-
Festive Treats
Happy New Year! Today is the 6th January and is therefore traditionally the last day of Christmas. I hope you’ve all been enjoying yourself over the last few weeks and indulging in a few festive treats. I definitely have. A lot of people are on post- holidays diets (which I don’t hold with) because they’ve over indulged a bit too much. Below I’ve posted a few pictures of the festive treats that I have indulged in over the last few weeks. Brownie and cream Three- trio mousse Christmas Pudding Okay the last one isn’t actually something I ate because I don’t like Christmas pudding but it looked gorgeous. What festive…
-
Very Easy Mince Pies Recipe
Hope you’ve all been enjoying a wonderful Christmas time! I certainly have and one of the things I’ve been doing is taking the opportunity to bake some festive treats. I love mince pies and especially enjoy making my own. If you have some mincemeat left over, or fancy extending the Christmas festivities (after all, Christmas doesn’t officially end until January 6th), then you might like to give this recipe a try. It was given to me by a colleague, who got it from the BBC Good Food website. I guarantee it makes gorgeous mince pies. Ingredients 225g cold butter, diced 350g plain flour 1 sugar 100g golden caster sugar 280g…
-
The Woodin’s Shades, Bishopsgate
Last week I took part in a charity run for World Aids Day, which was exhilarating and rewarding. I’m not a runner so to even do something like this is a big deal for me. I’m a believer in rewarding yourself after you’ve exerted yourself, so I visited a pub in Liverpool Street to refuel afterwards. You can read my review of the pub here.
-
Vegan Junk Food
As some people may already know, one of my good friends, Anna, and her partner are vegan. Before meeting them, I didn’t know much about veganism. Since they came into my life in 2013, I have spent time with them, educating myself about the vegan lifestyle and what it entails, which has been somewhat of an adventure to me. I recently went up to visit Anna in Bristol, which involved a food tour (details of which will be in a forthcoming post!). She also took me to try dirty vegan food at Vx, a Bristol eaterie which specialises in vegan junk food. I tried the nachos, which proved to me…
-
Eat With A Friend Day
Today is Eat With A Friend Day! To honour this special occasion, this is exactly what I did. On our way to the light festival at Syon Gardens, my friend and I stopped off at at One Kew Road, Richmond, to have dinner. We both chose the spitroast chicken, drizzled in truffle and garlic sauce, with aliona butter on the side. It was pretty good, but then aliona butter is my favourite, so that’s no surprise!
-
Brilliant Banoffee Pie
A few months ago my friend made this delicious banoffee pie for me. I thought I’d share the recipe with you: For the base: 100g butter, melted 250g digestive biscuits, crushed For the caramel: 100g butter 100g dark brown soft sugar 397g can Carnation Condensed Milk For the top: 4 small bananas 300ml carton whipping cream, lightly whipped Grated chocolate 1. Put the biscuit crumbs in your bowl, then tip in the melted butter and mix it all together. Spoon this into the base and press against the bottom and sides – this is the base of the banoffee pie recipe. Chill it for ten minutes. 2. Melt the butter…
-
Birthday Dinner
I haven’t posted on here for a bit, but this is something that’s worth shouting about. For my 30th birthday a few weeks ago, my friend and I visited Cote Brasserie along London’s South Bank. I have a soft spot for French food so this lured me in. We had the chicken drizzled with garlic butter (below). The chicken already tasted gorgeous but the garlic made it extra special! There’s something rather decadent about French food, isn’t there?
-
Sunday Photo
The Temperate House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
-
Sunday Photo
Christchurch, Oxford
-
Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon is a substantial novel, weighing in at over 500 pages. It’s so vast that it seems desultory to attempt to describe it in a review, yet that is exactly what I am going to do here. Hidden deep within the old city in Barcelona is a library of obscure and forgotten titles- the “cemetery of lost books”. His father brings ten- year- old Daniel there one chilly morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book and pulls out The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. Over the next few decades, he realises several people are interested in his…
