Cherry jam

Whilst out walking the dogs on Saturday, we came across some massive cherry trees. The fruits were perfectly ripe so I rushed back to get a couple of bags and got picking! We picked about 6kg of black cherries but pitting them took so much time that I only made about 1kg into jam... 

Take 1kg of cherries, pitted, and boil in a big preserving pan with 200ml of water until the cherries go soft. I mashed half of mine but left a lot of them full as I like chunky jJam. Then add the juice of 3 lemons and 1kg of jam sugar and bring to a rolling boil for about 10 mins or until the jam reaches a set. Then pot into sterilised Kilner jars [this recipe made just over 2 jars of the same size as below] I can't wait to have some of this in my porridge in the morning :)

                       

Toronto

I haven't been too great at blogging of late as we have been on holiday for Luke's Dad's 50th birthday, and as we have recently moved house and are yet to get the Internet, I didn't get round to scheduling any posts. Mind you, this is a belated post anyway, as it has taken Luke about 3 months to give me some photos off his camera.

For Luke's 25th birthday last year, I bought us flights to Toronto for April just gone. Both of us love exploring but we usually keep it to Europe so I thought it would be great for us to go further afield.

We were only there for 5 days so we did a lot of researching to make sure we saw and did all we wanted.

I could write for hours about everything we crammed in, but I've tried to be concise :)

> Whilst we were there, the Blue Jays, Toronto's baseball team, were hosting the New York Yankees, so we made sure we got down there. Sadly we lost, but the atmosphere [and the hot dogs] were great.

> Every day started with a massive brunch of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup and lots of freshly brewed coffee [all consumed before I could get to the camera]

Aunties and Uncles - a great retro diner which served amazing pancakes 

You can't go to Toronto without taking a trip out to Niagara Falls... which was started with a helicopter ride...

> Luke insisted on going to the Mill Street brewpub [he loves his ales]. We intended to go for just one drink, but we spent about 4 hours there, having met some lovely girls from Boston [and consuming endless pints and cocktails]...

> And obviously we couldn't miss a trip up the CN tower, coupled with dinner in the 360 restaurant at the top.

Toronto was a lovely place and this trip was only a taster. We definitely intend to go back, having been advised by the locals that with every changing season, the city becomes something different.

Proud sister

This little beauty is my [not-so] baby sister who has today graduated from Cardiff University with a law degree

Despite the fact that she has completely overshadowed me, and her grad picture will be bigger than mine. I don't care. I am so proud of her :) 

Guilt free chicken tikka

Luke and I have been trying for ages to start eating healthily, but who can resist a lovely Chinese or a Nandos after a hard days' work?!

I found this recipe in a slimming world book and thought I'd give it a whirl. 

And it's such a simple recipe:

Mix bite sized pieces of chicken with some natural yoghurt, tikka curry powder, some lime juice, some grated ginger and some crushed garlic. Then grill for ten minutes. 

It's completely sin free too :)

We had it with some salad and some diced tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. 

(and a glass of wine. Sshh). 

A perfect summers evening

We've been so busy this week that we haven't had a chance to get out and enjoy the warm(ish) evenings.

Last night we had Luke's parents' dogs for a sleepover and our evening mostly went like this: 

^ raspberry picking     

^ a juicy bowl of homegrown raspberries v

^ and some dog walking

So tell me, how have you been spending your summer's evenings? 

Meet...

Our adopted cat - Milo.

*excuse the horrendous carpet. It will be gone soon. Promise. 

Technically he's not adopted. At all. But today Luke came home and left the front door open and the cat followed. 

He had a good explore and then left. But I am going to make it my quest to steal him. See, Luke won't let us have our own cat. Or a dog. Or even a teeny rabbit [it makes sense considering we will be soon living in a make shift shack as we are demolishing the house], but even so. 

Summer is here!

I'm sure everyone can agree that it was a must to make the most of the gorgeous weather this weekend. 

I spent the majority of Saturday baking cupcakes for my [not so] baby sister's 21st birthday so it meant I had all day Sunday to sit and chill. I even managed to persuade Luke to not go into work so we could make the most of it together. 

With Murray in the final of Wimbledon, it meant only one thing - a glass of wine in a pub beer garden with the match on the TV. We came home after the second set, and celebrated Murray's win, and finished the day with a little bit of crafting. 

It was really nice to just sit and not clock watch at all all day and just appreciate and make the most of the weather. And after Murray's win, I feel even more proud to be british, don't you?!

                  Birthday cupcakes 

                  Strawberry wine :)

 Me and my lovely mom in law [note the sunburnt shoulders:(]