London Calling

pricy ane?

I've probably said this before, but I love London.  I live a few hours' drive away, so I usually make do with the odd day-trip here and there, but a few months ago a friend and I decided to bite the bullet and actually stay there for a couple of days. We rented a gorgeous Airbnb right on Brick Lane, aka hipster central (I say this fondly).  I think sometimes Airbnbs can be hit-and-miss, but ours was definitely a hit, despite the initial horror of unlocking the door only to find people inside - luckily they were the cleaners, rather than other double-booked guests. We didn't meet our hosts, but they left a very sweet folder of tips and recommendations, which was thoughtful.

My parents visited Shoreditch a year or so ago and were amazed to find themselves usually being the oldest people there. Walking around, I could really see what they meant. It is a hub of young, arty types with beards.  What was weirder to me, though, was the fact that this art hub was nestled right next to the City.  You could turn a corner and go from graffiti'd lanes full of ironic jumpers to Suit Central.

One of the brilliant things about Shoreditch is the fact that there's always something to look at.  Almost every building had something quirky about it, whether it was the design of the building itself or just street art of a giant cobra.

I am so hungry right now

Obviously you can't really go to Brick Lane without getting a bagel.  Generally I am not a big bagel fan. I find them too much hard work - too chewy, unwieldy and sticky.  But Brick Lane bagels are something else, particularly the salt beef bagels.  Not only is the bagel itself far softer than standard shop-boughts, but they are seriously stuffed to the brim with tangy tender beef. The ladies behind the counter may be slightly brusque (to me, anyway, a sheltered small town girl), but they are very generous with the salt beef.
However, salt beef bagels are not the only thing worth a pilgrimage to Shoreditch for.  Brick Lane is also the home of Dark Sugars, the ultimate chocolate shop.  When you step in and are instantly breathing in pure chocolate with a hint of air, you know you're onto a winner.  When their hot chocolates involve actually hacking off slivers from a lump of solid chocolate, it's a double win.  Those hot chocolates are the stuff of dreams. They're practically a pudding.  Needless to say, it's ruined hot chocolate for me forever and I will never be able to drink it from anywhere else again.

LOL

Did I mention that my friend pretty much took the reins completely when it came to what to do, where to go etc?  Well, she did, and it was a good thing - I am one of the most indecisive people in the world, and I think she knew if she left it to me we'd never get anything done.  One of her 'suggestions' was going to see a comedy show.  I've never seen live comedy.  I get easily embarrassed and I was convinced that I would be cringing throughout. How wrong I was.
We went to the Comedy Store on a Wednesday, which meant that it was the Comedy Store Players' night of improv.  I had even less clue about improv, and wasn't really familiar with many of the players (clearly I don't listen to enough Radio 4, because my dad was).  It requires audience participation (two words that would usually strike fear into my heart) but only a little bit, and only if you want to. The 'games' are all explained here.  Needless to say, I had an amazing time, and part of this was because everyone - audience and performers - also seemed to be really enjoying themselves. The atmosphere played a big part in making it such a good night.

London is currently under construction

On our last day in London we went to Skygarden, which is at the very top of 20 Fenchurch Street, aka the Walkie-Talkie building. I was pretty amazed that it was free to visit, only requiring booking in advance for entry.  Even that was less of an issue than I'd thought - my friend had somehow booked us tickets for three weeks' time, but they let us go on up anyway, complete with our going-home suitcases.
The gardens themselves are unfortunately a sideline to the amazing view of London that you get from the vast windows, so most visitors are staring out rather than looking in. From there you can see St Paul's, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, as well as other assorted skyscrapers. Photos-wise, I am always amazed at the people who manage to get beautiful blue-sky photos, or stunning sunset shots.My photos are almost inevitably shades of grey, but I love London all the same.

What the Fudge

A couple of months ago our neighbour brought us some of the best fudge I've ever tasted, and trust me when I say as a fudge fan I've tried a fair bit. Said best fudge was (of course) homemade, using Nigella's vanilla fudge recipe.
It's taken me this long to try making it myself because I was scared, and I might have had a good reason. Fudge bubbles up a LOT.

Toil and trouble 

The thing with fudge is patience - and if you're using a sugar thermometer, make sure it works. I'd like to blame that for my less-than-stellar results, but they also say that a poor workman blames his tools.

The blob 

As you can see, my fudge didn't set. It wasn't far off, but it wasn't exactly choppable, either. The flavour was fine, but consistency? No bueno. Time for plan B.

Roly poly 

I took advantage of the fact that my fudge was super malleable, and rolled it into walnut-sized balls.

Chocolate chestnuts 

The obvious solution to any culinary problems is to cover it in chocolate, and this worked out pretty well. I used dark chocolate which stopped the extreme sweetness of the fudge from being too overpowering. Keeping them in the fridge also keeps the chocolate crisp and snappable.

Breakfast in America

"Why would anybody ever eat anything except breakfast food?" "People are idiots, Leslie."

While we were in Las Vegas, we found a diner where their entire breakfast menu was bigger than some main menus in the UK.  Seriously - although the Americans don't do baked beans, they still go in for breakfast in a big way.  Something I spotted but didn't go for was steak.  Steak for breakfast!  Instead I indulged my inner Leslie Knope (who happens to be my role model in so many ways) and went for waffles.

I suppose that this is the American version of a full English.  When it comes to this, there are a few things I will happily embrace, like the apparent fondness for mixing sweet things with savoury.  I didn't try the famous bacon and maple syrup pancake combo, but above you can see the icing-sugared bread right next to the fried egg, along with a pot of syrup that just came with every meal, whether you had pancakes or not.  I've probably mentioned my terrible sweet tooth, so anything that is basically pudding for breakfast is perfectly fine with me.  Also fine?  Potatoes. Yum.  However, I have to object to the American version of bacon.  I know, I know they think it's great and amazing and everything, but... it's not.  Look at it! There should be some actual meat on bacon, rather than being stiff, streaky crunchy stuff that gets stuck in your teeth. Sorry, USA.  You win when it comes to waffles, but you could learn from us about bacon.

Behold, the most perfectly blended ice-cream ever.  This was our snack at the Hoover Dam, and as you can tell, it wasn't the most beautiful view from where we sat in the coach park, but our main concern was shade and ice-cream.  All I can say is, it was an unexpectedly lovely ice-cream.

Cinnamon and vanilla are officially the best flavours.

These Jelly Bellys were a nostalgic indulgence for me.  When I was about 14 and had nothing better to do, I used to buy about £6 worth of pick&mix Jelly Bellys every time I went shopping with my friends.  It became one of those running jokes - whenever we went shopping, we would always have to dedicate at least 10 minutes for me to pick out what flavours I liked.  I clearly had my priorities in order.  This time I ate these while sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Monument Valley. I'm a classy bird.

Summertime

Criss-cross! Everybody clap your hands...

Ughhh, look at that disgusting blue sky.  Honestly, I hate the fact that I always end up complaining about hot weather when we get it so infrequently here in the UK, but it really does take me a while to adjust.  I'm pale-skinned and don't tan easily at all, so my skin ends up burning and breaking out in a rash in the first few days of sun, and I still get nervous when leaving the house without a coat. #britishproblems

Rainbow food

One big bonus to warm weather is how much easier I find being healthy.  I often stick to stodgy, carb-filled meals during cold winter months but salads are so much more appealing when you can sit out in the garden to eat and soak up rays. Of course, these things are always nicer in theory - it's only once you've committed to being outside that you remember that the next-door-neighbour is having very loud work done on the house and that every buzzy insecty thing in the country is suddenly in your face.

I just can't get over how good these cherries look.  Sorry.

Before and after

Of course after extolling the virtues of healthy eating I had to go and bake a few trays of cookies, just to balance things out.  These are stem ginger cookies, the recipe for which I found online after developing an out-of-the-blue craving for ginger cookies.  While I was making these I was taken aback by how solid the mixture was, as I'd been expecting something much runnier, like cake mix.  Luckily, I cottoned on and things turned out OK.

Beach and Baking

It’s finally sunny!  My family and I decided to take advantage of that fact and went for a relatively early morning walk on the beach, along with seemingly every other dog owner in the area.

Believe it or not, the beach was actually pretty busy.  *tumbleweed*

I’ve just realised that my oh-so-artistic shadow portrait makes me look like I have the world’s smallest head.  I never said I was a photographer.

I had a moment of extreme intelligence when I looked down and remarked that there seemed to be twice the number of paw prints compared to footprints.  Er…

I was feeling brave this weekend and decided to bake an actual cake as opposed to my usual cupcakes.  I’ve become a devotee of GBBO alumna Ruby’s recipes as featured in the Guardian’s Cook section and fell completely in love with the idea of a treacle ginger chocolate cake.  

Amazingly, it worked out surprisingly well.  Whenever I bake proper size cakes I’m always terrified that it won’t cook all the way through, but it all worked out.  A confession – there is a stage where you melt treacle and butter together over a low heat and add eggs, and I unfortunately ignored the ‘low heat’ instruction, which led to the eggs almost starting to cook where they collected around the sides of the pan.  Scrambled egg cake – delicious.  Luckily it was not the case.

The cake itself is very rich and quite dense, but the ginger icing stops it from getting too much.  I also had doubts about the icing, as 50g of butter looked like it would stretch to maybe a quarter of the cake at most.  But I carried on and of course the quantity was perfect.  This is one recipe I am definitely making again.  

Normandy, France - Part 3

I think I must enjoy torturing myself because I am currently a) starving, b) living off a student budget and c) in dire need of a food shop as I only have creme eggs and spaghetti in my cupboards.

I'm going to be honest - this wasn't my food.  Despite salad being the obvious choice for a boiling hot day in Rouen, I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I'm on a seafood diet... I see food and I eat it. Badoom-tsh.

This wasn't mine either.  No, I went a little bit mad.

Big enough?

This is what I'm talking about, and it was all mine (needless to say, I didn't quite manage to finish it).  I know it seems silly going to France and having pizza, that well-known traditional French dish, but I like to think by ordering one with several French cheeses splodged on top, I was sampling their cuisine with a twist.

Unfortunately this photo doesn't really do these enormous meringues justice.  They were about the size of my hand, and we bought them in a bakery in Lyons-la-Forêt.  I have a major sweet tooth and also a weakness for huge meringues.  (Incidentally, the best ones I've had in the UK are from the cafe in the V&A Museum.)

This was just simple steak frites, which I happen to love. Weirdly this was fairly well-done, which I didn't expect in France!

Number one...

I worked out that I had four crème brûlées while I was in France.  As I said, I have a sweet tooth. 

Lemon and Marzipan Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in the Guardian's Cook section and pretty much instantly fell in love with it, thanks to the combination of two of my favourite things - marzipan and cake. I've made these three times now, and hopefully I've worked out the best way (for me) to do them.

Most photogenic lemons in the world?

Yum

There is a lot of marzipan in these, but I'm definitely not complaining.  The original recipe only makes 10-11ish, so last time I doubled the quantities. This meant using up an entire block of marzipan, half grated and half broken into pieces.  By the third time I tried this recipe, I figured out the best way to grate the marzipan - keep it in the fridge until you need to use it and then grate it directly into the bowl.  The first time I did this the marzipan had softened slightly (it's squishy at best anyway) and was pretty tricky to grate, and then the second time I grated it onto a surface where it all collected and compacted back into a lump. By the way, the marzipan chunks are without doubt the best bit about these cupcakes, but the actual chopping/breaking bits part is seriously sticky, so either turn your phone off or make someone else answer it if it rings.

Pre-baking stage

One thing about these cupcakes is that the marzipan seems to have a habit of sinking to the bottom, which means that as tempting as it is to have one of these as soon as they come out of the oven, it's better not to because half of it tends to stick to the bottom of the cupcake case.  Once they cool they stick together better.

Post-baking stage

I wasn't entirely sure how much lemon juice and how much sugar would be needed in the drizzle suggested in the recipe, so I went with a glazy-drizzle I've used before consisting of quite simply icing sugar and lemon juice.  The ratio I've been using is one tablespoon of lemon juice to 25g of icing sugar and it's worked out fine.  The drizzle may not look very decorative but it's simple and complements the marzipan perfectly.

Mulled Wine Cupcakes

I've become embarrassingly obsessed with baking cupcakes over the past year.  Yes, they're a bit twee and yes, they seem to have died along with the 'Keep Calm and...' trend, but they're one of the few things I feel confident baking.  I found this recipe in my mum's Marie Claire and thought I'd give them a go.

Ta-dah! A beautifully dark and terrible photo of mulled wine.

I'll be honest here - I am not very good with wine.  Firstly, I know virtually nothing about it, meaning that I've lost count of the number of times I've stood in the middle of the wine aisle on the phone to my dad asking what dry actually means.  Secondly, I have the unfortunate habit of going out to a party or the pub and thinking, "Yes! Wine is exactly what I want!" only to find myself two glasses in and well on the way to getting completely hammered.  Anyway, my point is that I've never done mulled wine before.  Luckily for me, it's pretty straightforward. Shlop everything (wine, orange peel, cinnamon stick/s, star anise)  into a pan and heat. Unfortunately, the wine smell is fairly strong, and by the time I'd finished making the cupcakes I had a headache and wanted to chuck the whole lot away.

Yuuummm...

However, I resisted the temptation (mostly because I'd gone to so much effort in the first place) and ended up with some fairly decent cupcakes.  My decorating skills, however, are somewhat lacking and so almost every batch of cupcakes I make look like the cakes kids bring back from school cake stalls.  The actual cake was dense and rich but not overwhelming, and the subtle mulled wine flavour went really well with the cocoa powder in them.  Hopefully I haven't thrown the magazine containing the recipe away, because I may well give them another try next Christmas.

Christmas in London

OK, so it wasn't technically Christmas itself, but the run-up.  I have a big thing about London - I love it.  Yes, it's crowded and (to me) huge and slightly overwhelming.  But it's also buzzing and atmospheric and picturesque, and so I managed to persuade my mum to go to London for the day with me.

Putting our Christmas decorations to shame

It feels like whenever my mum and I go to London, we always end up visiting the V&A Museum.  The fact that it's free and has abundant seating helps, of course, but this time we went to see the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting exhibition.  I'm definitely not an art buff, and I didn't really know what to expect, but the art exhibited there was gorgeous.  I particularly liked the landscape paintings, and I found one I would have been happy to take home and hang on my wall.

Byoootiful

For lunch we went to the Comptoir Libanais on Exhibition Road just across from the V&A.  We'd already been to the one on Wigmore St, so we knew there would be something there that we'd like.  It was absolutely packed inside but we only had to wait a few minutes before there was a table free.  Above is a picture of our drinks - apple, mint and ginger and my favourite rose syrup, lemon and lime.

This is my main course, although it's pretty enough to be a dessert.  It's lamb kofta with yoghurt, fried onions, pitta bread pieces and pomegranate seeds, and it was gorgeous.

Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Looking back, visiting Regent Street only five days from Christmas seems like a slightly stupid thing to do.  In our defence, we (along with half of the UK, it seemed) were on a quest to visit Liberty's after seeing an episode or two of the documentary series about it. Anyway, I like to think it brought out some Christmas spirit in us.

We made it to Tate Britain, but by then we were absolutely shattered, so we spent as long as we could in the cafe where I had the world's cutest cappuccino.