Music I loved in 2017 | BLOGMAS DAY 23

I thought it'd be fun to compile a list of all the music I loved the most in 2017. I'm not just including new music; the music on list is simply the songs I played the most this year.

For me, every song holds a memory. Some of these songs remind me of good times, but some of the bad. That doesn't mean I don't like some of the songs anymore, I just might not listen to them as much. I'm going to include them anyway. I'm also one of those people that only listen to certain songs depending on my mood, hence why they're so varied! You can probably tell what type of year i've had by looking at these songs!

Let me know if you loved some of the same and what your top tracks are! And if you haven't heard some of these tunes, give them a listen, they're all worth it!

So, here goes... (in now particular order)

1. 3WW by Alt 
2. Malibu by Miley Cyrus
3. Symphony by Clean Bandit
4. Closer by The Chainsmokers (R3hab remix)
5. The way we get by by Spoon
6. Closer by The Chainsmokers (I liked both versions and loved this song)
7. Shape of you by Ed Sheeran
8. No Cars Go by Arcade Fire
9. Deadcrush by Alt J
10. Strange and Beautiful by Aqualung
11. Young and menace by Fall Out Boy
12. Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear
13. I hate you, I love you feat. Olivia O'Brian) by Gnash
14. Blush by Wolf Alice
15. Battle Symphony by Linkin Park 
16. Taro by Alt J
17. One Dance by Drake, Wizkid and Kyla
18. Sweet Harmony by The Beloved
19. Irresistible by Fall Out Boy and Demi Lovato
20. Explore by Sundara Karma
21. Where are U now by Pentatonix
22. ...Ready For It? By Taylor Swift
23. Good Life by G-Eazy and Kehlani
24. Take it all back 2.0 by Judah and the Lion
25. In Cold Blood by Alt J
26. Rain City by Turin Brakes
27. Say something loving by The xx
28. Chasing Highs by ALMA
29. Unconditional by Nick Mulvey
30. Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey (Feat. The Weekend)
31. As long as you love me by Sleeping at Last
32. Honey and the Moon by Joseph Arthur
33. Immortals by Fall Out Boy
34.(I want to be your) Mirror by Temples
35. Shape of You (Stormy remix) by Ed Sheeran and Stormzy
36. Wonderwall by Oasis
37. Heavy (Feat. Kiiara) by Linkin Park and Kiiara
38. Home by Now by Bombay Bicycle Club
39. Going to Mars by Judah and the Lion
40. There for you by Martin Garrix and Troye Sivan
41. Don't Delete the Kisses by Wolf Alice
42. In my Mind by Maty Noyes
43. Breathe by Astrid S
44. Remember I told you by Nick Jonas
45. Like I would by Zayn
46. Half the World Away by Aurora
47. My songs know what you did in the dark by Fall Out Boy
48. Thinking about you by Ariana Grande
49. Collect Call by Metric
50. Junk Food Forever by The Amazons
51. Fire that Burns (Acoustic) by Circa Waves
52. Immortals (remix) by Fall Out Boy, Black thought and B Wheezy
53. Change your Life by Iggy Izalea and TI
54. Kerala by Bonobo
55. Let the Sun Shine by Labrinth
56. 1901 by Phoenix
57. Migration by Bonobo
58. Electric Feel by Henry Green
59. All Night by The Vamps and Matoma
60. Flame by Sundara Karma
61. Almost like this by Andrew Applepie
62. Emperor's New Clothes by Panic! At The Disco
63. Fever by Dance a la Place
64. Alone Together by Fall Out Boy
65. Nitrous by Nick Mulvey
66. California by Phantom Planet
67. Dusk til Dawn by Zayn and Sia
68. Feels by Calvin Harris, Pharrell William and Katy Perry
69. Issues by Julia Michaels
70. Unforgettable by French Montana and Swae Lee
71. Thunder by Imagine Dragons
72. I feel it coming by The Weekend and Daft Punk
73. Bad Together by Dua Lipa
74. Danza Kaduro from Fast Five by The Hollywood La Soundtrack Orchestra
75. Make my sun shine by Swim Deep
76. Keep on trying by Andrew Applepie
77. Now or Never by Halsey
78. Places by Martin Solveig
79. Lights out by Royal Blood
80. On my Mind by Disciples
81. Touch it by Ariana Grande
82. Water by Jack Garratt
83. Reggaeton Lento by CNCO
84. To the Wonder by Aqualung and Kina Grannis
85. To be Alone with You by Sufjan Stevens
86. Hold Me by The Sweeplings
87. 13 Beaches by Lana Del Rey
88. The Chain by Fleetwood Mac
89. Hallelujah by Panic! At The Disco
90. Be Alright by Ariana Grande
91. Goodbye Soleil by Phoenix
92. You got me all wrong by Dios
93. Trouble Sleeping by The Perishers
94. Cucurucu by Nick Mulvey
95. Mi Gente by J Balvin and Willy William
96. Despacito by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber
97. Way down we go by Kaleo
98. Meet me there by Nick Mulvey
99. Dreams by Gabrielle Aplin and Bastille
100. Power by Little Mix and Stormzy

Festive Mugs | BLOGMAS DAY 21

I love making things festive in my house, even the mugs! These Christmas-inspired mugs are so easy to make and will make your hot chocolate even more fitting for the holiday season. Why not prepare these the night before Christmas Eve and then enjoy them with my Peppermint White Chocolate recipe? 

I'd love to see your creations! Tweet me your designs are @fessjarmer and i'll share them!

Ingredients

White chocolate 
Red and Green sprinkles, or create your own designs (I found mine at Home Bargains)

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie or in the microwave (30 second blasts).

2. Dip the rim of the mugs in the chocolate.

3. Quickly dip the chocolate rims into the sprinkles. Place in the fridge to set.

And if you're interested...

Vlogmas day 21

Unrealistic Christmas Pancake Hack | BLOGMAS DAY 20

I wasn't sure whether to post this 'hack', but then I thought that I'd better share how unrealistic this is. This is not a rant at Food Network (where I found the idea), but more a picking-out-the-flaws of a recipe, type post. 
Food Network posted the idea of santa hat pancakes, as an idea for a Christmas day breakfast. I thought to myself how cute they looked and that I would test them out for the blog. When I make things for the blog, I make them how a normal person would. I don't use any photography tricks to make things look nice, like shaving foam instead of whipped cream, or glue to stick things down in case they fall. I want the reader to be able to replicate my recipes and for them to look exactly the same as mine do..this is the main point i'm trying to make in this post.
I started off making the Pancakes using a ready-made pancake mix, as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of making my own, what with it being Blogmas and Vlogmas for me this year..oh and Christmas-time too!
The pancakes went well, and so the next step is, as the recipe clearly states, to top with whipped cream and to top that with a strawberry, to which you then top again with cream to make a little hat(phew!) Now I don't know about you but I don't like to wait for my pancakes to go cold before I eat them? 
I squirted on the cream to cover the top and then plopped on the strawberry etc etc. I just managed to take one photo before it all toppled off. It's clear that the reason for this is that the pancakes were hot and obviously the cream melted. So my point is, in the magazine the pancakes were photographed neatly stacked with the cream neatly piled on top a long with the strawberry. There's no way this hack could be recreated at home without waiting for the pancakes to cool down first. 

This is how it went down after the first photo! 

Caribbean Black Cake | BLOGMAS DAY 19

I love the Caribbean. I've never been, but I've come close. I visited Bermuda this year and absolutely loved it; the combination of British politeness and American friendliness really goes hand-in-hand. The food out there is so unique. For example, ever thought of having avocado and banana for breakfast??
This year I thought why not make something a little less traditional. I chose this Caribbean black cake because it makes me reminiscent of that wonderful place. The black cake originally comes from Trinidad where it stemmed from the British plum pudding, however the recipe has adapted to have rum and molasses (brown, burnt sugar) added, giving it its dark colouring.
When making this cake, I couldn't help but remember the awful hurricane disaster from Irma this year. I've decided to donate some money through Global Giving to help the cause. Since Christmas is all about giving and helping others, why not donate too? Or simply make this cake in memory of the losses from the terrible storm. 

If you want to know some more about the black cake, this article here from The Washington Post was very interesting, and funny too.

Ingredients

150g prunes, pitted and chopped
300g sultanas and raisin
100g dried cherries
50ml cherry brandy
250g unsalted butter
250g dark muscovado sugar
3 eggs, beaten
250g self-raising flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp all-spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 zest of an orange
1 zest of a lime
Apricot jam to glaze
Raisins to decorate

Method

OVERNIGHT PREPARATION

1. Put the prunes, raisins, sultanas and cherries in a bowl. Add the rum and cherry brandy, and soak for 48 hours. You could even be like the good Trinidadian cooks and soak for two weeks (see above article).

The dried cherries I use (quite hard to come across)

2. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees/150 degrees fan, and grease and line the bottom of a 9 inch deep cake tin with baking parchment.

3. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and combine.

4. With a spoon, mix in the flour, cinnamon, all-spice, vanilla and orange and lime zest. Then add the fruit and juices and mix in thoroughly. 

5. Put the mixture into a tin and bake for 30 minutes. Lower the heat to 150 degrees/ 130 fan and bake for 2 more hours. Mine only took 1 hours 30 because my oven is particularly hot. Just keep an eye on it and check with a skewer every so often. If it comes out clean, its done. 

6. Cool in the tin slightly and then completely on a a wire rack. When cool, heat the apricot jam in a pan and glaze the top with a brush. Decorate with a few extra raisins.

Have you ever visited the Caribbean? Where did you go?

And if you're interested...

Vlogmas day 19

Peppermint White Hot Chocolate | BLOGMAS DAY 18

Two years ago, I wrote a post with a recipe to an Italian hot chocolate with peppermint cookies. I'm a massive fan of anything peppermint-flavoured. I mean, yesterday my post for S'mores were candy cane flavoured... I'd have every post for blogmas featuring peppermint if I could... maybe next year! 
This year I thought i'd put it in a hot chocolate. Nothing revolutionary, I know. But I haven't done it yet for this blog, so why not! The following recipe is quite sweet. If you don't like anything too sweet, you can omit the sugar. 

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 mug full of milk (I measured mine with the mug I used - it's a standard size as you'll see in the pics)
1/4 tsp of peppermint extract
1 tsp of sugar
60g white chocolate, chopped
Squirty cream
1 x candy cane

Method

1. Pour the milk into a pan, along with the sugar and peppermint extract. Whisk a little to combine. Heat until steaming. 

2. Add the chocolate and whisk until melted. Pour into your chosen mug.

3. Squirt on the cream, pop in the candy cane, and then drink! 

If you saw BLogmas day 16's post, you'll know the I served mine in my newly purchased mug from Home Bargains! I absolutely love it. 

And if you're interested...

Vlogmas day 18

Candy Cane S'mores | BLOGMAS DAY 17

A classic American snack, usually eaten around the campfire. A S'more is traditionally a combination of toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate, sandwiched between two Graham Crackers. I really wish I could have found those crackers but I think they're only available on Ocado, and we didn't do an Ocado shop this week! If you've been following my vlogs, you'll know that i've been around every supermarket in town lately, looking for marshmallow fluff (for a different recipe); we didn't need online shop to add to the mix! 

These s'mores have been given the festive touch with the added ingredients of crushed peppermint candy canes; my absolute favourite thing at Christmas. These are so simple to make; they take only about 5 minutes. 

The following recipe serves 2, but you can really estimate/chop and change the amounts to suit you; it's such a simple recipe.

Ingredients

2 x digestive biscuits

2 x small handfuls of mini marshmallows 

2 x candy canes

150g milk chocolate

Method

1. Start melting the chocolate in a bain marie. If you don't have one, you can use a bowl placed over a pan filled with a little boiling water. Or if you prefer, melt it in the microwave with 30 second blasts.

2. Whilst the chocolate is melting, place two digestives on a plate and top with the handfuls of marshmallows. Put the plate in the microwave and heat, 30 seconds at a time. I did mind about 3 times, but it's up to you how melted you want yours. They do puff up but don't panic, they come back down as soon as you stop the machine. Also, be careful - don't touch the mallow; you'll fingers will become attached and it takes ages to get un-attached! I know from experience...

3. Once the marshmallow and chocolate has melted, you'll need to crush your candy canes. I did mine between a tea towel, you can do yours how you like. You could crush them quickly in a Nutri Bullet, but be sure to leave some big bits! 

4. Now spoon some of the chocolate onto the marshmallow and sprinkle with as much candy cane as you like. Top the two halves with the other two digestives to make two sandwiches. Drizzle the sandwiches with the chocolate, using the spoon and sprinkle with some more crushed candy cane. And Enjoy! It will get messy!

And if you're interested...

Vlogmas day 17

Asda & Home Bargains Festive Haul | BLOGMAS DAY 16

Today I thought i'd share with you some bargains I found in Asda and Home Bargains. I went in to grab some last minute Christmas bits and bobs and didn't expect to find what I found! I'm definitely going to be shopping more at these two shops in 2018!

Asda / £10

Asda / £5

Home Bargains / 79p

Home Bargains / 79p

Home Bargains / 79p

Asda / £1

BBQ-Spiced Nuts | BLOGMAS DAY 15

In yesterday's post I mentioned about being a particularly snack-y person! Now, I'm usually a sweet tooth, however, when it comes to nuts, I prefer the savoury kind. And I especially love anything BBQ flavoured, so the following recipe is perfect! These sweetly (but not too sweet) spiced nuts are great as a last-minute gift for Christmas; just package them up in one of those decorative clear bags with a lovely little ribbon. I'm sure someone will appreciate them more than a gift set picked up from boots!!

Ingredients

150g pecans
180g honey-roasted peanuts
100g salted roasted almonds
1 egg white
Olive oil for brushing the tray
30g light brown sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp rock salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees. 

2. Brush a baking tray with olive oil.

3. Whisk the egg white in a bowl until frothy.

 4. Add the nuts and stir to coat with the egg white.

5. Add the spice mix and stir to coat evenly.

6. Spread the nuts on the tray and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

 7. Let the nuts cool on the tray before serving.

Cinnamon-Spiced Nuts | BLOGMAS DAY 14

I don't know about you but I don't just get snack-y at Christmas; it happens all the time! However at Christmas we are more ok with snacking, especially in front of the TV! The following snack is perfect for this; sweet, crunchy nuts. Also great to package up in a little plastic bag (the nice kind!!) with a cute ribbon, as a gift. I actually took mine to the Cinema the evening I made them - the perfect combo with Star Wars! 

They're super quick and easy to make, and once you start making them yourself, you'll never look at a pack of nuts in the supermarket again!

Ingredients

100g walnuts
100g blanched hazelnuts
50g unsalted roasted cashews
100g unsalted roasted pistachios
Olive oil for brushing tray
1 egg white
100g granulated sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp rock salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger

1. Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees. 

2. Brush a baking tray with olive oil.

3. Whisk the egg white in a bowl until frothy.

4. Add the nuts and stir to coat with the egg white.

5. Add the spice mix and stir to coat evenly.

6. Spread the nuts on the tray and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

7. Let the nuts cool on the tray before serving.

And if you're interested...

Vlogmas day 14