Santa Marilha Horse Excursion - Sal, Cape Verde

I came across this excursion on facebook, wherever I go on holiday I always take the oppurtunity to explore my surroundings on horseback.

This looked and sounded perfect as they don't take massive groups out on tours, it is more about you and the riding. Therefore you can tailor it to your needs.

Being an experienced rider I wanted to properly gallop along a beautiful beach and they said no problem. Mark decided to come along and they said they could take him off if he didn't want to gallop but he said he wanted to give it a go. Brave man having never galloped and not ridden properly since he was child!

It was amazing, really was, I have never been on a ride where you can truly do what you want when you want. If you wanted to gallop, off you went then if you wanted a nice gentle relaxing walk you could. One guide comes with you to take care of you but like I say you can pretty much do as you want.

Horses are beautifully looked after and tack is in brilliant condition. They also take photos for you as you ride and these are included, no extra cost.

If you are travelling to Sal, definitely something to do, it's just so idyllic :) Here's our Go Pro video

 

Crufts - The World's Largest Dog Show

My favourite event, I love Crufts, always have done, always will! I remember as a child watching it on tv every year and always wanting to go. As soon as my mum gave in and let me have a dog at the age of 15 I started to copy the agility and make jumps in the garden out of flower pots and canes! Anyway to cut a long story short a few years later we were actually competing at Crufts and every single one of my dogs (I have four) has since competed.  My dogs are now too old to compete or illness doesn't allow them to.

I still love Crufts, the atmosphere is like nowhere else, full of excitement and hope that a ribbon will be accompanying them on the way home or even a trophy. I am not 'into' showing dogs, it's not really my thing. I prefer something a bit more exciting, my background is canine freestyle, agility and flyball. 

Someone who has never been before does have the expectation that it is just dogs walking round a breed ring but it's far from it. Yes breed showing is the main reason Crufts exists and yes it all culminates in Best In Show but the other dog activities also now take a lot of ring time up. They used to just be there as a little bit of entertainment but now it's serious stuff and people compete across the country and even across Europe to qualify so we have THE best dogs at Crufts.

Crufts spans several halls of the NEC and it's so easy to get to by train or car. We usually go by train as the station is Birmingham International and the station is virtually in the NEC! Car parks have shuttle buses to and from the halls.

There are several rings, of course you have many breed rings and depending on which day you go depends on which breeds are showing so check the website. There is the main ring where all sorts happen from agility, flyball, canine freestyle, displays and Best In Show.  The YKC ring which is for the youngsters in the dog world and you will see future stars in all disciplines - this was my world when I was younger :). There is the Good Citizen ring where demonstrations take place from dogs which have completed the Kennel Club's Good Citizen training courses take part in displays - a great scheme for pet dogs. Finally there is the Dog Activities Ring where you can go if you want to get involved with any of the disciplines as there are people there who have competed in and trained in their chosen discipline.

Another major part of Crufts is Discover Dogs where you can meet every single breed registered with the KC. Great if you are thinking about a new dog as you can ask the owners loads of questions to find out if they are right for you.

Finally there is the shopping, wow! So many things you can by for your dog, for you and for any dog loving friends!

Tickets are cheaper if you buy online so get buying now ready for March 6-9!! Crufts is great for all the family, something for everyone! To learn more and buy tickets, visit:

Http://Www.crufts.org.uk/ticket-office

Here was me in the YKC ring with my little rescue collie, Cas (now 14):

And in the main ring:

With Ember my sheltie:

With Rum, my welsh sheepdog cross collie:

Roast Venison with a Red Wine Sauce

So we went to the local butcher to get a couple of venison steaks for valentines day, venison is my favourite meat. Unfortunately they didn't have any steak as the processing plant in Wales is under water! So we bought a boneless joint, first time I have had a joint of venison, what to do with it? So I came across this recipe and it turned out perfectly!

Season the venison with pepper and rosemary, seal in a hot pan.

Transfer to a hot oven (220 degrees centigrade) in a roasting tray on a bed of halved red onions for 20 minutes. 

Turn the temperature down to 150 degrees centigrade and add 200ml of red wine into the bottom of the roasting tray. 

Put back in the oven for an extra 10 minutes per 500g. Our joint weighed 1kg so it went in for 20 minutes, it fed about four.

Leave the venison to rest for 20 minutes, meanwhile make the sauce.

25g butter

1tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 red onion (chopped)

200ml beef stock

200ml red wine

Melt the butter in a pan and add the balsamic vinegar and one onion from underneath the venison. Combine and then add the beef stock and red wine from the bottom of the roasting tray.

Reduce by half and serve with the venison. The sauce makes enough for two people as we had half the venison.

Copycat Millie's Giant Cookie Cake

My maternity pay has reduced dramatically so I thought this year I would make a pressie for hubby.

So this is the recipe:

125g soft butter

100g soft brown sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg (beaten)

1tsp vanilla extract

225g self raising flour

125g giant white chocolate buttons

This was enough for a 23cm loose bottom cake tin lined with grease proof paper.

My second cookie I substituted 50g of flour for cocoa powder

Mix the butter and sugar together, add the egg, vanilla and flour. Finally add in the chocolate.

I put in a fan oven at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

The plain and chocolate cookies:

You could just make one giant cookie but I wanted a go at the cake so I sandwiched them together with buttercream.

The recipe I used for the buttercream which gave me enough for icing the top as well was:

375g soft unsalted butter, cut into cubes

525g icing sugar, sifted

2tsp vanilla extract

gel food colouring (optional)

Gel food colouring is better than liquid as it's a really strong colour and doesn't water recipes down like the liquid ones do.

I decided the buttercream in the middle would be left without colouring. Then divided the leftover buttercream into two and put sugar flair black extra in one (normal black can sometimes turn out grey) and christmas red in the other.

I found a small tip, which had just been free with piping bags, it looks like this:

It's the first time I have piped anything other than cupcakes so was pretty pleased with my attempt :)

Happy valentines everyone!!