What does £71 buy you?

Since the beginning of this year, we have been doing our food shopping a little differently. We've grown tired of the Supermarkets - they're just so busy and, well, just not for us. So we've been visiting different farm shops and butchers near to us, finding out which ones would be a good fit for us. It's been a much better experience and I now get excited about food shopping - something that I very much used to dread. I love the ease, freshness, value and knowledge  that comes along with people who genuinely love their what they do.  We've been doing our weekly shop every Saturday but this week we planned ahead and did our food shop for 2 weeks. We've been finding the vegetables from the Farm Shop easily last two weeks and our favoured Butcher is a little further afield, so it just makes sense.

We're planning a lot of Baking - Apple and Cinnamon Slide, Jam and Coconut Slice, Breakfast Pastries and Cinnamon Blondies and then some Egg and Cress sandwiches which always go down well in this house. I'm also going to make some Carrot and Bran Muffins for the Freezer. 30 Free Range Eggs for just £4.80 - completely amazing and they have the most beautifully gold yellow yolks.

So, our two weeks worth of shopping came to £71 - we used to spend about £50 a week in the Supermarket, so this gave us quite a saving. We have a menu chalk board in our Kitchen which really helps with meal planning and my forgetful brain! I'm so glad we've changed our shopping habits for so many, many reasons.

Whiling about the hours

I have a thing for baking books. I covet, collect and occasionally use them. I love their styling, beautiful fonts,  and pretty colours. These are some of the books I have bought this year - just look how sweet the candy colours are - so inviting. This year I'm determined to crack Macarons. You see I love them. Salted Caramel, Lemon, Pistachio, Raspberry Coffee, Praline, in fact I haven't found a flavour I don't like. However, after seven attempts now I have failed. 2013 is going to be the year! I also want to expand my baking repertoire, so these books are just the ticket. 

I have spent many hours reading these books and have tried out some recipes already like the Strawberry Cheesecake and the Almond and Blackberry Tart. They were both quite yummy. So many recipes, so little time!

Things around here

So far January has been a good month. We've been eating lots of warming winter food like roasted Root vegetables and we've been enjoying plenty of Snow. Norfolk has been undercover of a blanket of white for coming up to two weeks now and I've loved every moment of it. I've also been making a lot of Soup; it's good January food. This time round it was just a simple Leek and Potato. Talking of the snow, I've found it to be a great way of keep drinks cold - it;s most convenient. Gosh I do love the Snow. We've also been experimenting with drinks, this we've made a Strawberry and Banana Smoothies, Lime and Strawberry Soda and Pomegranate Cordial. We've also received a very cute hand painted card from a rather delightful two year old. We've found a great new Farm Shop in Mulbarton for us to do the weekly shop. It's so much more of a relaxed affair than a supermarket. Finally I thought I'd give Graze a go and so far so good. I hope the last few days of January are just as good.

My Week

This week we had Sparklers on Monday for New Years. I have made quite a bit of progress of my Hexy Blanket. I made my first Cheesecake ever, a baked Strawberry little number. We had an impromptu play on the Swings at the Park. We drank Hot Chocolate complete with Marshmallows. I wore my new M&S Pjs a lot. We had a Friends Birthday for which his presents were brown paper packages tied up with string, well yarn, I just liked the sound of the lyrics. I made Soda Bread, another first. I purchased a new Filofax with the hope that it will help me not forget things. We went to Laser Quest for said friends Birthday and my team won and I felt 14 again. We ate home made Chicken Noodle Soup. There were lots of misty nights which when driving home late at night is spookily wonderful. I've had a really lovely week.