enjoy the luxury of a private chef in your home with la belle assiette.

La Belle Assiette is the latest way to enjoy a private chef in your home. Whether you fancy a three course dinner with friends, an elaborate afternoon tea or a posh Champagne breakfast to celebrate a special occasion, the simply to use service means you can look for luxury chef experiences in your area at the click of a button. Enter your postcode, budget and favourite cuisine to book online for a private chef in your area - and ta da! To celebrate the new Leicestershire recruit Liz Moore, she came along to my home to cook a beautiful six course meal to showcase her culinary magic.

revolution cocktail masterclass, birmingham.

Whether it be for a hen do, work party or corporate team building idea, a cocktail masterclass can be a brilliant way to have a bit of fun, get to know a group and perhaps learn a little along the way. A group of us Midlands bloggers were invited along to the Birmingham Revolution on Broad Street to put their new cocktail class to the test. It turned out it was the perfect way to break the ice for a blogger meet up too (pun intended).

meet & eat at the orange tree supper club, leicester.

Meet & Eat at The Orange Tree is a new Leicester based supper club with a difference. Those who are familiar with The Orange Tree will recognise its relaxed vibe and independent charm through mismatched furniture, local art and stacks of board games. With such a laid back atmosphere, you'd be forgiven for thinking the private dining area was that of someone's living room. For that reason it made the perfect location for a Leicester supper club - complete with likeminded foodie folk and locally sourced food.

jus create with jus rol.

I'll be the first to admit that I've never made my own puff pastry. And if you have, I commend you. Time and time again, the likes of Jus Rol or supermarket alternatives have come to my pastry related rescue. I have no problem getting involved with my old friend shortcrust, especially if I want to add crushed pistachios or chocolate to the mixture, or try my hand at vegan and gluten free pastry. 

But if I'm looking for a quick fix for a weeknight recipe or maybe something special, I'm not ashamed to roll out the ready made and get creative. I went along to Ateliers des Chefs for an evening of pastry tips, tricks and most importantly... tasting. Our hosts for the evening were professional chefs Mark Dodson and Sally Abe who were taking on the philosophy - jus create!

amaretti biscuit chocolate tarts.

Tiny, little, mini chocolate tarts. Made from a rich 80% Lindt dark chocolate ganache and topped with white chocolate curls and an amaretti biscuit crunch. To celebrate National Afternoon Tea Week (best week ever!) I went over to fellow blogger Amelia's home to drink lots of tea, scoff lots of sarnies and eat lots of cake. Any excuse, hey? 

You can find her whole DIY afternoon tea post over on her lovely lifestyleblog, but for now here's my recipe for my addition to the cakey party. What's more - they're super speedy to whip up and you can change the topping to your liking!

tapas and cocktail class: rocket @ saltwater, nottingham.

Tapas? Cocktails? Fun with a group of lovely bloggers? This was a sure fire winning night. I went along to Rocket @ Saltwater at the top of Nottingham's Cornerhouse for a brilliant evening of cocktail making, tapas munching, photo snapping and general catching up with some of East Midlands' finest. 

the grove, cromer.

Set along the Norfolk coast, The Grove in Cromer is an independent hotel established in 1936, now with outdoor holiday cottages and glamping pitches. Fancying a weekend by the seaside, bloggers Charlotte, Alex and I went along at the start of June for a little British break. The weather was glorious and we enjoyed a day by the beach front eating fish and chips before returning to our cute cottage; Merryweather.

peter pizzeria, leicester.

A long overdue post about a fab Leicester blogger meet up at the newly opened Peter Pizzeria. Having sampled the Neapolitan delights of the Loughborough Peter Pizzeria, it was a great chance to see what the Leicester restaurant had to offer as well as meet up with some local lifestyle and food bloggers. 

midlands food bloggers festive afternoon tea.

Last weekend myself and another 9 midlands bloggers met up for an afternoon of tea, Tiny sandwiches, miniature desserts and an abundance of Instagram opportunities. Mostly though, it was super exciting to put a few faces to Twitter names and finally continue our foodie chats face to face. Off we headed to Hotel La Tour, With no sign of their festive afternoon tea menu online and a head full of Google images from previous reviews. 

sushi dinner party.

a few weekends back i hosted a little sushi dinner party at my home with fellow leicestershire foodies and bloggers alex and charlotte. i love making homemade sushi so i loved the idea of mixing and matching my favourite flavours and teaching others some new skills along the way.

foodies meet at barceloneta, leicester.

last week, myself and four other midlands food bloggers headed over to barceloneta in the clarendon park area of leicester for a foodie meet up. queens road in particular is a lovely area of leicester, home to a handful of independent shops, delis, cafes and your usual charity shops as well as a few specialising in books and records. 

barceloneta is a spanish restaurant which is part of a independent trio of businesses on the road; bar dos hermanos, barceloneta and the salvador deli. welcomed with a friendly smile to the beautifully decorated tapas restaurant, little did they know five food bloggers had just stepped into the door...

the bluebell inn, rothley, leicestershire.

last week i headed off to the picturesque leicestershire village of rothley to meet up with two lovely foodies and bloggers alex and charlotte. it was a sunny evening so we sat outside and slurped on orange and lemonade whilst taking in the pretty exterior of the pub and browsing the menu. 

when i say browsing, two dishes had actually already jumped out at me whilst checking the bluebell inn menu out online; asparagus, spinach and fried duck egg on sour dough, with pan fried devilled scallops for main. i stuck to my guns and wasn't disappointed.

underground cookery school, london.

last week i took a hop, skip and a jump onto the 16:56 leicester to london train, darted through the hustle and bustle of a busy rush hour and excitedly made my way to the underground cookery school. i was bound for a fun evening of cookery tips and tricks along with a group of other food and lifestyle bloggers. 

midlands bloggers #chofeast at edmunds, birmingham.

this week, i was kindly invited to a chobani inspired feast along with some other midlands based bloggers. the setting was edmunds at six brindley place, a five star fine dining restaurant set by the city centre canal. so i set off west, excited for the chofeast and meeting a few new local blogger faces. 

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...