Foody DIY- Homemade Sushi Ginger

At the moment we’re on a bit of a Japanese food kick. Think lots of stir fries, sushi and ramen and you get the picture.

One thing that I love to have with Japanese food, sushi or not, is pickled ginger or gari as it is often called.

I get through so much of the stuff that when a rather bemused boyfriend suggested making my own I thought it might be a good idea.

The recipe is really simple and makes a jar more than twice the size of the ones you buy in the supermarket, for less money. I worked out that it cost me around £1.60 to make my big jar of ginger so whilst it takes a little while and smells a little, it’s more than worth it.

What you will need:

250g ginger, peeled

2 teaspoons salt

120ml rice vinegar

120ml water

110g sugar

Method:

1.       Use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to thinly slice the ginger

2.       Place the ginger in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt and mix thoroughly, making sure that all of the ginger is coated. Leave for 30 minutes for the salt to draw out the excess liquid.

3.       Transfer the ginger into a sterilised jar, squeezing out any last liquid with your hands as you do so.

4.       Heat the water, sugar and vinegar on medium until the sugar is fully dissolved before turning to high and bringing to the boil (this is the smelly part!)

5.       Once boiled, tip the vinegar mixture into the jar of ginger so that the jar is full and the ginger fully covered.

6.       Allow to cool for 30 minutes before sealing and placing in the fridge for a week to pickle.

Once the ginger has pickled, it can be kept for a month in the fridge. Over the week where it I pickling, the ginger will slowly turn a light pink which it perfectly normal, it is a reaction between the ginger and the vinegar. 

And boom, there you have it, the recipe for your own homemade gari. If you make some of your own let me know, I’d love to know what you think of it.

Annie xx

Guest Post- Bag the Job with your Blog

Today's post is from a lovely guest blogger called Lizzie who writes over on Lizzaboo which is her beauty and fashion blog. I really enjoy looking at Lizzie's blog, there is a lot of variety and the posts are always honest, on point and well written. You should go and take a look :)

Bag The Job With Your Blog
Last year I was stuck in a bit of a job rut and felt as though I really needed to start pushing myself.
With no room to grow in my position I thought it was about time I started looking for something that would help me flourish.
My blog has always managed to gain me some incredible opportunities so I thought that using it as tool to gain a new career would be ideal.
Everything I’ve learnt through blogging I could put into action into my new career, and like an extension to my CV, my blog would help my future employer know what I’m all about.
As I know many people will be looking for a new job in 2015 I thought I would share with you the steps I took to bagging my dream job, all with the help of my little blog.
Do Your Research
Although I’d signed up to a few recruitment agencies, it seems as though they’re still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to finding the perfect position, so I took it upon myself to do my own job search.
Rather than go through the usual Google search I decided to use more modern methods.
Looking on twitter under various hashtags and through Facebook helped me to stumble across a few roles up for grabs.
I also looked on company websites that I thought would be cool to work with, even some big brand names.
Just spending an hour a day using different resources helped me find places that the traditional recruitment agencies would never have even thought of.
Get Talking
After I’d found companies I had an interest in I started to do a little social stalking.
You can find out so much about a company from their social sites.
So once I felt that a company had a good approach to their employees and customers, I started to get involved with their twitter conversations.
This is a great way to start getting yourself noticed and to find common ground with any future colleagues. It’s a little trick I learnt from this article, which tells you how to get an interview with anyone!
Impress Their Socks Off
I came to realise in my job search that everyone sends emails.
And even as someone without a huge blog inboxes can become a nightmare to keep on top of.
So knowing that I didn’t want my email to just become another number I decided to take matters into my hands and invest in a little self-promotion.
Polishing up my CV, I popped it into a neon orange envelope a long with a packet of sweets, and a USB stick like this one, filled with some pieces of works as well as articles from my blog.
It might have cost me a small penny, but if I was going to set myself apart I had to make an impact and separate myself from the usual suspects.
Get Bloggy With It
Once I’d done all I could to lay the groundwork of my future career, I started posting more regularly on my blog with articles that my future employer might find relevant.
Promoting it through all of my social channels and even tagging the company in my post meant they’d have an instant notification of my article.
Having a blog has never been more beneficial than when you can use it to go into a new role that perhaps years ago, would have only been available to those with specific qualifications.
If there’s a job you’re longing to get into utilise your blog and show them what you can do.


Thank you Lizzie for the post.
If any other bloggers would like to write a guest post to be hosted on Three Little Buhos then please feel free to contact me :)

Annie xx

A little Shopping Trip

Sunday already, where does time go?
Yesterday I went shopping with my lovely mummy and did a little late sales shopping. Now that it's getting towards the end of January, the sales have really taken it up a notch so it's worth having a little look around for some good bargains.

We took a trip to the Swindon Designer Outlet where I picked up these goodies.
Now, I have been sending pleading emails to The Body Shop for a long time now, begging them to bring back the lychee blossom range properly to all of the stores but with no success, so I was really excited to find that they had the shower gel in the outlet shop and grabbed a couple. They also had a multi item discount on which meant that I only paid £4.10 for them both :)
I manage to be pretty restrained in the Yankee Candle Outlet and just picked up these two Christmas Cookie tarts for 45p a piece. I was hoping to find a small jar of Candy Cane Lane whilst they were only £2.99 but clearly everyone else had the same idea because they were sold out already.
I've never been a tea drinker despite being overly British in a lot of ways, however, I really enjoy the Whittard's fruit teas. I hadn't tried this flavour until seeing it sampled in the shop. It is delicious! Mango and lychee are two of my favourite flavours and this is like a match made in heaven. Light, fruity and uplifting. I think it will be great cold in the summer too with lots of ice and fruit :)
Finally, Thorntons! Two 490g boxes of Continentals for £10 so we got one each to satisfy the chocolate cravings ;)

I also picked up a pretty floral dress for work and a lovely soft black jumper sporting a gold and purple fox from French Connection and a pair of black ankle boots from M&S. I have to say a big thank you to mum for the boots and the dress as she spoilt me with those.

My final buy, I am embarrassed to admit, was an Ian Somerhalder 2015 calender...I feel like such a fan girl but he's just so pretty that I couldn't resist :P Please tell me I'm not the only one?!?

So that's my little haul from this weekend. Have you been sales shopping? What have you bought? Do you also have a rather guilty crush on Ian Somerhalder?!?...it can't just be me!

Annie xx

My Beauty Weakness- Makeup that is just too Pretty

I've been doing a lot of re-organising and de-cluttering over the last few days. Yesterday I tackled my vast makeup collection and realised just how much of a beauty hoarder I am. I have a set of Ikea Helmer drawers that are full to brimming with makeup. I use a lot of it fairly regularly and some occasionally, however, it was only as I sorted through that I noticed a third type; makeup that I have bought but simply cannot bring myself to use because it is just too pretty.

All of the makeup above falls into this category. Take the Holika Holika Midnight Owl palette for example, I fell in love with this because of my owl addiction, the gentle colours, the originality of the entire thing, yet have only used it once because I don't want to blur the pattern. The same is the case with the Physicians Formula Cashmere Wear blusher, I just cannot bring myself to wear down at the beautiful textured top which gives the product its individuality.
 Although I've only just realised it, beauty brands have turned me into a hoarder by appealing to my desire to own something beautiful. I even have lipsticks swirled with pretty colours and with the bullet shaped into hearts. All designed to be looked at and cooed over rather than used.
And that is exactly the point. I have realised that by making products look beautiful, brands have found a way to ensure that, even if I do not need a new pink toned blusher, or eye shadow palette, by making a product look so special and exclusive, people are always going to lust after it.

I figure though that everyone has their weaknesses, I guess this is mine and I am a fickle person. I'm fine with that ...however, I do wish it didn't mean that I need to find room for my personal gallery of pretty things :P

What are your beauty weaknesses? Do you fall for overly pretty products like I do?

Annie xx

PS. thank you for all of the lovely feedback on my last post, they made me smile. I have received a few emails asking about my planner including how I use it and how I have organised it so I'm thinking about doing a post or two about that and how to create a pretty planner. Let me know if that's something you would be interested in seeing :) x

Happy Belated New Year

I'm a little late to the New Year celebrations I know. Since New Years Day I've been ridiculously ill and not able to face the computer so things are a little behind schedule!
Along with most people I've made several resolutions to myself for 2015 and so far I've been sticking to them- as much as illness has allowed at least- and I've been feeling good for it.

Resolutions:

1. Keep a diary- above is a photo of my beautiful new Filofax which I am using to keep track of appointments, schedule blog posts, jot ideas and generally keep a record of anything special to me :)
2. Drop a dress size- I'm perfectly happy as a UK size 16 but in the interests of making sure I stay fit and healthy I'm looking forward to shifting some weight :)
3. Take  packed lunch to work every day except one treat day a week- such a simple way to save money and avoid temptation from all of Bath's cafes, but everyone deserves a treat on a Friday :)
4. Write down one thing every day that has made me smile- no matter how small, I think it's important to sit down at the end of the day and think of one thing that has made it special for you so that you always end on a high note :)
5. Cut down on drinking- no more hangovers for this girl! After two weeks of having an infection in my head that feels exactly like the worst hangover in the world, I have no desire to ever feel this way again, let alone inflict it upon myself! :)
6. Stop standing in my own way by doubting myself- no one ever got anywhere by doubting their own intelligence or ability and I'm starting to see that I'm not all that bad and that I need to embrace my strengths :)

Mostly little things, but all together, already living 2015 by these resolutions I am happy and excited to see what the year brings.

Have you made any resolutions this year? What are yours? Are you managing to stick to them?

Annie xx