Tasty Tomato Chutney

I wanted to make full use of all the beautiful tomatoes we have grown in the garden this year so I have developed this Tasty Tomato Chutney. It’s been our best year so far with our tomatoes and I am pleased as punch with how it has turned out.

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We set about with our raised beds this spring at the end of our garden. It’s been a learning experience which is still playing out due to it not being the end of the season yet for root vegetables. I’ll let you know how we get on soon. However, our tomatoes are coming on fantastically and growing up and around our patio pallet garden which is brilliant.

The tomatoes which we have used are a combination of tiger tomatoes which are striped hence the name I guess and standard red tomatoes which my youngest and I grew from the seeds of a fresh tomato which was bought from the supermarket at the start of the year. We were preparing our lunch one day and he asked if we could plant the seeds and we did. I honestly didn’t think much would come of it but low and behold it did and the plants are strong and producing lots of fruit.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and see how easy it is to make fresh chutney with a few ingredients.

Use a really sharp knife to cut a cross in the skin before pouring the boiling water over. This way after 5 minutes you can push the tomatoes out of their skin which isn’t needed in the recipe.

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The chutney is ideal as a little accompaniment to most other supper or lunch dishes and can even be added to vegetarian or meat stews for added richness.

Tasty Tomato Chutney

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

45 mins

Cooling time

10 mins

Total Time

55 mins

A super easy Tomato Chutney packed with flavour

Course: Side Dish

Servings: 8

Author: mainy - myrealfairy

Ingredients

500 g Tomato
250 g Onions
100 g Brown sugar
1 clove Garlic
75 ml Red or White wine vinegar
Half tspn Paprika Optional

Instructions

Cut a cross in the skins of the tomatoes and pour over boiling water in a bowl.
Leave to stand for 5 mins and then carefully remove the skins which should peel off easily now.
Chop the onions roughly and then mince the garlic. Place in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
Place all the other ingredients on top and bring gently to the boil stirring all the time.
Simmer gently, stirring frequently for approx 45mins
You are looking and feeling for a soft jam like consistency.
After about 30 mins, spoon out a small amount, set aside to cool. Then try it for personal taste.
When you are happy, continue for the full amount of time.
Leave to cool slightly then place in your sterilised jars and leave to fully cool.

Recipe Notes

Enjoy with cold meats or cheese. Also try out my Soda Bread recipe as these goes amazing well together.

Have Fun! Mainy

Let me know how you get on if you make yours. Also rate the recipe please.

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Halloween Pumpkin Carving

It’s that time of year again to go wild with the face paint and walk the streets in search of sweets and mischief. One of the best traditions in our house has been the halloween pumpkin carving. This is totally the domain of my OH. I’m so proud of him I couldn’t resist the urge to showcase our previous years offerings. We are set to try and beat these beauties this year but we haven’t even bought the pumpkins yet! Everything has been so busy and even though I have seen them in the shops they are yet to make their way to our house. Stay tuned and they will be on show soon! So, back to last years carvings.

The evening started with the humble pumpkin…

A couple of years ago we brought a pack with all the carving tools in it. It was obviously the OH setting the scene for him to get serious!

The preparation has started and all of the insides are taken out. Sounds gruesome but it’s definitely in the Halloween theme. He uses the stencil for the main shape and marks out the outline.

Before we know it, the unveiling is upon us and look….

Oh yeah, not just one, but two! the Prince of Darkness is joined by the Spooky Spider.

I love them and the kids think they are fab! They will sit outside our house on Halloween with candles in them and let people know that we are joining in the fun.

How is your Halloween going so far? Do you love to get into the spirit of it, if so how do you celebrate?

If you have any links to your carvings, please share in the comments section.

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Once you have had fun with the carving you could try my delicious savoury halloween special 4 Steps to a Camembert Funny Mummy

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Truffle Trivia Competition Giveaway

Spring has sprung and it’s time for me to launch some more giveaways. How long has it been? It seems like forever that I have not had a giveaway on my site. Well I can start putting that right here and now:)

This Truffle Trivia Quiz Box is so much fun. It looks just like a box of scrummy chocolates, ideal to take to a dinner party. Surprise surprise it is a quiz box set perfect to give the hosts and have some after dinner fun!

Without further ado, you can enter now and be in with a chance to win this fab prize.

Enter the giveaway here…

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Good luck! Open to worldwide entries.

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Fun Times at The Body Shop Event

Offering hints and tips for the best beauty routines, from just wanting a dab of moisturiser to the brightest of blushers, there is a bit of everything to enjoy.

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I had a fantastic evening out recently with the Bournemouth Bloggers where we were invited to an exclusive evening with The Body Shop in Bournemouth to take a look at their full range of products.

It started off with a glass of bubbly as we walked in the door which is the best sort of hello I could of hoped for after a long day. I wasn’t driving and was child free for the next couple of hours and I was perfectly ready to melt into the world of pamper products and learn more about the body shops international work promoting and campaigning for cruelty free cosmetics.

With the help of Hannah, Alice and Scarlett we were given an overview of the products in general and how they were going to help us on the night. We were then free to hone in on the specific products that we wanted to know more about.

As many of you know I’m getting married next year and one of the things that I need is the perfect lipstick. As I rarely wear it I am totally out of my comfort zone about where to even start. If you scrabble around in my make-up bag then the ones you do find are normally a nude colour or a clear lipgloss for the evening…not very daring.

I want to shine for my wedding and am looking forward to pushing my own boundaries and having the perfect pout. The lipstick range that I went for under guidance from my body shop pro was the Colour Crush™ Lipsticks. I was amazed that my make up stylist went straight for 2 colours that were bold and very rich, normally the opposite end of the line when I would be looking at colours. However, it just shows you the power of letting the professionals look after you as when I saw the effect I was thrilled!

The name of this little beauty is Sardinia Hibiscusis. It is enriched with Community Trade marula oil so I won’t get that dried out feeling that can be present with some lipsticks. A bonus feature is that it comes with its own little mini pot on the end when you don’t want to take the whole one with you. Ideal also if you want to lend to a friend but just can’t part with your favourite lippy, genius!

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I had a demonstration of the All-In-One BB cream which adapts to your skin tone. It’s light which is what I need for a natural look. Having an even skin tone will help perk me up on the colder autumn mornings.

body shop event — 8 million signatures reached!

The Body Shop was founded by Anita Roddick in 1976 when she opened her first shop in Brighton. I remember always growing up with the Body Shop as the main force in promoting and raising awareness of cruelty free cosmetics. This cause has grown and grown over the years and The Body Shop have become leaders in fronting campaigns to make a difference.

Their latest campaign #ForeverAgainstAnimalTesting is to end animal testing in cosmetics forever. They have reached the 8 million signatures needed and have made a video here to explain how they are now on their way to the United Nations.

“If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.”

Anita Roddick

The Bournemouth shop is also available to follow over on instagram and will keep you updated with all you need for those beach side tips.

I was keen to have a look for products for my OH because he uses absolutely nothing on his face or beard. All these years of buying him beautiful smellies at Christmas and birthdays have gone to waste. I think that he could open his own shop with the amount he has stashed away.

I think that I have now cracked it with these two products in the mens section. The Guarana and Coffee Energising Cleanser is enriched with organic community trade aloe vera and is 100% vegan. It smells delicious with coffee undertones, just what you need to kickstart your mornings.

The Cedar & Sage beard oil will be a treat for his beard that I think will make him see what he’s been missing. It will moisturise the skin underneath his beard and give his stunning stubble a shine and subtle scent.

I was treated to a gorgeous goody bag when I left which was a really kind gesture, filled with lots of gifts for me to try out which I will let you know more about soon! Thoroughly enjoyable evening and right on time with stocking up on ideas just before christmas and getting ready for the wedding.

Have you been into the Body Shop recently? What are your favourite products?

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I’m Getting Married!

I’m Getting Married! The time has come to make an honest women of me! But what will I wear, eat, say and do? The pressure is clearly on now.

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Is that the right thing to say or should it be ‘we’ are getting married to be more inclusive? Whichever it is, the big day has been set and we are on the path to saying I Do. Beyond excited and having tummy backflips when I think that in 8 months the day will be mine all mine, oh and his too;)

My OH finally took the plunge and asked me in May after years together and knowing that I was so excited about getting married and he had no idea or need to ever even consider that he would. Our German/English pairing never ceases to amaze me in the way we approach things, coupled with the men are from mars and women are from venus scenario, our lives are interesting.

Those of you who regularly drop by know that I talk about the boys and my OH but don’t delve too deep about our relationship. I do let out the odd gushy poem like this one on the plane from Munich which says it all in a moment of hormones and fear of flying panic.

How did it all begin…

Finding love in my forties after a fun-filled, crazy, sometimes sad and always challenging life came out of the blue. I was scheduled to pick up a visiting professional who had travelled down from London to where I am on the south coast from the train station. I had known him for over a year through my work in social care by having the odd meeting and email. I was stood by my car looking through the glass door of the train station, trying to peer over the heads of the crowd bustling through, when his face came into view and I was suddenly smitten…shocked at how this came out of nowhere…but smitten all the same. Once I had greeted him and got us seated and belted up I almost shook my head at myself as I had that silly smile that you get when you like someone but I tried to tuck it deep inside me and keep my super professional facade up as this was a work thing and I’m normally good at painting the picture of being in control onto a nervous face.

The drive should have been 10 minutes from the station to our meeting room, I took the scenic route to make the hop feel like a road trip.

On the way back he asked me for coffee in the station cafe, I paid. Romance my dear readers is not dead!

Skip forward 7 years and our combined families are now one happy bunch and planning a wedding.

Tomorrow is a day with my girlfriends trying on wedding dresses!! I am pinching myself that I am actually going to be trying dresses on. In my mind I have low-key sophistication, but then I realised that I don’t even really know what that means!

This isn’t too much is it???

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The coming months are going to be crammed with planning. Planning for the wedding and planning for the loft conversion we are having done. Never do things by half should be our motto.

I’ve set up a Pinterest board today so please pin away with any wedding thoughts. If you’ve been somewhere and loved an idea please share it with me on the board. Drop your email or Pinterest link to me so I can add you.

The theme….Beach – Rustic – Chic, ridiculous but true! I can’t wait.

I’ll be writing about the lead up more and more over the next few months. Rings…will he wear one? Speeches…should be bother…. Being given away….is that even relevant these days? There’s alot to clog the brain with. I’ll need tea and help along the way.

I’m in the wedding bubble and it’s all about the ‘me’ at the moment!

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7 Photo Steps to Making a Raised Bed Natural Cover

Using your natural environment to help out with organic gardening is fun and fulfilling. Check out this photo step by step guide to make a natural cover to help keep your veggies that bit safer.

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You can see how we made our raised beds in 5 easy steps here.

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A walk at Kingston Lacy National Trust

The Summer has been brilliant so far and it’s good to be out and about enjoying the fresh air. I love the area that I live as it’s 5 minutes to the sea and even less to our local river. A few months ago I had a really special trip when my dad and I visited Kingston Lacy in Dorset.

It’s around half an hour from us and armed with a snack and a drink, off we set. The road which leads down to the great house reminded me of visiting Longleat when we popped in during our center parcs stay with my OH and the kids. The long path with green fields either side, it’s a really spectacular lead up to the whole place.

I wanted to share some photos of the day which I think show off the colours of the plants brilliantly. This is not a collaboration post, purely a good day out with my dad.

A walk at Kingston Lacy National Trust — You can always find a shady spot

Where there are lawns they look immaculate, the grass looks and feels springy when you walk on it. Such a far cry from my lawn at home that’s been run ragged by the boys playing football every day.

We were lucky that it was a gorgeous sunny day, one of those days that’s crisp and bright. We had an early start so there was pretty drops of dew all over the grass.

The Japanese gardens looked amazing at that time of year, lots of bronze and gold coloured leaves glinting in the sun.

I packed a flask of coffee for our trip and there are plenty of benches dotted around so there is always somewhere to sit down and enjoy the views.

There are also the expected hidden gems and surprises dotted around.

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Have you been to Kingston Lacy? Maybe other National Trust places, I’d love you to share links of your posts below or experiences of some of their estates.

Here’s where it is:-

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Summer Linky #mainylovessummer

What a summer we have been having so far! Here on the south coast it has been so hot and we have been making the most of living so close to the beach. Every day seems to be a swim day after school and work.

I love the summer and regular readers will know that every now and then I love to hold a linky party to have a get together and share lots of our posts.

Something that always stays the same is that there is no badge to display!

It’s all about sharing, reading and enjoying each others writing. Feel free to add up to 3 of any type of blogging post old or new.

Reviews, giveaways, recipes, parenting, lifestyle, poetry all manner of posts are welcome here.

Just let common sense prevail and refrain from anything outrageously offensive:)

My favourite forum is twitter so please also tweet as many posts as possible using the hash tag #mainylovessummer @myrealfairy and I will tweet away for days and days both your posts and all those you tweet from the link up.

I will also pin all posts to the #mainylovessummer pinterest board. Have a look and follow along too.

Let’s make this a real summer sizzler for 2018 and get everyone reading and talking about your posts.

Suggested guidance for participating:

I’d love it if you commented on the host post and at least one more for every post you link up.
Tweet using the hashtag #mainylovessummer @myrealfairy when you link up and you’re away!
Tweet, pin, talk about it on instagram and share using all the wonderful ways you wish and let the blogger know when you comment how you have shared their post.
Use the hashtag #mainylovessummer when you comment please.
Enjoy and read something you wouldn’t normally click on.
Have fun!

Love Mainy

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Family festival in Hamworthy Park

The hot weather is continuing here and it’s taken me a bit by surprise, I really feel like we are having a summer, it’s brilliant! Just about every day we are all heading down to the beach for a swim which I love and the boys love even more. They are straight in and swimming before I can even get the towels out.

One of the beaches I used to go to when I was little was Hamworthy beach as I grew up around there and could walk to it quite easily with my family. Last weekend I was pleased to be invited by the bournemouth bloggers to a family festival held in hamworthy park and organised by Sorted in Dorset. This is an initiative set up by the people behind Party in the Park, a family-focused community festival which started in 2001 and over a 15 year period became the most popular event in Poole, Dorset.

Hamworthy Park has limited parking next to it and the park and beach was full so it took a bit of time to find somewhere but we managed in the end. As it was so hot, everyone was out and about so it was to be expected. I dropped my OH and the boys off so that they could stretch their legs and play a bit of footie. Really, if I’m honest I’d rather park up without the ‘help’ of my nearest and dearest!

We arrived as the party was getting into full swing by the sounds of the music. There was a mixed bunch of musical talents through the day from Maddie Thorp to Luke Truth. Live music always makes you have a spring in your step. I would love to be far more musical than I am, it’s something I admire in others.

There were lots of food and drink stall at the event. One of the stalls I wanted to go to was the Dorset Ginger company and I’d already tweeted them beforehand to say that I would be stopping by. I have a real thing for ginger drinks at the moment and I wanted to try a really good quality one. I had a taste of the original and then went all out for the strong one which for my palate was just right! This ginger drink can be enjoyed on its own or as a mixer. Alternatively it can be used in baking. Suits me brilliantly as I create alot of recipes for my blog and I know that I will incorporate it into a cake or cookies at some point. For the moment I’ll go with one of the recommendations of mixing it with lemonade and Pimms, delicious for the summer.

Little one was hungry which is not surprising and he had enough places to choose from. He decided on a bacon buttie to keep away the hunger and he thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the good things was that there were hay bales around the place and we found some in the shade have our refreshment break.

With a day like that we needed to keep drinking and refill dorset were raising awareness of their Reuse, Refill and Refresh campaign. Anywhere that you see the Refill logo you will be able to fill up your water bottles.

All in all we made the most of what was on offer, there were rides for the little ones and football shooting practice for the slightly bigger ones. The food and music were a great bonus and the event had a nice relaxed family feel to it.

Unfortunately due to low attendance overall at the hamworthy event, the next one which was due to be held in Bournemouth in August has been cancelled. That’s such a shame but understandable that sometimes these decisions have to be made. Here’s to hoping the event organisers reschedule and we hear more from them soon. Good luck to them.

I’m off to create some new recipes like my carrot cake and chocolate brownies! Yum.

What have you been up to so far? Are you planning trips around Dorset this summer?

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It’s the weekend….

Oh and the school holidays start!! Da da daaaaa!! It’s brilliant to have such a great start to the summer, with all this sun we have been down the beach most days after the boys have finished school. Living on the south coast of England is such a dream.

The World Cup kept us pretty occupied while it was on. Maybe football didn’t come home but I think the team did us proud! It was great to all get behind England and we loved it in our house. We had the lucky bunting up and had a great time watching so many matches. Being a mixed heritage household we had different teams to support but England were the most successful.

This weekend we are going to the Sorted in Dorset family festival in hamworthy Park which looks set to be a lot of fun. I remember going to that park when I was little as we had a beach hut there, so it’s going to be quite nostalgic too.

In the garden I’m going to have a good root around my plants. The success story there this week are my tomatoes.

With all of this lovely hot sun they are growing beautifully. Another week or so and they should start to ripen up to a rich red!

Not as lucky are my purple brussel sprouts. The delicate but deadly cabbage white butterfly managed to lay their eggs and the caterpillars 🐛 had a feeding frenzy before I could pick them all off.

That’s the thing with my version of organic gardening, I haven’t put anything other than water on the plants and deal with the bugs by picking them and putting them up the end of the garden. I still have my fingers crossed that my aim of have home grown brussel sprouts as part of my christmas dinner roast will actually happen.

All in all this weekend will be out in the fresh air as much as possible. A great start to the summer holidays.

What are your plans for the weekend or the summer break?

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More gardening stories can be seen here with my 5 steps to making a raised bed.

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Enter the giveaway here…

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How did it all begin…

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Twitter: #mainylovessummer @myrealfairy

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