whatkimcookednext

The Complete Fajita treat…and it’s the low-carb version

I love Mexican food, and normally it is very carbohydrate heavy, but this week I have to admit I am extremely pleased with myself for this creation. Carbohydrate free fajitas, and honestly, they were delicious.

You will need: 1 large Iceberg lettuce, separated in to leaves, taking care to try and keep them intact. Juice of half a lemon 500g minced beef, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, 1 diced green pepper, 2 chopped chillies (use the seeds at your discretion, depending on how hot you like it), 1 tin of tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of sundried tomato puree,1 teaspoon of paprika, ½ pint strong beef stock

To serve: sour cream, grated cheese, salsa and guacamole, extra jalapenos if you want more heat.

Method:For the filling: Place a heavy frying pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onions and allow to cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until they start to brown. Add the garlic, chillies and the chopped peppers and cook for a further 5 minutes.Add the minced beef and fry for another 5 minutes or until the beef is browned

Add all the rest of the ingredients, stir well and reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for 40 to 45 minutes or until the majority of the liquid has been absorbed

For the wraps: Whilst the mince is cooking, place a large saucepan of water on the hob and add the lemon juice

Carefully poach each lettuce leaf individually for 1 minute or until soft and pliable
Dry on some kitchen roll, and place like pancake on a flat large dish
They are now ready to use as your wraps

If you likr, you can make the accompanying dishes in advance, or buy them.

For a basic salsa: 250g/9oz fresh tomatoes, finely chopped, 1 small onion, finely chopped ( I like the sweet, white onions), 1 or 2 mild chillies, finely chopped, Juice of 1 lime, 1 tablespoon of chopped, fresh coriander Method: Just chop ‘em up and mix!A really simple guacamole: 2 very ripe avocados, peeled and stoned, 1 clove of garlic, crushed, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, Juice of 1 lime, 2 spring onions, finely chopped, small tomato, diced, bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped Method: Either place the avocados, garlic, olive oil and lime in a food processor and blend for a few seconds – not too long, you don’t want it too mushy or just mash with a fork if you liek ti chunky. Place in a bowl and add the spring onions, tomato and coriander – add more lime juice to taste. So you’re all done, you now have all the constituents of a really lovely Mexican meal! Spread everything out on the table.

Now let everyone to wrap their own fajitas, place all the other ingredients first and then add the mince and cheese.

Trust me, there were some very doubting people round that table who were self-professed lettuce haters, and they really enjoyed it. Oh yes, and a few tequila shots don’t hurt either! Ariba, ariba!

Lobster Pot – with a brief homage to Lobster Thermidor

Who doesn’t love lobster (Ok Josh, I know you don’t, but you’re fish-phobic which is different). Ellie, clearly does. She and I had a thoroughly enjoyable Saturday afternoon, creating a variation on a classic lobster thermidor which involved lots of claw cracking and flambeeing which was terrific fun ( pyromania and crustaceans combined, what’s not to love?). This recipe will serve four people for a generous starter or a light lunch with salad and bread. I have to admit the result was completely delicious, here’s how we did it if you want to give it a try. You will need:
1 ready cooked lobster and 4 uncooked lobster tails (actually this was all we could get that day, so improvise if you wish!)
10fl ozs of dry white wine
10fl ozs of fish stock
75ml brandy
1/4 teaspoon of dried chervil
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh tarragon (1/2 teaspoon dried),
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
2 small shallots, finely chopped,
50g butter
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
5 fl ozs double cream
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper, half a lemon to taste
2ozs grated emmenthal.

Method:

First place the uncooked lobster tails in a pan with the white wine, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes or until the shells have gone pink. Remove the lobster tails and keep the liquid to one side. Remove all the flesh from the the cooked lobster and the lobster tails, making sure you keep all the shell…especially the head! To do this you can use a variety of implements ranging from nut crackers, skewers and hammers! Of course, you may be lucky enough to have proper lobster claw cracking implements, but we aren’t that fancy and anyway, mole grips are multi functional! You will end up with a bowl of delicate, delicious flesh.

In a heavy frying pan melt half the butter and oil, when sizzling add all of the lobster debris, trust me there will be a lot of debris! Fry on high for a few minutes until it starts to brown. Now add the shallots and fry for a further 4 to 5 minutes. Add the brandy to de-glaze the pan and then add the reserved wine from cooking the lobster tails and the chicken stock. Add the tarragon and chervil. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until the liquid has reduced to about a third of its original size (check by tasting to see if it’s reduced enough, it should be delicious).Remove the lodster shells from the pan, making sure you have extracted as much juice from them as possible. Add the cream and the mustard and put to one side . Add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. You can add a teaspoon of tomato puree if you want to enrich the colour. In another frying pan, over a medium heat place the rest of the butter and add the chopped lobster flesh, and saute for only 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through. Add the lobster meat and chopped parsley to the sauce and make sure it is thoroughly combined. Put in to individual oven-proof pots and grate just a little emmenthal on the top of each. Place under a very hot grill for a few minutes only (don’t want to over-cook that delicious lobster) and serve immediately. If you wanted to bulk this out for a main course you coudl add cooked mussels and scallops to the lobster meat which would be delicious. Also I’m toying with the idea of adding a puff pastry crust…as far as I’m concerned there is very little in this world that doesn’t work well in a pie….

Idiot-proof diet? Not sure yet, but at least I can make my own mayonnaise

Are we all Atkins-ed out? I’m not sure, but contemplating my large, wobbly post-Jamaica belly in the mirror last week, it was a question I had to seriously ask myself. Knowing drastic action had to be taken I bought a copy of the lastest diet book “Neris and India’s Idiot-Proof Diet”. Well, it did seem like Neris and India were normal gals going through the same pain as everyone else and they certainly had got thinner, so I decided to give it a go. It is without doubt Atkins-esque (and if that isn’t a word, it should be!) there is great emphasis on virtually no carbs, loads of fats and proteins. Low carb diets feels so wicked though, don’t they? All that butter and cream and beef, just so delicious that I can almost overcome the pain of no alcohol for the first two weeks.

One of the best parts of it is, that I can make my own mayonnaise! it’s so easy, please give it a go! You can make it by hand, but it’s really tedious to do all that beating, so it’s much, much easier to use a food processor (use the whisk attachment though, not the blades). Here’s what you need: 2 egg yolks, pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon dry english mustard, grind of black pepper, 10 flozs of olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice…that’s it! Optional: Add all sorts of lovely flavours afterwards such as garlic, wholegrain mustard, chilli (not all at once, individually!) or crumbled roquefort cheese and a spoon of sour cream make the most divine blue cheese dressing the world!

Method: Add the egg yolks, salt, mustard and pepper in to the food processor and start to beat until it is all combined and is starting to thicken.

Keep the processor on, and gradually start to add the olive oil, a very little at a time – if you add it too quickly, it will curdle. it should start to thicken up nicely, and once it does, you can add the oil a little more quickly. Beat in a few drops of the lemon juice from time to time as this will prevent the mayonnaise getting too thick.

Continue until all the oil and lemon juice has been added. taste it for seasoning and add more lemon, salt, pepper etc according to your won tastes. There you have it! Beautiful, yellow, glossy home-made mayonnaise. Add all sorts of delicious flavouring too it, if you wish, or just have it au naturel. It’s wonderful with salads, fantastic with egg and tuna, great mashed with roquefort on top of a steak, and is even good in mashed potatoes. Store it in the fridge in a screw top jar and it will keep for about a week. Quick note, this tastes quite strongly of olive oil, if you want a lighter flavour, use sunflower oil or groundnut oil. Now….Give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it!

How do you beat the post-Jamaica blues? Cocktails of course, and make them 70s style

Post-holiday blues are probably the worst kind. Life seems so simple when you are lying on a white sand beach, gazing at the turquoise Caribbean listening to “Yellow bird up high in banana tree” for the millionth time . All comes to a dismal reality when you are standing in Gatwick Airport at 6 in the morning shivering and waiting for your luggage to arrive. You wonder where that lovely optimism disappeared to? Looking at the fat, brown woman in the mirror, fighting jet-lag and the crowds in Waitrose over the last few days, I have come to a happy conclusion. Do more of the things you do on holiday at home! It’s bound to cheer you up and I don’t mean mosquito spray and sand between your toes. Yes, I mean alcohol!

Spurred on by this, it seems a good time to revive my love of cocktails, they had me right back in the 80’s; I was there with my Harvey Wallbanger and my Screwdriver (this was before they added the long and slow bit against a wall) and my big hair. Happy days! We thought it chic not just to drink them, but to display the bottles of Gallianos and Grenadine as if they were priceless ornaments. So let’s have a wander down memory lane….

Harvey Wallbanger:5 parts fresh orange juice, 3 parts vodka, 1 part Galliano. Method: Just pour the orange juice and vodka over crushed ice and float the galliano on top

Tequila Sunrise: 1 glass of fresh orange juice on ice, 2 shots of tequila, 1 shot of grenadine. Method: add the tequila to the orange juice and stir, then float the grenadine on top

And then finally, my drink of choice in Montego Bay, it was a no-brainer, really…..Pinacolada: (Makes 2)handful of ice cubes,8 Shots pineapple juice, 2 shots coconut cream (get the little cartons from the supermarket), 1 shot coconut rum rum, 1 shot dark rum. Method: Place 2 empty cocktail glasses in the freezer 10 minutes before hand. . Pour all ingredients except the rum into the blender. Blend on full power till the ice has crushed. Put the 2 rums in to the glass, then add the lovely pineapple/coconut slush which should float in the lovely rum. This is how they did them in Jamaica and trust me, it was delicious.

Lazy Sunday cooking…..Chicken with garlic and lemon gravy, gnocchi with sage butter and glazed carrots

This is one of my fastest and easiest Sunday lunches and has the advantage of not only being very basic, but it really does taste good! You can leave the chicken pretty much undisturbed and the carrots and gnocchi will only take minutes to cook. You don’t have to make the lemon gravy if you don’t want to mess around, it tastes good without.

For the lemon roast chicken: You will need: 1 chicken, 1 tablespoon of butter, olive oil, 1 unwaxed lemon, a sprig of rosemary, 2 cloves of garlic, ½ pint chicken stock, small glass of white wine, 1 tablespoon of corn flour and a dash of cream. 4 rashers of bacon (optional)

Loosen the skin above the breast of the chicken and slide the butter inside it, massaging it to get it as far down as possible. Then cut the unwaxed lemon in half and place along with the garlic and the rosemary inside the large cavity of the chicken. Rub the outside of the chicken with a little oil and season with salt and pepper.

Cook chicken at 220C non fan/200C fan/gas mark 7 for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and allow 45 minutes per kg, plus 30 minutes. However, the real test of whether your chicken is cooked is if you stick a skewer in to the thigh joint and the juices run clear. 20 minutes before the chicken is ready, place bacon on top if you wish and raise the temperature to Gas Mark 7, 220 degrees non-fan, 200 degrees fan. Remove the lemon, garlic and rosemary from the chicken and leave with the cooking juices in the roasting pan. Remove the chicken and leave for 30 minutes before serving. Just before serving, place the roasting pan on the hob and on a medium heat stir the juices until they are brown and bubbling.( Don’t be tempted to squash the lemon too much or it will make your sauce too sharp!). Remove the lemon, garlic and rosemary and add the corn flour, stirring rapidly.

Add the wine and stock and allow to cook for a few minutes so that the flour cooks, and the alcohol doesn’t taste too raw. Add more water if too thick. Set aside until you are ready to serve, heat at the last moment and add some cream.

Meanwhile, whilst your chicken is “resting”For the gnocchi: 1 packet ready-made gnocchi, 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of sage leaves, salt and pepper to tast. Place the butter in a wok or a frying pan. When it is hot and bubbling add the sage and the gnocchi and pan fry stirring constantly, until the gnocchi are golden brown. Add a sprinkle of sea salt taste and they are now ready to serve

For the carrots: Chantenay carrots: 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard. Boil carrots in a saucepan for 5 minutes, then drain. In the saucepan add 1 butter, 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard and place back on the heat until it is bubbling. Add the carrots and toss them in the mixture until they are well coated

All of these things are quite rich, so I also like to have just a very plain boiled or steamed green vegetable on the side, such as broccoli or green beans…and of course a large glass of sauvignon blanc!

The Boys are back in town…tough and bitter as ever. Yes, the seville oranges are back and it’s marmalade time!

Guess who just got back today? No, not another album of Thin Lizzy’s greatest hits, but Seville oranges are in the supermarkets everywhere, hoorah! They are only in season for a few weeks so rush out now and buy some! If you are a marmalade virgin, this is your perfect chance to have the ultimate first experience. Do allow yourself some time, however as you have to pre-cook the oranges before you can start on the fun marmalade stuff.

Why are they so popular? Originating from Seville in Spain (ok, so it was in the name), these are no ordinary oranges; for a start they are sour and full of pips which makes them very unpleasant to eat raw BUT they make amazing marmalade. Their flavour lends itself to the most exquisite bitter sweet taste but the best bit is that because they have so many pips, they are jam packed (no pun intended) of pectin, which means it’s incredibly easy to get the marmalade to set. No sweating with jam thermometers and guessing whether it really will gel or not, especially if you use my fool proof recipe, you will have success. The only downside of my lovely recipe is that it is a really old one and so is in pounds rather than metric, which makes the metric quantities look a bit odd.You will Need: At least 1lb of Seville oranges (450g), Double the weight in sugar e.g. 2 lbs of preserving sugar (900g) and 2 pints of water. You will also need clean, sterilised jam jars and lids, you can also use little waxed triangles if you wish. I have made masses today, so I actually used 7 ½ lbs of oranges and 15lbs of sugar!

John loves the really dark marmalade, so I generally make half of each, and so to make a really rich version, you will need 1 tablespoon of black treacle for every pound or 450g of sugar.

How to do it:

Place your oranges in a very large saucepan or preserving pan and cover with the water
Place on a high heat and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat until it simmers, cover and leave for 2 hours or until you can poke the oranges easily with a skewer or fork.(I do this the day before and then leave them overnight to cool in the cooking water, which makes them even more tender.
Once the oranges have cooled, fish them out from the pan, making sure you leave the cooking water in
Scoop out all the seeds and place the seeds back in the water
Bring to the boil and boil on high for 10 minutes – this releases all the lovely pectin from the seeds
Whilst the liquid is boiling, chop up the oranges to your taste, or if you are lazy like me, chuck them in a food processer and pulse a few times. Don’t be tempted to over blitz it, or you will get mush.

Place a small plate in the freezer…yes, I mean it! This is so that it is easy to check whether your marmalade will set later. With a slotted spoon, fish out all the seeds and throw them away. Sorry lovely friends, I always miss quite a few, so watch out for the odd rogue seed in your pots!

Bring the liquid back to the boil and add the sugar. Now, the stalwarts of the WI would probably tell you to warm your sugar first, but when you are using Seville oranges, it’s really unnecessary. I also go for “belt and braces” and use jam sugar which adds even more to the pectin content.

If you want the dark marmalade, add 1 dessertspoon of black treacle for each pound of sugar now.

Stir until all the sugar is dissolved and then reduce the heat, but make sure it is bubbling nicely

Place your clean jam jars in the oven on Gas Mark 4, 180 degrees non-fan, 160 fan for 10 minutes to sterilise them. If you are using lids, put them in a jug and pour boiling water all over them. (Why bother sterilising? It’s because the air is full of random yeast and if you don’t kill of as much as possible, it may cause your marmalade to go mouldy).

Leave it bubbling undisturbed except for the occasional check to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom for 15 minutes.
Start to check if has reached setting consistency, by taking a teaspoon full of the marmalade and placing it on your cold plate from the freezer. Leave it a couple of minutes and then push the top with your finger; it should go thick and wrinkly which means it will set. If it doesn’t form a skin, keep boiling the marmalade checking every 5 minutes, but most will be fine after 15.

Now….decant your hot, lovely marmalade in to your jars, place a waxed circle on the top and screw the lids on.

Allow them to cool, make a piece of hot, crusty toast, add liberal amounts of butter and top with your own, lovely, lovely marmalade. It’s so easy! Look how much I actually ended up making, hopefully that will last us for ages. There are loads of other things to do with your Seville oranges as well as make marmalade, one of my favourites is that you can infuse them in a preserving jar with vodka or gin and a bit of sugar. Also don’t forget if you have made marmalade that you can use it for my easy Marmalade Bread and Butter pudding or you can use it in a steamed sponge…..more marmalade-type recipes to follow, including smearing it all over the top of a roasted duck.

Passionate about Puddings…Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

Well, it’s Sunday again and I have woken up determined to cook a traditional British Pudding to follow our garlic and rosemary roast lamb. Don’t ask me why, but these things just get me sometimes! Today I am passionate and pudding-driven – do you think that’s a recognisable mental ailment? Probably, and even my childish delight at a little alliteration is probably right up there, too!

So what’s it to be? My friend Joyce makes wonderful Bread and Butter pudding and given I have half a loaf of white bread knocking around, from when I was too lazy to go to Waitrose to buy any decent stuff and went to the garage instead, this seems the perfect solution. However, I spy a bottle of my home-made marmalade (Seville orange recipe to come next week!) and wonder what will happen if I combine the two. Let’s find out shall we?

You will need: 6 slices of white bread with the crusts cut off, butter, marmalade, a handful of raisins, 1 tablespoon of Demerara sugar (use white granulated if you haven’t got any), 15fl ozs milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, three eggs, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

Method:

Grease a shallow baking dish with a little butter
Spread the bread generously with butter and then marmalade and cut in to quarters
Place half of the quarters on the bottom of the baking dish (marmalade and butter side up) and sprinkle a few raisins over them
Place the remaining bread quarters on the top, marmalade side up and sprinkle with a few more raising
Whisk the caster sugar in to the milk, and continue to whisk in the eggs and the vanilla essence
Pour all over the bread slices and top with sprinkled Demerara sugar
Cover with cling film and leave aside for at least 30 minutes to allow the custard mixture (yes, that’s what you’ve just made!) to soak in to the bread
Place the dish in the oven, Gas Mark 5, 190 degrees non-fan, 170 fan for 30 to 45 minutes or until the top is all crispy and caramelised. Serve with plain vanilla ice-cream. This was SO simple to do and tasted just delicious, other alternatives would be to mix a little whisky in with the marmalade, or add some chunks of crystallised ginger.

Stew and Dumplings, an ultimate Sunday pleasure

What do you need to perk you up on a miserable January Sunday? Well, I can think of a lot of things, but once we’ve discounted all the immoral, illegal and improbable options, at the top of my list is comfort food. Now you can’t beat a good Sunday roast (why, oh why did Nicole Kidman do that to that poor child??) but sometimes, you need stew and not just any old stew, you need stew and dumplings. So drag out your faithful Le Creuset casserole dish (if you haven’t got one, buy one, it is a kitchen essential) and prepare to make stew. As this is post-Christmas we are unfortunately going through that terrible trauma called dieting, so this is my low-ish fat version, I haven’t compromised on the bacon lardons, the added texture and flavour is just too important, but I did use light suet. The chief thing I omitted was coating the beef in seasoned flour and frying prior to adding to the casserole, which is lovely, but you really won’t miss it too much. Additionally, you could use just liquid beef stock rather than the red wine I used.

Kim’s Healthy (ish) beef stew – Serves 4. This is not an exact science, but I reckon this would be around 600 calories per serving You will need:

500g good stewing beef
50g of diced pancetta or smoked bacon lardons,
1 large onion, chopped
2 crushed garlic cloves
bouquet garni (homemade or shop bought, see method for making your own below)
1 chopped leek
¾ bottle of red wine
Beef stock cube or 1 of those little Knorr jelly ones (note, they are very salty so don’t add additional salt until you have tasted it at the end)
For the dumplings
100g flour,
50g suet – you can get vegetarian or light if you prefer
½ teaspoon mixed herbs

Method: 1) Place the pancetta or bacon lardons in the bottom of your casserole and place over a medium heat on the hob, they will start to brown and will throw off a little oil. 2) Add the onions and the garlic and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are softened and brown.

3) Add the beef and cook, stirring until it is browned all over

4) Add the stock, the bouquet garni, red wine and leeks 5) Bring to the boil and then place a tight fitting lid on top and place in the oven for 1 ½ hours at Gas Mark 4 or 160 degree Fan assisted 180 degree not.

In the meantime make the dumplings by mixing the flour, suet and herbs together and adding just enough cold water to make a stiff mixture. Divide in to 6 balls. Finally, place on top of the stew and put in the oven for a further 20 minutes, keep the lid on firmly for the whole of the cooking time, don’t open it up and let out the steam.

You are now ready to serve, with just plain, steamed vegetables if you want to keep the calories down or with lovely buttery mash.

A nifty way of making a bouquet garni that doesn’t fill your stew with bits of old twig, is to get a handful of fresh herbs of your choice e.g. thyme, rosemary, sage, bay and using the outer skin from your leek, wrap them up tidily in the leek and seal it with string. That way, you get all the flavour but no bits and it really does look nice!

FinallyAtora suet has been a bit of an institution for years, here’s a link to their website which has loads of recipes. You can make the most brilliant things with suet – fantastic steamed puddings…watch this blog for details in the future

http://www.atora.co.uk/

Plumed Horse, Edinburgh – a michelin star for the birthday girl

Despite flu, freezing temperatures and airport delays, we started 2011 with a visit to Edinburgh to celebrate the 40th birthday of the lovely Sherri (the baking diva of white chocolate chip cookie fame). Staying at the magnificent Balmoral Hotel in Princes Street (best shortbread, ever) we turned up for her surprise birthday dinner arranged by her partner, Mark.

Edinburgh is rich in michelin starred restaurants and in fact the dining room at the Balmoral itself has a michelin star, but in the week after New Year, only one was open! At least that took away any disagreement as to where we went, although I have to say I was a little disappointed to miss out on ‘the Kitchin’ as Tom Kitchin is rather a favourite of mine, curly haired little minx that he is.

A short taxi ride from the city centre and we arrived at the Plumed Horse. The restaurant was first started at Crossmichael in 1998 by chef Tony Borthwick and his then business partner. It did exceptionall well for an out-of-town restaurant and when it moved premises to the business area a couple of years ago, breaths were bated as to whether he could sustain his michelin star, which he did in 2009. The restaurant itself is unpretentious and reasonably small, but the staff were welcoming, this is not over-the-top michelin glitz, but felt comfortable. They display paintings from local artists on their walls, which I though was a great idea to promote the local art scene. We opted for their tasting menu at £59.00 per head with a wine selection for each course at a further £40 per head.

Unexceptional canapes kicked off with a lovely glass of champagne to toast the 40th birthday, followed by a really delicious veloute of Jerusalem artichokes, which was light and fluffy, garnished with a quail’s egg, chives and truffle oil. This was followed by the fish course which was Sauteed Fillet of Sea Bream, Hand Dived Scallop,Chickpea, Smoked Haddock & Crab Casserole,Saffron & Mild Curry Spices which I found mildly disappointing – the sea bream wasn’t as melting as I would like and I couldn’t taste either the crab or the curry in the casserole. The next course of foie gras and wood pigeon was rich and flavoursone and the thyme brioche accompaniment was very good with it. As the birthday girl commented “Who doesn’t like bread?’. This was followed by Lamb with spinach, clapshot (mashed potato, turnip and carrot), Rosemary & Garlic Gnocchi and lamb jus. The lamb was nice, but not amazing and I found the clapshot a little bland whereas the gnocchi were almost over-seasoned but all in all a very nice dish. We were served a pre-dessert which was really the first time the whole table “ooh-ed and ahh-ed”. This was a small glass dish with a lemon and ginger meringue dessert that was sublime, better in fact than the actual dessert which followed it, Honey & Clotted Cream Parfait with mulled wine poached plums. There wasn’t anything wrong with this dessert, in fact the parfait itself was creamy and delicious, but honey and plums simply aren’t my favourites. the meal was rounded off with some petits fours served on a thoughtfully “Happy Birthday” chocolate iced plate.

The wine choices throughout the meal had been well worth it, they were thoughtful and well-suited to the food and plentiful to the extreme, as our lovely waiter was simply serving a quarter bottle each per course.

We had a fantastic evening, Sherri looked and was amazing on her birthday night and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Would I go back even if it was local to me? I would probably give it another chance as some of the food was very good, but at no point was I blown away, but do remember, I’m very critical!

2010 in review – this is what WordPress said..Happy New Year xx

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 62 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 463 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 434mb. That’s about 1 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was July 20th with 87 views. The most popular post that day was Cupcakes, champagne and red roses – throw in 4 divas and it’s a hell of an afternoon’s baking.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, facebook.com, iconfactory.com, maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk, and refzip.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for what kim cooked next, fiduela, shakespeare’s head brighton, shakespeares head brighton, and wai kika moo kau.