Charcoal Challenge.

I've been meaning to post this a little while, but I think I just lost a little steam. I was pretty excited when MoneySupermarket.com asked me to take part in their Charcoal Challenge a few weeks ago. It fell when the weather was brilliant and on a weekend when our friends, Dan and Kirstin just so happened to be in the area.

As there were only four of us and I'm much more of a foodie than I am a decorator, I spent the majority of the £50 budget on tasty treats for the early evening event. I actually went over by around £20, but I'm super grateful to Money Supermarket for giving me the opportunity all the same - plus for the amount I bought, I actually ended up getting two barbecues that weekend in the end, plus a whole lot more food to save up for the rest of the month!



Made with passionfruit & mango juice, these were pretty good, just wish we'd skipped on the aesthetics and left out the raspberries, didn't add much to it.



Pimm's, Desperados and Snacks o'Clock! ♥



Corn on the cob will always be one of my favourites, but barbecued corn on the cob might just be the top spot of my favourite barbecue food.


Fruit, meringue and ice cream for pud :)


Managing to get our silly solar lights working, candles did a much better job at lighting the way...

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BBQ Take 2!


...a little less fancy but just as tasty ♥


I wish I'd focussed a little more on our guests than the food, but I was, as is often the case, pretty interested in putting food in my face so I think that's how it mainly worked out.

My favourite purchases for the challenge are a toss-up between the Belvoir Fruit Farms Elderflower Cordial - it's how I found out about their great photography competition (which you can still vote for!) - and the ice-lolly moulds, an absolute bargain at £2.50 from Sainsbury's and we've used them so many times since we got them, even if we didn't actually end up eating them for the occasion we'd bought them for.

I'm not sure whether I even have a shot in winning the prize, as I'm sure many others got way more creative, however, there are definitely few things better than a couple of drinks in a sunny garden with friends and it sure was fun to indulge for the evening!

Oh my, it feels like an age since our last barbecue, what with last weekend's turning out to be a bit of a wash out (Thanks, British Summertime), hopefully we'll be back on track by the time this weekend rolls around again.