Celebrity Eclipse May 2011

I recently went on a cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse and thought I would share a few of my photographs with you.

It was wall to wall luxury, with 2850 passengers on board and more waiting staff than I have ever seen. The ship, staff, food, room, well everything really, was just fabulous. In fact more fabulous than fabulous!


Brunch had to be seen to be believed and whilst I have only chosen to show some cakes, pastries and jellies, not forgetting the huge X ice sculpture, there was more food than I have ever seen. In fact, it was the equivalent of eating your breakfast, lunch and dinner all at one sitting. Click here to go to YouTube to see brunch being served.

These little beauties were all hand made by Celebrity Eclipse chefs.

The Martini Bar was a huge attraction and they put on plenty of cocktail shows to keep us all entertained. Click here to visit YouTube to see these guys in action, it's truly amazing.

A few of the displays next to the Martini Bar.

This was a demonstration showing us how they make cocktails in the Molecular Bar. Click here to go to YouTube to see a demo.

This display of Vodka was at the side of the Martini Bar and all of the bottles are sitting in crushed ice.

Appliances Online Giveaway

The Fairy Hobmother has been very busy doing the rounds in the blogosphere and has granted the wishes of many hopeful bloggers.

I left a comment on Nic's blog Cherrapeno, and the Fairy Hobmother in turn sent an email to me asking if I would like to receive a £20 Amazon voucher. How wonderful and now I am going to spend an hour or so on Amazon to see how I would like to use it. Thank you Fairy Hobmother.

Appliances Online sell fantastic cookers and other white goods but you can wish for things such as books, fryers, hand mixers, well anything really!

Now here is the best bit, all you have to do to be in with a chance of getting your wish granted, is leave a comment on this post with your wish. You haven't long though to leave a comment before the Fairy Hobmother visits my blog and chooses one of your wishes.

BBC Summer Good Food Show 2010 Birmingham

My day started in the Press Office where I was given tickets to see Matt Tebbutt in the Summer Kitchen and other treats. I was then asked if I would be willing to take part in the MasterChef Experience Invention Test.

Before I knew it I was being whisked away to the MasterChef Theatre, given an apron, briefed, shown to my workstation, and then the opportunity to familiarise myself with the fresh and dry ingredients provided. Also, a quick tuition of the Miele state of the art kitchen appliances I would be using. The name of the game is to produce something innovative in just 30 minutes. Phew! No, I didn't win or even come third, I thought I would give all of the other contestants a chance!!! I did have lots of fun, even though I couldn't produce anything that resembled even the merest hint of a Michelin star.

My husband bagged himself a front row seat and did his best to take photographs for ourselves and also another contestant, who unfortunately was at the opposite side of the stage to me.


In my session John Torode and Gregg Wallace were keeping a watchful eye over us with the help of Mat Follas and James Nathan, who are two previous MasterChef winners. Andi Peters was the compere and offered us an arm of support. We were all allocated a sous chef from Birmingham Food College and I was very fortunate to have such a helpful and charming right hand man.


After this we returned to the Press Office, sat on a comfy sofa and re-energised ourselves with coffee before our tour of the Good Food Show.

Chocolate Fondue.


I would love one of these!


I had a scoop of the cherry ice cream.


Nouga.


The Liquorice Stall.


Olive Oil.



Summer Kitchen with Matt Tebbutt.


Bubbly!



Thank you to Emma, Haymarket Exhibitions and the BBC Summer Good Food Show for a really great day out!

An Interview with.............

Recently I was asked by Debs, of Deb Cooks food blog, if I would be a willing participant in her monthly interviews.

Debs has so far interviewed a cookery writer and a few other food bloggers. If you would like to read the interview please click here.

Thank you Debs, it was fun!

A Belated Blog Anniversary and a Chocolate Giveaway

I have been blogging for approximately three and a half years, and have decided to host my own blog giveaway. The giveaway is chocolate, chocolate and even more chocolate.


My son set up my blog, possibly to keep in touch with all the things that I have cooked. I have to admit, I hadn't come across the world of blogs, and back then the blogosphere was a much smaller place. When I started the blog there were approximately 75 UK blogs on the 'Foodie List' but now there are so many that I couldn't possibly keep up with them all.

I have now had over 250,000 unique visitors since I started blogging in September 2006. My first posting, without a photograph, was a Delia Smith recipe - Fresh Tomato Soup with Basil. There are over 240 postings on the blog, and I have enjoyed every minute of blogging.

All of the products that have appeared on the blog have been extremely good quality, and therefore, they have been positive postings. I have been sent numerous products and would like to thank everyone.

I have had some surprising emails from people who have come across my blog, and a couple of them in particular still make me smile. One was from a marketing company in America who asked me how many people in the UK use a cafetiere to make coffee for breakfast every day - if I knew the answer to that, I think that there would be something seriously wrong with me.

Another email that made me smile was from a Sea Scouts Teacher, who said he was fed up with the meals his pupils served him whilst out at sea and could I suggest a menu so he could experience better food from them, ah!

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and also to those who have left comments they are always very much appreciated. I love visiting all of your blogs, old and new, time permitting, and I now feel as though I know many of my fellow food bloggers.

The banana and chocolate chip cupcakes are adapted from here and I simply added 50g of dark chocolate chips to the mix. The lemon tinted buttercream is a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookery book, the buttercream is so sweet my husband couldn't bring himself to sink his teeth into one of my iced cupcakes and it had to be uniced cupcakes for him.

Anyway, for a chance to win the chocolate giveaway, please leave a comment telling me which of my postings is your favourite. The giveaway is open to anyone in the UK.

The winner will be chosen at random.
The closing date is midnight on Saturday, 27th February 2010. The winner will be announced after the closing date - please pop back to see if you have won and provide me with your email details.

BBC Good Food Show Birmingham

The Jamie Oliver stand displaying all of his wonderful kitchen goodies.


Lavazza have just launched a new coffee machine, it is very sleekly designed and comes in a range of bright colours.


The Italian Fields stand had a wonderful display of Parmesan Cheese, Prosciutto, Limoncello just to name a few. My husband bought a piece of prosciutto from here, but at the moment I am still trying to figure out how he is going to carve wafer thin slices from it!


On the Kenwood stand, we were given a very informed demonstration of the Kenwood Cooking Chef , which is their latest product. On the left of the photograph is chef/demonstrator Paul Brodel (you may recognize him from the shopping channels) and on the right is Kenwood's Development Chef.


The above is only a taster of the many interesting stands we came across. I have been to the Good Food Show in Birmingham almost every year since the show first launched and it gets better every year, they always bring something new to the show for us. It's a great day out and lots of fun.

I spent a wonderful day with my husband here courtesy of Ginny Braynsmith from BBC Haymarket Exhibitions. Thank you Ginny.

Variety is the Spice of Life - Part II

The photographs in the previous posting are:
Jamie's Italian in Brighton.
The Banksy Exhibition in Bristol.
Cabot Circus Shopping Centre, also in Bristol.
Monmouth Coffee situated opposite Borough Market in London.
Lastly, a snapshot of some of my garden!

The food at Jamie's Italian was generous and delicious. My choices were Prosciutto, Pear and Pecorina Salad followed by Italian Bakewell Tart.

A couple of negatives - sorry Jamie - the bottled water, on an extremely hot day, was served to us at room temperature! We asked for a glass of ice cubes which promptly appeared but then disappeared off the table just as quickly!! Also, if you decide to go to a Jamie's Italian make sure you eat downstairs because the Brighton restaurant is on two floors. Downstairs is a must for ambiance and where you will see the cutting of hams and bread etc. Wait for a downstairs table rather than go upstairs to eat.



Coffee in Brighton has to be at The Red Roaster Cafe. Freshly roasted beans and delicious coffee topped with latte art - it doesn't get much better than this. The second photograph shows a collection of coffee brewing machines the owner has obviously collected over time.



Brighton Pavilion - no trip to Brighton is complete without a visit here.


The Victoria, Richmond - a gastro pub where Paul Merrett is a chef and joint owner. We went on a Wednesday when they have an outdoor grill menu. The food, as was my latte art topped coffee fabulous, and I couldn't find one single negative. Perfect.


RHS Wisley, Surrey. Lots of beautiful, trees, plants, fruit trees bursting with apples, pears and damsons and wonderful walks. Didn't go here for food though.

Fish! Restaurant is situated in a huge glass building at Borough Market. Another sunny day where we sat outside and ate wonderful food. Forgot to take a photograph of this - sorry. Everything was perfect here too. Fish! also have a stall at Borough Market serving up fish and chips which was extremely popular with visitors.

The Total Organics Juice Bar situated inside Borough Market - no I didn't drink any of this, I just wasn't feeling brave enough! They serve shots of juiced wheat grass here.


Lots of wonderful tomatoes, again at Borough Market, a real feast for the eyes.


Whitstable, Kent. Yet another sunny day and lots of oyster and seafood stalls to whet the appetite.


We also ate at Ask and had a reasonably good meal, but the best place in Beckenham where we ate was Friends of Mine - the food was not only delicious but presented extremely well. The restaurant interior is definitely 'cool' and we enjoyed relaxing here after long hot days out!

My daughter lives in Kent and we stayed at her house for a week which was really useful and gave us the opportunity to explore the area and beyond. As you can see we had a wonderful time - just perfect.

I have been to some other great places this year and hope to post about these in the future.

Variety is the Spice of Life!

I have been eating too much yummy food here.



I have been shopping, perhaps too much, here.



I have been drinking lots of wonderful coffee, here.



I have now got to settle down and spend some time here!

Nom Yogurts

I received a very generous selection of yogurts from Nom Dairy in rural Shropshire to review.


In these recession hit times, it is quite reassuring to see a huge investment being made in Shropshire. A £60m state of the art dairy has been completed and they are now producing Nom yogurts. On their website they tell us Shropshire was their chosen location due to the amount of high quality milk required for their recipes. Nom have been making yogurt and yogurt drinks in Austria for over 100 years and this is their first venture into the UK market.


I was sent a collection of Naturally Creamy two-sided yogurts and these came in 150g pots. They are a large creamy yogurt on one side with a smaller separate portion of fruit or cereal. I received, senga strawberry, morello cherry, alponso mango and passion fruit, granola and Belgium choc chip, and granola.


Next, was a pack of Nom Naturally Good fruit layer yogurt, these came in a pack of 6 x 125g yogurt pots. I received three senga strawberry and 3 morello cherry. These comprised a layer of compote topped with a creamy layer of probiotic yogurt. Unless you look at the labeling you would be totally unaware these were probiotic yogurt pots.


These would be ideal for breakfast or any time of the day - I ate one for lunch and was surprised at just how filling and satisfying they were.

I couldn't fault them on presentation of the products or quality. The fruit compote or granola was excellent. My personal preference, and also that of my husband, was we preferred the fruit compote pots over the granola based products.

Awards

Maria at The Goddess's Kitchen and Rosie from Baking Cakes Galore have awarded to me The Adorable Blog award. Thank you Maria and Rosie.


The rules for The Adorable Blog Award are:

Nominate as many blogs which show adorability, cuteness and charm.Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
I am passing The Adorable Blog award on to:

The Caked Crusader

I've Just Met My First Food Blogger!

I met up for the first time with Jan, from What Do I Want To Cook Today, in Shrewsbury this week.

We had planned to go on Farmer's Market Day, which is held on the first Friday of each month. Unfortunately, this wasn't to be, it had been raining all week and torrential rain was forecast for our meet up. We had no choice but to rearrange our day out, and although it rained for the first couple of hours it eased up and then we had dry, sun and yes - more rain!

We had a really enjoyable day out and even though we had never met before the conversation never dried up! Jan is wonderful company and we soon felt at ease with each other. What did we speak about - well everything under the sun really!

One of the shops Jan found fascinating was Setonaikai an oriental shop. This was an Aladdin's cave for cooks, and Jan, who has a passion for cooking dishes from around the world, found lots of ingredients she had been searching for and many others as well - take a look at her food blog for some inspiring mealtime ideas.

Lunch was at The Peach Tree Restaurant situated near the River Severn. We then made our way around parts of Shrewsbury that we didn't get time to see in the morning. A coffee stop, then the return train journey home.

We both agreed it had been a wonderful day and you never know, we might just do it again!

AN AWARD!

The very talented Bella of Ma Cuisine Bien Aimee has passed onto me the Brillante Weblog Award - thank you Bella.
Please check out her wonderful blog which is a 'bakers delight'. Bella has recipes for peach cake, the most beautiful peach triangles, not forgetting her swan meringue and lots more.

A WONDERFUL WEEKEND

I'm trying to think sunshine at the moment, and how hot it was last weekend as we made our way from the West Midlands to Broadfield Court at Bodenham in Herefordshire. This is the home of Bodenham English Wines where you can taste wines from Broadfield's vineyards, wander around the Old English gardens or pop into the award winning Tearoom for a piece of their wonderful coffee cake and a cup of coffee.
Note: English Wine Week takes place 24th May to the 1st June 2008.

We decided to then move on to a National Trust venue - The Weir, near Hereford. This is a 1920's riverside garden with an abundance of wildflowers and beautiful views along the River Wye and the Herefordshire countryside.

Next onto Hay-on-Wye (apparently twinned with Timbuktu!) situated between Brecon and Hereford.

Hay-on-Wye is home to shop after shop selling books. A cookery book addicts dream come true - wall to wall cookery books. Well, what are you waiting for?

It's The Guardian Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye (Hay's literary festival) from 22nd May to the 1st June 2008 and up to 80,000 people descend upon this small town every year. Not just to buy cookery books though!! Take a look at the list of people who will be appearing at the Hay Festival.

Then onto our final destination - Llanwrtyd Wells (the smallest town in Britain)located in Mid Wales, home to the Red Kite. It's here at the AA 2007-2008 Restaurant of the Year (Wales), The Carlton Riverside, we had booked an overnight stay. This restaurant holds three AA Red Rosettes and Mary Ann Gilchrist creates the most amazing food. We make the journey every year to this hotel. You will find people from all over the country at this restaurant, the majority returning once they have experienced her excellent food.

We returned home to the West Midlands taking in the most stunning views of the Mid Wales countryside. Sadly, many tourists only think about North and South Wales, little wonder they say 'Secret Mid-Wales'. Ssh! don't tell anyone.

Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road to Caramellow Easter Egg

How could you not love an Easter egg called Rocky Road to Caramellow? I'm sure you will agree, it looks too good to eat, but here I am again, eating it on your behalf!

One of the egg shell halves is made with 40 percent cocoa house milk chocolate with crispy puffed rice, cookies and chocolate chunks. The other half-shell is made with a layer of caramel chocolate over a base of milk chocolate.

This egg is just one of the Hotel Chocolat Extra Thick Easter Eggs and you can see the full range by clicking here.

The Easter egg arrived in a very strong brown box and then inside is the most amazing black box with an embossed lid. Around the box is a band with the description of the egg which you have chosen. After you've eaten the Easter egg the box can then be re-used.

Inside the black box is the silver foil wrapped Easter egg. Black bags containing your chocolates are inside the egg shell halves. There are 14 chocolates and here are just a few that I will tempt you with - caramel crunch praline, macadamia turtles, Easter caramel chick, caramel canapes and crispy pecan praline.

If you are planning a romantic getaway at Easter, this is the perfect Easter egg for sharing.

HOTEL CHOCOLAT EASTER EGG COMPETITION

Win luxury Easter eggs from Hotel Chocolat

Easter is coming around the corner very quickly and everyone wants that extra special Easter Egg!

Kitchen Delights has teamed up with Hotel Chocolat to offer you a chance to win some of Hotel Chocolat’s extra special, extra thick Easter Eggs.

To enter, click here and simply answer six questions which will take you on an Easter egg hunt to find the secret code. Once you have answered each question, use the first letter of each answer to reveal the secret code. If you have found the right answer you stand a chance to win one of Hotel Chocolat’s stunning Extra Thick Easter Eggs!

NOTE: Only UK residents are eligible to enter this competition.
The competition commences 00.00 am on 25/02/08.
Closing date for entries is 11.59 pm 18/03/08.
PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON THE HOTEL CHOCOLAT SITE CAREFULLY.

GOOD LUCK!