Author: Maria Runs

Teaple Tea!

So a while ago I was sent some lovely teas from the folks at Teaple. They are a relatively new business and according to their website you might find them selling at various markets or pop-up locations. Their teabags are made from 100% biodegradable materials, and the packaging is from renewable/ sustainable sources and is also recyclable.

Now, you all know how much I love tea, so I was very excited to try these, especially as they are wonderful loose leaf teabags- all the taste of loose leaf tea but no need to use a strainer or infuser.

I loved the quirky names too!

The “Lord Grey’s Tweed Trousers” (Earl Grey) was gorgeous- I didn’t brew it for too long but the bergamot flavour came through really well.

“A Soothing Romp” (whole chamomile flowers) was sweet and comforting. I always forget how much I love chamomile tea- perhaps it sounds like it won’t have much flavour but it is just so mellow and relaxing.

My absolute favourite was “The Fresh Prince” (Cut peppermint leaves)- seriously how great is the name? But it was not just a fab name, it really was the sweetest mintiest mint tea I have tried, and I have tried a lot of mint teas! I tend to stick with “normal” teabags for mint, as the fresh ones I have tried never seem to have as much flavour, but this was wonderful.

I also tried the “Brewbarb & Custard” (vanilla rooibos) which was also really lovely- I added a splash of almond milk as I think it went well with the vanilla. This sort of tea is great when you fancy something sweet (like a hot chocolate) but aren’t actually hungry as the vanilla flavour makes it feel like a sweet treat.

They are all available on their website- you can see the range of teas (and cool names) here. I have just seen they do a sample pack so you can try all the types and then find your own favourite (plus you then get 10% off your next order). I think mine would have to be the peppermint, but the vanilla rooibos would be a very close second. But to be honest I loved them all. You can check them out on facebook and twitter @teaple_co

Thanks Teaple!

*I was sent the teas in exchange for an honest review- all opinions are my own.

Physio update

Hey peeps, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Where did it go??

On Friday I had my first physio appointment- I had to rush there at lunch time so I was stressed about that too. The lady I saw was really lovely and mostly put me at ease. She asked me loads of questions about the problem/ pain, got me to do a few moves (squats, stretches and a few other things), and then had a go at massaging out the pain. I won’t go into too much detail but I have 2 problems, some inflammation around a part of my hip/pelvis, and slight muscle pull on the inside of my hip, but she said it was a bit chicken and egg, in that one probably caused the other but we would not know.

I also got rather told off as I am so inflexible- I know that anyway and do try to stretch, but she said next time she will give me some stretches to do- at the moment it will be no good doing them at the moment as I will do more damage. She gave me some exercises to do at home, and told me to ice certain bits and also no running (although I had stopped anyway- I mean no point running if I can’t walk). The soft tissue massage was so painful though- I now have some interesting bruises on my leg and it is still sore to touch even after a few days! At least by the end of the appointment I was feeling better, and we did some of the moves from the start again, and they were better, so I could see an improvement.

I tried to book another appointment but I couldn’t at that time (clashing with work), so that is one job for this week.

On Friday evening we were off to the Eurostar for a weekend away, hooray! I will do a proper post once Andy has sorted the photos, but it was a lovely weekend with lots of walking (I did fit in my physio exercises too), lots of delicious food, and lots of Christmas markets.

I bought quite a few chocolate souvenirs- including chocolate with macaroons in it! I was just taken with the novelty! Plus some chocolate covered orange slithers, and a little block of orange marzipan.

We got back on Sunday night, but although it was busy I also felt so refreshed- on the train on the way back I listened to the film podcast from radio 5, which has made me really want to see “Saving Mr Banks”! So although we were travelling it was pretty chilled out.

I have not put up any decorations yet- there are still 3 weeks of work left before Christmas so it seems a bit early, plus I would quite like a real tree (as we now have a sideboard where we used to put up our fake tree, we have no space for it now!) and we can’t have those too early in case the needles drop. Anyone started decorating yet? I do want to start decorating my Christmas cakes this week, exciting!

Honeycomb experiment

So for years I have wanted to make honeycomb, but all the recipes I have seen have sounded too scary, and have included weird things like glucose syrup, which I have not even seen in shops. Imagine my delight when the latest Waitrose magazine included a recipe for honyecomb, and all it needed was sugar, golden syrup and bicarb. I had to give it a go!

All it needed was 100g sugar and 4 tbs golden syrup- it ended up being very sticky so I think next time I would only use 3, but that is the trouble with volume and not weight amounts. Anyway, you heat it up until it reaches 140C, and then beat in 1 1/2 tsp bicarb with a wooden spoon. I had lined a large baking tray as I had no idea how much it would puff up, but a normal one would have been fine. It did spread quite a bit, so a smaller tray with high sides would have been better for chunkier pieces.

It didn’t take that long to set, so then I went about breaking it up and dipping it in melted chocolate.

Then I took it into work today, and it was gone by lunchtime!

I am so pleased with how it went, and now I have another item I can make for Christmas gifts.

In other news, my hip has been better today, but still not right. I am a bit worried about the physio appointment tomorrow (I hate that sort of thing anyway), especially if the pain is all gone. I am hoping she can work out what it is even if I can’t feel it any more.

To stop myself being tempted by pump I booked a haircut this evening, so after work I raced over to Welwyn, sat in Starbucks listening to marathon talk (I am so behind, but I heard my recap of the Brighton 10K- they liked my Royal Flush negative split!), drinking a chai latte, before going to the hairdressers. Then we are packing as tomorrow evening we are getting the Eurostar for a weekend of Christmas markets in Europe. Exciting!

Anyone been to a physio before? What shall I expect?? Also what shall I wear- I don’t even have tracksuit bottoms…

Have a lovely weekend!

Pumpkin pie slices

So, at this time of year I love to make a pumpkin pie. But I am not much of a pastry fan, so I sometimes make one with a sort of cheesecake base instead. On Friday evening I decided to get baking, and this was what I made:

For the base I crushed about 150g digestive biscuits and melted 75g butter- I added some cinnamon to give it some flavour, pressed it into pie dishes (and mini loaf pans) and baked for about 5 minutes.

Then for the filling. This is super easy. And to be honest if I was making it just for me I would just make the filling and bake it as it is so good, like a thick spiced baked custard.

Mix together 1 tin (425g) pumpkin puree (on offer on Ocado at the moment), 1 egg, a little tin of evaporated milk (200ml), 200g coconut sugar, 1 tbs plain flour, 1 tbs peanut butter, and a tsp of cinnamon, ginger, a little ground cloves, and lots of grated nutmeg. (I also added a little orange extract as I thought it would go well, but this is not essential). Pour this onto the bases and bake at 170C for around 30 minutes.

Then it will be dark and smelling amazing, plus it won’t have much wobble left.

As I made lots of little ones we gave them away at the weekend- one to my parents (dropped it off after Parkrun) and one to Andy’s parents.

On Sunday I went on a run in the morning, and then spent a lot of the day working. We went to the cinema late Sunday afternoon (to see Philomena, which was so good but also emotional) and then we came home to soup, sourdough bread, and then pumpkin pie slices. Delicious.

Now on to my woes. On Monday my leg was feeling a bit stiff, but I had planned a rest day anyway. I popped to town after work to do some shopping, and then to the supermarket, and I was fine walking around. However I woke up at 4am this morning in a lot of pain- my hip! It feels (yet again) like it has popped out slightly. I have been on google- possibly I have a groin strain? Or it might be something to do with the joint- I think this is more likely as it seems to come and go. Anyhow, I could not get back to sleep, or get comfy, and I was hobbling about in the morning barely able to put any weight on that leg. Luckily there is a sports clinic near me (the place I went to for my sports massages all those years ago) so I gave in and rang them up today, and I have a physio appointment for Friday. I was chatting to Andy about it, as it has happened on and off for a while now- in fact the first time I can remember was before the Olympics as we went to Derbyshire for the weekend and stopped to see the torch relay, but I was having trouble walking through the town to see it.

But it meant of course I didn’t get on my planned run today, and will be giving Sweatshop a miss tomorrow too. Although as the day has worn on I have felt better and can move about more, so I might manage a walk tomorrow if it feels better than today. Grrr.

On the plus side, yesterday I managed quite a bit of Christmas shopping, so I feel pretty pleased to have begun that, seeing as about 5 people told me it was only a month to go. I might even attempt some honeycomb as I have always wanted to try and make it, and the last Waitrose magazine I picked up had a pretty simple looking recipe in there.

Are you a pie / pastry fan? Anyone feeling Christmassy yet? December is fast approaching!

Stir up Sunday success!

So as I mentioned in my last post I spent some of Sunday making a Christmas cake.

Sainsbury’s sent me the ingredients and the recipe (which is also here if you want to have a go)- soaking the fruits overnight is optional but I prefer that as they plump up so well. I used cherries in place of the dried cranberries, as I prefer that, but you could use any dried fruit you like.

Looks like a lot of butter but it made two good sized cakes

The first step was to melt the butter and sugar together with orange juice and zest, brandy and dried fruits. I always use this technique when making brownies- I much prefer it to creaming butter, so for me this wins hands down and I think I will use it with other fruit cake recipes from now on. Plus you just have one pan to wash up after.

Then you let it simmer for ten minutes- the raisins swelled up so much and the smell was just wonderful.

Then you add in the flour, ground almonds, nuts, spices and eggs. I was worried it would not all fit in my pan but luckily it did.

Instead of making one large cake I have made two smaller ones- I baked them for about 1 hour 40 (the recipe suggests 2 hours for one large cake)- until the skewer comes out clean.

The tops of the cakes are so shiny and they look lovely and rich.

This evening I covered them both in marzipan, and will add some icing decoration later in the week once the marzipan has dried.

I must say this is the easiest fruit cake recipe- melting it all in the pan was just so simple- it does the hard work for you- plus it filled the house with the smell of Christmas.  Using a pack of mixed dried fruits adds to the ease- I had to chop up the figs but if you wanted to use just small fruits then it would work just as well. As you all know I love making things anyway, so would always choose this over a shop bought one, but I think that if you were making a hamper for someone you could make smaller ones of these (just reduce the time slightly- The Pink Whisk blog has some great tips for cooking times for different tins) and I promise that the recipe is suitable for the beginner baker.

Have I tempted you to make one yet?

*Sainsbury’s provided me with the ingredients to make the cake, but all opinions are my own.