Lasagne Queen - the third :-)

An improvement on my first attempt and this time made even better by Sean's homemade olive and rosemary focaccia.

Queen's Park Farmers Market

We were told about a little weekend farmers market not far from Mat's house in Queens Park, so we had a stroll up on a very cold Sunday afternoon and immediately wanted to buy everything! From amazing looking fish cakes, to fresh game, beef stews, cheeses and chutney's, pies and the all important cakes and tarts. In the end we settled for a very tasty free range hot dog for lunch and brought two mini quiches for tea - a butternut squash one and the other a red pepper and goats cheese with the most amazing selection of salad leaves, we then treated ourselves to two huge slices of cake, banana and pecan with a cream cheese frosting and a chocolate and guinness cake with vanilla frosting.

Dollar Grills & Martinis

There are loads of lovely places to eat in Clerkenwell but we always end up going to the local for a Friday lunch but we were brave and tried somewhere different and the gamble paid off! We went to Dollar Grills & Martinis to try their £6 winter lunch menu and with a choice from steak and chips to chicken chipotle burgers with jalapeño mayo we were spoilt for choice. Plus it is really cool, all black walls, chandeliers, retro lights and neon, apparently the martini bar downstairs is fun too.

Australia Day

To celebrate all that is great and good in Australia on their national day, our Ozzie design director, Michael decided to culture us in the ways of down under.

So he treated us to some homemade Lamington's (even though many believe it was his girlfriend Georgie's handiwork) and Fosters beer.

Lamington's are a sponge cake coated in chocolate and covered in desiccated coconut, some of which had jam and cream in the middle - yum. They would go better with a cup a tea instead of fosters though!

Retro 3D Collage

Wanted to share these pictures as I think they are so charming. Not only does it satisfy my love of collage, food and anything retro but also the little angelic girls remind me of The Borrowers, god I used to love that programme when I was a kid.

Image via www.designspongeonline.com

Image via www.designspongeonline.com

Image via www.designspongeonline.com

Image via www.designspongeonline.com

Image via www.designspongeonline.com

They're from design*sponge, a fab blog with lots of crafty and design ideas and well worth a look (I particularly like the DIY section). These images are a selection of some Swedish groceries with retro models added from an old sewing books. They were all created by photographer Jenny Brandt who contributes to design*sponge and can also be find on her own blog Dos Family.

I've always been a fan of collage since I was young and I think it's really interesting to mix the 3D and 2D elements, I love how she's played around with scale and I especially love the black and white images against the coloured packaging. I also like the fact she's found another use for old sewing books, I've got loads. Maybe this will inspire some of our future food photography on Foodie Faces?  

Audio Takeaway

I'd like to recommend The Food Programme on Radio 4, great for when you're sitting on the train bored. It covers a wide variety of topics, I really like the ones that focus on the history of certain foods, producers and cuisines. Well worth a listen, you can download the podcasts here.

Fantastic Foodie Freebie

I picked up a 'Simply Beef and Lamb' leaflet when I was in the butchers last week, for a freebie it's actually packed with some really interesting recipe ideas but my favourite has to be this...

Find the full recipe here

I was also really impressed with the design, it has lots of lovely food photography and all printed on uncoated stock. If you visit their website they have many more interesting recipes www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk

A taste of Italy when in Hungary

After eating lots of traditional Hungarian food, we wanted a change on our last evening in Budapest, so we decided on a rustic Tuscan restaurant on the river, Trattoria Toscana.

A yummy beef carpaccio for me with lots of parmesan and rocket, followed by king prawn pasta with spinach and lots of garlic. A running theme in Hungary is lots of everything! Even though we had eaten loads of hearty meat dishes, Mat still went for a duck lasagne, it was really rich, meaty and full of flavour. The desserts were ok but didn't blow us away.

This was our most expensive meal out in Budapest but we did go for the full three courses and wine (which we have done a lot so I now need to exercise on my return!). Again the Hungarian wine, a 2007 Sauvignon Blanc by Bolyki was great even though we went for white this time and the label very pretty.

An all-woman restaurant

After a visit to the brilliant Budapest zoo we had worked up quite an appetite so we headed round to Bagolyvár - a quaint restaurant staffed entirely by woman serving Hungarian classics with a twist. The owners of the posh restaurant next door, Gundel decided that Budapest was lacking home cooked food in a family atmosphere so they restored the building next door, called it 'The Owl's Castle' and employed only women to cook, serve, decide on the menu and buy the produce.

We had the bargain set menu, which consisted of the best vegetable soup I have ever tasted, loaded with butter, cream and lots of seasoning.

This was followed by quite an unusual dish of chicken and chips but the chicken was covered in an apple and cinnamon sauce. It was weird but it kind of worked in the way that honey and mustard chicken does.

The service was lovely and the meal cheap, it set us perfectly to relax in the thermal baths nearby.

Budapest's best restaurant?

On the saturday night in Budapest we decided we still wanted to stick to Hungarian dishes but thought we would try the highly recommended restaurant from our lonely planet guide - Klassz.

Compared to the previous nights restaurant it was tiny, modern, bright and beautifully decorated with unusual clashing wallpaper, well known for its wine selection and on the designer avenue, Andrássy út (a bit like London's Bond Street). I was in love with the place immediately.

Then the food! I had to build up to taking pictures as it was such a small restaurant I didn't want to look like a complete tourist and I was embarrassing Mat with all the picture taking so I missed the starters. I had grilled foie gras and Mat went for a paprika soup that was served at the table from a copper pot that was poured over a lump of cheese in the bowl - yum.

For mains I went for the duck with a poached pear and golden dumplings. Everything was well seasoned and the duck cooked to perfection, slightly pink inside - amazing. Mat went for pork (again) that was tender and served with potatoes and seasonal green vegetables. This was all washed down with another amazing Hungarian red wine, a 2008 pinot noir by St. Andrea.

Desserts were kept simple with a creme caramel and apple pie and custard, sometimes less is definitely more.

I would highly recommend anyone who visits Budapest to visit Klassz but get there early-ish as you cant book.

The land of massive portions

I have just returned from a long weekend in Budapest, a very pretty city (even if a bit on the nippy side) with great architecture, a brilliant zoo, some very relaxing thermal baths and £2 pints of beer! The two things which blew me away the most was the food and Hungarian wine.

Our first evening we wanted to try a traditional Hungarian restaurant, it was cold outside and some warming, comfort food was needed. We went to a restaurant called Fatal, which even if the name was off-putting the food wasn't! The menu was really cool, using lots of different fonts and a lopsided design made it feel more rustic. The restaurant was really dark, wood panelled with stained glass windows.

We went traditional - I had a beef goulash with noodles (they were more like gnocchi) and Mat went for pork and cabbage, which had a ridiculous amount of raw onions. Both were stodgy but full of flavour, the portions were HUGE and neither of us could finish which is unlike us! We washed it down with a Hungarian red wine called Gere Villany Portugieser.

They also did platters to share and the size of them were amazing, lots of people took home the leftovers. Even though we were stuffed we still went for an ice cream to share.

Traditional Hungarian food

Me and Mat are off to Budapest for a long weekend to help fight off the new year blues but I wasn't sure what food to expect so wikipedia has come to my rescue. I can expect hearty meat and seasonal vegetable dishes, which use lots of paprika - I can't wait to try it out!

The best curry in London.... so far

Being from Birmingham and the balti being one of the cities favourite dishes I have always been disappointed with Indian restaurants I have visited since moving to the big city... until last night!

I was recommended Lahore Kebab House in Shoreditch (and after visiting the Brick Lane area before and being disappointed and feeling harassed to choose a restaurant I wasn't too hopeful!). It was somewhere I would never have visited as you can't book, the waiting area alone could accommodate a decent sized restaurant, it looks like a cheap hotel restaurant or canteen, it is huge and full of suits from the city, plus there is a rather unattractive sign outside. Despite all of this the food was amazing, especially the grilled lamb chops for starters and the traditional pistachio kulfi to cool down with after but I have never seen it on stick before! One I will visit again and recommend to others and I love BYO restaurants, handily there is an off-license next door too.

My Packaging Pick of the Week is....

.... Pain is Good fiery sauce. Their bottle designs are brilliant and what's even more brilliant is that you are able to customise them with your very own mush :-)

Visit here for details.

Image from www.harveynichols.com

I ♥...

...Marks and Spencer's use of the Circus font on these very cute storage tins :-)

They also do a very cute biscuit tin, cake tins, tea towels and mugs. If you need them in your life, you can buy them here

Lasagne Queen - the second!

Strangely I cooked a lasagne from scratch this weekend too and it was the first time I have made béchamel sauce. I used Nigel Slater's recipe for the bolognese meat sauce which worked really well even though I was surprised by using milk in it - I have never heard of this before but it made it feel really rich and almost creamy. Then I used Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for béchamel sauce. Served with crunchy green beans and washed down with a medium bodied red wine - Palastri Sangiovese Di Romagna. The wine had hints of cherry and a chocolately finish, it went perfectly with this meaty pasta dish, especially as it was half price!

Maxwell & Williams

Some new purchases, a Tajine and ceramic egg holder.

www.maxwellandwilliams.co.uk

The Tajine will be christened tonight with a Jamie Oliver's Moroccan Lamb Stew.

Lasagna Queen

Or so Sean says, apparently I've "surpassed myself" :-) He is trying to butter me up so I'll agree to get a cat so not sure whether he was exaggerating a little?

It did taste pretty good thought and I can now say with confidence I make a great white sauce and a mean Lasagna as up until now I've never made one from scratch.

The best bit has to be the crispy edges, delicious.

The Boundry - The Return

Last night we returned to The Boundry to treat another work client to a New Year dinner. We had the private room again so the waiter could draw the curtains and separate us from the rest of the restaurant when we got too noisy and drunken. The food again was amazing, as was the service.

We had smoked salmon for starters, steak in a red wine jus with amazing potato dauphinoise, parsnips and spinach, then ended with a chocolate mousse and honeycomb ice cream wrapped in honeycomb.

One of the things they do really well is cocktails! I went for Cuban Winter again but thought I would try something else after (I had already had champagne, white AND red wine so I didn't think mixing cocktails would make the hangover any worse!) - A Petite Julie. It contains a scrummy but lethal combination of vodka, peach liqueur, apple and lemon juice, sweet basil and egg white, I would never have chosen but our lovely waiter chose it for me, it was almost a meal in itself.

Who said to many cooks spoil the broth?

I thought I would treat myself to some cookbooks for the new year and add some more dishes to my repertoire. I am quite addicted to cookery programs and if there is nothing on TV I will put anything food related on the box.

I really enjoyed watching Nigella's Kitchen towards the end of 2010, she has always annoyed me before but I really got in to her style of cooking and her personality has grown on me, especially the sneaking down to raid the leftovers in the fridge at the end of the programme. Plus I want that lady's pantry!

Next up is Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals, I have longed loved Jamie's attitude to cooking (along with the rest of the country making this book the best selling book for christmas) but the concept of serving platters of food really appeals to me as I am a 'feeder'.

Lastly I purchased Rachel Allen's Entertaining at Home, to be honest I think she uses too much salt in her cooking and is quite patronising but god can she cook! So thought I would give that a whirl as it is a bargain on Amazon!

Plus the food photography is amazing, beautifully propped and shot - they are all a real inspiration for work.

Can't wait to get cooking and then blogging about it.

Tomorrows Lunch

Been back to my cookbooks to make a Tabula Kisir from 'River Cottage Everyday' and cookies from Canteen's 'Great British Food'.  

Tabula Kisir is described as ‘Turkish, herby, spicy, bulghur wheat’. I didn't have bulghur wheat so I substituted it for a box of Quinoa that's been lurking at the back of the cupboard for months making this healthy lunch a super healthy lunch. 

It's a salad made by mixing the cooked Quinoa in a dressing containing tomato puree, dried chilli, cumin, lemon juice, paprika and olive oil. You then mix in roasted walnuts, tomatoes, red onion, parsley, mint and peppers. 

Anyway it tastes yum and makes up for the fact I'll be consuming cookies afterward :-)

Cake is a girls best friend

Check these gorgeous cake shaped jewellery boxes out! Perfect for keeping your diamonds and pearls in!

Created by Naive Textile Art, a mother and daughter who create handmade pieces in wool, fabric, felt and jade. They can be purchased from notonthehighstreet.com

Breakfast with Hugh

It's January, a new year and a new chance to be semi-healthy and lose some weight, but a weekend breakfast should be better than the usual Weetabix of a weekday. The calorie laden bacon sarnie and full English isn't really going to cut it so I went on the hunt for a new recipe for my repertoire. Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's latest book 'River Cottage Everyday' had a recipe for drop scones, it seemed a better choice, it still felt like a treat but was lots healther.

It's really simple to do and needs very little ingredients and then once you have them you can chose whatever toppings you like. I opted for a healthy combination of honey, orange and blueberries, although deep down I wanted to smother them in Nutella, maybe I'll wait until February for that when new year resolutions are just a distant memory :-)

Crazy Cook-athon

So it's the new year, time to curb the gluttony and spending. I discovered a copy of Jamie's Ministry of Food that was languishing on the bookshelf and it inspired me to do some old school batch cooking. What became a challenge to fill the freezer with with healthy goodness for January become a marathon cooking sessions.

I went shopping at 2pm and had begun cooking earlier in the day. I think all in all I was cooking for about 6 hours but I have a freezer full off:

Chicken and Veg Soup - inspired by Jamie's Spring Veg Soup but I needed to use it leftover roast chicken and veggies.

Jamie's Meatballs - I did swapped the Jacob Cream Crackers for Multigrain Ryvita's, hopefully it will work ok :-S

Beef Kofta's - inspired by Jamie's Burger recipe.

Jamie's Chilli Con Carne - with Heston's addition of star anise.

Jamie's Spag Bol.

Chilli (left) and Spag Bol (right)

Cottage Pie - inspired by Jamie's Minced Beef Pie, I starting flagging at the thought of making pastry as well already had too much washing up!

Jamie's Lasagna - but I made a white sauce (the first time ever!) instead of using crème fraîche as I didn't have any.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Fruit Muffins - made with lots of blueberries. I hope they will rise a bit more next time but they taste yummy.

Done!