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.

What We Did.

I think what I mentioned last week about how always being busy was making me super tired did actually finally come to a head last weekend. I mean, Mr. Moon ended up sleeping for 14 hours on Friday so that goes to show how much we really needed a quiet one.

What a marvellous weekend we picked to be exhausted though, the perfect opportunity to enjoy our blooming garden. We ended up doing a bit of shopping in town and I managed to snap up a lovely lacey lavender dress to go to a wedding I'm going to in a few weeks, as well as a couple of other bits of pieces. It's easy to forget Newbury's not really such a bad place to be, I mean, we did choose to move here after all. After heading to the cute new Mexican diner, 'The Taco Shop' for lunch, we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon sunning ourselves in the garden and listening XFM before having a little barbecue for two.


♥



It was Icy Lemon Fanta or Fake Desperados, a tough choice but it was like 1pm.



These might not look like much but they really were delicious, the chilli was awesome and as a 'nacho connoisseur', I couldn't recommend The Taco Shop enough, next time we're going to go for tacos.


A lovely fizzy raspberry drink we picked up from Co-Op when we visited Tom last weekend, it was so refreshing and perfect for a sunny summer day.



Andrew Moon: World Class Cat Botherer.


It was definitely a little warm for my little Doll, I had to put after-sun on her ears, it will be suncream on days like this from now on though.


Another tasty summer drink, Apricot & Peach Rekorderlig, dangerous! ♥





Boy oh boy, does my boy know how to barbecue! ♥


Sunday was about unsuccessful carbooting, getting green things for the flat and driving around aimlessly after discovering there is nothing to do in Lambourn. (Soz, Lambourn, your scenery was pretty though.)



I'm hoping my recent greenfingered success outside will transfer to this little money plant, I'd love it to just grow and grow.


This cactus I got a few months ago has suddenly sprouted funny pink flowers, excited to see what happens next!



I'm absolutely crazy over all the yellow fields around, they're beautiful.


This probably would have been super cool if it worked, but we were across the road, using my car as a photographer.
We look like mugs, I couldn't not include it.


Getting seriously no air.







Chicken & Ham Pie with Chilli Green Beans...


...and Strawberries & Ice Cream for pudding. ♥
Even though we like to keep busy I guess sometimes we forget it's just as fun not to be busy too. Now that the sun's shining a little less, I'm still happy I sat painting my nails in my back garden over heading to an overcrowded beach - but that's still on my to-do list at some point.

How did you spend your weekend?

Nose to Nose.

The barbecue we had last Saturday evening was a great opportunity to show off my culinary skillz, and I did just that, before also showing off my drinking ability (read lack of) by 'necking' two bottles of wine at lightening speed, never a good idea, ever. It was a lovely evening though, and we were very well prepared for hosting, making salads, and extra bits as well as picking up some candles from Cargo for sitting outside, which worked a treat.

*If you happen to be interested, the photography nerd in me wanted to tell you that as in love with my new Nikon 1 as I am, so far it's not doing great when shooting in lower light. This is something I'm not pleased with as I'd expect a better performance, both from Nikon but also from a camera that cost as much and allows for interchangeable lenses.


Although it's pre-bought, making puff-pastry anything is always so satisfying and delicious.


I made homemade lemonade, it didn't end up suiting the palette of people who just wanted to drink but turned out to be my best batch.
I definitely recommend buying loose lemons if you're going to attempt this as they seem to be much more juicy. I used the same amount of lemons as usual but got twice as much juice!


Moon's mum gave us this because she's moving soon, and it finally got some use, even if it doesn't suit carrot and celery sticks that well, my snack selection went down well.



She hovered around as usual and I gave her a bit of a hard time with lots of kisses and cuddles. I asked her why she doesn't love me yesterday and she put her paw in my face :(


Bottle #2 before food, such an awful idea. But thanks to Sam for selecting a nice wine, turns out it goes down easy...





Sam & Moon.






Putting candles to the test.



We rounded up the evening with the 'Breaking Bad Drinking Game', a silly idea, especially since I now feel as though I've missed out on the two episodes we watched. I'm well and truly into it though, have to pace myself though or I can see it will be easy to get a little obsessed.

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Despite what my head might have told you on Sunday morning, it was a great evening. In fact, it's evenings like this that make me glad that we're in for warmer weather for the near future as we didn't do enough of this when the weather should have been nice. It's so good to be well and truly settled in.