London part one

so this weekend emma and i went to a city...i believe its called london....
or as we call it....

LANNNNNNDANNNNNNNNNN!

we travelled up on friday afternoon by train, arriving into paddington at about 10 to 5.

we made our way over to the hotel via tube, i've stayed here before but its recently been taken over by ibis and is now an ibis styles hotel... custom house.

before it was taken over i had stayed there twice, i was happy with it as the location was good for the O2 arena but i probably wouldn't have recommended it to friends after the last stay as the room was tiny and it felt more like a hostel than a hotel.

however as its been taken over, i would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a cheap hotel in london. its roughly 40 minutes from covent garden on the tube and its right oposite the station!

so after getting changed at the hotel and having a little relax we made out way over to st.paul's for our dinner reservation at disco bistro. 
just as we got off the tube and exited the station the heavens opened and we got soaked.

from the outside it looks like any other pub but once you enter...ohhhhhh you are in for a treat!

at first when we walked in we felt a little bit out of place, it seemed quiet with only a few tables full. we were presented with the menus but of course i already knew what i wanted from reading it online before hand. 

whilst pondering over the menu one of the waitress placed some bread on the table and i must say, it was amazing! Sweet yet satisfying in all the right ways!

we ordered some drinks, i went for the head banger (chase gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and champagne) and emma went for the champagne cocktail. i love the presentation of the head banger, its the main reason i ordered it! good old jam jar!

you may not know this but emma and i are both chicken addicts, if there are wings on the menu we order them.
this time however we were spoilt with choices so naturally we went for both!
sticky and spicy...
is it bad that i think i may have done a little wee when eating these? they were AMAZING!
i preferred the sticky and emma loved the spicy, both crispy yet moist...heaven on a plate!

i then went for the dexter steak with bone marrow. i was a bit unsure when ordering this as i wasn't quite sure what i expect from the bone marrow but im so glad i went for it. the steak was perfectly cooked and cut like a dream. the bone marrow was a great addition and it really made the dish special. i would recommend this if you go, so much steak!

before travelling to london we spoke about places we would like to go and places we would like to go to eat. i mentioned a few places that the londoner recommended and emma said she wasn't really a burger person.... errr....excuse me emma is that a burger you are holding? 

as you can see she went for the disco burger and i dont think she regretted it at all.

as i said, when we first arrived we felt a little out of place. but not long after we sat down the place started to fill up quickly and the music was turned up. i actually fell in love with the place and would love to go back. we described it as a place that students would go for a posh night out but in all honesty if you want good food and a brilliant night out, give it ago!

dont worry there is plenty more to come...

london tomorrow

so tomorrow i am off to london with emma for the weekend. its kind of a birthday weekend away. 
we went a few months ago and had a really good time, so we decided to stay an extra day this time and make the most of it.

on friday night we were ment to be going to Circus but i decided it sounded a tad to fancy for me. i mean i dress smartly to my standards but they were saying dress to impress...sadly that is just not me.
so instead after reading +the londoner The Londoners review we are going to Disco Bistro. Im really excited for this, the food sounds amazing and i love the pictures of the drinks! its going to be a great evening!

saturday day time we are going to try and escape the tourist side of london and visit some quieter hidden gems, we hope!
a late lunch will also be had as we are tickets for the theatre....

VIVA! i know i know...but lets face it....i grew up with the spice girls and im not afraid to admit that i still have a massive love for them! this was a birthday present for the parents. ideally i would of liked to have seen the book of mormon but sadly the one weekend they are not doing any performances is the weekend we are going...typical! i missed it when i was in NYC as it was sold out and now here...

either way im really looking forward to having a weekend adventure. there will hopefully be lots and lots of pictures up over the weekend, i need to try and get my head around posting blogs on my ipad..perhaps this weekend will be the time for that!

"blush" orange cheesecake part two

so as you may have guessed i decided to leave the cheesecake for two days as i find that it tastes much better if you wait! so this is part two, which is actually really easy.
ingredients you will need are 

100ml of orange juice, squeezed from the oranges you used.
and
2 leaves of gelatine. 

first off roll the oranges around under your hand on a work surface. this helps to release the juices and makes them easier to squeeze. i did this over a sieve just to catch all the unwanted pith/pips.

place the orange juice into a sauce pan and warm it up slightly over a low heat.

whilst the orange juice is warming up gently, place the gelatine leaves into some cold water until soft. the gelatine i used recommended a soak time of 5 minutes.

next up drain the water from the gelatine and keep hold of the leaves. remove the sauce pan from the heat and drop the leaves into the warm liquid. stir it around until the leaves are completely disolved and then allow the mixture to cool slightly. i transfered mine into a pyrex measuring jug as the pan was quite hot.

once that has chilled slightly remove your cheesecake from the fridge and pour the mixture over the top, ensuring you quickly move the liquid across the top as it starts to set almost instantly.

mine had a bit of a fat lip around the edge so it didnt quite look as perfect as i was hoping, but you get the jist from the above picture.
place the cheesecake back into the fridge for one hour to allowed the jelly to completely set.

after the jelly has set remove it from the fridge and carefully tease it away from the edges of the tin with a palette knife.

hopefully you should then have one yummy looking cheesecake!

for a first attempt at a baked cheesecake i dont think i did to badly. next time i would spend a little more time making sure it is flat on the top to avoid the jelly forming a bit of a puddle in the centre.

the only thing left to do now is to invite round your friends or family, make a pot of tea and slice this bad boy open. if its made correctly i can guarantee you will be surrounded by people going UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! 

my auntie came up for a cup of tea with mum and i, we polished off a fair chunk. she even took some home for later.

leave a comment if you try this recipe and let me know how it goes! 

"blush" orange cheesecake part one

so im on holiday from work this week and as you may know i have a love of baking. i decided that today would be the day that i got out my mixer and baked something from my new book cake days. i have to thank emma once again for this as it was a really kind birthday pressy. very thoughtful.

unfortunately when i popped into waitrose to pick up a few vital ingredients they didn't appear to have any blood oranges but never mind, i went for blush oranges instead and i have to say, snacking on one mid bake...fwahhhh what a scrummy orange!

so you will need :

220g of biscuits (i used digestives but its up to you)
100g of melted unsalted butter
as much orange zest as you can muster (i always use more zest)
700g of philly cream cheese (full fat, none of that light stuff)
100g of ricotta cheese
120g caster sugar
3 large eggs
save all the orange juice you can squeeze out of the oranges you used for zesting, this will be used in the final step (which will be posted separately)

firstly take your biscuits, dont worry if they are already broken as it wont make much difference in a second...

place the biscuits inside a bag of some sort, i used a freezer bag but anything you can seal will do.

and now for the fun part. smash the hell out of those yummy biscuits, these are not for dunking!

next take your butter and melt it. most books tell you to melt it on the hob in a pan but really, do i look like i have the time or patients for that?

time to add some zest to those biscuits, grate the zest of one blush orange and go ahead and stick that in a bowl with the biscuit. i used over a teaspoon of zest for my biscuit base as i love the flavour but zest at how you like it.

now its time to bring together the zesty biscuit with the melted butter. mix it all together until it starts to combine and form small clumps.

line a springform cake tin with parchment paper and pour in the biscuit mix. if you manage to spill any dont waste it, eat it!

spread the biscuit so that it covers the bottom of the tin and make sure its pressed down firmly to form the base of the cheesecake. go ahead and pop that in the fridge to set whilst you do the next part.

now get your mixer out, i splurged a few months ago and purchased a kenwood chef but a hand mixer will do.

put the philly, recotta and sugar into a bowl and mix until its all smooshed together nicely. then add a few teaspoons of orange zest into the mix, again it really is to your taste but i personally always use more than recommended. next chuck in one egg at a time and let that mix in with the other ingredients, kind of like a meet a greet...."hello mr philly im Alan egg, meet my sisters Mary and Pam"...oh dear....anyway....back to the cheesecake!

once thats all mixed together well remove the cake tin from the fridge and wrap the base and sides in kitchen foil, this will all make sense soon. Scoop the cheesecake mixture into the tin and spread it all about so that you have a nice even cheesecake top.

now pop that onto a baking tray and fill the baking tray with some water, enough to go about half way up the cake tin. this should stop it from drying out whilst it bakes.

place the tray into the oven for about 40 mins at 160, your oven may vary to mine so judge it yourself. just make sure that you keep an eye on it because it may split if its over cooked, you want it to start going a golden colour around the edges before you remove it.

just enough time to have a snuggle with my beautiful baby boy, Ringo. he turns one on friday, how exciting!

after 40 minutes my cheesecake was firming nicely on the edges and wibble wobbling about in the middle but it had not really gained any colour. i added 5 minutes onto the timer which was just enough time to give it a golden shimmer.

allow it to cool in the cake tin for a while before putting the whole thing into the fridge to chill. most books tell you to leave a cheesecake in the fridge for a few overs or over night. but i actually find its best to leave it for 2 days with most cheesecakes. it gives the flavours time mingle and get to know each other a bit before relaxing, the first time i made a cheese cake it was mint chocolate flavoured. i tried it on the day of making and was almost sick, 2 days later it was heavenly!

there is still one last step to this cheesecake but i cannot do that until it has fully chilled. this will be posted tomorrow hopefully so keep your eyes open for it!

birthday fun times part two

after a lovely sleep and a really long lie in i have woken up feeling as fresh as a daisy and ready for the day..the only thing is there isn't much left of it! oh well on with part two.

after lunch we decided to go for a walk along the river, we really needed to do this as everyone was completely stuffed. managed to get a nice shot of mum and emma before we left, thumbs up girls!

the pub is located on the bank of a beautiful river. it has walking paths on both sides and you can get across by a rope boat? i have no idea what you call it. its basically a wooden boat that a guy pulls you across on by a rope. we decided against that this time as i feel we may have sunk the boat after that lunch.

heres my dad being a cool kid and photo bombing, thats usually emma's job on a night out.

part way down the river you come across some rapids, usually there are some kayaks attempting to get down them in one piece but i think the cold weather stopped them on this occasion.

emma decided she wanted to let her wild side out so she clambered onto a rock for a photo opportunity. forget bear grylls its all about bear emma now.

after our walk we decided to have a hot chocolate in the hotel next door to the pub. if you ever decide to give the pub a visit AVOID the hotel a few doors down, the staff were rude and the hot chocolate tasted like warm muddy water.

on the drive home dad thought it might be nice to talk a walk up to yat rock. the views are amazing from up there.

you know the rest of the days story really, i came home and fell into a food induced coma. 

love it!

birthday fun times part one

so today is my birthday! its been a really lovely day, in fact i will stretch to its been a really lovely weekend.

birthday celebrations started last night with emma. we decided against going out as we always have far to much fun and end up like death the following day and we both wanted to be awake for my birthday meal. so we opted to stay in and have a curry and wine night. we ordered from jaan via just eat. we both LOVE our food and we ordered far to much as usual but somehow they managed to get our order wrong...in the good way....

instead of getting onion bhaji's we got a 3rd curry, a duplicate of one of the curries we had ordered. i polished off a bottle and emma managed just over a glass, i think she was trying to be classy but failed! haha.

after finishing a mountain of curry we watched nick and norah which is one of my all time favourite films.

so onto my actual birthday. we traveled over to my favourite pub, the saracens head. its a lovely pub right on the river. i love this pub not only for its location but also for the AMAZING food they serve, i was first introduced to the pub by my dad when he took me there for a steak. nothing has ever been as good as that steak.

after choosing from the menu emma allowed me to open my present. beneath the amazing tube map wrapping paper was a copy of cake days by the humming bird bakery. recently i have taken up baking as a hobby and people have actually been placing orders for birthday cakes. i even (with the help of emma) raised £56 selling cupcakes,cookies and slutty brownies for the local air ambulance.
unwrapping that book put a real smile on my face and it was a really thoughtful gift! thank you emma!

to start we went for the vegetarian antipasti, the baby onions were amazing!

 

emma, dad and i then went for the roast beef. there are no words to describe how good it was... 

mum decided to go for the lamb and i must say i do with i had gone for it, the fell to pieces on touch and looked amazing on the plate.

more pictures to come but for now, food coma!

£100

+£135 birthday money

Total Saving

£235