One Year on.....

This time last year I was in a very different mood than the one I find myself in tonight. This time last year I was full of uncertainty and lacking direction. It wasn't a good place to be and at times I wondered if things would ever improve. Tonight I am full of reflection. I wrote THIS blog post after new year, I was trying to be positive and in someways it was a note to myself, so that if I felt myself slipping I could read it & remember that I had to make things better.

So here I am writing my first blog post for a very long time (sorry about that!) thinking how much my life  our lives have changed, one year on.

On October 31st all the hard work of the previous 8 months paid off and we opened the doors to our Coffee shop called......Chouxchouxbedoo! What else!?!

I'd love to tell you it all went swimmingly, that it was great fun & we loved every minute but I'd be lying if I did!
Getting to where were are today took months & months of blood, sweat & tears & back breaking hard word & sacrifices from all of us. There were so many times when I thought it would all get too much, that this next hurdle would be one too many but we kept plodding on and kept believing we'd get there one day and get there, we did. Admittedly we put off the 'Grand Opening' several times & every time someone asked when we'd be opening all I could reply was "soon". But eventually, finally, soon came and we opened our doors to family and friends to show them and share with them what all the fuss had been about.

There are still little bits that need finishing in the shop and still things that we need to get to grips with, but we have a steady flow of customers, many wonderful regulars and we really are doing what we set out to do all those months ago!

2012 hasn't been kind to many of my friends, it's taken loved ones, shattered hopes and dreams, caused worry and heartache and left them aching to see the back of it, exactly how I felt about 2011.
I faced my 2012 with a determination to be positive & boy did it test me at times!!

So I guess my hope this New Years Eve is that those of you who didn't have the best time in 2012 will have a wonderful 2013, and that some, if not all of your hopes and dreams come true. And to those of you who had a good 2012, I hope your 2013 is just as good if not better!
Even when we get what we wish for, it can still be a challenge as many of us know!
So here's to rising to the challenges, what ever they may be & wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year xxxxx Cheers! xx

Cake of the Week - Cakes for Boys

Once again I have an entry for Helen's Casacostello Cake of the Week blog. This week I'm bending the rules slightly (it's OK I asked first!) and I'm entering cakes that Mr P made.

Every now and them he gets an idea in his head and comes up with something amazing!

Last week it was Sabbuteo cupcakes!!

He painstakingly made each little figure with attention to detail way beyond my patience levels and came up with these

 The writing relates to some of Mr P's Twitter followers who were awarded very special #cakeawards

I think he did an amazing job for someone who says he's not creative, imagine what he could do if he was!! ;oD

Pop over to CasaCostello & see the other entries.

Pulled Pork Recipe - No photo's!

I've been meaning to add this recipe to a blog and share it for a while now, but every time I make it I'm in such a hurry to eat it that I forget to take pictures!

So I'm posting the recipe anyway! It's too good not to share!

The recipe is not totally my own, I adapted it from a recipe that was posted on a friend's Facebook, when she found herself kitcheless, with only a slow cooker for family meals.
Now those of you who know me will know how much I love my slow cooker! I'm proud of the fact that I've converted a couple of friends to use them too!

This recipe is an American recipe. I don't have American measuring cups so for a recipe like this when quantities don't need to be precise, just in proportion I use a tea cup as a measure and call it measuring in 'ish'. Using this method for this recipe has never let me down!

I use a 1.2 - 1.5 kg piece of Pork shoulder. I look for a piece with very little fat or skin, as unlike when I do a roast & want it all crispy, you'll just be cutting it off.
This cut is very often on offer in the supermarkets so I always buy a piece and make this recipe. It feeds 6 easily with left overs and can be stretched to feed further depending on how you serve it.

Today we had it with potato & sweet potato wedges, corn, coleslaw & onion rings.
We've also had it mixed with beans, rice & cheese in a wrap to make burrito's or in Burger buns with fries & salad. Either of the last two suggestions work really well for a crowd!

So grab a teacup and make this marinade!

Into the slow cooker dish goes

1 large onion roughly chopped
1/2 a cup ketchup
1/3 cup cider or wine vinegar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp American mustard
1/2 tsp salt
a good grind of black pepper

Mix well and put on LOW.

Take the pork and cut away any fat or rind & discard. Cut the pork into 4 pieces, no need to be fancy you just want 4 hunks of meat!

Place the pork into the slow cooker & coat thoroughly with the marinade. Place the lid on the slow cooker & leave to do it's thing for 8-10 hours, yes really!

There's no need to add any liquid, just leave it on low and walk away.

Once ready remove pork from the slow cooker and turn heat setting to HIGH to reduce the sauce. I always skim the fat from the top if there is any.
Take 2 forks & shred the pork. Once all shredded either spoon over the cooking sauce or place the meat back in the slow cooker and turn heat setting down to 'WARM'

Serve in any of the ways suggested above and enjoy :o)

If you like a little spice I suggest adding a little Harissa paste to the mix or Chipotle chilli paste but do so with CAUTION! Slow cookers intensify the heat, I'm thinking a teaspoon would be more than enough!

Coffee Shop Snippets #8 Leaps & Bounds

It's been about two weeks since I gave you a sneaky peek inside and so much has happened! We've gone from bare plastered walls and concrete floors, to painted walls and ceilings and wooden flooring. We now have lighting in too. We've gone for a mixture of low voltage down lighters and some bigger lights that have a daylight effect so we can switch around what we use depending on the natural light coming in from outside.

I got hands on and did some of the painting, including the old fireplace we managed to keep. It's now had a lovely coat of black enamel and looks loved again!

Tables have been purchased and the tops are being sanded and stained to match the floors and counters. I'm pleased to say we managed to get recycled ones along with some recycled Bar chairs, for the breakfast bar and had them re-upholstered. We're quite proud of the fact that all of the furniture in the shop is recycled or reclaimed.

We've had a fair few deliveries over the past couple of weeks, ranging from small not very exciting items to our gorgeous patisserie cabinet and ice cream freezer and we've also managed to get a supply of some premium soft drinks. Not only are they great quality, but they're produced in the North (North East so not quite local but still produced closer to home than most soft drinks) but they are coming from a small local independent supplier no more than a mile or two away from the shop.

The phone line is now in, but I won't give you the number as we don't yet have a phone!

So I'll leave you with the pictures. if you have time go back over some of the old snippets and see the difference, I have to, just to remember what it looked like to start with!

From back to front. Clean lines and straight edges with a widened arch

This arch has also been made wider to allow more light and space 

View from the other side, Front to Back

Counter taking shape........

Looking good! I'm so happy with how it looks Mr P has done an amazing job so far!

Click on the 'snippets' label below if you'd like to see the older pictures, I'm off to take a look now :o)

Cake of the week - Lauren's Birthday Cake

Once again I have the opportunity to join in with Helen's Cake Of The Week link on her fabulous blog CasaCostello I linked up a couple of weeks ago for Megan's Birthday where I not only made my first fully iced birthday cake, but a two tier one at that!
Thankfully Lauren's request was simpler, a chocolate cake with blue feathers on! So that's what she got!

As usual I left it until very late on the night before her birthday to decorate it and didn't really have an idea of how I was going to decorate it until I started. It's fair to say it was less than perfect. The chocolate icing didn't behave quite like the white I'd used for Megan's cake and it wasn't nearly as forgiving, hence the double ribbon round the sides.
Lauren had chosen the feathers so I popped those on, along with her candles and her name but it looked far too plain. I decided on butterflies with a couple of little flowers and it just kind of grew from there.

Helen made some lovely comments on my last cake, but this one has confirmed to me that iced cakes are not my strong point!! Maybe on day in the future when I have more time (who am I kidding, right??!!) I'll learn the art of decorating celebration cakes, until then they'll be for the children only and I'll concentrate on cakes for the shop!

But most importantly the Birthday girl loved it! Happy 11th Birthday Lauren! xxx

Pop over to see Helen's last wedding cake for a while, talk about go out with a bang! It's amazing!

Coffee Shop Snippets #7 - We're plastered!

Things have been slow going, but that's because there was major work to be done. On Friday the plasterers came and spent two days skimming the walls and ceilings. We used local tradesmen again, so local one walked to the shop and the other came on a push bike. I have to say they've done a fantastic job and I think from here on in, things are going to pick up pace.

Enjoy the pictures and thanks for stopping by :o)

Stairs are Blocked in again

Wall gone & light floods in

I love our windows

Opening widened allowing more space & light

From the back to the front

Reinstated side door giving an extra fire escape

View from the back wall to the door

Original fireplace we managed to save 

Cake Of the week - We have a teenager in the house!

I love to join in with Helen's Cake of the Week Blog posts but don't always have anything worthy of posting!

This week however I do!! My eldest turned 13 yesterday and requested a two tiered birthday cake for the occasion months ago. I thought the shop would be open by now and that Mr P would be the one to make it, so I agreed!
Unfortunately the shop isn't quite ready and Mr P is very much tied up in making it happen, so the cake was left to me to do.
I don't 'do' birthday cakes, at least not proper iced ones! The odd novelty creation or some nice cupcakes, sure, but not 'proper' cakes!
I'm not one to go back on a promise, especially where my children are concerned, so I tackled it head on & just hoped for the best, I think it turned out OK!

I decided to do a Zebra design as Megan loves them. It's not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt!
And most importantly the Birthday Girl loved it!

Make sure you pop over to Casa Costello to see the other fab entries. It's not a competition, just a place to share your creations x

Coffee Shop Snippets #6 Delivery Day

Over the past couple of days parcels containing the things I've ordered for the shop have started to arrive, it's been a bit like Christmas! Some of the things are very exciting and pleasing on the eye, others more practical, but just a necessary.

I'm delighted that our teapots have arrived, you wouldn't believe how hard they were to get hold of and at one point I thought I'd have to find an alternative, but thankfully persistence paid off and in sourcing the teapots I found a company who supply some gorgeous and unusual products.
So here you go the last of this weeks snippets, enjoy! xx

Coffee Shop Snippets #5 It's a tough job.......

Today I had the very best business meeting I've had to date, it was all about Ice Cream!

We decided long ago that if we ever got the chance to open our Coffee Shop, then we'd stock Cheshire Farm Ice Cream. As far as we're concerned, it's the best around and in our family that's saying something as we have some real ice cream fiends!

I'd been in contact with Sally from Cheshire farm for some time and finally today I got to meet her in person to discuss our requirements and how it all works.

Sally very kindly bought a box of samples for us to taste and as the shop is still a construction site, we left the samples with the workers, including Mr P, and went to the pub next door to go through all the details. Poor R had to come along for the ride and he was as good as gold while Sally & I went through the finer details.

The way Cheshire Farm deal with their new customers is fantastic, they do everything they can to help you on their way, including starting you off with your first lot of ice cream for a new freezer, which will be a huge help as those things don't come cheap!

Flavour selections and descriptions

As R was so good Sally very kindly gave us another box of samples to take home to share with the girls and get the whole family to sample the flavours, including Sticky Toffee Pudding, Baileys, Ferrero Rocher, Coconut, Mango & Ginger sorbet, Strawberry & Cream, Chocolate, Mint Choc-Chip, Honeycomb, Blackcurrant & Licorice, all of which are divine! 

The Boys at the shop didn't quite finish all the tubs (although they had a good try!) so rather than waste it the children had tiny tastes of the little that was left and we now have a lovely selection in the freezer to have a proper taste after tea this evening, and probably tomorrow evening too!

Tiny tubs of joy!

So, which flavour would you choose??

Coffee Shop Snippets #4 One week on.......

This latest Snippets post might not have quite the impact of the first peek you got last week, but I got a bit choked  when I went into the shop this evening. Mr P suggested we take a quick run down to the shop this evening as I hadn't been in for a day or so and our team of tradesmen (including Mr P and his lovely Dad) have been hard at work this week.

So here are the pictures from this evening. We went just before 7pm and I was delighted not only by the work, but by the wonderful light in the shop.

Look at the light!

Our lovely windows looking to the front of the shop

From the front to the back

Not the most glamorous, but these will be the toilets!

Hopefully these pictures give you a better idea of the light and space we have. I really love out little shop and feel very at home there. Thank you for keeping up with the developments so far, stay tuned folks, it's all starting to come together!!

First peep inside the shop......Coffee Shop Snippets #3

Mr P hasn't been at home very much this weekend, that's because he's been working hard at the shop.
He took some pictures when he'd finished work today and we decided to show you what's been happening. So here it is, your first look inside our shop! Don't forget to post a comment if you stop by the blog, we'll always try to reply and really appreciate your comments.

Here goes...........

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

So there you have it, the first sneaky peek of the inside of the shop, What do you think so far?

Take a seat while you wait...Coffee Shop Snippets #2

Waiting, waiting....that's all we seem to do! Well obviously we don't just sit around and wait, there have been other things to do, small things that will all form part of the bigger plan, but on the whole it feels like there has been a lot of waiting!
First we had to wait to see if we would be granted A3 usage for the shop, then we had to wait for the leases and legal work to be sorted, then we had to wait for building regulations to be approved, THEN we had to wait for the builders to return their quotes to us, some of which we are still waiting on, over two weeks later! and breathe.....................


To add to this I have also had to wait for my engagement ring to be re-set, but I'm delighted to say we got the call to say it's in the shop ready to be collected.

One of the things we did while waiting was source chairs for the shop. When you search on-line for coffee shop chairs or cafe chairs, most of the ones that come up are ultra modern, metal, or flimsy looking and wouldn't fit in with the look or feel we're trying create at the shop. We started to search on second-hand  sites like Ebay and secondhand-chairs-and-tables.co.uk and found a few possible selections. In the end we bought a couple of chairs off of Ebay and while searching I came across one Ebay shop that had a 'real' shop so we went along for a look and came away with twelve chairs! This was on a day when we'd collected two other chairs purchased via Ebay so Mr P somehow managed to squeeze fourteen chairs into the back of our car! All in all we ended up with about twenty chairs in various shapes, sizes and colours.

The plan is to renovate all of these chairs, not so much to make them match, but to make them coordinate.  I've been sanding them down and giving them a couple of coats of undercoat, sanding some more and then finishing them with Craig & Rose paints. I've done three chairs so far and as far as I can tell they are the three oldest I'm guessing 1930's - 1950's. 

One of a pair  

Finished with it's original seat pad in place

My Favourite little chair that cost just £5!

So with many more things to source and lots more chairs to paint I have plenty to keep me busy. Mr P has now started work in the shop, alongside builders, plumbers and electricians. There is an awful lot to do before we can open, but I'm confident we have the right people in place to do the work and hopefully soon we'll have a clearer idea of an opening date. 

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner.....

I missed the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony last night as we had a wedding reception to go to and I don't mind admitting I really would rather have stayed at home to watch it. I rarely watch sports on TV but I have to say I've been really looking forward to the Olympics and plan to watch as much of it as I can. I love the fact that we have 'the red button' and can pick and choose what events we watch.

I've heard so many people on social media sites and people I know saying how they're not bothered about the Olympics and won't be watching and I think it's a real shame. Most of us will probably never get to see it hosted in our home country again in our life time, so why not make the most of it and get involved, even if that simply means tuning in to watch it on the TV.
Half of me is sad not to be closer to London to be able to soak up the atmosphere but the other half is relieved not to get caught up in crowds and traffic and chaos!

Yesterday the children made banners and posters to put in the windows and we kept the Union Jack paper chains they made for the Jubilee so we're doing our bit to show our support for Team GB.

I don't get to go down to London to visit Family and friends as much as I'd like and when we decided to take a trip down in the summer holidays I hadn't taken the Olympics into account, so not wanting to get caught up in all the traffic etc we chose to go as soon as the children broke up.

There were a few places that I hadn't been for many years that I wanted to visit and show the children and Mr P. My sister came along for the day too so it made for a really nice family day out. We even spotted some of the Olympic mascots.

London is such a wonderfully varied place. You can visit areas not more than a mile or so apart and yet they have a totally different feel and atmosphere to the one you were in before. I worked in London for many years, tubing it in everyday and even before I was out at work, spent many weekends and school holiday jumping on and off the underground exploring the city that was on our doorstep. This visit I wanted to return to some old haunts, area's I had worked in and favourite places from my teenage years, so that's exactly what we did.

Spitalfields and Bishopsgate were the first stop. I worked in a branch on the corner of Commercial Street on and off for years. It was great to see that most of the tiny side streets remained pretty much unchanged. I always think that in this part of London with it's tiny wonky streets and old buildings you could be anywhere in the world. I think the shops in the top four pictures above wouldn't look out of place in Paris or Rome and probably aren't images people would come up with when thinking of London. Spitalfields market on the other hand had changed almost beyond recognition! I actually remember the days when it was the old fruit & veg market full of traders. It moved to Leyton in 1991 just after I started working at the bank. Slowly the old  Spitalfields started to fill with restaurants and stalls and has built itself into a really great space full of uber trendy shop, stalls, boutiques and eateries. I strongly recommend you stop by if ever you're in London.

Friday is Fashion Day at the market

Next we hopped on the tube and went over to Covent Garden. We took in the street entertainers and walked through the market admiring the shops and taking in all the sights, sounds and smells. Covent Garden was definitely one of my favourite places to go in my teens and I still love it now. You get such a diverse mix of people and there is always something to see.

Lastly we headed down to Leicester Square and on to Oxford Circus. I can honestly say I can't remember seeing London as busy as it was for a long time. It was great to see coach loads of tourists and school parties, it's how a city should be and how I remember London being. I love the hustle and bustle of a city, it recharges my batteries a bit like the countryside does for other people. We walked miles that day but no one complained as there was just so much to take in, aching feet were that last thing on our minds.

The rest of our time in London was spent catching up with friends and family. We spent a really wonderful evening at Gill's. Nancy and her family came along too. We spent the whole late afternoon and evening sitting in the garden catching up on a years worth of natter, eating wonderful food and enjoying all being together. Our collective children, 7 in total, ran wild, also catching up on a year of not seeing each other and Bruno and Maisie, our dogs, got to meet for the first time, which was a great success! None of us wanted to evening to end.

But now we're home and the Olympics have started. Despite not being in London I fully intend to enjoy the Games and I hope that everyone else gets into the spirit of things too!