Wedding Weekend

Events, Recipes

This weekend I went to the wedding of Richard’s friends Kate & Sam.
The happy couple had arranged for all the guests to stay in groups in lodges at a holiday park in Woodhall Spa. It was great, each lodge was crossed between a modern apartment and a log cabin in the woods…each one complete with a hot tub on the patio!

We arrived on Friday night with a box of homemade cookies and a few goodies from the supermarket deli counter.
We figured that cookies would be good to share with the other guests at whatever time we arrived and would last the weekend. We made these double chocolate chip cookies from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe which you can find here.

And we made our own cranberry, cherry, oat and white chocolate ones too which also went down a treat. (see below for the recipe)

We unpacked the cookies and the booze and then opened the fridge to pile in the cheeses and cured meats we had brought, then suddenly burst into a fit of giggles when we realised that a couple of other guests had clearly had exactly the same idea, resulting in an extremely well stocked “assiette” fridge!

After being introduced to what felt like a hundred smiling new faces I sloped off to bed, sleepy from all the baking and travelling.

The following day was the wedding, it was wonderful, a really happy occasion. The bride looked brilliant in a dramatic white dress with lace accessories. I was particularly impressed that when the celebrations moved to the reception party Kate’s dress was swiftly altered to become slightly shorter for dancing and her fascinator was discreetly swapped for a tiny top hat with feathers as a nod to the Alice in Wonderland theme.

We shared a barbecue meal, drank pink champagne and signed our names on pieces of Jenga for a guest book that they can play with over the years to come: Genius!

Later on Richard and I pulled out a bottle of tequila and everyone started dancing to the live ska band (who to my surprise were the same band who played at my graduation in Norwich in 2006 and, fuelled by tequila, I proceeded to bore everyone I could about this coincidence).
The tequila was pretty special too because I had half remembered something I had seen on tv – the theory is that if it’s 100% agave you don’t feel hungover the next day. I would not wish to encourage binge drinking but I am starting to find that even one glass of wine can give me a bit of a hazy head the following morning and surely anything that’s 100% something sounds pretty good right? We found such a product in Waitrose called “el Jimador” so I decided we should give it a whirl.

Sunday arrived and I got up feeling sleepy but not as grotty as I had expected (thanks agave!) and we headed out for a quick round of crazy golf before hitting the road.

Big congratulations to the lovely Kate and Sam, wishing you lots of happiness xxx

Cranberry, Cherry, Oat & White Chocolate Cookies

Makes 18-20 cookies

Ingredients

85g butter, at room temperature
115g light brown sugar
1 egg
115g self-raising flour
55g rolled oats
100g of white chocolate, chopped
45g of dried cranberries
35g of glacé cherries, sliced
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, gas mark 4). Line a baking sheet with a piece of grease proof paper.

2) Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy in a free standing mixer with the paddle attachment, then beat in the egg.

3) Add the flour and cinnamon and beat once more until thoroughly combined, then fold in the oats, cranberries, cherries and chocolate

4) Drop rounded dessertspoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheet, leaving enough space around each cookie to allow it to spread during baking. Bake the cookies in batches – I made about 9 cookies each time and just changed the grease proof paper for each batch.

5) Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown at the edges. Cool slightly on the paper, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. I keep forgetting to buy a wire rack so a few sheets of kitchen paper on a plate works ok too.

Sunday Shopping with Stylist!

Cooking

By the end of the afternoon even a double espresso and a slab of rocky road didn’t make a dent on the shopping fatigue.
We hadn’t been to every shop in London but my feet could have sworn otherwise.
Even though we stopped to refuel on a big stack of pancakes with bacon, maple syrup & poached eggs; (which I inhaled at brunch time) by the last few shops we had definitely started fading.

Rhodora handed me another pile of frocks and thrust me into a changing room, I’d then emerge to await her critique. This might involve a conversation about a massive necklace or she’d rummage around for a belt to hurl around my waist whilst she’d look at my reflection in the mirror with her head critically angled to one side. After one too many failed outfits the conversation just stopped. I’d open the door expecting to be pulled about and sleeves or neckline adjustments to be made but if the ensemble really failed to meet her high expectations Rhodora would just silently close the door of the changing room to hide herself from the sight. I couldn’t help but burst into giggles at the mock distain on her face, at least by this point I knew she was mucking about…

…I didn’t know whether or not she was joking when she dressed me in this at the beginning of the outing. I’m still not sure; does this say “resourceful home cook” to you?

Take One (Cont..)

Cooking

Well that was a bit of a blur. I think our first rehearsal went pretty successfully. All the food was eaten at the end of the shoot so I take that as a good sign for the cooking at least.
As for my presenting, well, let’s just say it’s harder than I thought.
Luckily Sophia has taken me under her wing and arranged for me to attend a presenters masterclass next week so I hope to shake off a couple of nerves and the odd inhibition before the final shoot date.

Today should be fun though; window shopping with my stylist! Yep, that’s right, I have a stylist now.
This is because we want to make this pilot as good as it can be and Rhodorah has some brilliant ideas. It’s also one less thing for me to think about/mess up too! You may have noticed from my first video (Strawberry Brunch) that my hair was unbrushed and my shirt was in fact filthy (I thought it was clean on, honest) clearly I cannot be trusted with my own appearance. Whereas; Rhodorah always looks immaculate and even though I shall probably only be able to pay her in cocktails and cakes I admit it’s quite nice to start sentences with “my stylist says…”

Take one

Cooking, In the bag

We are soon to be filming Episode 1 of a series of cookery shows and today is our first rehearsal. Right now I’m feeling very excited and horribly nervous in equal quantities

Just got to pack my bag and hit the shops for the ingredients…I think I have everything:

Jubi-picnic!

Cooking, Events

My Jubilee Weekend

I am slightly ashamed to say that with all the meetings, recipe testing and business planning I almost entirely forgot about the 4 day weekend of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Luckily I was prompted just in time when my good pal Helen asked if I would like to go to a street party on Sunday.

Still keen to stick to my healthier ways I whipped up a light, wholesome Jubilee Picnic ready to share at whichever East London bash that would be willing to let us pull up a plastic chair.

I made coronation chicken skewers using free range chicken breasts, yellow peppers and dried fruit, served with a dip made from Greek yoghurt, curry powder, coriander and lemon juice.

For a more whole-food cucumber sandwich I used rye bread filled with quark, cucumber and dill.

And as a sweet treat I made some Lemon & Lavender Drizzle Cake & Portmary Scones (both from Harry Eastwood’s book) which were lovely.

I felt a royal picnic would not be complete without a little Pimm’s but instead of Lemonade I used Perrier to mix which isn’t half bad and much kinder on the teeth!

We decided to head to London Fields as we thought that there was a good chance that Broadway Market or Columbia Road Market (both pretty much side by side) would be having some kind of shin dig. No such luck. Broadway Market was empty and Columbia Road had it’s usual Flower Market, which is always nice (and one of the flower sellers made a fuss of Helen’s bowler hat) but it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. Just as we were about to give up hope we heard the “thud thud thud” of some exciting music and tried to work out where it was coming from. This was the final nail in the coffin that was our street party hunt as the music in question was coming from the boot speakers of a parked car next to an unmanned barbecue and a small bouncy castle complete with a single kid. I’m sure this street party livened up later on but at this point we were cold and damp from the drizzle so lugged our picnic back to Helen’s flat.

This turned out to be the best decision; Helen’s flat has bunting, hot coffee and a TV on which we could watch the live broadcast of all the celebratory boats sailing down the Thames and all the rain was outside 🙂

Happy Bank Holiday x

Super fast cakes!

Recipes

To make myself more productive I have taken on lots of collaborative projects as working with others makes me work harder.

This week meant a second meeting with Helen & Sophia who are to be the brains behind my next YouTube cookery show. I am extremely lucky to work with them, they are possibly some of the most professional and talented people I have ever met and I am constantly terrified of letting them down which pushes me on to make sure the scripts are done on time and the recipe is properly tested. Eeek!

This meeting was no different, I made sure my “homework” of completing the first draft of the script was ready and I had a quick tidy round. About 15 minutes before they were due to arrive I suddenly decided that I should give them something to eat. Cake; cakes are always good, right? But 15 minutes is a bit of a push even for me but most foodies have at least one or two solid recipes they can pull out at a moments notice and this is mine.

Orange Buns:

(excuse the imperial measurements – it’s the one recipe which I don’t do metric – weird, I know)

For the cakes:

4oz self raising flour

4oz of sugar

4oz butter, melted

2 free range eggs

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

zest of 1 orange

juice of half an orange

For the frosting:

2 tablespoons of cream cheese

juice of half an orange

icing sugar to taste

1 passionfruit to serve.

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°c

Line a 12 hole bun tin with cake cases – this is brilliant for speedy cooking because you don’t need to grease the tin!

Mix all the cake ingredients together and whisk with a handheld electric whisk until smooth and pale.

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the cake cases dividing it evenly and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cakes are cooked through (check by inserting a cocktail stick – if it comes out clean then they are ready)

Put the cakes on a wire rack to cool and get back to the meeting!

Sneak back to the kitchen and mix up the frosting, adding a dessertspoonful of icing sugar at a time until it tastes sweet enough to your liking. Whisk until smooth then plonk dollops of the frosting onto the cooled cakes. Top with a few passionfruit seeds and serve. Winner!

The demon roast veg!

Cooking

I love roast vegetables. I do. The ultimate mix is probably my Dad’s. He uses red peppers, aubergines, red onions, courgettes and carrots smothered in garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and then once roasted they are scattered with feta cheese and returned to the oven just for a moment so that the feta becomes fluffy – amazing! This dish reminds me of Saturday nights in front of the TV watching Bugs (please tell me I am not the only person who remembers this 90’s gem?!).

To keep my wobbly hormones in check I need to keep fairly slim. Generally it’s going pretty well. As much as I can I have switched to wholemeal alternatives and was surprised initially at how easy I found it to cut out sugar, but this week, I have really struggled. My new routine should be frighteningly healthy and consist of a breakfast like; wholemeal toast with avocado and/or a poached egg, a fruit smoothie with added spirulina and either a black coffee or herbal tea. Snacks of seeds, nuts or dried fruit, during the day, light lunches and an even lighter dinner. But, lately, I’ve been waking up without an appetite and therefore eating more and more later on, or worse, eating lots when I’m not even hungry.

Last night was particularly bad as I made a huge tray of roast vegetables for which I had a massive craving. I ate a great big greasy bowlful, half a pack of feta cheese and still went back for more and some flapjacks! This morning, not wanting to go to the shops I started to heat up the rest in the guise of brunch, but looking at it dished up, I stopped myself and had some fruit instead.

I have started to find it easy to fall back into the trap of eating as something to do. Loosing weight is hard, keeping it off is harder. I know, stuffing my face with vegetables isn’t exactly the same as eating a big plate of fish and chips but I have had a week of biscuits, ice cream, cocktails and a vat of chilli con carne so I do need to get back on track. Enough is enough.

For me the important thing is to acknowledge what’s happening. If I go into autopilot and start scoffing my dinners mindlessly in front of the telly it’s going to be harder and harder to get back to my sourdough and avocado ways. And what happened to my 10 minutes a day of exercise? I’ll tell you what happened; I stopped doing it that’s what!

There are many reasons why I find lifestyle changes hard – stress, laziness, lack of confidence, I’m sure everyone has a dip now and then. It’s the same reason why a few kitchen chores get neglected, I don’t keep up with the laundry and sometimes I find it a real push to write with any kind of regularity.

This blog post is to give myself a bit of a ticking off. An online disapproving glance and “Ahem”. We shall see this week if it works, the proof is in the pudding (must not eat pudding).

Desk of the week!

In the bag

I did lots of little excited dances when I was asked to feature on Kindred HQ’s desk of the week yesterday! Such a lovely site and I am over the moon! Click here to see the whole interview

So incase you were wondering what all the little bits and bobs which I surround myself with are….

1. Trusty Laptop

2. Toast with avocado, spinach and poached egg for lunch! Blend half an avocado with a handful of spinach and some lemon juice for a superfood spread.

3. Please do not expect me to string together a sentence before I’ve had a double espresso

4. In a vague attempt to get my things in some kind of order I have gone mad on ebay buying up vintage biscuit tins! Seemed logical.

5. Photos of lovely people

6. Flyer for my end of year exhibition from my degree at Norwich School of Art & Design. This holds lovely memories, and it’s also a useful reminder of the year of my graduation for when I am filling out forms.

7. Tiny wooden cat from my brother when he lived in Japan

8. I love this clutch purse and although it is almost ruined by cocktail stains I can’t seem to part with it.

9. Rusty pie tins for more storage – not one of my better ideas.

10. Old graze platter boxes are super for cards and envelopes though.

11. Recipe cards from Abel & Cole – their veg boxes are super!

12. My lovely yellow satchel 🙂

Ahem…and here’s all the rest of the stuff I cleared off the desk onto the floor to take the picture! Sshhhh 😉

Vegan in the house

Recipes

Richard is rehearsing for Kin right now and we have the stage manager, Liam staying with us. He arrived straight from Heathrow airport on Tuesday night after spending the last 18 months travelling. It must have been a bit of a shock to his system to be thrown straight into a busy London theatre schedule only hours after stepping of a plane from a very extended holiday in India. Richard had made some pork and lentil stew with some boiled grain mix so there was plenty left over to heat up when he arrived, but on the realisation that Liam was Vegan I quickly began frying plantain, toasting sunflower seeds and slicing avocado in blind panic. I have never cooked Vegan food before because I know so few. Luckily he seemed happy enough with the strange plate of grains, seeds, vegetables and salad I handed to him but I felt that I really should come up with some proper food to give him next time.

I asked a few leading questions to find out what sort of food he likes and last night, after consulting a handful of vegetarian cook books and a whole host of vegan blogs I decided to try and make him a decent meal.

I found it extremely hard at first because it seemed to me that almost every thing I like to make included egg, yoghurt or cheese somewhere so I really had to concentrate and not finish sauces with butter or add a splash of milk to anything. I chose to make these Vegan Bangers and Mash and a Carrot cake recipe I found online and I think, for my first attempt at Vegan cookery it wasn’t too bad.

Vegan Sausages

Ingredients

1 punnet of mushrooms, weighing around 400g, finely diced

2 small onions finely diced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

100g of oats

1 tbsp of wholemeal flour (plus extra for coating)

1 tbsp of peanut butter

dried thyme

tsp of fresh herbs like savoury, chives or flat leaf parsley

salt and black pepper

Olive oil

Method

Fry the mushrooms in a little olive oil until cooked through. Place in a large mixing bowl and then fry the onions. When they start to soften add to the mushrooms. Into the mushrooms and onion mix add the flour, oats, peanut butter, herbs garlic and seasoning. Stir really well squashing and mashing everything together. (I blitzed mine in the hand blender very very slightly so that it stuck together a little better but still kept lots of chunks of mushroom and onion, I won’t lie, it’s not a pretty mixture but it will turn out ok).

Leave the mixture to cool until it is cold enough to handle. Put about 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour onto a plate and dust your hands with flour too – the mixture is sticky – and shape the mixture into 9 sausages. Roll them in the flour and then shallow fry in a little more olive oil until golden brown.

I served mine with mashed potato (made with soya milk and olive oil) with spinach and nutmeg folded though it and a splash of onion and rosemary gravy.

For dessert we had this Carrot Cake from the Permaculture Magazine website. Although, I didn’t have any maple syrup so I used honey which was still really nice…big slices got eaten so I suspect that is a good sign.

There’s no business like…food business!

Cooking

Working from home as a freelance food writer is brilliant! I am my own boss and am doing the job I love. The only problem is the occasional dip* in motivation. In the past, when I have worked for other organisations I pull out all the stops to meet the deadlines set by my employer, now that I’m my own employer I seem to have become a bit of a slacker, perhaps I should put myself on a formal warning.

*substitute “dip” for plummet!

I hate letting other people down but for some reason I find it very easy to let myself down, I’ll work all night or all weekend for somebody else but can easily spend weeks watching the Fraiser box set instead of writing my book. Thankfully help is out there. A few months ago I found an organisation called Kindred HQ on twitter who seem to be a great big digital hug to freelancers. They have life coaching tips, fingers in almost every social media pie and are now running regular meet-up events called “Jelly” where freelancers can work together. Super! I particularly enjoy their “desk of the week” feature on their website where you get to have a little nosy at someone else’s workspace – another thing I’m probably clicking on when I should be cooking or writing!

Reading through the motivational tips or life coaching advice the recurring themes seem to be to:

break daunting projects down into smaller tasks
get the boring or difficult pieces of work out of the way first
and to tell other people your plans in order to help you stay focussed.

I have decided to go one step further than just telling my friends what I am doing, instead I have chosen to work with them; as I am convinced that I will be much more motivated on collaborative projects – I will want to make it a success for them too, much more than if I were to work on something alone.

Firstly I am hoping to go into business with Bradley, a fantastic chef and actor. We are planning some exciting new food and events projects in London (that’s all you’re getting on this for now, you’ll have to keep checking back for details!)

Secondly, I am meeting up with Animation Director Helen Piercy tomorrow as we are hopefully going to be producing some more cookery videos! It was enormous fun to work with her on a video of Strawberry Brunch Recipes (as part of a zine I published last year) and I cannot wait to work with her again.

My friend Alison (who popped round for the gnocchi making workshop) took me to see Alan Carr – Chatty Man being filmed last night. It was a brilliant evening and I came out buzzing with ideas ready for my meeting with Helen. Strangely the ides are mostly fashion related as part of the show featured a very exciting performance by Nelly Furtado, who was dressed in a long sleeve gold sequinned top and black skinny trousers with a long black mesh skirt over the top. Alison is now convinced that this is the kind of thing I should be wearing in my cookery videos…watch the show and let me know what you think! (Channel 4, Fri 18 May, 10pm) oh and 10 points if you can spot us in the audience!

Today I got stuck into making sketches, watching YouTube videos of cookery shows and writing. I haven’t felt this motivated in months and I seriously think it is the thought of collaborating which is keeping me so focussed….not that focussed though, I paused for a break, got distracted and left my lunch to burn in the saucepan, luckily I remembered before the house caught fire! I’m off to the shops to buy a scouring pad. x

Miriam Nice

creative – author – presenter

Wedding Weekend

Sunday Shopping with Stylist!

Take One (Cont..)

Take one

Jubi-picnic!

My Jubilee Weekend

Super fast cakes!