My home-grown red onions.

This year I decided to do a spot of gardening. I'm not known for being that good at gardening - I struggle to keep ANY plants alive in my house.. And I have also never grown my own vegetables before. But after receiving some free red onion seeds in the post, I thought I'd give it a go.

Firstly, I planted my seeds into little trays and left them in the greenhouse to grow into seedlings. It was strange because I checked daily with no progress, but then suddenly - like over night - all of them popped up! I felt so proud that I actually managed to successfully grow something from scratch!

Then, once all the seedlings had popped up, they were ready for re-potting. I came up with the issue that I had no land that I could dig up to plant my seeds in... If I dug up a patch in my garden, they'd get dug straight back up again by my rascal of a dog. But I found some old plastic storage boxes, so decided to get to work on those. I got a wireless drill and drilled lots of little holes all over the bottoms of the boxes to allow water to drain out the bottom. I then filled them all up with compost. I watered the compost to make it moist. I then started pulling apart and untangling the seedlings. I placed them evenly spread out into the boxes. Then I had to play the waiting game.

Waiting for any onion-like things to start growing felt like forever. But once the first one appeared, again, it felt like they all followed suit, and soon enough I had 3 whole boxes full of little red onions! I was so proud of myself for not killing them all, which is what I expected would eventually happen.

Personally, I think home-grown red onions are much tastier than shop bought ones! Especially the ones I grow. ;) I made everyone try them and the verdict was pretty much the same. The countless amounts of times going up the garden to water them and waiting for them to grow was well worth it! I'd recommend anyone to give growing their own vegetables a go. I found it strangely relaxing and it helps clear your head, and also gives you something to look forward to. I definitely want to grow some more in the future, maybe something different... potatoes maybe? Not sure yet. :)

I'm Pie Magazine's "Recipe Guru".

I'm not sure if many of you are aware, but since March 2013, I have been writing once a month for a great young people's e-magazine called Pie Magazine. I went to school with the founder of Pie Magazine, Benjamin Franks. He is an extremely talented writer and very creative and I am honoured that he has given me this opportunity to write regularly for Pie. I remember buying the first ever issue of Pie back in school (originally a paper copy). I loved reading it, and never imagined that I would one day be a part of it.

I am Pie's "Senior Recipe Writer/Guru" and I write recipes which are mainly naughty, calorific baking recipes. I decided to write these types of recipes because I really enjoy baking and sharing them with family and friends and then receiving their feedback on what I've made. I used to bake very often, but since dieting/calorie counting, I haven't been able to do it as often as I use to as it seems to really effect my waistline. So being able to do it once a month, for a good purpose, is great fun! So I keep my naughtier recipes for Pie and my healthier recipes for my blog. So far I have written 4 recipes for Pie which are online and ready to read (click on the thumbnails below to check them out). I have also submitted a savoury recipe for Pie's upcoming annual for 2013, but what I've made will remain a secret until it's published. I was shocked but ecstatic to discover that my Classic Shortbread recipe was the most read article of April 2013. It feels great knowing that people are actually reading what I've created. So if you want to have a peek at what I write, besides what is on my blog, feel free! And remember, there's a new recipe every month, so keep checking back regularly for more! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy making/writing it. :)

My recipes for Pie:

There's also many other topics to read about on Pie too besides my recipes, including poetry, short stories, news, travel, games, music, films, books, reviews, etc. all well written by Pie's very talented writers. So if you have a few spare minutes take a look!