Food Out with Sam in Slaithwaite

On the 22nd of March I went to Slaithwaite to meet Sam for tea. We went to Destination Indian, which I had seen recommended and which has a lot of vegetarian and vegan choices so I was keen to try it. I met Sam in Slaithwaite at about 4.15 and we had a drink in The Commercial first before going across to Destination at 5pm. It's much bigger than it looks from the outside. I liked the decor inside but in the photos there's a huge blue hue on everything, so my food photos didn't come out very well. 

We shared poppadums and dips to start off with, and then I had samosa chaat which I love, and then a paneer curry with a sauce made from cashew nut and fenugreek. It was all incredibly delicious and the plating was really lovely. A few more people came in so there was a nice atmosphere too. I would say the food was really good and would definitely recommend the restaurant if you're in the area. There's plenty of vegetarian and vegan choices - two pages full! We also had a mango lassi each which was delicious. 

Afterwards I drove Sam to the train station as it's up a big hill, and then I drove home listening to You're Wrong About, which is about the only podcast I listen to but I really love it! I was wearing this new flamingo skirt that I bought from Interrobang Art when it was on sale. It's an XXL in the midi length. The size is good on me, it would go much bigger and is very generous. The length is lovely on me too. I wore my Pits and Perverts t shirt which I love. You can't see them but I was wearing my hot pink Snag tights and my Dr Marten boots. Oh and the cardigan is new - it's from Very. I wanted a basic black cardigan and this is perfect - it's not too thick but it is really cosy, I've been wearing it a lot. 

My outfit before I set off. I swear the skirt is flamingos up close!

The decor in Destination before anyone else arrived

This is the second room - it is a big place!

Poppadums and dips - you can see the blue hue on the food so I won't bother showing you anything else

And me and Sam! She had also recently cut her hair like I had, it looks lovely on her!

The Week Before Christmas with a Few Photos

As we hadn't stayed in Durham all weekend, we had a quiet Sunday the day after. The kittens terrorised the Christmas tree, I did some cross stitching, and we had vegan hotdogs and waffle fries for tea. It was a nice, relaxing day! 

On Mondays I usually go to craft club but we had had the last one the week before, with a fuddle to celebrate. So I just had a quiet day in I think. On Tuesdays I go to work, and when I got there I got two gifts from them for Christmas - an Asda gift card and a bottle of rose wine. Everyone got the same, it was really nice!

On Wednesday I definitely went somewhere, as I was wearing the outfit below which is a pleated burgundy skirt from New Look and a Simply Be t-shirt that says "Express your elf" on it which I think is very cute. I can't remember where I went now, though. I don't think I met up with anyone because there's no photos... hmm. Ah, I remember! I went to meet Laura for brunch at Yummy Yorkshire and to swap presents, and then I drove to Sheffield to swap presents with Sarah! I also made some mince pies a bit later on, and Jasmine deigned to sit on me for a while. Neither cat is really a lap cat, but Jasmine has sat on me a few times recently which is obviously lovely! I also had some of the Salted Caramel Baileys in the evening - have you tried it? It's delicious! I saw someone on Instagram with it and immediately ordered some! 

On Thursday my mother and I went to see the new West Side Story at the cinema in Wakefield. It started at 12.30 ish so we both took sandwiches and bought some nachos to share. I love the original film and thought the remake was brilliant too. It was gritty and real, but with the same brilliant music. My mum liked it too. 

Lee finished work on the Wednesday; his company gave everyone an extra day off which was nice! So on the Thursday I left him to do what he liked, I think he was mostly playing a Switch game! It was a nice relaxing week which I always appreciate before Christmas as it's always so busy!

Gifts from work - I'll probably buy fancy gin with the gift card or something

New Look pleated skirt and Simply Be Christmas top 

Vegan meatballs and tagliatte in a peppercorn sauce - a simple meal but one we really like

Cute little mince pies I made. I just bought pre rolled pastry, and the mincemeat was made by my friend Bee and had a LOT of rum in it!

Cutie little Jasmine sitting on my knee. I love black cats so much!

Salted Caramel Baileys - I bought a second bottle too

And finally this was an advert in the cinema just before West Side Story started! 

Chocolate Festival in Sheffield

Towards the end of October Lee and I went to a chocolate festival in Sheffield. I had seen stuff about it on Twitter ages ago and bought us tickets. We had to choose a time entry so I went for 10am - noon. It was held in Kelham Island Museum so Lee dropped me off and then went to park nearby. The queue was huge and I can't stand to queue for long, so I asked about disabled access and was given a seat near the ticket booth and Lee then joined the back of the queue. This wasn't ideal but the queue was moving pretty fast so he got to me quite quickly and we went in. 

Almost no one was wearing a mask which I find annoying; Lee and I did though. The main stalls were in the big space upstairs so we got the lift and went across the bridge to go in. There was lots of stalls, mostly selling chocolate goods - bars of chocolate, cupcakes, brownies, truffles, etc - but a few selling other stuff like jewellery, pottery, candles and wax melts. A few places were giving samples which was great. We bought a few things, some as gifts and some for each of us. I got a cannoli, I've never had one before and was intrigued. 

We had nearly finishedl ooking at all the stalls when I started feeling really faint. My vision starting swimming and I was concerned I would actually faint, so we went back to the doorway and I sat down while Lee went to buy me a drink. Some of the staff called the first aid people so they rushed upstairs. I was hot and bothered, but felt a bit better after some water. I dunno what it was, but I'm grateful to the first aiders for coming to see to me. We skipped the last couple of stalls in the main room, but went into the smaller room to see the rest of the stalls. 

We had finished by about noon so we went to Craft and Dough for something to eat. It's on the Museum complex and I've seen it a bunch of times but never been in. Lee has though, he went with some band members one time. They used to just do pizza but now they have some sides both veggie and omnivore. It's not huge but we got a table. We ordered a margherita pizza to share, and Lee had chicken wings and I had cauliflower wings which were sticky and delicious. I had a peach and jasmine drink which was unusual but really nice, and Lee had orange squash! Unusual in a restaurant but he loves squash so he was happy. 

Afterwards we just came home, but it was a good festival and I would go again. 

In the main hall

Cauliflower wings

Pizza! I'm not usually that fussed for pizza but this was a nice one

Kelham Island Museum

While I was waiting for Lee I took this photo of some old steel works - only this wall remains now, all the building behind has been knocked down

And there was a stencil of Jarvis Cocker on one building - you know you're in Sheffield when there's a picture of Jarv!

Here's what we bought, from bottom left clockwise: truffles, chocolate orange muffin, rose and oud candle/reed diffuser/room spray (I treated myself), an aero caramel shortbread, focaccia that we ate for tea, coffee truggles, orange chocolate, more coffee truffles, and in the middle are my cannoli and salted caramel fudge. Tons!

Great Yorkshire Vegan Market in Leeds

On Sunday 20th June Lee and I went to the Great Yorkshire Vegan Market in Leeds. As I've said previously, I'm vegetarian, but I like to eat vegan sometimes, and Lee doesn't eat red meat but does often eat vegetarian with me, and he also likes vegan substitutes for meat, like bacon or burgers. So when I saw the festival advertised somewhere online, I thought we should go. I bought one standard ticket for a fiver and one VIP ticket which I think was about £15 and which came with a goodie bag. I figured we only needed one between us.

We parked at Leeds markets and unfortunately had to walk all the way around because the entrance was at the other side and it was all cordoned off. I wish there'd been information about this because I would have parked at Victoria Gate and just walked across the road. But we made it in around 11am. There were quite a few people there but it wasn't busy. We headed to the farthest away stalls, which were the hot food stalls. There was Greek and vegan Fish and Chips, and an Ethiopian food stall. We then started around the rest of the stalls. I'd seen people complaining that there were a lot of cake stalls, which I didn't agree with. There were dessert stalls, but of different types, like doughnuts, cookies, brownies, layered cakes, and so on. There were clothing stalls, skincare stalls, soap stalls, wildlife stalls, jewellery stalls, all kinds of things. We bought some brownies, and wandered around. It was hard to make decisions but I've still got birthday money left (from January!) so I treated myself to a couple of bits.

We went out of the market area to have some lunch as there were some benches. I had a Greek pitta but it wasn't that nice - it was quite dry. Lee had a vegan hotdog and chips and I wished I'd gone for that as they were both delicious! Oh well, next time. 

We went back in to look at the rest of the stalls. We bought quite a few things as you'll see in the photos. I thought it was good for the price and I'd go again. I wish there'd been more street food, but that's my only complaint. There were some really lovely stallholders and not too many people. 

Afterwards we went to my mum's to see my stepdad as it was Father's Day, but we didn't stay too long. It was a good day! 

Lee took some photos for me of the stalls

You can see it was busy enough but not stupidly busy

This mural is on the outside of the markets and has been for years - it reminded me of when we used to take Lee to the coach station so he could get the National Express home to Durham!

My pitta wrap, but like I was it wasn't too good

Turkish delight! I bloody love Turkish delight but I don't like rose flavour. The stallholder, who was actually Turkish, pretended to be disappointed in me, but gave me a couple of pieces of all the other flavours, including apple, mint, lemon, orange, pomegranate and a couple more

Chocolate orange cake, we'll share this

Brownies on the left and cookie dough bits on the right. Those were so good! You reheat them in the oven or microwave and they were so delicious

I had been meaning to order from Tyne Chease but hadn't got round to it, so I was pleased to see them at the market. They had tiny crumbles of about six flavours to try, and honestly, I liked them all. It's not exactly like cheese - it's very soft - but the flavours were good. I went for original, which was nice and salty. I dunno what I'll do with it yet!

I got some soap and some wax melts from some lovely girls from Lincoln, and some earrings from Olive & Hope which I'd recently seen on Instagram and which I really liked!

These are the goodies I got in my VIP bag! 

The Vegan Kind Subscription Box Review

I saw a code for a discount on a subscription box from The Vegan Kind back in April so I thought I'd give it a go. I've bought things from the Vegan Kind supermarket before, and been impressed with their service, so I had high hopes. In my first box I also ordered a bamboo toothbrush. I know that plastic toothbrushes are bad environmentally so I had been wanting to try something else. I haven't tried it yet, we've had other toothbrushes to use up!

The box itself that I chose is the Lifestyle box, meaning that it's not just food - each box has something else in it like a vegan beauty product or something. I find that really nice, it elevates the box a little more I think. They also have dedicated beauty boxes but I haven't tried one of those.

I'm really impressed with the calibre of the vegan snacks on offer in the boxes. Some of the products are brands I've heard of, and some of them aren't. It's been nice to try new things. I've enjoyed a lot of the snacks. Some that I knew I wouldn't like, like the chocolate hazelnut bar, I've sent on to other people.

My friend Amy got a couple of boxes too. She is vegan, and she enjoyed the boxes she got. I'm not vegan, I'm vegetarian and have been for the last eighteen months, but I like to eat vegan a lot, and vegan snacks are ideal. I'm impressed with the boxes for the cost, so I've kept the subscription going and will for a few months yet I think. Due to lockdown I've been in far fewer shops as Lee's been doing the grocery shopping, I've missed being able to choose things for myself, so receiving a box like this is lovely currently.

This is not an ad, I wasn't paid for this post or anything, I just liked the box and wanted to share it. You can still get £5 off your first box on the website here.

April's box. That bar on the top left is a vegan creme egg bar! Amy said the chocolate milk needs to be drunk very cold. The lifestyle items is cocoa butter soap and it smells DIVINE

May's box. I haven't used the tofu yet but I might make something crispy. The lifestyle product is a deodorant. I have sensitive skin so I'm looking forward to using this

June's box. Each one arrives quickly after dispatch. I wonder if Lee likes granola because I'm sure I don't! This month's lifestyle product is a soap - Lee and I prefer solid soap over liquid ones, so this is perfect

July's box was my favourite so far! The lifestyle product is an alcohol hand sanitiser! Really useful for using currently, I'll chuck this in my handbag to use when on the go. I'm really looking forward to the hummus!

Making Dalgona Coffee while in Lockdown

I'm sure you must have seen people making dalgona coffee while on lockdown. I saw it around Easter and my cousin Rob joined in with the trend and on one of our video chats I asked him for the recipe. He said it was so easy and I was determined that I would make it at some point for me and Lee. So one Saturday in the middle of April I did!

The coffee originated in South Korea when they were on lockdown, although it is also similar to an Indian coffee apparently. It's like an iced coffee, something that I probably get from Costa or somewhere else twice a month and which I am really missing on lockdown! So it's nice to be able to make something similar from home.

All you need is instant coffee, sugar, and water. I used boiling water in mine, but Rob used cold water and got similar results, so maybe it doesn't matter. I put two tablespoons of instant coffee granules, two tablespoons of sugar, and two tablespoons of boiling water into a bowl. I mixed it together a bit to dissolve the granules and the sugar, and then used my electric hand mixer to whisk it all together.

Apparently it's something in the way they freeze dry coffee that makes it so foamy when whisked, so it has to be instant coffee you use and not ground coffee. It starts to come together as a foam really quickly! I was surprised as I thought it would take ages. You have to whisk it until it forms "stiff peaks". I wasn't sure exactly what this meant, but the colour came quite pale and it was really foamy. I whisked a little bit longer, but the peaks didn't seem to change so maybe I had got the right consistency.

I poured milk into a glass and then dolloped the foam on top. It was quite sticky and wouldn't come off the spoon very well, so it didn't dollop perfectly like I had seen on Instagram. Oh well, life isn't perfect! Lee wasn't sure he would like it so he had a smaller glass. He decided he probably wouldn't drink it again, but didn't mind it.

I liked it - I used a spoon to stir the foam into the coffee bit by bit. Our milk wasn't particularly cold, so I added some ice cubes and that really helped, it was definitely like a proper iced coffee then. It's nice and sweet - you could reduce the sugar a bit I think. I will probably make it again, and put more ice in.

Have a go if you haven't - it's fun!

Starting off the whisking

Getting there, but it's not quite pale enough

Ta da!

I also think you could use this foam to mix with cream and freeze and make an easy ice cream

Jamaican Food in Manchester

Towards the end of May I went to Manchester to see my friend Amy and her new baby. I had met baby Daisy at the vow renewal, but didn't have much of a chance to cuddle her and see how Amy was doing. I offered to go over and Amy (who is vegan) gave me a whole range of restaurants to choose from. I said that the Caribbean place sounded right up my street so we set off in Amy's car. It is called The Drop and it's on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton.

It was a sunny day so we could have sat outside but we chose to go inside. We were the only ones inside! I loved the decor, it was so colourful and pretty.

The menu has a bunch of lovely choices, including lots of veggie and a few vegan options. I was tempted by quite a few things, but Amy had mentioned the jerk halloumi so I went for that in a "lunch box" which meant it came with rice, coleslaw and a dumpling. Amy had dumplings and coleslaw and something else which I forget. It was really delicious food and really filling! Oh, and cheap too!

On the way back to Amy's we popped into the Tea Hive to buy cake. I couldn't stay much longer because I had to get home for 5pm, but I enjoyed my brownie later. It was a nice trip out!

The colourful wall

Fizzy pineapple juice - I wrote a whole zine about fizzy pop, I love this stuff especially

Amy's dumplings and fries

My jerk halloumi on a bed of rice with mango salsa, coleslaw, and a dumpling

Here's what I wore - I wore the skirt that I made by chopping the top off a Scarlett & Jo dress, and my new mustard coloured top with it

And my very yummy vegan brownie later!

Goustobox Review

In November the lovely Georgina mentioned that she had been using Gousto boxes for cooking, and that she had a 60% off referral code. I had a look at the website and liked the look of the food on offer, so I chose four meals for the two of us, and paid just £14 for the box. It arrived one Monday in November and Lee and I set about unpacking it.

We were impressed that all the packaging was recycled and reusable, and that each ingredient was clearly labelled. You get a recipe card for each meal, which are also really clear and concise. Each ingredient is clearly measured, but the measurements are all on the cards too so that you can make it again by yourself.

It really took the stress out of the week that we knew what we were eating all week, we were both really busy with work and stuff so it was helpful to have meals at our fingertips. Each meal was a complete meal by itself with sides included. I wondered how the portions would be, but I was pleasantly surprised - certainly neither of us was hungry.

The second week I got a discount again so Lee helped me to choose what to eat. There's a big choice of stuff, and a lot of different dietary requirements are catered for. The box again arrived on time, well packaged and everything clearly marked.

So, what did we eat? Well, the stand out dish was a Sri Lankan curry, which was one of the best curries I've ever had and is a recipe we will definitely use again. We also really liked the baked fries we had. Everything was nice, I really didn't dislike anything except the peas that came with the fish fingers and chips.

The recipes are really clear, some of them are quite fiddly but the output was worth it. Lee was grateful for the photos on the recipe cards a couple of times. Here's some photos of what we made:

The box was well insulated and had chill packs in it, so if it was left outside for a few hours it would be okay

Pulled chicken burgers with baked sesame fries and cucumber salad - this was really good!

Chicken katsu curry with slaw - this was really fiddly but really yummy

Fish goujons with chunky chips and minted peas - this was okay but fiddly for what it was and I didn't like the peas

Sri Lankan curry - definitely the stand out dish - yummy

Smoky Spanish chicken with patatas bravas and aioli, this was simple but really nice

Cheesy chipotle chicken enchilada - again simple but nice.

We had a couple of other dishes which I didn't take photos of.

So what are my pros and cons of Gousto Box?

Pros:

• delicious food
• wide choice of meals
• exact ingredients arrive ensuring no waste
• easy to follow recipe cards
• fresh ingredients clearly marked with use by dates so you eat stuff up first
• good if you're busy and don't want to think about what you want to eat or go to the supermarket

Cons:

• cost - I got 60% off and then 50% off, but I wouldn't pay full price for a box
• some of the recipes were really fiddly and could have been simplified

I have a referral link if you want to try Gousto for yourself! Click here for 60% off your first box!

I purchased Gousto myself and was not compensated in any way for this post. 

Tea with Janet and What I Wore April 15th

Gosh I had such a busy week this week in April. I had taken the week off work to chill out around the anniversary of my dad's death, but I ended up doing more things than I'd do in a normal week! Oh well, it was a really nice week and I saw lots of lovely people.

I met Janet through blogging originally, but we've met in person a bunch of times and I consider her a true friend. A couple of months ago she mentioned us going to Prashad together as her mums live nearby and she would be visiting pretty regularly. So we booked in for one Sunday evening. It's open all day on Sunday and I wasn't sure how busy it would be, but it was pretty busy actually.

I had ajma paneer to start with, which was excellent, and the naan bhaji, which was garlic naan with a mashed curry, it was really nice but I'm glad I had rice with it or it would've been quite mushy otherwise. I also had a mango lassi as they're just so good. We didn't stay long but we chatted a lot in the time we had. Plus it meant I was home nice and early to chill out a bit before work the next day! (I don't usually work Mondays so my routine was all thrown out).

I wore this navy blue polka dotted Scarlett & Jo dress. Laura gave me it a few weeks ago but I haven't had chance to wear it yet. It is a size smaller than I would normally buy and I feel a bit self-conscious in it, but in the photo I think it looks nice so it's one of those outfits where I'll just fake it til I make it! It's very similar to the green dress from the same collection, but different enough to be interesting.

Lee took this photo before I went out :) 

Ajma paneer - little paneer cheese balls fried with chillis

Naan bhaji - delicious!