Famous Four MeMe

Margaret from Kitchen Delights has tagged me for MeMe appropriately called Famous Four.

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
1) Volunteering on Friday afternoons in my local charity shop. I used to get Friday afternoons off when studying my A Levels and decided to do something useful with the time. I did pricing, sorting and till work with a very friendly bunch of ladies.
2) Working Saturdays in the restaurant of my local garden centre during my 2nd year of A Levels. I had to cut and arrange the food for the chiller cabinates, learn how to make all the coffees, serve customers and was often in charge of a separate coffee only drinks bar. It was very hard work and I was on my feet for the entire day and they only used to give us 15 minutes for our lunch break and sometimes this wasn’t until 2:30pm. They were made to change this to 30minutes just before I left but they weren’t too happy about it.
3) I did some temping work during the uni summer holidays. I worked as a receptionist for a media company and it was very dull and boring.
4) I am now on my placement year as part of my course for uni and am working as a New Product Development Technologist for a fruit company. We come up with new fruit ideas, test them out in the test kitchens, run trials through the factory and then launch them into stores. It’s great as I get to be creative and also get to eat a lot of fruit.

Four Places I’ve Lived
1) Until I was six I used to live in a little cottage in a tiny village in Bedfordshire. It had a park and a wood right next to the house and I remember trying to ride my bike through the wood and getting my stabilizers jammed into the roots of trees.
2) We then moved to a larger but still small village set more in the countryside. This is where my family are still living now. Its surrounded on two sides by fields and we have a section of the garden that’s full of trees and apple trees which I love.
3) Two years ago I left home to go to university in Sheffield where I lived in halls with a bunch of people I had never met before. I didn’t particularly enjoy it (the accommodation) as we got burgled 4 times, had mice in the kitchen, water came through the ceiling from the floors above, the toilet fell off the wall and we even once had drug addicts lurking behind the building. (I moved to a much nicer place with some friends for my second year)
4) I’m now living in Leeds where I had to move for my placement job. I have rented my own flat on a lovely residential street that is just far enough away from the city centre not to get all the hassle and noise and yet still close enough to go shopping. I really love it here.

Four Places I’ve Holidayed
1) During my childhood we used to go to Lanzarote which is part of the Canary Islands. It’s got great weather and I remember being amazed at seeing real palm trees and huge cactus’s.
2) We also had a few family trips to Newquay (which is by the sea) accompanied by my grandparents. My granddad adores the coast, especially the sea and taught us all how to body board. We used to rent a beach hut for the day to store our things in and we always managed to get the same one. Number 54 which had a blue front door.
3) When I was 16 I went on holiday with my grandparents alone to Tuscany in Italy. The food, the weather and the views were all wonderful. It’s true what they say about the ice cream in Italy, it was certainly the best I have ever tasted.
4) Just this year my family and grandparents all went to France to celebrate my grandparents golden wedding anniversary. It was a fantastic holiday, we stayed in a really tiny traditional village and got to explore lots of local markets, eating fresh apricots, figs and tomatoes and stuffing ourselves with bread, cheese, olives and pastries.

Four Favourite Foods
1) Some people may find this strange but I really could not live without apples. I have to eat one practically every day or I deprived. They are so crisp and fresh and make that lovely ‘crrrrrisp’ sound when you bite into them. There are also so many varieties to choose from. Tart acidic Bramley apples for cooking or sweet juicy apples for everyday eating (although I do like eating the odd bit of cooking apple too). My favourite is probably Royal Gala for their sweet crisp flavour although Braeburns and the much underrated Jonagold are also good when in season.
2) Freshly baked bread. I love everything about bread, its smell, taste, texture and versatility. You can add fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices or different grains to end up with a whole variety of different breads. My preference is for granary, sourdough or rye bread as I like quite dense loafs that have deep flavours. I also love a really chewy crust. I can’t stand pre-sliced fake white ‘bread.’ Anything you can pummel with your hands that then springs back to its original shape or turns to goo when you mush it is not bread in my opinion.
3) Oats in the form of muesli or porridge. There is something so comforting and satisfying about chewing on milky oats when scattered with soft raisins, dates and chunks of nut. All the textures and flavours go together so well, whoever came up with muesli is a genius. Similarly I love a big steaming bowl of porridge when feeling down or cold. It’s like being given a hug from the inside. At the moment I love flavouring my porridge with chopped dates and cinnamon.
4) My forth choice has to be cake. I adore cake in all forms. Give me a big wedge of cake over chocolate any day. Again, it’s so versatile, from light sponges to dense fruit cake, there is something to suit everyone. My favourite type of cake changes according to mood but I would never say no to a slice of carrot cake. I love its moist spicy crumb dotted with chewy raisins, chunks of nut and topped with a creamy lemony icing – yum!

Four Places I’d Rather Be
1) In London having a foodie day exploring the likes of Harrods, Fortnum & Masons, Selfridges and the newly opened Whole Foods store which I am longing to visit.
2) Back in France sampling more bread, cheese, pastries and maybe a few chocolates.
3) Mexico. I have never been but I have heard that there are places where you can watch someone make up your own specially chosen chocolate from scratch. They pound the cocoa beans and mix it with your choice of flavours of spices and present it to you in a molten mass. This sounds amazing to me and something I long to witness. Plus I would really like to try some authentic Mexican food.
4) Back home with my family, baking treats for afternoon tea.


Four people I tag are:
Gigi from Gigi Cakes
Andrew from Spittoon Extra
Barbara from Winos and Foodies
Myriam from Once Upon A Tart