Forget me not dress.

Totally !!
This will be the one I will certainly not forget ;) for few reasons.
I had 10 minutes before meeting my friend,so I went to the closest shop and had a little wonder ;)I found dresses reduced to 5 pounds,but the one I have got hold of was still original price,mixed in with all the reduced dresses. Still. I went to ask, if it was put there by mistake, I would like to know if it cost 5 pounds by any chance ;)? The girl did a price check for me and said : No it is not 5 pounds. It costs a pound.
 Would I leave this dress behind ? No! Of course NOT ! ;)
I thought to myself...
What a lucky day ! I have got myself a bargain. :D

 Forget me not dress is so nice. Reminds me of Grace Kelly's style. I will wear it with a black belt...and probably a blue shoes ...?

Forget me not dress is to good to be true...;) but it is...

Vanilla  xx

Coming back from holiday.

Hi everyone!

I don't like coming back from holiday specially from Poland. It's so difficult say goodbye my niece, 2 nephews, my parents, sisters and all my friends. The only thing what keeps me going is next visit which I hope will be soon and longer then one week. 

During my holiday I had the First Communion of my niece and the Christening of my daughter, two very important event in my life. Both my princesses looked amazing in white dresses.

I spend lovely time with my whole family.
Ginger  xxx

Out and about - part II

St. Albans, Hertfordshire

Picnics with toddlers are great fun. You get loads of fresh air, they get tired by running around - or bottom shuffling around :-) - plus the food tastes better in a nice park than at home - just be careful with wasps and bees. 

When I picked my friend up from Luton airport we decided to explore a new town as driving in the car is as tiring as flying. We decided to go somewhere not too far away from the airport and also not too far way from the motorway. So when I checked the map beforehand I thought we could go to Aylesbury but then on the motorway I saw the signs for St Albans. I liked the name and the tourist signs were promising too. So off we went with great weather.
I like packing my picnic bag at home as it is cheaper and I know what my mini-flavour will eat - well sometimes she won't eat what I got but will finish whatever sandwich I buy lol. For our half day out I just got us some sandwiches and vegetable crisps - I actually thought they are better for you than usual ones, but they taste nice at least - and some carrot cake. I always need a pudding and Toblerone is the same now ;-).
In St Albans it wasn't easy to find parking as two car parks were full already - so take your time as you don't want to end up too far away from the centre. It is a nice town, pretty and some unusual shops and historic buildings. But there was a lot of traffic and the pedestrian precinct is tiny. But we found the cathedral and a big park around - perfect for chilling out and enjoying the sunny spring weather. Afterwards we just went around a bit more but that part was a bit boring for my little one. I kept her busy by letting her push the pram - really sweet.

All in all exploring a town is still a nice idea with my toddler but I have to have a picnic break in between. And it's definitely only a half day experience :-). St. Albans is worth a visit.

Cinnamon x

Grass is green, sun is shining....

 4 flavours out for the first picnic this Summer..Destination - Meadows under St.Catherine's Hill

We couldn't miss today's sunny afternoon....Ginger just got back from holiday....and I am going soon...so it was nice to see each other and catch up....She is sad her holiday is over...And I am so excited am soon flying away...

  Ginger ,Cinnamon and Pepper are playing with Mini Flavours..
Vanilla is taking pictures ;)

  Ginger and her sweet little Princess are having fun. We all had a little share and cuddle...lovely smiles...Ginger was telling us about her holiday and she showed us pictures from the Christening...

Cinnamon's Mini Flavour -Toblerone was trying on Pepper's sunglasses, she absolutely loved it and kept saying Gorgeous ;)to herself... We had to laugh... Shame I haven't got a good picture of her...I could post on here...perhaps...one of the girls caught the moment ;D Toblerone is calling my name all the time, it is so cute...am melting ;D Me and her were playing aeroplane together......and walking around Meadows under the St. Catherine's Hill. Toblerone is still not too steady on her feet , but progressing every day....well done my little friend !
           It really was fun to see my wonderful friends before my holiday...and we hope to meet up when I get back...
  June is going to be so filled up with many events...I'll be busy having fun.....Holiday, Wedding N.3, Outing with 4 flavours for afternoon tea at Avington Park hopefully ;) and Red Carpet Birthday Party on 26/6/15 will be a Cherry on the top of my Special month JUNE ...

Vanilla xx

Chocolate protein bar

Hello all,
as always on lovely Monday, today Bank Holiday Monday. When I have day off time goes so quick. Quick coffee, quick shopping, gym and suddenly is evening time. When I was at gym today I was thinking how to replace protein bar. The healthy ones are very expensive, non healthy are not worth buying. Then I started reading different opinions and I realized that I don't have to replace them. I can make my own protein bars. First of all you have to decide what do you like. For my protein bars you will need:
- 150 g of protein powder (chocolate )
- 75 g of oats
- 75 g of mixed nuts
- 75 g of dried fruits
- 100 g of dark chocolate
- 75 ml of milk
- 2 tbs of jam
- 2 tbs of peanut butter
You can choose any nuts you like or use just one your favorite type, the same with dried fruit. I prefer banana, cranberries, and apricots. Make sure your jam and peanut butter have got very little sugar ideally sugar free. You want them bars to be as healthy as possible.

In bowl mix all the dry ingredients: oats, powder, chopped dried fruits and nuts. In a pan heat up milk, then add chopped chocolate, peanut butter and jam. Mix all until all the ingredients will combine. Add your mixture to the dry ingredients and stir. Knead them with your hand. If the mixture seemed to dry add some milk. Prepare food container- line it with clean film. Place your mixture in food container , flatten until even, cut into bar shape. Cool it and store it in a fridge. From that mixture I can make 10 bars.

Enjoy :)

Pepper xxx

Mama's time out :-)

Sometimes you need to relax and recharge your batteries - away from home, even just for a few hours. I met my friend and we went out on Friday. We had cocktails 

 a nice meal

 and ice cream for pudding

- what more can you want? And of course we were chatting chatting chatting...

And because my friend stayed overnight we went to Oxford yesterday - together with hubby and our little princess - but again we had a few hours girls time as my darling visited friends himself together with our daughter. So to start our city tour right my friend and I had a Prosecco and some cake

and then off we went to the shops and also a little bit of sightseeing...

And now I am ready for the week ahead!

Cinnamon x

I keep the tradition going...

with my Mum's traditional , home made pastry's .
We call them Tasticky, which means ... Pastry purses. I guess because they are filled in with goodies.
Tradition must go on....am sure you all have one of those recipes, that you will remember for ever. Each  time this lovely vanilla pastry smell is spreading in the house I can imagine myself back home, in the living room with my family , having never ending chats and coffee after coffee accompanied with a mountain of those cakes ;P...
Why am I craving my Mums pastry's ??
Because I feel quite homesick now, and am so ready to go home....:D

Are you ready to try them?
You  will need :           1/2 kg flour
                           yeast 20 g
                           1 table spoon of sugar
                           tiny bit of salt
                           2 dcl warm milk
                           1 egg
                           250 g margarine

Now separate your flour into 3 parts - the same amounts...
2 parts will go into a dough and one stays on the side - you can put it in a bowl.

Prepare your dough: Into warm milk mix your sugar, egg and yeast.
                            Than add flour and salt , combine well , keep nodding the dough, to get enough air in it, When the dough separates away from the bowl and your hand , it is ready for you to leave it aside. Cover it with a towel and leave it in a warm room. Temperature is quite important for yeast to work well.

Now, the rest of flour, that we left in the bowl , mix it with a margarine and create a rectangle shape.

When first part the dough is ready, spread it and put the rectangle shape on top and fold the dough over it, so you make a square.

 Fold half way from top to bottom

and than half way from the left and half way from the right to create a square.

 Leave it for 15 min.Roll it again and fold again. Repeat the process  2-3 times .
Than the dough is ready , so spread it and cut squares, which you can feel in with jam.
Or you can make them special with the Cream cheese filling and jam like I do.

 Cream cheese filling : Cream cheese
                              1 egg yolk ( keep the white for the top of pastries )
                              Grind of 1 lemon
                              juice from 1/2 lemon
                              20 g of Vanilla sugar
                              30 g of powder sugar ( you can use more or less )

                                   Apricot jam and Cherry jam are my favorite.
Don't forget to gloss them with a egg white.

Here they are, out of the oven, sprinkled with sugar and ready to eat ;) 

Enjoy , just like we do....This is home to me :D

Only one more week to go...and I'll be there...at home .....

Vanilla xx

Out and about - part I

The Living Rainforest (Hampstead Norreys, Thatcham, West Berkshire)

I just love visiting new places - explore, take pictures, have a cup of tea or coffee and maybe even a sweet treat. After I had my little one I found it quite difficult to carry on doing this. When your baby is very little you are grateful for quiet minutes where you can rest, shower or eat - maybe even tidy up a bit. But going out seems too difficult as you have to take loads of things - you'll always forget something anyway - but still you can't be sure if the day goes well. As my little munchkin is a bit older now I started to visit places again - but of course they have to be toddler friendly or at least a little bit interesting to keep my mini-me happy. So wherever we are going there has to be something for both of us ;-). 

Together with a friend of mine we went to the Living Rainforest which is close to Newbury. It is quite a small attraction but definitely worth a visit. First it is easy to find as long as you follow the signs - although you might think you missed a turn as it is situated in one of those picturesque country roads. Once you've parked your car in the free car park you enter the small building - passing the play area. You pay a fee that allows you to visit the rainforest for a whole year as they are a charitable organization - so you have to give them a few details of yours. Then you get a map and off you go entering the rainforest. I don't know why I didn't think of the humidity and the heat when I got dressed that morning - and when dressing my little one. It was just above 30 degress and I was wearing a dress with tights and boots and even my daughter was wearing too many layers - a bit silly really. But nevermind lol. 

We first entered the "Lowland House" where you can see loads of nice plants - e.g. a giant fern or a cocoa tree.

Unfortunately we couldn't find the invertebrates in their terrarium so we went to the next area called "Amazonica House". In this part there are a few more animals to see - even a few ones flying or crawling around freely e.g. lizards and partridges.

Among others we also saw tortoises, a dwarf crocodile and a really big bird-eating spider - very hairy but I really wouldn't want to cuddle it. 

My little one had a great time and was fascinated by some of the birds making a lot of noise and the little monkeys. As it was quite hot we went to the little cafe after exploring. Tea and cake were really nice :-). Afterwards we went outside to try out the play area which was fun too - they've got play equipment for toddlers and older children. 

So I definitely recommend the Living Rainforest for a nice chilled day out with your family - we went during the week where there were only a few people so it might be a lot busier on weekends. We will come back this year as I'd like to see the butterflies and the giant amazon water lily. 

Who would like to join us?

Cinnamon x

Exploring South - Winchester - St. Cross and beyond

It was such a lovely day on Saturday when Vanilla and I met for a spontaneous walk. But it turned out to be far more than just a nice walk around St. Catherines Hill in Winchester. The sun was shining and the birds were singing as we walked towards St. Cross Church. My little one was with us still improving her walking when holding one hand each and walking in between us. We stopped occasionally - resting little feet and tired arms - but it was a nice time to absorb our surroundings and take pictures.

First stop. Very comfortable (and quite hot) on that old log. Lovely view onto St. Catherines Hill.

 "Let me explain the World to you"

Look at those colours ;-)

 "Do you see the flag?"

 This actually reminded me a bit of Harry Potter...

Afterwards we shared tea for two and sat down and enjoyed a bit more sunshine!

 Cinnamon and Vanilla x

Cinnamon is right...The day was absolutely beautiful. We felt really lucky, when we realized , that St . Cross was opened to the public that day.
Now we know...so here are the opening times for you, if you would like to visit.
Summer 1st April - 31st October
9:30 - 17:00 Monday - Saturday
        13:00 - 17:00 Sundays                

The gardens with the pond...at the back of the Abbey .

I always liked stained glass windows...

Brethren's Hall and also you can visit The ancient kitchens...

At the end we had a nice cup of tea...even nicer, it was for free, as we were one of the last customers ;D
Someone is trying hard to take it away .... Who could that be!?

Thank you for visiting St.Cross with us.
Vanilla and Cinnamon ;) xx

Holiday

Holiday season time to begin. First pre summer shopping. My holiday this year will be in pink.

Hopefully you all booked your holidays and soon enough we can share and be jealous.
Enjoy the rest of your favorite day Monday. After long day at work I'm going to sleep, wishing you lovely night :)
Pepper xxx

Flavour's favourite recipes - I am cooking but what does my mini-flavour think? - PART II -

As promised on Wednesday I cooked barley risotto but not with chicken saltimbocca but with turkey breast steaks (I didn't have enough time on Thursday). This is how it turned out:

It was very tasty. I just think it would have been even nicer with more sweet potatoes (I used two bigger ones). I also used fresh Terragon (wow, so nice!) and dried basil. Yummy. My little princess had it too and she liked it :-). 

So I definitely recommend this risotto. Maybe I try it with different vegetables next time... 

Cinnamon x

P.S. I reheated lecho yesterday evening and served it with boiled rice again and guess what my daughter had it and just couldn't get enough of it... lol.