June Summary

So I am going to give one of these summary malarkey’s a go – lots of little things keep happening that don’t warrant a whole blog post to themselves but that I would still like to share with you. As mentioned before I am a huge fan of Amy at She Cooks She Eats Sunday Summary’s but I don’t think much of interest happens to me within one week.

We’ll ignore the blatant lateness of this post. *ahem*

1. The company I work for was 10 years old in June – so there was a party to be had with plenty of free booze. As I work from home, most of my colleagues are names & tiny pictures inside Skype – so it was lovely to meet so many of them. I knew it was time to go home when I spent a good while in the toilets alone taking selfies in the mirror! Oops!

2. I made Sausage Rolls from Paul Hollywood’s – How to Bake. So far everything I have baked from this book has turned out perfectly. The recipes are very easy to follow and I never feel like a step has been missed out or isn’t explained properly. It wasn’t the first time I’ve made rough puff pastry but it was the first time that I didn’t feel stressed while making it.

3. I took them to my friend’s house for a garden picnic, along with a bottle of Champagne that Sainsbury’s had sent me to help celebrate the many wine & spirit awards they have won recently. I’m no Champagne expert but it tasted very nice indeed and was perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon in the sun.

4. I spent a lot of June on my exercise mat. I started a 30 day challenge – which included squats, crunches, sit-ups, planks and leg rises. I managed 30 days but I had extended the plan to 46 days, as the sit ups, planks & leg rises were added later but I got bored at 34 days and so far haven’t picked it back up again. I enjoyed it to begin with but as it went on it took up too much precious time. I’m currently thinking about Yoga vs Pilates but that’s as far as I’ve got!

5. I know I have already mentioned her once before in this post but she’s worth mentioning more than once. The excellent Amy from She Cooks She Eats has started Vlogging. One of her Vlogs was How to make an omelette – suddenly everything made sense, for years I had left the ingredients in the pan when adding the egg and wondered why I could never fold them neatly without ingredient shaped cracks going along the edge. It’s because you take the ingredients out of the pan before adding the eggs! It was a proper mind blown moment. Not sure how I managed to get to 32 years, 9 months and 8 days old without realising this for myself. I am very thankful to Amy, I have now enjoyed many an Omelette since then.

6. I made a massive amount of Pizza dough to take to a Film Night – using a recipe from Delicious. I froze them individually in bags and they slowly defrosted on the journey and then did their 2nd proof there. Sadly I have no pictures of the actual pizzas – there may have been booze involved in the evening.

7. We made a massive slow-cooked beef ragu, using brisket from a Donna Hay recipe that I’ve been using since last year. I’ve not once tweaked the recipe, as it’s perfect just the way it is. We used just over 2kg of brisket – which made 2 generous portions that night, a very generous 4 person lasagna and another 4 portions which we froze for another day.

8. June saw both Mad Men & Game of Thrones end for another season, trying to not think about next season being the last for Mad Men – don’t know how I will ever manage to fill a Don Draper sized hole. But we’ve finally got started on The Sopranos – from what other people have said, I expect to start saying ‘This Guy’ a lot and eating a large amount of aubergine parmigiana.

9. I made lots of Tarts! Two of them I blogged about but the third was made after that post. I used the Smitten Kitchen crust that has previously served me so well (I even dropped it when trying to wrap it for transportation and it only lost a little bit of pastry on one edge!) I based the filling on a recipe from BBC Good Food – sticky onion & cheddar quiche. It were Gert Lush!

10. So Glastonbury happened, without me – rude! But the good news is it did rain (only a little) so finally my jinx has been lifted. I didn’t watch much of the telly stuff, was just that little bit too upsetting but I did watch this performance of First Aid Kit and you should too because they are wondrous. Also the site (and beyond) looks so pretty from up at The Park… needless to say, there is a strong possibility that we’ll be back in my favourite field next year. If you are reading this Emily Eavis, I would like Dolly Parton & Daft Punk please, thanks. x

So how was your June?