Frills 'n' Spills

This bread is always the pièce de résistance of any social gatherings that we have. I sometimes use a packet mix of Parmesan and sundried tomato but if I am feeling more adventurous I use our bread-maker to mix up a dough using 1 tsp of yeast, 14 oz of strong white flour, 15 g of butter, 1 tbsp of milk powder, 1 tbsp pf sugar, 1 tsp of salt and 280 ml of water. I sometimes add garlic or rosemary but tomato and cheese really is the best combination! Once it has made a dough (45 minutes) I knead the mixture and add it to a tray in roll shapes and bake for 15 minutes. These quantities can make a loaf or a 'tear and share' bread but the latter is better if you have a group of people over. I really love our bread-maker and the fact that you can have fresh bread within an hour never fails to cheer me up! 

The contents of our alcohol cabinet taking up a good portion of the table (ahem). We usually just buy lots of crisps, a big bag of salad and cook some new potatoes to keep everyone nice and full- no-one has complained of being hungry yet!

When I was offered the opportunity to review 'The Lazy Hostess'- Babe Scott's new book, I was intrigued. It promises to cover everything from drinks, to food and even inspiration for your outfit. (I wore a snazzy jumper and jeans combo for this meet up!) Although I cringed at some of the phrases used to describe the book (putting the 'ho' into 'hostess' being the main one) I actually really like it. The book is filled with fun quotes and easy to follow cocktail recipes (always key for me as I never know what to make/buy!)

In the name of science (!) Sophie and I decided to try and make the sinister sounding 'Mafia's Kiss' which had only 3 ingredients. I am a massive fan of Amaretto and cranberry juice so anything that manages to combine these two ingredients will definitely get my seal of approval!

I would guess that the majority of people would have at least 1 out of the three ingredients required for this cocktail so it is ideal if you need to make something at short notice that still looks and tastes fancy. Thank goodness for Mark who managed to take a photo of this before we drank the entire jug and spent the rest of the evening giggling our way through Tangled and Dirty Dancing! I particularly like the fact that the book gives quantities for both individual drinks and pitchers, it definitely helps to be able to scale your quantities up or down!

As you may have guessed from my overexcited tweets and Instagrams over this weekend, it was my birthday yesterday. I turned the grand old age of 24 and celebrated by spending 3 days eating and drinking with my nearest and dearest, what better way can you think of to celebrate?!

Flaming shots at the Jekyll and Hyde bar in Birmingham, I will definitely be heading back here next time I am in Brum, the cocktails were amazing.

Thank you for all your lovely messages, I had a really awesome time!