Sal's 30th Birthday

It's my youngest sister's birthday soon so I'd been trying to think of what to get her for it. I really enjoy making presents as they're a bit more personal so I decided to make her a hamper. She loves coffee (I can't stand the stuff) and also reading so I made that my theme.

I found a great recipe for Chocolate Brownie Biscotti (http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6160/brownie-biscotti.aspx) which supposedly goes well with coffee. Perfect!

The biscotti was easy to make and delicious. Well, you have to sample one when you're baking!


I bagged up the biscotti in a cellophane bag with ribbon to make it look fancy. I'd bought Sal a book from her Amazon wishlist so that went in the hamper too. I added a bar of her favourite chocolate, some more biscuits, a cafetiere and a few packets of coffee.

Next I wrapped up the hamper in cellophane, tied it up with more ribbon and wrote out a tag.

I really hope she likes it and doesn't find out about the biscotti I sampled :D

To market, to market

Every Wednesday we venture out to our local market to buy our fruit and vegetables for the week. It's less convenient than getting them from the supermarket with the rest of our groceries but it makes us feel good.

In our town on the high street we used to have a grocer shop which we used sporadically to buy the odd onion we'd forgotten in the weekly shop or to pick up some strawberries to have with ice cream in the summer.

Last year the grocer shop closed down and we later found out he'd gone bankrupt. Immediately we wished we'd shopped there more often and done our bit to support his business. Now we can't and another useful shop has vanished from our high street to be replaced by an estate agents. Which is a bit crap really!

Shopping for our fruit & veg at the market makes us feel like we're supporting local farmers and businesses. I've started buying eggs there too and other stuff now and again.

We usually spend roughly £10 on what we need for the week. By picking out what looks good or what's at a good price that week we seem to get a lot for our money. Which I really like.

The kids have a tenuous enjoyment of fruit and veg that has to be encouraged a lot, so at the moment we're doing a 5-a-day challenge with them. If they manage to eat their 5 fruit and veg a day they can choose what snacks to eat the next day instead of being limited to just two snacks a day instead. So far Leigh has managed it 3-4 days a week and Erin has done it once. But they're both trying so that's great :)

Last month I decided to have a go at growing my own veg and the kids were also keen to try growing something. I'll post pictures in a future post so you can see how we got on!