Also my phone has died so any pictures I have taken may have gone with it, currently it’s in the shop and I’m waiting to hear back. So at the moment this blog is pictureless. SORRY.

This time I had a European penpal Saskia from Netherlands which was exciting, she’d never really been to London but trying to encapsulate a taste of London especially goods that could travel far was tricky. So I just went for things I really like, Suya Spice, Percy Pigs from Marks & Spencers, some homemade chutney, my fav lemongrass strands and banana and coconut tea.  I think I did a good job shame pies etc can’t be sent over.

I received my box from the lovely Sophie and couldn’t believe how much she had given, she said she stretched the budget but honestly the box was Massive!

There were oatcakes, amaretti biscuits, lemon and ginger tea, Tunnocks chocolate tea cakes, Maple and Walnut chocolate, popping candy, homemade granola and a vanilla pod!

I thought it was a very well put together box and although I haven’t tried everything I love the granola (give me a recipe please Sophie) and as suggested I had the oatcakes with cheese and meat (we had ham) they were kind of like a savoury oaty crumpet, most enjoyable. I think on Sunday I’m going to try and enjoy the cakes, biscuits, chocolate while putting together a new wardrobe. No doubt it will make DIY so much nicer.

Last year in the summer after many conversations of food and experiences, my boyfriend and amazing chef Ben and I decided to take the plunge and start up a supper club.

As a project manager for many years (and being as anal as ever) I drew up a timetable of when we could hold our first event, what needed doing, buying etc. I went into full organisational mode.

Meanwhile Ben dreamed up the delicious wonders he could bring to the table in his way and without a head chef swearing at him. Having been a chef in some exclusive restaurants and private members clubs, for him running his own kitchen meant he could have some harmony but more importantly, it meant our control of the menu.

We can use spices that are shipped over from mum and fuse together cuisines that you don’t get at the average restaurant. Using recipes handed down that we want to share or some that are the result of a happy accident. 

I got my creative brain going with some friends about our branding, what we stood for, what should our logo look like? Our theme is all about sharing we have huge plates of food and several dishes that everyone can eat from at every course, this isn’t necessarily the easiest way to feed our guests and definitely not the cheapest but it’s what we want to do and guess what? It’s our show. Our manifesto written beautifully by our friend and creative Ben Mears still stands.

I also discovered I was a dab hand at upholstery and I’m still so proud of the furniture we created for the supper club and the lovely fabrics we chose. When faced with a budget it’s amazing what you can do. 

I haven’t worked in a restaurant for years (although I’m still a sometimes barmaid) so although I don’t have a flawless silver service technique I loved the idea of hosting, getting like minded people together, sharing some good food and enjoying the comfortable surroundings at their leisure, without anyone rushing them out for the next service.

The events over the past years have had their ups and downs, we’ve had months with a waiting list and others where we’re surrounded by friends and family due to low numbers. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to success and each event is always completely different. We’ve devoted a lot of time and effort to each one.

On top of having a full-time job or in my case studying new subjects and working, it’s been hard and we’ve made sacrifices but I’m so glad we did. We’ve seen some supper clubs come and go and others flourish into books, restaurants or full-time street food and the landscape is great for those who have the passion and determination.   

There are so many supper clubs now so there are seasoned guests, many websites, blogs but on the other hand every month we’ll have people who’ve never been to a supper club, love the experience and go home with a new experience and a happy full belly.  

I’d like to dedicate this blog to Ben my partner in crime and food creator, my loving and supportive family, everyone who has been to the Sharing Supper Club and to all of those foodies out there, you’re amazing and London wouldn’t be the same without you. 

For those of you interested in our offering we’re holding a charity event on Saturday 13th October and we’d love to fill the house, for bookings please go to edible experiences to book

Reblogged from Voye'm:

I moved to Brooklyn October first. With a lease on a new (old) apartment, less work hours and more freedom to pursue my entrepreneurial endeavors, I discovered once again that New York is nothing if not a series of choices - most of them small: like a thousand raindrops for your life storm.

I took the wrong bus up Madison today, and ended up in Queens.

Read more… 968 more words

Luckily the lovely organiser Carol Anne  set me up with a new one, called Andrea and it was her first foodie penpals experience so I wanted to make sure her faith was restored in the system. (who also had a penpal who didn’t reply).

She seemed lovely but had a daughter with a severe food intolerence to wheat, but so far hadn’t found anything fun for her. So I decided to create a box of yummy sweetie things, sometimes although it’s great to have things to make and do in your foodie penpals box it’s also great to have a box that you can try straight away with no effort.

I took a trip to Whole Foods Market and after looking around I asked someone where I could find something “wheat free but yummy and fun” he kindly introduced me to Nakd bars, which are simple and SO delicious. I’m definitely a fan of these now. I also picked up from there some wheat free cookies and a 9Bar which is another healthy but wheat free treat. I love Tiptree which is a jam factory in Essex, its not too near but I always like to pick up some jam if I’m near, so I passed some along in the parcel.

I also added some yummy chocolate from Czech Republic which I know is impossible to get here. Always good to be given those kind of things.

Lastly, I put in some homemade green tomato chutney (always a winner) and some

Now for the parcel I received. I got a lovely thoughtful parcel from Zoe and she said in her lovely note that as me and my OH (which means other half for those of you that aren’t sure, ps I love the use of that) anyway we seem like we’re really busy so she’d sent over a HUGE box of breakfast stuff for us to enjoy. When I say huge I mean it, I really couldn’t believe how much was in it. The size of it!

I liked that within the box there were things I could use as snacks and keep in my bag but then also things for me to try and make.

So snack wise I had these lovely packets of dried fruit called Fruit Flakes which were really tasty and great I think if you are on the move and maybe haven’t been able to get your lunch/dinner but need something to tide you over, they were very tasty and didn’t have any ugly or bad ingredients. There was also these sesame packs which my OH (see what I did there) and I ate on our way back from salsa, yum.

There was also some lovely preserves, one a Lime marmalade and the other a homemade jam.

On the making side she’d provided us with this lovely 6 seed flour for some yummy bread, so far I’ve nearly used up the whole thing, by already making two loaves, I shared with my parents as well (they have a bread maker so was easier to borrow that) they are now investigating where they can buy it.

We also had some lovely teas in the pack, which is great as I always love trying different teas and the brand Clipper is great.

So all in all a great foodie penpal!

(will add pictures tomorrow)

Rhubarb for all
One of the things that is frustrating about trying to change your career or do something different is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Freelancing in advertising as a day job, working at the pub some evenings, growing your own, running a supper club and trying doing various volunteering jobs is that you can’t seem to do a good job in all of them. As a result my new project of having an allotment has made me a bit sad today.I’ve been away in the Czech Republic tending someone else’s fruit trees, veg and berries and come back to my allotment looking like a bomb has hit it. I’m not even going to post a picture, it’s that bad. The tomatoes are doing terribly and most of the areas we’ve cleared are starting to get overgrown again.

The positive “Jen Happy” part about it (which is what this blog is supposed to be about the happy things) is that there were a few beans to pick, some carrots are looking well and the rhubarb I’ve inherited from the previous owner Sandra was doing very well. So we’ve brought some of that home to use up. So all in all at least something is growing. Also my amazing parents are going to help me manage it so hopefully I’ll be able to get back on track and make a plan for my winter planting seeing as the summer didn’t really go as planned.

I’ve now also joined seedy penpals (another sharing scheme I’ve found out about online so I’m looking forward to receiving some seeds that I can grown in the allotment.

Naughty.

I’ve also been taking a break from Foodie Penpals (if you aren’t sure what this is please refer to my earlier posts or how it works here) as I was worried about the extra responsibility of finding nice things for my penpal and writing the post. I already had enough on my plate.

However, at the end of June I finished my course in Countryside Management but not one for sitting still I had a plan to go on a month’s study programme to the Czech Republic.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to start up again as I’d be able to send some nice interesting things from the Czech Republic (and also do more investigation into their food yum yum) but also I’d be able to get a nice parcel sent to me here potentially with some things that I’d been missing from home.

So my foodie penpal was Lynn from Glasgow, she didn’t have any dietary requirements which meant I could send over a range of different things. This also helped with my language barrier as I think it would have been pretty difficult trying to search out things for a veggie or celiac with my limited Czech.

So here are the goodies I collected for her. I found her some local chocolate recommended by our chef here Veronica I sent over three types one which has a coffee taste to it, one with a soft milk chocolate centre and one dark.

I also went to a local market and found some homemade sausage (spicy and non spicy). I met a lovely friendly man at the market who told me his spices were completely natural and homemade sold me some local spices one to use with meat and one to use with fish, I bought one packet of the meat one for us to use on the farm which we did marinated with some chicken, courgette and aubergine it was lovely and also had some dried berries in it which I think added to the flavour.

On the Apple Farm they grow a lot of red currants, black currants and cherries although the cherries hadn’t done too well this year the other berries were plentiful and so we made a few batches of jam, I thought it would be a nice touch to also send through some jam made with my own fair hands.

The herb garden here is wonderful

we’ve been learning about the medicinal uses of herbs and how to dry them and make teas. So I put together some dried Lemon Balm, Sage and Mint to use as a tea which is also great if you’re not feeling too well.

I wrote all about my gifts on a gorgeous postcard from Prague (which we had just visited that weekend). I think all in all I did pretty well and Lynn sent me a lovely thank you note. Luckily it all arrived in one piece as you should have seen me at the post office trying to write “fragile” and get some bubble wrap!

So as for me, I received a parcel from the charming people at Fine Pluck, which is a company that make wildflower and herb teas grown in Wales. I’d never heard of them before but was really intrigued as to what I’d get and as I love tea, of course I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be getting some of that.  As I’d been learning a bit about herbs/teas here in Czech I was really pleased to be partnered up with them so I’d learn even more about it.

The package came in a long tube which instantly piqued my curiosity.  The reason for the shape became apparent pretty quickly as they sent along a poster of free teas, which show you some plants which may be considered weeds but actually can be made into teas.

It also explains a bit about drying and how to collect the plants which I think is really helpful. I’d definitely like to find some wall space for it. If you want for yourself you can buy one here

They gave me some handmade foodie gifts rather than buying which I thought was very nice and thoughtful. I got two teas one for when you’ve got a cold (they must have read my mind or my nose for that matter) and one sneak preview of a tea they are going to start selling soon. And a pack of shortbread with dried berries in it to enjoy with my teas

At our supper clubs I must admit Chef Ben does do most of the cooking (as a chef he can do things in half the time it takes me). But I do like to contribute so  this month I decided to make an additional treat for our guests and make some Limoncello. If you aren’t sure what this is have a look here. Not food as such but still something tasty for everyone.

Although it was Tuscan night I thought no-one would mind if I looked to the South of Italy for a yummy digestif.

I looked at a couple of recipes and in the end I went for this one from food.com which seemed to be the least fuss and adaptable for UK as some of the recipes use pure alcohol which I couldn’t seem to find sold anywhere here.

Limoncello 

So here’s my second go at foodiepenpals, I’d made a couple of mistakes last time not thinking about postage and containers to pack things in although overall I think it went well, but this is a new month with a new penpal. This month was a bit tricky I had Mandy who lives in Devon and has a lovely food blog, she’s much better at me with it and inspires me to post more often.

She’s a bit of a tricky customer as her dietary requirements were “no sugar (inc fruit), gluten or dairy, no rye, oats or corn”. She also doesn’t like anything soya, strawberry flavoured or banana, and on a coffee ban. Wow!

So luckily she did give me some tips on what she did like so I went off to one of my favourite Japanese shops in Soho called Arigato, I picked up some wasabi and a pack to make your own sushi.

Controversial but I also bought some miso soup, I love it but it did go against the list of likes and dislikes on soya but I love it so thought that maybe Mandy might give it a go. I like that it’s in individual packets so I use it all the time and can take it with me to college and things.

Then I nipped across the road to Whole Foods as I wanted to hunt down something sweet but sugar free. I found something called Raw which claimed to be yummy and chocolate but also sugar free, wheat free, everything free. I picked up one of these for myself to try and I must admit it wasn’t for me but I like the idea of healthy treats so maybe I will investigate further.

From my personal stash I put in the box some coconut tea which I got last year I love it so refreshing. I also gave her a recipe for Suya chicken and some Suya powder which is something we got ground up when we went to Nigeria earlier this year. It’s a lovely flavour. The lemongrass I gave my previous penpal went down well so i gave a little bit of that. Here’s the box I sent out, cute huh.

Then a few days later my box arrived! And my wasn’t it pretty. Carol Anne had wrapped up a lovely box for me and posted it early! She’s the one who started the whole Foodie Penpals thing in Europe so I was excited to see what she would send. She has a great foodie blog that covers lots of lovely things to make including some of the things she’s sent me.

There was a whole host of things in it, I was surprised at what a tenner can buy you in Scotland. I received a few sweeties; a flump, a caramel wafer and Lee’s Macaroon.  Apparently these are all Scottish institutions so I shared them with Ben to see what he thought, although I really enjoyed the wafer and flump I think the macaroon was SO sweet it made my teeth ache.

I got a lovely ice cube tray which I used at the supper club on Saturday it’s cute and novelty as Carol Anne said “the wee penguins are adorable”

I also got some novelty candles which change colour, we had a birthday guest at the supper club on Saturday and she was really happy with the surprise of candles and the whole table singing happy birthday. I like the different coloured flames makes it a bit different. Will be filing those away for future use.

Carol Anne also made two treats for me some crystallised ginger and hot pepper sauce. I can confirm the sauce is pretty lively and the ginger tasty. I like that she made me some bits, it’s lovely to have homemade things. I have two things that I’m yet to try from the box one is the trademark of Carol Anne’s blog Black sea Salt and the other is Malt Salt, I’m hoping to find a recipe soon that I will be able to use them both on, very exciting having some new ingredients.

I’m having to sit out the next foodie penpals as I’m going to be away on a college trip to Wales for a week (which I will blog about as it should be amazing) but I’m sure I’ll really miss getting a lovely parcel and packing up some goodies.

Afterwards I went to meet Wyn at Willingale Road Allotments (a lovely Welsh guy) to see about my potential allotment, and it seems we are a go. Considering I only starting investigating this about a month ago, I had been told I was going to have about a 6 month wait but I’m in luck!

There’s a lady who can’t manage her whole plot any more so she’d like someone to take half of it, that suits me fine as a complete novice to allotments it’s all a bit daunting but I think will be a good challenge for me.

I just have to make sure I really manage my time so that I can do it properly with all my other commitments. It’s still a pretty big space I think and will be lovely to serve home grown veggies at the supper club well that’s the dream but we’ll have to see how we do.  Especially as I’m away for most of July will have to get the boyfriend and parents to keep an eye on it . I’m waiting for the lady to clear the area of her things and some plants and then I’ll start doing some soil tests to see what I’ve got.

I’m hoping to get some tips from other people at the allotments and all my blogging and twitter friends, I’ve already had a book recommendation so I need to check that out.

To be continued…

So now time to reveal what I gave and what I got!

I sent a parcel along to the lovely Lucy and she is on a challenge to eat Offal for the year. I decided to try and make the parcel as fitting as possible for her challenge and luckily I have just been on a trip to Nigeria so I provided a box of spices and tricks for her to keep her offal interesting and a few recipes from the lovely chef Ben MJ for how to cook offal Niga style.

I also put in some yummy lemon grass, BBQed peanuts to snack on as well as some Chin Chin which is sweet biscuit bits handmade by Chef Ben’s Aunt, which took several hours and I will try and recreate them at some point soon.

Lastly, I provided some of our home made chutney from last year made with some of our veggies grown in the garden.  Next time I think I won’t send so many things in jars as it ended up weighing too much (although spices are much nicer in jars) but on the whole I think I made a nice box.

So now for the box that I got! I received my box from Rhi who shares her name with one of my best friends so I warmed to her instantly.  She sounds like a lovely baking/cakey person from her blog so I had high hopes for my foodie box.

And here it is!

I received a Cadbury’s creme egg (which I ate while reading my letter and cake recipe) I got a lovely recipe book about cupcakes and a whole kit of stuff to make cupcakes a really nice idea and I liked that the whole box of goodies all went together.

I got some cupcake cases, nozzle for a piping bag, some flower cut outs for fondant icing, some glittery edible bits in green, blue and yellow. Some silver leaf (which I’m still not 100% sure what to do with) and also a lovely tea towel, I think Rhi was very generous and did some clever shopping to get all of that for £10

So then the challenge was on to make some cupcakes. I have been to a one day (well it was about 2 hrs) cupcake making course so I do have a bit of practice but honestly hadn’t made any cakes since. My sister had actually bought me a piping bag for Christmas so this was the perfect chance to use the new cupcake kit and the Christmas present still sitting in it’s packaging.

So the baking of the cakes themselves was not too tricky and to save on energy I put them in while cooking some pulled pork (which I will blog about later), I followed the recipe Rhi had given me which was a little different to what I’d been told before but they turned out ok.

I made butter cream frosting (on the recipe above) but seemed to have real trouble with the consistency, I was hoping when the frosting was in the piping bag it would fix itself. However, when it came down to the piping skills everything I had learnt seemed to go out the window, any patterns just seem to melt away!!

It was me against the piping bag sadly I lost. The first set of cakes were not looking too hot but luckily I had some family members around to eat some of the test runs.

But I wasn’t giving up that easy! I then made some Royal Icing which according to my new book is very good for piping and needed to have a very stiff consistency.

TA DA, here’s the results, not bad I didn’t think i’m sure it will get better with practice and it was fun to use a few drops of food colouring and try out something a bit different.

My fav one is this one which I will be giving to my lovely boyfriend as he’s been working hard this week.

There’s another batch of cakes cooling now so I’m hoping to try out the piping bag again tonight and will then post up any really good results, the cakes will not go to waste as its my uncles birthday tomorrow so I will take some cakes along for the family.

Thanks very much Rhi for inspiring me to make some cakes, I will try and do some at least once a month so I can improve my skills.