A Night in London

So a couple of weeks ago my mum proposed that we have an evening in London because she was scheduled to work up there.  Of course, having lived near London most of my life, I've never stayed in London before, just travelled up for the day. So I said yes! 

We hopped on the train with far too much clothing and toiletries around 2pm and headed to the hotel to dump our bags. 

Once we had, we went to Covent Garden and seven dials, window shopping and (I was, anyway) admiring cute coffee shops and restaurants. After (literally) hours of deliberating, we concluded that the best option for dinner would be Carluccios. And let me tell you, I had probably the best 3 course meal ever! I adore Antonio Carluccio as a person, his two greedy Italian series with Gennaro Contaldo remains to this day one of my most favourite series ever! 

I ate for a starter/primi, bruschetta with tomato and rocket, for my main/secondi I had ravioli with spinach and ricotta with butter. And for dessert I had vanilla cream with caramel apples, caramel sauce and hazelnut meringue biscuits! This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted! Try it if you ever find yourself in Carluccios!

After this we strolled back to the hotel completely satisfied, and joked about clubbing or going to the casinos in Leicester Square etc (I hate that sort of thing). 

In the morning we had the most tremendous breakfast to wake up to. A buffet was laid out by the hotel which included: full English, pancakes, pastries, fruit, smoothies etc and everything on that list I ate, no joke! Buffets are not a good thing for me, I need to try everything no matter what! 

One amusing thing I found that morning was an American guest asking about  black pudding, with the chef explaining it was sheeps bladder, to which she replied 'are you joking?'. 

After this, we went our separate ways, me, for a walk in the park, and my mum to work. With exams fast approaching I really should be dedicating most of my time to working. But with such a sunny day, I wandered for a while in the area (in a couple of shops) and then jumped on the tube to Covent Garden where I found the loveliest cafe called 'The department of coffee and social affairs' where I actually did some work! 

After this I stumbled, ever so gracefully upon Kate Spade (oh dear) and ever so gracefully left with a pair of boots (very much oh dear) which I adore. In fact everything about Kate Spade I adore, I'm not a massive lover of bright colours, but I feel converted after seeing the flamingo print bag and hot pink purses! 

After this I had a costa (thankfully free due to my Costa card) and headed home, very content with a lovely night in London! 

Fran x

White choc-chip and peanut butter brownies

 One of my favourite things to do is experiment in the kitchen. I love being able to chuck random ingredients that sound right into a bowl and wait to see whether the results will be (mainly edible but also) yummy. I was watching Cider With Rosie's YouTube channel yesterday evening, and she made some brownies which were from a recipe by Nigella Lawson; in this recipe instead of using a ton of chocolate bars to create luxuriously rich brownies, she used cocoa powder. This inspired me, and I thought that a little baking would be an ideal break from philosophy revision, and alas my white choc-chip peanut butter brownies were made. I've only tried these once (today) but they were super yummy and I really wanted to note them down in order to be able to recreate them,  because the only thing you may not have in your cupboard would be white chocolate, meaning they are super easy to make and you won't need to go out for a £50 shop in order to make them! 

These can of course be made without peanut butter, but I'm a massive peanut butter lover and love the saltiness with the chocolate, but for those unfortunate people who have an allergy, they can be made without. I'm super chuffed that these worked, and I hope if anyone was to make them, you would find them just as yummy (and that they work!). 

INGREDIENTS:

- 100g self-raising flour
- 40g cocoa powder
- 75g butter
- 120g sugar
- 1 egg
- 100g white chocolate chopped
- 2 tbsp milk
- pinch salt
- a few teaspoons peanut butter (optional)
-dusting of icing sugar (optional)

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4 or equivalent

2. Measure out in a large bowl your flour and cocoa powder with your salt and mix to combine.

3. In a small saucepan melt the butter and sugar together until they are melted (obviously), and take it off the heat as soon as it is combined and melted.

4. As long as the butter isn't too hot, pour it into the flour mix and mix until all combined.

5. Crack in your egg - I found this bit tricky, just keep stirring and you'll be fine!

6. Pour in your milk and stir

7. Sprinkle over your white chocolate chunks, you can make the chunks quite big if you like them that way!

8.  Pour it into a lined tin (lined so the edges protrude from the tin so you can take it out with ease), and spread so even.

9. Dollop some teaspoons of peanut butter on top and swirl around to create a marble effect.

10. Put it in the oven for around 15-20 mins or until a knife comes out clean.

11. Cut it up and dust over some icing sugar to make it look pretty.

And there you have it! I hope you enjoy these as much as I currently am, and I very much hope that this wasn't just a fluke, I shall soon find out however, as I'm sure another batch will be requested soon!
Thank you for reading,

Fran x

Taking Risks

I haven't been very good at blog posts recently, I've been super duper stressed with school, add a dollop of work on top, a cup of house moving and 50g church searching and you will come just a bit closer to my life right now. I keep wondering if the stress will give me grey hair or something, but as of yet I'm still bright blonde, so at least something is remaining the same! I thought that today I would do a post on Taking Risks and essentially being fearless. One of my favourite songs by Taylor Swift is her song Fearless, she wrote within the booklet in the CD about what fearlessness means to her:

"FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you’ve been hurt before. FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen year of high school at fifteen. FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again… even though every time you’ve tried before, you’ve lost."

I really love her concept of fearlessness, I think even if you are terrified of multiple things, you can still be fearless because you can push yourself over the boundaries that you either consciously (or not) create for yourself. 
I feel that I've always been quite fearless, when I was younger apparently I jumped into the deep end of a swimming pool without arm bands and I ran off in a big toy convention to go to the Thomas the Tank engine bouncy castle. I feel as though fear has never really prevented me from doing things. 
I've been hurt many, many times, whether that is physically ( I constantly have bruises on my legs) or emotionally and it is most commonly the emotional pain which runs the deepest. Yes, I have a lumpy bone on my shin that will probably never go back to normal, but it's the deeper emotional wounds which have me flashing back to lovely but difficult events on a daily basis. 
No matter what, even if you have been knocked down 50 times before, you can still be fearless. This year and last year I have really seen how fearless I can be, last year I went outside of Europe to America for the first time, just me and my friend, staying in a totally new country for 4.5 weeks! Last year I spoke to people I had never previously spoken to through going out of my way to ignite conversations. This year I have been to London several times on my own, doing things I like the sound of even if it is on my own. This year I also decided to follow my heart and follow what I believed to be God telling me to do and reject the option of University next year to take a gap year in Australia. 
Every single one of these decisions and fearless moves took a hell of a lot of internal persuasion to encourage me to take up these opportunities. And you know what, I would not trade in any of these memories; they caused me pain and joy, but they are honestly the memories I am most fond of. I've made new friends abroad from taking a leap of faith, I've gained a lot of freedom from taking these risks and I would definitely encourage you to take random opportunities if you are offered them. 
A week ago now I took an opportunity which was really a 'seize the moment' kind of situation. I may have mentioned this in a previous post but I will explain anyway. Walking to the loos in my town I was stopped by a man who said he was a journalist and asked if I wanted a free 'drastic' haircut. I initially was hesitant thinking he would cut my hair and keeping in mind my promise to myself that I would grow my hair in order to have the perfect wavy beach hair to fit in in Aus! But when he explained we'd go to a professional salon, I could hardly say no, although I was flipping terrified. But actually it has turned out to be a massively good decision, I love my new long bob, plus I got tea and biscuits ( and I might even be in a magazine!?). 
I think often the best memories we have are the ones which are unplanned and spontaneous. I am always up for a spontaneous trip to London or a road trip somewhere, because if you don't plan something, you don't know what is in store for you. But if you don't take the opportunities, no matter how random or eccentric, if you aren't even a little bit fearless in any sense of the word, you may not experience some of the best times of your life. 
I got to shoot guns, swim in waterfalls, ride in the back of trucks, make new friends and ride a speedboat all because I seized an opportunity. If you don't seize some opportunities you may never get to experience things again. 
To be clear, I'm not saying take every single opportunity that is given to you, I made sure the journalist was genuine and I have a (rough) plan for Australia, I'm just saying that if such things are offered to you, why not consider seizing them, they may take you to places you have never been. Even if the experiences you have hurt you physically or emotionally in some way, they will shape you into who you are today. I took a couple of negative experiences last year to improve my self love and my health to create a person who I want to be proud of, a person who isn't so reliant on others. But even the painful experiences I would never trade, they were an opportunity I tried and enjoyed (at the time) and can learn from. Without experiences out of the ordinary, life would simply be a routine, the same thing daily, everything being anticipated.  And like Oscar Wilde once said: 

"To live is the rarest thing in the world; most people just exist"

I think taking risks and seizing opportunities helps you live and not just exist. Existing, to me, is living by routine, living is experiencing the highs and lows of opportunities thrown at you, and it is the most exciting and terrifying thing you can do. But these last two years have probably been my favourite, I've seen so much, done so much, only through being fearless, learning from my mistakes and seizing opportunities, and I would highly encourage you to do the same! 

Fran x

Berlin by Pictures

I can't believe it's been about 2 weeks since Berlin, time flies! I've finally mustered up the energy to write this blog post, although write would be strictly untrue. I took my dads camera with me to Berlin which is a better quality than my phone and so I thought, instead of talking you through every aspect of my 4 days in Berlin, I would just show you the pictures and do a couple of captions for some places which you may not know of. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Berlin, I felt that not only has it aided me in understanding my history course more, it was a great bonding trip for me and my friends (cheesy, I know) because we spent 24 hours a day for 4 days with each other. But anyway, here we go, before I write a massively long blog post unintentionally.

The Berlin Wall

My faves

Lovely Lauren

Street Style

Street Style

Holocaust Memorial

Memorial for Gypsy victims in holocaust

BURGERS

Best ice cream ever!

The Reichstag

The Olympic Stadium

This picture really stood out to me, it was taken by the girl on the left's boyfriend. Both of the girls were Jewish and a couple of weeks following this, they were both executed in Auschwitz, and the photo was donated  by the girl's boyfriend.

The cutest café in the Jewish museum.

Fran x

Walking by Faith

C.S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia, based the character of Aslan on Jesus - shown through his death and resurrection. Baring this in mind, I recently watched Prince Caspian, the second film in the trilogy of films. Near the end of Prince Caspian, there is a scene whereby Susan and Peter are walking with Aslan. This, for starters, got me thinking that, as Christian's, we should spend more time walking with the Lord. As an inspiring woman once told me, she often had conversations with God walking down the street, people thought she was crazy, but the things she learnt from it, I imagine, were worth the disapproving looks and confusion from passers by.
The second thing I took from this scene is Peter and Susan's faith. When walking with Aslan, Peter and Susan were told that they wouldn't be returning to Narnia; after this scene they announced to Edmund and Lucy this news. It astounded me how accepting Peter and Susan were of this news; this place that they love and had amazing memories in, they could not go back to. They fully trusted, and had faith in what Aslan was saying. This reminded me of the verse in the Bible which says to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Peter and Susan had faith that they weren't going back to Narnia for a good reason, because Aslan said so, despite the fact that their sight and their emotions would have encouraged them to stay and continue their adventures.
This amount of faith is highly admirable and something, I feel, all Christians should strive to achieve. Peter and Susan, it seemed, dropped everything to abide by Aslan's word, despite their feelings, and I think this is definitely something we can all learn from. We should all be willing to drop anything to follow what God commands us to do, because he has a plan for us which will only be put in place if we listen to him.

(My Berlin post is in the process of being made and will be up soon, but I felt this was on my heart and I wanted to share it with you)

Fran x

Friday Bakes: Classic Cookies

 Normally on Friday's I like to do my Tea Time Talks, bringing together all the happenings of the week into a nice little bundle of words. But because this week has been a standard school, work (I started Wednesday) and an overall not-very-interesting week, I thought I would save you from the repetition and do a recipe post instead (much more interesting, if I do say so myself!).
These cookies are possibly one of my all time favourite treats. I've made them once before and was told they tasted a bit like the waitrose cookies, which is a massive compliment (I think) because I adore waitrose and anything they produce! They're really simple little cookies which don't require much ingredients or much time, making them perfect for if you have a sudden sweet craving or feel the need to whip up a batch of cookies for whatever reason. Furthermore, they solidify very well, making them great for tea dunking - which of course is what everyone worries about when they make cookies! They don't involve any chocolate or any overly unhealthy ingredients, but I would definitely not class these as healthy, mainly due to the fact that after one you will most likely be working your way through the rest of them!
These are such a safe option to go with for a little gift or if you have guests, with just a vanilla flavour and being so buttery and delicious, the majority of  people will love them.
So here we go...

INGREDIENTS:

• 140g Caster Sugar 
• 250g butter 
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk 
• 300g plain flour 

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees celcius
2. Blend the Caster sugar and butter together until combined and fluffy 
3. Pour in the egg yolk and vanilla extract, then stir. 
4. Next, sift in the flour to the mixture and combine to form a dough 
5. Line your baking tray with baking paper
6. Place dessert spoon sized portions of the dough onto the tray, and gently push down with a fork 
7. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, making sure they do not turn golden brown, but are relatively firm yet still a little squidgy. 
8. Take them out and let them cool for about 5 minutes, then enjoy! 

Left: Before oven Right:After oven

I hope you all have tremendous weeks that are filled with happiness and cookies (one in the same, really) and thank you for reading my post!

Fran x

Chewy, Oaty, Raisiny Cookies!

So I'm finally going to upload the recipe for the cookies I made over a week ago! These were delicious cookies which were chewy and had plenty of flavour, I also felt that they were healthier because they had raisins and oats in, but to be honest, they most likely weren't much healthier than normal choc-chip cookies! Nonetheless, here is the recipe! I'd  highly recommend making them, they don't take too long and they're such a lovely treat:

• 255 grams flour (I ran out of plain and used some self-raising which worked, but I didn't include baking powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 340 grams butter (melted)
• 220 grams packed brown sugar 
• 100 grams white granulated sugar 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (mixed spice also works- we didn't have cinnamon)
• 1 egg 
• 1 egg yolk 
• 130 grams oats 
• 90 grams raisins 

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 or 170 degrees celcius. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. 
2. Melt the butter and let it cool a little.
3. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt, the set it aside. 
4. In a medium bowl cream the butter and both sugars  until well blended. Then beat in the cinnamon, vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. 
5. Mix in the flour mixture to the wet mix until just combined. Then add the oats and raisins, mix again until just combined. 
6. Place a palmfuls of the mixture onto the baking tray and compress slightly. 
7. Bake in the oven for 14-16 minutes, try not to overbake them! The edges should be brown and the middle still a little soft.
8. Let the cookies cool on the side for a little while, but do try one when they are still warm, they're delicious! 

You can also add some pecans or walnuts if you like.

 I hope you like this recipe, the cookies I made were really yummy and went perfectly with a cup of green tea!

Fran x