Following the success of the Taste for Tomatoes Competition, this past December I ran the Christmas Carrot Competition for LoveTheGarden.com. This time our guest judge was the talented Niamh from Eat Like a Girl. She had the tough job of choosing her favourite carrot recipe to win a £200 voucher to a UK restaurant of their choosing, plus three runners up to win a copy of her cookbook, Comfort & Spice.
Many fantastic recipes were entered, and it’d be a shame to keep them all to ourselves so I present you all with the list of entries and winners of the last vegetable garden competition of 2011!
In 9 days I’ll be going home for Christmas and I. Can. Not. Wait! I haven’t seen my friends and family back home for a year now. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from home without at least visiting. I don’t even know what to expect. Regretfully, I haven’t done a great job of keeping in touch with a lot of friends. To be fair though, a lot of people haven’t tried to keep in touch with me either. Still, I can’t wait to see them. I just hope they haven’t forgotten about me.
Last Christmas was the best one I’ve ever had. Before that my family members hadn’t exactly been getting along with each other for a few years, and Christmases tended to be full of arguments and disappointment. I think the real low point was when my mother had given both myself and my sister a travel sized bottle of hand sanitizer as her only Christmas gift. It was bad times! We’re past that now, and everyone’s in a good place and getting along. I don’t even care about the gifts I just can’t wait to spend quality time with the fam!
I’ve already got a nice day out planned for the 2nd day I’m back. A few friends, my sister, and I are all going ice skating at Frog Pond on the Boston Common. Then we’re going out for a nice dinner somewhere. Later we’ll go and see my friends’ band play at TT The Bears. Other things I’m hoping will happen are: Going for breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe, eating lots of my mother’s chicken cutlets, getting to see as many friends as possible, and SNOW! Last year when I was home we had a snowstorm just a few days before my flight home. It was awesome. There’s nothing better than waking up to snow. Have a look at the view from my house last year:
Anyway… COMPETITION TIME!!
Fly Thomas Cook are giving you the chance to win an Antler Purelite Large Suitcase! Christmas is coming and inevitably some of us will find ourselves packing luggage to visit families and friends. Nevertheless it’s hard to fit everything you may need into a small suitcase! So, they are asking British bloggers to share which items they bring with them to really capture the Christmas spirit!
To enter this competition you must:
- Share your tips and experiences on your blog
- Let your readers know that you entered this competition
- Share the URL of your entry on Fly Thomas Cook’s blog before the 19th of December 2011
A jury of travel experts will select the best tips and the winner will receive an*Antler Purelite Large Suitcase.
The competition is open to UK residents only. The deadline is 11.59pm (UK time) 19th of December 2011. More details can be found on the Fly Thomas Cook competition page. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me or Lucie at Lucie.Oge@arena-media.co.uk.
I’ve recently launched the next competition in the Vegetable Garden Competition series. It’s the final one before the end of 2011 and fittingly for the time of year it’s Christmas themed.The last competition, Taste for Tomatoes, was the best one since we started. Loads of people got involved and I really enjoyed chatting with everyone involved and seeing all the delicious recipes. Hopefully this one will be even better! Here are the details from the press release for anyone who wants to participate:
The online garden experts from Love the Garden are delighted to announce the fourth and final vegetable garden competition of 2011 to make sure vegetables won’t be forgotten this December: the Christmas Carrot Competition! The independent guest judge, Niamh Shields from Eat Like a Girl, will be looking for culinary creativity with carrots. The author of the best recipe will receive a £200 restaurant voucher to a UK restaurant of their choice. Three runners up will receive a copy of Niamh Shields’ cookbook Comfort & Spice.
Entering the competition is easy.
All bloggers need to do is:
Share a carrot recipe on their own blog;
Mention the competition in the post;
Tell LovetheGarden by emailing the URL of their entry to entries@lovethegarden.com before 21st December 2011.
The orange root vegetable is a prominent part of traditional Christmas meals, but recipes don’t have to be Christmas themed. Recipes for soups, salads, stir-fries and even cakes with this versatile vegetable are welcomed too.
LovetheGarden launched their first competition to find the best recipes for garden vegetables in February 2011, which encouraged bloggers to be creative with cabbage. The winner was Karolina with her Cabbage & Mushroom Pasties. In August, David Hall won the Potty for Potatoes competition with his Hot potato, bacon and nasturtium salad and the winner of the Taste for Tomatoes competition was Nic from Cherrapeno with her Summer Tomato Tart with Chilli Cheese Pastry. The carrot competition will be the last one for 2011, but in 2012, Lovethegarden will continue to encourage everyone in the UK to eat their five-a-day.
The deadline is 11.59pm (UK time) on 21th December 2011. For more information, please visit the vegetable garden competition page.
One of the biggest influencing factors in my life is music. It’s determined where I live (I moved to London for the DnB scene and electronic music in general), my weekend activities are based around it (there’s hardly a weekend where I’m not going to at least one music event), and throughout my life it’s always been a sort of therapy for whatever hard times I’d been going through. The other week I was out at Cable for Metalheadz presents the History Sessions.
From the Facebook event page:
Metalheadz presents first in a series of old skool events to celebrate the rich history of drum’n'bass and other forms of electronic music. The dj’s have been requested to dig as deep and as far as possible. So we invite you to come and join us to what should be a classic night full of timeless music.
Growing up in the US I missed out on the progression of most of the DnB scene here in the UK, not to mention all of the Jungle scene. Much of my youth was spent listening to indie, hardcore, metal, punk, and the likes. This is what all of my school friends were into and still are. Boston, where I grew up, used to be known for it’s hardcore scene, but nowadays I can’t think of any real prevailing music scene in the area. That’s not to say that there aren’t loads of people in Boston who are into music, but that it’s not really know for a specific music scene any more. Still, there are certain pivotal points during my life there, which have lead me to where I am today. Some of these points happen to be based around music. So in homage to the Metalheadz History Sessions I present my own personal history of music.
1.) In 1999 is when I first start “clubbing”. There was an under-21s club in Saugus, MA called the Bahama Beach Club (the BBC). Every weekend my mother used to drive me and my friends there and pick us up afterwards. We used to think we were so cool, but really, how cool can you be as a 14/15 year old holding a Coke while dancing in a sweaty club playing the cheesiest, cheese while your mom waits outside to pick you up? I did love it though, and the trance/house room blossomed my love for electronic music. The first trance tune I can remember getting excited over was Darude’s Sandstorm. This tune was huge at the BBC when it came out and it still brings back memories when I hear it today.
2.) It must have been sometime around the summer of 2000 when I met my father’s friend’s son this at a pool party. I don’t remember what the boy was called or even what he looked like, but what I do remember is that he told me to check out Daft Punk. This is the probably the point where I realized there was more to electronic music than what I was hearing at the BBC.
3.) Around 2001/2002 my friends and I started going to raves. We used to collect all the rave fliers we could find from Satellite Records in Boston and hang them up on our walls. The big raves in the area at the time were all held at the Asylum in Springfield, MA. There was the main room which was usually trance and hard house DJs, then there was always a smaller jungle/DnB room. The one producer that stands out for me during this time is DJ Funk. He’s best known for producing a subgenre of house called booty or ghetto house. His tunes we’re dirty, but still silly and fun.
4.) I think it may have been my senior year in high school (2002) when I started hanging out with my friend Pete. We shared a love of metal and electronic music alike. At this point I had already been hearing jungle and DnB at parties, but I still didn’t actually know of any artists. Pete introduced my to my first DnB artist, Hive. Many a dark night were spent driving around listening to the album, Devious Methods. This is one of my favourite Hive tunes, Ultrasonic Sound.
4.) Right after I graduated high school in 2003 I met this girl named Marie during a chance encounter. We started hanging out, going to raves together and on another chance encounter we ran into a guy she’d gone to uni with, Robb, and his friend Mike. These two events pretty much changed my life, not in a drastic, over-dramatic way, but through becoming friends with these people I was exposed to a lot of interesting people, places, and music that broadened both my knowledge and life experience.
My love of DnB was cemented when I’d go with them to the weekly DnB night in Boston called Elements. I was too young to get in at the time so I had to get there early, before they started IDing on the door and hide in the bathroom if the bouncer came around checking everyone was off age. Around this time I was also introduced to producers such as Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. I loved the way Aphex Twins’ tracks always seemed to be telling a story, like an electronic form of classical music. It was exciting and completely different from anything I’d ever heard. It open my mind to a whole new world of sound and broadened my understanding of what was possible with music. This is one of my favorite pieces of electronic music, a track called Jynweythek.
Anyway, I could go on for days, and I’ve probably gone on for way too long already so I’ll stop now. But there you have it, my personal history of music… part 1, maybe?
Last week another veggie box arrived for me at the office; this time with two special surprises. The first was a complimentary cartoon of eggs… and the second was a vegetable that I have a bit of an aesthetic obsession with, the Romanesco Cauliflower.
It’s a gorgeous, light green vegetable that grows in a natural fractal pattern. It was so lovely to look at that I almost didn’t want to eat it, but I wouldn’t dare let it go to waste. I had absolutely no idea what to do with the thing, even chopping it up felt like deciphering a puzzle. Luckily the lad came with a recipe. I’m going to be really lazy and just copy and paste it from the Abel & Cole website, but you can find the original here.
Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Paprika
1 medium-large romanesco (or any cauli, about 750-800g), trimmed
2 lemons
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp hot smoky paprika
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 220°C/Gas 7. Cut the cauliflower into medium florets and rinse, leaving some of the water clinging to the florets.
Put them in a large roasting tray, squeeze over the juice from one of the lemons, trickle over the olive oil, add the paprika and some salt and pepper and toss the whole lot together.
Cut the remaining lemon into 6 segments and scatter these in the tray. Roast for 25-30 mins, turning once, until the florets are slightly caramelised at the edges.
Squeeze the juice from the roasted lemon segments over the roasted cauliflower and serve at once, scattered with a little flaky sea salt.
I really enjoyed the taste of the cauliflower (which reminded me a lot of my favourite veg, broccoli), but I can’t say I was a big fan of the lemon/paprika mixture. Some bites were nice, but others had me making the lemon face. I’m not conscious of ever having had paprika before so I couldn’t distinguish whether it was that or the lemon that was way too intense, but either way it wasn’t pleasant. That’s just my opinion though, and one to be taken with a grain of salt. My palate ranges from chocolate to bland. My friend really liked the dish, so I’m sure other people will too.
The same night I also made…. GRASSHOPPER PIE!
It’s taken me a week to eat the whole thing. I was hoping my mates would help me tackle the monster, but they only managed 3 slices between them. Hmm… that could be saying something. Anyway, in lieu of the actual recipe, here is an artsy fartsy photo of my delicious pie ;-)
Last week I (re)signed up for an Abel & Cole veggie box delivery. They’re a London based company that delivery boxes of seasonal organic fruit and veg (plus other grocery items if you chose) to your door. You don’t get to chose what goes in your box, but you can specify fruit & veg that you love, like, or dislike so that you don’t receive something you won’t use. I signed up around this time last year, but cancelled my order after a week because I didn’t end up using a lot of the veg I received and I couldn’t really afford cost for food I wasn’t going to eat. However, I’ve been trying to eat healthier recently so I thought I’d give it another go.
Last Wednesday when I came into work I spied a familiar looking box with my name on it sat in reception. I grabbed the box and hurried upstairs to get a peak at what was inside. My 8 year old self would be horrified to hear how excited I was about a box a vegetables. It was almost like Christmas… the not knowing what you’re getting, the smile on my face as I walked proudly down the hall to my desk, everyone around me looking over my shoulders to see what was inside as I “unboxed” the veg… Or not really… But still I did enjoy the surprise.
My box contained broccoli, fennel, potatoes, flat beans, leeks, and purple carrots. Which is a pretty good turn out. Considering how fussy I am, I’ll eat everything in the box with the exception of fennel, which I didn’t find out till I tried it. I’d never had fennel before so my manager made me fennel and orange salad. I’m not a fan of anything that tastes like aniseed/black liquorice, but for anyone who is this is definitely a recipe to try. So here you go…
Fennel and Orange Salad
Thinly slice up some fennel. Thinly slice up some orange. Add some olive oil. Add some salt & pepper.
This past month I’ve had the pleasure of running the third in a series of vegetable garden competitions for LovetheGarden.com. I’ve run all three of them actually, but this one was special because for the first time we had a guest judge! Food blogger and writer James Ramsden from JamesRamsden.com kindly agreed to choose his favourite tomato recipes in our Taste for Tomatoes competition.
As in the other competitions, the best overall recipe would receive a £200 voucher to any UK restaurant of their choice. However, this time we also had signed copies of James’ new book Small Adventures in Cooking to give away to three runners up.
The quality and caliber of the entries in this competition were excellent. James’ comments for the winners is a testament to the creativity of the recipes entered (see the Love the Garden blog). I got some really positive feedback from everyone involved and I can honestly say that I had such a great time running this competition. I met so many lovely people and have now got a massive collection of delicious recipes to try out, which is why I’ve decided to share them all here. Below you’ll find all the recipes which were entered into the competition. Enjoy!
A few weekends ago I took a trip down to the Real Food Market at Southbank Centre. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and uncharacteristically, but pleasantly warm for October. Myself and a friend (see him getting interviewed for a German TV programme below) went down to peruse the stalls.
The first one we came upon was selling lots of traditional middle eastern foods and treats in these lovely wooden bowls (bottom middle and right photos). I really wanted to buy some of their hummus, which looked very yummy, but didn’t think I’d finish at home it before it went off so I settled for a chicken shwarama. I wouldn’t recommend it though. Admittedly, my tastes are very bland, but even this was too bland for me. Plus the chicken was very fatty as well.
One stall was selling these incredible looking baked goods (top left photo). I couldn’t resist buying a red velvet whoopie pie and a white chocolate and raspberry brownie. The whoopie pie last about 30 secs. The brownie was so rich it took a couple of days of sporadic munching before it was finished. Despite the photo, I didn’t get a macaroon. Although thinking about it, I probably should have. I’ve never actually tried one, but they looked so pretty sitting there all vibrant and lined up that I thought it’d make a great picture. I’ll have to go back soon and get one to try.
I also ended up buying a nice wholegrain loaf and some strawberry extra jam from two other stalls. Everything was delicious (when I got it home and ate it of course). There were a few more stalls which I didn’t purchase from, but would definitely be worth checking out. As far as I can remember, you can find cheese, beer, oils, curds, burgers, and a few more other things that are escaping my memory at the moment. It’s definitely worth going down there for a visit. The atmosphere was great and there was quite a bit of choice for a relatively small market. I’ll have to take a trip down there when I next have some free time and get some more bread, yummmm :)
I’ve only ever made 3 cheesecakes in my life… 2 of them being in the last week. I don’t know about anyone else, but they take me AAAAGGGEEESSS to make, although I think it might have more to do with the specific kind I was making (I’ve only ever made the one kind). Long nights were had making these cheesecakes. It was difficult finding the time to do it, but they were for two pretty special people so I sacrificed some of my precious bed time for the occasions.
The recipe I used was from the Hummingbird Bakery book, and it is beyond delicious. I wish I could take credit for it’s awesomeness, but really all I did was follow instructions. The book says you can either place the cake tin in a water bath or grease the tin to stop the cake from cracking. I tried the water bath method previously and it was a lot of hassle, so for the first cake I made I just greased the tin hoping it would work. This was a BIG mistake. The cheesecake cracked massively. It looked like the Grand Canyon. Luckily, it had the cream topping or it would have looked really awful.
For the second cheesecake, I sucked it up and went for the water bath again. The cake was really moist. I’m not sure if it was meant to be like that, but the first one I ever made was too and it still tasted amazing. I did have a slight issue with the cream topping though. I over-whipped the double cream and it made the topping look slightly grainy instead of smooth. It’s purely an aesthetic problem, but I’m a perfectionist so I’m a little annoyed.
Anyway, here’s a photo of the finished product (mind the poor lighting!)
Can’t wait to eat it later today!
Apologies for not posting the recipe, but I’m not exactly sure if I’m allowed to. I’m going to look into it and if I’m not breaking any copyright laws then I will.
This post is way overdue, seeing as how I’ve been back from holiday for 3 weeks now, but I had such an incredible time! Even though my ‘roots’ are from Italy I’ve never actually been. Shameful, I know. I’ve only lived in Europe for over 3 years now, so it’s about time!
Because I was there for the Sun & Bass Festival, I didn’t really get to do much sightseeing… too many late nights spent dancing till early morning hours, and lots and lots of quality beach time. Still, I thought the beaches were gorgeous, the food was delicious, and everyone I met (locals and festival goers) were all so friendly. The big culinary hits for me were the pizzas and raviolis. If you know me personally you know how much I LOVE these two types of food, so I was literally in heaven. I don’t think I’ve ever in my life consumed so much of both in one week. Hopefully, I won’t ever again because I did come back with a not so sexy holiday tummy.
I didn’t take many pictures while I was out there. I tend to get too wrapped up in whatever I’m experiencing and just don’t even think to record it. However, I did make a point to get some shots of the beach and the beautiful sunrise. Have a look:
For about two weeks after I got back all I could think about was “Why don’t I live in Italy???” With the lovely weather in London this week, the sting of leaving such a beautiful island is wearing off a bit, but I know winter is just around the corner. I am enjoying autumn at the moment though. There’s something about the light and the smells and the cool breezes around this time of year that bring about very positive feelings for me. I think it’s because it reminds me of how I felt as a child at the start of the school year. For me, it always evokes this sense of a new start, the potential for change, and opportunity. Here’s hoping for some positive change this autumn… It’s very much needed!
Following the success of the Taste for Tomatoes Competition, this past December I ran the Christmas Carrot Competition for LoveTheGarden.com. This time our guest judge was the talented Niamh from Eat Like a Girl. She had the tough job of choosing her favourite carrot recipe to win a £200 voucher to a UK restaurant of their choosing, plus three runners up to win a copy of her cookbook, Comfort & Spice.
