November Favourites

The hardest part of these monthly favourite blogs for me is actually remembering what I have been doing over the past month. If any of you know me you may be aware that my memory is really rather pants. Therefore I find that Instagram is very useful for reminding what I have actually been up to. So yeah sorry about the number of pictures of food that I post on there…..

1. Taste Of London.

Last week (20th Nov) my mother and I took a quick hop, skip and a jump down to the Tobacco Dock in London for the Taste Of London: The Festive Editon. The event which ran over four consecutive days was portend into time slots and we were the daytime (11-4pm) on Friday. Due to our train times we  didn't arrive at the venue until 12.30pm. Dammit missed out on valuable munching time there. 

Luckily as we went on Friday it wasn't overly crowded (although I did get quite irate about the crowds) and we managed to sample many of the goodies on offer: Liquid nitrogen frozen ice cream anyone? 

Indeed I even ate at Tom Aikens' restaurant….well sort of.  I had the belly pork in case you were wondering. 

As part of the festival there was a ‘Taste of HBO’ section which included not only a gingerbread version of King’s Landing but also the Iron Throne where I could take my rightful place….move over Lannisters!

The highlight of the day for me was watching the demo from Masterchef’s Monica Galetti. The fierce female judge made a simple yet very effective take on the classic dessert: an ice cream float. Using pieces of ginger, pear and ginger cake mingled with a creme anglaise semi freddo and lashings of ginger beer and Guinness this festive pudding ticked all the right boxes for me. 

I even got to sit on the judge’s table and was able to sample the dish and it was thumbs up from me. 

2.Marshmallows

As with fashion trends in food are always changing. I mean from sushi to cupcakes there always seems to the ‘cool thing’ to be eating right now and  marshmallows are in!  By this I don't mean the mass produced Flumps or Haribo equivalents. Its the gourmet marshmallow that is setting the fluffy pace and there has already been a steady stream of companies setting up shop.: something I was made very aware of at Taste Of London. I may have bought my self a box of marshmallows to take home….they didn't last long. 

I first became aware of  this new trend when I went for dinner with my parents, aunt and uncle at The Golden Fleece  in Birkenshaw. Feast your eyes on those beauties. 

Clearly I have been ahead of the game as I tried my hand at making my own marshmallows way back in 2014. Yet I seem to recall that little experiment going wrong…..very wrong. 

3. The Costa Christmas Range.

As mentioned I am a creature of habit and will generally always go into the same coffee shop (mostly Costa) and will sit at my usual table with my usual drink; a medium vanilla latte. Don't get too excited now guys but when the new Christmas range came out it was goodbye VL, hello Christmas!!! 

I haven't quite worked my way through the whole selection yet but thus far my favourites include the Tiramisu Latte  (thanks for the recommendation by the way)

and the truly indulgent Caramel Fudge Hot Chocolate: although I can't have the hot chocolate too early in the day as it will put me to sleep...

4. Quick Fix Facial Mask

I bought this face mask at Boots quite a while ago now and even though it says that the mask is for sensitive skin I can feel my face tingling after a while of wearing the mask so rather than the 5-10 minutes stated as the recommended time I tend to opt for nearer the five than the ten before washing it off. 

Whilst containing a mixture of oatmeal, aloe vera, chamomile and rose; all ingredients that have a calming effect, I felt that it does not do what do what it says on the packet. 

There are quite a lot of mixed reviews for this product but I would tend to say that if you have sensitive skin I would approach this mask with caution...although I thought that my skin was sensitive and I'm fine with it. 

With all this negative press about the mask why would I go and put it in my favourites? The answer is simple. Even though the packaging is misleading I think that the mask works for me.

Sunday facials

Spending a lazy Sunday pampering yourself is good for body and mind but if, like myself, you don't think about having a pamper session until the day you never have a face mask going spare when you need it.

Fear not as I have a recipe for that. Unlike many of the recipes on this blog however I recommend that this one isn't eaten.

I have heard of avocados being a good ingredient for making face masks as is yoghurt with porridge oats and honey yet for this 'recipe' you will need a banana; just the one.

The benefits to your skin from bananas vary greatly:

Pottasium is the nutrient that is mostly closely associated with bananas and it is believed that it is good for moisturising and hydrating skin cells - perfect as I have dry skin.

Vitamin A , B and C are also found in banana and their benefits include: evening out rough skin and get rid of blemishes and dark spots. Anti ageing properties, moisturising and lightening skin and finally fighting free radical impairment, boosting resistance to sun-rays and minimising the appearance of wrinkles.

Phew with all those benefits to my skin I think I might need to make banana masks more often. For more banana face mask recipe have a look here. 

Unfortunately for me the bananas in our fruit bowl were starting to go black so a few days previously I had unpeeled them and put them in the freezer. This meant that my face mask was a tad on the cold side.

Additionally to the one mashed banana I also added 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (this works as a deep cleanser as it breaks down grime and dirt and removes excess oil which otherwise can clog up skin pores)

1/2 tsp of ground turmeric (antibacterial properties aka kills bacteria) and 1 tsp of honey ( Exterminates bacteria, contains lightening properties and elimates dark spots)

 

Take your putrid yellow, rather smelly face mask into the bathroom to apply as this will avoid things getting too messy.

Make sure that your hair is tied back and kept out of your face with a headband.  Additionally remove all jewellery and glasses. 

I washed my face before applying the mask and left it (the mask) on for fifteen minutes whilst lying back and trying to relax despite the smell.

My calming playlist included songs from Natalie Holmes, Orla Gartland and Lauren Aquilina. Click here 
for my playlist.

Wash your face mask off in warm soapy water. I used The Body Shop Nutriganics Foaming Face Cleanser to help me in this task and pat dry with a fluffy towel. 

The Nutriganics range was also the source of my face cleanser which after putting some of the liquid onto a cotton pad I massaged into my skin. This was followed by the Aloe Vera Calming Toner which was applied in a similar way.

To complete the 'cleanse, tone and moisturise' regime I also turned to The Body Shop Aloe Vera collection yet as I have previously mentioned I have quite dry skin so this stage had more than one potion including: eye serum, protective serum and an intensive protective mask. The later of which should be liberally applied to the face and neck and the excess is wiped off after fifteen minutes

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The Hamam

For me most of the day was spent reading whilst the parentals went up a mountain as well as, it later transpired, finding me a 'nice Turkish husband.

When you are in Turkey one of the things I suggest would be on your itinerary is going to the the Turkish baths or hamam. We have spent a good portion of our stay here working out the best one to go to and finally decided to go to the spa at our own resort the Patara Prince.

 The sauna was the first port of call where we were to lie until deemed suitably sweaty. This was actually supposed to open up all of our pores but I was nevertheless reminded of meat roasting in an oven when the guy kept coming in to check if we were 'cooked enough'.

Thankfully just as I was feeling like I was going to get heat stroke I was led from the sauna into the Turkish bath area and instructed to lie on a heated marble slab. Meanwhile the hamam guy turned on all the taps around the room..was he trying to flood the room? And started to pour water over my body. Next I was scrubbed from head to toe with what felt like a Brillo pad. - this part of the procedure is called 'peeling' as it exfoliates the body and gets rid of and dead skin.

After being doused in more water I noticed that the guy was waving a sack in the air and, when he squeezed it lots of bubbles came out. This 'foam massage' was an entirely new and unique experience that did not fail to remind me of having a bubble bath in which there are too many bubbles. I would definitely recommend this treatment and was left feeling squeaky clean by the end.

Once free of foam I was hosed down before being swaddled like a new born child in towels and escorted to a deck chair to relax.

I moved on from this room to have a full body massage and face mask before my  time in the hamam was complete.

Dinner: pizza fungi but it had capers on which was a bit disappointing 

  

The not so relaxing pamper evening

You know the feeling when you have watched a YouTube video and suddenly feel inspired to do something. No? Well today I watched a video by the wonderful  Zoella on how to have the perfect pamper evening and thought to myself that I was going to do that.

I have always enjoyed indulging in all things beautifying  and love a good pamper party.  Something that those of you who have seen my toiletries cupboard will probably know so to turn  down a good pampering down would be just barbaric. 

I started the evening off by drawing a bath and throwing in a bath bomb that somebody gave to me about five years ago and I never got round to using however I couldn't just stop there no sir for next comes the bath caviar and the confetti.....and bubble bath.

I don't know if it just me but I often get bored lying in the bath with nothing but my thoughts  to occupy me, I guess that's why I have never been one who can have a nice long hot soak but today I decided that this was all going to change. People often find that reading in the bath is a nice relaxing pastime but every time I try to do that the book gets wet and it's all very stressful. Nevertheless I  grabbed the first book off the side and got into my bubbly tub yet the book in question was the second book of Storm of Swords in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones book three, part two)  and let's just say that relaxing it was not. By the third fight I was just like 'why can't they all just love each other' but no sooner had I thought this then that is what they did and oh dear god I need to get out of here.

By now the majority of the bubbles in the bath had disintegrated and I felt that it was safe to switch on the jacuzzi. Alas I was wrong and the bubbles kept on growing. I was literally swimming in bubbles well not so much swimming I don't have a swimming pool sized bath like they do in the prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts.

Having now suitably scrubbed myself clean I turned my attention to my face. Yet a problem arose when I realised that I didn't have a face mask handy and even worse there weren't even any avocados in the house so I that I could make my own. But fear not my friends for I have a plan up my sleeves and it appears that you can make a face mask out of any number of kitchen ingredients.

For a egg yolk, honey and olive oil  face mask you will need:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil

Mix it all up and what have you got Bibbity Babbity Boo. Well it's not quite as exciting as anything the fairy godmother could cook up but 15 fifteen minutes after putting on the mask and washing it off in hot soapy water and hey presto - soft, shiny, fresh faced skin!