Coniston, Lake District. The Most Beautiful Place on Earth.

A few hours ago I got back from a 4 day trip to Coniston in the Lake District. The trip was arranged by the School of Biosciences at Birmingham Uni as a "team build" for the masters and Phd students about to start their courses. Everything was paid for by the Uni which was amazing because the accomodation and food was excellent. I only knew one person well on the trip, my close friend Jake, so I was a little out of my comfort zone when it came to getting to know people.

I have never been to the North-West of the England before and honestly had no clue that somewhere so stunning existed here. Early Monday morning we set off on our way, the drive took about four hours with a stop-off. Jake and I played 20 questions on the way up there which killed alot of the time. Jake knew a girl called Becky from his course and we soon got chatting. I ended up sharing a dorm with her, our room in the cabin was called Nipthwate.

During the last half an hour of our journey we came off the motorway and onto small country lanes. The view was stunning and looked what I can only describe as something from Lord of The Rings. There was a small village that looked like The  Shire! It felt like we had just driven to Canada, not another part of England! Finally, after going up and down hills and over small bridges we reached a lay-by where we stopped. We hadnt realised we had to treck to our accomodation!!

It was all worth it though! When we reached the cabin, it was located right next to the lake with the most perfect view of the lake, mountains, trees and sunset! Despite the storm from hurricane Katia, it was still gorgeous!

Me, Becky and the gang walking to our cabin in the rain.

Once we settled, we had lunch, got into groups and did a few group activities to break the ice. My group consisted of Jake, two girls and two more lads who were all awesome. We were that awesome that we won all of the challenges! Go group 3 go!!

On a few occasions during the trip, we managed to go on walked down to the shore and explore a bit. We walked through a forest and found a jetty on the lake that we went to sit on. the first night was very windy so our photographs were not as beautiful, however, it was still pretty impressive!

Here are a few piccies from our first evening...

During the four days we canoed down the lake to a cafe, orienteered, swam in the lake, make a buggy, made a raft and won the race! The lake was better to  look at that to be in!! The water was so clean but so damn cold!

On our last night we took some amazing photographs at sunset. Jake took some amazing pics on his HTC phone. I could not believe the quality of them! I have his permission of show you a few of them but it you would like to see more then visit his blog http://www.writteninthedna.blogspot.com.

Me chilling our on the jetty.

Me and the girls.

This photo was taken before sunrise by Jake. The water is so still. you could imagine

a monster lurking in the depths of this lake. Apparently its deeper than the English Channel!

This is the view from the cabin at sunrise. You can see the mist floating above the lake.

This photo just makes me so happy!

Can you even believe that this was taken with a HTC camera??!! it looks like the tree is floating in mid-air because the lake is so still! How eerie does the lake look?

This pic looks like a drawing. Its so perfect.

I just had to share these pictures taken by Jake, theyre so beautiful, hes got such a talent to make pictures as great as these with a mobile phone camera!

I was so sad to leave Conistion but quite glad! My muscles ache so bad I cannot wait for bed time! Please visit jakes blog, he writes about his travels and has more lovely photos available there!

Bye guys!

K x

Creamy Carbonara!

If anyone asks me what my favourite dish is its straight up spaghetti carbonara. I make it probably 2 times a week (which i know is really bad for you!) but it is my comfort food! I sometimes wonder if my mom had an affair with an italian man because if i didnt know any better, i would have thought i had italian blood in me! I love pasta and bread, I could live on it! Ide be really fat! But i would be happy :)

I make this for my boyfriend all the time, this is my quick version, but of course add whatever veg you like! the lovely thing about my recipe is that you can throw in whatever you like and can make it as cheesy as you like! If you dont like cream or are trying to loose the pounds, try a few dollops of creme fraiche instead of cream and eggs (i prefer this but dont usualy have any in the fridge). 

If i am trying to impress I boil some chopped asparagus in with the pasta and throw that in. But tonight I needed my creamy cheesy fix after work and threw this together...

kirstys cheesy carbonara!

1) Boil your pasta in salted water for as long as required (use whatever pasta you like!)

2) Use either pancetta or smoked bacon, cut into small squares and try in a drop of olive oil. Bacon will fry in its own jiuces so no need to use loads of oil!

3) Whisk three eggs togther, when the meat is crispy. turn the pan off. Add the eggs after a minute when the pan has cooled down. the heat of the pan will cook the eggs. You want a sauce, not scrambled egg!

4) Then add a big splash of single cream (or skip the eggs and cream and use creme fraiche!).

5) Stir the sauce around until it goes creamy

6) Whack in a load of parmasan cheese or even mozerella or cheddar to your taste.

7) when the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it straight to the pan.

8) turn the pan on low and cook through for a few minutes, stirring as you go, until piping hot.

There you go! yummy carbonara! I hope you enjoy!

K x

Country Girl and Raspberry Jam

Hi guys!

Here comes my first food blog! OMG I LOVE FOOD!! Sometimes I wish I had gone down a different path and become a chef! I love love love baking sweet sweet things! if I am ever bored i always manage to cook something up from things lurking on our shelves!

My Nan has been going on about a farm 15 minutes away from my home that grows crops that you can pick yourself and then weight and buy, she said that I should join her when the weather gets better.

So today she invited my Mom and me to this farm that grew onions, beans, raspberries, strawberries, cabbages, carrots and also had a warehouse full of local fresh meat and dairy produce!

We spent 3 long long hours picking beans (didnt realise there was a technique for picking beans), raspberrys, onions and cabbages! We ended up having a carrier bag rammed with beans, 2 huge punnets of raspberries, a massive net bag full of huge bulging onions, one cabbage (who needs more than one cabbage ew!) and we purchased some organic eggs ALL FOR 7 POUND !! SEVVVENNNN POUND! I seriously could not believe it!

Me and momma bear picking beans.



Me and Gramps loving the sunshine :)

We went to the super market after to pick up a few bits and peices and realised how expensive fruit and veg is there! A punnet of 150g of raspberries was £2, but we managed to get at least 1kg for under £2!!

We will definately be visiting the farm more often and i honestly recommend using these farms for your fruit and veg! i live on the boundary between the city and the countryside so I have the best of both worlds, 10 minutes driving one way I have The city centre and ten minutes in the opposite direction and i have green fields, cute little pubs and villages. This place was only 15 minutes away, so worth it! We bought at least a months worth of veg for 7 pound!

RASPBERRY JAM!
When we got home I looked up a recipe for raspberry jam as we had bought scones and clotted cream at the market.
1) I washed and heated 450g of raspberries in a saucepan for 2 minutes, then added 450g of granulated sugar and heated this for another 2 minutes.

2) Then I turned  the heat up full for 10 minutes to boil the fruit.

3) I then put a saucer into the freezer for 5 minutes to chill and also put 2 jam jars into the oven at 170 degrees to sterilise.

4) After about 12 minutes of bioling I took a spoonfull of jam from the saucpan and dabbed puddles onto the cold saucer. After a few minutes the jam should form a skin on top when you poke it with your finger. If it doesnt, biol it for another2/3 minutes until this skin does form (dont forget to put your saucer back in the freezer!)

5) i then spooned the jam into the jars (USING OVEN MITS!!)  and left to cool and set for a few hours

Here is my lovely yummy end result :)

Bye all Im off to stuff my face with jam scones :D

K x