Castle Gibson

Yesterday we were lucky enough to nab one of the spots at the Superette/Castle Gibson Pop up Sunday Roast.

Held at a secret location (erm.. MC Motors) and entry through password... 'oink oink'! Superette served up (if rather belatedly) huge yummy Sunday roasts.

We had pigs head terrine to start then 'Essex Bird' for 4 for mains. Yum. Best of all we then got to sample some of the new cocktails in the soon to open secret Bar downstairs. x

Sunday Supperclub

Yesterday i was lucky enough to attend the Saltoun Supperclub for a friends Birthday dinner.

Held in Brixton at Arno's house the food was amazing, we even ate chicken hearts! The best bit for me though was nosing around the house... it was perfect - decorated with quirky items all over the place and mismatched vintage furniture - my dream!

Sugar surprises

Last week we had houseguests for a couple of nights and they left us an amazing present of cakes and fizz! x come back Andy and Jen we miss you!

The Diner

My friend Eleanor was back in London on saturday after moving to Bristol a few months ago. As well as a much needed catch up we ate our weight in food at the Diner :) we definately do not do this often enough! x

P.s Check out Eleanor's lovely pictures over on Odd & Chic

Surprises & Angry Birds

As my post below let you all know tuesday was Sam's birthday.... although i couldn't say it on the day I had planned him a surprise party at the strongrooms in shoreditch... it was fab, I wore my new bedjacket/dress and my jeffrey campbell shoes- so many amazing people made the effort to come - some, including sam's mum even came all the way down from the midlands! x

We drank far too much and partied all night but it was brilliant!

This is the cake that i copied for sam... except in my excitement i hardly took any photos!..

I followed the instructions here, and would highly recommend it! great fun! xx

indoor picnic

This saturday we had a birthday picnic for my dad.... we were planning on going to the heath but the weather was not great so instead we just lay the blanket out indoors. x


i made everyone little boxes of lunch...


we decamped to the pub for a bit :)


and we all tried out sam's trombone! x

Victoria Sponge

This weekend I made a classic victoria sponge for my Dads birthday... then because I wanted to eat the cake there and then I made some mini victoria sponge aswell!

The recipe is so easy - for the mini ones i just halved the quantities and baked in a muffin tin. x

Ingredients:
225g/8oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
225g/8oz caster sugar
4 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
225g/8oz self raising flour
milk, to loosen

method:
-Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper. (i only have one cake tin so i just used this twice!)
- Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
-Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.
-Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consistency.
-Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.
-Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
-Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the paper. Place onto a wire rack.

Sandwich the cakes together with jam, lemon curd or whipped cream and berries or just enjoy on its own.

I used rhubard and ginger Jam for the large cake and blackcurrant and lavender for the small ones :) yummy :)

Coconut Chai Latte

how amazing does this look!

Coconut chai latte, 1 mug

1 large mug oat or soy milk
1 portion/bag of black tea (I used PG Tips, but any black tea is fine)
3 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
3 pods of cardamom
a few pinches of dried ground ginger
1 tsp good quality coconut oil
ca 1 tsp maple syrup (optional)
Pour milk in a mug to measure and then transfer all of it but about 1 dl to a pot (if you have a milk frother, otherwise transfer all of it). Add the tea bag and the spices, and heat until almost boiling. Lower temperature and let simmer for a few minutes, then turn off the heat and let it stand for a few minutes more.

Meanwhile, if you have a milk frother, froth the 1 dl of cold milk (if not you can skip this step). Put it to one side.

Strain the tea and pour into a mug. Add the coconut oil and the maple syrup (if using). Stir, and as the final step add the cold milk.

found over on: Flickan & Kakorna check out the site for aome amazing cupcakes!

A Donna Hay Christmas....

Donna Hays simple food styling and recipes have long been a reason to buy living etc... this month the little christmas leaflet is full of yummy looking recipes and ideas.. maybe one day i'll get round to actually buying the proper magazine...

I love these:..

sweet wreath... wrap boiled sweets in festive fabric and fasten to a wire cake rack!. so simple!

rose cups..

doily table runner... sew lots of old doilies onto a cotton back sheet.. sorted!

flavoured water.. liven up jugs of tap water with ginger, rapberries, mint etc..

and this recipe...

Candy Cane Cupcakes, such a great idea - I love candy canes but there are always broken ones in a pack....

125g butter 100g dark chocolate, chopped ⅓ cups (120g) brown sugar 2 eggs ⅓ cups (100g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted ⅛ teaspoon baking powder, sifted 2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted 100g candy canes, chopped chocolate ganache 200g dark chocolate, chopped ⅓ cup (80ml) single (pouring) cream Preheat oven to 180ºC (355ºF). Place the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Place in a bowl with the sugar and eggs and mix to combine. Add the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix to combine. Spoon into 2 lightly greased 12-hole 25ml-capacity mini muffin tins and bake for 12–15 minutes. Allow to cool. To make the ganache, place the chocolate and cream in small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Cool. Turn the brownies upside-down, top with a teaspoon of ganache and sprinkle with chopped candy canes to decorate. Makes 24. Yum!

Halloween dinner

Even though we're not American when I was a child my mother always went all out on Halloween.

One year our entire house was transformed into a cave, cobwebs everywhere and with our playroom dark and all the walls lined with bits hanging off to scare us, another year we had apple bobbing, sweets hanging on string from the ceiling and boxes full of different objects to represent worms or brains. We had so many masks and costumes hidden away that my brothers continued to drag out all year round - a favourite was the all over rubber warewolf mask and a wall mounted skull that used to yell 'I can see you' as you walked past.

My father favoured more the trick aspect of trick and treating and used to give us little boxes of raisins filled with salt!.. Either way Halloween was always celebrated.

Now as it has bcome so much more commercialised and Americanised here it is hard not to celebrate Halloween, lined up next to the christmas items are hundreds of products repackaged to feature a ghost or witch on them. I was shocked when in Marks and Spencer the other day how every item is renamed to flog it for Halloween... cheetoes are witches toes and candy floss becomes cobwebs...

well in the interests of saving money, and of keeping with tradition.. here are some meals that we used to eat at Halloween...

- Spaghetti - in many forms!.. extra garlicy to ward off vampires, with meatballs that you can pretend are eyeballs

-chicken (bat) wings

- food colouring in anything (even mashed potato)

- jelly with worm sweets set in.

- carrot sticks (fingers)

- mini cocktail sausages (also fingers i think!.. or toes!)

_ fish fingers (can you guess what it is yet!)

- any green soup - broccoli, pea - pond algae

- ketchup or any tomato (blood) based sauce

- blue cheese (mould)

- toffee apples

and anything else that you can rename or style to be ghoulish!... all served by candlelight with goblets of blood. x

The Secret Ingredient!

The Secret Ingredient to sunday nights feast was live crayfish!!!

Bought from John the Poacher at the Underground Farmers Market, I had been pondering buying some the entire day.. he had a big tub of them in front of his stall wriggling about..


i love fresh crayfish, crab. lobster.. anything - and have no problems pulling them apart once cooked but I have never held one alive or cooked them myself before..

Sam was at band practice so i thought it would be a great surprise to have some at home for when he got back...
in order to conquer my fear beforehand i tried to pick one up using johns gloves... i failed.. they are so creepy looking with their spidery legs and giant claws!.. they were also bubbling at the mouths!.... euwww

John managed to find one that had lost its claws, thinking that i would feel much safer holding this one.... i did manage to hold it.. it kept moving its body like a caterpiller.. pulsing the muscle from one end to the next - really gross!.. then it suddenly jerked! i screamed!.. and flew it across the garden!.. this really should have been the warning sign!

instead, determined that i would able to tip them straight into a big pan of boiling water John triple bagged four up for me and i carted them off in the boot of Gaby's car (she wouldnt let them in the front!)


Once home Sam was suitably surprised (and rather horrified) at the dinner option so we set about boiling them...


one giant pan filled with boiling salted water later we thought it would be fun to film it.. camera in hand we tried to empty the wriggling bag into the water... except one was clinging on, i tried to shake it off and it fell on the work surface, then jumped on the floor!.. i screamed (again!) and promptly ran out of the kitchen.. the crayfrish was faster.. it was speedily heading for under the oven!.. panicking i shouted orders at poor sam who threw a bowl over its head and scooped it up with an oven glove.. only the bag was still trailing out of the water aswell.... as we tried to pull it out a half cooked crayflish flipped out with it!!!!..

so so horrible!!!. we eventually scooped them all in and cooked probably well over the reccomended time just to make sure that they were all dead!


they are currently still in the fridge... i did manage to eventually pull them apart but haven't quite bought myself to eat them yet!!