Our first day in Lebanon

A bit about our trip and the Lebanese food we've enjoyed...

Our first anniversary celebrations

I've been really bad and not blogged this sooner, but I hope you'll forgive me for the tardiness of this!

It all kind of started on the 19th April (day before our anniversary) when we took a bit of a road trip with Stewie and his belongings up to Conlig because he was going to stay with friends for the weekend.

We traveled home via Belfast and decided to stop into the Odyssey to get some food from the Indian Ocean. It was delicious (as usual) but the dish I ordered reminded me more of Chinese than Indian food, besides the point though, because we had a lovely meal then headed home to get tucked up in bed to watch a movie and eventually fell asleep.

We got up the next morning after a long lie in, which is very strange for me seeing as it was a Sunday and that's usually the busiest day in my week. We got up and packed our overnight bag and headed down to Newcastle for our overnight stay in the Slieve Donard Hotel. Neither of us had been before (at least as far as we can remember) and as we drove towards the building I think both our jaws dropped. It's a stunning hotel built right beside the sea with a beautiful view of the Slieve Donard, so it was a great place to go away to and relax.

The Slieve Donard Hotel


We walked up to the door and were greeted by a doorman holding open the door for us... I felt all posh already! We walked in and I was breathless at the beautiful reception hall. We got all checked in and headed to our room - we dumped our bags and headed straight for the spa to enjoy the swimming pool with an incredible view and the heat experiences. This was sooooo relaxing! We hadn't booked any treatments but this seemed to be enough on its own.

When you visit Newcastle, it seems like a law that you have to get some ice cream - after all you are beside the sea! So we headed into Newcastle to get some Maud's and couldn't help but get their top selling flavour known as "poor bear" but used to be (and still is in my eyes) "Pooh Bear" because it's ice cream with honeycomb through it. It's such a delicious treat and something we try to make ourselves at home but it's never as good as Maud's version.

We walked back to the hotel and up to our room, then watched a little tv while we waited for the time to head downstairs for our evening meal. A very posh affair indeed!!! As soon as we were seated the wine waiter introduced himself and took our order, as soon as he left a waitress offered us some bread rolls, then shortly after that we were asked for our order from the menu. And what a menu it was!



I ordered the barberry duck with rhubarb chutney and potato gratin and Rob ordered the fillet of beef. Both very delicious dishes! And came to the table looking rather classy too....



Then for dessert I went for the hot dessert of the day - sponge pudding with custard.



We had brought our top tier of wedding cake with us so Rob skipped dessert and had some of the cake where as I was a pie and had both!



I can't believe it has been a year where we've gone from this:



to this:


And it's a shame we didn't get to have any of the cake a year ago at the wedding because I would imagine (well I hope so anyway) that it was tastier than the top tier was after being frozen for a year and defrosted. The marzipan kind of "sweated" through the cake making it all taste of marzipan and it was also quite a hard cake (and yes it was defrosted fully!) so we didn't eat very much of it at all. Still we had a beautiful meal and were well looked after.

After what I thought was a great night's sleep on a really comfy bed (Rob wasn't fond of it and thought he was getting a sore back) we woke up and headed for breakfast with almost everything you could want for breakfast, the option of a cooked one, cereals, fruit, cheeses, hams, toast, bagels, croissants... and much more. It was a lovely relaxing breakfast in a dining room while some guests read the morning paper and sipped their tea.

I was sad to be going home so soon after this but we had an incredible time there and I'm pretty sure we'll be back, if not for the night at least for the spa!!!! We had a fantastic time celebrating our first full year of marriage and we had a fantastic first year together. I'm excited to see what the future will bring for us and what other things we will be celebrating together.

Ed's Bar & Grill

Rob suggested going out for dinner last night and I jumped at the chance. We decided to try the newest restaurant in Banbridge: Ed's Bar and Grill I've held a few meetings in there with some of my volunteer youth leaders and so on but was excited to go for a proper meal and with Rob too because we usually get takeout instead of going out for food.



I was also excited because they have a great mix of a menu but not so mixed that it overwhelms you.... OK I did struggle a little to narrow down my choices to what I was actually going to have, but it gives me more reason to go back and try all the other dishes I like the sound of!

It's a fantastic atmosphere, perfect for families, parties, couples and lots more. The staff were very friendly and in fact while we were having our order taken a customer interrupted and handed our server the bill, he looked at us with that look of "I'm sorry" mixed with "What was that about?", but he was very professional and carried on with our order after that.



We were served quite quickly and everything was hot, fresh from the kitchen... in fact so hot that when I ate one of the chips I burnt my throat swallowing it meaning that today has been a struggle swallowing. But they were good chips!

I had some delicious "sweet and sticky chicken" described as marinated and seared chicken, in a sticky mild whole grain mustard and honey glaze....... how good does that sound?!?!?!?! And it was, absolutely delicious, but I would have like a little more of the marinade for some of the chicken that had none underneath... or even just for having as a dressing on the salad bed it came on.



My dear plain eating hubby had a plain burger and chips... that he says were very good, he was well happy with it.



I was very impressed with the friendliness of the staff, the great atmosphere, great menu, quick service, very tasty food... however there is one thing that has bothered me each time I've been there, which I'm sure some think is an excellent idea. They have nintendo DS and mini DVD players along with a selection of games and movies for entertaining your children during the meal. It makes me sad that families can't sit down to a nice meal together without distractions or having to be entertained, but then again I'm not a parent so I shouldn't judge. But a great place to go for a meal, I highly recommend it... but if you can't get to Ed's Banbridge, check out their Lisburn branch.

Pampered chef evening

Last night at church we had a Pampered Chef evening hosted by our Young Women's Group to raise funds for the various charities they support. I was only able to call in for a little while what with being on the radio on Tuesday evenings, but really enjoyed it, she made some great food and showed some of the great products they have.

With what little funds I have at the minute and also thinking it'll save me lots of time when I am baking and cooking, I bought an "egg separator". Can't wait until it arrives: I'll have to make loads of meringues and the like!

If ever you get the chance to either go to or host a Pampered Chef event, I would really recommend it. If anyone wants a contact please email me ruth.e.babes at gmail dot com.

Picture sourced from Pampered Chef website

Cooking for the masses

On Saturday afternoon (last weekend) I met up with some of the teenagers from the church I work in and spent the afternoon cooking for about 30. The idea arose last September when I met up with a few of the young people to talk about what we were going to do in youth group, and they suggested we cook dinner for the church elders. So invites were sent out inviting them to an "UnChristmassy Christmas Dinner" and had 20 out of 31 replies saying yes, then also had to count in our young cooks for food as well.

We met up at 2pm and decided to cook 4 dishes and have it as a buffet type night. We headed off to Tesco to get all our groceries, along with party poppers and some Christmas crackers. Then we got cracking with the cooking and by 6pm had made:

• 3 shepherds pies
• A lot of Thai green curry and rice on the side
• A crispy chicken bake
• A load of bolognese with spaghetti on the side
• Green leaf Salad
• Fresh fruit salad (to be served with whipped cream, ice cream and meringue)

And all very well I might add. It was a huge success, my only regret is forgetting to take any pictures. I look forward to maybe doing it again sometime, mind you this Saturday I've to do lunch for about 40 kids who we'll be minding for the afternoon so parent's can get Christmas shopping done, so that might just do me for a while.

VERY easy BBQ ribs

I bought some ribs yesterday with the idea of having BBQ ribs tonight.

While looking through other ideas for ribs i found this on www.cooks.com:


BBQ ribs
Take car keys out of pocket or purse. Get in car. Drive to nearest Applebee's Restaurant. Be seated. Order large "Riblet Platter", delete slaw, add extra fries. Wait approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Enjoy!


Made me laugh

Fat weekend

This post is a copy from my blog, i thought it applied to this blog too.


Recently I've been trying to eat healthier and exercise a little more to try and lose a little (emphasis on little) weight. However, this past weekend has been filled with a LOT of eating.... grrrr.

Saturday night, Rob and I went to dinner at Rob's Dad's house with his stepmum and my parents. To start there was crisps, carrot and celery sticks and dips... those crisps were addictive. Then dinner was BBQed chicken breast, potato wedges, green leaf salad, potato salad, coleslaw...... so yum, but think I had too much of that. Then dessert: strawberries, marshmallows, chocolate dipping sauce, lemon roulade, chocolate cheesecake..... i thought i was gonna explode, but again dead yummy.

Then Sunday night was a meal with the church music group seeing as I ocassionally play or sing with them. We all met at Christine's house (she organises the group) where she had put on an amazing spread:
lasagne, quiche, green leaf salad, waldorf salad, orange salad (grated carrots and mandarin segments in orange jelly), green salad (chopped apple, celery etc in green jelly), sliced ham, pineapple, prawns (with thousand island dressing), crisps and dips, scotch eggs, pork pies, bean salad, peanuts, morrocan salad, potato salad and lots more which i'm struggling to think of right now. I had filled my plate and cleaned it then went back for some more..... not realising there was dessert to come too! Dessert: fruit salad, pavlova, bannoffee and pecan roulade. Then there was tea and coffee with little tray bakes and the like! Again I thought i was going to explode.

It was all very impressive, however now I'm feeling the guilt of all that eating after trying to eat sensibly and healthily.... I fear I'll be eating carrot sticks this week lol