the different blog logo above ^):

Abi killing it in this prom dress

Looking Mmmmmm in Monochrome

And what is better?

We're DRESS TWINS:

     

So, go on a following spree, check out Abi's social media buttons and support the #psbloggerlove on social media 

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

EDIT - the lovely Vicky F has written her piece today on me, and made me very emotional x

Hillary's Blinds Craft-ernoon

All dressed and ready to head into Newcastle for a hedonistic afternoon of crafting! I was promised tea and biscuits, and had envisaged that I would come away with idea's for the Brownies to complete! That's enough to tempt me out of the house and away from my Sky Plus box these days! Bright and garish and on brand, ready to meet with some local bloggers, and have a crafty afternoon planning world domination - or how not to bleed on the fabric!

The idea was that the lovely team behind Hillary's Blinds would donate some of their new material for the crafting, and the team behind Crafty Hen would work out some easy (!?) crafts for us bloggers to complete. 

Pretty good plan so far! 

The Jazz Cafe was looking lovely as always:

And as I headed up the stairs, I was met by Shaun, from the Joe Bloggs team, who had kindly invited me to this Crafty Craft-ernoon!

I was also met by the delightful shout of 'I thought I recognised those footsteps on the stairs', from Becca, one part of the organising team behind Blogger Teaspoon. We quickly got a seat next to @nefamilylife and admired the table set up:

The room quickly filled up, and we all welcomed each other like long lost pals - some of us clearly knew each other well, and others not so much, but it was lovely to see bloggers start conversations with 'We spoke on twitter last night!' (which is how the lovely Sam introduced herself to me!)

The task was to back one of the lovely books on our small tables with any of the array of fabrics:

I opted for that art deco style material in the geometric print, and then went about selecting my embellishments! Check me out using the right words! 

After sitting down, and realising the difficulties with the size of table, I turned my chair into my workstation, and I got cracking!

Oh the woes of pattern matching! I struggled with my print for a number of reasons, not least the pattern matching, the thickness of it (would make a great blackout blind!)

I had to improvise, adapt, and overcome when it came to holding the material in place - pins just wouldn't go through this amount of material!

And after burning my fingers with the glue gun, stabbing them repeatedly with the needle, I produced this notebook cover (reuseable):

Sadly, my attempt at a bird really wasn't successful at all (still working on that at home), so I stole Rachael's for a picture opportunity:

Here we all are, some more stressed / harrassed / zen than others, but we all accomplished something today - and I for one am proud of my Art Deco inspired notebook cover, even if it did take a lot longer to produce than most!

A big thank you to the Jazz Cafe, Hillary's Blinds, The Crafty Hen, and especially to the Joe Bloggs team for the invite!

Hope to see all these faces again soon, without the blood, sweat and tears!

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

Reinforcements Needed for the War on Shaming

A couple of weeks ago there was a thing. I'm not going to get into it, because I feel it's been covered really well here and their apology here. 

But when a plus size company, with stores all over the British high street, went for controversy, over common sense, the internet RAGED. 

At first, it was the fats who raised the alarm - we follow this brand (for obvious reasons) and immediately condemned them for this stunt, promoting body positivity AT ALL SIZES. 

Then other sectors of the Twitter-verse took on the banner of offense, which made me think. If somewhere like Zara had a #fatbirdwatching at a Plus Size event - would that many people be up in arms? I could be underestimating the general public, but more and more I feel that while the fats are willing to shout out about thin shaming, fat shaming is often left unchallenged. 

Apologies if you're reading this and thinking I'm over reaching here, but bare with me. 

I've started watching a 'comedy' on E4 recently, to fill my Melissa and Joey void. It's called Baby Daddy - and I had expected it to be a Three Men and a Baby sort of programme. And I LOVE that film. 

I was happily watching it, until the trope of the 'Girl Next Door' was introduced.

Here was the beautiful Chelsea Kane as Riley, the Law Student who is in love with the 'Baby Daddy' in question. 

But, when growing up, was fat. It's like Monica from Friends all over again. 

The jokes made at Riley's expense (and that Riley makes herself) are fat shaming, pure and simple. She is regularly called fatpants and Rigantor, her high school nickname.

I've since stopped watching, but a quick Google brought me this .gif, where the inevitable flash back episode obviously happened. This is meant to be Riley:

So where is the outrage over this?

Why, when Netflix are showing the whole catalogue of Friends episodes, are we not venting our anger over the 'Monica was fat' jokes?

Because it's acceptable to shame fats still, it's not seen as anything other than a joke, just as that campaign, was seen as a joke. 

I am not in any way supporting what that brand did. I'm still very much team Body Positive. But I'm a little batter weary, and would like some reinforcements from the general public when it comes to fat shaming - just as the fats support them when it comes to thin shaming. 

Much love my lovelies, 

K x

Style Challenge and Spending Ban Update

I originally thought I would blog my outfits weekly (hence this post), but found I lost my creative styling around day 6!! 

I've relied heavily on things I usually pair together, with the odd exception:

Which was mainly due to the awesome duster jacket, and the fact I want to wear it always!

We're now at the halfway mark, and I'm rather impressed I've been able to stick with it this far!! I was expecting to get bored of it by about 20 days, but I think we're just over the halfway mark and I've still a full wardrobe of things to play with!!

The left hand side is the unworn section, the right is what has been worn and washed... Lots left to play with!!

I've noticed I've a lack of tops to team with jeans, so think I need to investigate this after the spending ban, but right now, I've perhaps got to put the jeans to one side for the rest of the challenge. 

When it comes to spending, this hasn't been that hard to stick to. I mainly meant to apply it to clothes, but it has caused me to question a few spends, although not the purchase of the MAC lipstick from the Simply Be promo. 

I honestly can't believe I've lasted this long on both counts. I've opened and closed many a shopping window, and found nothing I liked on the first couple of pages on the ASOS Curve page!! I'm hoping that this challenge just gets me to be a bit selective at the buying stage in the future. 

Much love my lovelies!

K x