What Did You Have For Tea Last Night?

Wednesday, 4 June 2014

Return of the Pix

My darling Pixie has been away doing some horse whispering nonsense in Spain for god knows how long.

But she's baaaaaaccckkkk!!!! So we did our usual and went for a spot of cake. Posh birds, us.

This time we went to Truc Vert, been before for breakfast and it's tres enjoyable. Makes a nice change to those other soho breakfast hangouts anyway. Not that I can afford to be fussy now I'm freelance....

Camera shy Pix had a cappuccino, I had a St Clements and we shared a carrot cake which which was just delightful.

Never letting her out of the country again.

Pre holiday dinner

My mission to avoid carbohydrates for the week before holiday has been an epic failure. I've probably eaten more if anything.

So in a last ditch attempt I decided to have a carb free dinner the night before instead, and opted for baked eggs.

Now I'd had this for breakfast once at Nopi but felt it was far too rich for a pre-brunch affair. Since then I've made it as a light dinner and it never fails to hit the spot.

Fry onions, garlic and a red chilli in olive oil til soft. Wang in some chopped tomatos, tomato puree and season to taste. Leave to simmer for ten mins til the sauce is reduced. Make a couple of wells in the tomato sauce and crack in some eggs. Put in the oven for 5mins until eggs are cooked. Serve with salad, and if you're not going carb free a toasted tortilla wrap. (Which I did of course have).

Who am I kidding?!!

Delish.

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Heart to heart

After an epic week of weddings I headed to the Yorkshire homeland where junior nellist AKA jodie with a beard was bringing home his first serious girlfriend, the Spanish Alba. We decided to make a family feast, after being told that cooking a paella, making a piñata and donning a flamenco outfit was 'patronising' Whatevs Josh, We hit the butchers for a little inspiration.. We ended up leaving with an ox heart and a jumper covered in red gloss paint- turns out leaning on the freshly painted shop door didn't look as cool as I imagined.

We chopped up said heart, panfried and served with a shallot gravy.

We decided to not tell Alba what it was. LOLZ. After digging in and proclaiming she LOVED the 'beef' we finally fessed up. She went a little pale but took it on good spirits,To be fair she was outnumbered there was nowt else she could do. The night continued with a lot more booze than she expected and rounds of tequilas.

Putting her capariniah skills to good use. Or ciprianis according to Jane. Yea good one mum.

Alba, Welcome to the Nellists

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Sunday Brunch

No, I'm not about to write a blog post on that twat Tim Lovejoy.

Instead, SCS aka boyfriend of dreams (most of the time) treated me to an impromptu brunch at one of our favourite hangouts, The Elgin in Maida Vale. In the nicest possible way it's all a bit rough round the edges, with mismatching chairs, warehouse style lighting and unique art on the walls. It's owned by the same company as Graphic, Central & Co and The Alice House in Queens Park, which all have the same kind of feel. Pretty awkward when you realise all of your favourite places to eat and drink are owned by the same company, I can assure you. The owner is making an absolute mint out of me.

Anyway, I digress.

While I'm usually a fan of eggs for brunch, this morning I opted for the buttermilk pancakes with banana, bacon and maple syrup. Perfect portion size and fresh ingredients. Although I must admit I did feel mildly sick after, have no self control when it comes to maple syrup. Or wine, for that matter.

Sam opted for poached eggs, tomatoes and bacon and a round of toast. Now, this was a particularly revolutionary dine for Sam, because he realised that he does actually like tomatoes. "I can't believe I like tomatoes," he said. "I literally found out today. I'm almost 24 and I just realised."

The man has eaten them in basically every meal since we've been together so it wasn't exactly a shock for me, but some people can just be rather slow on the uptake. And yes before you ask, he is younger than me. I've still got it, folks.

After a couple of cappuccinos (their coffee takes a beating also) we trotted off, myself to work where I spent 9 hours writing solidly about Kim sodding Kardashian and Sam to a BBQ. Damn him.

Thanks for a lovely brunch SCS, I really enjoyed it even though you hold your knife incorrectly.

Ladies that lunch

I had a lovely day with my loveliest Mum on Friday.

After a bit of work at her antique shop, where I met some scary new friends, we went in search of some shoes.

After travelling across three counties and driving 2.5 hours, we tracked them down in Oxford, so after all that hard work we worked up quite an appetite.

We hit up Browns brassiere, a bit of an Oxford hot spot, which appaz used to be a Morris garage. It's quite Great Gatsby. Aside from the lack of Leonardo DiCaprio, that is.

Anyway, Mum and myself both opted for the chicken and avacado sandwich in rosemary focaccia. With chips, obvs. Mum did note that the coleslaw looked like cat sick (toilet humour is rife in the Eichler family) but once we tucked in we realised it was fresh, crunchy and delicious.

While Browns looks a bit posh the prices are ever so reasonable, these sarnies were just £8 each. And trust me, there was a lot there, I couldn't even finish it and that's saying something. Complex carbohydrates are my middle names.

Also, absolutely excellent coffee.

Top marks, Browns! We'll be back.

Saturday, 24 May 2014

Timberland for tea

When the lovely Hawt Helen from IPR (I think that's what they call her) invited me to a Timberland (no longer just for 2pac) workshop where you could try your hand at skateboard making, whiskey tasting, DJ-ing and BBQ-ing.

My response was 'I'm in' but who else is going? Now although I find myself a megalol, discovered by many a tinder date where i've had a whale of a time.....with myself, I do tend to work better in a pair, a kind of Robson and Jerome scenario.

So much to my delight the response was don't worry we've put you with Lucia. *phew* So me and Maxine,(Lucia's alter ego) headed with gin cocktail in hand to the skateboard seminar. #skatergals Held by Stuart Smith from inky fingers we got to decorate our own boards. Not that I'm at all competitive, but ours were mega and everyone else's sucked ass (official skate term,I'm sure) infact we had to be dragged away from the sharpies to give the others a turn. #spoilsports

From this we then went onto a tasting guide of woodaged spirits with Tom 'hottie' Sandham #taketheringoff #marryme #imyours (I may have developed a small crush) part of 'the thinking drinkers' he told us loads of different stuff about spirits. I'm sure it was interesting but I spent most the time trying to give him love eyes and mouthing to Todd that I'd found the one that I can't quuuiitttee remember. Vanilla, that's it, they have vanilla in them.

Hubba Hubba. He made us drink tequila, whiskey and rum and tried to convince us that if we weren't keen on the flavours it was important to drink more to become accustomed. SEE mum that's what I've been doing all these years. FINALLY a bit of back up from a professional, those AA people have no idea. On leaving Lucia asked for his 'details' wasted on marriage, this one would have cleaned up on guardian soulmates.

Tequila- VOM

On from tequila tasting we made a move for the decks. That's right the decks. Unfortunately they hadn't got the Beyoncé memo, but the event was so super slick we'll let em off. DJ Bristow showed us all sorts of tricks.. That left Lucia speechless. Anyone that knows her will understand this is no small feat.

We hung we our new BFFs, Nas in particular, or pharrell to us, actually he doesn't know we call him that but if you will wear one of those funny hats what do you expect? After this us gals and the ladZ hit the final workshop which was my fave the BBQ stand.

Held by DJ BBQ and his mate Steve the butcher, we learnt how to make melt in the middle burgers and beercan chicken.

Deelliissshh