Thanksgiving Table Decorations

November 16, 2016November 15, 2016Leave a comment

Maybe you’ve been planning Thanksgiving dinners for years and you’re already a pro, or maybe this is your first thanksgiving and you’re looking for some ideas for your table.

Here are a few of my favourites from around the web.

Sources Pinterest Here and Here

Leftover Pepper-steak and beans

November 15, 2016November 14, 2016Leave a comment

Last week I made Peppersteak pie, I made too much meat and although I made 4 pies I still had ample leftover meat. So the very next day I mixed my leftover steak with some green string beans and this was the result. Its easy to make it from scratch and relatively healthy. The meat was extremely tender even after leaving it in the fridge over-night. You can also add a side dish like mashed potatoes.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

500g Green string beans (frozen)
5oog steak
1/2 cup flour seasoned with salt & pepper ( you can add more if you have more meat)
olive oil for frying
1 onion, sliced
5 mushrooms
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1x 400g can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup Worcester sauce
1-2 tablespoons cracked black pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup merlot
salt to taste

Directions.

Marinade the meat in the Worcester sauce for about 30-60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
In a large pan, put a generous amount of olive oil
Coat the meat with the seasoned flour mixture and shake off any excess flour. Put it in the frying pan and fry until golden brown.
Remove the meat from the pan and set aside. In the same pan fry the onions, garlic and mushrooms.
Add the chopped tomatoes, merlot, rosemary, thyme, pepper and excess Worcester sauce.
Add the meat back into the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes. The meat should already be soft enough so no need to cook it for longer than that.
Boil the beans until tender
Mix everything together and serve.

Fashion blogger Style.

November 14, 2016November 14, 2016Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I ranted about fashion bloggers not always linking the ‘actual’ outfits that they wear but rather other products from companies they are affiliated with. This outfit was not one of them.

A few weeks ago I saw this cute little outfit, especially with the boots. and found out that it was from Lulu’s

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDAD414hvQn/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCeeLEThvYg/

I bought the dress in black and bought the boots in grey and black (because they were really cheap) It was my first time buying from them and I have to say that I was really impressed with the quality of the clothes and the delivery speed. My items arrived whithin 2 weeks. I bought a dress from Asos before that and the dress only arrived after my package from Lulu’s so… very happy 🙂

The boots are nice and warm, and the dress is a all year kind of dress. On colder days I roll down the sleeves and wear a warm shirt underneath.

If you like this outfit, here are the links Shirt Dress, Grey Boots, Black Boots

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My 3 favorite fictional Psychopaths

November 11, 2016November 10, 20163 Comments

Even before Ted Bundy, people have been interested in Psychopaths. Who and what are they, what makes them tick, should we be scared or intrigued. Robert D.Hare, world leader in the study of psychopathy , defines a psychopath as someone with the incapacity for empathy, in other words they lack a conscience. A psychopath may see a women crying in the street over her child that just died and will go home and mirroring her facial expression in the bathroom mirror to try and understand what she felt, without feeling anything. It doesn’t make him a bad person just a person who doesn’t understand emotions.

Unlike the man in my example above, who might be a normal person incapable of violence but also empathy, the following 3 characters are my favorite, charming, ruthless and manipulating psychopaths from the big and small screen.

Patrick Bateman – American Psycho

Wall Street investment banker, Patrick Bateman, turns into a vicious murderer. Killing anyone from his colleages, homeless people and prostitutes. He is vain, greedy, rich and shallow, and obsesses about his looks and clothes.

Paul Spectre – The Fall

My absolute favorite out of the 3 is Paul Spectre. A Grief counselor, father and husband , starts a series of strangulation s on women in the city of Belfast. With every murder he becomes more confident. I loved to see how the character changed and grew throughout the series.

Picasso – Alex Cross

Ruthless, emotional void, narcissistic Butcher of Slago from the Alex Cross movie. I feel that the movie really captured the character very well. He was a perfectionist, always performing his work with the utmost perfection. Spoiler Alert. In my personal opinion he was better than Alex Cross but in Hollywood the good-guy always wins.

These are my top three? Who are yours?

5 Fantastic Ideas to spice up a boring bowl of rice

November 10, 2016November 8, 20164 Comments

Personally I’ve never been a fan of rice. It always tasted bland and flavourless. It wasn’t until I met my mother-in-law that I started eating rice. What was the difference. My mother-in-law always made spiced rice. My favourite of course is the Spanish rice, but since then I’ve been trying other variations of spiced rice recipe’s. All these recipe’s can be adjusted to suit vegetarians by removing the fish or meat.

Spanish Rice

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 c. uncooked white rice ( I like to use Basmati Rice)
2 tbsp. olive oil
½ onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 green pepper diced
2 Tomatoes diced
1 (14.5oz) can low sodium chicken broth or 1 cube chicken stock

Saute the garlic, onion and green pepper. When the onion is golden brown, add the tomato, paprika, black pepper and chicken stock. Stir every now and again until the chicken stock has dissolved. Ad the cup of rice and fry together for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and cook the rice as you normally would, until all the water cooked away. Sprinkle with some fresh parsley and serve.

Alternatively you can try this recipe here.