Perfect day

Today has been an incredible day, I have done some of the things I truly love.
I started the day in the best possible way, a run in the woods with my four legged friend.

As the pictures show, today was a marvelous day, and to celebrate the good weather I went for a longer run.

As I was completely free today, the rest of the day has consisted of drinking lots and lots of tea, making origami dragons and dinosaurs, who would win in a fight between Dragons and dinosaurs? I recon it must be the gire breathing dragon, but please tell me if I’m incorrect.

I have also started re-reading on the road by Jack Kerouac. I had completely forgotten what a mind blowing book it is. I will soon be posting a book review on the book or when I have finished it.
As for the rest of the day, I have not done much, I baked some apple crumble muffins which I will also post a recipe on and they were absolutely delicious, but then if you combine crumble and muffin it ought to be tasty!

Love
Charlie

BOOK REVIEW: ONE SUMMER AMERICA 1927 -BILL BRYSON

One summer

America

1927

Bill Bryson

In the summer of 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day (and slept much of the rest), a devastating of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and an unknown aviator named Charles Lindbergh who became the most famous man on earth

It was the summer that saw the birth of taking pictures, the invention of television, the peak of Al Capone’s reign of terror, the horrifying bombing of a school in Michigan, the thrillingly improbable return to greatness of an over-the-hill baseball player named babe Ruth, and an almost impossible amount more.

History books, we all know them, often they are heavy, clumsy, boring and very plain, not interesting anywhere. I have always been a huge history buff, I was the only one at school who actually enjoyed studying the Victorian era, WW II or whatever we was studying at that time. However the books were horrendous, if I would have been presented Bill Bryson at the age of 14 I would have been in heaven.

Bill Bryson captured both my mind and heart with this book, he is able to capture historical events and retell them with new aspects and details.

This book lets you in on the summer of 1927, and you can imagine how it was when the spirit of St. Louis actually took off for Europe, Bryson writes with lots of wit and entertaining aspects which makes this book gripping, with its historical events and personal conflicts.

A truly fascinating book

apple muffin

These muffins are really good and super easy to make, they takes about 30 minutes to create.

Ingredients

255 g plain flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

100 g caster sugar

60 g butter

225 ml milk

One large apple peeled, cored and chopped

Cinnamon

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 C, lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tray

• in a large bowl, sift together flour, salt baking powder.
• In a separate bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture alternatively with the milk. Fold in the fruit and cinnamon. Pour batter into prepared muffin tin.
• bake in preheat oven for 18 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

THE BEST VEGAN VEGGIEBURGER!

Ingredients

• 1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas

• 1 x 340 g tin of sweetcorn

• ½ a bunch of fresh coriander

• ½ teaspoon paprika

• ½ teaspoon ground coriander

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

• zest of 1 lemon

• 3 heaped tablespoons plain flour, plus extra for dusting

• sea salt

• rapeseed oil

• 1 small round lettuce

• 2 large ripe tomatoes

• tomato ketchup

• 4 wholemeal burger buns

Method

Drain and place the chickpeas and sweetcorn into a food processor. Pick the coriander leaves, then add half to the processor along with all of the stalks. Add the spices, lemon zest, flour and a pinch of salt, then pulse until combined, but not smooth – you want to retain a bit of texture.

On a flour-dusted surface, divide and shape the mixture into four equally sized patties (roughly 2cm thick). Pop onto a tray and place in the fridge for around 30 minutes to firm up.

Heat a splash of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once hot, add the patties and cook for around 10 minutes, or until golden and cooked through, turning halfway.

Meanwhile, click off, wash and spin-dry four nice lettuce leaves, then finely slice the tomatoes horizontally.

Squeeze a large dollop of ketchup onto the base of each bun (toast them if you like), then top with the burgers. Layer over a couple of slices of tomato, a lettuce leaf, a few coriander leaves and finally the burger tops. Serve with a crisp, green salad, if you like.

Triceratops

Some people should serious consider getting an education, not knowing that triceratops unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore is quite serious 😉
Love charlie

prague 2014

Good Evening,                                                                                                                                        This winter I visited Prague for the first time, and I must say I was certainly  impressed with the city, although we could have stayed for a few more days. The upside with a short trip is that I now have a desire to return and explore the city once more, but for the time being will just post a few photos from Prague. 

Love                                                                                                                                                       Charlie xx

the book thief -book review

The book thief

By Markus Zusak

“1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.                   Liesel, a nine-year-old, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.”

This book is narrated by death and its about his encounter with a little girl who is living in Nazi Germany. She keeps stealing and saving books from book burnings.                                                   I cried a lot while reading this, so if you are going to give it a go, have some tissues.                        It’s truly an amazing story which I recommend reading!