The Anti-Recipe - Potato, Mushroom and Aubergine Curry

First, a confession.

I don't like cooking.

I can cook. Simple things like lasagne and noodles and frozen pizzas (ahem). I don't eat ready meals every night and know how to poach an egg. But I don't enjoy it. I hate baking - the huge mess, the multiple tools that need washing up after, the exact measuring. General cooking I can deal with - a girl's gotta eat - but I'm not really interested in anything beyond that.

However, my constant eating out is putting a strain on my already-stretched (damn you, wedding and house purchase) finances. I've decided to try harder to make meals from scratch, and that means using recipes.

Ugh, recipes.

I hate faffing about with scales and measuring cups and 'kitchen stuff'. I use the BBC's Good Food site as an 'ideas generator' and then wing it from there. So here's my first Anti-Recipe - a meal for people who like to chuck everything in a pan and be done with it.



You will need:
- Two small potatoes
- One small aubergine
- About 6 mushrooms (I used chestnut but whatever)
- A can of coconut milk
- 150ml vegetable stock (the only measurement I did actually follow, because stock scares me)
- Garam Masala
- Curry paste

To serve:
- Coriander
- Rice
- Natural yoghurt

Get cooking:
- Chop your potatoes up into small chunks and parboil them for about 5 minutes until they're soft. While that's going, chop your aubergine and mushrooms.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan (the proper recipe calls for a tablespoon, but if you measure out your oil, you need to reassess your life) and chuck in a few teaspoons of Garam Masala. Add your potatoes and cook for a bit, then add your mushrooms and aubergine.
- Add half the can of coconut milk and your stock. As an aside, I CANNOT find small cans of coconut milk ANYWHERE. Plan to make a Thai curry or something the next day to use the rest of it.
- Add as much curry paste as you like, depending on your penchant for spiciness. I went for 3 teaspoons and it worked out pretty well. Another aside here - the recipe calls for Tikka Masala paste but I used Thai Red Curry paste as it was all I had. Worked perfectly.
- Simmer for 10 minutes. In this time I chopped my coriander and put my microwavable rice in, ready to go. I never cook my own rice because it takes ages and is bloody boring, but if you like that kinda thing that you should've starting it cooking right at the beginning. Don't say I didn't warn you.
- Serve up on warm plates with rice, coriander and a dollop of natural yoghurt. DONE.

I only took one photo while making this recipe - we all know how to chop a potato, you don't need a photo of it. Plus, I get really flustered when I cook and have zero brain capacity for taking photos. But I think it does the dish justice - it was really tasty and filling without being unhealthy (vegetarian, yo!).

What do you think - is the first Anti-Recipe a success? Will you give it a try?

Grazia - My Mulberry Recommendation

Bit of a different, and slightly odd, post from me today.

If you picked up last week's copy of Grazia you might've spotted me towards the back, giving my recommendations for things to do in York. I grew up just outside the city and it's still my favourite place in the UK, so Grazia asked me to share 5 hot spots and why I love them. One of these was the Mulberry Factory Shop.

I've written about the Mulberry Factory Shop in York before - it's where I bought my beloved Carter Snake and where I've spent many an hour stroking Alexas and sighing softly to myself. It's a great place to pick up Mulberry at a reduced price and there are similar shops in Bicester Village and Cheshire Oaks.

There isn't, however, a Mulberry Factory York website. Sadly, a URL was included in my piece in Grazia. This URL directed to a counterfeit Mulberry website selling fake bags at ridiculous prices.

I am strongly against counterfeit fashion and would never, ever recommend this website or any other unauthorised designer site to anyone. The website URL was added to my piece without my knowledge and I didn't provide Grazia with this information. It was an unfortunate error and is explained by Grazia here.

I've been contacted by a couple of readers who spotted the dodgy URL and wondered why I'd used it in my piece, so I wanted to write a post explaining my position and hopefully discouraging anyone thinking of buying from this site. It's certainly not recommended by me or Grazia - if you'd like a Mulberry bag for less have a read of this and visit your nearest Mulberry Factory Shop, locations of which you can find here.

Basic Brights

On Saturday night, alongside my two lovely friends, I walked 10 miles. We started at 10pm, making our way along the streets of Leeds with 400 other women, some homemade flapjack and a bag of Haribo. We kept a pace of 3.5 mph the whole way and finished in under 3 hours. It was exhilarating.

... Come Sunday, and I could barely put one foot in front of the other. My legs hurt. My feet hurt. My arms hurt. I managed to drag myself into the city to eat at Reds BBQ and watch The Great Gatsby (such hardship), but by the afternoon I was ready to drop. So I went for a walk. Of course!


Jeans, Topshop Leighs | T-shirt, H&M | Cardigan, Topshop | Necklace, Zara | Flats, c/o Bertie | Bag, c/o Brit-Stitch | Sunglasses, Orla Kiely for Boots Opticians

Comfort was my number one priority for this walk - super soft denims, a slouchy tee and leather flats meant I could hobble along almost-easily and enjoy the cherry blossoms before they disappear for another year.



Basic brights like this neon tee from H&M and the beaded Zara necklace are a simple way to add colour to a boring outfit - I live in my grey Leigh jeans but they do need a bit of a boost to stop them looking drab. Finished off with a Brit-Stitch bag - the Half Pint in African Violet - I felt suitably summery, although a jump for joy was entirely out of the question.

What did you get up to this weekend?

John Lewis Nottingham - Beauty Department Launch Event

Tonight I'm nipping over to Nottingham for the launch of the new beauty department in John Lewis. I'm a huge fan of John Lewis (hurry up, Leeds store!) and there's nothing better than browsing a shiny new beauty hall for a cosmetic pick-me-up, so I'm really quite excited about it.



Tonight sees two of my very favourite beauty brands - Bobbi Brown and Origins - plus Bare Minerals open their counters for the first time. And to celebrate, John Lewis Nottingham are hosting a fab-u-lous beauty event this evening.



Things kick off at 6pm with a live makeup demonstration from those talented people at Bobbi Brown. Then I'll be chatting through my top 6 beauty essentials and why I love them so. After that, counters will be offering complimentary treatments, consultations and makeovers, and there'll be bubbly and a glorious goody bag for everyone. Hooray!

Tickets for the event cost £10 and you can book yours by calling 0115 850 7744. I'll be in-store from 5.30pm so if you spot me, come say hello!

Beauty Department Launch Event
5.30-7pm, Wednesday 15th May
John Lewis
Victoria Centre
Nottingham
NG1 3QA

Time Management

Hi.


Trousers, Zara | Tee, American Apparel | Blazer, New Look | Bag, c/o Brit-Stitch | Flats, c/o Bertie | Necklace, Zara

Y'know when life happens? When you realise you've been paying your gas bill based solely on estimated readings because you always forget to check and submit the real ones? When you haven't watched TV for weeks, even though 999: What's Your Emergency is back on and you love it? When wearing more than jeans and a jumper seems like a total waste of precious, precious time that could be spent replying to emails or talking about mortgages or chasing the printers about the wedding invites AGAIN?

Yes. Life happened.



I've been away from the blog for two weeks and nothing monumental has really happened. I went to see Beyoncé (amazing, was almost sick from screaming), I took on a few new clients (including Brit-Stitch, who sent me lots of lovely bags to photograph) and I bought these awesome trousers from Zara (plus a hot pink pair which are quite spectacular).

I've been toiling away in the background, not achieving huge results quite yet but slowly getting there. Turns out, buying a house, planning a wedding and running a business all at once is quite tricky and takes some serious time-management skills... but don't worry. I got it. *diva stance*

Back soon. x