Month: November 2016

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A very well know supermarket visited….

profilephoto1940An exciting weekend…

Yesterday I spent all day cleaning up my rather messy kitchen and baking some 1940’s dishes as a VERY well known supermarket were sending a photographer over on Sunday (today!).

I’ll tell you more when I know more because quite frankly, although the photographer was lovely and talented (see his Instagram here) I think he had his work cut out with this chubby silver haired vintage foodie. My dress barely fit, my wrap around pinny wouldn’t wrap around (my boobs have seemed to have grown immensely overnight and has scared the life out of me!) and my Victory Rolls looked more like something worn by ‘A Flock of Seagulls’. I am about 80% convinced right now that they will decide not to run the article when they see my photos…

Whatever happens, it was good spending all weekend cooking and giving the kitchen a pre Christmas scrub and Jess and I enjoyed a chit-chat with the photographer who was very kind.

Right now I am absolutely shattered. I’ve gobbled down 1/2 a Lord Woolton Pie and two blackberry mince pies and am going to have an afternoon snooze on the sofa.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

C xxxx

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Gym and Weight Loss Update – 15th November 2016

Enjoyed some walking and jogging on the treadmill tonight with my friend Bertie and had a lot going on in my head so grabbed my phone and just talked.

My weight has gone up from about 255 lbs to 266 lbs in the last 4 weeks (and I had put 5 or 6 lbs on before that too) so I am really trying hard to get back on track and focused.

As a person who has been morbidly obese most of the last 20 years or so you have a huge fear of once you have lost some weight that you will lose control and put it all back on again (lets face it – we’ve all probably been there many times). I used to be 345 lbs and NEVER want to be there again because it was painful and unhealthy. My goal currently is to get below 250 lbs by Christmas and get below 200 lbs to run the London Marathon in April 2017 as a runner for the Royal British Legion.

Night night, never give up!

C xxx

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Blackberry Mincemeat for WW2 Christmas Mince Pies – Recipe No. 157

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You had to really think ahead on the home-front during WW2. Bottling hedgerow fruits during the late summer months would have enabled you to use many of those berries to make Christmas mince pies. The fruits bulked out the dried fruit which was much harder to get hold of in the quantities most housewives were used to.

7c3678aff3aa79930546591cda391b12This recipe comes from ‘Woman Magazine’ and makes about 3-4 jam jars or at least a large litre kilner jar and will be enough to fill 24 mince pies!

I made this today and as I had no blackberries and obviously wasn’t forward thinking like many bakers during WW2, I was able to just pop along to my local Sainsbury’s a buy a frozen basics bag of forest berries which includes blackberries. They’ve worked very well!

I tasted a spoonful before bottling and it tastes very much like a mix between traditional mincemeat and apple pie mixture. Very tasty!

Blackberry Mincemeat for Christmas Mince pies.

1 lb blackberries (or mixed berries). Use fresh, frozen or bottled.
4 cooking apples
4 oz (100 g) butter, margarine or shredded suet
4 oz (100 g) of chopped mixed nuts
1/2 lbs (200 g) of dried mixed fruit
2 – 3 rounded dessertspoons of soft brown sugar (or granulated)
8-10 drops almond essence
2 rounded teaspoons of mixed spice
Honey or golden syrup

Method

Chop up apples and place in saucepan with a spoonful of water and soft brown sugar and simmer until apple is soft and getting pulpy.
Add berries, spice and almond essence and simmer on low for another 15 minutes stirring now and again. Switch off heat.
Add your margarine/butter/suet and stir in until melted
Add chopped nuts and dried fruit and stir (at this stage if you wish you can add a dram of whisky or brandy.)
Spoon into clean, sterilized jam jars and once filled drizzle the top with a little warm honey or golden syrup to seal before adding lid.
Store in the fridge or somewhere cool until needed when you make your mince pies at Christmas!

Should keep for 3 – 6 months in the fridge!

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Armistice Day – 2 minutes silence at work.

I got my phone out and took a quick video today during our two minutes silence at work. When I played it back and saw some of the young faces in the video, people I work with, it brought a few tears to my eyes thinking how awful it must have been that so many young men lost their lives during WW1.

It’s important to never forget such selfless acts… C xxxx

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Double bra’d and not self-conscious at Poppy Run.

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So today we ran a Poppy Run to raise money for the Royal British Legion as part of my main London Marathon 2017 Fundraiser at www.donatepoppy.uk

Despite my wobbly 260 lbs (yes I’ve put on about 10 lbs recently) I jogged the 1st mile without stopping in a respectable (for me) 12 minutes and completed the rest by jogging the downhills and walking the rest. It took 44 minutes.

Beyond the brilliant atmosphere and the great cause there was something else that made this a happy day for this ‘big girl’ and that was it was a day where I didn’t once feel self-conscious. Not once!

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It wasn’t so long ago where I found it impossible to jog outside in front of people. But then I started jogging a minute or two on most of my numerous evening hikes this past summer and as most of these were done in parks with not many people about, slowly I found myself getting used to running past people and when they looked I smiled. Soon after I tried a few morning 5k park runs. It was quite hard to do this as there can be many hundreds of people taking part and some of them are fantastic athletes. BUT so many people at the Park Runs are so encouraging and coming last just about every single time hasn’t been discouraging at all!

I think what I am trying to say is that part of my long meandering weight-loss and fitness journey is that to become more successful you have to absolutely say F*** it! You have to be able to not give a damn if you jog slow, if you sweat and turn bright pink, if you have boobs that bounce dangerously everywhere even if you’ve double bra’d or if you always come last.

Every day you get out there and do something you will care less and feel better about yourself and proud of what you are achieving. Please never give up, just keep going. Please take this advice from someone who has spent at least 20 years struggling against this thing called obesity….

Love and hugs and here’s to not giving a damn and never giving up!

C xxxxx

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Poppy Fundraiser for Team Legion

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So as a London Marathon Charity Runner for ‘The Royal British Legion’ I have committed to raise £2000 by April 2017.

To achieve this I’ve got to think of ways to get to this goal so I can do my bit for this excellent charity. I now have my main fundraiser 80% planned (taking part next year) which I am incredibly excited about and which I will have all the details of the event on my website in a few weeks.

13516644_1756323724611743_1758006240145534818_nLast night I was walking on the treadmills with my gym buddy ‘Bertie Beattie’. Bertie is an incredibly passionate and talented glass artist and as we got sweaty and giggly (as one tends to do at the gym when you are having bizarre conversations at 5.5 km an hour on an incline) Bert tells me she has made some glass poppy brooches and she’d be happy to donate half her profit (20%).

I thought this incredibly generous…

So Bertie is busy making poppies and I’d love it if you would support independent artists and ‘Team Legion’ by purchasing a red glass poppy. The poppy brooch measures about 30 mm across but will vary as all are handmade.

You would be dealing with ‘Bertie’ directly and please use one of the LINKS below to place your order. Remember £2 of each poppy goes to ‘The Royal British Legion’ via my London Marathon Fundraising page.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE 1 GLASS POPPY + UK Postage and Packing via PAY_PAL

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE 1 GLASS POPPY + Worldwide Postage and Packing via PAY PAL

Thank you so much!

C xxx

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Dame Vera Lynn 100th Birthday Celebration

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I heard some exciting news today.

Dame Vera Lynn will be 100 years old on March 20th 2017 and there is to be a star-studded variety extravaganza at the London Palladium theatre.

QUOTE: “The spectacular celebrating the Forces’ Sweetheart’s centenary will feature a line up of stage, TV and musical stars.

Full details of the concert set to take place on March 18 next year and how to buy tickets will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The money raised will go to the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity.”

READ ARTICLE HERE

And then I watched this really good documentary on Dame Vera, filmed in 2010 when she was 93 and I though she looks and sounds wonderful. It’s a fascinating piece of social history and I’d recommend you watch it.

There was one comment in the documentary she made that I picked up on and immediately I felt a kinship.

“I quite like when things go wrong…it’s a challenge!”….Dame Vera Lynn

And I started listening to some of her wonderful songs..

“There’ll always be an England…”

 

And of course “We’ll Meet Again..”

 

I’ve enjoyed my hour with Vera….

C xxxxx