Foodie Penpals April

 

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.

Allotment & conservation – some new gardening fun

So folks well today I am very happy although knackered, I went out on a conservation task with EFCV on Leyton Flats removing some Silver Birch and encouraging some rare Willow which is growing there. The weather was lovely and we cleared a lot of trees and some pesky Hawthorn. ouch.

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…

Foodie Penpals – Cupcake Trials

So I’ve written a previous blog about the lovely idea of foodie penpals, if you have no idea what I’m talking about check back to my previous blog here or go straight to our friend Carol Anne’s blog to read all about how it works

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.

Happy Happy Wildlife day

Hey all,

Today has been a great but exhausting day. I’ve been walking around Roding Valley Meadows Nature Reserve doing my first bird survey. We saw and heard a range of birds including Kestrals, Blue Tit, Wrens, Buzzards, parakeets, an Egret and even a Snipe. Hopefully my skills will improve by going out and doing this solo without the skills of Neil Harvey from ECOS who was brilliant. I honestly can’t really tell the difference between the songs or what the smaller birds look like at all!

So after that we then learned about how to check the cattle they have grazing on the fields to make sure they are safe and sound. This is probably something I will be helping the guys do over the next few months as daily checks is pretty arduous for them given all the other stuff they have to do. Anyways It’s good experience and will get me used to being around cows which is a good thing because…

After all that I got home to find a lovely letter from the people at Grampus, saying my application to spend a month on an organic farm has been successful and I will be going to the Czech Republic for the month of July!!

I am so excited what a great opportunity to learn some new skills and see another country and for FREE! The farm sounds great although not actually many animals more trees and growing veggies etc.

The DESIRE program (Developing Environmental Skills in Rural Europe) is definitely up my street. The details of the what I will be getting up to can be found here. There’s also a journal from someone who did it last year, apparently I may be doing cheese making as well!

Will keep you posted on more details when I find them out.

Abney Park Trust

Today as part of my college work for Urban Ecology unit we went on a trip to Abney Park Trust. This is part of what makes me happy about my course, I go to areas that I probably wouldn’t even realise that were there if it weren’t for an enthusiastic teacher telling us we must go there.

 

Back in the day the park was used as a cemetery but for the past 20 years its been a nature reserve, woodland, educational centre and a place for people to escape from the madness of London.

Having worked next to Clissold Park a few years ago I was really surprised to find this place here today. I didn’t realise there was  another nature area so close.

For the wildlife around London this is a blessing as it means they have connected areas to go to and are able to find food, shelter and warmth (because it’s in London). This means the number of species that visit the park are vast, butterflies, trees, fungi so many different varieties can be found here.

I walked all the way to the back and just couldn’t believe how big it was! From the front (which is on the main road) you just wouldn’t be able to tell how big it was. Here’s a map that outlines the area Map of Abney Park.

They have a number of Veteran Trees and a leaflet which can guide you around them and signs to explain the age, species and history of each one, it was amazing to see these trees in Hackney that had been there since the 1890′s.

The beautiful chapel is now a home to Bats also hosts other events in the summer.

They run green wood work classes at the park and training for children in the children’s garden which has been built for them. Its amazing how many uses the park has.

We were also told of a volunteer group, Tree Musketeers. They do conservation work within Hackney and try to get community awareness and responsibility for the green spaces and trees in Hackney.

It seems that somebody cares even though the council seem to not worry too much of the consequences of their actions.

I read a horrible article of a tree being cut down for no reason read for yourself here

I’m pleased to know that people like this are living in London, creating a sense of community and caring for the planet.

Foodie Surprises

Here’s a new thing that I think is going to make me very happy.

I was sent an email today from a foodie friend from twitter about a new project to have foodie penpals.

 

Which is basically a way of sharing foodie delights in a monthly package. Here’s the details of foodiepenpals 

I’ve signed up and already started planning what I’m going to be sending to my new foodie friend  

Will keep you updated on it! 

Cakes and Art

This week I woke up at a silly time for a Sunday (7.30) and headed across London for a cupcake decorating class. The premise was that I like cakes and being creative so it would be nice to be able to make some posh cakes for friends and family.

I arrived with a friend and was instantly surprised by how many people there were in the class, I’m thinking about 40-45.

We put on our plastic bag type pinnies (yuck) and the instructions were quick. Luckily the cakes were already baked, so it was down to us to make these 6 little cakes look pretty.

We made a decorative cupcake in icing, a mini ice cream, a bow, I also made a flower and a heart in our “creative time”.

Here’s the little cupcake I made.

My friend was much better than me and even made a cute little toadstool and a mouse face.

Then we learned how to pipe icing on top of cakes into swirly patterns and how to put fondant icing on top of cakes, although mine went around the sides (and didn’t look very professional).

Oh well it was a fun two hours and I feel more confident to get the piping bag out more often.  Mother’s day is just around the corner so Ma might get a shock this year.

To summarise the class though I just think there were too many people and therefore not quite enough attention to get your moneys worth if you are paying full price. Luckily I had a voucher.

After the class I went to the London Art Fair, there was an interesting range of things to look at although my boyfriend didn’t consider the tyre anything special to look at.

Here’s some of the top things I liked.