date day

This probably sounds a bit lame but hey ho, that’s me. Nick was away at a conference last week and it happened to be the longest we’d spent apart since being married. It was only five days but I was so ready for him to be back by Friday evening! It made me really thankful for being in a season where my husband doesn’t really have to go away on business trips. I wouldn’t enjoy that. Nope. 

We have date night or date day every week if possible because lets be honest, it’s easy for the busyness of a week to swallow up time to actually connect. It often just consists of dinner and a film or coffee and a chat but I decided to welcome him home with a day of simple things he enjoys. I even made tickets. Luckily Nick finds my creative quirks cute rather than creepy...phew.

It may sound a tad girly but it’s not just me who likes granola in our house. Nick is a big fan and has often asked me to make a homemade batch. In all honesty I didn’t need much convincing and followed this recipe for Brown Butter, Pumpkin Seed and Espresso Granola, adding even more coffee for luck hence the dark colour. We washed it down with banana, coconut & honey smoothies that were so thick the straws seemed liked a misjudgement but tasted yum. Then we tubed off to indulge Nick’s ever growing love/obsession for good coffee. I may well be the only creative londoner who doesn’t appreciate good coffee but I do love food and fun branding so going along for the ride is always a good idea. We ticked off another spot on Nick’s list and walked off our lunch via St Paul’s, the Thames and borough market of course, where Nick felt it necessary/essential to have his third coffee of the day. Basically it was a lovely, chilled day and so nice to catch up properly. Dates can so often be less than lovely when you’re both holding out to spend some proper time together and come to the table with different expectations of a perfect afternoon/ evening. Cue grouchy arguments or huffy sighs. Last Saturday however was a good one and reminded me how blessed I am to have Nick in my life, whether we are spending cute romantic days together, hanging out the laundry together or sorting our online banking together.

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simple pleasures

A couple of Saturdays ago I had two old friends over to visit. It was their first trip to see me since moving to London and probably the last time I'd see one of them before she popped and had her little baby! It makes me feel old realising that weddings are now the primary means of catching up with old friends. Anyway in the spirit of my new found love for leisurely saturday morning breakfasts I decided to do just that. Granola was of course on the agenda and I also re-discovered those Just-Roll ready to bake croissants. I'm a bit bummed that these little cylinders of joy escaped my memory for so long. They are so easy to make and you get fresh tasting croissants hot from the oven without all the work and less work is always appealing on a Saturday morning. Each section has markings to show where you cut and then you just roll them up. That's probably where they got the name from right? I decided to add a brown butter and cinnamon filling, made by melting a bit of butter with light brown sugar, spreading the cooled mixture over each square and adding a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Those place names are made from pebbles I found at the beach on our holiday last year! They've just been sat in my dorky, miscellaneous box waiting for such an occasion. It was lovely to have a proper catch up with these girls and it's always better to do that over a meal. Always!

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