Top 10 Veggies.

I am a great advocate of the vegetable. Salad? Roasted veg? I’d have either any day over a pack of fries. Pathetic? Possibly. Yummy? Yah. 

• Asparagus – Sadly only limited to May and June, asparagus is a firm favourite of mine. Yes it does make your wee smell, but I am an adult now, I can handle this. (It still freaks me out) 
• Broccoli – no words describe my love for broccoli. In a stir fry, in a salad, in a sauce. 
• Mushrooms – as a child, these were my worst nightmare. On a plate. How could I have been so naïve?! Mushrooms of the world, I apologise for misjudging you. Fried, baked, roasted or steamed, you’re delish and are even a suitable solo snack. 
• Brussel sprouts – ah another classic childhood ‘ew’. But thanks to Jamie O, I have learned that together with some bacon and walnuts, these little bad boys are frightfully yummy. 
• Cucumber – dipped in salsa. All day and everyday. 
• Tomato – this is a fruit my bottom. A vegetable as great as they come, there’s always space for a tomato in my salad. Gives the green some colour! 
• Kale – while I’m not going to follow the trend and blitz some kale into a super smoothie, I do very much advocate kale crisps. Lessons learned from many a wasted batch? (Burned to a crisp.. ha) Timing is crucial! 
• Spinach – Is there actually any proof that spinach gives you Popeye worthy Pecks? Obviously this is a third childhood hate. But if mother dishes this up now I gladly oblige. 
• Aubergine – Purple gentle giants that are ideal when roasted. 
• Beetroot – makes an utter mess if spilled down a white top. The father, the sister and I still giggle about the time it happened to a very unlucky nun wearing a white habit.

Christmas & New Years 2012

The Christmas / New Years season this year has been a good one... Friends, festivities, frolicking and food. In hindsight I’d say for me, the best things about this season have been:

Holidayyy Whether you love work or hate work, it’s always nice to have a little time off. This is probably the one time of the year where it’s totally acceptable to laze around in ‘loungewear’ all day and do nothing. Apart from drink. And eat. Even if you’re revising for GCSEs, A-levels, Uni finals, Accountancy exams etc etc it is frowned upon to get your revision notes out on Christmas Day. Make the most of it…

…On that note, it’s 100% acceptable to drink all day and take a nap whenever you feel snoozy!

Port wine & cigars on Christmas Eve This has turned into a bit of a Neiss Family tradition. Daddy’s dinner has been devoured and everyone is deliciously drunk. All the grown men and the children (or ‘semi-adults’ as I term myself) head onto the patio to smoke a cigar and drink some port wine. (Obviously the children are just there to smoke up the atmosphere. Not an actual cigar.) This year I pushed the boat out...I smoked a Virginia Super Slim.

Presents Giving, receiving, whatever takes your fancy. Who the hell doesn’t like getting new stuff or seeing that smile on mummy’s face when you’ve given her something cute and loving?! Christmas simply isn’t Christmas without a bit of giving and getting. After all, Baby Jesus got some gold, frankincense, myrrh, some sheep etc etc

Christmas carols and especially Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! This hymn has such a feel good factor about it that they should prescribe daily 10 minutes of singing it at the top of your lungs to anyone suffering from depression.

Christmas TV & Films The Muppets’ Christmas Carol! Elf! Miracle on 34^th Street! Love Actually! I could go on.. Christmas films + a glass of mulled = pure bliss. I’m not even going to start on Christmas TV specials… Christmas Specials are always bloody brilliant, no matter how bad the TV show.

Finally, I’m going to be controversial and say Christmas Eve. Yes. Better than Christmas Day. For my family, coming from a European background, this is the classic present exchanging time anyway, as opposed to Christmas Day. However I’m inclined to say that the Christmas Eve activities of decorating the tree, eating a good meal, singing a few carols, midnight mass and the anticipation of the next day are what makes it so great. Unlike Christmas Day, no-one runs out of steam and there isn’t a huge anti-climax.

-       Sub note: this year Christmas Eve was altogether something special... My aunt received a copy of the notorious Fifty Shades of Grey and post-port wine and champers, father dearest thought it would be a complete hoot to read from it. Aloud. Obviously only the sex scenes. 

Ah the Christmas season..!! 

21

So on 21.12.2012 the world is going to end. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t it be more poetic is it was the 20.12.2012 or the 21.12.2112?)

If I had lots of time left (and was as sceptical about my future as the Mayans are being) I would obviously create a personal list of 21 things to do before the 21^st while aged 21. Sadly there’s not much time left before the 21^st so I’ll condense the list to 10 things I’d like to do…

 1.  Spend a day frolicking in London with all my nearest and dearest – art galleries, restaurants and shopping galore!

2. Host a delightfully lavish dinner party (à remembering that money isn’t an issue, I won’t be needing any anymore anyway, so I’d really splurge!)

3. Invite someone I’ve been meaning to get in contact with for ages but haven’t to said dinner part

4. Invite someone excessively outrageous to said dinner party, purely for entertainment

5. Cook ALL the food for ALL the courses from scratch for said dinner party

6. Skype call the person furthest away from me in the world right now

7. Read a novel in a whole sitting without leaving the sofa (only to go to the loo)

8. Buy a Celine Boston bag

9. Go for a ride / on a hack with my sister dear

10. Spend an evening in front of the fire with magazines and books and a cup of tea. And someone to give me a shoulder massage.

Come Dine With Me

Now that I have a pad of my own, I figured that it was about time that I threw a swell dinner party. Obviously I’d have one for my friends and loved ones and I suppose family, but this, my friends, is my ideal dinner party guest list (of Brits only) along with a nice memo of why I’d invite them. Oh and please do note my consideration regarding numbers – one girl to every boy (seeing as I am a girl and will obviously be taking part, there must be one more boy than girl on the guest list).

The females

·      The Queen: this woman has pure class and is probably one of the most fascinating people to talk to.

·      J.K. Rowling: she developed Harry Potter (i.e. the greatest story / plots / concepts / characters of all time) and therefore I inevitably must meet her personally.

·      Adele: she is single handily taking over the world. (21 got 6 Grammys, 2 Brits and is the 7^th biggest selling album EVER in the UK and she’s singing the theme for the new Bond film Skyfall

·      Alexa Chung: my sister sometimes lovingly refers to me as Alexa. I guess we both have brown hair, a similar face shape and are both lanky. This (sadly) is where the similarities end. She has buckets of style and a Mulberry bag named after her. (One of which she’ll hopefully bring me as a house warming gift...)

The males

·      Prince Harry: he’s great.

·      Boris Johnson: I simply want to know what all the hype is about – is he really as down-with-the-kids as his clever PR wants us to believe? Or is he in fact as ‘commercial’ as various BBC articles have whispered? He definitely seems vociferous and dishevelled but there’s nothing shambolic about his mind or soft about his ambition... He also likes to chat in Latin over lunch. Thankfully not dinner.

·      David Tennant: yes, I used to have an odd little crush on him. When his Doctor Who put on his glasses and went all crazy clever I simply wanted to be there, hold his hand and say: Doctor, it’s going to be fine.

·      Stephen Fry: he is simply fantastic. I don’t even know where to begin singing his praises. Perhaps most usefully to the dinner party scenario is that he’s an incredible raconteur and apparently an exceptional after dinner speaker. (He also voices the Harry Potter recording, which I have spent many MANY an hour listening to…)

·      Ed Westwick: he’s originally from the UK! Shimply shmokin’ nuff said. Oh and Chuck Bass isn’t half bad either.