I have been nominated for a blog award 🙂 .   I was delighted, especially since the nomination came from a blogger I do not know.  So it was from someone who enjoys my blog, as opposed to a friend being supportive.   Note to all my friends – please keep being supportive, it really helps.  I just mean that to have a stranger nominate you is extremely pleasing.

From what I can gather, the award is not something to be won, but rather an acknowledgement that someone out there reads your blog and likes it enough to encourage their blog readers to have a look at your blog.  So it can help to increase your readership.

Thank you to Vered at Eat Now Talk Later for nominating me.  I really am delighted so thank you again :-).

Here’s a little of the official information about the award:

“The Liebster Blog Award is given to up coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The rules for the Liebster Blog Award are:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.

3. Copy & paste the blog award on your blog

4. Reveal your 5 blog picks.

5. Let them know you choose them by leaving a comment on their blog.”

So I have completed obligations 1, 2 and 3.  But number 4 is harder.  Mainly because most of the blogs I read regularly have way over 200 followers.  And others do not give any indication of how many followers they have.  So I have pondered this for a few days, and have decided to give my 5 favourites which I think have 2o0 or less.  If they have more, I did not mean to offend you, especially if you actually have thousands!

So my 5 blogs I recommend you have a look at are:

1.  Eat Now Talk Later which is a food blog with good photos and interesting and unusual recipes.   Vered’s food is influenced by her diverse and foodie rich heritage of Jewish, Indian, Israeli, Italian and English .  From her site you can also find a link to her sister’s blog which is also interesting.

2. Ape And Angel is not a food blog.  It is a blog about musings on life.  It is intelligent, funny, interesting, unique and very enjoyable.  There is also some poetry, which is a form of writing I particularly admire.

3.  365 Days of Breakfast appeals to me because of the photography.  The writer is Swedish and is a photographer who wanted to photograph every breakfast she ate for a year.  She has finished that task and I really hope she keeps going so we can see some more of these stunning photos.  I also like the variety in her breakfasts, which is a meal that most people seem to find difficult to vary much.

4. Girl Interrupted Eating is interesting because the writer, who lives in Nottingham, enjoys foraging for food, which is something I am beginning to do.  So this blog is inspiring for that.  I also like her recipes, which are seasonal and full of fresh food.

5.  Recipe Adaptors is written by a Brit living in Perth Western Australia and features many delicious looking recipes.  I was drawn to this blog because I lived in Western Australia for over a year, and loved it,  so I was interested to read something by someone who lives there.  The photography is good and the recipes very tempting, especially all the sweet dessert types!

So they are my 5 which I recommend you have a look at.  Now i need to let those 5 know I have nominated them and my obligations are completed.

As for the rest of my day?  Well, it has been a blur of rushing about and trying to get too much done in too short a time.  Why wasn’t I ready days ago?  I was too busy for breakfast.

The highlight of the day was lunch with my Dad.

We went to an Indian restaurant, Amani , near Epsom Downs.   The chef has come from the Cinnamon Club in London and the restaurant recently won an award for excellent Asian food.  The menu was different to the standard range of curries and the food was delicious.

We shared some poppadoms to start and they were not at all greasy.  I had mine with raw onion.

I had a taste of Harvey’s pollock cakes which were fantastic, as was the presentation.

I had Tandoori King prawns which were cooked with cheese, yogurt and cream.

Followed by Goan fish curry, cooked with coconut, coriander and kaffir lime leaves.  Delicious albeit rather rich.  I also had some sag paneer with it.

We finished with a “floater coffee” which is an Irish coffee without the booze.  It was a wonderful lunch.

Those who have seen me recently hopefully noticed my new hairdo in the photo :-).  I was feeling frumpy and middle aged so I have gone shorter and blonder and am very pleased with it.

Supper was a smoothie to use up fruit that needs eating: 3 nectacots, 2 passionfruit and a small banana, with natural yogurt and almond milk.  I spent the evening cooking and preparing for Christmas and am now knackered!

So I am off to bed and will be too busy for the next couple of days to post a blog, immersing myself in my wonderful family and having lots of fun, foodie and otherwise.  So I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and will be back very soon.