Scones Rezept - Recipe

I hope you all had a super relaxing sunny bank holiday! On sunday we had some friends visiting and I decided to try a new recipe for a change. Usually Sunday baking is cupcakes or a simple loaf cake but after the amount of scones I have eaten in the Manchester lately it was about time to have a go at scones! And it was so so easy- baking from scratch it took me less than 30 min until they were ready to serve. What I also found convenient with this recipe I found at the BBC website is that you will find all ingredients and tools at home without having to buy expensive fancy baking equipment first. Also the short baking time of 10-15 min is just enough to make coffee in the meantime! Brilliant!

In my recipe I have used super fine flour, that Italians would use for pizza, which gives the scones a rather soft texture.


Steps: 

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl 
2. Add soft butter and mix until very crumbly  
3. Then slowly pour your milk into the mix and form a dough ball with your hands- work in raisins
4. Roll out flat with a flour-dusted glass and cut out thick ( at least 2cm- mine were to thin first! ) circles 
5. Brush scones with some egg yolk or milk 
6.. Place scones on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 min until golden 

Best serve warm with butter and jam- Enjoy! 

First Spring Shopping- P2 Summer Attack & See by Chloe

Risen from the dead part IV. So this is the fourth flower that officially survived the BlondeHappiness treatment: At least 4 weeks without a significant amount of water. After all leaves falling off for a good three months this beauty resurrected in the first week of spring. Maybe it was just hibernation.

 The blouse is from H&M, and I can never find a reason to not buy white lace. Its classy and perfect for summer. My new summer fragrance is the recently launched SeebyChloe perfume, having it tried at some airports before. It´s super light, refreshing and feminine still it is strong enough to last a good couple of hours before fading. The other products were samples I got with my order. For the latest discount codes at Douglas I always check at FrauShopping.

 I really loved the design of P2 LE Summer Attack leopard look bronzer, for a really subtle shine that also works with lighter skins and blonde hair. Not quite sure about the kabuki make up brush- so far nothing beats my BodyShop kabuki but it´s definitely good enough to go in my travel make up puch.

The Marriott Worsley Park Pamper Day for Two with Experience Days

After being horribly stressed out during my final exam period in uni, I received the lovely offer of testing a Marriott SPA of my choice with Experience Days. It couldn´t have come at a better time and my shoulders definitely needed a bit of TLC, mainly sitting at my desk all day.
But before I tell you about the magic hands of Marriott beauticians, a brief introduction to Experience Days and the Marriott hotel I chose for my day.

Experience Days offers perfect gift choices for any age, interest and budget, aiming to make every gift an experience with options like photo shoot makeovers, golf courses, fighter pilot experiences or outdoor activities like archery. 
Especially for anniversaries and treating a person you usually don´t spend a lot of time with I loved that often you can also participate in the activities or book a "for two" option like I did.

With my Marriott it´s easy trying new hotels, you just get the same standard wherever you are in the world without the risk of being disappointed in the end. I chose the Marriott Worsley Park, because I wanted to get out of the city (it was only a 15 min drive- but sometimes that´s all it takes to escape the stress) and more importantly because it is embedded in an amazing park setting. For me nature just adds to relaxation and seeing the first spring flowers in bloom instantly calms me.

 

Knowing that the SPA also offered the possibility of a gym, pool and steam room, I packed my gym& swim clothes and decided to go two hours before my booked in facial and massage to make full use of the gym. Having a massage waiting for me is probably the best incentive to go to a gym, right ?
The gym was perfectly equipped and also offered classes like Yoga and Pilates, so best make yourself familiar with the course schedule before booking an appointment for your treatment to avoid overlapping. Yes, even a pamper day required a bit of planning!

After my workout it was time to head over to the beauty area. The place smelled divine and after no waiting time I was escorted to a relaxation room where I had to fill out a questionnaire regarding my current skin care and beauty routine. My beautician gave me a brief introduction and I got to lay down on the massage table in the softest and warmest towels I have ever felt- just laying there with no treatment was so relaxing! For the next hour I was in a bit of a haze really- probably the ultimate state of relaxation- and I had a really hard time getting dressed afterwards! Why do these moments not last forever?

The great thing about the pamper day experience is that it isn´t just over after the treatment! You have full access to the facilities all day so there is nothing stopping you from getting a snack at the lovely restaurant or enjoy a cappuccino between treatments and your afternoon swim.
Booking this SPA experience is especially recommendable when you are staying at the hotel for a night, so you can make most of all classes and wind down with a midnight swim and steam room session before bedtime!

I have left this place with relaxed muscles, a radiant face and absolutely starving for a Marriott signature burger in the restaurant- so if you are looking for a lovely day out with your partner family or friends the Marriott Worsley Park is definitely your gift of choice at experience days! One step closer to happiness...

Thank you to the ExperienceDays team for the unconditional and voluntary opportunity to share my impressions.

London Travel Accessories

I´m constantly on the outlook for travel accessories and here I wanted to show you two of the bargains I could grab last week. I got the National Geographic Moleskine sort of sketch book from TK Maxx exactly on the day I returned from London, so it will always remind me of it. Although I use my iphone/ ipad for making notes when traveling, I felt that some quick drawings or exhibitions tickets are best kept in a physical book. The luggage tag was one pound from Primark and just too cute to not buy. 

Have a good sunday everyone! 

Harrods Food Recommendation

Yesterday night I returned home from seeing a lovely friend in London for 48 hours and of course I asked Mr. Happiness if he wanted something. As often with boys the answer is food related and his was "Quiche from Harrods". Everytime I´m London I visit Harrods food department as a quick break between museum tours and shopping. When doing city trips I usually have a good breakfast and dinner but only snack during the day or have a coffee. My alltime favourite snack I even fantasise about in Germany is the poached salmon baguette. It´s only slightly more expensive than your usual Pret lunch but you get to wander the beautiful food halls and get to treat yourself to something out of the usual! Besides the usual snack selection they offer a huge variety of pasties, pastreis, pies and finger food specialities from all over the world, making it easy to try a bit of everything. For taking home I can especially recommend all pies and quiches as they make a lovely dinner the next day!

I opted for two salmon and caramelised leek quiches, one grilled vegetable and one spinach and goats cheese that went over the counter for 2,50 € p. slice. Paired with a green salad and soured cream a divine dinner! A glass of Rose also does go down rather well with it...

UK Magazine Goodies Galore

One thing I really like about being in the UK is the crazy amount of magazine deals you can get. Not just because it´s always good to get more bang for your buck but also because it gives me the opportunity to discover brands I wouldn´t even have looked in the shops. Also it saves me from all the beauty disappointments when I just bought a product because it was on offer, or smelled nice, or had nice packaging etc etc. One of my lucky finds was hair brand Percy Reed who do an amazing TLC moisturizing mask, that can more than compete with John Frida or Aussie. A free sample also was my first try at Ciate nailpolishes. Whilst the German market is only slowly getting hold of the girlie-bow bottles I can get full sizes bottles in my current copy of Marie Claire here.

 Both products have a permanent spot in beauty routine and besides being an incentive to buy a certain magazine testing before buying is always the best way to customer satisfaction. It takes me by surprise that German companies don´t seem to consider the selling and reputation benefit of magazine collaborations as much as UK ones do and rather rely on word of mouth as the cheapest marketing tool although especially encouraging customers to switch to other brands seem to be one of the toughest challenges in marketing!

Alpro Unsweetened Almond Milk

Suffering from all sort off intolerances and allergies from a very early age on this made milk made from soaked almonds is a true revelation for me. I have read about Almond Milk for quite a while now on all these healthy clean eating blogs but couldn´t get hands on it in the german supermarkets or be bothered to make it myself. You can definitely attempt it, but all instruction I have read seemed to take it least 24 hours to let the almonds soak sufficiently  and I don´t have strong enough blender at home to extract the "milk" afterwards. Not knowing if I actually want to have muesli or porridge the next day I felt making it fresh could turn out to be an unsatisfying and timely experience. Going to my local Tesco I was quite surprised to find it and with a price only slightly higher than normal soy milk or normal milk, so this was my time to try it!

As you can see my first dish was a simple pre-packed porride in which I substituted normal milk with the almond milk. The taste when not cooked is slightly almond-y ( surprise surprise ) but more like naturally flavoured milk and not as artificially as soy milk does in my opinion. Being heated up in a porridge it just tasted like normal milk and even my boyfriend couldn´t taste the difference.
For me buying unsweetened almond milk is the best milk-replacement I have tried, and believe me I have tried them all. From the calorie and environmental aspect it seems also an option worth considering as this milk only comes at 26kcal / 100ml and doesn´t affect the rainforest exploitation like soy cultivation does!