Following my discovery of an amazing book on seasonal eating last weekend, I spent an educational, tiring, yet very enjoyable week trying to create a tasty meal each evening using only home-grown, seasonal produce. I tried to stick to locally sourced ingredients, where possible, and avoided using anything made, grown, reared outside of the UK. 

The result of working so hard to avoid the supermarkets, over-packaging and miles and miles of unnecessary transportation? A handful of lovely recipes to share on the Blog (after a week of silence - sorry regular readers!)... like this Summer Spaghetti, with bacon, British mushrooms and seasonal greens. 

My best London girl treated me to an afternoon of shopping, eating and drinking this weekend and suggested we try out Wahaca in Covent Garden. The Mexican "market food" restaurant chain, founded by MasterChef champion Thomasina Miers, offers authentic Mexican food, a sustainable ethos, and a quick and easy eating option at various central London locations. In keeping with the idea of market eating, street food is freshly prepared and served to long tables with benches as and when its ready, creating a tapas-style meal. The menu features just enough different dishes to keep everyone happy without laboriously reproducing the Mexican "classics" like other chain restaurants tend to do. Big plates are also on offer, if sharing isn't your style, and an extensive tequila-themed cocktail menu is on hand to whet the appetite along with a tray or two of tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole.

 

Chinese Five Spice and Cider...

Whilst perhaps not two ingredients considered a culinary match made in heaven, this weekend we decided to taste some ciders that we'd been given and, at the same time, found ourselves too lazy to venture out in search of supper ingredients. I had lots of pork that needed using up and the makings of a simple Chinese stir-fry, so I ended up making my own version of Chinese Five Spice and enjoying an odd starter of leftover sausages whilst sampling cider with one hand and shaking noodles around a Wok with the other!

I haven't spent many weekends in Cambridge recently so to remind myself how much I love living in the city I've decided to revisit my favourite places. Unsurprisingly, foodie and arty places feature fairly prominently on my list of things worthy of dedicating a whole Saturday or Sunday to. So where better to start than with a delicious Sunday lunch at a Cambridge pub, followed by an afternoon of coffee, chocolate shopping, and lazy browsing in an intriguing contemporary art gallery.

Roast Beef

Last weekend it struck me that I may have chosen my future husband based almost entirely on his and his family's love of good food and wine. The Boy and I spent another very enjoyable weekend tucking into foodie treats at The In-Laws'. The highlight of my Easter break was sampling course after course of home-cooked meals, washed down with plenty of Champagne. As well as Easter, always a good excuse to eat lots of yummy dinners followed by copious amounts of chocolate, we had three birthdays in the family to celebrate. The Mother-in-Law served up some delicious celebratory dishes, interspersed with bouts of piano playing, trips to The Allotment to work up an appetite for the next feast, and after-dinner dancing in the garden lit by The Father-in-Law's new parasol heaters and roaring Chiminea!