Another year coming to a close and another list of things to do for 2016.  Let's call them "promises" instead of resolutions because if I feel like I'm promising myself something I'll feel like I'm cheating myself out of something if I don't keep up with them!

Rice Cookers - What's the Big Deal?!

I'd like to think I'm pretty decent in the kitchen. I've recreated my favourite dishes from restaurants. I've invented my own recipes. Heck, I can even follow instructions well enough that something delicious ends up on my plate. I cannot, however, cook rice. If it turns out ok I'm always a little surprised...

My mum bought herself a rice cooker years ago.  This is my mum who actually turned off her fridge because she never really cooks at home because she's lucky enough to get a hearty breakfast and practically gourmet lunch at the school she works at. Despite this, she's been going on about how great rice cookers are for ages.  I've always thought that it was a lot of fuss over nothing, after all, most of the time I can cook rice that is edible and do I really need another gadget in the kitchen?

Twickenham Farmers' Market

My mum is visiting at the moment so we thought it'd be fun to have a wander down the Twickenham high street yesterday.  On the way there I had a flash of inspiration - the farmers' market was on!  If you know me, you know I love a good farmer's market so can't believe it's taken me this long to visit my new local market.

The market is held in a car park tucked behind Twickenham high street every Saturday between 9am and 1pm.  Well, almost every Saturday - I found out later that this was the last one over the Christmas period…

Photo a Day 2015: November

November is done!  Can you believe it?!  It's not felt like Novemeber (or even winter) at all here in London - yes, it's been windy as hell over the last few days and there was that one day we had to scrape ice from the car (using things not usually used for scraping ice like a chopping board because I somehow lost the ice scraper..) but generally it's been really mild and have only been able to wear my Paddington-esque red duffle coat a few times so far,

I also can't believe that I've been doing this "photo a day" project for nearly 2 full years!  I'm pleased that I've kept up with it as it's a great way to catalogue memories…

So!  November!  We had a "welcome to our new home" event at work after we re-located to the new (and lovely) head office…ALL the wine!

This year had to be the nosiest ever bonfire night with fireworks going off from all directions for about two weeks…I joined in by waving a sparkler around…yes, I have a pack of mini sparklers in my kitchen drawer.  You never know when you might need one…