Quench Mojito Master*

Hey All

I can't believe it's only 11 days until Christmas! When the email came through to see if we wanted to try the Mojito Master I was interested straight away. Mojitos are something that are made regularly in my house as it's what me and my other half drank on our first date and one of our favourite drinks. I don't have the proper tools though and tend to just use a rolling pin and stuff to make them.

The mojito master is the Swiss knife of cocktail making, it has everything you need and the bits pop out. It contains a muddle, drinks measure, knife, spoon and mint cutter.

The knife was impressively sharp. I had assumed with something like this it wouldn't be that good but it is. All the bits pop out easily and there our measures inside the cup for the perfect mojito.

It's comfortable in the hand when all assembled again to be able to perfectly muddle the ingredients! Apologies for my lack of pretty glasses. We opt for big mojitos!!

I make mine by squeezing the juice of half a lime into the glass, add 2 large teaspoons of sugar and muddle all of that together. I then add around 8 mint leaves to the glass (apparently if they give them a clap between your hands it released flavour. I then fill the glass with crushed ice. The smaller the better. Here the rolling pin is still used to smash it. I then add to large shots of rum and use the spoon to get right the bottom of the glass and kind of pull the liquid up so all the ice, rum and lime, mint, sugar mix is all combined. I then add a quarter of a lime wedge and mint sprig to garnish. I don't opt of soda in mine as the crushed ice melts and waters it down a little. We also prefer a spiced rum to a white rum or an aged rum!

The result some very tasty mojitos! If you're looking for a last minute gift this is a great idea! I would have definitely grabbed on for my other half. The only thing I would say could be improved it the spoon folds out but then doesn't look in so bends halfway down. If I wanted making pints of Mojito though it probably wouldn't be an issue!

Are you a mojito fan? The mojito master is currently on offer for £9 at Handpicked Collection.

Love M

xxx

Whirlwind Trip: Helsinki, Finland

Hi all!

Hope you're all getting into the Christmas spirit - I'm super excited to have my Christmas in my own house for the first time so I've been busy buying and making as much as I can!

Work seems to be slowing down ready for Christmas but November was crazy busy and I was out of the office every week for various reasons. One of the trips I went on was to Helsinki in Finland for three days. It was a very quick trip, involving some very early mornings and late nights but I dragged myself out to do some sightseeing during the 1 free hour in day light that I had!

My hotel was right next to a beautiful lake - it was in fact still part of the sea because Helsinki itself is surrounded by it and alsmot looks like it's made up of little islands on the map, like Venice is. The lake was surrounded by paths and trees, and I am honestly impressed at how many people were meeting to walk dogs, power walk, jog and cycle around it. It was really inspiring and they were all so fit, it kind of puts the general British public to shame with the level of exercise they were doing.

That said I continued around the lake and got very very lost - my planned 30 minute walk ended up taking me at least 1.5 hours as I found myself on the other side of a completely different lake!

I had to re-navigate myself back to the centre of the city to find my way back to my hotel without walking the same route all the way back - it was an experience!

I did see some beautifully lit buildings though. It was surprising to see a European city without an abundance of old brick building which is what I am used to from travelling around France and Italy for example. All of the buildings are fairly new and minimalist in their appearance, so the odd building still made of old-style brick stood out to me, like the one below.

After my super long walk I went back to the hotel ready for my first day of work there, I was only there for 2 nights so I was hoping I would have more time to wander around the next evening.

Luck was on my side though as I was back at my hotel by 4 the next day and it was still daylight at this time so I was really pleased. I walked as fast as I possibly could to one of the main attractions in Helsinki, the Helsinki Cathedral.

This suddenly appears from the middle of nowhere and opens out into a sizeable square, there is a monument in the centre (shown above) but the main attraction definitely takes the most of your attention.



It is so beautiful and pristinely white that you wonder how on earth they have managed to keep it clean for so long!

Unfortunately I was too late to get inside the cathedral but the outside was good enough for me. There were a load of steps to climb so I just started running up them before I changed my mind...

One of my favourite things to look at is all of the detail up close, the tops of pillars are always interesting and often overlooked.

I also really loved the colour of the domes - there is one large dome and then four smaller ones all in the same beautiful green colour. Also,the gold accents can't be ignored and if I'm honest the reason I love these so much is because these are the colours in my bedroom at home! I'm a sucker for greens and golds!

It was a shame that the other half was having maintenance performed as this photo would have been so much better - maybe this is how they manage to get it so white though!

After this I moved on to see Market Square, it's right on the water front and I managed to time it perfectly with the sunset. I spent a good half an hour here talking pictures of the amazing ship - I've been watching Once Upon a Time recently and in my opinion this was Hook's!

I also loved that a few people had decided to put some 'love locks' on the bridge - I understand why the one in Paris was removed as there were so many on there it was starting to become a health and safety problem but it's still a lovely idea and maybe even more special that it isn't somewhere as obvious as Paris.

The scenery here was amazing, I loved watching the boats moving back and forth, there were cruise ships and all sorts passing through and I couldn't help but take many panoramic shots as the sky was changing colour - it was so so pretty.

Have you been to Helsinki? What did you think of it?

I really appreciated my 2 hours of sightseeing and tried to do as much as I could before it got dark! I would have liked to have explored more and also taken a boat trip to the nearby islands but sadly this was a work trip so time was very limited. In fact the last day I was up at 6.30 to pack up and check out of the hotel before working for the day and travelling back to the UK - I got home the equivalent of 2.30am so I was a zombie at work the next day!

Now I'm looking forward to my next trip - there aren't any planned for next year yet so who knows where I'll be ending up next!

L xxx

Lush Christmas Collection 2015

Hey All

A few weeks ago we were invited to see the new Christmas collection. L and I are both Lush fans so knew straight away we had to go. I always love the Lush Christmas range as who doesn't want a nice relaxing bath especially when it's all cold outside.

The Christmas range includes a whole selection of products from bath bombs to face masks to shower jelly's and much much.

Christingle is a product we both loved straight away, we always love fresh mint scents and are big fans of Mask of Magmaminty (review here). The body conditioners are a great products as it's applied in the shower and saves having to wait around for body lotions to sink it when it's cold! I love Ro's Argan but this is even better!

The festive face mask is Cranberry which L couldn't resist picking up and we tested them out the other day. It's so lush and smells great. It's a perfect winter face mask as it's nourishing and has lots of antioxidants!

Lush always put amazing detail into everything! How amazing is this soap. The new shop fit of Lush Cardiff also means that you can see the amazing soaps all set up better! I couldn't resist popping back last week and grabbing some yog nog soap! That stuff smells amazing!

At the last lush event we went to we couldn't resist purchasing Lush Shower Jelly's for the first time. You can see L's review of needles and pine here. They have two Christmas specials, Santa's Belly and Snowman, in store they had a giant Santa's  belly. I loved just playing with it!! The shower jellys are such a fun gift and the snowman is actually snowman shaped!

At the event there was also a chance to try making your own bubble bar. You can do parties in Lush and make bath bombs and stuff which would be a great birthday party or hen do event. It was surprisingly hard to make it look as good as they do! L didn't get the chance so I shared mine so she could try it. You easy get two baths out of these! I love combining a bath bomb and bubble bar for the ultimate bath!!

Lush do amazing Christmas gifts! I've been lucky enough to be given one before, I love all there gift sets and they make amazing presents as they're great for lush lovers or for people who aren't there yet to try new products! One of the great things I love is the amazing packaging as it means you can reuse them and it doesn't go to waste! One of my favourites is It's Christmas Deer. How lush is that tin!! 

Have you tried any of the new items yet?

Love L and M

xxx

Celtic Manor Festive Afternoon Tea

Hey all!

Today's post is from a wonderful event that we were lucky enough to attend last weekend. Unfortunately M was still in the process of moving so she couldn't attend but I couldn't turn the opportunity down - afternoon tea with a festive twist at the fabulous Celtic Manor.

So now you know the order of the event, how does the menu size up to the occasion?

Check out the multiple courses below - so droolworthy!



Wooaaaah there, I certainly needed to do a fair few laps around the block to work off these treats!

Don't feel too overwhelmed though, I'll take you through each course and it will feel just like you were there with me. First of all, take a look at this table decoration, so classic and beautiful. The flowers are so perfect:







The first part of the event was a talk through how Celtic Manor make their mulled wine. They normally use a red wine such as Claret and Port and then warm through the wine with some orange and cloves, and spice the wine with cinnamon. We had a demonstration of this and were allowed to taste the first batch for this year.

So for someone who normally doesn't drink wine I tend to not have any issues with mulled wine (for some reason after 1 glass I get quite ill for a few days - and no this isn't because I'm instantly drunk and hungover!). Maybe it's the heating but it doesn't seem to affect me so I gladly tried some of this.

Not only was it lovely and warm, it was like Christmas in a cup! Soothing and spiced to perfection I would highly recommend this if you are going to Celtic Manor for absolutely anything over the festive period.

Before long Carl the Head Pastry chef arrived to tell us all about the treats on the menu.

Above shows the first basket of the day - the savoury treats. The crayfish, mango and chilli blini is probably my favourite of the four, with the Welsh rarebit with Y-Fenni cheese and tomato chutney coming in a close second. The other two were also great but my love of cheese and crayfish wins out this time!

Just as a refresher, here's the full menu. so far we have have the mulled wine and the Festive Savoury Treats. Next arrived the 'Tower of Wonder' as I will now affectionately be calling it. Take a look



So many beautiful treats!!! Where on earth do you start?!





I'm pretty set on my routine, I have to eat the sandwiches first and then proceed to the sweet things. It's just ingrained in me that sweet follows savoury, but I'm getting more open to mixing things up for multiple courses next time as there were so many sweet treats to choose from!

I'd say that the smoked salmon and lemon mayonnaise were my favourite, but the surprise favourite was the egg mayo with shallots and chives - surprisingly good and I'd take a whole plate of them next time.

After I'd polished those off it was time to start on the Hand Made Cakes and Pastries.



They are quite honestly afternoon tea perfection - small and perfectly formed but each one packing a punch. These were hands down the most exciting part of the meal and so I'll briefly talk through each one in a clockwise direction.

The mince pie has a little twist with a shortbread top and dustings of sugar, I've not eaten mince pies for a few years after overdosing on them in 2012. This was a gorgeous start to my plate and has put mince pies back onto my menu - although I'm not sure they will measure up to this one again.

Next is the Florentine slice which has a thick cake base instead of a biscuit. I really liked this as I'm a fan of almonds and the cake base was a lovely twist.

The Carrot Cake cupcake had an apricot jam centre and a huge dollop of cinnamon buttercream. This was very yummy and might have been my favourite of the cakes and pastries. Carrot cake is my favourite type of cake and in cupcake form like this it's almost possible to put it in your mouth in one bite - it's gorgeous!



So from left to right:

The waffle cone with pistachio and marzipan cream was super sweet, this was again gorgeous but for someone who doesn't eat much cream nowadays this was a little too sweet for me personally.

The Christmas pudding is actually a truffle. They make over 3500 Christmas puddings at Celtic Manor each year, containing 56L of Guinness and unknown amounts of rum. They decided this year to create a little more and add it to a white chocolate ganache and then roll it in chocolate to create the exterior seen above. I have to say this was a surprising addition to the afternoon tea, no one really expects a truffle as part of their afternoon tea do they?!
It was hard to break through the chocolate as I didn't want to ruin it but the truffle inside was really nice and tasted sweet but not overly so and tasted just like Christmas pudding. Definitely worth a try.

Last but not least was the Bara Brith with Penderyn Whiskey and marmalade, topped with marzipan and icing and a lovely Christmas tree. I could taste the whiskey and marmalade as soon as I put it into my mouth and I thought it was really good.

Super full? I was totally overwhelmed with goodies by this point - and then the scones arrived!

A basket was delivered with a Cranberry and mixed spice scone and a Vanilla and Chestnut scone, both warm with pots of jam and cream for you to help yourself.

The Vanilla and Chestnut scone was a lovely change and the chestnut was a great festive addition. However the Cranberry and spice scone was by far my favourite and tasted of Christmas as soon as I could get near it! It was so fruity and smelt so amazing.

All of this was also supplied with a wealth of freshly brewed tea, 6 varieties were available including English Breakfast tea and Peppermint which is what I ordered. I think I had 7 cups in total as it was all so refreshing.

The afternoon was absolutely amazing and it was such a privilege to be invited, here we were altogether for a group photo. It was great to meet some bloggers I have met before and heard of from twitter, and also some new faces.





So what do you think of the utterly fabulous Festive Afternoon tea???

How much do you want to tuck into it and try all of the treats?

You can book yourself in for this Festive Afternoon tea from the 1st of December until mid January, midweek will cost you £26, and Saturday and Sunday will cost £36.

L xxx