I am still here!!!

I am having severe withdrawal symptoms......I really want to post lovely stuff on my blog but I can't because Virgin are the worst Internet provider I have ever come across. I was supposed to be connected a week ago but they keep pushing the date back and now I have to wait until the 17th of September. So I will be back as soon as I can or as soon as Virgin allows me.......

Will be gone for a week or two......sad times

I am moving house this weekend and may have no internet access for up to a week, depending on how quick it gets connnected again, very very annoying as I have a great post to put up about a lovely camping weekend in Kent but I guess it will be something to look forward to! See you lovely people very soon.xx

The Real Patisserie, Brighton.

For those of you unfortunate enough to not reside in Brighton prepared to be jealous and I mean very jealous, I don't want to fall out over this but you have to know of it's existence. I am talking about 'The Real Patisserie' one of the finest Artisan bakeries I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. They are an independent company that uses traditional French methods for making bread, cakes, quiches, patisserie, sandwiches and everything is made on site by there largely French team of fabulous staff.
My lovely Mum would always get a box of cakes and patisserie from them for our Birthdays (as well as making us a cake of course!) and sometimes as a treat we would eat there almond croissants for a weekend breakfast,yummmmm.



They do open sandwiches 'Tartines' which are made using there rather famous chewy brown bread cut into long slices, I had chicken liver pate, cornichons and green peppercorns while Mercer had palma ham, artichokes, rocket and olive oil.
I didn't get a chance to take any photo's so I have used some of the website and other method's so you can see what the fuss is all about!


This is the 'Tartine' that Mercer had.


Here is just a tiny selection of the cakes and patisserie they do.

If you ever come to visit Brighton and fancy a spot of lunch then I highly recommend 'The Real Patisserie' as tasting is believing!

Happy Pride Everyone!!!!!!!

As some of you may or may not know,the fabulous and diverse city 'Brighton' is home to a very large gay community and every year we celebrate that fact by having 'Gay Pride' and the theme this year was 'Pride not Prejudice'. Every year without fail I attend with all my friends whether they be gay, lesbian, strait or otherwise!!! I feel very proud to come from such a vibrant, modern, forward thinking and accepting place where you can be what you want to be and not be judged for it, you can hold hands with your boyfriend or girlfriend as a gay couple and not get stared at, whispered about or worse like you would in many other places in the UK and the world. Brighton I love you and glad your my home, I wouldn't have it any other way!! Here are a few photo's of Pride from over the years and of me trying to hold my friend in her pirate outfit,oh dear!!!











How Stunning does the Brighton Pavilion look all lit up in pink!





Here are the gay and lesbian members of Brighton police force marching for gay pride! We also had gay and lesbian employees of Brighton hospital and the NHS, Paramedics and ambulance drivers. Pride had floats at the parade from American Express, co-operative, amnesty international, Greenpeace with our local Green MP on the float, Gay men's chorus to name just a few.
Sorry this post had nothing to do with food, but hey it's pride!!!

Humming Bird Brownies with hazlenuts and chocolate chunks

This is just a quick little post about the unplanned brownie making at around 11.30pm last night with Mercer. We bought the ingredients a few days ago to make the brownies but never got around to it until last night at a highly unusual hour! You don't tend to bake chocolate loaded treats at this time of night unless you a stoned teenager or pregnant but to hell with it we thought and went ahead and made them.
I used the Humming Bird Bakery recipe for them and just added a few extras.

Humming Bird Brownies

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
175g unsalted butter
325g caster sugar
130g plain flour
3 eggs
Hazelnuts
White chocolate cut into chunks

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and melt until smooth.
Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and stir until well incorporated. Add the flour and stir until well incorporated. Finally, stir in the eggs, nuts and chocolate chunks and mix until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until flaky on the top but still soft in the centre.
I did not use a baking tray and just baked mine in an oven dish but it worked well enough and as it was so late we didn't wait for them to cool down or slice them so the picture is a bit messy but hey you get the idea!

Crispy duck stir fry and prawn toast

After the very carb filled start to my week I felt like something a bit healthier and found some organic duck legs on special offer so decided to make a stir fry with them.
I nevcr buy stir fry sauces and have always done pretty much the same thing every time I make my sauce by just adding sesame oil, dark soy sauce, fish sauce and sweet chili sauce and it's never failed me yet.



To make my stir fry I pan fried the duck legs before roasting them in the oven and when they were done I let them rest before chopping into bite size chunks and accidentally eating all the crispy skin.....



I have never made prawns toast's before and I really love them but it can be very much hit and miss when you order them from the takeaway so I thought I would have a go at making them myself. I just minced prawns with pork mince, ginger, sesame oil and a pinch of salt and sugar before frying them in sesame oil. Here is a picture of them before they got fried.



To make my stir fry I just used up what ever veg I had in the fridge so we ended up with carrots, beansprouts, sweetcorn, red and yellow pepper, spring greens, red onion and of course the crispy duck all doused in soy sauce, fish sauce and chili sauce. I did get a couple of spring rolls for Mercer as he hates seafood but I didn't make them





Sorry the photo's are not that great but it's hard with a rubbish camera phone, oh well it's my Birthday soon and I think I have dropped enough hints to Mercer.....

sausage with bubble and squeak cakes and a rather yummy chicken, bacon and leek pie

I have been having very strong carb cravings due to me trying to be a bit healthier and cutting down on bread, potato's, pasta and such like, I'm not gonna lie, it's been hard and at some points emotional. So I totally gave in and went a bit carb mad over the last few days starting with some fat juicy sausages from the butchers served alongside my bubble and squeak cakes filled with bacon and cabbage and smothered in roast onion gravy. Such a simple thing to make and so God damn delicious it can never be a bad thing in my opinion.






As if the sausage and potato feast wasn't enough the next day I made a 'Chicken, bacon and leek pie' with mounds of buttery mash and savoy cabbage. I browned off some corn fed chicken legs and thighs and then added bacon lardons, chopped leeks and then sweat them off in butter and white wine before adding a dash of cream at the end. I was naughty and bough puff pastry but it was still very good and I wasn't complaining!