E45 Moisturiser

So, while the majority of my posts are going to be concerning things that I have made, there will also be posts about things that I have tried!

I signed up to BzzAgent a while ago and was given a product trial of E45 to test for a month.

Now, E45 is one of those products that was always in the back of the bathroom cabinet at home, something that was about but I never really tried. After all, when I was still living at home I was not really at the point in my life where moisturising was essential and so in the back of the cupboard it stayed.

So now that I'm a little older and starting to think I'm at the point where I should probably start to look after my body a little better than in my first 20-odd years, moisturising has eventually been added to the daily routine!

And I do love E45. It's light, does the job, and although I did get my batch for free, it's not expensive.
I get dry skin from washing my hands constantly at work, and this does the trick to make it feel normal again!
And with summer (hopefully) around the corner, I'm going to be making my skin look good all over before exposing other people to it!

I also tried the Nourish & Restore version, which wasn't really for me, I like moisturising effect it had, but the scent was a little too much for me.


Although the bottles are a little clinical looking, whats inside is just as good as any expensive moisturiser.
It's easy to be tempted by pretty bottles and confusing 'scientific' jargon, but E45 really is just as good, and often a fraction of the price.

I can safely say that E45 has now taken a permanent (amd more prominent place) in my bathroom cabinet!

Homemade Sushi - Maki rolls

So this weekend I made lots and lots of sushi maki rolls

They're really fun and suprisingly easy to make, and the best part is you can put whatever you fancy in them!

You do need a few basic starter things to make sushi that you're unlikely to have already, but I found that there were only a few things that I didn't already have in the kitchen

So here is a picture of everything I used for my rolls!

On top of the ingredients listed below you will need a bamboo rolling mat to roll your sushi, you can get them from all good Asian supermarkets and some larger regular supermarkets.

Basic Main Ingredients:

• Sushi rice
• Sugar
• Salt
• White rice vinegar (white wine vinegar can work as a substitute)
• Yaki nori (dried seaweed) sheets

Making the sushi rice

I find 250g of rice makes a decent quantity of rice.

You want to wash the rice really thoroughly before you boil it, I put it into a sieve and run it under the tap for a few minutes before transferring to a pan

Add approx 300ml of water and bring to the boil

Stir the rice to make sure it isn't stuck to the bottom of the pan

Once the rice is boiling, reduce to the heat so the water is just simmering, put a lid on the pan and leave for approx 10 minutes

After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and leave to cool for about half an hour

DO NOT TRY AND USE THE RICE HOT, IT WILL RUIN YOUR SEAWEED SHEETS!

After half an hour, stir in 3 tablespoons of white rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of salt to flavour

Ta da!

Now that the rice is ready you can choose your fillings!

For my ones I used smoked salmon, tuna and king prawns as the main ingredients.

I also added red pepper, cucumber, cream cheese and chives.

I chopped the pepper and cucumber into long thin slices and seasoned my tuna with lime, ginger and soy sauce

So the one I took photos of to demonstrate the technique had smoked salmon, cream cheese, cucumber and chive in it, yum!

Here's a pictorial guide to rolling your sushi!

First place your seaweed sheet onto your rolling mat and layer some of the rice on top

Then in the centre of the rice add your fillings

Try and stack them tall, as it will help when you come to roll them out

Grab the edge nearest to you and fold it tightly over the fillings, pressing down evenly along its length

Roll the mat back

The roll the edge furthest from you towards the roll

This time roll the entire mat around the sushi roll and firmly squeeze the roll to bind the ingredients together
Some might fall out the ends, but there is not really much you do about this!

Unroll your mat and you are left with a long roll

Take a very sharp knife and cut slices from the roll. I find it works best if you are very gentle and cut in a sawing motion, otherwise they get squashed and the filling falls out either side!

Beautiful!

From the 250g of rice I managed to make this amount of sushi:

So have fun choosing your fillings and enjoy your homemade sushi!


Hannah x