Movie Night - One Day

Having read and loved the book I was very excited to go and watch One Day at the movies. I loved it. I've actually just looked at some online reviews that are pretty negative, and I'm so glad I didn't read them before we went tonight, so they clouded my judgement.

Anne Hathaway played a great Emma, although yes, her accent did slip on more than one occasion, but who cares, we all know she is American, and to be honest who watches a movie to sit picking faults in the accents anyway. Jim Sturgess just got better and better with age - the movie is set over a 20 year period, and mmmmmhh age is kind to Mr Sturgess ladies!!

You can't help but get on Emma's emotional roller-coaster, despite knowing the story, I got totally swept up in it all over again. Cried, smiled, gasped and at times wanted to punch Dex! Lets face it, we've all fallen for guys like Dexter, wished things were different, wish they meant what they were saying, wished they didn't just say what they thought we wanted to hear! But you know what, despite knowing this, and watching it happen, I can't ay I won't do it again. Sometimes a girl just has to fall in love, and sometimes its with the wrong person, but sometimes, just sometimes he becomes the right one too!

I personally would recommend this movie, if you are a book worm then I'd suggest you read the book first, only because its never the same after watching a movie. But for those of you who don't do reading, just go see it. It will make you smile and will more than likely make you shed a tear too.

Don't just take my word for it, check out this site for all the movie details: http://focusfeatures.com/one_day

Pudding Club: Chocolate!

Tonight was Hertfordshire Social Stuff's Pudding Club.  It was the first pudding club we have run and I think we can safely say it was a success.

So what's pudding club and how does it work?  Well its simple really, its all about puddings and desserts and the sweeter things in life.  We set a theme, and everyone makes a dessert / pudding relevant to the theme, they bring them along, we eat them and have a good old chat!  Simple!

So the theme for the first pudding club was Chocolate.  I decided to take a chance to try a vegan recipe for chocolate mousse, made with avocado!  It was a bit of a challenge as I didn't have a food processor but I managed to successfully mush up the avo and make the mousse.  I was amazed as to how chocolatey it was, ok so you could taste the avo a little bit - but I'm wondering if this is more psychological once you know about the avo being in it.

Ok so it wasn't the bestest chocolate mousse in the world but I can't say I disliked it.  Being lacto intolerant it was just lovely to be able to eat chocolate mousse regardless of the weird and wonderful ingredients!  The link to the receipe incase anyone is curious enough to try it is: http://greenplatedinners.com/2011/05/06/raw-vegan-chocolate-mousse-w-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-balls/

Nicola made the most amazing Chocolate and Ginger Tarts and they were simply divine, she is a domestic goddess.  Sharon made whoopie pies and they were equally fabulous - never doubt your culinary skills Sharon, they were yummy.

Katie and Laura cutely forgot we had a theme and bought a lemon cheesecake - which actually was just prefect as a palate cleanser between chocolate puds!

Someone left a pudding plate on the floor at the end of the night and Kai decided to show his appreciation for the desserts!  I had to grab the camera and capture the moment before shooing him away.

All in all we had a very successful first pudding club, lots of calories, chat and laughter.  I'm really looking forward to next months.  The theme is FRUIT - fruit salad is  banned, and its time to get creative.

Come and join us: www.hertfordshiresocialstuff.co.uk

Bertha and her mussels

Who is Bertha and what's all this about her mussels??

Katie and I were taken to Bertha's for Sunday lunch by our lovely friends Lauren and Ryan Christopher.  Bertha's is a seafood restaurant in Fell Point, Baltimore, famous for its mussels.

Bertha's became known as Bertha's when the bar's owner Tony found a stained glass memorial window in a Baltimore junk shop. The window was dedicated to the memory of Bertha E. Bartholomew but who was she .... ? Well nobody knows, and this still remains a mystery today.  Tony displayed the stained glass window with lighting behind it, and hung it above the bar.  The bar was from then on know as Bertha's

Tony designed a bumper sticker with the message 'Eat Bertha's Mussels and this has become famous.  These stickers are mailed out daily, and are seen worldwide.  To be totally honest I'd never heard of Bertha's until our visit.  But took a picture of Katie holding the bumper sticker (every customer leaves with one!) and uploaded it to Facebook when we got home.  My cousin Penny, commented on the photo and said 'Who is this Bertha'?' It turns out her neighbour, in Hitchin, UK, has the bumper sticker on his car!  So Tony, your marketing is working :-)

The food was excellent, my salad was humongous and did, yes, include mussels and they were delicious.

So when in Baltimore, go to Bertha's and do eat her mussels!

Maryland Crabs

Maryland is know for its crabs and Old Bay -  a seasoning that Marylanders (and my family) adore.

Friday night was crab night and my first experience of bashing a cooked crab with  a hammer in order to get to the yummy crab meat inside the shell!

The lesson goes a little something like this:

Get to know your crab

Struggle to break off the legs - ooooh gross!

practice using your crab hammer on your friend

Eeeek! Bash the crab a bit whilst showering your friend in crab shell.

I'm not sure i'm loving this!

Check cleavage for bits of shell and crab meat - hmmmh classy!

Look very unimpressed with the lack of meat for all this messy work

Pose for messy hand photos

Celebrate all the hard work with a snowballs with added vodka!

Fun at the Supermarket

How much fun can a group of English girls have in an American supermarket?  Well ...... the simple answer is LOTS and LOTS!

The photo's say it all I think

Ok so are childish, but we laughed so much we cried.

Birthday Girl

Birthdays are a HUGE thing in my family.  We are more than a little over the top with all things celebratory and I know no different.  I personally wouldn't have it any other way, its my normality and its the way I hope to celebrate with my family in the future.

Birthdays overseas are somewhat different.  I've had one before, my 30th when I lived in South Africa, and despite it being lovely, it just wasn't quite the same.  This year I was in Baltimore, and then in Washington DC.  The less said about my trip the better as it wasn't the best - and this is a glass half full blog!

Katie and I went to DC to see old friends of ours Catherine and Alex for lunch.  Catherine lives in DC with her husband Forrest and her newborn son, Freddie.  Alex was also over from London visiting Catherine and the bambino, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet the new addition.  We had a lovely girlie lunch, caught up on all the news and had cuddles with Freddie.  Freddie was so cute he kinda made up for not being at home for my birthday!

Katie and I left the girls and headed over to Georgetown for some retail therapy and more importantly cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake Store.  Clearly I don't watch enough tv as I was unaware of this store but it apparently has its own show and is well know!  Ooops!  Anyway the cupcakes were divine and we quickly chose two each, Vanilla Birthday and Raspberry & Lemon.  Mmmmmmh they were so good!

From cupcakes me moved onto Cocktails (virgin for Katie as she is preggers!) at the wonderful Mie N Yu.  Where we ended up meeting everyone for dinner later on.

It was great to have some quality girls time with Katie as in two months she will be busy being mum!  We mooched around the shops, chit chatted and had a lovely day.