Viva Las Vegas

Hmm, original title there...
OK, I have to admit - normally Las Vegas would not be top of my list of Must-Go places.  Firstly, I'm not actually old enough to do either of the two main attractions: drinking or gambling (you would not believe how annoying it is to go from legally drinking for three years to suddenly being a child again).  Secondly, as lame as it sounds, I like my holiday destinations to have at least a little bit of history, some beautiful views or gorgeous houses.  Las Vegas is all about being NEW NEW NEW.  More is more in Vegas.
So when my family and I were invited to a wedding in Las Vegas (yes, the bride and groom were already together, rather than an impromptu drunken trip to the Little White Wedding Chapel), I really didn't know what to expect.

First impression...

It turns out that Las Vegas is a bit like a theme park, complete with rollercoasters.  The hotels alone are like tourist attractions in themselves, like the pyramid-shaped Luxor, or the (frankly ridiculous) Excalibur, which looks like a castle from Shrek 2 thanks to its brightly coloured turrets.

Blue and gold

It's safe to say then that Las Vegas takes a little bit of getting used to.  We went out along the strip on the evening we arrived, while I was feeling really jetlagged and desperately in need of sleep.  It was slightly overwhelming - what I hadn't realised was that almost everyone walking along the strip in Las Vegas are tourists, and if they're not tourists, they're trying to hand you cards advertising strip clubs or call girls.  Presumably that's exactly what someone wants on a family holiday...

The Bellagio

My brother looked at me in horror when I admitted that for a while I'd thought this Vegas landmark hotel was called the Villagio rather than the Bellagio - it turns out that Villagio is the name of our local pizzeria.  My photo is not really doing the fountain display justice, because those jets of water went up ridiculously high and there was some impressive choreography.

Something old, something new

We passed this place almost without noticing it when we were on our way to the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.  After a bit of research, it turns out that the Little Church of the West is the oldest building on the strip - all of 72 years old!  It's also the location of Angelina Jolie's wedding to Billy Bob Thornton, which I still find slightly weird...
Next posts include my Arizona trip and an entire post dedicated to food in America.  What a surprise...

Summertime

Criss-cross! Everybody clap your hands...

Ughhh, look at that disgusting blue sky.  Honestly, I hate the fact that I always end up complaining about hot weather when we get it so infrequently here in the UK, but it really does take me a while to adjust.  I'm pale-skinned and don't tan easily at all, so my skin ends up burning and breaking out in a rash in the first few days of sun, and I still get nervous when leaving the house without a coat. #britishproblems

Rainbow food

One big bonus to warm weather is how much easier I find being healthy.  I often stick to stodgy, carb-filled meals during cold winter months but salads are so much more appealing when you can sit out in the garden to eat and soak up rays. Of course, these things are always nicer in theory - it's only once you've committed to being outside that you remember that the next-door-neighbour is having very loud work done on the house and that every buzzy insecty thing in the country is suddenly in your face.

I just can't get over how good these cherries look.  Sorry.

Before and after

Of course after extolling the virtues of healthy eating I had to go and bake a few trays of cookies, just to balance things out.  These are stem ginger cookies, the recipe for which I found online after developing an out-of-the-blue craving for ginger cookies.  While I was making these I was taken aback by how solid the mixture was, as I'd been expecting something much runnier, like cake mix.  Luckily, I cottoned on and things turned out OK.

Beach and Baking

It’s finally sunny!  My family and I decided to take advantage of that fact and went for a relatively early morning walk on the beach, along with seemingly every other dog owner in the area.

Believe it or not, the beach was actually pretty busy.  *tumbleweed*

I’ve just realised that my oh-so-artistic shadow portrait makes me look like I have the world’s smallest head.  I never said I was a photographer.

I had a moment of extreme intelligence when I looked down and remarked that there seemed to be twice the number of paw prints compared to footprints.  Er…

I was feeling brave this weekend and decided to bake an actual cake as opposed to my usual cupcakes.  I’ve become a devotee of GBBO alumna Ruby’s recipes as featured in the Guardian’s Cook section and fell completely in love with the idea of a treacle ginger chocolate cake.  

Amazingly, it worked out surprisingly well.  Whenever I bake proper size cakes I’m always terrified that it won’t cook all the way through, but it all worked out.  A confession – there is a stage where you melt treacle and butter together over a low heat and add eggs, and I unfortunately ignored the ‘low heat’ instruction, which led to the eggs almost starting to cook where they collected around the sides of the pan.  Scrambled egg cake – delicious.  Luckily it was not the case.

The cake itself is very rich and quite dense, but the ginger icing stops it from getting too much.  I also had doubts about the icing, as 50g of butter looked like it would stretch to maybe a quarter of the cake at most.  But I carried on and of course the quantity was perfect.  This is one recipe I am definitely making again.  

Normandy, France - Part 3

I think I must enjoy torturing myself because I am currently a) starving, b) living off a student budget and c) in dire need of a food shop as I only have creme eggs and spaghetti in my cupboards.

I'm going to be honest - this wasn't my food.  Despite salad being the obvious choice for a boiling hot day in Rouen, I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I'm on a seafood diet... I see food and I eat it. Badoom-tsh.

This wasn't mine either.  No, I went a little bit mad.

Big enough?

This is what I'm talking about, and it was all mine (needless to say, I didn't quite manage to finish it).  I know it seems silly going to France and having pizza, that well-known traditional French dish, but I like to think by ordering one with several French cheeses splodged on top, I was sampling their cuisine with a twist.

Unfortunately this photo doesn't really do these enormous meringues justice.  They were about the size of my hand, and we bought them in a bakery in Lyons-la-Forêt.  I have a major sweet tooth and also a weakness for huge meringues.  (Incidentally, the best ones I've had in the UK are from the cafe in the V&A Museum.)

This was just simple steak frites, which I happen to love. Weirdly this was fairly well-done, which I didn't expect in France!

Number one...

I worked out that I had four crème brûlées while I was in France.  As I said, I have a sweet tooth. 

Normandy, France - Part 2

We were staying relatively close to Rouen, so a few of us drove into the city for the day.  It's a really lovely place, with some gorgeous old buildings and a lot of history.

Place du Vieux Marché

This is the main market square in the centre of Rouen (where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake). There are streets leading off the square with lots of shops and restaurants, and they're all very picturesque.

Tick tock

This is the Gros Horloge astronomical clock which dates back to the 16th century.  It's situated over a shopping street and so there are always crowds of people wandering backwards trying to take a picture of it, which is a little bit awkward when you're trying to get past.  I was unfortunately one of those irritating photographers.

This is another of the narrow little streets in the city centre, with the cathedral in the background.  At the other end of this street I had an amazing ice-cream (which was much-needed thanks to the ridiculously hot weather).  I also couldn't help but get four giant macarons from one of the many sweet shops in Rouen.  Seriously, if you want macarons, Rouen is the place to go.

Rouen cathedral

Here is as full a picture as I could get of Rouen Cathedral - these pesky 13th century architects don't make things easy.  We had a look inside, which was a welcome shadowy relief from the sun, and the interior is just as stunning.

My next and final France post is dedicated solely to food, my one and only true love.

Normandy, France - Part 1

Right now I'm sitting in a freezing cold room in a student house listening to the rain and the wind battering the windows.  Understandably, I'm reminiscing about last summer, which I spent in Normandy in France.

Chateau Gaillard

Unfortunately, this was the weather on our first day there.  I had managed to convince myself that I would be leaving rainy Britain for gorgeous, sun-soaked France, and had packed accordingly.  That is how I found myself venturing out under the dark clouds in a vest top.

The view from Chateau Gaillard

The 'chateau' in question is actually a ruined mediaeval castle up on a hill, so it's not somewhere to ogle luxurious interiors and gorgeous ballrooms.  However the chateau looks down over the Seine, so it's worth going just for the view - just about, anyway.  We attempted to push a wheelchair up an immensely narrow, rocky path to get to the chateau.  Needless to say, it didn't work.

Blue sky!

Luckily the weather improved pretty soon, so we visited Lyons-la-Forêt, which is really pretty.  The photo above is of the main square which has lots of lovely half-timbered buildings and a market hall.  For such a picturesque place it wasn't at all busy or touristy either time we went there. 

Just the little cottage where we stayed... Er, no.

This is Parc de Clères, a zoo based around a 14th-century chateau, which itself was pretty stunning. The zoo part is nice because it's fairly open, with peacocks and wallabies wandering around on the grass.  Here I finally saw a peacock doing the proper tail-displaying thing, although as usual it was too late to take a picture. 

My France posts are fairly photo-heavy, so I'll spread them over several posts. Next up is Rouen!

Harry Potter Studios Tour

It has to be said - I am a major Harry Potter fan.  I've reread the books to the extent that most of my copies no longer have covers, I can quote the films by heart and I'm frankly quite proud to say that I went to a midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Part 2 the same day I was due to go on holiday.  So I think it's fair to say that I am highly biased when it comes to describing this day out.

"You're a wizard, Harry."

As you might be able to tell from the rare blue sky, we went in the summer, so it was understandably busy.  However, this wasn't really an issue.  It's absolutely enormous, and there's so much to look at which means that people are very spread out.  We only had to queue once at the very start in order to actually go on the tour, and while we were queuing we got a look at Harry's cupboard-under-the-stairs.

It seemed like pretty much every outfit worn ever in the films was included in this tour, so you're fairly certain of seeing your favourite character in some incarnation. Seeing the little Hogwarts uniforms worn in the first film was funny - they were so small!

"Wangoballwime?"

Seeing the props from throughout the film series really brought back some of the details I'd forgotten, like the Yule Ball.  I definitely want this for my next party.

This book is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince

I make no bones about it; I'm a Snape apologist.  I know he was a horrible bully at times and I know he was cruel, but he's got such a tragic back-story!  The Prince's Tale always reduces me to tears.

"I must not tell lies."

One of my favourite bits of information from this tour was the fact that in order to create Umbridge's kitten plates, they actually had to film hundreds of real kittens to be green-screened onto the plates. Best job ever?

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price."

The amount of detail included in these films was honestly amazing, and it made me see them in a whole different light when I rewatched them later.  The wand-room at the very end is well worth a look - it's like Ollivander's, with thousands of wand-boxes all stacked up on top of each other, and each box has the name of someone involved in the films, including cast and crew.  I was tempted to stay there forever until I'd found as many recognisable names as I could, but I was lured away by the gift shop which followed.  I was remarkably restrained, but I couldn't resist a gorgeous cream Ministry of Magic mug.

Lemon and Marzipan Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in the Guardian's Cook section and pretty much instantly fell in love with it, thanks to the combination of two of my favourite things - marzipan and cake. I've made these three times now, and hopefully I've worked out the best way (for me) to do them.

Most photogenic lemons in the world?

Yum

There is a lot of marzipan in these, but I'm definitely not complaining.  The original recipe only makes 10-11ish, so last time I doubled the quantities. This meant using up an entire block of marzipan, half grated and half broken into pieces.  By the third time I tried this recipe, I figured out the best way to grate the marzipan - keep it in the fridge until you need to use it and then grate it directly into the bowl.  The first time I did this the marzipan had softened slightly (it's squishy at best anyway) and was pretty tricky to grate, and then the second time I grated it onto a surface where it all collected and compacted back into a lump. By the way, the marzipan chunks are without doubt the best bit about these cupcakes, but the actual chopping/breaking bits part is seriously sticky, so either turn your phone off or make someone else answer it if it rings.

Pre-baking stage

One thing about these cupcakes is that the marzipan seems to have a habit of sinking to the bottom, which means that as tempting as it is to have one of these as soon as they come out of the oven, it's better not to because half of it tends to stick to the bottom of the cupcake case.  Once they cool they stick together better.

Post-baking stage

I wasn't entirely sure how much lemon juice and how much sugar would be needed in the drizzle suggested in the recipe, so I went with a glazy-drizzle I've used before consisting of quite simply icing sugar and lemon juice.  The ratio I've been using is one tablespoon of lemon juice to 25g of icing sugar and it's worked out fine.  The drizzle may not look very decorative but it's simple and complements the marzipan perfectly.

Chatsworth House

I have to confess I'm a bit of a sucker for a nice posh house and my love for period dramas and films does nothing to help that.  In November I finally went to visit Chatsworth House, which is one of England's best-loved stately homes (and star of 2005's Pride and Prejudice and this Christmas's Death Comes To Pemberley).

I actually did the unthinkable and travelled there on public transport.  At the time I was coming from Nottingham, so my journey involved a half-hour train journey to Chesterfield, a bus journey from Chesterfield to Baslow and then a slightly muddy walk along the public footpath leading through the park. For me, navigating all this on my own was quite an achievement, particularly when hampered by my terrible sense of direction.

The Painted Hall

For Christmas the house was decorated in a Narnia theme, including wardrobes and Mr Tumnus's house.  The Painted Hall was the palace of the White Witch, which you might just be able to see despite my slightly dodgy phone photos.

Poor Aslan...

The attention to detail was pretty great - I liked the mechanical mice nibbling at Aslan's ropes but I'm not sure what visitors who hadn't read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe might have made of it!

More decorations!

I loved these multi-coloured bunting decorations streaming down from the domed ceiling. Simple but effective.

A lovely Chatsworth view

It's impossible to visit Chatsworth without mentioning the beautiful gardens.  As you can probably tell from my photos, the weather was not the best and made for a slightly overcast day, but the autumn colours were gorgeous.  This is the view over the Canal Pond.

Autumn trees

Unfortunately I couldn't spend as much time looking around the gardens as I would have liked to (thanks to buses being fairly infrequent) so I chickened out of getting lost in the maze and skirted around it instead.  Still, this gives me plenty to do next time I visit, which I definitely want to do in the summer.  

Mulled Wine Cupcakes

I've become embarrassingly obsessed with baking cupcakes over the past year.  Yes, they're a bit twee and yes, they seem to have died along with the 'Keep Calm and...' trend, but they're one of the few things I feel confident baking.  I found this recipe in my mum's Marie Claire and thought I'd give them a go.

Ta-dah! A beautifully dark and terrible photo of mulled wine.

I'll be honest here - I am not very good with wine.  Firstly, I know virtually nothing about it, meaning that I've lost count of the number of times I've stood in the middle of the wine aisle on the phone to my dad asking what dry actually means.  Secondly, I have the unfortunate habit of going out to a party or the pub and thinking, "Yes! Wine is exactly what I want!" only to find myself two glasses in and well on the way to getting completely hammered.  Anyway, my point is that I've never done mulled wine before.  Luckily for me, it's pretty straightforward. Shlop everything (wine, orange peel, cinnamon stick/s, star anise)  into a pan and heat. Unfortunately, the wine smell is fairly strong, and by the time I'd finished making the cupcakes I had a headache and wanted to chuck the whole lot away.

Yuuummm...

However, I resisted the temptation (mostly because I'd gone to so much effort in the first place) and ended up with some fairly decent cupcakes.  My decorating skills, however, are somewhat lacking and so almost every batch of cupcakes I make look like the cakes kids bring back from school cake stalls.  The actual cake was dense and rich but not overwhelming, and the subtle mulled wine flavour went really well with the cocoa powder in them.  Hopefully I haven't thrown the magazine containing the recipe away, because I may well give them another try next Christmas.

Christmas in London

OK, so it wasn't technically Christmas itself, but the run-up.  I have a big thing about London - I love it.  Yes, it's crowded and (to me) huge and slightly overwhelming.  But it's also buzzing and atmospheric and picturesque, and so I managed to persuade my mum to go to London for the day with me.

Putting our Christmas decorations to shame

It feels like whenever my mum and I go to London, we always end up visiting the V&A Museum.  The fact that it's free and has abundant seating helps, of course, but this time we went to see the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting exhibition.  I'm definitely not an art buff, and I didn't really know what to expect, but the art exhibited there was gorgeous.  I particularly liked the landscape paintings, and I found one I would have been happy to take home and hang on my wall.

Byoootiful

For lunch we went to the Comptoir Libanais on Exhibition Road just across from the V&A.  We'd already been to the one on Wigmore St, so we knew there would be something there that we'd like.  It was absolutely packed inside but we only had to wait a few minutes before there was a table free.  Above is a picture of our drinks - apple, mint and ginger and my favourite rose syrup, lemon and lime.

This is my main course, although it's pretty enough to be a dessert.  It's lamb kofta with yoghurt, fried onions, pitta bread pieces and pomegranate seeds, and it was gorgeous.

Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Looking back, visiting Regent Street only five days from Christmas seems like a slightly stupid thing to do.  In our defence, we (along with half of the UK, it seemed) were on a quest to visit Liberty's after seeing an episode or two of the documentary series about it. Anyway, I like to think it brought out some Christmas spirit in us.

We made it to Tate Britain, but by then we were absolutely shattered, so we spent as long as we could in the cafe where I had the world's cutest cappuccino.