Welcome!!!

Hello my lovely readers! I have finally moved over to Blogger! LOOK at my new design!!! It's pretty darn ace, isn't it?! You don't have me to thank for this beautiful layout, but my lovely designer Veronika over at by the shore. Veronika was beyond patient and made this process seem like a lovely cup of coffee, rather than the complicated coding hell (thanks, Weebly) it actually was! I would recommend her services over and over again, so if you fancy a new look, head over to her site and have a gander :)

You'll have to bear with me as I move all my old posts over from Weebly (which isn't easy due to their evil coding), but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the new posts that I have planned. I'm trying to be a bit of a cleaner blogger. To post more regularly and have some new features that I'm really excited about. On that note, I'm off to battle with Photoshop (we're becoming better friends) to finish off said new posts! I hope you love this new little space as much as I do, so put your feet up, brew a cuppa and have a nosy...

 

work in progress...

                                                            {image credit}

Hello my lovelies! Just wanted to let you know that I'm right in the middle of migrating all of my posts over to my new Blogger space. Hopefully it'll be up and running in the next few days, but until then I won't be posting any new posts (I know, you'll miss me!).

See you on the other side! :)

{Post originally from July 2014, migrated from Weebly}.

five guys {in photos}

I'm pretty sure these photos do all the talking, but just to make sure you get it...I LOVE FIVE GUYS! I know that the general consensus is divided, but O and I were mighty impressed. We went to the Trafford Centre location in Manchester {O's hometown, we didn't drive all that way just for a Five Guys...honest} and couldn't fault them. I love that you get to choose your own toppings or go "all the way" like O did. The fries!!! Oh my...best fries ever! Bold statement, I know, but they were just soooo darn good. Then there's the drinks machine. Over 100 different flavours. I had raspberry Coke, yup...raspberry! Can I go back right this moment? I'm drooling as I type this. Now, it's not cheap, but for something that we'll only have once in a while (my heart and waistline thank me for this) it's completely justifiable.

If you're lucky enough to have a location near you, get down there and order the bacon cheeseburger, fries and a raspberry Coke. You won't be disappointed! 

{Post originally from July 2014, migrated from Weebly}.  

RECIPE :: Butternut Squash & Lime Soup

I know that soup isn't exactly the summer staple, but this recipe is so tasty that you'll want to be eating it all year long! This recipe was modified from a Weight Watchers one, which you can find here. I've made a few different versions of this soup over the last few months, my favourite two being this one and another which has roasted garlic instead of the lime....yum!

Now, let me tell you the recipe for this lovely soup...

Ingredients:

1 portion of butternut squash {peeled, de-seeded and diced into 1 inch cubes}
2 medium onions {quartered}
2 cubes of vegetable stock {dissolved in two pints of hot water}
1 lime {the juice of}
Pinch of salt and black pepper to season

Method:- Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7/220°C/425°F.
- Place the diced butternut squash and onion in a large roasting pan or baking dish. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes, until tender {if you are doing the roasted garlic version, I would add your chopped garlic in here too}.
- Remove from oven, tip into saucepan and add the stock.
- Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Let cool about 15 minutes {do not pour hot soup directly into food processor, or you risk it exploding}.
- Purée in batches in blender or food processor.
- Once blended, pour the soup into a sauce pan and add the juice of one lime and season with salt & pepper to taste.

Adding in the lime at the end really gives it a refreshing edge, perfect for this time of year. The roasted garlic or curry versions are great in the autumn and winter. For those of you who are calorie counting it's also super healthy (0PP for those Weight Watchers out there) and makes a perfect light lunch or pre-dinner appetiser. If you do make it, tag me in your photos (Instagram) or leave your links below so I can drool at them! 

 

life lately // wednesday catch up!

Hey pals, it's been a little while since we had a catch up, isn't it? Life ain't too exciting over here, but sometimes it's the mundane things that make life good, eh?

:: O and I will be making some big decisions over the next few weeks. I can't say anything for sure yet, but watch this space.

:: O has been working like a million hours over the last two weeks, so we haven't been up to too much lately, just getting on with the every day things...making dinner, food shopping etc. Sometimes it's nice to have a quiet week or two where you can just chill out, especially after having a few crazy weeks.

:: I went to the driving range with O on Sunday and I loved it! I couldn't get my swing on too much, as my back is still healing, but it's kinda a good past time if you've got some rage to work through...smacking the ball and all that!!

:: I've still been following Weight Watchers since we joined. Had a break when I hurt my back again and now I think I may have to change meetings as O's hours have changed, so he can't give me a lift to this one! Still doing well though. Don't get me wrong, some days I would much rather be munching into a giant burger or pizza rather than eating a healthy stir fry or salad. But you gotta do, what you gotta do...right?!

:: I bought Jamie's 15 Minute Meals a few weeks ago and I love it. Tonight I'm making the spring frittata, O is a lucky boy!

:: I also bought this little One Sketch A Day ^^ book. Trying to get a little creative these days!

:: Have any of you guys watched The Killing on Netflix? Been having a serious marathon today and yesterday...it's so so good!

:: I've been reading like a maniac. There's nothing nicer than sitting outside in the sun reading. I think I already told you what I'd been reading in a previous post. If you need some recommendations, let me know. I'm kinda stuck trying to get into a new book at the moment due to the last book being so epic. Do you ever find that? Some books just stick with you a little longer.

:: As I'm typing this I'm waiting on a Tesco food shop being delivered. Our local Tesco gives me supermarket rage, so I've been all over online shopping at the moment!

:: Today has been a good blog catch up today, there's loads of good posts out there at the moment. Get on Bloglovin' and have a little mooch.

:: I am so excited to have a weekend off with O this weekend. Hoping the weather is good, today is looking a little grim. No plans as yet, but I think some relaxing is in order. Maybe a BBQ and a sneaky little beer?

:: I think I chose the wrong time of year to chop all my hair off. It's been SO humid and it's too short to tie it up...what was I thinking? Grow hair, grow!

:: Last night we went for a little drive to blow some cobwebs away. We blasted some of our favourite tunes and drove around in the countryside with the windows down. Came home and promptly passed out in bed!

:: We've been having a board game revival recently. One night a week we play either Scrabble, Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. I seriously kick ass at Scrabble, but not so much at the other two....

Well chums, that's pretty much all I've been up to lately...nothing groundbreaking! Just been enjoying having some time to ourselves. What have you been up to lately?

frustrated!!

Ever had one of those moments when you want to chuck you MacBook out the window? Well this is where I was at yesterday. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I'm trying to move away from the Weebly blogging platform to WordPress. Why I hear you ask? Well, initially I loved Weebly. It's so simple to use and I love the whole drag and drop thing. But it seriously has it's limitations. I can't schedule posts, which is a biggie for me. There's also loads of fancy plug-ins and widgets that Weeby doesn't support. Now, I know that Weebly is a relatively new site, it's still growing and adapting every day. But I'm just too impatient to wait on it becoming the platform that I want it to be.

I've messed around with WordPress and Blogger recently and I much prefer the WordPress interface. So, off I went, using lots of different online guides on how to migrate my Weebly posts on to WordPress....but then I hit a brick wall. WordPress no longer allow you to import RSS feeds (insert angry and frustrated faces here). I even went up into O's man cave to use his monster PC (sorry MacBook) to try and figure it out, but to no avail. Unless I want my old posts as a RSS feed widget, or using some complicated conversion program, I'm all out of ideas! I resigned myself to that fact that I'd have to copy and paste any old Weebly posts that I wanted to keep, it's ok, I'm a lady of leisure at the moment so I've got the time for that schnizz.

I then decided to browse the old internet world for a new custom blog template, only to discover that a non-self hosted WordPress cannot support these! Oh lordy, talk about banging my head of the wall! I really don't want to use the generic WordPress themes, so it looks like I might be going down the self-hosted route. Are any of you guys self-hosted? I follow a few bloggers who are and have asked them for advice. It seems *relatively* easy and Go Daddy have a sale on...

So this weekend, I've roped in O to help me sort out the whole self-hosting thing (which is cheaper than I'm paying Weebly at the moment anyway) and to add a custom template. Who knew when I embarked on this mission yesterday that it would be so complicated? If you are thinking of starting up a blog, I would recommend messing around with a few different platforms before making your final decision, I wish I had! Are any of you lovely folks giving your blogs a make over? Or can you recommend any lovely blog template designers? I'd love to see them! Watch this space for a new Whisky & Pancakes coming your way soon!

                                                        Image from Pinterest

food adventures {in newcastle}

My buddy MC was coming to Newcastle for the day, so I called on my blogger buddies for some scrummy food recommendations. As usual, Chloe, did not disappoint! Firstly we jumped on to one of those sightseeing buses and learned some Newcastle trivia. We then hopped off at the stop closest to our lunch destination...The Garden Kitchen. Chloe recommended ordering one of the picnics and oh my, we were soooo happy that we did.

We ordered the Garden Picnic (you can choose from three), which included BLT's, quiche, corn on the cob, salad, coleslaw, mini baked potatoes, mackerel pate, and two HUGE slices of Victoria sandwich, all served on this cute mini picnic table. We also ordered a jug of the homemade lemonade, which is so tasty and refreshing. The food was absolutely mouth-wateringly amazing! We ordered some sweet potato wedges on the side (as if the picnic itself wasn't enough!) and then followed everything with some cocktails!

I ordered the Bramble and MC had the Held in Preserve! FYI they are super strong!!!
Once lunch was finished, we decided to track down our sightseeing bus again, but then realised we had missed the last pick up! D'oh! So we strolled around in Granger Market for a bit and then headed down to the Quayside to sample The Great British Cupcakery. Again, Chloe's recommendation was spot on! The cakes all look spectacular and it's incredibly hard to decide which one to try. In the end, I went for the Strawberry Cheesecake and MC had the Raspberry something or other (the name eludes me!).

After filling up on these gorgeous cupcakes, we headed down to walk along the Quayside to try and burn some of those cake calories away in the glorious sunshine. Newcastle, I heart you!