Barbie Rocks at 50

Barbie made her catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week at the fabulous age of 50!

Not many fifty year olds could hit the New York runway in such a fabulous way as Barbie, but the plastic doll proved to every fashionista at New York fashion week that you can still look fabulous when you turn the big 5-0.

Fifty-one designers including Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Donna Karen, Diane Von Furstenberg and Marchesa all made specially-designed outfits to celebrate Barbie’s birthday.

The showed opened with a visual biography of the Barbie story and then flashed into a heart monitor beeping into action, to show that the doll was coming alive.

Fifty-one models strutted down the catwalk in an array of costumes that included a pink, butterfly printed dress from Juicy Couture, a green prom dress from Betsy Johnson and a signature wrap dress from Diane Von Furstenburg.

Sinead O'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
High street fashion website featuring all the latest in celebrity style and the latest fashion news.

Organic Fruit and Veg

I've just signed up for Able & Cole's organic veg box.

I've always been reluctant to do this in the past as I've always imagined it would make planning meals a nightmare.

I'll let people know how I get on over the next couple of weeks.

The Nights are Closing in.....

After the salad of a few days ago, which was very nice thank you very much, I fancy some comfort food this evening.

Reason being is I get the definite feeling that Autumn is on it's way....

Now, I don't want to be a preacher of doom and gloom but it was still dark when I got up this morning and the weather is all unsettled.

So, to cut a long story short stew tonight me thinks... Tonights meal.

Salad tonight...

Last nights meal was a great success, almost, everyone loved it.

However it supposed to be getting a little hotter over the next couple of days so I think a salad is in order tonight.

Chicken is always good and Good to Know have some great Quick Recipes.

I found this one: Chicken & Couscous Salad.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Chorizo & Haddock, Yum....

Hello All

As I know I've said before I love Chorizo.

I just found this recipe on the BBC Goodfood site: Chorizo & Haddock.

It sounds lovely, I'm going to pop out and get some haddock and will be serving this up tomorrow.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Back after a long break...

I've been away for a while but I'm back to the blog now :) .

In my absense there have been some big changes (for the better) to one of my favourite recipes sites.

Good to Know has completely redesigned the recipe area of their site and it looks so much better.

Check it our here.

Meatballs & Spaghetti

It was meatballs for dinner last night.

Very nice (if I do say so myself).

Didn't have a recipe of my own to follow so went to Goot to Know, a site I use a lot and found this recipe - Herby Meatballs.

The recipe was easy to follow and the result was really tasty.

Checkout more of their recipes here.

It's Sunday... & yes it's pasta again...

Sunday night again, busy all day and just wanted something quick and there is very little in the house as the weekly shop is on a Monday.

So, it's pasta again.

Tuna, chick peas & olives this time, cooked following the same recipe as before.

One tip, make sure everything (tuna & olives particularly) is drained pretty well as this could come pretty watery otherwise.

Anyway - It came out pretty good, a nice filling meal before getting a good nights sleep to prepare the family for a busy week ahead...

Dairy and Wheat free - I feel great.

I've been wheat and dairy free now for 5-6 days.

The plan was that it might help my sinuses, it hasn't.

But it may have had an unexpected side effect - I feel great.

I'm not 100% sure I can attribute this to the change in diet, but for ages I've been really tired etc, I thought I was just working too hard, burning the candle at both ends.

But I'm still burning the candle and I feel full of beans, quite literally.

I'd like to hear if anyone else has experience anything similar.

Some diet sites I like:

Eat Well
www.weightlossresources.co.uk
goodtoknow diets

A friends new website

Hello All

Just a quick post today just to help a friend that has launched a new website with a little link to his site: Telephone Answering Services.

That's it...

I'm dairy and wheat free!!!

And it's hard going...

It's not the dairy that's the problem, although not eating cheese is a little tough, it's the wheat.

Until you try to cut it out you just don't realise how many foods are wheat based or contain wheat. You need to plan what you are going to eat at least a day ahead to make sure you have enough food/ingredients.

I forgot to take a packed lunch to work on Monday and I had to spend £9 to buy a lunch and some snacks that didn't contain wheat....

That said, tuna, bean & olive salad that I bought was very, very nice.

I must say, I'm enjoying the new diet, it just isn't terribly convenient...

Here's one of the few wheat & dairy free recipe sites I could find: Hub UK

(I'm doing it to see if it helps my sinuses by the way :))

Quick and easy pizza recipe

We had a vote the other day and everyone was for Pizza.

Always a good option as there are usually all the ingredients we need around the house.

I love home made pizza, it just has so much more flavour than the things you buy in the shops.

The pizza used mattessons sausage and loosely followed this pizza recipe without using the ready made base and sauce.

Truely the ultimate fish cake...

It was fish cakes last night.

Used this great recipe from the BBC Good Food website.

Ultimate fish cake recipe

It's a very easy recipe to follow and, this may be an odd thing to say, the fish cakes weren't too fishy?!?

A nice subtle taste, beautiful.

Chilli - You can't beat it...

I heard on telly the other day that Chilli was one of the handful of dishes that most Brits could cook.

I then realised that it had been years since I had had a chilli.

So, straight down the supermarket. Mince, kidney beans, chopped tomatoes etc....

An hour or so in the kitchen and voila.

Really nice, I won't be leaving it so long next time.

While I've been writing this I've just done a quite search and found a couple of other (low fat) Mexican recipes I think I'll try.

Birthday Dinner & Home Cooking

Nothing to do with cooking this time, rather about food in general, restaurant food in particular.

It was my birthday on Friday and my other half took me out.

The restaurant was very nice as was the food but there was just something wrong with every course.

The starter was tricky to eat with the utensils provided.

The main Calves Liver, was undercooked for my tastes.

The desert had some very odd flavour combinations...

And it got me to thinking about the old saying about not being able to beat home cooked food.

When you cook at home you choose how to eat the starter, you choose how well done the food is and you choose the flavour combinations.

I guess it's no guarantee of quality but you (or the family cook) are (is) in charge and that makes all the difference.

A quick Sunday evening meal after a long day out

I spent most of the day out with family friends yesterday and didn't have the energy to do a huge meal yesterday evening.

The solution... pasta

Always a good one to fall back on.

Made a basic sauce with mushrooms and chilli Sausage (adding some extra chilli flakes to give it a little more kick).

It was very well received.

I just cut up 2 small onions, chopped up a couple of sausages, added some crushed garlic, then the mushrooms when in.

After frying gently for 5 or so minutes, I added the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, salt pepper, mixed herbs and some chilli flakes, simmered for 10 minutes (while spaghetti was cooking) and voila tasty pasta sauce :)

Longest list of free recipes I've ever found...

This site is quite appropriately called Free Recipes.

It has over 100,000 recipes.

Now I'm not sure if that is overkill, if you're looking for recipe recommendations then I think you'll need to go elsewhere but if you know what you're looking for odds are you'll find it here.

http://www.free-recipes.co.uk/

Where my ideas come from

Just a short post today, I tough I'd share some of my favourite recipe sites with you.

They are the usual suspects but just wanted to let you know where I get most of my inspiration from.

BBC Good Food Recipes

Good to Know Recipes

Jamie Oliver Recipes

Channel 4 Recipes

Healthy snacks

I'm always on the look out for healthy snacks for me and the family.

The best option I've found so far, especially for taking to work, is dried fruit, nuts and seeds.

Fresh fruit would be preferable but it's not very portable, especially if you travel to work by public transport. You get to work and the inside of your bag is covered in fruit pulp...

Dried fruit gets around this and seeds and nuts are a great substitute for crisps.

Cream of jerusalem artichoke soup, YUM...

I just had to share this one with everyone: Cream of jerusalem artichoke soup

I just hope everyone reading this can get hold of these things, I'd never tried them before I got them in an organic veg box that we get every week.

This is one off the best new recipes I've tried in ages.

If jerusalem artichoke isn't for you, you can find more soup recipes here: Soup Recipes

Tabbouleh

We always have a bowl of tabbouleh on the go in our fridge, it's can act as a great side for a wide range of dishes.

Here's a quick and easy recipe that uses tabbouleh as a base.

Lemon chicken with tabbouleh

This recipe is as straight forward as can be and is really healthy to boot.

Checkout more easy recipes from this site.

Chorizo my favorite!

I have to say I love chorizo, it can liven up the dullest dishes.

So Today I'd like to share with you some of my favourite chorizo recipes.

Chorizo Pasta

Chorizo Stew

Chorizo with Lentils & Red Wine

I love one pot cooking and this last one is an absolute gem.

Last night's dinner...

I was feeling lazy last night, this happens quite frequently ;).

So I needed something quick and easy to cook.

I found this Garlic Bread Pizza Recipe on the BBC Good Food website:

Although you need to make your own dough with this recipe it really doesn't take that long at all and doesn't use that many utensils (so less washing up afterwards).

This was a great alternative to the usual heavy, cheese topped pizzas you usually find.

Hi, welcome to Hursty's Cookery Blog

Hello World.

I believe that is the usual title for these things :)

In this blog I'm basically just going to let people in on what I'm cooking at home and my experiences in the Kitchen.

Expect updates every couple of days....