Spontaneous Date Night.

So you may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday, well Ed and I kinda, accidentally had a date night. I love it when nights like this happen, we went into town shopping for some last bits for camping in Doris, then went for a beer at Brewdog which turned into two because they have Dead Pony Club on tap as well as this awesome guest draft called Atlantic Drift. Then we decided to have a cheeky Nandos, I always have extra extra sauce because I am a bit of a spice fiend and I enjoy watching Ed struggle trying to match me with the hot sauce. Then we trundled home and chilled out. Was a super perfect evening <3

Hope you have some super cool plans looming for the Bank Holiday Weekend!

xkx

Tuesday Teacup - Tea Pigs Chilli Chai

This week I have been drinking Tea Pigs Chilli Chai. This tea is a full bodied assam with beautiful exotic spices and a warm chilli tickle at the end. I didn't really know what to expect from chilli chai, but I am a huge chilli fiend so I just had to try it. 

I drank this tea black to start with, the cardamon and cinnamon were the pioneers trekking out of this tea onto my taste bugs. The chilli was very mild at the end like a warm cuddle. The second cup I had with milk and I think this was my favourite. I also found that if I left the tea temple in whilst I drank the tea it had much more of a chilli punch *yum*. This tea is definitely one to try if you want something a little bit warm and exotic to brighten up a dreary day. 

Hope your week is rocking <3

xkx

My Three Favourite Cook Books.

I'm a bit of a foodie, well that is the posh way of saying that I love food and eating. I can't say I am one of those people who read cook books in bed at night but then again I do own quite a few. I would love to build up a collection of old cookery books, especially ones from the 70s because they are so bad that they are good! I also have my eye on the Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management that resides on my mum's bookshelf. When I moved to Nottingham I tried to hide it in a box of books I was taking, she knew me too well and before I went she rummaged through and repossessed it. So anyway these are my three favourite cook books at the moment: Gok Cooks Chinese by Gok Wan, The Vintage Tea Party Year by Angel Adoree and The Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal. 

My affections for these books are all very different. Gok Cooks Chinese is full of mouthwatering pictures of dishes that I would have been far too scared to attempt. I have a couple of other chinese recipe books and I look at the tasty pictures then look at the humongous list of ingredients and give up. But Gok's book is very different, his recipes are based on a meagre larder of Chinese essentials and if you follow the instructions the food looks just as delectable as the pictures and tastes better than any takeaway! Ed cooked salt and pepper pork from this book the other night and it was out of this world good. 

Now where to start on The Vintage Tea Party Year, its just perfect in my opinion. The content is superb, the layout is beautiful, the illustrations are treats for the eyes. Angel Adoree will aid you through everything you need to know to pull of an exquisite vintage gathering from decor to hair to cocktails, oh and the recipes are pretty amazing too! I own the Vintage Tea Party book too and I just love every page these books have to offer. If you love vintage and you don't own this book you are seriously missing out!

I will probably never be able to cook anything out of The Fat Duck Cookbook, not to its full extent of deliciousness anyway. I would like to have a go at the chilli in there one day though. I have wanted to eat at The Fat Duck restaurant for years, but it is a serious investment to go there, it being a couple of hundred pounds for a tasting menu. But a girl can dream and this book is the perfect aid for that. 

What cook books are your favourite? 

My Chillies are Ripening!

My chillies are ripening and I am so thrilled (a little sad I know). I think it is really exciting to see these little fruit turn from purple to orange to... nearly red! 

I can't wait until the first one is ready to pick so I can see how hot it is.

This is my super hot chilli plant, they are suppose to be hotter than the bird's eye chilli, I think they are suppose to turn red before you can eat them though. The lady I bought them off said you can eat them whenever you want, but before they are ripe they taste like green pepper *eugh* the worst sort of pepper in my opinion. 

I hope the warm weather, we have been enjoying, means I have a few of these to try soon! Its also funny to tempt Ed with them because he is a total wuss with chilli heat hehe. 

My 2 New Chilli Plants and Lovely Market Food.

I am really lucky to live in a place where twice a month (on a Saturday) we have an abundant farmer's market. Today I was excited to see some new stalls, one was even selling unusual chilli plants. And here they are (well two of them), unfortunately I was too excited to actually write down the names of these two chilli plants so I can't introduce them to you properly.

I was drawn to the first one because I thought the colour of the flowers and the leaves are breathtakingly purple. 

I also admired it because this plant is not afraid to make it obvious that it is part of the Solanaceae family. So this beautiful thing is closely relation to the deadly nightshade plant and I think the flowers are nearly identical.

The second plant I bought because of my greedy side, I saw this plant groaning under the weight of all its baby chilli-peppers and I thought *yum*. I really love hot food and I can't wait for these little beauties to turn a blazing red so I can add them to my cooking and maybe even make some chilli oil and Harissa paste.

The stall holder said that this purple will fade to yellow and then ripen to a fiery red. 

I also picked up a few other bits and bobs from the market. I picked up some raw milk that is produced from local 'happy' cows. I like to try and support the local farms, one way for dairy farmers to make a decent living is to sell milk like this straight to the customer. Its been all in the news lately about how the money that farmers spend producing milk is actually higher than the price that is being paid for it, which in turn is slowly killing the industry. I was raised on raw milk so I know that it works for me fine (Ed can also drink this milk whereas he can't drink pasteurised). But you may want to do your research before trying it.

We bought garlic from the market too, this one is called Bella Italiano and apparently the flavour is really strong, it smells lovely and I have promised Ed that I will make some garlic bread with it, so we will probably be stinky after eating that.

You have got to love Wobbly Bottom Farm cheese. The name is just fabulous and always makes me smile and the cheese from here tastes so good that you could easily eat enough to make the name ring true. This is pesto cheese, I have never seen this before but the taste is amazing, it is really basilly and tastes like green (my friends always laugh at me for saying things taste like colours). I can't wait to try and cook with this lovely cheese, I bet it will taste amazing in summery salads too. Food always tastes a million times better from the market.

Hope you are all having a good weekend.