I love this city!

The steps at The Mound

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is coming to a close and I can’t help but feel I’ve missed out a bit this year. The Fringe festivities are on for almost a full month, but sometimes it’s tricky to get round to it of it unless you plan ahead.

As you may know from my previous post, I had a week off last week. However, I ventured off camping instead of spending time with my beloved city, Edinburgh. So on Sunday my husband, Chris, and I decided to make a day of it. We took the car in to make the most of the free parking available in the city, and to give us more flexibility. As we had nothing planned (and because I’m saving the pennies!), we headed straight for the Half Price Hut at the bottom of The Mound.

We gazed at the screens listing the many shows that had become available at 50% off until something took our fancy. Any of you who have been to the Festival before will know that there are some great shows available, but there are also a whole lot of duds too, so it can be difficult to select a good’un when there are so many to choose from.

We eventually purchased tickets for a show called Korean Drum for only £7.50 each, rather than the usual £15 price tag. We had a few hours to kill before the show started so we headed off for some lunch, walking past the Royal Mile on the way. If you want to truly experience the festival, a visit to the Royal Mile is a must. It’s full of colourful characters, street performers and stalls, and best of all, it’s free!

Edinburgh Festival: Looking down the Royal Mile

We arrived at Red Box Noodle Bar for a late lunch. We’ve been there a couple of times before, it’s great value at only £5.30 for a very generous portion of noodles, served in cool American style boxes (here in the UK, noodles are usually served in plastic tubs, like disposable Tupperware, so these boxes hold the novelty factor!). There is a choice of noodle (egg, rice, udon, ramen, etc) and ingredients. I ordered chicken satay udon and Chris ordered Thai red curry beef ramen. Yum!

Oodles of Noodles

We hurried our full tummies along to the show. I usually choose shows in the Dance & Physical Theatre section of the Fringe Guide, whilst Chris prefers music or comedy. This show was a great combination of music and dance. The performers were extremely energetic, but also showed amazing levels of precision, which certainly impressed the audience. Suitably entertained, we headed off to meet a friend for a drink at the East End. We stopped in at the Omni Centre, which I would say is probably best avoided during festival time as it was so quiet and lacking in atmosphere compared to venues in and around the Old Town.

It was a great taste of the festival though, if only for one day. Next year I’ll plan ahead… Honest.

When life hands you limes…

… make chocolate & lime cupcakes. I made these chocolaty delights yesterday after finding the recipe on the BBC Good Food website. The recipe is for ‘easy chocolate cupcakes’, I added the lime twist based on the old-fashioned sweets Chocolate Limes. This recipe is extremely easy to follow, but I felt it was just a little too chocolaty for me so made a few adjustments. If you love bitter chocolate then go for the higher measurements on the cocoa and plain chocolate, if you like your chocolate sweet, then use the lower measurements or switch to milk chocolate instead of plain. My adaptation is as follows:

Preheat to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. This mix makes approx 10 muffins or 24 cupcakes.

For the cakes:

• 100g plain chocolate , blitzed into small chunks in a food processor (don’t use one with a high cocoa content)
• 200g self-raising flour (a little extra may be required)
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 2-4 tbsp cocoa to taste (I used 4 tbsp of Green & Black’s cocoa and it was VERY chocolaty!)
• 150 ml sunflower oil , plus a little extra for greasing
• 100 ml soured cream
• 2 eggs (keep ’em free-range folks!)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of 1-2 limes
• juice of 1 lime

For the chocolate topping:

• 60-100g plain chocolate , blitzed into small chunks in a food processor (don’t use one with a high cocoa content, adjust to taste)
• 3 tbsp light muscovado sugar
• 2-3 tbsp sour cream

To finish:

• Chocolate Limes, crushed

Sieve the flour and cocoa and add the sugar. Beat the eggs and add the other wet ingredients (sunflower oil, vanilla extract, lime juice & zest and sour cream) then gradually fold into the dry ingredients. Add the blitzed chocolate chunks and mix well. At this stage I found the mixture a little bit too runny so I added about 4-5 tbsp self raising flour. The consistency should be sticky rather than runny; it should spoon into the cupcake cases rather than pour. Pop on the oven for about 20 minutes. The cakes are done when you can insert a cocktail stick into them and it comes out (just about) clean. Leave them to cool on a wire rack.

Gently heat all of the ingredients for the chocolate topping in a small saucepan until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Pour a teaspoon of the topping onto the cupcake and sprinkle the crushed chocolate limes on top. Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to find chocolate limes in the shops, so I used lime zest to decorate instead. There are a number of online retailers that sell chocolate limes, including chocolatebuttons.co.uk.

I have made a stash of these for a birthday party this weekend, which brings me to my little money saver this evening. My good friend Janine is celebrating her 30th birthday on Friday, and rather than having an expensive bash, she’s invited a few of her nearest and dearest to her favourite spot in Scotland, a little village called Findhorn, on the north east coast for a beach party and camping. Okay, maybe it isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but camping out makes weekend trips so much more affordable and flexible. My husband and I are heading up for one night, whilst others are there for a long weekend.

Luckily I love camping, and might just borrow this idea for my own birthday celebrations. And when life hands you lemons…

You’d better not read this post!

Today I joined Twitter. I’m still to decide how I feel about it. After spending hours setting up an account and fluttering through the giant birdcage that is Twitter, I feel like I have achieved very little. I have wished Daniel Radcliffe a happy birthday in hopes of getting it to ‘trend’, gathered 3 followers and lost 1 already.

Not a very fruitful afternoon. And it’s sunny outside! Here in Scotland, sunny days are hard to come by, so I really should be making the most of it. At least I managed to get the washing hung out in the garden.

My money saving tip today was to talk my darling hubby out of going out to dinner. I’m sure we can find something good to make at home at just a fraction of the cost. I did my supermarket shop online today as well, so at least I’m practicing what I preach! It’s being delivered on Monday night. Also, we’re going fishing this evening (off the harbour), so if we catch anything, that’s free food!

Nobody has visited my blog today, I’m guessing it’s because it’s the weekend. So I thought I’d try a bit of reverse psychology and tell people NOT to read this post. Sorry if you thought it would be more interesting. A post like this is very much a result of a very sleepy me! Happy Saturday!

In other news… I had the best night last night, chilling with my bestest lady friends. Gossip and food fest are just the best Friday night activities…. This morning I tried Chocolate Sugar Puffs, they kinda just taste like Sugar Puffs but they turn the milk brown…. The chilli plant has been repotted and is settling into it’s new home nicely!… The big batch of soup from the allotment is nearly finished, fortunately father-in-law has kindly donated another turnip from his allotment to go into the next batch!

Spending less ‘bucks

My Sunday mornings are usually a bit slower to start than other days, even when I’m working. I work alternate weekends and my typical working Sunday starts with a visit to Starbucks. I know, I know, they’re ridiculously priced but I love a good Caramel Macchiato (grande, skimmed with an extra shot!).
Now, this morning, I was particularly sleep deprived, having been at a late night screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (most excellent – I might post a bit about that later), so a pint of strong sweet coffee would have been most welcome! However, in interests of saving money, I woke up early to have a coffee at home (and a tasty bowl of Tesco branded cheerios).
Admittedly it was missing the syrupy goodness of Starbucks coffees, but it saved me at least £5, as I probably would have treated myself to a muffin or a breakfast panini.
At lunch time I went for the cheaper option of a pizza slice with coleslaw and cucumber on the side, a bargain at only £1.50. I managed to resist a trip to Waitrose on the way home from work (another Sunday tradition!) as my husband told me his dad had given us some lettuce and tomatoes from his allotment for dinner (a good hearty salad with leftover Moroccan curry with turkey & apricot from last night – pictured)
So it’s been a very reasonably priced day!