I loved the style of the restaurant, it felt like we were in the city, rather than the little town of Yarm. The communal seating wasn't great, but luckily it was really quiet when we went in, so we had the whole bench to ourselves.
A couple of weeks ago, O came home from work raving about a burger joint that his colleague had recommended and surprisingly, it was pretty nearby! Usually we have to go mooching into the city for a decent burger, so we were pretty excited to give The Purple Pig a try. They have restaurants in both Yarm and Middlesbrough, but Yarm being closest, we hopped in the car and off we went! I loved the style of the restaurant, it felt like we were in the city, rather than the little town of Yarm. The communal seating wasn't great, but luckily it was really quiet when we went in, so we had the whole bench to ourselves. First port of call of course...cocktails! O was driving so he ordered one of the milkshakes, but the blender was broken (he was gutted at this!), so he went with a coke. I chose a PIG Mistake...HUGE cocktail (typical Scot) which had gin, fresh lemon juice, sugar, apple juice, elderflower cordial, grapes and mint. Oh my days, it was so so good! Everyone loves a cocktail in a jam jar and it came complete with a glow stick! I even ate the grapes! There's plenty to choose from on the menu and after about 10 minutes of changing my mind, I went for their namesake burger The Purple Pig, which came with a double beef patty, bacon, sugary onions, BBQ sauce, baconnaise, purple slaw and piggy smalls. O went for The Notorious P.I.G., which came with a triple beef patty, pulled pork, flat iron, shrooms, Purple Pig mustard mayo, jack cheese and strings. I'm seriously drooling whilst typing this! We also ordered a couple of sides to go along with our burgers (fatties), the Bad Boy fries (a mixtures of normal and sweet potato fries) and deep fried gherkins. We were actually pleasantly surprised with the burgers. They didn't look awesome, but they tasted amazing! The beef patties were so well cooked and the fries with baconnaise were pretty standard. The pickled gherkins were a bit strange, but none-the-less quite tasty. For some reason I was expecting sliced gherkins not these little cornichons! The blue cheese dip was tasty, but could do with being a little thicker. Overall, we were pretty impressed with the Purple Pig. The staff were really attentive and the food was drool-worthy! It's not the best burger I've ever had, but having this place just down the road means that we will definitely be back!
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This year, due to O's work contract, we can't take any long haul holidays. So we've been making the most of the good old long weekend staycation! I'm not one of these people who has to go abroad every year, I know that good old Blighty has lots to offer, especially if the weather gods are kind to us. O, being a scout leader, is a huge fan of the staycation, especially of the camping variety (much to my dismay...don't get me wrong, I'm getting better at it!). Here's a few places that we've hit up already over the last year or so... These are but a few the photos from our trips, otherwise you would be scrolling through hundreds of photos. We still have a hefty list of places we want to visit in the UK and we're slowly working our way around this beautiful kingdom!
Where's your favourite staycation? The last few weeks have been both tough and brilliant, at the same time. I've written this post what feels like a million times and then scrapped it. But in the end, I decided to publish it, sometimes the difficult ones to write are the best. This week I've been faced with lots of decisions, good and bad. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate making decisions. So, it's been a long and tiring one this week. Let's take stock... Trying to decide whether or not to take a job in my old field. Is that taking the easy way out? Or is that being sensible? Wanting to try the Purple Pig. The burgers and sides look seriously drool-worthy! Realising that sometimes it's OK to put yourself first. Loving Oscar even more for looking after me these last few weeks. Continually being surprised by people. Receiving a tax rebate...hells yeah! Treats for Lou and Oscar! Drinking the new Hornsby's Cider, summer in a bottle! Deciding what to do for my birthday...three weeks left of being 32 :/ Marvelling at the wonder that is controlling YouTube on my TV with my phone and iPad! Seriously, what is this magic?! Thinking how lucky I am lately. Admiring Kiefer Sutherland in 24. Regretting finishing the second season of Orange is the New Black so quickly. Sorting what I want to do. With my life. Buying new dresses and water bottles (a la Essie Button stylee). Coveting this Marc Jacobs bag. Oh my! Hoping that I make the right decision. Needing a holiday. Attempting to keep everyone happy and inevitably failing. Hankering after getting married soon. Wishing I had a crystal ball to see into the future. Eating a lot of curry and Nutella. Not together... Disliking rubbish people who suck out your soul. The above beuatiful photo was taken down on the Beaches in Toronto. Oh how I wish I was back there! I love Whitby! The fact that it's only a twenty minute drive from our house just makes it extra tasty! There's nothing better than eating fish and chips by the pier (or the beach) or a stroll up to the abbey. Every single time we go to the abbey we play Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness as our soundtrack, anyone else do that? We usually go to Magpie's for fish and chips, but fancied a bit of a view with our lunch this time, so we went to The Fisherman's Wife. The portions here are pretty epic, can't recommend it enough. We were a bit naughty and bought some hot doughnuts for the car journey home (can't remember where from), we're still finding sugar in the darn car! Our baking escapades always begin with some sort of food that needs to be used up. On Saturday evening, we discovered four seriously overly ripe bananas in the kitchen. Now usually, I'd just make a banana bread, but we fancied doing something a little different for a change. After much googling, we found this muffin recipe on the Londoner's blog. We did modify it slightly, as we didn't have all the exact ingredients. This recipe should make 12 muffins, but because we used cupcake cases instead of a muffin tin, we got 20 out of the mixture. To make these tasty morsels, you will need: Ingredients: 230 grams (1 3/4 cups) self raising flour 150 grams (3/4 cup) granulated white sugar {we used caster sugar) 1/2 tsp salt 2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten 113 grams (1/2 cup) melted unsalted butter {we used the Stork baking margarine} 3 large very ripe bananas, mashed 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 4 tbsp Nutella, at room temp Method: -Pre-heat your oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4-5. -Line your muffin trays with grease-proof paper or use cupcake cases like we did. -In one bowl combine your flour, sugar & salt. In another combine your eggs, butter, mashed bananas & vanilla. Tip one into the other and gently fold together. Don't use a hand mixer or any other gadgets! -You want your batter to be thoroughly mixed, but still lumpy and utterly hideous! -Divide your mixture between your cases, each one should be just about half full. Take a teaspoon of slightly warm Nutella and pop a blob (technical term) onto the centre of each muffin. -Use a cocktail stick or skewer (we used a meat thermometer!) to swirl the Nutella into the muffin without turning the whole thing chocolatey. -Repeat with each muffin and then pop them all onto the middle shelf of your oven. Bake for 20-25 mins (ours took about 10 mins longer, probably due to our dodgy oven). -When they're done you should be able to stick a skewer into the centre and have it come out nice and clean. -Leave to cool and enjoy when still warm, as the Nutella will still be extra gooey! Some of the photos are slightly blurry due to my impatience and excitement of the prospect of eating them all up! They are properly scrumptious!! :)
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