up the effing

One lovely sunny Saturday we packed up bags and bags of yummy food and headed the the Epping Forest for a night's camping trip. We had bunting, we had Pimms, and we had lots to barbeque. All the makings of a perfect weekend. When we arrived early in the afternoon and tried to find a spot with some evening. Once we'd put up essentials like the tent and bunting, I swiftly made us a jug of Pimms.

After quaffing back the Pimms and collecting wood for our fire that evening, we got started on the BBQ, we had vegetarian kebabs with vegetables and halloumi, plus mushrooms stuffed with blue cheese and chives.  We had a third quenching G & T to accompany the preperations. I insisted we include a slice of cucumber, as according the The Guardian's fashion pages this is was 'going up' on the measure.

BBQ prep 

The best bit of the BBQ for me was making up my Jamie Oliver sweet potatoes. You wash the spuds and in a bag mix cumin, chili flakes and sea salt and toss the sweet potatoes in the bag. Wrap up in foil and stick in the coals of the fire for 20 minutes.

sweet potatoes under the fire

the end result- a perfect BBQ

dinner smoking away

strawberry muffins

One weeknight M decided to whip up a batch of strawberry muffins. I haven't much to say except they were light, fluffy and filled with English strawberries. Best thing was the birthday gift from my Aussie BFF got an outing...I adore the tea cup muffin bakers...

seaside trip to see the pumpkins

Freaky window display

It was a terribly rainy day when we set off to St Leonards to see best buddies M and B aka 'The Pumpkins', we got stuck in traffic on route and missed our train. But the rainy weather suited our reflective mood and we were so pleased when we finally arrived at St Leonards. It's such a cute little seaside place, and I adore M and B. So we set off and had a stroll round Hastings and a delicious lunch, which I did not photograph, and I have no idea what it was called. I only know that the food and wine was good!

Hastings is packed with lots of fantastic shops like Rob's Rummages and we bought oursleves some lovely tea cups for our civil partnership evening do. Having a nosy around the shops is lots of fun.

bunting galore

After a fantastic stroll around we headed back to the boys place for some tea, cake and ice cream. Three of my favourite things. B had freshly made the ice cream and cake and they were both divine. The cake was light and fluffy, just like a Victoria Sponge should be. The ice cream was so tasty, I was convinced B had used an ice cream maker but it was all done by hand. YUM.

Lovely touch with the gingham napkins, dainty spoons and glass plates. Heavenly! And look at the tea- a perfect colour, and the most gorgeous little tea cup.

The ice cream was so tasty- must get the recipe.

So will full tummies and happy hearts we boarded the train back to London. Always lovely to see the boys, just always too short a time together. Must get another date in the diary to look forward to..

birthday tea at October Cafe

A friend spotted a vegan cafe had opened by Old Street, a place packed with cakes, tea and vegan treats all decked out like your Granny's front room. It sounded like a perfect location for a birthday bash and I was delighted when the owner could accomadate my 10 or so guests. We were all set for afternoon tea at the bargain price of £9 for sarnies, scones, jam, cakes and tea.

We promptly arrived on time and the tables were being set up. No bother, most of the gang were usually late anyway. We took our seats and waited, and waited. Even the late friends arrived and we finally took our orders. Now, I will say here that we waited quite a while, but we enjoyed chatting and no one was stressed. We did exchange a few looks to one another when a member of staff walked by with a loaf of ordinary white bread- they must have run out and she ducked to the shop. This was a bit surprising as we'd booked the tables, so the order was definitely not a surprise! Tempers were starting fray as we were rather parched for our tea, and many of us were hungry as we were saving ourselves for the tea.

So, about an hour and a half after we arrived, we were finally presented with some tea. It's just a shame there were no cups. Turns out they were being washed up. But we finally had cups too and were also given some afternoon tea which we scoffed rather fast. I managed to get a few snaps.

vegan afternoon tea

The crockery in October Cafe is super cute, all mismatched and just the I love. I really admire someone setting up a new business, especially a vegan one and I really hope October Cafe succeeds. 

I got some great ideas, like serving jam and cream in tea cups when I make scones.

Scrumptious vegan cream with scones and jam...delicious. Scones were a little flat though (sorry)

The top tier of the cake stand was stacked with specially ordered cakes. I ordered the vegan fruit tart below, but with the long wait, somehow I managed to eat one of the cupcakes. Luckily as it was my birthday all was forgiven.

The Victorian Sponge looked delicious. I'm hoping that there will be some comments in the section about what it tasted like R!

nice plate, let's wait to hear about the cake

another vegan treat

Now, I loved October Cafe and I would go back in a flash. We did have to wait a while but it was worth it. I really admire the owner for setting up a vegan cafe and I really hope it does well.

5 tea cups! I urge everyone to visit. I shall be !

my birthday cake, 6 weeks late

Six weeks ago (or thereabouts) I celebrated my 35 birthday at October Cafe..more on that later...but here's a quick entry to share the divine red velvet cake made for me by the owner of the cafe. I pre-ordered the cake and we all decided to go to the pub after our afternoon tea, to wash down the cake with something more 'substantial' than tea

red velvet cafe from October Cafe

So, we all strolled to the Pheasant, where one of my chums swiftly ordered me a gin and tonic. Perfect accompaniment to this soft, tasty and delicious cake.

The cake was totally vegan, and according to my friend R the colour usually comes from a type of beetles, getting squished. What I love about red velvet cake is that it is a complete mystery to me. I can't see anything on wikipedia about squished beetles though!

Anyway, I would definitely recommend the made to order cakes at October Cafe by Old Street. It's a cute little vegan business and deserves some support.

a little of what you fancy

well, what do I fancy....


Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

hang on a minute is this a blog about the Sound of Music...? No, it's a about what I fancy and I really fancy ' a Little of What You Fancy' on Kingsland Rd.

Michi took me there for my birthday dinner over a month ago, and I'd love to go back and try their lunch/ brunch, or just a slice of cake. The menu was seasonal, which I'm a big fan of. Only thing is, if you are a vegetarian like me you could only have asparagus starter and an asparagus main. British asparagus is one of my favourite foods (like shnitzel and noodles...- ooops, singing Salzburg Sound of Music tunes again) Anyway, we decided to kick of the meal with caper berries and olives. the olives were large lush and green and I loooove caper berries. Delicious.

Next came the main, a mouthwatering asparagus tart with Jersey royal potatoes. A winning combination.  By the way, I'm still learning to use my new camera so some pictures aren't they great. I hope I get the hang of it soon.

and of course, being my birthday it was all washed down with tasty prosecco. 

So, I give 5 tea cups to a little of what you fancy. Had melt in the mouth ice cream for dessert, but didn't get a snap. So I will leave you with the web link to have a look at, and a shot of our table, which was the perfect location for a romantic birthday dinner.

http://www.alittleofwhatyoufancy.info/

faulkner's kingsland rd

When my friend S decided to move back up north, I knew I had to try and get a dinner date in the diary for some old fashion chips. So we headed to Faulkner's for our second catch up of the year, took our seats and both commented it felt like we were on holidays.

We settled on an order of chip butties, halloumi cheese and beer. Plus some mushy peas on the side for me.

I enjoyed every bite and the service was outstanding. S wanted fish cakes, but not fresh one, the frozen kind and the waiter kindly offered her to try their home made ones for free, which we ordered and S really enjoyed them.  The waiter explained they'd be making fish cakes with the same recipe for 40 years. Washed down with lashings of beer and lots of chatter, we were very happy indeed.

We decided to go order the dessert and settled on sticky toffee pudding. 

The pudding was really tasty, I'd be back in a flash if only S wasn't already up north! Anyone else want to join me?!