Gingerbread project 2014 – T.A.R.D.I.S

December 20, 2014 by Eve England

After the success of the gingerbread AT-AT last year for our Star Wars Christmas party, I was pleased that I had the excuse to try my hand at another sci-fi classic this year, as I drew a fellow geek-chic-ette in our office Secret Santa.

Sharon is an avid Whovian, and so, my mission to replicate a Time And Relative Dimension In Space a.k.a a TARDIS, commenced.

For anyone wanting to create a gingerbread house or other structure, the key is to make sure you create a template of your design in advance on paper. This will make it easier to assemble your design and avoid having to waste time and ingredients re making the gingerbread pieces. It is also worth baking the gingerbread a little longer than specified to make larger structures more robust. My favourite gingerbread recipe is the Hummingbird Bakery version – very easy to make and always delicious!

Whilst certainly no match for some of the incredible replicas I saw online, my version is a much cuter version of the classic 1960s British Police box. I was particularly pleased with the light on the top, which was done using a set of battery operated fairy lights placed inside the Tardis, and the wreath gave the little blue box a distinctive festive look.

To finish the scene, I found a printable Dalek from Instructables that I topped with a pot of fabulous nontoxic glitter for Sharon to use in her own culinary creations.

It was great fun working on this project, and I am so pleased that Sharon loved it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pop, Fizz, Clink! Kate Spade pardons the turkey! – A Kate Spade Flamingo Thanksgiving Party

November 30, 2014 by Eve England

Everyone loves the Thanksgiving holidays…

Everyone, that is, except for the 50 million or so turkeys that are served up by the American population during the annual Thanksgiving feast.

Every year since 1989, one lucky turkey, has, however, been granted a stay of execution by none other than the President himself (the first pardon was granted by President George H.W.Bush), gifting freedom to the recipient to live out the rest of his/her days in peace.

To mark this political tradition, and to recognize that this year Thanksgiving also fell on my birthday, I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving 2014 in a less traditional way. I knew that it wouldn’t really be Thanksgiving without a big-bird being involved in at least some way or another, and so I decided that I would incorporate a flamingo into the mix to represent the Turkey’s absence from our feast. I then decided to take it one step further, by complimenting the flamboyancy of this magnificent creature by dressing the occasion in fabulous Kate Spade style.

I am a MASSIVE Kate Spade addict!

Until quite recently, I had to rely on waiting to get her products during visits to the US, but now, there are a number of UK stores, and a brand new UK website that I can use to acquire these lovely things! Kate Spade is a wonderful designer, and Kate Spade quirky and vivid products are truly aligned with the firm’s motto of “Live Colorfully”, yet remain loyal to classic fashion designs.

One of Kate Spade’s popular colour combinations (and my absolute favourite!) is to use the clashing combination of orange and pink, and this is the scheme I chose for my Kate Spade Thanksgiving Party. I wanted to stay focused on ensuring that this scheme was fully integrated throughout the party, from the decor, drinks, right the way through to the food to be served.

Decorations

With the main theme being orange and pink, I created a base for these colours using black and gold, and you can see the stripe table runner at the centre of the table. I also used some gorgeous telephone photograph holders as place tags and my wonderful Kate Spade telephone salt and pepper holder.

The pink lanterns were actually a fabulous purchase from Primark – a real bargain at £6, and they are battery operated, which makes them very flexible to use. I also created some bunting and posters using pink craft paper and glitter card.

The flowers are actually from M&S, and worked amazingly with the scheme. I also scattered the table with pastel sequins.

Running with the “sparkling” theme, I also used my glitter Kate Spade coasters, and used a piece of thick sequin fabric to cover the coffee table, which was used to serve my trusted colour-matched M&Ms!!

Food

As you already know, there was not a turkey bite in sight, and instead we had venison sausages with homemade marshmallow & sweet potato pie and red cabbage. The menu was actually inspired by my wedding reception, where we also had colour co-ordinated food, way back in 2009.

For desert, a pumpkin cheesecake nodded to the traditional fare, but with an added layer of pink sour cream marshmallow topping for a little extra splash of colour!

We also had some delightful little savoury smoked salmon and cream cheese macarons as appetisers, again, in the pink and orange scheme.

The stripy vanilla birthday cake, whilst not strictly needed with the cheesecake, looked lovely and allowed me to use my mini sparklers!

Beverage Bar

I was quite pleased to be able to source some mini bottles of fizz for the party. These are miniature bottles of Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut Cava, and were a perfect match to our decor. Cute little LSA glasses served Kir Royals, using the wonderful Chambord liquor. Again, a lovely little bottle!! Hard liquor in the form of Hendricks Gin was also supplied for the hardier guest.

Party Bags

I used to love party bags as a child, and so I always look to provide departing guests with a couple of small treats to thank them for joining me in my celebration.

This time, I had some great Kate Spade treat bags, that I filled with retro sweets, an amazing fortune telling fish (completely reliable, of course!), a couple of Kate Spade idiom pencils, and a pot of “flamingo” pink Barry-M nail varnish.

Thank you James, Kerry, Becky & Sara for sharing my special day with me!

WISHING EVERYONE A SPARKLING THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY AND WEEKEND!

Resources

Invitations – http://ohhappyday.com/2013/08/lets-do-cocktails-printable-invitations/

Kate Spade – http://www.katespade.co.uk

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe – http://www.marthastewart.com/335642/pumpkin-cheesecake

Telephone Photoholders – Tiger

The day of the comet

November 16, 2014 by Eve England

Since the disappointment of Comet Ison’s failure to survive its fly-by around the sun earlier this year, I must confess that I had lowered my expectations somewhat for the landing of the Philae probe onto the surface of Comet 67P on Wednesday.

But the ESA and the Rosetta mission team pulled-off the impossible.

Philae was released from the Rosetta orbiter and hop skipped and jumped onto the icy surface of the comet ready to make history.

It is only when you stop to think about what was actually achieved on Wednesday that you start to appreciate its significance.

Rosetta Factoids

Comet discovered in 1969 by Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko
The comet is a periodic comet with a orbital period of around 6.5 years
The rubber duck shaped lump of ice, dust and rock is 4.5km at its longest, and weighs 10 billion tonnes
The Rosetta mission planning started over 25 years ago
The mission is an all Egyptian theme: the orbiter is named after the Rosetta stone (a translation tablet of the world’s most ancient languages), and Philae is named after the Nile island where the obelisk that was used to decipher the stone’s inscription was found
Areas of the comet have also been named after other notable Egyptian landmarks
Rosetta was affixed to an Ariane 5 rocket on 16 February 2004, and was jettisoned on its way on 2 March
It has taken 10 years to reach the comet, having first taken advantage of gravity assists from the Earth and Mars together with a total of three years in deep hibernation. It was awoken ready for the last leg of its journey in January 2014
The probe finally reached the comet on the 6th August, and started its global mapping of the surface in September ready for a landing attempt.

Whilst Philae’s conscious life on 67P was short lived, it is hoped that the data it collected during this time will help unravel the mystery of how life began on earth. Comets are ancient remnants of the very beginning of our solar system, and have been orbiting our star since then for over four and a half billion years. Many believe, in fact, that water and amino acids contained within these magnificent tailed wanderers seeded our planet with the key ingredients to create life.

Rosetta’s Legacy

To think that a man made object, launched ten years ago, managed to land on a celestial body hurtling through the sky at an incredible 140,000 kph, is truly incredible, and is to the twenty first century what the Apollo moon landings were to the mid twentieth.

The release of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar this week was particularly timely. What both the movie and the Rosetta mission emphasise is just how difficult space travel is. Not only do you require absolute precision in calculating all possible situations, but the incomprehensible scale of time and space mean that any journey further than our inner neighbours would be a one way ticket, and those brave volunteers would be true space pioneers. In reality, without the prospect of warp drive spacecraft, the use of unmanned probes is the only realistic option for future space exploration. But let’s hope that the interest generated is week in the Rosetta mission will continue and ignite a broader interest in all things space.

For too long have celebrity culture and video channels dominated the interest of the next generation, and it is about time that the world falls in love once again with the awesomeness that is the universe.

Rice-Krispie comets with a diy lego lander!

Space-Monkey Resources

http://www.esa.int/ESA

http://www.nasa.gov

A Survivor: The Legacy of the Alien Franchise

November 8, 2014 by Eve England

When we learned about the “Alien Encounter” experience being hosted at the National Space Centre in Leicester over the Halloween weekend at Comicon earlier in the summer, we signed up for tickets straight away. The event included: a fantastic live-action experience where a bunch of real-life Colonial Marines from the UK division battled it out against large men dressed in Alien suits; a nerf gun firing range; and the opportunity to watch the movie in the centre’s wonderful Planetarium.

Perfect organism

The Alien franchise is up there with the sci-fi greats, and continues to be obsessed over by sci-fi enthusiasts worldwide. Or at least the two first instalments are. We will pretend, for today, that the newer versions were never made.

The original 1979 release of Alien, was a cinematic masterpiece, as it artfully weaved the genres of sci-fi and horror into one unsettling and relentless survival story. The tagline sets the tone of the movie perfectly, as, of course, in space, no-one can hear you scream.

Get away from her, you B*TCH!

It was also a first in the sense that the main protagonist was a woman, and a strong kick-ass woman at that. Signourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley was everything the 70s and 80s characters were not, and at no point does Ripley run around screaming irrationally waiting for her more capable action hero to save her.

What is interesting is that Ripley was originally scripted as a man, but the casting of Weaver to this role is undoubtedly what makes this franchise what it is today.

They’re coming outta the goddamn walls

The 1986 sequel to Alien, Aliens, took the franchise along a different path, and instead presents movie-goers with a more traditional 80s action movie feel, as the bad-ass egos of the Colonial Marines (featuring comic relief, Bill Paxton as Private Hudson, and the gorgeous Michael Biehn as Corporal Dwayne Hicks) are drafted in on board the U.S.S. Suluco to save the day on LV426.

This time, of course, it’s war.

Whilst to some, the titles may seem a little unoriginal, but of course, it actually gives the viewer a clear understanding of what they are about to experience. The first movie had only the one hostile intruder, who stealthily picked off each member of the Nostromo, one by one. The second, on the other hand, really is an all guns blazing, Western-esq, bug-hunt.

I only need to know one thing: Where. They. Are

As with most successful movie franchises, Alien and Aliens spawned a total of seventeen officially licensed video games (thirty eight if you also include the crossover Alien vs. Predator derivative) over the three decades, most of which were based on Aliens rather than Alien, as the latter it lends itself particularly well to the first person shoot-em-up type of game-play. The franchise has grown-up with the developments in personal gaming, with the first game having been released on the Atari 2600 way back in 1982, and the newest resurrection, Alien: Isolation, released on the next generation consoles, PS4 and Xbox 1, last month.

This new game has already received critical acclaim, as it transports the player back into classic Alien territory. The retro 70s feel of the Nostromo is re-created here, with reel-to-reel tape decks, and lots of nice “Easter eggs” for the Alien movie fan (that I won’t spoil here!) to relish. The game’s success can be attributed to its reversion to a single Zenomorph set-up, and to the fact that the creature is elevated from being mere cannon-fodder (as was the case in almost all of the more recent games) to its original primal self, simultaneously majestic and utterly terrifying. The alien is also frustratingly indestructible. If it sees you, you’re dead. If you have the audacity to try and kill it, you’re dead.

A survivor unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality

This new release, together with the likes of the Alien Encounter we attended, prove testament to the timeless appeal of the franchise’s two early instalments. Whilst the differences in style between Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron’s sequel are marked, there is denying that it is the structural perfection, hostility and unnerving beauty of the alien construct itself that keeps us all wanting more.

Further Information

http://colonialmarines.co.uk

http://www.spacecentre.co.uk

http://www.lastexittonowhere.com

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Hosting a Traditional Halloween Party

November 6, 2014 by Eve England

Halloween is a great Holiday.

There are just so many themes and colour schemes that you can use for your celebrations. Last year we had a Breaking Bad theme, which was so much fun to plan for. You can read more about how to host your own Breaking Bad party here: https://geekchic-hq.com/2013/11/07/yeah-science-a-heisenberg-halloween/

Double, double toil and trouble

This year, however, we decided to have a more traditional Halloween party, using the more standard colour pallet of orange, black and white. As regular readers may have noticed, I do have a slight obsession with ensuring that my parties are colour co-ordinated, from the decor right through to the food. Here are some ideas about how you may wish to set up your 2015 Halloween party:

Fire burn and caldron bubble

To set the table, we started by covering the table with a chalkboard tablecloth. To add height and variety to the display, we used a fabulous Fortnum & Masons black and orange wicker hamper (available especially for Halloween 2014) and a rustic tiered aluminum stand from Pottery Barn. I also re-used my old hessian bunting to hang from the pillars. Even “teddy” got into the spirit of the occasion!

I also purchased a set of linen skeleton cocktail napkins and a skeleton salt and pepper shakers (also from Pottery Barn), which were super kitsch!

I was lucky enough to get a couple of great Halloween Yankee candles this year, and the scents this year were Candy Corn and Ghost. We also used left over low boy candles from our wedding back in 2009. The little white ghost candles were a steal from Poundland! For the bathroom, we decided to mix it up a little by dressing our pillar up in radiation hazard tape.

The autumn flowers that were available this year were just perfect for our theme, with the pumpkin-esq Chinese lantern flowers looking magnificent in the tall vase and framed with dyed red twigs.

And of course, we had to buy a bunch of pumpkins, and we managed to get hold of a pair of super gnarly specimens from Hampshire (thanks Kerry!) which looked amazing, together with a few munchkins from Waitrose (so cute!).

Eye of newt and toe of frog

For the feast, we had the usual Martha Stewart Mac ‘n Cheese (but this time using black and white stripe pasta bows – sorry I forgot to take a picture!), Shepherd’s Pie Pepper Pumpkins, and a delectable fine cheese board (sourced primarily from Waitrose, and supplemented with a fine piece of excellent Sheep’s cheese from Neal’s Cheese Yard, London, courtesy of one of our London-based guests, Dr. Robbie).

We also toasted the pumpkin seeds with smoked paprika and salt, and presented them in two gorgeous LeCreuset Pumpkin casserole dishes that our guests bought as a hostess gift for us (thank you Kerry and Becky!!).

Trick-or-treats desserts included, canine krispy-cremes, candy corn, M&Ms, Reeses Cups, caramel mushrooms, licorice, and Martha Stewart’s Brown Butter Pumpkin Cupcakes, served on vintage pie tins, black and white mugs, and a black cake stand.

Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting

To drink, we had a selection of smoky cocktails: Hendricks & Tonic and Skeleton Skull Vodka (commissioned, very aptly, by Ghostbuster’s very own Ray Stantz a.k.a. Dan Aykroyd) Cranberry, with a little something added (a gummi worm, no less) for good measure!

For a charm of powerful trouble

Whilst we did not require guests to come in fancy-dress, we did have a clever Snakes on a Plane costume, and I, having found that I had a little extra time before the party to spare, quickly made up this easy skeleton t-shit using a template available on the Martha Stewart Living site (http://www.marthastewart.com/265451/rib-cage-t-shirt). It ended up being a little untidy and rough-looking, but a great idea for a last-minute costume.

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble

And finally… Halloween would not be the same without a little dry ice to create the necessary ambiance. Dry ice is available from Chillisticks in the UK, but I understand that dry ice is freely available for those of you living in the US (Does Wal-Mart and other stores really have it in the freezer sections all year around?!) – Amazing. For the table, we used a couple of old earthenware Habitat baking dishes to resemble bubbling caldrons fitting of a Shakespearian cavern, and added small quantities of the pellets to our cocktails (NB: Make sure you don’t get any of the pellets in your mouth as it can cause serious burns)!

H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N !

Go nuts for national SQUIRREL month!

October 11, 2014 by Eve England

It is difficult not to love squirrels – they are just simply AWESOME!

Big bushy tails, relentless nut foraging, endearing nut hiding/losing – what is there not to love?!

My love of squirrels was fuelled three-fold during our recent trip to California, where the State just seems to be overrun by these adorable little critters. Unlike here in the UK, where the invasive eastern grey squirrel has banished the indigenous red squirrel to a few small parts of the country, meaning that for most of us, a squirrel = a grey squirrel, California boasts being home to a multitude of different species, and also to many types of chipmunks and marmots.

Here as just some of the squirrels (and some other cute rodents) we met in our trip…

Western Grey Squirrel (Yosemite Nat’l Park

Californian Ground Squirrel (Yosemite Nat’l Park, Cambria, Lassen Nat’l Park, CA)

Douglas Squirrel or Chickaree (Lassen Nat’l Park, CA)

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Lassen Nat’l Park, CA)

Yellow-bellied Marmot (Lassen Nat’l Park, CA & Mount Rainier, WA)

Chipmunk (Lassen Nat’l Park, CA)

And remember, if you are visiting any of the US’ fabulous National Parks, DON’T FEED THE SQUIRRELS (or, indeed, any of the critters living there)! This is why…

These are some of the squirrels that we have closer to home in the UK:

Geology Rocks! Racetrack Revelations

September 7, 2014 by Eve England

We arrived at Death Valley all set up to solve the mystery of the Racetrack Playa’s incredible sailing stones. But things don’t always turn out the way you expect them to…

This remote, dry-mud area of one of America’s youngest national parks is strewn with small rocks and larger boulders of dolomite, all of which have long tracks trailing behind them in the hard pancake-flat surface, clear evidence that these seemingly stationary objects traverse, often significant distances, across the park’s dry lake. This phenomenon has been scientific conundrum since the 1940s, and I have always found this particular geological mystery a particularly fascinating one. Are these rocks moved by hurricane strength winds, rain, dust devils or other natural forces, perhaps? Everyone had his or her own hypothesis.

And so, when we had the opportunity to visit Death Valley on our latest US road trip, we made sure we had booked a tour of the legendary racetrack!

As luck would have it, however, we started our tour in the knowledge that scientists had only the day before our trip announced that they had observed the rocks in motion earlier in the year, thus drawing a line under decades of speculation and establishing a new scientific theory. The theory was made public across the United States on the morning of Thursday the 28th August. What timing?!

First Observation of Rocks in Motion

The scientists we need to thank for unraveling this enigma are Richard and James Norris, who published their findings in PLOS One (details below). To conduct their experiments, they used a weather station together with GPS instrumented rocks to track their movement, but they were also fortunate enough to capture on camera the rocks in motion one morning in December 2013. Whilst they have succeeded where many have failed for 60 years, their revelations tell of a form of “Goldilocks” scenario, where conditions have to be “just right” for is phenomenon to unfold.

One of the essential elements was rain, and in one of the driest places on Earth, rain is not present in the valley very often. Indeed the report notes that the movement in the rocks could be as sporadic as over years and decades, due to the extreme lack of rainfall in the area. To trigger the event, rain would need to fall in the area to create a pond to a depth that would leave part of the rocks exposed above the surface, and the temperature would then need to plummet sufficiently to freeze the pond. The rocks were observed moving on sunny, clear days, when steady but light winds would cause floating ice to break-up and push rocks easily along the wet and slick mud of the playa. The tracks themselves were only visible when the water subsided from the plain.

And there you have it: the unexplained finally explained! (You can read the full publication at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0105948)

Reflection

Whilst some part of me was sad that we finally knew how these rocks glide through the mud, it was exciting to observe these marvels and understand and appreciate what we were seeing in their natural surroundings. The journey to the playa is in itself worth doing. A thirty mile off road track heading South-West from Ubehebe Crater and takes you through a myriad of different landscapes including volcanic areas and a Joshua Tree forest.

Recommendations

We would, however, recommend hiring a guide as the journey is treacherous and being stranded in the remote desert would be fatal, with Summer temperatures reaching the 120 degrees Fahrenheit and no cell-reception to call for help. We had a fantastic guide Gerry, from Farabee’s Jeep hire!

Farabee’s Jeep Rentals – http://www.farabeesjeeprentals.com

Furnace creek – http://www.furnacecreekresort.com

Death Valley National Park – http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Science Cream!

August 9, 2014 by Eve England

Cardiff now has its very own liquid nitrogen ice-cream parlour!

Using liquid nitrogen to make ice-cream results in a unique creamy texture, as the sheer speed within which the ice-cream mixture freezes means ice crystals do not have the chance to form. Even with the best ice-cream churner, you will not succeed in achieving this awesome consistency without it.

The lab geeks at Science Cream (great name!!) have a stylish boutique store in one of Cardiff’s wonderful Victorian Arcades (Castle Arcade), with a streamlined parade of KitchenAids ready to mix-up your order right in front of your very eyes! It really is incredible stuff.

The flavours are also fabulous, and the guys at Science Cream are promising to change their menu regularly, with amazing home-made toppings and sauces to add a further level of texture. And the science does not stop there, you can also enjoy a cup of bubble tea here!! The use of cryogenics in ice-cream is not, however, a 21st century thing: the concept of using liquid nitrogen as a freezing agent for making ice cream is an old one, and companies such as Dippin’ Dots in the US have been selling this culinary delight since the 1990’s. I have been a fan of these granular delights since having my first pot at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. They are FANTASTIC!

WARNING!

But for those of you who are thinking you may like to “try this at home”, be warned, liquid nitrogen is incredibly dangerous (it has a staggering boiling-point of -196 degrees celsius!) and is not readily available to the public. And this is the reason why:

However, as an alternative, you can also achieve a similar result using the less aggressive, “dry ice” (frozen CO2).

And so, get yourselves on over to Science Cream and see how much fun (and delicious) science can be!

http://www.sciencecream.co.uk

Twitter: @ScienceCream

It all started with Mr Stay Puft…

July 29, 2014 by Eve England

Everyone LOVES marshmallows. FLUFFY and FABULOUS.

Not half as dangerous as the 1984 classic movie would have you believe. Yet very few are aware of the fabulous fact that these pillowy soft treats can be easily conjured up at home.

Yes, honestly!

Follow these instructions to create your own marvellous home-made mallows!

Vegetable oil for greasing
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup corn flour
2 medium egg whites
2 cups caster sugar
1 tbs glucose syrup
1 vanilla pod
13 fl oz cold water
4 tbs powdered gelatine
2 tsp good quality vanilla extract (or if using flavouring, only use 1tsp and use desired amount of flavouring)

Grease a tray. I prefer making chunkier marshmallows and use a square disposable tin 9 x 9 inch (available from Lakeland).
Combine icing sugar and corn flour and sift. Sift again over the tin and coat liberally.
Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and set aside while you make the sugar syrup. Don’t worry, they will separate, but you can re-whisk them later.
Over a low heat, combine the caster sugar, glucose syrup, scraped vanilla pod and half of the cold water in a small saucepan. You will need to ensure all of the syrup has dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat to bring the syrup to a boil.
Boil until the candy thermometer reaches what is called the “hard-boil” stage. This is 130 degrees Celsius or 266 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the meantime, put the remaining cold water into a small saucepan and sprinkle over the gelatine. Keep off the heat while the gelatine softens and fluffs up.
Just before the sugar syrup reaches the hard-ball stage, heat the gelatine mixture on a low heat and stir so that it dissolves. You don’t want any crystals in it.
As soon as the sugar syrup reaches the hard-boil stage, remove from the heat and pour in the gelatine mixture and stir. You will need to be careful at this stage, as it will froth up quite aggressively. You don’t want to burn yourself in the steam – it’s super hot!
Remove the vanilla pod. Stir in the vanilla extract (don’t add any flavours at this stage)
If your egg whites have separated, put on your mixer to mix again (I usually put them on when I start heating the gelatine at step 8).
Keep whisking the eggs and gradually pour in the syrup down the side of the bowl and continue whisking until it is all combined.
It is at this stage that you really appreciate having a free-standing mixer: without one, you’ll have one arm the size of Arni’s biceps! Whisk on a medium to high speed (6-8 on a KitchenAid) for no less than 7 minutes. I have found that 8-9 minutes is ideal. By this stage it should almost be stiff.
As the mixture is whisking, you can add any colours or flavours you want. I like bubblegum, rootbeer and violet. This is a much better stage to add these, as you will be able to see the actual colour. The whisking process does make the mixture much paler in colour. It will also be cool enough to taste!
Pour the mixture into the tin, smooth the top, and leave to set for 5 hours. Don’t worry about having air bubbles in it, the more the better!
Remove from the tin and cut into squares. Coat in the remaining cornflour/icing sugar mix and leave to dry for up to two hours. Sprinkle with glitter.
Tumble into a large jar and enjoy. They will keep in an air tight container for about a week, but they never last that long and will be devoured within a much shorter time period!

YOU WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER MARSHMALLOW AGAIN!

Inspiration: Mallow’s on Parade

Independence Day 2014 – “Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.”

July 5, 2014 by Eve England

As I may have mentioned on a number of occasions, the American Independence Day holiday is one of my favourites. It is a party planner’s dream: highly flexible, fun and always colourful. To date, we have had a Luau, a Star spangled Captain America homage, and an outing to Amity Island.

So what this year?

The Eagle has landed

The inspiration for 2014 came to me after our rendezvous with the legendary Buzz Aldrin and Alan Bean et al earlier this year, when I realised that 2014 was the 45th anniversary of the first of the lunar landings.

The successful landing, and the safe return, of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins was the greatest achievement in American history, ending the bitter arms race with the USSR, and showcasing the capabilities of the United States’ space programme. But despite the passing of almost have a century since Eugene Cernan left the moon’s surface, we have never been back to the magnificent desolation of our closest neighbour.

NASA is presently recruiting for a caravan of intrepid explorers to leave our blue marble on a one way journey to Mars; an entirely different kind of desolation, where to date, only a handful of happy-go-lucky rovers have traversed. These settlers’ journey will, if successful, mark another first for humanity, and take the place of Apollo 11 in being the greatest of all human endeavours. However, unmanned missions are, and will continue to be, the most common means of space exploration, unless a sci-fi-esq alternative to the combustion engine can be found.

And so, we must instead reflect on the achievements of the mid century generation, as, even with the Mission to Mars programme in progress, it will be some time until another human being sets foot on an alien surface.

10, 9, ignition sequence start, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero. All engines running. Liftoff!

Having found a set of 25th anniversary postage stamps on eBay, I engaged Personally Sweet Stationery (on Etsy) to make some fabulous Independence Day Invitations.

Space legends

The frenzy awaiting the space heroes upon their return was unprecedented, the avenues of America awash with unquantifiable reams of red, white and blue streamers and confetti.

Courtesy of Getty images

I wanted to capture the essence of this image for this years celebration, and my canvas, therefore, demanded a patriotic pallet, with touches of metallic silver to encapsulate the aluminium features of the marooned Lunar Module. A midnight blue tablecloth was the backdrop, with bubble wrap forming the table runner, together with silver bubble envelopes as placemats.

To emphasise the era, my trusted Dr Pepper crate and Planters peanut sacks featured centre stage. The flowers were sourced from my favourite florist here in Cardiff, the wonderful Beth from Forbesfield Flowers. Gorgeous as always!

My favourite, however, were the gorgeous vintage souvenir glasses I found on Etsy featuring four of the Apollo missions (11, 12, 13 and 14). Unfortunately, corresponding pieces for Apollo 15, 16 and 17 were never manufactured.

A couple of Marx plastic astronaut figures, featuring Buzz and Neil engaging in their moon exploration activities, completed the look.

Space Food

Food wise, I wanted to include dishes that would not have been out of place in the late sixties. We had pulled pork sliders, recipe courtesy of Whatsgabycooking.com, the worlds best (yes I appreciate this is a big claim, but it really is the BEST!!) mac’n cheese, from the awesome Martha Stewart, home made pretzel bites, courtesy of twopeasandtheirpod.com, dips (supplemented by fabulous edible flowers from greensofdevon.com), teenie gherkins, and followed by home-made cherry pie and moon pies (recipe, gardenandgun.com). There were even IBC root beer floats for the more adventurous of our guests!

For plates, I used small pie dishes, also helping on the subsequent washing up, and a rocket pen was offered as this year’s favour.

The soundtrack of the evening was an eclectic mix of current music, transmitted via my 1969 Dansette Prince auto-changer record player, a nod to how the legacy of those monumental steps 45 years ago set in motion the technological advancement that brought with it the smart phones and tablets that have revolutionised the way in which we all live and work today.

We choose to go to the moon

The fulfilment of JFK’s 1962 challenge to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth was a resounding testament to how the will of a nation could overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to (literally) reach for the moon. How more fitting a way to mark the aspirations which led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence way back in1776 by America’s founding fathers, therefore, than by reminding ourselves of the presence of the solitary Star-Spangled Banner amid the unchanging grey cinders of the Sea of Tranquility, forever proclaiming the tenacious spirit of the human race for all the heavens to see?

Source Book

Flowers – http://www.forbesfield.co.uk

(Edible flowers) – http://www.greensofdevon.com

Recipes – (Pretzels) http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/homemade-soft-pretzel-bites/

(Pulled pork sliders) http://whatsgabycooking.com/pulled-pork-sliders/#.U7helcY6JZg

(Moon pies) http://gardenandgun.com/article/anatomy-classic-do-it-yourself-moon-pies

Stationery – https://www.etsy.com/shop/PersonallySweetShop