Beauty: Moroccan Argan Oil

Hello!

It's quite ironic that I'm writing a post about beauty as I couldn't be further from beautiful myself right now! I've been a little sick the last couple of days but so grateful that I've had it easy compared to a lot of other people I know. Ah, the winter vomiting bug, you can't bring me down!!!

Something that has been putting a little spring in my step as well as a lot of shine in my hair is this little bottle of sunshine, Organix Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil. My hair had been so dry and unmanageable and pretty yuck over the winter but this oil really improved things! You only need to use a tiny bit (overload and you'll be a greaseball!) so it lasts a long time. It's the budget alternative to the Moroccan Oil brand but is every bit of good according to all the reviews I've seen on the Internets. I'm certainly a very happy customer anyway :)

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Hannah xo

Recipe Box: Super Easy Soft Cheese

 Cheese! I have to admit I'm not the most adventurous of cheese eaters (I generally only eat chedder, ha!) but I've always fancied having a go myself. I stumbled across a simple recipe for homemade cheese and with a little bit of tweaking, it became so easy that even a cooking amateur like me could handle it ;)

For this recipe, you'll need to gather a few simple household items. Just make sure you have a large pan which can hold over two litres of liquid, said liquid being two litres of good quality organic whole milk.    You'll also need a wooden spoon, 3 large lemons and some sort of juicing device (I just used a little lemon squeezer), a colander, a large bowl, a large piece of muslin and... string.

So if you want to make a generous 400g-ish portion of soft cheese, just follow the steps below :)

• Slow boil the two litres of milk in the large pan, stirring regularly to stop the milk from sticking to  the pan. In the meantime, juice the lemons and aim to collect 4 tablespoons of juice. 
• Once the milk is boiling, remove it from the heat and slowly add the lemon juice while stirring the milk in one direction. 
• You should see the milk forming little lumps of curd (aka your future cheese!) which separate from the liquid whey. 

• Cover the pan and leave to one side for two hours or so. By this time, your curds should have settled nicely. 
• Line the colander with the muslin and place it in the large bowl. Slowly pour the former milk mixture into the colander.
• Once the liquid has finished draining, gather the corners of the material together to form a tight little pocket which you should then use the string to tie together. 
• Hang your contraption over a sink or bath so any further liquid will be safely collected and then leave it hanging for around 3 hours.

• Enjoy your cheese! :) It should last for at least three days if kept in the fridge!

Hannah xo

Recipe Box: Beetroot Salad

So, we're almost at the end of beetroot season and I wanted to have one final beetroot fling! I love it this messy vegetable but I rarely use it which is a crying shame if you ask me. I rustled up an easy little beetroot salad to brighten up our burger and chips dinner :)

This recipe makes enough for a good side serving for two people.


Ingredients

• 450g raw beetroots
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• Salt

To the kitchen!

• Pull off the roots and cut all of the stalks down to about 2 cm. 
• Gently, without splitting the skins, rub the beetroots under cold water to get rid of any dirt. 
• Place all of the beetroots into a pan and pour boiling water over until the beetroots are completely submerged in water. 
• Bring it to the boil, cover and reduce to a medium heat and cook for 30-40 mins until the beetroots feel tender when you gently pierce them with a sharp knife. 
• In the meantime, mix the oil, vinegar, garlic, onions and salt in some kind of sealed container in which you can shake all the ingredients until they are well mixed. I used a plastic tupperware box but you could also use a jar.
• Once the beetroots are tender, drain and rinse them under cold water until they are cool to the touch so you can peel away their skins. 
• Slice the beetroot to the desired size for your salad.
• Put in a bowl and cover with the dressing you already made. Cover and leave to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. 
• When ready, simply toss the salad and serve! 

Enjoy!

Hannah xo

A Trip Down Memory Lane

For the past couple of months I've been working on clearing out a couple of boxes of old cassette tapes I've kept ever since I was at school. I've always loved music and listening to the Top 40 chart on the radio was my favourite way to spend entire Sunday afternoons. My own music collection was started with a few cassette tapes, my very own hi-fi (I was so proud!) and a little help from my Dad. I'd record all of my favourite songs from the radio so I could listen to them on my walkman to and from school :)

By going through my old cassette collection, I've found so many old favourites which I had completely forgotten about!

My lovely old hi-fi is long gone but my Dad lent me his new gadget so that I could capture the old music and store it on our computer. Clever, huh?

So this is the little legend, the Ion Tape Express (I think this is a newer version than my Dad's) which is a cassette to MP3 convertor. It is so easy to use and it has meant that my entire music collection is still in tact even after I've cleared away my boxes of cassettes ;)

Something else I found super useful - when I couldn't remember the track name or even the artist of some of the songs I'd recorded, I used SoundHound. This is an app which will find all the information from a snippet of any song you play. And I do mean ANY song as I had no problems finding all the info I needed! Sometimes, I had to play it a couple of times to get a hit, but it never let me down!

So my cassette tapes are sorted. Now the question is what can I do with them... :)

Hannah xo

The Audio A-Z: A

I have decided to open up and give you an all-access look at my personal music collection, warts and all! Being a sentimental human being, I've still got a lot of my childhood favourites on tap. This all makes for an 'interesting' contrast with my more recent rockier tastes ;) So occasionally I'll be posting about bands and artists I love/ have loved and any mildly entertaining tales I may have about them...

So, fittingly, first up in my collection is a British band called 'A'.

 I first heard them on the radio when I was about 16 or 17 and loved their rocky sound. I had just recently started listening to more alternative music so I gobbled this up. Before then I'd only really heard chart music and suddenly this whole other musical world opened up before me. It was a very exciting time in my life and certainly changed my whole direction!

Funnily enough, the main vocalist from A, Jason Perry, is now a producer and has worked with a few of my more recent favourite bands. I clearly dig his style! I've never seen A live but fortunately they have a habit of playing reunion shows so maybe one day :)

So without further ado, here are my favourite tracks from A!

The track that got me hooked was 'Nothing', their lead track from their third album 'Hi-Fi Serious'. It's my favourite A song :)

And again from 'Hi-Fi Serious', a song called 'Starbucks'. I loved all this 'sticking it to the man' music in my late teens. Catch-y. But not sure about the visors ;)

These are the two songs that really stick out for me but I do suggest checking out their other albums if you're enjoying this!

Hannah xo

Life. Lately.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe that it is already 2013! How crazy is that??

Life has been good lately. Hectic but incredible. Here is a quick summary of what has been happening in my life recently!

So I turned 28... I spent my birthday with my boyfriend and we had a London tourist day! Can you believe I've lived here for 4 1/2 years and yet still hadn't been on the London Eye or visited the London Dungeons?? Well, now I have! ;)

We were unable to take photos at the London Dungeon so I can't show you how good it is but wowza! It was good. In fact it was really good. Although it is a little pricey, the whole experience lasts for around 90 minutes, being led from creepy room to even creepier room and I was loving every minute of it! I'm not going to tell you anything as I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise but if you ever get the chance, I urge you to go! Like now, if you can!

My second treat was FINALLY going on the London Eye! We chose to go in the evening as I think the London lights look magical in the dark and I was not let down. The city looked beautiful :)

Last month we both finally got some time to concentrate on making our flat feel more homely as well as making it look pretty for Christmas! What a difference our efforts made! We unpacked most of the boxes (yes, we still hadn't unpacked...) and moved a few pieces of furniture around to make room for our lovely Christmas tree. Home sweet home!

And... I'm saving the best for last here... We have a new addition to our home. We got a kitten!!! Funnily enough, I'd been planning on buying guinea pigs for weeks. I'd even almost bought two the weekend before but there was no suitable cage at the time so I had to let them go. So take two of buying guinea pigs and we tried a different pet shop. This one had an adorable little kitten in a cage who shyly crept up to us and watched us with the most beautiful blue eyes. I think it was love at first sight. We both fell for her! We looked around the rest of the pet shop but we couldn't get interested in anything else. So we went back to her and started discussing whether we could actually look after a cat in our home properly. I couldn't even believe we were having this chat as my boyfriend has told me many times that he is not a cat person. But he was as in love with her as I was! We chatted to the store owner and asked everything we needed to ask (which was a lot as we knew nothing about caring for cats!). In the meantime, our little cat was sick and my rescuing instincts kicked in and I knew there was no going back. So we bought her. I still can't believe it!

So, I introduce you to our new little friend, Polly! Isn't she the cutest??

We called her Polly because she sits on your shoulder like a parrot. It's her favourite place :) She has settled in fast and already struts around like she owns the place. She stopped being sick after a couple of days and she's now eating like there's no tomorrow! She's already growing so quickly!!!

Here's a little video of her playing with her first toy :)

I expect you'll be hearing a lot more about Polly in the future ;)

Hannah xo