Grazie Grazia.....Mood=Amazing

A couple of weeks ago i was called by a freelance writer wanting to write an article on 'Tapping into your potential'. I think that through out my life, career and experiences, i have not reached my potential yet, but definitely tapped into my potential. When you stop learning, you stop living.

This happened by a total fluke a good 8 years ago....

I was on a path of art, architecture and design and loved the history of the world and different cultures and how art represented it, but the art got a little boring and became stagnant for me. So the next best thing was to cook my way through different cultures and as times were changing so was food. So this was the best escape and the best outlet to keep moving with the times.

Now back to the article.

So this article was being sponsored by American Express which was great, and there were going to be other women written about in this article along side me. I was told that i would have a small section in this and for me that was FANTASTIC. Grazia magazine is by far the most up to date, most read and respected fashion and news magazine i know, and to have a centimetre in it would be great.

Well this morning i got a call from my husband telling me to rush out and get it. So i did. I nearly passed out. I got the full page article. THE WHOLE THING!!!!

It is beautifully presented, nice black background against my canapes dish, and also my picture which is quite big. The text is relevant and very precise and i hope that when people read this they too can see that they have the potential to do what they like.

Life is once, and i think that you have to be ready to take a fall at one point to reach to where you want to go. Nothing is easy but it sure helps when you are doing what you love!!!!

Press clippings..... Mood=Ego boost

Sushi secrets......Mood=Secretive

I and everyone else in my family absolutely love to eat Japanese food. When ever, where ever, how ever we can get it. My father used to take us when we were children some 20 years ago in London when it was not so fashionable and there were no Itsu's, Yo sushi, or Wasabi chains around every corner. I have to say that i am a sushi snob. I wont go ANYWHERE. It has to be good considering the money you are paying for it.

My favourite sushi restaurants are quite fashionable but i don't go for the scenery. More for the food and the relationships i have with the waiters who always suggest new things on the menu and alternative fish to try.

Now back to my secret.... It is still going to remain a secret but have to say something about it because it is Fantastic. I heard about it through the grapevine and was sworn not to say where this place was but i can say what i ate and how delicious it was, right?

So myself my husband and brother in law went there the other day, (i went again today) and found this place to be a bit of a dump. But when i saw the buzz of people, the queue and speed that the food was coming out, i became excited. They have the fish in the traditional sushi style counters with an army of men just slicing away at the freshest fish possible. I saw some fish being delivered and i have to say they looked gorgeous.

So we ate and ate and ate and were surprised at the NOT so damaging bill that arrived a short while later. This was also the main point of this place, was that you are getting superior quality sushi at particularly low prices. Later on i found that they were also the main suppliers to most Japanese restaurants in London and figured they were making their money else where. Plus the place is tiny.

We ate Sea bass sushi/ sashimi, spicy salmon roll, spider crab roll, yellow tail sushi/sashimi, salmon sushi/sashimi, tempura, unagi sushi, ikura sushi etc etc. The dishes just kept coming and we couldn't stop eating. It was the BEST sushi i have ever eaten and felt happy to pay for it.

The pictures here are from when i went for lunch and it was between myself, my sister and dad. It was gone before we knew it but worth every bite. We are very much a famiy of 'now you see it now you dont' as i think you would be too if you were there.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as i enjoyed eating what was in them !!!!

(sushi clock, unfortunately could not eat that)

Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble... Mood=Frightful

Halloween. Where did it all begin? Apparently a loooong time ago. William Shakespeare wrote about witches, murder, and ghosts in Macbeth, 1606, but that is not going far back enough.

The Gaelic festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". They believed that the separation of this world and the next was very thin especially around this period. But through out the ages we have not changed our perception of this dark side. In the 800's they used to put skulls on their doors at this time of year to ward off bad spirits and sometimes dressed as scary characters so that the evil spirits would stay away from them and think they were the same.

So technically things have not changed, and our imagery of this time of year still represents evil, witches, ghosts and trickery. But one thing has become different; the element of fun, baking, carving and dressing up for a laugh. There are no dark undertones to Halloween these days, and it is just an excuse to have a day to let your hair down and get dressed up.

Now to the baking. I have made some fantastic little cookies in the shapes of witches, cats, broom sticks, pumpkins, bats and owls as you can see in the photos.... All representative of the dark side. Still tasty never the less.


I bought this book by Peggy Porschen who is by far the best cake decorator i have come across and from her book she shows some great techniques from icing, to flooding, to cake decorating. If you have the chance and there is a little baker inside of you definitely have a look a her books, you will be inspired, I was.

For the Pumpkin, its very simple, make a stencil drawing of what you want and then outline it on the pumpkin and follow the lines. Then cut off the top and scrape out the filling. Make sure to put a little tea light inside to make maximum effect like i have done, and hey presto....



This is the witches recipe in Macbeth, i assure you mine is better even though they are the professionals....

WITCH 1:
Round about the caldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!
ALL:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

WITCH 2:
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
WITCH 3:
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock digg’d i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL:

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

The recipe:

200g unsalted soft butter

200g caster sugar

1 egg

400g plain flour

Method:

• Cream the butter and sugar together. Don't over work.

• Add the egg and mix again till well combined

• Add the flour and mix until a dough forms and then roll it into a ball and put it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least one hour.

• While this dough is in the fridge, make you icing.

• You can buy Royal icing from any cake shop, and just mix it with droplets of water till you reach the consistency you want .

• When the dough is ready, roll it out and cut out the shapes you want and put in a hot oven 180 degrees for about 6-10 minutes depending on the size you cut the shapes.

• When ready, leave to cool and then decorate with your icing and sprinkles.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Drink me, Eat me..... Mood=Mad tea party

Who loves a crazier story than Alice in Wonderland.... I just read a synopsis of the book that i read as a child and let me say one thing, its absolutely insane. You forget how peoples imaginations can just go to such extremes and literally beyond imagination.

Alice's journey through her wonderland required her to drink potions and eat cake to change size to be able to get through this so called wonderland. All i will ask of you is to see the magical scenery and enjoy the pictures of the cookies i made for such a party.

Theme: Alice in Wonderland

Request: Eat me Biscuits to suit theme.

Venue: Cuckoo

As you can see, the venue was completely transformed by an acquaintance of mine, for her dear friends birthday. I was very excited to be asked to make the cookies as her parties are always so much fun and as you can see, very dramatic.

Drama and exaggeration are the theme of Alice in wonderland and so was the setting. It suited even the maddest of hatters!!!!

Carrot cake heaven....Mood= Moorish

I love love love carrot cake, and there isn't anyone i have met who doesn't feel the same. It feels like it is healthy because of the carrots so its always justified when you eat another portion. But don't let that fool you.... There are quite a few calories in this cake but it is definitely worth it.

When making this cake, it is always good to have everything ready and prepared when you start. You don't want to start grating carrots when you have already combined the flour in to the egg mixture. So 'Mise en place' is super important. Once you do this, this cake recipe will be one of your all time favourites to make.

I like to add Orange zest to this recipe which is an alteration to the original as i feel it brings out the flavour of the carrots.

Recipe:

170ml vegetable oil

225g caster sugar

2 large eggs

225 g flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

170g grated peeled carrots

2 teaspoons of grated orange zest and a squeeze of orange juice

Icing:

55g soft butter

110g philadelphia cream cheese

1/2 grated zest of orange

225g icing sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Method:

• Heat the oven to 170 degrees and line 2 x round 11x 8 tins

• Mix oil and sugar and mix

• Then add the eggs

• Sift the flour bicarb, cinnamon and salt into the the egg mix and combine thoroughly

• Add vanilla, carrots and orange zest and juice and mix again.

• Pour into the prepared tins and cook for at least 45-1 hour

When cakes have come out and cooled, put the icing on the top of one, then place the second cake on top. Then place the rest of the icing on the top of that one and down the sides, covering the whole thing.

I like to leave this in the fridge for a while so the icing can harden a little.

then serve and enjoy what i have been enjoying for years!!!!

Chicken soup for the ..... Mood= soul fuel

I know the old wives tale of chicken soup being the anti biotic for all illnesses, but its true. For me anyway....Researchers in Nebraska university found that some components of the chicken soup inhibit the white blood cell migration, which may have an anti inflammatory effect that could hypothetically lead to temporary ease from symptoms of illness.

Chicken soup is cheap easy, and comforting. When one is down in the dumps and low on energy, making a pot of chicken soup is sometimes the only answer. According to food historians chicken soup was prescribed for the common cold in ancient Egypt.

I usually make this soup once a month just to keep my strength up. When cooking chicken on the bone it usually increases the calcium level in the broth, so its better to use a whole chicken when you do this.

Recipe:

1 whole chicken
2 onions peeled

6-8 cardamom pods
4 carrots

5 potatoes

1/2 fennel

hot boiling water enough to cover the chicken

Method:

• Peel the 2 onions and keep them whole.

• Get a big deep pot and place a little olive oil in the bottom and add the onions, fennel and cardamom pods

• Wash and clean the chicken but keep it whole. I use lemon and slat to rub the chicken down and clean it inside out. The place it in the pot on top of the onions, fennel and pods.

• Fill the pot with water till the chicken is covered and add salt.

• 45 minutes later make sure you peel the carrots and potatoes and cut into big chunks.

• Add them to the pot with the chicken and top up with water if you need to .

• Cook them until they have a bit of a crunch
  

• Taste the stock and season more if you like and serve.

• Add a little parsely for colour and fresh flavour

One pot wonders eh? They work a treat.!!!!