Amy Comes to Visit!

Last week my dear friend and co-favorite college roommate, Amy, came to visit.  And we had some much needed girl time. Truth be told I'm still lacking in the girl friend department in England so I am pretty sure I talked Amy's ears off.  Yes both of them.  But luckily, seeing as she is our 12th visitor to England, I'm getting pretty damn good at this tour guiding thing.  If only the British weather would cooperate a little better.  

Here's a rundown of our week in pictures....

The first night we went for a sundown walk in the Peak District.

Picturesque, No?

Then we went to Chatsworth.  Again.  

I love Chatsworth though so thats OK.  Especially the gardens.  

They don't get old.

The of course we had to go to London.  

We stayed in a very cheap girls only hostel which I can highly recommend

 for poor female travelers called Piccadilly Guest House.

 The plan was to see the major tourist spots, but England had other ideas.  

So shortly after this was taken we headed off to Harrods where they were having a sale!  

Hurrah!

We had dinner at my favorite restaurant in all of England, Bumpkin, then we went off to the West End to see Dirty Dancing. Ohhh Johnny!  No one puts baby in the corner!

When we came back to Sheffield I took Amy for a little more English countryside action.  

I love the Peak District.  

It's God's country (according to the locals anyways.)  

I must say I agree... at least when the sun is shining.  

I made a lil picnic.

 But then we had to go home because my hair was just not cooperating.  

Forrealz.

But not before Heidi pissed off a herd of sheep.  Eeeeeeeeeek!  

Sheep are creepy sometimes.

But then we saw these cute little baby horses on the way home.  

Awwwwww.  I love country life.

And then Amy and I passed out.

Note:  While we were curled up uncomfortably on the couch Heidi was in my bed.  

Typical.  

I take this to mean I was a successful tour guide.  

ps.  I didn't include pictures of our spa day at Harrogate Turkish Baths .  (this is due to the fact that there were looooooooooads of naked ladies wandering around and taking photos would have been totally inappropriate... fyi the English are so much more comfortable than Americans with nudity.)  But besides the fact that Amy and I were somewhat uncomfortable with nudies, and we creepily checked out the more ample hair styles sported by the very self assured British ladies, we had a wonderful time at the beautiful spa and this is certainly going on the guest list itinerary.  

Miss you already, Amy!

And thanks to Mr. and Mrs. N for buying her plane tickets!  What would we do without our parents?!

Our Cow Molly

Ok so I already admitted Sarah and I are bad influences on each other.

But I must confess - this one was my idea...

Please don't judge.

Our Cow Molly  makes fabulous ice cream right on their farm.

It's the best ice cream I've ever tasted.

Ever.

It's a pretty adorable little shop.  

Speaking of adorable, this little girl lives on the farm.

She introduced us to her favorite cow.

She also likes ice cream.

Note the chocolate covered chin.

I like ice cream too.

I scream for ice cream.

Is there a single picture of me on this blog where I'm not eating?

Don't answer that.

I took thousands of photos so I could make your mouths water.

I had lemon and crystallized ginger ice cream.

A little strange?  Let me assure you it was...

To Die For.

It really was delicious.  

ps.  I am back on the cleanse now.  And I have healthy recipes to share with you soon.

What do you prefer, pictures of ice cream and cupcakes or healthy fresh fruit and veggies?

Tea and Cupcakes

So about that Cleanse....

My friend, Sarah, was here until yesterday, and it didn't go so well.

I'm not sure whether she is a bad influence on me... or I am a bad influence on her.

But we are definitely a bad influence on each other.

But you only live once right?

And I had to take her to Cocoa.

It's just the cutest place ever.

I know you've seen it before.

yawn.

But it just makes me happy.

So here it is again....

We drank so much tea!

I felt little crack headish after my

2,398th cup.

Can you tell?

I think Sarah did too.

When in Rome, eh?

If you come visit me I'll take you here too.

Promise.

ps.  I missed you this week, blogosphere.

pss. That shirt I'm wearing is the first thing I've bought from a thrift store - part of number 80 on my 100 things to do list.  What do you think you fashionista bloggers - cute or totally grandma-ish?

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Riverford is such a great scheme.  We order a "box" and get to be surprised with fruits and veggies we would never really think to buy.  This week's super fun veggie (or is it a fruit?) was rhubarb.  I was pumped.  My great grandpa used to make a mean strawberry rhubarb pie, so I decided it would be great to reproduce it here and blog about it.  After much investigative work (two emails), it has been concluded that Papa's rhubarb pie recipe died when he did (at the ripe old age of 100!), and it is no longer to be found.  Or else my mom and aunt are just too busy to go hunting for these things and it will turn up somewhere one day... fingers crossed!

Until then, I needed a substitute, and I found one, over at Dessert for Breakfast.  I was totally blown away with her photos and thought, man if this girl is half as good at cooking as she is at food photography this recipe is not going to disappoint.... (seriously, go check out her pictures for some mouth watering food porno).

And woo hoo it sure didn't!  The crumble was sweet, but with just enough salt to contrast the sweetness of the fruit, and a bit of orange zest for extra complexity.

I called Nick on his way home from work (he had a very big, important day yesterday thats why I made this for him, really I swear... ) and I asked him to pick up some vanilla ice cream at the corner store where he gets off the bus... They were out of vanilla, so he got strawberry.  Works for me!!

This is seriously SO good.  I'm not going to post the recipe, because I followed it spot on and you can see it here.

Oh and that ice cream?  I am a little afraid to say this, but my dear Cincinnatians, it beats Graeters... It's from a Sheffield company called Our Cow Molly, and I have never tasted ice cream so delicious.  Apparently they make it with milk and cream from their own cows right on the farm.  Nick and I are planning to go there soon, so I'll keep you posted.  Until then, I will be hiding from my fellow Cincinnatians for saying such blaspheming things against Graeters....

Picnics and Chameleons

On Tuesday Nick had off work for the Easter holidays so we had a picnic!  It was a bit chilly and windy, but there were plenty of people out enjoying the park... even the icecream man made an appearance!

We picked up some sandwiches from this little place called The Honey Pot, which I'd been dying to go to.  It has such a delicious sounding name don't you think?  Especially when all the other sandwich shops have names like "Pulled Pork Sandwich Shop"  Umm... not the best place for your favorite vegetarian.

Alas, in the country, vegetarian food is hard to come by and even in The Honey Pot, the best they had to offer was a sub par egg salad sandwich.

While we were out we stumbled across the coolest reptile shop ever.  Now I'm not normally in the business of sharing my dreams on this little blog, but a few weeks ago I had the most vivid dream about Heidi playing with a pet chameleon named Charlie.  I have been wanting a chameleon desperately ever since, but where the hell do you even buy a chameleon? Well this reptile shop sold them!

The owner asked if I kept reptiles, and I replied, "no but I had a dream about a chameleon and I've wanted one ever since!"  I could see his crazy lady / terrible reptile pet owner alert going off in his head, so I pulled the....

I've worked with cheetahs....

And elephants....

and Sumatran rhinoceros line. (coolest animal ever FYI, this is Emi and Harapan, they're famous)

I'm not sure if at that point he thought I was a complete nutter, but he seemed to believe me enough to tell me its chameleon breeding season!  And brand new (captive bred) chameleon babies will be available in a few weeks!

(Via)

Now these little cuties run about £100 a pop, and thats not including the fancy set up they require.  They're also prone to stress meaning they die easily and only live for 2-5 years if well taken care of.  Plus, the reptile guy said they are a lot of work and give you no affection, he recommended a bearded dragon as they are apparently more affectionate reptiles.  However, I still want/need/must have a baby chameleon.  

HAVE I LOST MY BLOODY MIND?

A Country Walk

Hey Folks,

Looks like we've moved to the country.  We're really loving it here so far.  The air is clean and the people are nice, and the land is beautiful.  I pass these friendly livestock when I walk the dog, and thought I might introduce them to you too.

Say hello to the sheep.  The lambs have just arrived and they're the cutest little things ever.  

We also meet plenty of horses.  Heidi thinks they are massive dogs and tries to sneak under their fences to play with them (we don't let her do this, obviously).  But luckily, for her little puppy ego, they usually humor her and come over to say hello.

This is Charlie.  I know his name because his owners put this sign up on his fence.

Can you believe them?  Calling him out on his weight like that! How utterly embarrassing!  Don't worry Charlie, we all have a few extra pounds to shed!  Isn't that right piglets?!