10 March 2014

Good Books and Green Soup

Hey m'dear! 

How was your weekend? 


Mine included an edible Viking longboat, two cans of spray-paint, a Beer and Cider Festival, dirty burgers eaten al fresco (three cheers for weather that's warm enough to sit outside!), succumbing to the urge to Spring Clean, tea with my grandparents, and lots of laughter.

Although, none of the above would have happened if I hadn't finished reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor on Thursday. It was so captivating that I flat-out refused to put it down until I'd finished, a la Disney's Belle. I don't think I knocked anyone's teeth out with a wooden cart - but one can never be certain. I devoured it in less than three days, and that was only because I had to go to work; as my employers don't give paid leave to people engrossed in a really good book. Meanies. 



[image source]

The first part of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy revolves around angels and monsters, and the protagonist is a kick-ass girl with bright blue hair and incredible artistic talents. Serious girl crush alert. I would highly recommend it, but don't start reading it just before something important, like your wedding, because you'll probably decide to skip it. 

On Friday night we were treated to some truly incredibly tapas, courtesy of my school friends Jenny and Pat, in celebration of Pat's birthday. Jenny is an amazing cook, and is currently in the process of cooking her way around the world.



The world's best veggie paella
[photo nicked from Jenny]

I enviously shared the Game of Thrones cake Jenny made for Pat's birthday on here last year, and this year's cake surpassed it! Jenny made a Viking longboat out of the best brownies I've ever tasted. And I've tasted a lot of brownies. 


The birthday boy's portion. He loves cake almost as much as I do!

Just look at that horse's head carved out of icing. Incredible, no?

We spent Saturday afternoon with some of our Isle of Wight crew at the Sussex Beer and Cider Festival, where I continued my valiant efforts to try and like beer. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful, and felt very disappointed that despite the guidebook's promises of notes of chocolate, biscuits, honey, and wine, they all just tasted like beer (aka disgusting). Thank goodness for cider! 

Post-drinking, we headed to Grubbs (who do the best takeaway meat and veggie burgers in Brighton, dontchaknow) and spent the afternoon having a rather heated discussion about the best way to pair socks. 

Sunday's glorious sunshine put me in the mood to Spring Clean. I felt positively giddy about the chance to dry our clothes outside, and the possibility of seeing rays of sunlight streaming through our windows- once I'd actually cleaned them! I juggled housework with a few projects from my To Do list, which I'm hoping to share here later this week. Thankfully, the grey spray-paint I managed to get all over my right hand washed off before work today; I looked like a cyborg! I replenished my energy levels with an appropriately spring green home-made soup, and fancy pants goats cheese on toast. And then double-checked my energy levels were safe with a maple pecan Danish. One can never be too careful! 



Hulk Green soup and cheese on toast.
Which I shared with Tom - I'm not that greedy!

Sunday evening involved a movie, a takeaway curry, and catching up on some blog reading. What did you get up to? And, more importantly, do you like beer? 

Katie xxx

9 comments:

  1. You soup/Goats cheese/danish combo sounds a-mazing! *drools* And that book looks good, have been neglecting my reading of late :) Thanks for the lovely comments - I have rather hazy recollections of that night, would like to say I kept my cool but the hysterical cry laughing about ready Steady Cook being a fix may have been a giveaway that I was slightly frazzled! ;p xxx

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    1. It was a brilliant nigh! Thank you so much for having us :) The RSC meltdown was the highlight of the evening (but only because they were good tears!) xxx

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  2. *Your, not you. Unless I was talking directly to the soup?

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  3. I DON'T like beer I'm afraid! Can we still be friends?
    The longboat looks super!!! Clever her!!! X

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  4. The books sounds interesting, I've not heard of it but I might seek a copy now. Sounds like you've had a good weekend! I love the viking cake.

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    1. My local library has it, and the next one too! You should definitely check it out :) xxx

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  5. The longboat looks amazing! I've no idea where I'd even begin to make a cake like that :-)

    Not a huge fan of beer though - the other half quite likes it but he'd much rather drink real ale if he had a choice (and then he pretends he's all sophisticated...) :-) xxx

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  6. haha I do like beer! I prefer wine and cider. But some light beers are ok with me.

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