LIFE: Photo an Hour March 2016

If you didn't think the year was flying by already, well it's rolled around to another Photo an Hour Link up, to remind you just how quickly the months are passing us by. Sundays are typically our lazy days, we may pretend to be adults and get dressed, poke some DIY, do the weekly shop. This week we were enchanted by the blue skies and headed to the zoo for a wander and then flopped back on the sofa and went back to being lazy.

Sunday began with a late start to the day (10am) the usual coffee, cereals and catching up on a couple of pages of my new read - The Witches, which as you probably might have guessed is all about the Salem Witch Trails of 1692. Then I finally got around to opening up the Easter package from the homeland - some yummy looking Harry Hopalot chocolate figures from Thorntons.

I lost track of time when we were actually at the Detroit Zoo when it came to live updating, but hey I was having too much fun. With blue skies and warm temp, it was a perfect day to visit, loads of animals were up and playing around, especially fun to watch the young Chimpanzee's climbing and jumping off rocks and rolling down hills.

Fun for hobby time - cross stitching a Michael Powell design titled Garden Shed that will eventually end up upon a birthday card, and of course coloring in one of my favorite books - Unicorns Are Jerks. Because Unicorns fart in elevators, on purpose, if you didn't know.

5pm was time for tea! Some yummy homemade egg fried rice with lots of veg and crab. Then watching Windows decide it wanted to update. Had I know this earlier, this would probably have been achieved hours earlier. Yawn.

Then we ended the day, well more like 7pm (because my phone was dying) at failing to do our workout. Failing because we were still too knackered and achy from doing two cardio/core workouts on Saturday. We tried. That's the important thing right?!

So that was pretty much our Sunday. If you like random stuff like this, tag along on Instagram, where I try and post more of the same, random shit! 

How was your Sunday?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things #12

With the clocks jumping an hour forward last Sunday here in the US, there's a extra sense of spring in the air. The days are getting warmer and longer, bulbs are popping up everywhere and more and more birds are chirping and fluttering in to garden for a nosy. Oncoming spring also means the arrival of annoying weather like three hour long thunderstorm early Wednesday morning, I always forgot how hideously loud the bangs and booms are in Michigan. 

The promise of spring has created a little bit of inner peace within myself. This week in particular I feel I might be getting somewhere with my stress and there's lots of plan making to be doing. 

So without further-ado, here's an assortment in no particular order (order being overrated) of random small, but happy things.

• Getting my Brit fix while popping to the store that has a decent British international section - this trip calling for Wetabix and salad cream. And no, sadly to everyone who thought I ate them together when I shared this on instagram, I don't. 
• Talking about British food, those scotch eggs from One Eyed Betty's.
• Finding Tubi TV on our Roku which has a sizable collection of British shows, even ones more recent then Netflix. Even better it's FREE!
• Said Tubi TV also has a couple of Transformer shows on which makes the OH happy.
• Speaking of TV, the second seasons of Happy Valley and Dinotrux popping up on Netflix - happy TV days indeed. 
• Reading - Midnight in Perking and The Other Daughter. 
• Starting out new tradition of (homemade) taco Tuesday, even making my own guacamole and taco sauce (playing with all the spices!!) for the first time. 
• Talking of spices, turning an old spice rack into a nail polish holder. Sometimes those Pinterest craft ideas actually work.
• Lots of spring bulbs popping up around my garden - tulips, daffodils and flowering crocuses. Especially excited for the bulbs showing in the two new flower beds I dug lining out front path last year. 
• Cuddles on the sofa with Joe and Eddy - purrs all round.
• Cats and paper bags, which are nearly as good as empty boxes. Also getting an empty box and now not being able to remove it from the living room because the cats love it.
• Onto god knows what week of using Daily Burns True Beginner workout (for everyone who has asked, I will be doing a review/round up once we finish this program) and getting a lot stronger. We started kickboxing which week and it's AWESOME!
• Also starting Pilates, which ached and killed me, but fun all the same. 
• Finishing my crochet wreath! 
• Ordering lots of seeds for the garden - herbs, flowers and even going to attempt to grow cacti!
• 1940's radio. I'm sick of constant Trump & US election talk on the radio, so I spend most mornings chilling out to the 1940's UK radio station, which suits me perfectly. 

And everything I came remember, and if you made it to the end of the list, well congrats to you!

What's been rocking your world?

Rachael

FOOD: Hold On The Brits are Coming ... With Their Scotch Eggs

Think about stereotypical British food and scotch eggs may top your list, or at least come close, perhaps alongside pork pies, fish n chips, sausages rolls and even mushy peas. Surprisingly, scotch eggs are making a fast experience in pubs and eateries in Metro Detroit of all places outside of your British themed pubs. 

I have to be honest here, from leaving the UK to this March, I haven't eaten a scotch egg (or sausage rolls, bakewell tart .... it's an endless list). Hearing about the tend, reading all the restaurant reviews, well it was making this Brit hungry. 

But what on earth is a scotch egg I hear you non British folk cry?! Well take a boiled egg, wrap it in sausage meat and breadcrumbs, fry away and there you go. One scotch egg. Typically us British eat it as is hot or cold. It's often considered a picnic food, a snack or have with your lunch. Here in the US it's appearing more and more on menu's as an appetizer, a snack to have with your beer often served hot with a dipping sauce - think ranch, a hot sauce or mustard.

While the history of the scotch egg is a little up in the air - no ones really too sure of it's origins. Fortnum & Mason, the London department store happen to lay claim to them having invented them back in 1738. Others argue they have a more Indian cuisine background. Either way the British have laid claim to them and we just love to eat them.

Scotch eggs have become so much of a popular, perhaps we could say hipster food that Eater dedicated an entire list to finding them in Metro Detroit. One such place was One Eyed Betty's - a gastopub with lots, and lots of beers, pinball machines and as it happens awesome tasting food - including their scotch eggs - yippie! (they even have crispy Brussel sprouts as an appetizer too - apparently loving their random British foods). Served with a hot sauce, they were everything I could have wanted and hoped a scotch egg could be, and more.

Whether this is a growing tend across the US, who's to say? Maybe it's because they are a kinda quirky hand food, great to share, easily eaten and enjoyed with a beer and kinda like an all day breakfast food. I've personally seen them pop up on a menu while eating at the British (no surprise there) themed Piper's Pub in Pittsburgh, PA. Back in January 2014 the Chicago Tribune published a piece on the scotch eggs increasing menu presence with the rise of the small plate restaurant. But I'm just happy they're more readily available on my doorstep.

So I guess alongside my adventures in hunting out fish n chips, I have another British food stuff to eat, enjoy and as always, compare.

Any excuse for eating out ... any excuse ...
 
Places mentioned:

One Eyed Betty's: 175 W. Troy St, Ferndale, MI, 48220
Piper's Pub: 1828 E. Carson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Rachael

FOOD: Celebrating Easter with the British Hamper Company

Even as an adult, you gotta love Easter for all the chocolate. While America too loves it's "candy" this time of year, there's nothing like some British tasting chocolate celebrations. Whether you live in my British homeland, you're an expat or have an interest in trying out some British chocolate wherever you are in the world, there is a great company to head to for satisfying that chocolate craving at Easter time! The British Hamper Company is here to answer all your British food needs.

Based out of Lincolnshire, The British Hamper Company prides themselves on offering quality service in producing imaginative luxury gift hampers. Whether you're looking for an Easter gift, craving some retro sweets, fancy giving something different for a wedding gift or need some early ideas for Christmas, they all offer a taste of Britain. Inside their hampers, you'll find a great selection reflecting the "exciting and passionate British food landscape" with food from award winning British artisans and independent food producers.

Sounds good right?!

Full of delicious goodies, the Easter gift hamper comes with a fine selection of nine delights of artisan chocolate from Britain's leading chocolatiers. An Easter egg made with butterscotch truffles (mmm) from London's Monty Bojanges to incredibly cute little Easter chicks and some tasty looking drinking chocolate from Chocca Mocca. It all comes in this adorably cute British themed bespoke packaging that is so getting reused in my craft room! Those raining clouds, are just too cute.

If you find yourself living on this side of the pond like me, the final final order date for guaranteed Easter delivery of the Easter Hamper to the USA and Canada is today (Friday 27th) so get your fingers filling in that order form asap! Fear not if you're in the UK, you have extra breathing room with final orders up to April 1st. 

International customers need not worry about delivery times nor poor packaging because the British Hamper Company make international delivery easy, secure and low fuss!  Typically USA bound delivery takes 4 days (perfect!). They also work on a preferred delivery date system, so if you're planning ahead for future celebrations, you can choose when you'd like your hamper to be delivered by. They also do an excellent job in securely wrapping not only the perishables, but also the hamper itself. Which is an added winner in my book! If you're an expat or thinking of treating yourself to some British chocolate from overseas, you can find out more about international delivery and service here.

Whether you fancy an Easter treat for yourself or you know someone who deserves one, you can't go wrong with this hamper! Personally I think I'll be hinting for that Retro Sweet hamper in the future for myself - there's so many childhood memories contained in that hamper! Right now, well I'm looking very much forward to getting very well acquainted with all this chocolate over the Easter weekend!

You can find out more about the British Hamper Company through their website, twitter or facebook page.

Disclosure: I received the Easter Hamper from the British Hamper Company for review purposes. all words, photographs and thoughts are all my own.