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!

 

Winner

Cherrapeno – Summer Tomato Tart with Chilli Cheese Pastry

 

Runners Up

Belleau Kitchens – Roasted Tomato, Chili and Coconut Soup

London Unattached – Hake with smoked garlic, chili and fresh tomato sauce

Me, My Food and I – Roasted Tomato Caprese Bruschetta

 

Entries

Pebble Soup – Green Tomato Chutney with Ginger

David Hall – Tomato and Sweet Onion Tarte Tatin

Super Lucky – Gazpacho

Comfort Bites – Vine Tomatoes with British Buffalo Mozzarella and Lemon & Basil Dressing

Utterly Scrummy – Quick and Easy Tomato Relish

Marks Veg Plot – Green Tomato sauce with Pesto

Competition Grapevine – Pizza my way

Northern Eco – Hot salsa

Jane’s Rambling Blog – Gardener’s Delight

Love Food – Simple Tomato Chicken and Herb Casserole

Mummy Musings – Tomato & Chilli Chutney

Eating Covent Garden – Tomato curry

Chef Mel’s Kitchen – Feta Filled Cherry Tomatoes

Senses in the Kitchen – The Perfect Meal

Slovenly Jimmy – Easy Tomato and Cheese Souffle

Garden, Tea, Cakes and Me – Vegetable Cobbler

Piper and Daisy – Tuscan Bruschetta

Freddie’s Fingers – The Bloodiest Mary

Look Who’s Cooking Too – ‘Go To’ Tomato Sauce and Chicken Tikka Pizza

Cooking Etc. – Home-grown tomatoes and tuna salad

Yummy Choo Eats – Sweet Tomato Tarte Tatin

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!

I’ve been serious slacking the blog post front. Life has been hectic to say the least in the past few weeks. I have this amazing new necklace that I’m dying to show off, but alas it will have to wait. At the moment I’m getting ready to fly away tomorrow to warm, sunny Sardinia, where the London drum and bass scene will pretty much transplant itself for the next week for Sun & Bass.

Excited does not come close to how I feel. I literally NEED this. For me, a summer without a beach is like a life without any joy, and this will be one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever stepped foot on. I just can’t wait to take life slow, sit around relaxing, dance all night with good friends and not have to think about any of the day to day BS that life seems to be throwing at me lately.

New necklace and holiday pics will soon follow. Until then, I leave you with this photo to imagine where I’ll be hiding away for the next week.

In my family and circle of friends I am famous (infamous?) for being a picky eater. I’ve got some slightly bizarre eating habits, for instance I can only eat carrots in certain occasions. They need to be either:

• Shredded thinly in a salad
• Sliced thinly in a stir-fry
• Cooked in chicken noodle soup

A carrot prepared any other way will make me gag.

I’m also fussy with tomatoes. I’ll eat them sliced with other foods that have strong flavours (to mask the taste), and I’ll eat tomato sauce on pizza and pasta, but I won’t eat tomato chunks. I’ll sit there and separate out every chunk of tomato from my pasta sauce before I get around to eating my meal. Saying that though, I have actually gotten LOADS better in terms of my pickyness. Not too long ago I wouldn’t eat carrots, tomatoes, or pasta sauce in any form. On Monday night I went to Pizza Express and had the Crostini Al Pomodoro, which has those little tomatoes cut in half and I ate them! Stupid as this sounds, it’s a pretty big achievement for me.

Anyway, the point of all this is that I want to share a very simple recipe that I’ve been rinsing for lunchtime meals the past few weeks. It’s healthy and delicious and passes my picky eater test so here goes:

 

Brittany’s Picky Greek Salad

 

Ingredients:

• 2 Tomatoes
• 1 Red Pepper
• 1/2 Red Onion
• 70g Feta Cheese
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil

This is so simple it really doesn’t need explaining, but basically chop up the tomatoes, pepper, red onion, and feta (into cubes). Chuck everything into a container along with the olive oil. Give it a good shake (Warning: the photo was taken pre-shake so it will come out looking a lot messier than that). Throw it on a plate and eat!

I usually have half of the salad with a piece of toasted pita bread, and save the rest for lunch the next day. It’s so yummy, though, that it’s difficult to actually wait till the next day to eat it. As I type, I’m staring at my empty plate from lunch earlier and trying to convince myself to hold off on eating the rest. I may have to resort to something chocolately to cleanse my palate. Mmm…

If you fancy yourself a bit of a chef (or even if you just like to cook) my company is putting on a competition for our client, Love The Garden. It’s the 2nd in a series of vegetable garden competitions being run to promote creativity in the both the kitchen and the garden. For anyone interested in entering, here’s the press release that was sent out:

The online gardening experts from LoveTheGarden.com are delighted to announce the second of their popular vegetable garden competitions, after a fantastic response to the launch a few months ago.

In February, LoveTheGarden ran an online competition to find the best cabbage recipes to celebrate this often ignored and much maligned vegetable. The prize was a £200 meal for two at a restaurant of the winner’s choice, anywhere in the UK. The response was amazing, with some innovative and delicious recipes for everything from a modern twist on cabbage soup through to the winning entry: melt in the mouth cabbage and mushroom pasties. The winning entry was by Karolina, posted on the Senses in the Kitchen blog at http://www.sensesinthekitchen-Karolina.blogspot.com.

A chip off the old spud…

This month’s competition features a vegetable most people take for granted – the potato. This stable of the western diet is bashed, mashed, chipped and roasted almost every day in kitchens across the UK, so the LoveTheGarden team is sure there are some secret family recipes for potato dishes out there that people want to share with the world. To pay homage to this family favourite, LoveTheGarden.com is offering another prize of a meal for two worth £200 to the winning entry of this month’s competition.

Growing potatoes is easy and, as the price of spuds spirals up in the shops, growing vegetables like potatoes at home makes good economic sense. Picked fresh from the garden, these delicious vegetables also pack a punch in vitamin C and other essential nutrients. Rather than just deep frying them, roasting them in the oven or mashing them with butter, the LoveTheGarden team wants to know what other people do with their potatoes to give them that extra something special.

Rewarding culinary creativity

“The potato is so familiar to everyone that we tend to take it for granted,” says George Hope from the LovetheGarden team. “So we want to celebrate the spud in all its forms, from sweet baby new potatoes right up to main crop Maris Pipers. If you’ve got a recipe for potatoes, we want to see it, and we’ll reward your creativity and culinary expertise with a celebratory meal for two in your favourite restaurant.” Of course, potatoes will be on the menu!”

“The closing date for entries is August 16th 2011,” George Hope adds, “so if you’ve got a special potato recipe, whether it’s an old family favourite or a brand new culinary creation, post it up on your blog and let LovetheGarden know.” Every few months, there is a new featured vegetable and a chance to win that £200 meal for two, so get blogging!

For more details and terms and conditions of entry, visit the vegetable garden competition page at LovetheGarden.com

Deadline is fast approaching, so hurry up and get your recipe in!

I’m shocked, as I’m sure most people are, at the violence, destruction, and greed that has taken place in London and around the UK these past few days. The looting is the least of the troubles. Residents have been left frightened to walk freely in their own communities, businesses and homes have been burnt to the ground, innocent people have been violently attacked and robbed.

Along with a general feeling of disappointment and dismay at the callousness of the rioters, I think many people feel let down by the lack of real authority and control shown by the riot police. What are essentially children have pretty much been allowed to run a muck. Despite a heavy police presence in London last night which curtailed the rioting, these kids have shown that they, in fact, do have the power to ignore and disrespect authority and the law if they so chose.

Still, amongst all the reports of looting, arson, and violence, a whole range of positive action has taken place in response:

• On Kingsland High Street in Dalston the local Turkish community took to the streets to protect shops and businesses.
• Websites have been set up to help identify London rioters.
• A Facebook page was started to organize post-riot clean-ups around London, and a photo circulated the net of hundreds of broom wielding residents who took to the street to clean-up Clapham Junction, one of the worst hit areas.

 

While nothing can ever make the horrific actions of the past few days acceptable, I think we can all appreciate and be proud of how a city not known for it’s kindness can come together at a time like this and show it’s sensitive, caring side.

Tell It to the Stars. The digital abode of your host, Brittany. This site was originally meant to be my online portfolio. As it turns out I didn’t actually have much to show, so the site was left to stagnate for the past three years.

This blog is intended to breath some life into a dusty, stale domain and be a creative outlet for an aspiring writer gone awry. I don’t exactly know where I’m going with this blog or where it’ll end up, but we’ll see what happens.