Bumpkin

Before the mister and I went to see the Wildlife Photography exhibit but lunched at Bumpkin. It's an adorable little gastropub in South Kensington. We had some cheeky Sunday cocktails and indulged in a great lunch. The mister had the pork roast and I had the burger, which used the best brioche bun.

We don't go out in South Ken very often so it's always nice when we explore a new neighborhood.

Wildlife Photography 2014

Last Sunday the mister and I made our annual trip to the Wildlife Photography Exhibit at the Natural History Museum. There weren't as many photos this year that blew me away, but there were still some incredible shots.

This also could be the last time we see Dippy, so I had to snap a pic.

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Midweek cookies

Just a little sugar to get me through the week. My favorite chocolate chip cookies.

£72 a week

The Barnes High Street is being taken over by estate agents and I HATE IT. Last year so many cute, independent shops closed and boring lame estate agent shops replaced them. In an effort to better support our local businesses, the mister and I have been making a real effort to spend more money in Barnes - £72 a week to be precise. A local economist has worked up the magic number of £36 per person per week to help support our local community. It's really nice to have a number to work to and I always feel so pleased when we exceed it, which isn't hard.

We're mostly supporting the local restaurants, cafes and food shops. We were thrilled when the Ginger Pig opened in Barnes earlier in the year, right by the fruit and veg store, making weekly shops that much easier.

Super Bowl Sunday food

Even though I'm not a major football fan, I do feel obliged to pay attention to major American events. And I felt even more so this year, since the Seattle Seahawks were playing.

I have been racking up quite a few things to make and bake on Pinterest, so I thought Super Bowl Sunday would be the perfect opportunity to make a few treats. 

Our spread was oh so European, with sausages from the Ginger Pig, wrapped in bread from Gail's and a few budweiser budvars. But I tried to add some American flair with pretzel crusted brownies, bacon parmesan dip and bacon wrapped chicken bites that were rolled in brown sugar and spices to make a delicious sweet and spicy combo.

As you can imagine, the mister and I could never finish all of this so my colleagues enjoyed most of it the following Monday.

The pretzel crust for the brownies

Finished brownies

Bacon chicken bites. YUM!

Winter stillness

It has been freeeeeezing lately but it has been mostly dry and crisp, my favorite type of weather. (It reminds me of fall!) I went out for a jog around the neighborhood and was so stunned at how quiet it was. I had to stop a take a moment to appreciate our beautiful little St. Mary's church. The site has been a place of worship since 1543. These views sure beat the gym.

First Aid Kit

I've got the entire Stay Gold album on loop. I love the folky singer/songwriter vibes, just beautiful.

Lunch at Arte Chef

Slowly but surely we're making our way around to all the different cafes and restaurants in Barnes.  I spent much of last week working at home, so it was nice to get out of the house for a walk and a panini. The mister, who is currently a lord of leisure, joined me at Arte Chef, a new-ish local cafe. It's a really cute place with a great little garden out back, just a shame it's so damn cold! 

Arte Chef is just across the road from Olympic Studios, our local cinema - which we're starting to go to regularly - so we're excited to go back to Arte Chef for a pre-movies pizza from their pizza oven!

American Buffalo

I've been a bit slow off the blocks this year in booking theatre tickets. I waited hours a few months ago to book Hamlet tickets (starting Benedict Cumberbatch - worth it!), but it wasn't until today that I really started to peruse what's on this year. 

I saw that John Goodman (!) (and some famous guy from Homeland, that I've never heard of) is coming to the West End in American Buffalo, so I snapped up a few tickets for April. Is it just me or are theatre tickets getting crazy expensive?! £92 for a premium seat (plus a booking fee). That's almost £100 to see a play! £15 to see a movie seems so reasonable compared to that. 

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The show is described as, "A classic tragedy, American Buffalo is the story of three men struggling in the pursuit of their distorted vision of the American Dream. By turns touching and cynical, poignant and violent, American Buffalo is a piercing story of how people can be corrupted into betraying their ideals and those they love."

Sounds excellent - I'll let you know how it goes. 

Guys, it's been a while

As I'm sure you've noticed, I had, until today, abandoned my blog. There were a few big reasons - I was incredibly sick for a few months, we temporarily moved to Singapore for work for 2 months, the crazy crazy holiday season, but I think I was also just a little burned out on blogging. 

It wasn't until yesterday when I mentioned my blog to someone and said how much I enjoyed looking back on my entries from year's past, that I realised I wanted to start blogging again. So, here I am!

Every January I set goals for myself for the year. Some version of my usual suspects are still there (go to the gym, bake more, sleep more, eat healthy (which I agree is a bit at odds with 'bake more')) but I'm also trying a few new ones - specifically, French cooking and reading. I'm getting stuck into some excellent fiction (I read Paper Towns in a day - what a fantastic read!) but I'm also seeking out more books about domestic history and cooking - not recipes per se but stories from the kitchen. I hope that these stories and rich interesting history inspire me to cook more French food, or just food in general. 

I hope to update you on my progress soon!

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Batter up

Today is pancake day in the UK or as we refer to it in the US, Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday (or Mardi Gras) is traditionally celebrated with a lot of booze, bright plastic beads and a little bit of nudity. The British are so civilized; getting wild and gluttonous with their pancakes!

The mister and I celebrated this evening with a paleo friendly version, sweet potato pancakes and bacon. The pancakes were delicious and once I drizzled a little maple syrup over them, they tasted exactly the same as regular pancakes.

In another life, back in my young carefree days of 2007, I was in Brazil for Carnival. Salvador was an amazing place to be for Carnival. The whole city shuts down for the entire week. Everyone celebrates, everywhere. It was an incredible experience, one I wish I could have again. I did a bit of blogging during my South American adventure (you can read about Carnival here) but ultimately gave it up because it was so time consuming to go to an internet cafe and write. How different it would be now with iphones and wifi everywhere..

Here are just 2 snaps from Carnival. Because of the crowds and 100% chance that you'd get pick pocketed, I rarely had a camera with me.  

A drumming school practising in the lead up to Carnival. 

The view of a bloco passing by. A bloco is a sectioned off area behind a float or semi-truck that's carrying the entertainer. Everyone in orange is in the bloco. 

Ember Yard and Mojo

It's no secret I am a big Ben Wishaw fan. I first saw him in The Hour (I still can't get over the fact that they only made 2 seasons) and last year we saw him and Dame Judi Dench in Peter and Alice (which was a strange and slightly disjointed play but amazing acting nonetheless).

When I saw Ben Wishaw was back in the West End, this time in a play called Mojo, I immediately snapped up some tickets. I unfortunately went for the nosebleed, restricted view seats and spent the whole play leaning so far forward I thought I might fall into the row in front of me. Like Peter and Alice, Mojo was dark and little bizarre but the acting was superb. Mojo also had Rupert Grint (from Harry Potter) Brendan Coyle (from Downton Abby) and Colin Morgan (from Merlin) in it. Like I said, great acting.

Before we headed into the show we grabbed a quick dinner at Ember Yard. I cannot begin to describe how good the meat was at Ember Yard. The chorizo skewers were so good we ate 2 and then ordered 2 more. Ember Yard is a hop skip and a jump away from my office and every time I walk by at lunch time it always looks so buzzing - definitely going to book myself in for a charcuterie course sometime soon.

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Burger tour

Now that I've moved offices to Oxford Street I really feel like I work in London. Working in Farringdon obviously felt like London, especially when I crossed Blackfriars bridge every night and saw St. Paul's in all it's glory, but being in the heart of Soho is different. For one thing, one of my friends at work and I decided we were going to try all the burger joints within easy reach of the office. (He's actually started a burger blog which you can follow here.)

We started with BRGR and then last week we went to Patty and Bun. P&B was the best burger I've ever had, ever. Yep, it was that freaking good. And the most genius part was that we didn't even have to wait in the enormous line, we pre-ordered!

Separate to my lunch time burger tour, my friend Jack organised a burger tour through London last weekend. The tour stopped at 8 different burger joints in 4 days. I could never eat a burger for lunch and dinner (unless I was drunk and/or really hungover), so the mister and I just joined for Friday dinner. The venue was Hache, which I had never even heard of until I got the burger tour facebook invite.

The burger and chips were good but nothing really to write home about. We all got different toppings, I got the Sicilian which has buffalo mozzarella cheese and parma ham, and everyone agreed the toppings were difficult to taste and didn't really add anything to the burger. Not a bad burger but it was no Patty and Bun.

Any burger places in London you would definitely recommend?

Afternoon Tea at the Wolseley

For my 30th birthday my dear friend Emma got me tea for 2 at The Wolseley. What a fabulous present. Last summer was so busy that I never got around to booking it and then I forgot about it until the voucher resurfaced from a pile of mail a few weeks ago.

The mister and I have never been to proper tea together so it was fun to do this together. It always amazes me how much the mister and I have to talk about considering we already talk so much of the day. Over tea we discussed everything from America's lack on coverage of international news to business strategy to our lack of decoration in our bedroom. Never a dull conversation!

After waaay too many sweet treats we decided to take a stroll through Green Park and down to Hype Park Corner. Sunday was overcast and brisk but still nice to get out and walk after so much food. We stumbled upon a New Zealand memorial which I think tickled the mister as he took pictures of it and posted it on Facebook, which he never does!