Taste book App

This is a fantastic App I've just downloaded onto my iphone... if like me you get to the supermarket car park and don't want to cook the same old safe, back up recipes but have forgotten to plan ahead this is an excellent App. You can search what type of dish you are looking for ie: dessert, main etc, you can also search in terms of main ingredient ie: chicken, vegetables...

You can then select a recipe from thousands- it will show you pictures plus an ingredient list which if you click on will go to a shopping list. You then scroll down for the instructions. It's brilliant.

Bibury Court Hotel- Jazz Wednesday

Having had what seemed like hundreds of children staying over the Christmas break with a constant flow of buying, preparing, eating and clearing up food- Dean and I managed to sneak in a quick lunch at the Bibury court Hotel. Now then I'm not normally a jazz fan but Alfie put jazz FM on the other day and I quite liked it (getting old) So we booked lunch to coincide with the lunchtime jazz on a Wednesday. It was really good!  


We had a delicious lunch then sat in the oak panelled lounge next to the log fire with a Cointreau. The 3 young musicians were great. The main violinist who was exceptional had won the Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2010 - Ben Holder.


Would highly recommend.

Wine tasting at Three choirs Vineyard-Newent

What a perfect day to wander around a vineyard learning all about the vines and grapes, sipping delicious cold glasses of white wine and sparkling Rose.

I didn't know that a vine stays productive for about 30 years.

We had a lovely cheeseboard overlooking the vineyard in a slightly strange glorified shed.

A very pleasant couple of hours....would highly recommend it. We bought our tour and tasting through Groupon it cost £21 per couple.

Westonbirt Aboretum-the enchanted Christmas

Last night we ventured out to Westonbirt Aboretum. The trees were all lit up for Christmas. It was very pretty, there were glitterballs swirling in the branches and bubble machines. You could project your face on a trunk of another tree. The hot chocolate was delicious, especially with Amaretto in!  Bit crowded for my liking though. My pictures don't do it justice, I couldn't see the dials on my camera so took a 'movie' accidently, hence it's VERY short :) 

carrot cake recipe

This is a really easy cake to make-it's always really moist and delicious...everyone loves it.


Ingredients
4 eggs
375g cater sugar
250ml cooking oil
280g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
375g grated carrots
90g raisins


icing
55g butter
60g soft cheese
250g icing sugar
1tsp lemon juice


Whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add oil and beat well.
Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture. Fold in carrot.
Pour mixture into lined greased tins (20 cm) cake tins.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for about 30-40 mins.
Once cool turn out and ice.

The world's most shoplifted food

The Observer  food monthly magazine had an interesting feature today.

Who would have thought that the most shoplifted food item is......cheese! followed by fresh meat, chocolate and confectionary, luxury cooked meat and then last of all alcohol... What a bizarre world we live in, imagine stuffing a nice ripe Camembert down your trousers......

maybe not

sweet chestnuts roasting on an openfire

I did a great walk yesterday with my dad, Alfie and Wilfie the dog. Starting at Bromsberrow and walking along a few ridges of the Malvern hills. We got a bit lost along the way and ended up fighting our way out of a magnificent wood. I've never seen so many sweet chestnuts, the floor was covered in them. So I now have a nice pile of the beauties. Alfie and I are going to stoke up the chiminea tonight and roast them in foil.....can't wait