CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPE



1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Crown Royal/Whiskey/Rum


- Sample the Liquor to check quality.

- Take a large bowl, check the Liquor again, to be sure it
is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

- Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a
large fluffy bowl.
- Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again.

- At this point it's best to make sure the Liquor is still
OK, try another cup.. just in case.

- Turn off the mixer thingy.

- Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup
of dried fruit.

- Pick the frigging fruit off floor...

- Mix on the turner.

- If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry
it loose with a dewscriver.

- Sample the Liquor to check for tonsisticity.

- Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.... who
giveshz a sheet.

- Check the Liquor.

- Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

- Add one table.

- Add a spoon of ar, or somefink.... whatever you can find.

- Greash the oven.

- Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

- Don't forget to beat off the turner.

- Finally, throw the bowl through the window.

- Finish the bottle of Liquor.

- Make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

Cherry Mistmas

I wouldn’t say that I was a trained chocolate connoisseur, but I am definitely well renowned as a serious chocoholic. It is undoubtedly my fix du jour. My ultimate favourite is obviously 75% dark chocolate, closely followed by white chocolate champagne truffles from Thorntons.

Opinions are quite diverse on chocolate aren’t they? I mean for example I know many people who maintain (and don’t take this personally) that American chocolates, such as Hershey’s etc, are horrible and taste nothing like the riches of a good Belgian (the yardstick of chocolate). So what brought me on to this topic today? I’ve eternally been a chocolate fanatic, but only now am I revealing in depth. You see I bought some luscious chocolate drink yesterday, Twinings luxury dark chocolate. I had intended to treat myself to Charbonnel and Walker hot chocolate, but at £7.99 a tin, it was a little out of my price range and the £2.99 on Twinings, although still a treat, is far more in my price range. Now magazines all over the place bang on about the delights of Charbonnel and Walker, and never have I been able to afford it, so I would love to know if their champagne truffles are better than Thorntons, or than my new ‘dealer’ Hotel Chocolat?! Perhaps someone can shed some light, but I definitely think that although better chocolate is well worth paying for, there are surely some things which are not. A fool and his money are easily parted as they say… and this fool has regularly been parted from her money. Perhaps one day I shall get to try Charbonnel and then I can offer you an informed decision!!!

Reasons to love chocolate:

It’s full of antioxidants
It contains iron
It contains calcium (milk)
It’s an aphrodisiac (men take note)

Chocolates to love:

Thorntons dark chocolate with orange pieces
Thorntons white chocolate champagne truffles
Hotel chocolat kirsch soaked cherries enrobed in dark chocolate
The purple one from Quality Street
Mint chocolate orange (Terry’s)
Hotel Chocolat white chocolate cherry ganache

Yum, yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well folks, where do I start? it’s been a busy old weekend! I seem to have gone from famine to feast on the social life front, which I am sure you will all be pleased to know as it provides you with more reading fodder really!

I’ll start with Saturday as it was such a busy day that it might take me a while to remember it all!

Saturday morning, I woke up early… (I count 10:30am as early), and after a lovely breakfast with Peter and the children, I head off to pick mum up, we were going shopping in Birmingham! Great fun as it’s been such a long time since we went there, we used to go at least once per month…but that’s probably how my spending spiralled out of control! Nonetheless, it was still nice to go again!

We arrived in Birmingham early in the afternoon, and headed straight for the mailbox. I just adore the Thomas Pink shop there. There was this fab shirt, I didn’t even look at the price, because I just knew I couldn’t afford it, but it was a black satinised cotton with a huge cummerbund, lush. Then we went to Harvey Nics for a cup of tea. I was highly amused actually in there when I turned away from my table for a mo and these two wannabe it girls were united in touching up their makeup in chanel compacts, it was so Paris Hilton… but the Birmingham version lol! Anyway, we checked out the handbags, and I saw the beautiful Marc Jacobs stam bag which mum keeps banging on about, I must say it is nice, but thankfully mum settled for a less expensive version for Christmas… If I win the lottery I will replace it with the real thing. I decided I need some designer jeans, the nicest jeans I ever had were a pair that Peter bought me from Gap last Christmas, other than that I have only ever spent a few quid on them because I don’t actually wear them that often! Anyway, the ones I was looking at were Rock and Republic, unfortunately £350 is slightly out of my price range. Once sated with the designer stuff, we went to the lovely German Christmas market… but soon the desire for designer came back and we found ourselves in the Louis Vuitton shop! OMG they have some fab new ranges, totally blinging and over the top are the new gold and silver monogramme miroir, but in all honesty, despite the fact that mum promised me she would get me one if she won the lottery that night (which evidently she didn’t) we were both totally taken with the monogramme groom collection, have a look on the Louis Vuitton website, it’s just stunning! Anyway, having trawled shop after shop with the aim of getting mum a dress for her Christmas present, we finally ended up in Debenhams. Mum found a lovely black dress, tres stylish and just what she needed, I came home with a stunning white fifties style coat that was reduced from £100 to a mere £55… I totally stricken with buyers remorse all the way home, but I have been in need of a coat for a long time now, and it was such a bargain.

Saturday night, after the later return, I was going out with Peter. It had been such a long day that I couldn’t bare to truss myself into a dress and heels, I kept it simple in jeans, a corset and flat shoes… something I would later be greatful of. After the customary drink in the local, we decided to check out a new bar which had opened in Earlsdon, the Cottage. It used to be a really old minging pub, but now it’s actually quite swish! We were most impressed, although I wasn’t too impressed when Peter was getting chatted up at the bar while I was standing there by some silly bint with her baps almost out… her eyes popped out when Peter took delivery of a glass of champagne at the bar, I think she thought it must be for her, what a shame it wasn’t lol! Sorry, bitchy moment alert!!!! Anyway, Peter couldn’t get away quick enough from her! After more than my fair share of bubbly and more than Peter’s fair share of various alcoholic beverages, we decided to call it a day! We set out for chips… but alas the chip shop was closed, so we jumped in a taxi. When we jumped in Peter noticed the guy had £3.60 on the clock immediately, when questioned the taxi said it was our fair… how could this be when we had just stepped in the taxi??? The driver didn’t take it to kindly when we got out and began walking, he wanted us to pay the money even though we hadn’t even been anywhere… do we look stupid?? He was very abusive, and so we walked all the way into town to the chip shop! Then being totally unsuccessful in the quest for a taxi in town, we walked all the way home!!! (I told you those flat shoes would come in handy). Thank god we had drunk so much alcohol otherwise we might have been more sensitive to the biting December whether, but I guess the walk walked the drink off. Bed at last!!!!!

Sunday, after a mini lie in with magazines and chocolate we head off into town for the shops again! Peter took me to a designer discount outlet where I tried on more jeans… imagine my horror when the size 32s wouldn’t fit?!?! At that point I decided that the New Year is going to be major diet time… although I wasn’t convinced that that shop was any good whatsoever, and my suspicions were realised when I went a little further up to another boutique and tried on some Armani’s in a 32… joy, they fit wonderful!!! Peter was horrified that he thought I was tempted to spend £150 on jeans, but really I wasn’t…I just never know what to say to get away when cornered by a shop assistant, I was looking for a life belt… luckily I think Peter’s protestations were that life belt… but when I go to Bicester, I know what I’ll be looking for!!!!!

I just love this time of year, Christmas parties a plenty. Yesterday was our team Christmas lunch. We went to a local restaurant, the old mill in a nearby village called Baginton and there were loads of us, about 20. Anyway, the food was lovely, I had:

Duck salad,
Guinea fowl with vegetables
Chocolate torte

Very rich I know, but I’d never tried Guinea Fowl before… it was nice, a bit like chicken, but fattier.

Anyway, we had secret santa and I got this cute little back massager which looks like a ladybird… just what I needed. Then we all (well a good selection of us) head off into town to hit the pubs and bars. We started off in old faithful, the Varsity. I had already started drinking the white wines early at lunch, and decided it would probably be best to keep going rather than mixing. So we stayed there a few hours, and had great fun talking about totally random things such as the English legal system, the Cheltenham festival and dogs. Then we lost one of our group, and head off to escape in the old fire station. There were a few more people in there from our work place, and my friend Kathy was in there, so we had a pre Christmas catch up, but we all decided that we needed to go dance. By that time I was fairly tipsy and decided to switch from my chardonnay to good old water before nicely tipsy became horribly drunk. I have to say, I felt ever so slightly overdressed in my new Black satin top and glittery skirt, but still… it’s Christmas.

We head off to the nightclub, and being so early it was free to get in, you always have to kind of weigh up the reasons with free entry, you can usually expect the club to empty, but that isn’t always a bad thing, you can chill out for a while and wait for the club to fill up. We sat up in the VIP room for a time, waiting for the downstairs room of the club (with the light up dancefloor) to open. It is so much fun just to watch the antics of drunk people sometimes. We didn’t waste any time once it got to 11pm and the downstairs opened, we were down and the first on the dancefloor… having a great old boogy!!! We danced… and danced…. And danced some more, until finally at 12.30am, after 12 hours of being out enjoying myself I decided enough was enough! Time to go home… and off home I went, with a lucky lift from Purdy.

Needless to say, I was late for work this morning. I just could not pull myself out of bed, and lovely sweetp had to come and pick me up (because I had left my car at work the night before) and bring me in, it was almost 10am when I got here… but thank fully I am not the only one who looks a bit rough!

I know, I’m getting really lame at updating my blog aren’t I? It totally slipped my mind, until Needstotalk reminded me that he’s missing my updates…. Well here’s one for you all.

It’s been because I have been poorly. I caught a nasty virus and was off work for what seemed like eternity… I hate not having much to do. Anyway, while I was off with my virus (if you want the details, it was a throat thing, although I had lots of muscle and joint pains and a bad stomach too… I was even off my food… which isn’t like me at all) I ordered a new mobile, yey! So that’s cool. But more importantly I read a book which I have had knocking around for ages and been meaning to read…. Basically because Tatler and Vogue said it’s good lol. So this time, you have a book review.

Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes

This is a fantastic book which documents the young, high society of New York. Julie Bergdorf and her comerades rule the New York social scene where wearing the wrong seasons Jimmy Choos can have dire effects on your social standing. When the group decide that the new accessory is an engagement ring (preferably of the Harry Winston) variety, then the quest is on to find the ideal marriage (or at least engagement) partner. And so ensues a list of hopeless dates with married men, psychological manipulators and other such no hopers, before our lead heroine finally falls in love with mr right…. Funny how things seem to crop up on your doorstep. I won’t give anything away but suffice to say that this is a wonderful. Frivolous, lighthearted book. If you love Vogue and Tatler, if you loved Sex and the City, then this you will LOVE!!! Go read it now!