five dishes I’d love to try... if I was a millionaire.

 

Have you ever dreamed of what you’d buy if you came into big money? Personally, my mind instantly goes to all the crazy expensive food I could try, along with the luxurious service that comes with it. Forget new car or moving house - think of all the incredible food you could afford and not even bother looking at the bill. From flourishes of gold leaf to rare caviar, here are a few of my millionaire must-eats. All I need to do now is buy a lottery ticket…

24 glorious gluten free recipes.

Today marks National Coeliac Awareness Day - September 13th. With so many fantastic bakes, sweet treats and delicious dishes from fellow food bloggers, I thought it was about time I put together a round up of gluten free recipes. I have a few friends and family who live with coeliac disease, and am always keen to see restaurants putting alternatives on their menu too. 

It was also great that GBBO did a free from episode this year, which raised awareness of sugar free, dairy free and wheat free baking. So from desserts and cakes right through to pizzas and muffins - here are 24 sweet and savoury gluten free recipes to enjoy!

tapas dinner party.

I’ve grown rather fond of dinner parties of late. So far I’ve had a go at Japanese themed night, a sushi making evening, Mexican nights, a vegan friendly evening and lots of homemade pasta production lines - ending up with tasty rewards. The latest on my list is a tapas dinner party, complete with tiny plates of Spanish inspired treats and a steady flow of sangria. Rounding up of course, with homemade churros for dessert.

19 things food bloggers will understand.

The stash of Kilner jars, the pursuit for the perfectly gooey egg and the endless Post-Its decorating your cookery book stack. Sound familiar? Me too. Here are nineteen things that the seasoned food blogger is all too well acquainted with. 

Now, have you Instagram-ed your dinner yet? Are you sitting comfortably with a stripy straw in your drink? Okay, then let's begin.

#fdbloggers: get to know.

Oh how I love the #fdbloggers community. Because what's food blogging when you can't chat to others about your last meal, new favourite plate or recent foodie blunders?

Don't underestimate the amount of times you can Instagram an avocado, perfect the ultimate soft boiled egg shot or get the right angles on that buttercream. Never again will you (or any of your friends or family) eat food hot again. Sounds lots of fun, yes? Head over to the #fdbloggers Twitter hashtag and you'll see I'm right!

I was recently tagged by brilliant baker Mike over at The Bearded Bakery and lovely Megan of Got To be Gourmet in the latest #fdbloggersgtk so thought I'd better put my piping bag down and get to it...

my dream green kitchen.

if you hadn't already guessed it from my love of pistachio ice cream, overuse of green food colouring and recent new retro blender in a gorgeous shade of mint, i am quite partial to the colour green. when i saw that argos were running a colour campaign competition i thought, why not?

national make a friend day: meet luchia cooks.

happy national make a friend day! today your task list is to smile at everyone you see, hold the door for others even if they don't say thank you and maybe even give someone your last rolo. since starting food blogging i've met some awesome fellow bloggers and foodies online... so in the spirit of make a friend day let me introduce you to bristol based luchia of luchia cooks. who, yes, did make those incredible looking avocado brownies pictured above.

christmas 2013: from handmade gifts to hearty grub.

just a few snaps from this christmas. this festive season has been lovely. there's been christmas bake offs at work, festive afternoon teas, my first clandenstine cake club and i even had a little go at making some handmade christmas gifts.

midlands foodie meet up at peter pizzeria, loughborough.

after the fun foodie meet up at kayal last month, we naturally decided to arrange another. getting to talk about food for a good few hours and not being embarrassed to take pictures of each other's meals - what foodie wouldn't like that? so since last time the loughborough foodies came over to leicester, this time i made my way to loughborough to try the newly opened peter pizzeria on ashby square. there were a couple of new faces too - local baker louise who created the "something divine" chocolate dessert on the peter pizzera menu and chocolatier dan of loughborough's chocolate alchemy. 

leicestershire foodies meet up: kayal, leicester.

this week i finally got to meet a couple of local foodies; leicestershire food blogger alex who writes over at gingeybites.com and laurie who works as a chef at the manor house in quorn. our indian feast at leicester city based restaurant kayal was a brilliant evening full of restaurant recommendations, edible anecdotes, tasting techniques, far too many food photographs and most importantly... the best way to poach an egg.

i've been to kayal a few times before - the last time my car actually broke down with a punctured tyre outside so missed my starter coming out - so i jumped at the chance when this was suggested as a meeting venue. the south indian kerala cuisine is far from the usual chicken tikka and lamb rogan josh i know and love. i've learnt that since kerala is along the coast of south india where many coconuts grow, there are many delicious seafood dishes as well as the use of coconut in much of the recipes. both of which i always go for when choosing from an indian menu :)

we began with the most unusual indian savoury snacks i've ever had - pappadavada (the spicy, orange poppadoms made with cumin), achappam (the middle honeycomb-like one which was quite sweet), nenthraka varuthathu (banana slices seasoned with turmeric water) and classic poppadoms served with lemon and mango pickles and coconut chutney. i think my favourite combination was the pappadavada dipped in the cool coconut chutney.

of course there had to be a foodie taking a picture of a foodie...

what i ate lately: in pictures.

wow do i have a lot of pictures of food on my phone. i noticed lots of fashion bloggers posting up little montages of their instagram pictures and thought i'd try something similar. so here are a selection of pictures from the last month or so which didn't make the cut, as it were :)

the liebster award.

So I hadn't heard of this lovely idea until I was nominated myself by lucy scott bakes alot - a baker and a crafter who has some brilliantly indulgent recipes! You can also see her other liebster nominations here.

"The liebster award is for bloggers with under 300 followers and the rules of the award is that the nominee must link back to whoever awarded them, write 10 random facts about themselves, answer the 10 questions from the award giver, and then nominate other bloggers and make up 10 questions for them to answer. It's a great way for new and undiscovered bloggers to meet new people, get more followers and find some blogs that they want to follow."

I think this is a fab idea and couldn't wait to get going... so firstly I'll write 10 random facts about me.

♥ My initials are ELC like the toy shop Early Learning Centre.

♥ My favourite colour is green.

♥ I have a diastema in my teeth... also known as a gap tooth.

♥ I have an addiction to buying duvet sets. 

♥ When I was seventeen I met mark hoppus of Blink 182.

♥ I studied MA Print Journalism with NCTJs but have since forgotten most of the shorthand.

♥ I have three tattoos; a rose, a key and the letter E.

♥ My favourite karaoke song is Valerie.

♥ I always name my cars; so far Luigi, Freddie and now Felix.

♥ I am a total Japanophile and could probably live off the cuisine. especially sushi which I was lucky enough to write my dissertation on. Yum.