Click HERE for a bit about the first one I read – The Lost Daughter – which I also really enjoyed.

Anyone looking for inspiration and ideas for Shrove Tuesday din-dins, look no further! I have present to you: TasteSpotting!

Self-described on their site as an “…obsessive, compulsive collection of eye-catching images that link to something deliciously interesting on the other side”

AND

“…as a highly visual potluck of recipes, references, experiences, stories, articles, products, and anything else that inspires exquisite taste.“

To me, this website is kind of like the Pinterest of the food world!

Just type ‘pancakes’ into the search bar at the top right, et voila – loads of beautiful pancake-related images and links! (Or you can save yourself the energy and just click HERE to be transported directly to picture and recipe heaven)

Otherwise, browse TasteSpotter for general foody pictures and inspiration – I actually need to go eat now because all this food-stalking is making me hungry.

Happy browsing people, and Happy Shrove Tuesday – what are you all giving up for lent?! After tonight’s BingeFest, I might just have to give up:

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As some of you know, hubby and I are expecting a baby Bird in April/May this year (soon, I know!) – we recently caught up with some family visiting London, who gave us some gorgeous gifts from this stunning baby brand, Natures Purest which they picked up from Fortnum & Mason…

{we love our cute little sleep-suit and a knitted Ellie rattle for baby}

As soon as I got home after our lunch, I hopped onto the net to see what else I could find… BAD MOVE!

I love EVERYTHING! Not only are the textures and colours stunning (love knits and cottons, and the beige-cream-neutral colour scheme is exactly our vibe), but I also read up that all NP products are made from natural materials that are soft on baby’s skin, and produced in an environmentally-friendly manner. Price-wise, these items are slightly above average, but hardly what I’d call expensive – I reckon, when you are paying for good quality and great design (packaged beautifully, I might add) that that in itself makes any purchase from Natures Purest totally worth it.

{some pretty stuff from the online shop}

Waiting for pay day now so that I can do what hubby thinks I do best… some shopping ;)

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INGREDIENTS

800g of veggies – I included baby potatoes, carrot, swede, leek, butternut and red onion (you wont need much of each to make up the 700g requirement)

400g of stewing beef

40g butter

40g flour

600ml of beef stock – I used Knorr Beef Stock Pot gel dissolved in boiling water, easy and works perfectly

Herbs and seasoning - you could try basil, sage, thyme and/or parsley – they all go well with beef. I used a new product from Knorr call Stock Pot Herb Infusion (similar concept to their normal stock pots and adds a lovely herby flavour to any meal) – popped it straight into the beef stock above.

METHOD

1. Cut/dice/chop veggies into chunky pieces and throw into a large casserole dish (keep baby potatoes whole)

2. Cut stewing beef into chunks.

3. Melt butter in a pot over the stove on medium heat – throw in the beef – cook until each piece is sealed on the outside but not cooked through. Remove beef from pot and add it to the vegetable dish.

4. Keep the melted butter in the sauce pan and add the flour, stirring until it forms a smooth paste ( a roux for all you foodies out there!) – slowly add the the stock, a little bit at a time whilst stirring (it becomes quite liquid-y, dont worry, this is normal!) add herbs now.

5. Pour the liquid sauce over the veg and beef – cover casserole dish (if you don’t have a lid for the dish, use tinfoil like I did – shiny side down, thanks for the tip @MegPascoe) and cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes (yip – that long – no need to check on it either!)

6. Once time is up – remove from oven, dish up and eat. YUM! You can also serve this casserole with rice, mashed potato or cous cous.

Time to stop dipping your toe in the pool – dive in! Try, believe, achieve…

ASK YOURSELF:

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Debuted by Chevy at the US Super Bowl over the past weekend (well known airing [mostly] innovative and competitive TV commercials) – any music lovers out there who appreciate a well thought out music vid, if you haven’t seen it already – you MUST watch this:

“The new music video from OK Go, made in partnership with Chevrolet. OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording.”

“There are no ringers or stand-ins; Damian took stunt driving lessons. Each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they’d play the right note no matter where they were struck. For more information and behind-the-scenes footage, see http://www.LetsDoThis.com and http://www.okgo.net.“

Director: Brian L. Perkins & Damian Kulash, Jr.
Director of Photography: Yon Thomas
Editor: Doug Walker
Producer: Luke Ricci

It was our first real ‘all-inclusive package’ trip (bar a ski trip that we went on about two years ago, but that was a bit different) and I can happily say that we got our money’s worth - we weren’t exactly paying out of our bums at the off-season price of approx £390 each for 7 nights full board + flights and transfers in any case, but we left very satisfied, sun-kissed and happy!

Tiran Island Hotel is rated 4-star but I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was ‘super fancy’ – to put it into perspective, the highest rated nearby hotel is a 7-star so we are looking at above average accommodation and facilities. It was clean and relatively modern; the staff were very helpful/friendly; and basically it was exactly what we expected (just a lot bigger – the Egyptians know how to do ‘resorts’!)

Our room was extremely comfy and looked exactly like the pictures on the website so we were pleased with that; only disappointment was that we’d asked for a pool/sea-facing room but got a ‘desert-facing’ room instead which was more like an ‘airport-runway-facing’ room in reality. It honestly isn’t close enough for the noise or anything to bug you and yes, you can still see the distant desert mountains which are beautiful, so you can’t really complain – it’s not like you spend 24/7 in your room anyway… After a few days of making our way around Sharm in any case, we realised that every resort that side of Naama Bay is basically that close to the airport, so we completely forgot about it (and in fact, it was just all the more convenient for our return transfer to collect and drop us off there!)

Typical room – ours looked just like this… {pic from websit}

Food-wise: each buffet meal is prepared and served in a central dining room, geared more towards the European style of dining rather than offering more traditional Egyptian fare. (I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more ‘local’ dishes but I can understand why they go with more generic meal choices [keeping the masses happy] and perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, having been told by more than one local that you need a stomach of steel to feast on Egyptian food?!)

Breakfasts comprised a huge selection of pastries and breads, scrambled and boiled eggs, a salad bar (yes, weird I know) and omelets made to order, amongst other things that looked like they probably fitted into the cheese, yoghurt and jam categories. Lunches and dinners, both hot meals, were always served with salads and breads, and generally had a good variety of meat-veg-carbs to choose from, followed by pudding. The desserts on offer mainly consisted of a variety of gelatine/fruit/jam/pastry based concoctions – local-style I think – not ideal for a chocolate-lover like me but okay overall. While you serve yourself food, there are plenty of staff to clear away your plates between courses (or in Hubby’s case – between helpings) and to bring you drinks, it’s quite pleasant! (If you fancy a change one night, there are two or three other restaurants on the hotel grounds that you can visit, check out the website for more details…) BTW, I wouldnt recommend room service, let’s just say their ideas of hot chocolate and chocolate mousse are not exactly in line with what we know (I had to try though, my cravings got the better of me!)

Les pool… {my pic}

The pool area at the hotel is substantial – if you are partial to tanning pool-side or taking a dip in cool, fish-free waters, you’ll be in your element. For those who prefer the sand between their toes, the hotel’s designated beach area is actually a 5 minute walk from the complex itself – sounds like a pain but it’s really a pleasant walk, or you can catch the hotel shuttle that runs up and down every ten minutes or so… The beach area is rather small, but was comfortable and totally fine for our off-peak trip – I can imagine that it’s humming in the summer though when temps reach high 30′s and holidaymakers are keen to work on their tans! The beach isn’t exactly an expanse of sand like us South Africans are used to, but rather a narrow strip of land that merges with coral reefs at the waters edge. Most resorts have jetty’s that just out into the ocean, and that my friends, is where you jump in! No slowly easing yourself into the cool waters, you kind of just have to embrace the experience and watch out for the snorkelers. Because of the beautiful reefs and amazing sealife, this area is a paradise for snorkeling and water sports.

Aerial view of resort and beach front…{pic: google maps}

At the beachfront, there is a ‘hut’ where you can hire snorkeling equipment cheaply and/or book yourself on a wide variety of water-related adventures. We’d highly recommend (spending money permitting) a private speedboat ride to the uninhabited Tiran Island, and ship-wreck off the nearby reefs (just over an hour in total incl. 10 mins to snorkel the reef near the wreck and hop aboard the Island for a squizz around = LE500 for two us = approx£45/£50, not bad at all!)

The wreck and stunning Tiran Island… {my pic}

The beach bar is much like the pool and lobby bars in the hotel (unfortunately not as majestic as it looks in the pics on website but great to be able to grab a bevvy to enjoy in the sun) – our package included unlimited drinks but we all know that ‘all-inclusive’ doesn’t really mean all inclusive and that the limits are more visible when it comes to quality and not quantity ;) Along with the usual soft-drinks (coke, fanta, sprite) and tea/coffee, local beers and wines were offered up, alongside watered down / low-qual spirits. Fruit juice is from concentrate only, you pay if you want fresh – if they even offer it (I only saw them doing fresh fruit juices at breakie) I say this all matter of factly and not with ill-feeling by the way. We knew this would be the case having read online reviews and spoken with friends who have visited similar resorts in Sharm, so as long as you are aware before you arrive that that’s what you’ll be getting, then I don’t see the problem with it. (i.e. prepare to get what you pay for and if you accept that, your good to go!)

The areas surrounding the resort provoked mixed-feelings. We’ve already touched on proximity to the airport, but at first I was also shocked at how many unfinished buildings there were nearby. Again, after a few days of getting to know the area, we realised that this was the case everywhere. Also, other than the hotel complex itself, and neighbouring resorts, there really is nothing else nearby in terms of shops, independent restaurants etc – great if your reason to visit was like ours, to literally chill out and do very little – but for the more adventurous, you might find a sneaky bout of cabin fever making an appearance… Easily rectified though: hop into a cab and visit Soho Square, or brave the markets in Naama Bay/Old Sharm. (Worth noting that things only really come to life early evening and at night – we were shocked to visit a closed-up Soho square and relatively empty marketplace [except for pesky vendors!] upon our own visits there during the day.)

Every time we seemed to leave the hotel, we were always more excited to return – a good sign and feeling! After one of the group tours we went on (a 4×4 experience through the desert, visit to Dahab/the famous blue hole etc) we got to see a lot of the other nearby hotels/resorts and I have to say, Tiran Island Hotel was genuinely a little piece of heaven after seeing some of the other resort areas around Sharm and the distances some guests had to walk to the beach etc.

Beautiful sunset as seen from the Beach Bar… {my pic}

I have to say that our little package holiday served us very well. Overall, we’d definitely recommend this hotel for relaxed travelers who aren’t fussing over perfection, and who want to enjoy the sun, sights and culture that Egypt has to offer.

To read more about traveling in and around Sharm, read my other blog post: Sharm el Sheikh Travel Tips.

For more deets on the hotel itself, check out it’s official website here. Package holidays can be found on the usual travel deal websites like lastminute.com etc…

Safe Travels x

Why Morning Routines Are Creativity Killers

“Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock buzzes in another hectic weekday morning. You leap out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with barely a moment to think. A stressful commute gets your blood pressure climbing. Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper, its array of stories ranging from discouraging to depressing to tragic. With a sigh, you pour yourself a cup of coffee and get down to work, ready to do some creative, original problem-solving.

Good luck with that...”

READ THE REST OF IT HERE and you’ll understand why I have posted this seemingly unrelated video below – ENJOY ;)

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