It’s been very chilly outside and even though I only really have to suffer it when walking the 2 minutes from my flat to the car and then from the car to the office. It’s particularly painful when I leave work in the evening in the dark so am glad I still have my furs out.
Unfortunately the best place to take outfit photos with plenty of light is in the loos at work.
For my sister’s visit last weekend I had planned to take her to Windsor Great Park in the hope of a horse and carriage ride. She was not impressed! Too too embarrassing! So in order to make our visit to the park more enticing we visited the Ascot farmer’s market and grabbed a few delicacies for a pastry laden brunch a short drive away at Virginia Water.
We looked for a warm sunny spot and headed around the water. The cascade was in the shade in the morning and therefore too chilly.
So we kept walking till we found The Ruins.
Definitely a sunny spot for a french onion tart. I even got the chance to put on my wayfarers. 
After lunch we went in search of our morning cuppa which we found around afternoon tea time.
That was just the first round. I went back for another big mug of tea each and a giant meringue to eat with the leftover clotted cream. Not sure if we ate or walked more on our day in the park. I must now be good for the rest of the month!!!
After our hearty lunch my sister and I decided to shop off the burgers with a spree around The Oracle complex in Reading. I bought everything I touched in Topshop which included several cropped tops both knitted and jersey. I also saw a great POP art pencil skirt in the last chance to buy rail but alas it wasn’t my size so have probably missed out on that one altogether. Darn shame as I love, love, love pop art. I can’t be too annoyed since I returned everything I bought the following week. Sticking to my shopping motto ‘Only buy things you love and can’t get out of your head’, which reminds me of a certain leather jacket that I hope is still hanging on the rail in Belstaff. Plus I always feel I can find topshop items elsewhere for less.
Another thing I couldn’t get out of my head was this freebie offer…
Get not just one but two ceramic travel cups with any purchase of Carolina Herrera 212 bigger than 30ml. I’ve seen it available in House of Fraser and Debenhams.
A good several hours later having worked up a thirst we stopped into Brown’s for a cup of something hot. 
Not being a big drinker I love seeing mocktails on the menu so along with a couple of mugfuls of tea I ordered a Diamond Fizz. I really enjoyed stopping off here for a drink and we ended up staying a while gossiping, dunking biscuits in our tea and giggling about the Mother’s day cards we saw. I couldn’t buy the “You’ve done an amazing job Mum, look how great I turned out” card and plumped for this one instead. 
Does anyone else’s mum go on about how she wiped your bottom? Mine often reminds me of that fact. Is it a mum thing.. or an asian mum thing or just my mum thing?
I’ve been quiet for far too long but I do have a few things to tell you. Where do I start (if the title hasn’t given it away)…. well the reason I’ve been so quiet is because my sister visited. I had planned a fun-packed weekend for her which focused on eating. I know how to please my big sis!
I took her on a drive to Reading for a lunch of burgers by the river. Burgers can be a contentious issue between us as I’m a steadfast GBK fan whereas my sister is a Byron fan. And here I was throwing a third into the mix. What really excited me about this place is they have stuffed burgers and I was desperate to try them.
What sets the handmade burger company apart is that they make their burgers to order so you can tailor it to exactly how you like it. They use sour dough buns from a long line of bakers and their beef is fully traceable which is why I think the place was very busy with the recent horsemeat chaos and also why we had to wait ages for our order to arrive. Thankfully they had refillable soft drinks to pass the time.
I went for the cheddar and chilli stuffed burger and although it didn’t look as stuffed as I was expecting it was still very juicy and went down a treat.
The burger was slightly mishapen which I took as sign that the burger was indeed handmade. The chips were delicious too, especially with the blue cheese dip. My sister went for the Jimmy burger and was impressed with the flavour and the dribbly juicy-ness of it but not the size.
We didn’t struggle at all in finishing our meals and both wondered whether we should order a third burger to share. If we were in any other burger establishment we’d usually be completely stuffed by now. I’m still putting this in as a London challenger as I haven’t come across stuffed burgers on menus in the capital.
Oh well at least the loo doors distracted us long enough not to turn us into greedy little pigs.
I wasn’t going to jump on the Valentine’s Day gift guide bandwagon as I’m sure there isn’t anything I’ve found that you haven’t already seen but I have been asked to make a little nod to this loved up time of year. So on a recent visit to Windsor I checked out January’s hotspot for a romantic proposal according to Windsor’s website. There’s a place for each month. I visited the Copper Horse, Snow Hill.
With views looking down the Long Walk to Windsor Castle it is definitely a romantic spot even with the remnants of the recent snowfall.
There is a bench nearby which could be used as the perfect kneeling spot. 
Snow Hill is in Windsor Great Park where you can also catch a horse drawn carriage during certain weekends or you can call them up for a more personal service and is also the recommendation for August. Details below…
I shall be sticking to my high protein diet this pancake day. With the help of Dr Dukan there shall be no missing out on the festivities.
It’s definitely important to consume some fibre on a high protein diet and the oat bran galette is great for this and they taste like you’re not on a restricted diet at all. For the galette you’ll need:
Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a frying pan to cook. Simples! I usually top mine with yoghurt and smoked salmon and perhaps a sprinkle of chopped spring onion. I have to use up the bunch somehow. You could even stick to the traditional lemon and truvia filling.
Yay it’s Friday and I have the perfect recipe for you to try out tonight. Forget your kebab on the way home. Forget your popcorn chicken, I mean, ‘Chicken Mcbites’ from McDonalds and do not go anywhere near a Rustlers box. Say hello to the sausage burger.
This isn’t really a recipe, it’s far too easy. It’s just another way to cook sausages and less effort than a homemade burger. And ok so you are going to need to prepare a little and have the ingredients ready in your fridge when you get in.
To make your own you’ll need your favourite sausage, buns, cheese, ketchup and anything else you like with your burger. Sometimes only plastic cheese will do.
Strip three sausages of their skins and mush the meat together. Then split into two equal parts and roll into balls. 
If you’re cooking them in a frying pan you will need to shape them more like burgers and cook them for a little longer. If you have a George Foreman grill (I cannot rave on about these enough) then you don’t even need to flatten the balls out; just slap on the balls and put the lid down.
By the time I had toasted my bun and sliced a couple of beetroot my burgers were cooked and dripping with meaty goodness.
As I perused the market stalls in Guildford last weekend, I came across a cupcake stall. After a brief conversation I learnt that they had a permanent home in Milford, Godalming. I’m not sure why but I got in the car and took the 15 minute drive down the road to butter and cream.
I was glad that I did make the short trip as this entered my eyeline. Now this may not be popular opinion but I love garden centres. They have a great range of homemade jams, cakes, pies and home-grown fruit and veg. And of course tea shops!
After all those cupcakes I needed a drink and something savoury. A cup of tea and a cheese scone.
I was brought back to life and just in time for a quick whip-around the farm shop before closing.
You may have seen that I recently went to Bill’s in Guildford last weekend for a Surrey blogger meetup. I felt that this place deserved its own post especially as I’d like to pit it against London.
I met 9 lovely ladies over Saturday brunch. It was very much like Sex and the City x2. So what does Carrie Bradshaw say about brunch….
“There are very few things this New Yorker loves as much as Sunday brunch. You can sleep till noon and still get eggs anywhere in the city. Alcohol is often included in the meal.”
Breakfast is served at Bill’s from 8am to 1pm at weekends so technically you could sleep until noon and still get your eggs (depending on your vicinity to a Bill’s). Plus they do serve cocktails and I think the bloody mary would go well with your eggs. Although whilst I was there I had the bengali spice tea. I had to, being Bengali.
It was difficult to pick just one thing to eat off the menu as everything sounded so tasty. I plumped for the french toast and oh boy was I glad I did! It was the perfect mix of eggy bread with crunchy walnuts, sweet maple syrup and sour yoghurt with a sprinkle of fruit to make you feel healthy. I just wish the portion was a little bigger!!
I almost went for the award winning vegetarian breakfast option. They have a similar recipe for it on their website so I’ve planned to make it this weekend. I’m on my way to buy avocadoes now so that they’re perfectly ripe by the weekend. If you’d like to make your own too check out the recipe on their website.
All in all this chain has many locations, several of which are in London, and more on the way and I can see why. I’m all over this joint. It even competes on a New York scale! So it’s going up on my London doppelganger page.
Today is World Nutella Day. Definitely a date for the diaries. Any excuse for chocolate.
I’ve come up with this super quick, super easy and oh so satisfying dessert. I’m not even going to bother padding out this post for a dessert that speaks for itself so I’m diving right in. For four servings you’ll need:
To start put the cream into a bowl
Add 1 tsp of coffee; you taste a hint of this which massively brings out the chocolatey flavour,
Add 3 tablespoons of nutella
And whisk; start off slow then crank it up
As Gordon Ramsey would say… Done!
How quick was that!??! Quicker than reading this blog post. I put mine in the fridge until I need it which stiffens the mousse a little more. To serve I bought mini doughnuts (or you could make your own) and put a couple in a glass topped with the mousse and sliced banana.
No Longer in London 