Restaurant Review: Pizza Express, London Waterloo and Art of the Brick

The Art of the Brick: DC Superheros is an exhibition on London's South Bank of Lego figures - but not just any Lego figures. These are the DC superhero characters, like Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, many of them life-size, made of thousands or hundreds of thousands of bricks - there is even a scale model of the Batmobile which is made of nearly half a million Lego bricks! My husband and his brother, and his brother's children, really...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 Week 22

The weather was glorious last week which meant we barbecued outside (or rather, my husband did – the only time he ever cooks dinner!) three times. I hope it’s going to be as nice this week, unfortunately it doesn’t look like it is going to be quite as hot!   Monday – bank holiday. Lunch - scrambled eggs on toast for him, poached eggs for me Dinner -meal with the in-laws   Tuesday – working from home Lunch - soup and a roll Dinner- chicken breast marinated in garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, with a baked sweet potato and salad   Weds Lunch-...

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Orange and White Chocolate Cake with Flower Nozzles Piped Buttercream Flowers

This is the cake I made for Mother's Day this year and finally tried out my set of flower piping nozzles which I got I think for my birthday last year - I hadn't gotten around to using them as I hadn't really made anything that I wanted to decorate with buttercream, but now I've seen how good they are I will definitely use them again! The nozzles have different patterns of dots and swirls and allow you to pipe different types of flowers that...

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CAS Pink Heart Die-Cut Card

CAS means 'clean and simple'. In cardmaking terms, that means lots of white space; one main image or focal point and minimal embellishments.   I saw a blog challenge on Addicted to CAS calling for CAS cards with the theme 'pink'. I remembered this one I had made a little while ago and decided to enter it.   My husband and I were trying out my new Silhouette Cameo cutter (about a year ago) and used one of the free patterns as a test....

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 21

Monday Lunch: chicken salad with mango and feta Dinner: salmon, new potatoes and veg in a cheesy sauce for me, beef grillsteak and mashed potato for him Tuesday  - working from home Lunch: chicken salad with mango and feta and hot new potatoes since I am at home - OR if the weather is cold and we have leftover bread from the weekend I will have soup Dinner: ready meal and veg after circuits class - OR the salad I would have had at lunch Wednesday Lunch: quick sandwich - need an early quick lunch as I have meetings from 12 until...

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KitchenAid Cooking Demo with Michael Moore

KitchenAid are known for their luxury free-standing food mixers (I have one in pink) - what I didn't realise is that the brand actually offers everything from kettles and toasters to fridges, ovens and dishwashers! I was able to see some of their products in action recently when I was invited to a cooking demonstration with chef Michael Moore. The event was held at the KitchenAid showroom in London's Wigmore Street - a mecca of stand mixers with...

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Blue Baby Bottle Congratulations Card

I spotted a blogger challenge on Ooh La La Creations Challenges for a card on the theme 'something beginning with B', which has given me the perfect opportunity to share this new baby card.   It's actually using a card topper I bought years ago from Ebay - I bought a small packet of them and thought I had used them all long ago and came across one left! You could make it quite easily by matting a piece of pattered paper onto a white card...

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Restaurant Review: The Faraday, Epsom

Often when we go to the cinema we have dinner beforehand at a restaurant nearby; over the past few years we've eaten at most restaurants on Epsom High Street! One place we'd never been to is the Faraday (actually on Church St, on the corner of the High St) - a pub that we'd always walked past thinking it was too busy and probably more the sort of place you go to drink than eat. Perhaps later in the night that is the case (judging by TripAdvisor...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 20

I think sometimes we expect too much from smaller supermarkets, even the chains - I went into a Sainsburys Local on Saturday to buy ingredients for a Pad Thai and found they had no beansprouts. I had all the other more unusual ingredients already at home but didn't think it would be the same without the beansprouts - so for two meals this week I've had to make last minute alterations! Monday Lunch: chorizo and halloumi salad Dinner: salmon for me, garlic and herb chicken breast for him Tuesday - working from home Lunch: baked...

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40th Birthday Showstopper Chocolate Drip Cake With All the Chocolate

This was my husband's second birthday cake - well, it was his 40th! We spent his birthday with some of his family then saw other family the following weekend, so I wanted to make a cake for both occasions. For his birthday itself I made this chocolate R2D2 cake (a throwback to his childhood) and the following weekend I wanted to make more of a serious classic cake - but at the same time I wanted it to be a showstopper. My husband loves chocolate...

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Chocolate Orange Croissant French Toast

I don't usually eat croissants unless I'm out for breakfast or staying in a hotel - I do like them but they seem a bit much for a regular breakfast at home. Also, they have to be bought or made fresh, and are really fiddly to make. A few months ago we were given a packet of croissants - I think that were leftover from a family brunch - and I put them in the freezer. As we hadn't gotten around to using them and I wasn't sure how nice they would...

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Eggs Benedict Waffles

I was inspired to make these eggs benedict waffles by this recipe on BBC Good Food but leaving out the Marmite - my husband likes Marmite but I don't and as I didn't have it in the house anyway it seemed easier to leave it out! I love eggs benedict and am often to be found trying to get the perfectly poached egg - my current favourite technique is to use a Poachie bag. The idea of a savoury waffle instead of an English muffin was a new one to me...

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Ice Skating Decoupage Christmas Card

Here's another Christmas card I made at the end of last year but put away in my stash for next Christmas. The pieces all came free with a card making magazine so it was a pretty quick make. First a festive scene for the backing paper, then a strip of patterned paper vertically down the middle of the card. An ice skating scene in decoupage - I think it had three layers - stands out from the top third of the card, and a sentiment ' -Merry Christmas...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 19

Monday Lunch: prawn cocktail salad Dinner: home late (late meeting at work) so my husband will get his own dinner and I will have a low fat butternut squash risotto ready meal Tuesday - working from home Lunch: baked potato with bacon and sour cream Dinner: at a circuits class and not home til 8.30: Slimming World cauliflower rosti pie I keep intending to make but not having time to Wednesday Lunch: chorizo and halloumi salad Dinner: cod in a honey lime sauce based on this recipe I didn't do last week Thursday - day...

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Slow Cooker Baked Stuffed Butternut Squash with Walnut and Goat's Cheese

There's an easy way to cook a roast dinner for meat-eaters and vegetarians at the same time without needing a double oven, which not many people have in their kitchens. But there's one thing that many people do have: a slow cooker. At Easter I really wanted to eat roast lamb, and had the idea of doing a roasted butternut squash for my mother-in-law who is vegetarian. I was worried that the smell of the lamb roasting would mean I couldn't...

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Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

I just had to share this with you even though it's not my own recipe. It's not only the best vegan cake I've ever made, but it's up there with the best cakes I've made, full stop. Unlike other vegan cakes it doesn't contain a cupful of oil (I read the number of calories recently in a bottle of vegetable oil, and am still reeling). But it's still incredibly moist, so much so that you need to eat it with a fork rather than fingers, and really chocolatey....

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Restaurant Review: Haskins Garden Centre, West End, Southampton

I’ve been to Haskins Garden Centre at West End, Southampton, twice recently. The simple reason being: when you find somewhere that’s easy to go with a small baby, you’re going to go there again!   I have a beautiful niece who is now five months old; when she was just a couple of months old and I was visiting my sister and her partner we went out for lunch at Haskins. The garden centre has a large café, with an outdoor area (which was too...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 18

It was my birthday on Saturday so I didn't get around to planning this week's meals until Monday evening! This should be a quieter week where I can hopefully make a bit more effort with the diet - not so much birthday cake this week! Monday - bank holiday Lunch - sausage sandwich with friend who was staying over from last night Dinner - spaghetti Bolognese with Quorn mince and plenty of veg as I haven't had enough lately! Tuesday - working from home Lunch - leftover spaghetti bolognese Dinner - Slimming World cauliflower rosti pie I was...

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