cookery

Help wanted

Cooking

Firstly I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of the followers of this blog! Super chuffed that you’ve not only read one of my rambling recipe posts but that you want to read another one – you’re all 100% ace!

The next thing on my list of things to say today is sorry for not posting on Friday. It’s the one New Year’s resolution which I’m actually vaguely sticking to (with the exception of last week). Turns out that the excuse “my dog ate it” won’t wash with digital stuff… so the truth is that I was away in Nottingham last week having adventures; like interviewing a butcher, interviewing a pop-up restauranteur, attending a script read-through and baking a very wonky Tardis birthday cake – more on these things very soon.

And now (sheepishly) I need a big favour from you guys. Plans are afoot for a foodie podcast “Nice in the Kitchen” which I’ll be working on with the wonderful, magical Helen Piercy. There will be cooking, chatting, eating and general silliness which you will be able to download from the interwebs. We also want to do a Q&A section where I answer some of your food/cookery related queries. So if you’ve got a jar of onion marmalade in your fridge you don’t know what to do with or perhaps a recipe you’ve tried a heap of times but just can’t get right, (or any other food or cooking questions you can think of) – please do get in touch and we’ll read out and do our best to answer as many as we can during the podcast. You can leave your questions in the comments box or use my snazzy new contact form.

Thanks again, have a lovely week x

Nice in the kitchen

New podcast logo!

Boxing Day Sandwich Designer of the Year 2012!

Cooking, Events

Boxing Day Sandwich Design Competition 2012Firstly; THANK YOU!!! to everyone who entered this competition, we had some amazing designs and it was very difficult to choose the winner.

Another big thank you also goes to all of you who watched and shared the YouTube video, liked and shared Facebook reminders and for all your wonderful RTs on Twitter – without you social media dudes we wouldn’t have been able to do it. xxx

So, without further ado….I am pleased to announce that the miriamnice.com Boxing Day Sandwich Designer of the Year Award 2012 goes to:

Zara

Zara Gardner

who won with her “Merry Mushroom Melty” Sandwich

Congratulations!

Zara

What the judges said: “Sounds really tasty”, “would like to be at Zara’s house where there’s leftover ale and homemade bread!”

Well done Zara! I’m totally gonna make one of these this week!

We had some smashing runners up too:

Sarah

Sarah

Runner Up: Sarah’s “Euro Teaser”

Raj

Raj

Runner Up: Raj’s “Turkey Tikka”

Hayley

Hayley

Runner Up: Hayley’s “The Fabulous Vegetarian Tree Topped Roll”

Congratulations to the winners and runners up and thank you again to everyone who sent in designs, here are a few more delicious ideas:

Bradley

Bradley’s “Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich”

Helen

Helen’s “Big Boxing Basco Bagel”

Jon

Jon’s “Raiders of the Lost Fridge Bagel”

Richard

Richard’s “Nice to Meat you”

I ran this competition in association with Total Greek Yoghurt (who very kindly donated the prizes and tweeted like mad on our behalf!) to raise awareness of my chosen charity Action Against Hunger. The competition was centered around using up leftovers from all of our wonderful yuletide feasting so it felt right to set up a page on Just Giving to ask people to donate to those for whom leftovers aren’t really a thing. Please do give what you can by clicking on the “sponsor me” button below. And here is some more information on how Action Against Hunger use your donations.

JustGiving - Sponsor me now!

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?

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Take One (Cont..)

Cooking

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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:

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