Cornwall etc.

First my camera was stolen. Then it was broken. Now it's broken again. I have no luck at all with cameras. Luckily, I managed to borrow my Dad's camera to take away with me and stick my memory card in.

Chicken, pepper and spinach pizza.

Pints of local beer and cider outside a pub, writing postcards.

Sausages from the butcher next door, eggs bought from a stall at the side of the road and sourdough and blue cheese stuffed mushrooms.

Bouillabaise.

In the oven: Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies. They got mixed reviews so I cut the recipe down to 1/3, but they're flourless and use egg whites instead of the whole egg. Tons of sugar though.

Edited to add: I think I overmixed them - they've puffed up like meringues! Fail.

Edited again to add: That is the sugariest, most horrible mess I have ever made. My teeth hurt and they're in the bin.

Okay, so this blog is very late but oh well.

I went to Manhattan for christmas. It's the second time I've been and although the first time i was taken a back by the food, i was mainly eating at food chains, Starbucks and Pizza Parlours. Second time around i knew that i could find more. I wanted to immerse myself into the deli lifestyle of the modern New Yorker:

Apple Muffins in an organic bakery...

..that also made very delicious marshmallows.

Bakery. Boy, i love me some cake!

I bought a baguette from here whenever possible. It's beautiful.

This place is called Amy's Bread. She made cakes too!

But here is her bread! Amazing selection, all baked in store.

There's a deli called Dean & DeLuca. Buy a macaroon from them and go to heaven.

The Cranberry Loaf Train.

At our previous visit to Kate we went to a lovely tea house called Tea Sutra Teahouse and oh boy, this place really is the epitome of relaxing. Bamboo, tea leaves in jars on the walls, incense and a little floor seating area where you must remove your shoes; perfect.

The highlight of this tea house is by far the tea selection which is served in lovely little tea, pots that are shaped like elephants and the cake selection. 

In contrast to the tea menu, the baked goods selection is small but varied. From a jam shortbread to a carrot cake, there was something for everyone (even for those with gluten & wheat fears). But what stood out as the surprise treat was this delicious orange and cranberry loaf that my friend had ordered. If was simply, the best fruit loaf that i have ever had and i'm the person who detests raisons. Light orange flavoured sponge with a soft crumb, dotted with cranberries and topped with a citrus buttercream. 

Lovely tea!

The seated area. NO SHOES ALLOWED!

We made it as soon as we got back to manchester. I just adapted a lemon loaf cake by changing the juice and zest to orange, added floured dried cranberries (if you lightly coat dried fruit/nuts/chocolate chips with flour before adding to cake batter, they don't end up at the bottom of the cake!) and topped it all with a lemon and orange bog standard buttercream. Hannah wanted to add a little glam to the cake, so we added some of those lemon sweet jelly things. IT WAS SO GOOD.

Oooh, so citrus, so nice.

Picnic Postcards V1.1

Sorry about the serious lack of scrimpy food pictures and recipes.
Neither of us have had much time, but now we're 100% on the sexeh food pics.
L.