Kitchen porn

Urban Outfitters, biscuit pocket mug:

Cool, Quirky and stops you 'accidentally' eating the whole packet infront of the box ( only 2 biscuits fit in the pocket). Great for Christmas pressies too! Buy yours here.

Giant Cupcake Pan:

 For making the King of all cupcakes, Lakeland sell a good one here.

 

For the Queen of all cupcakes:

 Slightly more affordable but still guaranteed to impress! Purchase in time for best friend's birthday cake here.

Lucky Charms:

For those of you big kids like myself who have fond memories of this lucky little leprechaun's breakfast This is sure to excite! American Sweets have hundreds and thousands (see the pun there?!) of other old favourites for those with a sweet tooth. Great for stocking fillers!

Clever Cake Divider

 An amazing little contraption that will save any 'your bit's bigger than mine' spats. Great for limiting the calorie intake too! Get yours from Mocha

MEATliquor

MEATliquor

The best thing about a restaurant located just off of Oxford Street is that it is located just off of Oxford Street. The perfect face-filling location after a full-on day of high street trawling.

Not only is it located within spitting distance of Topshop, H&M and Zara, but MEATliquor also offers the PERFECT dinner when you've worked up a huge appetite after being on your feet all day. Full fat, cheesy, chilli burgers, chips, deep fried whatever-takes-your-fancy and a menu full of tasty desserts too!

I must say, if you don't want to be queuing round the corner of the street for (yes) around 2 hours, then you should definitely arrive early. MEATliquor is a popular place and they don't take reservations - its a first come first served kinda place!

Decor is Gothic; blood, werewolves, bears, strange smiley pigs and a lot of black, red and white sprayed all over the place, with graffiti messages like "I do not live in the world of sobriety."

To start, Sophia ordered some extremely naughty deep fried pickles that came with a tasty dip. Apologies for the darkness of the pictures... low level lighting would be an understatement... 

Sophia AKA Meat Madam / Chief Burgerette sucking on a Battered Pickle

Deep Fried Deliciousness!

There's also a variety of cocktails which had to be sampled - it would have been rude not to! I went for the 3 rum Grog on recommendation!

For main courses, I went for the bacon cheeseburger, Sophia had the philly-cheese-chilli-steak-heartattack-mountain and we both opted for some chilli cheese fries... just in case we'd under-ordered!

Perfectly timed as we finished dinner, one of the waitresses appeared with a tannoy announcing the bravest man of all men, Will, who was about to take on the 10 minute challenge! Managing to overcome paralysis-by-over-indulgence, we scooted over to join in the cheering as the restaurant accompanied Will's friends in banging fists and shouting 'You can do it Will!!!'

The challenge is that the contestant must polish off 3 hot chilli dinners in under 10 minutes. If they manage it, the £20 meal is free, and should they finish the platter in close to 3 minutes, they're added to the leader board just to prove their utter eating amazingness!

 I was also thoroughly impressed with the toilet signage - because everyone loves a naughty word...




























On top of the excitement of Will coming in at under 10 minutes and getting his whole meal for free, there's also a photobooth for hours of fun at the end of the evening, when one has over-indulged in rum cocktails!

Millionaires Shortcake

This has to be one of my favourite puds and with the girls coming over for a little dinner party I shrugged my shoulders and headed off to Tesco deciding to give it a go. Needless to say the girls were suitably impressed and I beamed a little inside at my handiwork!




I have to say it was very easy to make but looked as though I could have been slaving away at it for hours which was exactly what I was hoping for. So for those of you who like myself enjoy 'moonlighting' as a domestic goddess I thoroughly recommend you try this!

This is what you will need ...

• 250g plain flour
• 75g Caster Sugar
• 175g Butter softened
• 1 tin carnation caramel
• 200g plain chocolate
• 80g white chocolate 

To make the shortbread base, mix the flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter with your hands until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Knead the mixture together until it forms a dough, then press into the base of the prepared tin. Prick the shortbread lightly with a fork and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 min or until firm to the touch and very lightly browned. Cool in the tin.




After the base is cool (and this is the hard bit) open your tin of carnation caramel and using a spoon spread over the shortbread. Once this is done suck spoon to efficiently remove all traces of caramel (this part is essential to show thanks to the caramel god)








For the topping, melt the chocolate slowly in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Pour over the cold caramel and leave to set.




Finally melt down your white choc using the same method as before and then drizzle randomly all over cake to create a lovely Jackson pollock type effect!

Leave to set for at least an hour before your guests arrive, serve with ice cream and sit back and enjoy the praise!

Easy Chicken Noodle Stir Fry

This fragrant stir fry dish takes about 20 minutes from start to finish - perfect if you're home late and just want a tasty dinner on the table as quickly as possible. It's really healthy but the best bit is that it tastes like it's straight from the Thai local take away!

These Thai flavours certainly pack a punch so if you're not a fan of spice go easy on the ginger and chilli.

 

To make this you'll need:

• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 clove garlic,sliced
• 200g egg noodles
• 1 limes, juice and zest
• 4 spring onions , sliced
• 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced with the peeler
• 1 tbsp mint
• 2 tbsp coriander
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 cm root ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 chicken breast fillets , skinless, sliced
• 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce 

Mix your lime zest and juice with the sugar, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, chilli and 1 tbsp of the Sesame oil and set to one side.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of the Sesame oil in a large frying pan or wok and stir fry the chicken for 4-5 minutes until golden in places and cooked through.

Add the carrots, spring onions and noodles and stir fry until piping hot.

Using a peeler to slice your way through the carrots gives the perfect stir fry result!

Remove from the heat add the dressing you made earlier, the mint and the coriander then toss to mix and serve.  Delicious!

Jambalaya Night

A Taste of Cuba...

Whenever I'm cooking for a larger group, I always find it easier and more sociable to cook a gigantic pot of something tasty, that sits on the stove for people to help themselves as and when they fancy.

On this occasion, it was for the boyfriend and me, plus the 'rents, who were over from Spain for the week... so no need to impress with haute cuisine!

Reminiscing about childhood holidays in Cuba, where my family and I would sit on the beach by day, and tuck into a rich, spicy Jambalaya in the evening, got me in the mood to create an old family favourite. This spicy, rice dish originated in the Caribbean Islands. The Spanish culture mixed with the native foods and created what we know as Jambalaya - a mixture of meat, vegetables and seafood topped up with stock and plenty of rice. If you want to make this dish you'll need:

(serves around 8)

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 450g skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 450g smoked pork (I used gammon steak)
• 900g long grain rice
• 20 odd prawns, raw
• 2 tins plum tomatoes
• 500g tomato puree
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 red pepper, finely chopped
• 4 sticks of celery, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 3 1/2 pints (2 litres) chicken stock
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves

If trawling to the supermarket doesn't appeal to you, buy these ingredients online here.

In a large pot, brown the chicken cubes in the sunflower oil, seasoning with salt and pepper. Brown on all sides - about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Do the same with the gammon or smoked pork, (no need for salt and pepper) The smell of the cooking bacon may warrant an early taste.... just make sure it's cooked through! Set aside with the chicken.

Add chopped onions, celery and red pepper to the oil left in the pot. Cook for 5 minutes until onion and celery turn transulcent.

Add tomato puree, and stir for a few minutes. Then add the tins of plum tomatoes, the stock and scrape any tasty sticky bits on the side of the pan into the liquid, stirring until smooth.

Add cayenne (2 tsp is pretty spicy, you may want to start with 1 and see how you go), a bit of pepper, oregano, thyme and bay leaves.

Return the chicken and pork and then add the rice. Stir, cover and cook with the lid on for about 20 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the bottom isn't burning.

Once rice is tender and most liquid has been absorbed, add the prawns and cook it for another 10 minutes. When they're perfectly pink, grab some plates and forks, call in the crowds and enjoy!

Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days. This dish gets tastier by the day as flavours marinade.