The Perfect Couples Retreat - North Devon, England

Devon is a beautiful holiday destination in the UK for both families and couples, whether it is the chance to hit the beach during the (sometimes) warm summer months, or a weekend getaway in the winter. We visited a gorgeous lodge near the town of Braunton this weekend just as the cold weather arrived, and managed to enjoy a relaxing few days strolling the beach, indulging in fish 'n' chips and cosying up to the woodburner!

The recently-renovated woodland retreat sleeps two people and is furnished to a high specification throughout, screaming luxury! Staying in this property really makes you feel like going away is a special treat, and that's not just because of the large power shower and cosy bed, the owners really care and are always at hand if you need anything.

View from the bathroom

If you are visiting the south west of England, I would highly recommend heading to Airbnb and snapping up this opportunity of really making your trip an extravagance in Devon! You can find further details here and if you have any questions at all about the area or property please do not hesitate to contact me:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6773606?s=--Two5Cw 

 

Croyde Beach, November 2015

Beautifully decorated and well-equipped

How to Make a Traditional English Christmas Pudding

This year I decided I was going to make our Christmas pudding for the big day - it's a very english thing, usually served with brandy butter. I don't know if other countries have this type of 'dessert' to finish off the big Christmas meal but I know for most households in England it's a pretty standard thing to have after a huge turkey dinner!

Christmas pudding is a heavy, fuity pudding made with alcohol, raisins, nuts and other ingredients you probably wouldn't expect to find in a dessert, such as breadcrumbs! It is made towards the end of October and is boiled for a long time before being preserved until December.

To be honest I didn't know much about the process of pudding making until I did this! But I do know that once all the ingredients are in the bowl and mixed together, it's thought that if each member of the family gives the pudding a stir, they can make a wish as they do it and it might come true! This is my first ever homemade classic Christmas pudding and not only have I ticked another thing off my 101 things in 1001 days list, it will hopefully be a real treat for everyone to dig into on 25th December!

The recipe I used is here and also some photos of my pudding journey!:

Ingredients for the pudding (this makes 2 x 1.2 litre/2 pint puddings - i.e.- large)

• 50g blanched almonds
• 2 big Bramley cooking apples
• 200g box candied peel or all citron if you find it
• 3/4 of 1 whole nutmeg
• 1kg raisins
• 140g plain flour
• 100g white breadcrumbs
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 250g unsalted butter, taken straight from the fridge

1. Get everything prepared: Chop the almonds coarsely and peel, core and chop the apples. Chop the candied peel if it isn't already small and grate three quarters of the nutmeg. Mix all the ingredients for the pudding, except the butter, in a large bowl.

2. Hold the butter in its wrapper and grate a quarter of it into the mixture, and stir everything together. Repeat until all the butter is grated, and then stir for 3-4 minutes. Ask the family to stir as well if they would like to, and get everyone to make a wish.

3. Generously butter 2 x 1.2 litre/ 2 pint bowls and put a disc of greaseproof paper in the bottom of each. Pack in the pudding mixture almost all the way to the top. Cover the pudding with a double layer of greaseproof paper/baking parchment, pleating it to allow for expansion, and tie with string, trimming off any excess paper.  

4. Stand each bowl on a large piece of foil and bring the edges up over the top, and then put another sheet of foil over the top and bring it down underneath to make a double package to make the puddings watertight. Tie with more string, and make a handle for easy lifting in and out of the pan.

5. Boil/oven steam the puddings for 8 hours, topping up with water when required. Remove from the pans and leave to cool overnight when done. Once cold the next day, discard the wrappings and re-wrap in new greaseproof paper/baking parchment, foil and string. Store in a cool, dry place until Christmas. On Christmas Day boil for 1 hour, then serve!! Voila!

Before cooking

After cooking!

Brighton and Worthing Weekend of Fun!

August is a month of fun - children are on summer holidays, the weather is (sometimes) really good and there are lots of birthdays! For Ellie's birthday we headed back to her family home in Worthing and ventured in to Brighton for some fun activities.

The weather was great and spirits were high - so we started with pizza and prosecco to get us feeling relaxed and continental!

Then we headed to Brighton Pier for fun and arcades, followed by some shopping and gelato....

Steph joined us late afternoon so we had some summer sangria (which came in such a nice bottle I had to keep it) and then headed to the beach to go on the carousel and have cocktails whilst the sun went down :-)

 Sunday was just as much fun - we went to Littlehampton to play minigolf and see the beach!

After more shopping on Sunday and a lot of rushing around we finally headed home after what seemed like several days' worth of fun - and a much needed early night to bed *yawn* - Penelope was there ready for an early night too!

A visit to Marrakech

Following my money-saving and highly popular post from January regarding holidays for during 2015 (you can find this here: http://em-maria.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/this-is-how-we-do-it-holidays-2015.html ) I have now managed to completed item 54 of 101 on my list of 101 things in 1001 days (visit five different countries). We took a trip to Marrakech!

I have always wanted to go to Marrakech and have heard how magical the souks and Jemaa El Fna can be so I was super excited when we managed to get a trip for £120 each! Yup, and that included flights from our local airport and a stay for 4 nights at a 5* hotel on a bed and breakfast basis. Morocco is pretty cheap so we didn't need much spending money either.

Unfortunately on this trip I was struck down with an illness so it didn't bode well for my 'relaxing break' - but alas, off we went! The hotel we stayed at (Adam Park Hotel & Spa - http://www.adamparkmarrakech.com/ ) was great, and so peaceful because we were travelling out of season and during Ramadan. The pool was spacious, I'm talking HUGE, and the staff were fantastic! I would definitely go back here even if just for a quiet break in the sun.

We weren't, however, a big fan of the city itself and that is just our opinion for this one visit. We travel a lot and expect for locals to try and get us to visit their shops/restaurants, but this was an extreme I have never experienced before. After 20 minutes of large men and small children tugging on our clothes and trying to 'guide you strongly' towards their premises, we headed back to the hotel. I fully understand that when it's not 40 degrees and I'm not ill it's a much better environment, so it's a shame we visited under these circumstances. That said, we had a great trip overall and with Morocco only being a 3 hour flight away I would definitely return! Happy travels to all heading on holiday any time soon :-)