Bread Making

Just a very quick post on BREAD!

 

I love the smell of fresh bread baking and have always wanted a bread maker - so was excited that I finally had a few pounds put away to buy one. There's plenty of different ones to go for - all with different selling points so I won't go into that!

 

But below are a couple of recent efforts - getting used to the machine now...

 

However, I planned pretty badly and have started a Paleo diet, so the bread maker is fast becoming my hubby's favourite toy instead...

 

 

A classic white loaf

Sun dried tomato loaf

Silken Hotel Diagnol - A review [TRAVEL]

There are plenty of hotels to stay at in Barcelona and as a visitor you are really spoilt for choice. Normally I'd have gone for a boutique type hotel or as I have done before, a self catering apartment.

However, we were attending a wedding and the groom had advised all guests to stay at the Hotel Silken Diagnol. http://www.hoteles-silken.com/hotel-diagonal-barcelona/

And it was a great recommendation. Located near the Glories underground stop and only around 7 minutes by tube to Las Ramblas, it was a pretty central location. It was also within walking distance of the beach down a road crammed with bars and restaurants.

The hotel itself is next to the Torre Agbar, the Barcelona equivalent of the gherkin, which lights up at night in a myriad of colour. The hotel is modern in design with low lit lighting throughout.

The corridors to the rooms are incredibly dark with only modest lighting.

The room we had however, felt light and bright. From the Bang & Olufsen TV and phone through to the see through bathroom and the shutters on the windows, everything felt modern, clean and well thought out.

The other great thing about this hotel was the room terrace with small swimming pool (too small to be used - but it looked nice) along with a bar. The perfect place to end the night before heading back to your room.

All in all, a pretty fantastic hotel for a weekend break or work visit. Perfect for couples...maybe not so much for families.

Credit: Pictures taken from Hotel Silken website

Dinnr - an easy, impressive meal at home

I love being able to head home to a lovely home cooked dinner when it's something more exciting than spaghetti, stir fry or curry, which are my staple recipes. But by the time we've got back from work it's usually heading on for gone 8pm and hunger means creative cooking takes a back seat.  Which is why I love the idea of Dinnr!

 

Dinnr www.dinnr.co.uk/ is a company which gives you everything you need for a perfect meal in. Go onto their website and simply choose a meal that you fancy. I went for A Crusted Rack of Lamb with Roast vegetables and Bulgar wheat which looked absolutely delicious and a little bit fancy.

 

They then deliver your ingredients pack to your desk/or home with every little thing you need to create the meal and an easy colour/picture led step by step guide to recreating. I love the fact that the meat was from Waitrose (well, i would seeing as I work for them!) and that they popped a candle into the bag so you could 'add a little romantic atmosphere'.

 

 

They also sent over a playlist - so they'd even picked out the tunes for a perfect evening.

 

The delivery bag with contents - great quality items for only £20

The recipe was pretty straightforward to make and was delicious. The best thing was, I would never have thought of making something like this on a weekday due to time in the evening, but actually it showed me it doesn't take that much longer to create something you'll really enjoy.

 

 

Here's my final dish:

 

 

 

And here's what it should look like:

 

 

 

Not bad....not bad....

 

This is a genius idea for someone wanting to cook for a date at home but who works late and won't make it to the shops, someone who just wants some inspiration or perhaps just as a treat.

 

I was sent this as a review kit, but i'll certainly be buying again in the future.

 

I fancy the look of the thanksgiving feast for £60 for 4 - looks good https://www.dinnr.co.uk/recipes/15

 

Note: I was making this one handed as had hurt my right hand...so that's why it looks messier than usual (or that's my excuse)

 

 

 

 

 

 



Heston's Dinner

I seem to be the last person in London to have made it along to Heston's Dinner - but finally the other Friday we made it down to The Mandarin Oriental to see what all the hype over the last couple of years has been about.

I opted for the cucumber and lobster soup while Sean went for the meat fruit. Both were great, but the meat fruit was the clear winner - as it was bound to be. Smooth pate topped in a tangerine/orangey flavoured topping to create a tangerine for your pate.  Lovely stuff.

Main course was a bit of a gamble. I went for the special of the day which was an offal pie of sorts. It included kidneys, tongue and the usual bits and pieces usually discarded, all covered in deliciously buttery puff pastry. It was really tasty and I enjoyed it all except that a couple of the kidneys weren't prepared correctlyand included the gristle inside (which should have been removed). Sean went for another special - a rib steak. Deliciously melt in the mouth, he loved it.

We decided to forgoe any of the traditional puddings and hop right into the Liquid Nitrogen ice cream.  If you eat one thing at Heston's Dinner - this should be it.  The waitress comes to the table with a kenwood looking machine stuck onto a trolley (doesn't look impressive to be honest) but it is fantastic fun.  Dry ice is added to a custard to create instant ice cream which is served in a pastry cone and then you are given various topping options. We both went for apple popping candy.

Absolutely delicious and who doesn't look a bit of amateur dramatics at the table. We had people in the restaurant thanking us for ordering it, so they could watch.  A great little trick to get you leaving on a high.

The best thing about the entire experience was the service. We were made to feel important, welcome and were given a fantastically warm greeting. They were particularly helpful when it came to my nut allergy and made the whole evening really delightful.

A fabulous experience.  One day to be repeated!

Sharps Connoisseur range

Being a PR myself I am ashamed to say it has taken me far too long to post this up, having received the samples to try. Sorry Sharp's http://www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk/ - but it's finally up!

 

Until very recently I always thought I hated beer but at a recent tasting presentation by Thornbridge Brewery I was shown that's not true at all - it all depends on the type of beer I've been tasting!

 

So I was interested to try the new range by Sharp's - the Connoisseur's choice range of premium beers.  All designed to work well with food!

 

Now, I didn't get to try them all as i'm afraid I came home to discover my husband had tucked into them as i'd left them in the fridge unguarded! He,however, loved them, and I managed to taste some of the Single Brew.

 

It has a fresh, herbal lemon aroma (according to the website) and i'd have to agree. It was very light and clean in flavour. Fantastic with a piece of fish or a salad.

 

 

 

Definitely worth a try - buy online from http://www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk/

Shrimpy's

I'd booked our trip to Shrimpy's months in advance and just couldn't wait to go.

We'd tried to add extra people to the booking to take 2 friends and my sister and brother in law - but they told me they didn't have the room to add them to our booking. Never mind, i thought, this is going to be a fantastic meal and we can make it a romantic one. The only booking I could get on the friday night was at 6.30pm - an early dinner, but I was prepared to put up with that as I really wanted to visit. Oh the disappointment. We arrived at 6.30pm to a completely empty restaurant, which remained only half full till we left - so no idea why they couldn't add a couple of people to our booking. But anyway, we were sure the food would make up for it.

We started with Chicarron and guacamole (£4.50) and these were pretty good. Nicely fried, crispy and the guacomole was delicious....until I found what was the hairiest pork scratching i've ever seen - it almost put me off my dinner!

 

We also had a serving of the most delicious parmesan and paprika straws (£3.50)  - definitely recommend these. Melt in the mouth amazing.

 

 

In actual fact, what happened with Shrimpy's is as the meal moved on, the food got worse.... 

 

 

For our starters we had salt cod croquettes and calamari - again, pretty delicious.

But when the main meal arrived it was a complete disappointment - the soft shell crab burger was horrible. You couldn't taste any crab, just batter which was soft and oozing oil. Two bites and I was done - it was almost inedible. The Octopus was slightly better but just not right. Chewy and tasteless

 

But the chips were good....

 

Foodie pen pals #2

There is nothing better than receiving a parcel in the post, which is why i'm loving being a member of foodiepenpals.  Every month i receive a fab foodie package from another blogger/tweeter and in return I send one out to another lucky soul.

This month I received a fantastic parcel courtesy of Nina at  http://www.spencersarc.com/

Unfortunately I ate the jelly babies before I even photographed the package! My husband grabbed the Oddities and tucked in straight away too.

We made the Parmesan and sundried tomato bread last weekend and it was delicious.  Really easy to make and turned out fantastically. We ate it topped with Olive Tapenade which was really fantastic.

I've not had a chance to try the jam yet - but love jam, so that's all good.  Perfect for a Victoria sponge!

Can't wait till next month!

P.S I really need to work on my photography skills. I'm hoping i'll pick up some tips at the food blogger connect event in September http://www.foodbloggerconnect.com/

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