RECIPE> BUTTERSCOTCH BANANA BREAKFAST MUFFINS

This is my Nigella-adapted Muffin recipe that I chose over making your standard Hot Cross Bun Recipe for Easter this year. It calls for a more indulgent breakfast,which is perfect; warmed up in the microwave, covered in butter with a big mug of tea.

Ingredients

125g of mini butterscotch pieces
124ml of sunflower oil
3 bananas
250g of plain flour
100g of caster sugar
2 eggs
a teaspoon of baking powder
half a teaspoon of bicarb of soda

Method

Muffins are a great starter baking recipe. They don't need to be perfect, in fact, the more lumpy, the more perfect.

Pre heat oven to 200°C   Line a 12 bun muffin tin with muffin cases. Whisk the eggs and sunflower oil together. Mash up the bananas (don't leave them out too long or they will start to go brown). Mix the dry ingredients together. Then mix everything in together. Lots of mixing, no hassle. Scoop into the muffin tin and bake for 20 mins. Once they're done- eat them all.

INTERRAILING TIPS

A tonne of my friends this year have decided to go interrailing or at least want to go travelling around Europe. What I found when I began travelling around Europe is that there were a lot of things I wasn't prepared for. So I've comprised a little list of tips and hints for all you budding travellers as to what to visit, what to take and how to be generally prepared for your interrailing journey.

In terms of background considering my trip; I spent around 2 months or so travelling Europe (I can't really remember, I lost all sense of time and space as mystical as that sounds) and me and my other three companions went from Grenada to the Czech Republic. It was amazing and mad and we did something new everyday, I highly recommend Europe by train.

1) EUROPE IS EXPENSIVE!!! 

This is the first thing you should know about interrailing  On one hand, there are plenty of free and interesting places to visit in Europe, for example, the beaches in Barcelona or just admiring the city landscape and cathedrals of Florence from outside. However, visiting museums, or climbing Domo's will cost you a pretty penny. Many of these places usually have student discounts and I managed to barter my way into a museum in Naples to see the Battle of Alexander and Darius. Food and drink is especially expensive in Italy and France, so be wary when planning your journey, a pizza in Venice nearly bankrupted me.

Note: Booking trains in advance often has a surplus fee, found this out early on in the trip when trying to get from Paris to Barcelona.


Very Pretty/Pricey-to-climb Eiffel Tower

2) Visit Prague

Prague was probably my favourite city of the trip, despite the Czech Republic being one of the last places we visited. It is honestly an amazing city and has a surprisingly bloody history for anyone who is interested in murderous revolutions. My favourite things about Prague were; the beautiful bridges over the Vltava river, the ridiculously cheap beer and the generally laid back bohemian style of the region.


Prague! 

3) Take a pack of cards

Honestly one of the most useful things for treating boredom. If you are travelling alone to start with, I advise; don't. Re-assess your situation and convince someone to go with you, you'll have much more fun with a companion, you'll be safer and you'll save more money. Friends buy you things when you're poor. Anyway; a pack of cards is useful in all boring 4 hour train journeys, I recommend playing Hearts and Cheat and also using them for drinking games pre-Berlin clubbing. I know you may think; what about admiring the scenery on the journey? Trust me; you can do this whilst playing cards, my friends and I had a long conversation about the beauty of the Julian Alps over a game of Snap.

P.S You can switch cards for sleeping; you will need it.

As this post was longer than expected, I'll break these up into little bites. My next installment of interrailing tips will be posted soon!

LEEDS RESTAURANTS > ARTS CAFE BAR

So now I've started studying at Leeds University, I feel I can experiment a bit more with Northern cuisine; you know; Yorkshire reared ham, pork pies and blue cheese from the Dales. Or I could be more adventurous with flavours, in the style of a Northern friend of mine, who on pancake day, smothered her pancakes in gravy. Leeds, is a foodie's heaven, alongside all the usual chain restaurants, there are a great number of deli's and cafe's, as well as a number of amazing restaurants.

A new favourite of mine has to be Arts Cafe Bar, located on Call Lane. This intimate little cafe/bar/restaurant hybrid serves the freshest and most interesting food I've had in Leeds so far. I went there a couple of weeks ago and I felt spoilt for choice when it came to the menu. I ended up picking the wild mushroom gnocci with blue cheese to start and for not being a huge fan of blue cheese, this was delicious, creamy goodness. For a main course, I had the seared chicken breast on pancetta ragu with olive tapenade, this was a lot richer, with stunning aromatic Mediterranean flavours. And to finish my meal, I had a gorgeous chocolate raspberry bakewell slice with a beetroot parfait. Although it came with some questionable looking chocolate soil, the only complaint I had.

The menu changes regularly and seasonally, so these exact dishes may not be on offer at the time of publishing, but what is important is the quality of the food, which is really impeccable. What's also great to know is they have an early bird menu, meaning you get three courses for £15 or two for £12.50, a steal when it comes to this standard of cooking. I would definitely go again! Also, check out their lunch menu for yummy looking sandwiches and plates!

http://www.artscafebar.com/menu

A Confession

Ok, so I tried this whole blogging thing a while ago and I wasn't very good at it... It has been over a year since my last post after all. Anyway after a successful year of gap-yahing, I've started university and not much has changed. My two main passions in life are still food and travelling. But now I've got a little less money to do either and I'm a bit more student-y and saver-y and trying to save up next year to go to Bali or Croatia... 

So, my Easter resolution has been to start writing on this blog again. I think I'll be doing some reflective posts (I can help out on some useful student inter railing tips), some recipe posts (think baking) and some restraunt  reviews (when I have enough money to go). So hear goes...again. I hope this is useful to anyone who reads it! 

Adventures in Canada

So, I'm in Canada at the moment. I arrived in Vancouver yesterday and took a very windy road to Whistler arriving quite late around 9pm.  I'm here to take a 3 week ski instruction course and a 1 week performance course. I'm staying in Whistler Creekside at the moment which is right next to the ski slope and I have a good view of the ski lift and surrounding treeline. It's very snow, in fact it's snowing right now which makes me feel all wintery and cosy inside. I'm really excited to get some good skiing done, hopefully I can increase my standard enough to attempt something like Ruby Bowl, which is a double black diamond powder-head heaven. Not only this but apparently in the last week they got 75cm of snow in 2 days which is absolutely brilliant. So I will update some more with photos of my life in Whistler and regular ski and snow updates and until then I'm off to buy some new ski's!

PLACE TO GO > SPORT:

Ok to be fair I've never been surfing before, although I am planning on trying it out this summer in Cornwall! I heard about Bali as a surfing resort whilst I was on holiday in Norway. A guest in the same hotel as me had a son, who was a keen surfer and was helping his friend run a surf school in Bali.  Bali is in Indonesia and is one of those tropical paradises, the kind everyone likes. What makes Bali especially perfect for surfing is it's huge coastal waves that can sometimes reach four to five feet high, this is because of southern ocean swells direct from the Antarctic. Loads of surf schools are situated in Bali and it is a highly popular resort during peak times. Not only that but there are different beaches for different levels of surfing. For example a beginner would start on Kuta Beach whereas an experienced surfer would be better suited to Keramas due to the sharper reef and bigger waves. Generally the further north you get in Bali, the bigger the waves!

Keramas

Kuta Beach

PLACE TO GO > ANCIENT HISTORY:

Angkor is glorious. The ancient capital of North-western Cambodia is now known for being one of the 7 Wonders of the World and its status as a UNESCO Heritage Site. It’s complex and intricate architecture is the obvious attraction for the ancient cities unique selling point. The reason for the capitals abandonment thousands of years ago, is down to the citizens fleeing the city after Thailand’s armies captured it for their own. This left much of the city to ruin, allowing nature to reclaim some of its land. Despite this, recent photography has shown us that the natural surroundings have only heightened the beauty of Angkor. Trees and vines entangled among doorways and towers create a mystical and mysterious fairytale grotto setting. 

Angkor Wat is the largest of the buildings and was originally Hindu Monetary, however, the gradual introduction of Buddhism replaced many of the Hindu shrines with Buddhist ones adding spiritual significance to the sites captivating history. One of the things that made me most interested in this area is its history. There is no definite evidence for the abandonment of the site, although most agree it is down to cultural clashes.  It is also fascinating to see, early forms of technology as the many reservoirs and canals that encircle Angkor act as irrigation and advanced water system. Not only this, but the influence of religion had a great influence on the actual construction of Angkor to represent the fives peaks of the holy mountain Mt. Meru for the residence of the gods. It is the largest sacred temple complex in the world dating back to the 8^th century and is a definite must see before you die for me, rivalling the over hyped, contrastingly boring, Egyptian pyramids.

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