In to blue

I got all my errands run today (even had time to make a birthday dinner reservation at the OXO Tower) and made 1 of the 2 flavors of cupcakes I wanted to make. I decided to make the Samoa cakes first. Amazing!

I am totally loving navy blue right now. Navy blue is not exactly a spring color but the way the weather has been acting lately, I still consider this the end of winter. I was so lucky to have snatched up this stunning dress at Mango the other day. This will definitely be my birthday dress for 2010.

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Check out this awesome suit from...Sainsbury's. I know it's a little weird to be buying your clothes from the grocery store, but this could be a contender for my Nice trip in May.

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And finally this beautiful dress from Anthropologie. Anthro just recently opened their doors in London. I can't wait to go in and have a look for myself. 

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Big day of baking

Tomorrow I'm free from classes (thanks to a teacher's strike) and free from work, so I've decided to do some marathon baking (on top of about one billion other errands I need to run).

I'm going to start with some cupcakes to celebrate my birthday, which is this Saturday. Strawberry Shortcake is one of my favorite desserts and it just so happens one of the blogs I follow just posted a recipe for Strawberry Shortcake cupcakes! How lucky! I am a little dismayed because the recipe calls for cake flour, which doesn't seem to exist in London. I've found out how to make a substitution, but I'm a little nervous since I'm no pro. I don't want to mess up my own birthday cupcakes.

The second batch I'm going to make is for Easter which is the day after my birthday. These are especially for the mister because he loves caramel sauce and coconut. I found this awesome recipe for Samoa Girl Scout cookie cupcakes. This specific blog has a couple recipes involving Girl Scout cookies - I LOVE it.

I am on the hunt for more baking supplies such as liners. If anyone knows of any good shops in London, drop me a line.

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Paris in 2 hours or 26 billion pixels

I'm sitting at my desk staring out the window dreaming of a vacation down to Paris for a few days to check out the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay.  (Unfortunately the trip to Zurich never worked out. But, that means I have money to go elsewhere.) Since the view out my window is pretty boring (a view of the War Horse sign and theatre) I thought it might be nice to share an incredible view of Paris.

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Apparently, this image file is the largest ever made at 26 gigapixels, which is 26 billion pixels! I'm not sure that the photos due Paris justice or if the feeling of being in Paris can ever be captured on film, but it certainly beats my current view.

Spring Cleaning

I cleaned out my closet this weekend. There were a few items I noticed that I hadn't touched since I brought them across the pond just about a year ago. (Yes, it's just past my 1 year anniversary in London!) I was actually hoping to get rid of more than I did, mainly so I can stock my closet up with new clothes.

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I hit Oxford Street today but that was just for some essentials from John Lewis. Since I've been doing a little more baking and cooking these days I always find I am short on kitchen appliances. I always make it work, but am really excited about my 2 new additions: a zester and mini food processor. Now, what to bake next...

Smithfield Bar & Grill

On Friday the mister and I met up after work at Smithfield Bar & Grill for some drinks and food.

Where: 2-3 West Smithfield (between Barbican and Farringdon)

The Scene:  Hopping after work drink spot with 2-4-1 cocktails until 8, live music in the bar and chic decor

Delight: 25% off the food bill and lively atmosphere

Disappointment: over priced pub food

We both arrived early for our reservation so we decided to take advantage of some of their drink specials in the bar first. The 2-4-1 cocktails were pretty weak but still contained some alcohol and at £7.50 for 2 it's not a bad price for the area. They only had 2 beers on tap, Guinness and Becks, which was a little lame, but they were rocking bottles of Boston's Sam Adam's Lager, which I didn't get but still appreciated.

I was absolutely loving the decor of the bar and restaurant and the vibe of the place was really great as well. A decent after work crowd but not too busy and by 7:30 they had a solo guitarist playing acoustic covers of Lady Gaga's bad romance!

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When we moved to the restaurant it was pretty dead, but then again we were dining pretty early. We ordered the garlic bread starter which was literally toasted hamburger buns with a cup of melted butter and a head of garlic. DIY garlic bread if you will. When you have to assemble your own food, I get a little ticked (why am I eating out then?) but this was a little ridiculous because who wants to eat whole cloves of garlic and the starter did not come with a garlic press.

After a few cocktails and a very average starter I was craving something familiar; some chips. I went for the scampi and chips and the mister went for the Sirloin steak. The Smithfield Bar & Grill boasted a 28 day aging process on their beef so it seemed like a promising order for the mister. The steak that came did not look like a sirloin cut (or at least not a sirloin cut you would get in the US) but the mister said it was tasty.

My meal was good. You really can't go wrong with scampi and chips. The scampi was priced at £17 which I would have considered a bit of a rip off had we not been getting the 25% discount, but again these are probably reasonable prices for central London.

I probably wouldn't go out of my way to make it back to Smithfield's Bar & Grill, but if I was in the neighborhood I might drop in for a drink.

St. Patty's day for a sweet tooth

I have a major sweet tooth, so when I saw a recipe for Irish car bomb cupcakes I knew I had to try it out. One doesn't generally bring out cupcakes to the pub so I needed another excuse besides just the holiday to try out these cakes. And I got my wish when a friend of mine invited me to her birthday party last Saturday. She (and her friends) are total booze hounds (in a good way) so I knew these cupcakes would be a crowd pleaser.

I've never baked with beer (Guinness) or alcohol (Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson’s Irish whiskey) before so I was a little nervous when the cake came out of the oven really sticky.  

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The cupcakes turned out great and although the frosting was almost like taking a shot and eating sugar at the same time, they are very festive and would consider making them again for St. Patty's day.

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Next up on my list? Starbucks VIA was just launched in the UK and I found this recipe on the Starbucks website. I need to start going to the gym everyday if I'm going to be baking every week.

Cheese roundup

I tried a great (read: efficient) cafe on Drury Lane today for lunch. Ecco Cafe is a small, loud cafe where placing an order is somewhat reminiscent of scenes from Seinfeld’s epic episode, 'The Soup Nazi'. Only in so much as you have to know what you want to order when you reach the counter.

Where: 186 Drury Lane (Covent Garden)

The Scene: Tiny, bustling cafe with good lunch specials

Delight: Fast service, value for money

Dissappointment: Average food

Their menu consists mainly of pizzas, which are a good value at £4.75 for eat in. I however was not that hungry so I just got a sandwich. I ordered the prosciutto, mozzarella, basil and tomato grilled sandwich. It was pretty average but edible and with a diet coke my tab came to about £3.50. It's hard to beat the value and tastiness of Pret's sandwiches but I would consider going back to Ecco Cafe for their cheap pizzas.

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I know...I need to branch out from Italian, sandwiches and sushi. I'm working on that.

Speaking of eating, this International Cheese Award Festival winner looks amazing and I would absolutely die if I went to a cheese award festival.

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Upcoming Trips

I've got a few trips on the books so far for the spring. The biggest trip is to New Zealand to see the mister's family. The pic below is of White Island (active volcano) which we will be visiting on our tour of the North Island.

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The other trips are to Nice, France (the capital of the French Riviera) and Zurich, Switzerland. (Zurich is still up in the air - possibly thinking about going to Lucerne for the weekend. Is there anything cool to do in Zurich?)

I can't wait for Nice because it's going to be my first girl's weekend away in 2010! Plus, I just love French food so hopefully we'll stumble across some good eating. (and drinking of course).

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This time last Friday...

...I was sitting at my desk waiting for the work day to end so that I could meet the mister for dinner at Cafe Mode in Covent Garden. Cafe Mode is a cute little Italian (plus burgers and steak) place that got some solid reviews on Yelp plus they had a coupon on their website so, we decided to try it out.

Where: 57-59 Endell Street (Covent Garden)

The Scene: A cramped, busy and lively atmosphere mostly comprising of pre-theater diners

Delight: Quality pizza

Disappointment: The pepperoni dough ball starter and a stale-ish desert

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The coupon I had downloaded required the mister and I to purchase 2 main courses and a starter and dessert (or 2 starters or 2 desserts). Since I love dining out and trying more than 1 item on the menu, I find myself usually ordering all of the above so I didn't feel like I was duped into spending more money with the coupon. (You know that happens sometimes)

The starter and dessert however left a lot to be desired. For the starter we ordered the pepperoni dough balls which were literally pepperonis and dough balls on a plate. For £5 I was expecting a bit more than something I could pick up from the grocery store and do myself in less than 5 minutes.

The pizzas we order were really delicious and true to the Yelp reviews, the service was great! I had the goats cheese & sundried tomato pizza and I believe the mister had the rocket and parma ham pizza. (I was a little tipsy that night - forgive my memory)

The dessert we shared was the chocolate cake. The cake was really dry and again something I could have probably picked up at Sainsbury's and made myself to a higher standard.

The restaurant was buzzing and it's a small space so keep your legs out of the aisle, but I like that vibe; everyone so excited to see their show or meet up with friends after work. Next time I go back (sans coupon) I'll just get the pizza and do a little more people watching.

Cocktails & cigarettes not included

Mad Men Barbies are due to launch in a few weeks in the US (March 23rd). I absolutely love Mad Men and I absolutely love Joan Holloway's figure, which is noticeably missing from her plastic replica. The dolls are a bit of a disappointment without their polyamorous, chain smoking, alcoholic personalities attached.   

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At $75 a doll I think I'm going to have to give them a skip, especially since I just purchased a new blazer at Zara on my lunch break yesterday.

Absurdly thin laptop for every child

Seeing as how my dissertation is on education technology, these types of articles are always catching my eye. I consider One Laptop for Every Child to be a bit of a joke, mostly a failure, and preposterous that they are still developing laptops when many children in third world countries will die of starvation before they can receive their laptop. 

I do have to admit though that a slim, ultra portable, low energy consuming laptop is pretty cool. Check out the prototype for the new machine.

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Almond cake with lemon and poppy seeds

On Sunday the mister and I headed over to a friend's house for a leisurely Sunday lunch. Our hosts had prepared a delicious meal that included a rabe, pine nut, garlic, pancetta mix for the starter and a chicken pie for the main. I made an almond cake with lemon and poppy seeds for dessert which was also delicious but really lacking any almond flavor. Perhaps I put too much lemon juice in?

The recipe came from the Jamie Oliver website, which has so many good recipes that I want to try. The one key kitchen tool that I must invest in before I use another UK recipe is a scale. I had to improvise a bit when the recipe called for things in grams. Thank god for Google so I could find the conversions of the items into cups.

I'd definitely make this recipe again.

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Transforming

I constantly come across things that I absolutely love and absolutely want to blog about, but feel restricted because I set my blog up to be about eating. Well, that's going to change because I really want to share some of my finds with you all.

My first discovery made my week. It's Smith's Rosebud Salve...in a tube!
My second discovery was shown to me by one of my ultra trendy coworkers and it's Liberty of London's new line at Target.

I am so jealous of all my friends who can rush out to Target and buy these amazing clothes at amazing prices. I'm stuck with a hefty price tag if I shop Liberty IN London. Not fair.

My coworker loved the Liberty bike

But I'm loving the dresses!

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Drinking out

After a long weekend in, I decided it was high time I get out of the house (and celebrate the sucessful completion of my presentation) for a few pints.

Among the places I hit up was London's oldest licensed pub (anything to claim fame or justify why the pub is in shambles). The White Hart actually isn't as old and shabby as I thought it might be and considering I visited from the hours of 4pm to 7pm on a Friday I was astonished at how busy it was.

Where: 191 Drury Lane

The Scene: Drinks after a long week with four friends

Delight: Good choice of beers, good prices

Disappointment: crowds, but who am I kidding, this is London.

I am definitely going back to the White Hart. Great vibe, good beer. I'm not sure I need to try their rendition of really average pub food, but you will definitely find me here again throwing back a pint or five.

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