As it’s February 1st it’s only 14 days until Valentine’s day. So, being the month of love it may not be a huge surprise that oysters are currently in season – clearly those tasty creatures know the date too. Be sure to buy fresh and local if you are treating your loved one to the aphrodisiacal delicacy. Top tip – to make them even more tantalising, drizzle some tabasco sauce over them before gulping down whole.

Purple sprouting broccoli, parsnips and chicory are all seasonal vegetables this month and here’s a cheerful chicory concoction for you to try.

Courgettes and chicory with black olive dressing

The ingredients are simply two courgettes, two heads of chicory, olive oil, olive paste, fresh olives, capers, lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Make sure it’s all organic as you’ll get far more nutrients.

Slice the courgettes, halve the chicory and toss in some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Heat a griddle until extremely hot, then throw in the vegetables. Cook for up to 10 minutes until tender, tossing when necessary. Then lay the mixture onto a serving dish.

Mix the olive paste with some olive oil, lemon juice and the red wine vinegar, then pour over the courgettes and chicory. Sprinkle the fresh olives and capers to serve. This goes really well with a nice bit of pork or some cous cous for a vegetarian option. Enjoy

The Hollywood Boulevard game is also great because it means I can pretend to live the high life for a bit and act like I’m a movie star. The whole theme and all the imagery is designed to give an aura of opulence and take you right to the movies. It’s red carpets all round.

When you have a go the pictures move around and if you match more than three you win a prize; the value is dependant on which image has come up. The thing that I like too is that payouts are always multiples of what you put in, so the more you play with the more you could win. There’s also a progressive jackpot, which makes me always want to play on and sometimes I’m lucky to get it.

Last week I kept matching the Paparazzi symbol, which gives you twenty free spins – I must have had hundreds of free spins thanks to all my playing hours. Apparently players can win up to £500,000, I’m just waiting for my luck to come in and then I’ll be able to live the Hollywood lifestyle for real.

If you’re an online bingo fan, try challenging yourself whilst you’re playing by mixing things up with a side game like Hollywood Boulevard. Bucky Bingo have lots of side games, but this one is definitely my favourite of the moment.

In fact, before now I would definitely turn my nose up at anything that called itself ‘fast food’. However, I’ve had a slight turn of heart since Geoff took me to Leeds for the day. We were in a bit of a rush to be honest. The only reason we went there is because Geoff needed to go to a particular suit shop (apparently neither online shopping nor high street shopping are good enough for him). But, in typical Geoff fashion, he also had to be out that afternoon at a posh event (hence the suit shop). Anyway, usually when we go out to Leeds we go for lunch at this lovely organic caffe. But it’s a bit of a walk out of the town so we didn’t have time.

But, because we were both starving, just before we left we popped into this noodle bar called Wokon. Although it’s fast food it’s nothing like you’d expect. Its clean interior and yummy smell make it very different from a kebab shop or a greasy McDonald’s. All their food is fresh and laid out in front of you so you know exactly what you’re getting.

First you choose your noodles or rice, then your meat/fish/tofu, add as many vegetables as you like and a tasty sauce. They don’t scrimp on the portions either. I had rice noodles, mixed seafood (crab, prawns and calamari), all the vegetables and Malay laksa sauce. All the speed of a take away without any of the nastiness.

Next time you’re in Leeds and feel peckish follow the smell of spicy noodles until you find Wokon

Don’t Tell the Bride is pretty much what it says on the tin. A wedding is arranged but the Bride is not allowed to be involved in any way, shape or form. Instead, it’s the sole responsibility of the Groom to organise everything (including the dress!). It’s addictive viewing as the Brides outline their wedding heaven and hell, away from their Groom who is usually putting together their worst nightmare of a wedding.

I have no idea how the women do it. To be honest I’ve not seen one yet where the woman absolutely hates it. Usually they say it wasn’t what they’d ever have imagined but in fact they loved it. I just don’t understand it though, both my sister and I have been dreaming up our perfect wedding since before we started school. How can you leave something that’s so important to somebody else to arrange? Especially a man! I know you’re supposed to fully trust your fiance, but I don’t think there’s a man out there that’d I’d trust to choose my wedding dress – not even Gok Wan.

After watching every episode last week I noticed that even though all the weddings turned out amazing, often the Bride had issues with the dress. What looks good on the hanger, mannequin or shop assistant might look awful on even the best looking girl if she’s a different body shape, and this is something I think men struggle to understand.

I applaud the programme makers for creating yet another show where I laugh, cry, cringe and scream all within an hour, but I will never let a man arrange my wedding!

Iron Lady is one of those films, and that’s why I think it deserves some blog time. In case you haven’t heard of it, Iron Lady tells the life story of Margaret Thatcher who was leader of the Conservative party and Prime Minister in the 1980s. ‘MT’ was played by Meryl Streep and this week it’s been announced that her performance has been nominated for a BAFTA.

Thatcher has always had a mixed reception, being the country’s first female PM, making the decision to go to war over the Falklands and for her seemingly harsh privatisation policies. Regardless of your opinion of the lady, the film is well worth a watch. As a self sufficient female I was able to empathise with her passion to succeed for herself. She did well to get so far in a world dominated by males. Of course she cannot really be put on the same level as the suffragettes, who fought tirelessly for universal suffrage, but she did make history and gave many young ladies a hope that they could (and should) be more than just housewives.

The film did however depict how she let the power go to her head once she was PM. The stubborn attitude that enabled her to progress so far in politics, later became her downfall when she disregarded her colleagues’ opinions. But, deeper than this, the film also shows her in later life struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband and the onset of dementia. It’s an extremely moving and memorable film, I recommend you see it, as soon as possible!

I’m not sure if all bingo sites are doing it but, the site I probably visit the most, Bucky Bingo has some great ones. Until now I’d only ever played for money (or for chocolates when I’m playing offline), to be honest I’m not sure I even realised they offered anything else. But, now I’m aware of the great online bingo bonus games that Bucky offer it’s made the game even more exciting than before. I know playing for money you’ll probably get more from it, but playing for prizes brings something different. Like the one penny machines at the arcades, they were always more fun when there was a toy to win as well.

Anyway, the prize I’m after is an Apple iPad. They offer other really great stuff as well like designer sunglasses, vouchers for holidays and high street shops, LCD TVs and… wait for it… Take That tickets. I’ve seen Take That before though so the iPad will probably be more useful. Apparently there’s an app for the iPad that cats can use, where they chase mice on the screen. How cool is that? I’m sure my cats will be thrilled if I do manage to win it. That will definitely be the first app I download. After Wordpress of course.

Geoff’s not particularly happy as my bingo playing levels have certainly risen and I think they’re going to continue to rise exponentially until I get that iPad. Wish me luck

It’s been a bit of a pipe dream for a while but, I think I really should start to put things into motion and get a retail property for my organic food business. Hopefully by the end of 2012 I’ll have saved enough money and found a property that fits my budget. That’s the goal anyway. On my to-do list, in order to reach this goal, is first of all visiting the bank to seek some advice on possible loans. Then, if they think it’s a viable idea, I’ll start talking a bit more seriously to some comercial property agents. Once I have a clear budget decided I’ll be able to assess the available shops to let.

On top of this I’m going to spend a good few months looking at other organic food retailers to suss out the competition. Looking at their outlets will also give me ideas about how I should display produce in my shop, once I finally have it. It’s going to be a lot different from the online business as there will be much larger overheads but, hopefully, there will be more opportunities to gain profit.

I’m going to look at a variety of locations too, and assess general footfall but also the demand for organic food in those areas. I really do think York could be a good choice as I know people round there are passionate about local produce. Although, this could mean that there’s already strong competition there.

There’s a lot to consider before anything actually happens – looks like 2012 is going to be a busy year if I’m to reach my goals.

In season this month are lots of super healthy vegetables such as celeriac, beetroot and kale (dubbed as the new ’superfood’). Perhaps my most favourite and versatile vegetable that’s ripe at the moment is the Jerusalem Artichoke.

As always, getting produce that is organic and in season means that it will be at its most nutritious and tastiest. My favourite thing to do with Jerusalem Artichokes at this time of year (after a few weeks of over indulgence) is to use them as a light lunch with humous. If you steam the Artichokes and then peal off the leaves you have a healthy alternative to pitta bread that’s more exciting that carrots. You can then choose your favourite dip and munch away guilt free.

Humous is a simple dip that is high in protein and low in fat. Place chickpeas, garlic, olive oil and tahini in a food processor and pulse together. Add salt, pepper and a dash of lemon juice to taste. You can also experiment with other flavours to make variations, such as lime and coriander or red pepper and chilli humous.

Another great dip to compliment your artichokes is guacamole, based with avocados it’s slightly higher in fat – but only good fats. Mix avocado, onion, tomatos and garlic in a food processor in the same manner and you have another healthy dip that also goes well with tacos.

Have a healthy January

It started on Christmas day when I was given the new version of Trivial Pursuit as a present. I love quizes and general knowledge trivia so this was a very good gift. I had no idea how long it takes though – we literally played for two hours solid. Oh how time flies when you’re having fun.

Then we had to play our family’s traditional Christmas game of Country Town River. It’s basically a paper game where each person has a list of categories e.g. country, town, river, girl’s name, boy’s name, and then a random letter is chosen. When the timer starts everyone has a minute to write down an answer for each category beginning with that letter. The person with the most unique answers at the end wins. It’s a lot of fun.

Another game we played, introduced by some friends who came over, was hilarious. I think it was in fact a children’s game; it’s a board game that has cards with physical challenges in. Such a challenge might be ‘how many frog jumps can you do in 30 seconds?’ Then you have to guess how many you think you can do and challenge the other teams to beat you. It caused a lot of laughs, believe me.

Much to everyone’s annoyance, I demanded that we play bingo for a substantial amount of the Christmas period. I wanted my family to appreciate why I’m always playing bingo online and how much fun it is. Obviously it would have been a bit difficult playing my online bingo games with all of us so I bought a mini bingo ball set so we could all play together.

We didn’t play for money though, instead the winner got lots of chocolate. Even better

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas – mine was simply delightful, I absolutely loved spending the day with Geoff. Then I was able to go to my sister’s for New Year’s eve as she was having a get together. It was a really nice little soiree with just close friends, we had canapes and champagne – perfect.

Now all the festive fun of December has gone it’s time to get back to reality and work hard to make 2012 a good one. But, we can’t do this before we’ve got all our bargains in the January sales. I absolutely love this time of year as it’s the perfect excuse to go shopping and you’re certain to find a decent bargain.

I went into Leeds today and it was heaving, even in the week. It’s times like those that I really wish I had a retail store offline to get more customers. But, suprisingly, despite the number of shoppers there was still a large number of shops to rent.

Sales are great for the expensive things, like today I got a new cashmere coat which will be just as useful next year and it was half the usual cost. The only downside I find with the January sales though is that the shops seem to be getting rid of all their old stock. So if you’re trying to start afresh in January and leave the previous year behind then the sales aren’t for you. It’s good for staple wardrobe pieces but if you want any of the trends for the new years you’ll certainly be paying full price. Apparently ballerina chic is in this year – pumps and puffy skirts. Welcome to 2012