As I’ve already written, Chocolate Week must go down as my favourite week of the year. Although Champagne week comes a close second, having slugged it out with Farmhouse Breakfast Week. So in honour of the wonderous stuff, here’s five books of chocolate delights to tempt you with. Just make sure to use the good [...]
Entries from October 16th, 2009
The Friday Five for Chocolate Week
October 16th, 2009 · No Comments · Baking, Bread, British favourites, Christmas foodie gifts, Cookbooks, Foodie gifts, Friday Five, Kitsch cooking, Sweet treats, Uncategorized
Tags:Andrew Garrison Shotts·artisanal chocolate·Chocolate·Chocolate Week·Christmas·Cookbooks·Foodie gifts·Ingredients·Marcel Desaulniers·Paul A. Young·Willie Harcourt Cooze
Doing more with chocolate!
October 15th, 2009 · No Comments · Chocolate, Courses, Foodie gifts, Foodie things to do, Sweet treats
Given all the chocolate wonderfulness around this week, perhaps you’re feeling inspired to take your skills with it up a level or two. You could read more or you could book on a course and get some hands on experience. Now whether novice, keen amateur or absolute gourmet, then there is something suitable somewhere for [...]
Tags:Artisan du Chocolat·Chocolate·chocolate fountains·chocolate making courses·Foodie gifts·Nigel Brown·The School of Artisan Foods
British Chocolate Week – my favourite week
October 14th, 2009 · No Comments · British favourites, Christmas foodie gifts, Foodie gifts, Foodie treats, Places to shop online, Sweet treats
If there was a week made for me, this is it! I adore chocolate, proper chocolate (although occasionally, on a bad day, can be tempted by a mint Aero or a Crunchie). As if an excuse was needed, I think there is more excuse to indulge in the good stuff this week. My top 5 [...]
Tags:Chocolate·Chocolate Week·Melt·Montezuma's·Rococo·Thorntons·Willie Harcourt Cooze
So, what is a cool food and drink brand?
October 12th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Alcohol free drinks, Beer & Lager, British favourites, Foodie gifts, Healthy eating, New food launches, Places to eat
Finally catching up with the stack of newspapers yesterday I came across a supplement from last week’s Observer about cool brands. Or, more correctly, CoolBrands®. Now, having been through this process before, I’m a bit cynical about what might be included, knowing that defining cool must be even more subjective than defining what makes a brand super. [...]
Tags:Belvoir Cordials·cool·Coolbrands·Dom Perignon·Fever-Tree·Guinness·Montezuma's·Otter Brewery·Rococo·Sambrook's Brewery·Wahaca·Yauatcha
The Saturday Session – Quince Envy!
October 10th, 2009 · No Comments · British favourites, Foodie gifts, Foodie things to do, Fruit & Veg, Ingredients, Meat treats, Places to eat, Places to shop online, Preserving, Recipes, Saturday Session, Savoury gifts, Spanish food
I had moments of pure envy this week! Thomasina Miers was tweeting that she was experimenting with quince, poaching them with vanilla pods, and then making them into a custard. Which all sounded delicious, but there’s been no sniff of a quince around here yet! And I have such a hankering to try to make [...]
Tags:Bellota·Manchego·membrillo·quince·quince cheese·Thomasina Miers
The Friday Five – All treats, no tricks, for Halloween
October 9th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Baking, Christmas foodie gifts, Cookbooks, Foodie gifts, Friday Five, Kitsch cooking
I think it’s probably clear I don’t need much encouragement to buy a new cook book! But even I think and pause when it’s around lesser holidays. I mean, I have a couple of titles devoted to Christmas which is, lets face it, just one day. So why nothing for other one day events? Well, [...]
Tags:Christmas·Cookbooks·Cooking with kids·Foodie gifts·ghoulish goodies·Halloween·holidays·home baking·Martha Stewart·trick or treat
A cracking good week!
October 8th, 2009 · No Comments · Cookbooks, Foodie gifts, Foodie things to do, Ingredients
During course of some rigourous research for the blog yesterday (i.e. driving to the station listening to Terry Wogan) that this is British Egg Week. I love these different weeks and days and I love that we have one devoted to eggs. I adore eggs, mainly because they are so amazingly versatile. Maybe it’s because I’m [...]
Tags:allotments·British Egg Week·chicken keeping·Chicken Out·eggs·Eglu·Foodie gifts·Grow your own·Ingredients·self sufficiency·Terry Wogan
Amazon lead us into temptation…
October 7th, 2009 · No Comments · Christmas foodie gifts, Cookbooks, Foodie gifts
I think you might have gathered by now that I rather like my cook books, and the groaning bookshelves would bear testament to that. So I guess I really don’t need an offer from Amazon of 50% off a whole heap of new titles! What to choose? I mean, Nigel Slater was the first cookery [...]
Tags:Christmas·Cookbooks·credit crunch gifts·Delia Smith·Economy Gastronomy·exotic meat·Foodie gifts·Levi Roots·Marcus Wareing·Nigel Slater·Nutmeg & Custard·The Hairy Bikers
Would you buy a hamper?
October 6th, 2009 · 3 Comments · British favourites, Cheese, Christmas foodie gifts, Fish & Seafood, Foodie gifts, Places to shop online, Savoury gifts, Sweet treats
It’s getting to that time of year when I get inundated with emails about hampers, and I often wonder who buys them. There’s the big corporate buyers, and I would think that a good hamper would be well received by many people. Even if you didn’t get the whole hamper, everyone on a team could get [...]
Tags:British favourites·cheese towers·Chocolate·Chocolate Trading Co·Christmas·ethical food·Ethical Superstore·fair trade food·food hampers·Foodie gifts·FunkyHampers.com·Hampers·Harrods·Iberian ham·Jamie Oliver·London Fine Foods·organic food·Pong·smoked fish·tea·The Fish Society·turbot·turkey twizzlers
