Strawberry ice cream

We made this ages ago, but I forgot to publish the post, oops!

300ml double cream
200ml milk
200g strawberries
2 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Wash, hull, and chop the strawberries. Crush with a hand blender, food processor, or potato masher. Sieve to remove the pips.

Mix the cream, milk and maple syrup or honey. Then mix in the strawberries.

Pour into an ice cream machine and leave to churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. For our machine it takes about 20 minutes to create a thick, yet soft ice cream.

Delicious!

30 for 30

In a little less than three months, I will be 30 years old. Exciting! You certainly won't find me snivelling or whining about this milestone. I'm pretty relaxed about birthdays generally but this is a whole new decade! I'll be able to say I'm 'in my 30s'. I won't feel bad about being boring, having no social life, or enjoying knitting. I spent my 20s acting like I was in my 30s, and soon I actually will be!

I've been thinking about some things I'd like to do or achieve in honour of my 30th birthday and - inspired by my love of all things list-y - I decided to make myself a 30 for 30 'challenge' of 30 things I would like to do in the coming year. It's not really a challenge, as I won't feel bad if I don't manage to do any or all of them: it's more of a 30th birthday bucket list. A good number of them will be easy, some will be more challenging and some will be outright too expensive - but hopefully I'll achieve some of them! I will be the first to admit that this list is pretty self-centred, but that's the nature really of personal goals. Of course I want to keep growing as a wife, mother, daughter, friend, and person, and keep (or get better at!) being kind, hospitable, compassionate, gracious, and wise. Those things go without saying, but they don't appear on the list. They're not just for my 30th birthday - they're for life.

30 for 30

1. Picnic at a park or beach
2. Read a book (preferably in a day, but just reading a whole one would be fab - even better would be writing one!)
3. Blog more
4. Pray more
5. Do a jigsaw
6. Finish my jumper (that I started about four years ago!)
7. Make macarons
8. Learn and perform a new piece
9. Swim in the sea
10. Exercise more
11. Make someone a birthday cake
12. Go on a day trip to the seaside (Weston-super-Mare, anyone?)
13. Sort photos into albums
14. Buy new cushions for the lounge
15. Enter a baking competition (or run one?!)
16. Host a dinner party
17. Do something different or dramatic with my hair
18. Have a facial
19. Do a 10K run
20. Take the children to the zoo
21. Sew a skirt or dress
22. Invest in and use good face creams (I'm in my 30s now!)
23. Go out for Japanese food
24. Host Christmas
25. Start studying something
26. Floss every day
27. Do a hat making class/course
28. Go on a hot holiday
29. Spa day
30. Go on a weekend trip with Nick (Paris? Bruges? Bognor?)

Other things that didn't make it onto the list included using cloth napkins (I have them, I should use them, and not buy paper ones except for big parties), printing and framing photos (we live in a rented house, and have nowhere to hang them), writing letters (I will do this anyway so it's not much of a challenge), a bike ride (I no longer have a bike), join the WI (I'm 30, not 50 - but I might still join!), and sell unwanted things on eBay (I should do this, it would fund some of the other things on the list...). 

Ready. Set. Go!

(Oh. Nothing happened. That'd be because is 21:05 on a Thursday evening and it's past my bedtime. Rock and roll.)