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the book club, shoreditch, london.


for a brilliant breakfast in london, i really recommend the book club in shoreditch. we went along for a day trip to london the other weekend and having been here a few months ago for a friend's birthday drinks and nibbles (and a game of ping pong!), i knew i wanted to return and try their weekend brunch menu. 

homemade seafood pizza.


what could be better than pizza... a homemade pizza where you get to handpick the combination ingredients of course! in restaurants i always love the seafood pizzas, ones with lots of cheese, ham and cheese or the veggie ones with lots of onions and peppers. never been a pepperoni or meat feast kinda gal. nevertheless, i always find myself adding or taking away toppings and feel like i always want a cheesy, veggie, seafood mix. so, i thought i'd make my own seafood pizza and whilst also trying out the supermarket bought pizza base mixes you can get. 

taste of thai, ashby de la zouch, leicestershire.


not long ago i sent a little recommendation request out on twitter... what is the best thai in leicester or leicestershire? a few people replied with the same thing: taste of thai in ashby de la zouch. funnily enough that is my home town and i'd been here lots of times with my sixth form friends back when it was called thai rainbow. i'm not sure why it changed names but it's still the same welcoming restaurant which has been family run for 20 years. since i'd not been in a while i thought i'd try it out - with a few old favourite dishes and some new additions. we sat right next to some enormous goldfish :)

pan roasted duck in a honey and thyme sauce.


i made this as my main in a recent three course meal - pan roasted duck in a honey, sherry and thyme sauce with thyme parmentier potatoes and grilled asparagus. this was my first time experimenting with what i hoped to be a bistro style dish as well as my first time pan roasting duck. seeking advice from trusty google, i came across this fine cooking magazine recipe with a tasty sauce consisting of sherry, thyme and honey. i slightly adapted it for two - let me know what you think! :)

yo sushi, southbank, london.


sushi sushi sushi. i can't get enough of it. if you love it too, i'll talk to you about it for hours. if you tell me you hate it because it's all raw fish, i'll talk to you for hours about how it's not all raw fish, or even all seafood for that matter. believe it or not, i wrote my journalism dissertation about sushi. okay maybe i am a little bit mad... so when i was invited to try out the yo! sushi at london southbank i raised my soy sauce bottle high, painted my face with wasabi and did a little dance with my chopsticks. 

lemon posset crumble.


i recently made these lemon possets as part of a little three course dinner; following white wine mussels and pan fried duck with parmentier potatoes and grilled asparagus. more on these recipes in a later post :) 

i originally meant to make lemon posset with lemon shortbread for dipping in the usual way. however, in trying to make a tiny batch of just 2-4 biscuits, my usual shortbread recipe turned to more lemony biscuit crumbs. and so a sort of lemon crumble was born! 

baked lazy eggs.


A little, compact breakfast for lazy Sunday mornings. Goodbye all day breakfast in a can, hello baked lazy eggs. I'd been wanting to try something like this for a while, so I thought this would be perfect opportunity to pick up some local Leicestershire eggs from a nearby village and try them out. 


So what will you need for these little breakfast treats?

glazed chicken teriyaki.


a massive fan of japanese and japanese inspired food, i can often be found in my local yo! trying out their latest specials. so when i recently got in touch with hq, i was so pleased when they sent me a copy of their delicious teriyaki chicken recipe :)

want to make it too? here's how...

floral cakepop class at landgirls cookery school.


This weekend I took my mum along to a cakepop decorating class at the landgirls cookery school in hartshill. By a marina in a quaint warwickshire village setting, I found landgirls on Groupon with the offer of £18 each for a cupcake or cakepop class of your choice. I was also surprised to hear they did all sorts of other classes too; from artisan bread to choux pastry patisserie and macaron magic to culinary curry. 

I booked the floral cakepop class which involved learning how to make the cake pop mix with techniques for consistency, dipping chocolate, colouring and preparing the sugar paste and arranging the decorations with melted chocolate for "glue". I also learnt that cocktail sticks are a cake pop maker's best friend.

nakd snacks: the little wholefood wonders.


i was recently sent a few treats to try from the lovely people of natural balance foods; a variety of flavours of their nakd raisins and bars. so they're gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, part of your 5 a day and no added sugar or nasties... stop right there and pass me a multipack of daim bars! only kidding, these little things really did feel like quite a naughty sweet after a meal or as a scrumptious mid morning snack. 


happy birthday highcross leicester.


i still can't believe the highcross leicester is celebrating its 5th birthday. five years ago, i was in my second year of studying english at university of leicester and awaiting my first shift at the centre's handmade burger co. five years on, handmade burger co. is still there - amongst an expanding food courtyard spanning continents of flavours. recent additions include mexican canteena chilaca and american style coast 2 coast - with caribbean restaurant turtle bay set to open its doors next week! oh and they have hundreds of shops too. but who needs shops, right?

september 4th was celebrated with a holi style festival of colour: beautiful local bhangra dancers and rainbows of powder paint filled st. peter's square.


cappuccino cupcakes.


i made these cappuccino cupcakes for a charity bake sale at work last week :) an experimental recipe, i added espresso powder to a plain cupcake recipe and then grated chocolate on vanilla buttercream.