Honey, Pear and Pistachio Cake

I go to Paris in 2 hours, so I thought, 'what better time to do a blog post?'

Silly me...... please bare with for all the pictures!

These pears below tastes amaazing, J'adore pears..... just brushing up on my French skills there.

I tried to pick my favourite, but out of 300 it was pretty difficult (mental not, take less pictures), I also didn't have time to edit them really (second mental note, DON'T right blog posts 2 hours before you have to leave for France!)

Speaking of France, I am very super excited indeed, I just wanted to get this post out of the way before I go. The itinerary sounds great, we're going to the Eiffel tower, notre dame, arc de triomphe, pompidou (I love to say that pom-pid-ooo), the louvre and some other places I've never heard of.

What am I looking forward to? THE FOOD OF COURSE! 

Picnics everyday for lunch, boulangeries, patisseries, croissants, freshly baked baguettes, croque monsieur (they are not just a cheese toastie!), macaroons! And maybe not steak tartar.... I've never seen the attraction in raw steak. Do you have a favourite French food or meal? I can nae pick one! Or even a place in Paris you could suggest for me?

radish, borlotti bean, feta and watercress salad with hazelnut dressing (I grew something!)

 Something you should know about me -I cannot grow a single thing to save my life.

......But I grew something!

Radishes. I managed to grow six radishes! They may have been small but they were still grown from seedlings and neglected by myself for six weeks and grew into something edible.

I tried to grow pak choi last year, I really don't know what happened because the plants never popped their heads out the soil once. I also grow carrots and I thought I had actually achieved something. Their green bushy leaves were poking out the soil just asking to be plucked from the ground and eaten. I pulled up the carrot and..... carrot fly had got'em all.......

 There's so much I want to say this post but it's almost 9 O'clock, I'm tired and sadly I've got school tomorrow and an English controlled assessment (yes, another one!). 
Firstly if you looked at the salad ingredients and thought 'whaat? That sounds... um disgusting .... strange'. Think again! 

Firstly, aren't raw borlotti beans just beautiful. I means it's like a little fairy wiggled it's way into the pod and held an infant paint class with purple paint..... as I said it's getting too late for me to be writing this! I was really upset when I blanched them though and the beans turned grey, luckily they still taste great. 

The beans add some butch-ness to the salad (a butch salad?) well you know a kinda texture contract to the watercress and radishes (home grown, I grew them!) which give a peppery flavour. Then you get the nutty hazelnut taste (which is amazing with them borlotti beans) but suddenly the feta and vinegar walk in and they're like, "woah, the party don't start till I walk in!"

sorry about all the photos in this post (the recipe's at the bottom!).

Also next Sunday I'll be going on a school trip til the following Thursday. I am so excited since my passions are: food, fashion, art and food. Paris sounds like my home. The hotel's 'modest' the teacher said but we'll be in the centre of Paris which will be great and I'll be changing 3 or 4 times a day to make sure I wear all my summer clothes in the three days we're there. My summer holiday is in Scotland so I'm not feeling too positive about my play suit up there. 

Also google reader's closing.... TOMORROW! Make sure you remember to follow me on my bloglovin, quickly press the link before it's too late! 

radish, borlotti bean, feta and watercress salad with hazelnut dressing(serves 2-3)

• 6 radishes
• 200 grams of borlotti beans or 300 grams including pods
• 1 small bag of watercress
• 75 grams of feta
• 30 grams of hazelnuts
• 1 glove of garlic
• 3 table spoons of olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used damson flavoured) 

1. depod the beans into a pan, cover in water and simmer for 10 minutes, once done rinse in cold water and leave to the side
2. wash the radishes, top and tail them, slice them finely and leave them in the bath with the beans
3. roast the hazelnuts (I did this on a skillet on the hob) And whizz in a food processor until ground with the garlic clove
4. add oil and vinegar to the ground hazelnuts and garlic
5. drain the beans and radishes, add to a bowl, toss with the water cress, add the dressing and crumble the feta over the top, Lovely!

Mango, Strawberry and Lime Smoothie

Look at the colour of that, That is a healthy thing of beauty! 

Tomorrow is sports day and I prayed for rain but looks like it's not coming, I was also scheduled to be ill. Too ill to go into school and do sport.... I'm allergic to exercise you see...... (well I'm not really and last year I was really sporty but I haven't done sport for like 6 months!

Any hoooo, I was going to be very ill tomorrow but it looks like my friend has got through to the national swimming event and any sports day event could potential cause her to pull a muscle. She is CRAAAAZY! She gets up at 5 am everyday and goes swimming until 8 and every evening too..... what a wierdo...

So now I'm doing her events (even though surely doing exercise would help her fitness!? No?... okay, I'll shut up then....). So instead of high jump alone (requiring little effort, inside and generally just banter) I now have to do 1500 metres, 800 metres, 200 metres, long jump, high jump and relay (IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL). I shall walk them all with pride. And humiliation as I get lapped.... 
So for sports day I'm gonna need loads of energy.... there fore SUGAR, right? Cake, chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cake, cupcakes, cake.... cake?

Well you don't have to be a genius to realise no is the answer to that. So to give ma self some energy I got some good sugar in the form of fructose! Fruit sugar! Sounds appealing......
WELL THEN I BECAME ENLIGHTENED TO SMOOTHIES! 
Quick, delicious, healthy, filling, summery, creamy and just darn beautiful in every single way (especially colour). Also because it's summer here in the Uk we get lots of great tasting fruit like Scottish strawberries (nothing will beat them, and Scottish raspberries (equally good if not better), cherries and loads of other fruity fruits!
Also this literally took less than 3 minutes to make so is a great breakfast alternative if your in a bit of a rush because it's portable. Portable food is great, walking, talking and eating!

mango, strawberry and lime smoothie(serves 1)

• 1 ripe mango
• 100 grams of clean and washed strawberries 
• 3 table spoons of creme friache 
• a squeeze of lime juice (not too much)

1. peel the mango flesh and cut out the nice juicy parts from around the stone
2. hull or slice the tops off the strawberries
3. blitz all the ingredients....
4. that's it... :D

just a few other things to add (sorry!, I really hope you've been looking at my instagram because I forgot to tell you about my Dad's father's day cake with I put on. It was dark chocolate and fig and wasn't too sweet but you could really taste the figgyness (now that is an awesome word). It was a saved disaster too. 

It was suppose to be a loaf cake but I made it in a bundt tin instead (just to be a la'al bit different) but then I couldn't get it out the tin and then made a crack in the top of it when picking it up.....  

So I covered it in cream cheese butter cream which was just in harmony with that chocolatey figgyness (we should all know that figs and cheese are just like da best). And covered the top in English cherries and melted dark chocolate!

Also on my instagram which I forgot to tell you about is my new rayban glasses! They are nerd glasses but I feel I can wear them because I am a real and true nerds (not like those people who feel they need to wear a top with it written on to prove it, do you get them in other countries or just England?).

Thirdly (I'm sorry this is also on my instagram and pinterest) is a new sensation me and my friends are sure is gonna get in the urban dictionary. YOHOL. You might have heard YOLO (you only live once) which is a phrase commonly associated with hipsters.

I don't get them they don't want to be mainstream but by being a hipster they are becoming mainstream, I mean come on obvious paradox there guys.

So anyway, YOLO is now too mainstream so the new phrase I invented is YOHOL, you only have one life. It's gonna be big...

FINAAAAALLY! I finished my tea dress too, hers a picture (I'm REALLY not very photogenic)