Rhubarb and Strawberry Gin

Hello again! Hope everyone is well. So i'm back with a much requested recipe from my Instagram (@rachheron1, come say hi if you like!) for my home-made Strawberry and Rhubarb Gin. If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I am a little bit of a Gin obsessive. I don't really drink very much but when I do, I love nothing more than a REALLY NICE gin and tonic. So, I thought why not make my own. This is such a delicious gin recipe and is so easy to make, it is also much cheaper than buying a fancy bottle of gin.

We were lucky enough to be given the home-grown rhubarb from my father in law but if you grow your own fruit and veg you could make this even cheaper. Now that it's Blackberry season here in Northern Ireland i'm already planning to make a blackberry version of this gin. You could also substitute other fruits into this recipe and really make it your own. Some ginger with the rhubarb would be delicious or you could make a cranberry and orange gin for Christmas (now that would be delicious!). Anyway, let's get on with the recipe...

Ingredients

400g fresh rhubarb, chopped

400g fresh strawberries, chopped

300g caster sugar

a few juniper berries

a few star anise

a vanilla pod

any 700ml bottle of gin (we used a cheap one but you could also use your favourite brand)

Method

• Mix the strawberries, rhubarb, star anise, juniper berries, vanilla and sugar together in a large airtight jar and leave to macerate for 24 hours.
• After 24 hours add your bottle of gin and give it all a good mix. Leave this mixture in the fridge for 4 weeks.
• At the end of the 4 weeks remove the fruit from the mix and there you have it, your very own Rhubarb and Strawberry gin.

So my husband and I took on the very arduous task of discovering what this gin needed to be mixed with to make the best drink ( I know, I know but someone has to do it!). Cue a few Saturday nights worth of gin tasting ( my kind of night haha!). Anyway, here are the best combinations which we came up with. My personal favourite was gin, prosecco and a frozen strawberry in a champagne glass, it was just perfect.

Mixers:

Fentimans Rose lemonade

Bundaberg Ginger Beer

Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic Water

Prosecco

Garnishes:

Lots of Ice

Cucumber slices

fresh strawberries

slices of pear

So there you have it, a delicious gin recipe. If you think pf any more combination ideas please do let me know, I would love to hear your ideas. And, if you give this a go, I would also love to know what you think. Anyway, hope everyone is having a good week, as always, thank you so much for reading my little blog,

Rachael xx.

What I Eat in a Day- Weekend Edition

Hi all and happy hump day I hope you are all having a lovely week. I am currently in the midst of wedding cake madness so just a short post from me today! A slightly different take on my What I eat in a day posts, a weekend edition. At the weekend I usually tend to have a few more treats, so I thought it would be interesting to share what I eat on a more treaty day. On with the food...

BREAKFAST

  Two blueberry and white chocolate muffins and a big cup of coffee.

The puppy wakes up with the birds so this morning I tried to use that time to make some yummy freshly baked white chocolate and blueberry muffins. This is one of my favourite treat breakfasts and goes perfectly with a big mug of coffee. I also needed something quick to eat as we had to head out to walk the dog and to do some messages.

LUNCH

 Vegetable and Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Pittas.

This vegetable soup is another from the Tesco recipe cards and was so easy and quick to make, it took no less than 30mins. And of course I had to serve it with a grilled cheese pitta, this is compulsory with a bowl of soup for me.

AFTERNOON SNACK

Easter Malted Milk Blondie and another cup of coffee.

I baked up a batch of these Easter treats on the Friday afternoon for munching over the weekend and they were so yummy. The recipe came from the newest issue of BBC Good Food. I love all the Easter baking recipes that come out at this time of year, i'm dying to try creme egg brownies.The perfect little treat with an afternoon cup of coffee.

DINNER

Sausage Cassoulet with garlic cabbage and peas and a beer ( something local and crafty that my husband picked!).

My husband made the dinner on this particular night. He usually cooks on a Saturday night and I cook every other night. It's one of my favourite evenings because I get to sit and have a drink and await my dinner being served to me (I definitely could get used to that!). This was his take on Jamie Oliver's Spicy Sausage Cassoulet from  'Save with Jamie' and it was delicious. The cabbage and peas were my suggestion, I just fancied a bit of green on the plate! It was all washed down with a lovely local craft beer (my husband is quite the beer connoisseur!).

And there you have it, everything I ate last Saturday! Such a yummy day for me. Do you tend to treat yourself more at the weekend? I would love to know what your favourite treats are to have at the weekend? Thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

March Foodie Favourites

Hi everyone and HAPPY FRIDAY!! Hope you've had a fabulous week and have that Friday feeling. I know I definitely do, i'm very much looking forward to a relaxing weekend, before the madness of Easter next week begins. I've already got my Friday bake in the oven, today i'm making Malted Milk blondies and I can't wait to taste them. Anyway, today's post is a monthly foodie favourites one, all things yummy which I have been loving throughout March. So here goes...

Nakd Posh Bits in the Cocoa Mandarin flavour

OMG these are sooo good! They are the perfect little sweet treat to have with a cup of tea in the evening! They are made from all natural ingredients, there's only fruit and nuts in them but boy do they taste good. Not quite a Terry's Chocolate Orange but they are close competition and are slightly healthier. They are also in really cute shapes, I love the little hearts.

Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt

We all know I am a complete chocoholic and have practically tried every chocolate out there but this was a new one for me. It is so rich and sweet, you only need a wee bit to satisfy that chocolate longing.

Pukka Peppermint and Liquorice Tea

I think I have mentioned this on the blog before but this is one of my favourite evening teas. I find the peppermint settles my tummy before bed and the liquorice gives me that hit of sweetness with no sugar. I also find it makes me incredibly sleepy which is a bonus.

Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water

Let it be known I love a G+T and I have been known to over indulge once or twice (never again!) and for me, Fever Tree is the best Tonic Water out there. So imagine my delight when I spotted this new flavour I had never tried before, naturally I had to buy a big box and a new gin to try it with. I think I actually like this more than the normal tonic water, I just love the light florally flavour it gives to your drink.

Littles Chocolate Caramel Instant Coffee 

It's 6.30am, you stumble into the kitchen in the dark, let the pup outside and reach for the comforting container of your favourite instant coffee and to your dismay you find it empty ( I mean who does that?!). Oh the horror (it's ok we had ground stuff so my husband was safe from the lack of coffee wrath!). This coffee was bought in a panic and boy did it deliver. It's so delicious and I actually like it more than my usual coffee. Such a lovely sweet chocolatey coffee flavour for the morning. Yum yum!

And there you go, some of my foodie favourites for this month. If you see any of these products around you should definitely give them a try. Have you got any recommendations for me? Anything foodie you have been loving recently? Please do share in the comments. I'm off to make a cuppa, that coffee is THAT yummy, thank you so much for reading my little blog, have an amazing weekend,

Rachael xx.

What I Eat in a Day 21

Good Morning everyone and happy hump day! I am having a pretty busy week this week and the puppy is certainly testing my patience haha! He just seems to love to chew up my recipe books, I would actually prefer it if he chewed my shoes! But, he has his first puppy class tonight so hopefully that will knock some sense into him, or at least he'll just get to burn extra energy playing with puppies. I'm back today with my What I Eat in a Day post and I was trying to be a little healthier yesterday as I am practicing making wedding cakes at the moment for an upcoming wedding which means that there is a lot of cake about (not that i'm complaining, i'm a cakeaholic!). I might do a wee post on this soon to show you the cakes that I made for the wedding, if you would like to see this!Anyway, here's everything I ate yesterday...

BREAKFAST

Blueberry, Banana and Pineapple Smoothie.

A new combination for me, I hadn't tried blueberries in my smoothies before as I am not the biggest fan but this was so delicious. I'm still pretty much having smoothies everyday and loving them. I usually add at least one vegetable but I had pineapple that needed using up. I will definitely be having blueberries in my smoothies more often as I have heard that they are very good for the old brain :).

LUNCH

 Bacon, Broccoli and Blue Cheese Pasta with 3 clementines.

I decided to treat myself to a bit of a fancy lunch as I was very hungry and needed a wee bit more of a feed. This pasta dish was so easy to make, the recipe is an adapted version of a BBC Good Food recipe. Here's how I made it...

Ingredients (Serves 1/2)

A few broccoli florets

a handful of frozen peas

2 rashers of bacon

a tablespoon of mascarpone

50g blue cheese

about 50-75g dried rigatoni pasta

Method

1. Put the pasta on to boil for 5mins in salted water.

2. Chop and fry the bacon until crispy.

3. Put the broccoli florets in with the pasta for another 5mins and add the peas for the last minute.

4. Drain the pasta and stir in half the bacon, half the blue cheese and the mascarpone and season to taste.

5. Serve topped with the remaining bacon and blue cheese.

This would work really well for dinner too and as you can see is so quick and easy to make. It is also full of flavour and you feel like you are having a rather fancy meal.

DINNER

Italian Chicken Tray bake.

This recipe came from the new issue of BBC Good Food and was so tasty and simple to make. I love tray bake meals as they are so easy, everything cooks in the one tray and there aren't many dishes, that's a definite win in our house, I hate doing dishes. The tray bake comprises crispy skinned chicken thighs, plum tomatoes, bacon, baby potatoes herbs, garlic and olive oil, what could be better?

I also had a wee cup of peppermint tea and a few squares of dark chocolate with sea salt in the evening. Ha ha I just wouldn't be me if I went a whole day without chocolate.

Ta da! That's everything I ate yesterday, it was such a tasty day! Let me know if you try any of these recipes I would love to know how they worked for you! Wish us luck with the puppy class, haha hopefully Ralph will learn how to behave :). Thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

My Favourite Teas

Hi all and welcome back to The Tea Cozy! I hope you are having a wonderful week. Today I'm going to talk about one of my favourite things, TEA!! As the name of this blog and the title of this post suggest I am a HUGE fan of tea. Firstly, let me just clarify that I don't actually like black tea, I want to, believe me and I have tried, but I just can't drink it. So this post is going to be about my top five herbal/fruity teas. I hope this blog post might help you widen your tea horizons as it's such a big world filled with all kinds of tea out there.

Before I get on to what teas I love, I thought I would just talk for a minute about why I love it and what tea means to me. I love that making a cup of tea is like taking 10mins to myself. You have to boil the kettle, let it steep, let it cool and then sip, sip, sip! The process of making a cup of tea is slow, methodical and cannot be rushed and in my world I'm constantly rushing, constantly planning and thinking about the next thing (and the next!). Making a cup of tea is like giving yourself permission to take a mini-holiday from that and just focus on your tea. I normally have a cup of tea every evening at about 8.30-9pm it settles my dinner, helps me wind down for bed, warms me up and just fills me with that little bit of peace that only a cup of tea can give.

So these are five of my favourites (it was hard to narrow it down to just five, trust me!):

1. Cherry and Cinnamon, Twinings.

This seriously tastes like you are drinking a cherry bakewell tart. What could be better?

2. Peppermint and Licorice, Pukka.

This one is so sweet, it's great for subsiding any after dinner sweet cravings and the peppermint also helps to settle your tummy after a big feed.

3. Mint and Chilli, not sure of the brand, it's from TK Maxx.

Similarly to the Pukka one this helps settle your tummy but also brings a little bit of heat.

4. Strawberry and Raspberry, Twinings.

Like summer in tea form.

5. Peppermint, Tesco.

Pure and simple peppermint tea is the best after dinner drink for me and it makes me very sleepy and relaxed.

And there you have it, my five favourite teas of the moment! Wow, all this talk of tea has really made me crave a cup! What are your favourite teas? I would really love to know, i'm always looking for a new one to try! I hope you enjoyed this post, thank you so much for reading, have a lovely weekend,

Rachael xx.