A few months ago, I was invited to take part in the John Lewis Secret Santa Challenge

There were a few a hiccups with the gift from my end which is why there’s been a bit of a delay in me blogging about it – I didn’t receive the original present from my santa so it had to be dispatched again. That did take the shine off the experience a little bit, but luckily the folks at John Lewis were really helpful and ensured a replacement gift was sent out to me promptly.

Despite the hiccups, when my gift did arrive it was more than worth waiting for, and I was able to find out that my Secret Santa benefactor was a lovely blogger, and fellow foodie, called Emma, who runs a blog called Adventures of a London Kiwi. If you’re planning a visit to London any time soon then do take a peak at Emma’s blog before you go. She provides loads of information about interesting and unusual places to eat, drink, visit and meet friends.

Emma’s gift to me was a fantastic Raymond Blanc Hard Anodized Aluminium Sauté Pan – completely swanky, right up my street, and I’m looking forward to cooking many happy meals in it!

John Lewis were incredibly generous with the selection of gifts we were able to chose from and I loved being introduced to a fellow blogger who was unknown to me before. A really well-thought out campaign and a really lovely challenge to part of.

Thanks Emma and John Lewis and merry Christmas!
x

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It’s far too early for me to be thinking about Christmas, let alone posting about it on here. Never the less, that’s exactly what I’m about to do.

I was recently invited to join the John Lewis Secret Santa Challenge, and, being a bit of a fan of the brand, I couldn’t resist getting involved.

The team at John Lewis will assign me a fellow blogger in a similar niche to mine and then I have to select a secret santa gift to be sent them. A fellow blogger will then be assigned me and will follow the same process.

It’s a really sweet initiative, and aside from being great promotion for John Lewis, it’s a nice chance to discover more fellow bloggers.

I’ll be able to let you know which blogger I’ve been assigned in a few weeks time, and I’m really looking forward to introducing them to you all on here.

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It’s been a while since I’ve been able to attend any of the Brighton Food Society events, so an invite to meal provided by Well Hung Meat Company, hosted by the Food Society, and held at Flour Town in Hove, sounded like an ideal opportunity to get back into all things food. The invite basically mentioned meat and wine – how can a girl refuse?!

The Well Hung Meat Company are based in Devon, specialises in high quality online meat supplies. All the meat is home-grown, organic and produced to the highest standards of animal welfare; they pride themselves on the quality of their products & the knowledge and expertise of their staff.

And their passion for their product was very clear in the brief introductory talk they gave us prior to the meal. They believe that if you eat meat then you should take some responsibility for the welfare of the animal and the process it goes through to get to your table – a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.

Their website goes in to a lot more detail about their background, beliefs and values. If you like good meat and care about where it comes from then I encourage you to give it a read!

What we ate:

Charcuterie board

Starter: Beef carpaccio with green beans

Main: Seasoned lamb chops with a homemade potato salad and fresh samphire

Dessert: Lemon Possett with raspberries and a homemade shortbread biscuit (made by Matthew Drennan)

A selection of Pong cheeses (love that name!), all stocked by Well Hung

Plenty of booze (fuzzy heads all round)

Huge thanks to Paul and Matthew from Well Hung for all the lovely food and for coming all the way down from Devon.

Also a massive thanks to Matthew Drennan for allowing us to take over Flour Town for the evening and to the rest of the Food Society gang for being great fun as always!

All photography © Heather Elizabeth Wilkinson 2013

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Ahh, rocky road slices: minimal cooking, maximum chocolate.

If full-on baking isn’t your thing but you fancy getting creative in the kitchen, you can’t go too wrong with rocky road

Melting chocolate, butter and golden syrup on the hob is as complicated as this recipe gets, and yet the finished product implies that you’ve gone to a lot more effort (I won’t tell if you won’t!).

However, I didn’t think there was such a thing as too much chocolate until I tried this recipe from the BBC Food website.

The ingredient list calls for good quality dark chocolate, but in my opinion – and I’m quite the chocoholic – it makes the slices far too rich and I was reaching for a glass of water after a couple of bites. I’d advise opting for a good quality milk chocolate instead.

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Street Diner, Brighton’s street food market has only been going for a couple of months but it’s already causing quite a stir amongst Brightonians.

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There’s a small chain of Brighton-based coffee shops called Ground, who serve some of the finest coffee in Brighton. That is where I got my first taste of Chocolate Guinness cake. 

The cake is designed to take on the classic look of a pint of Guinness, with its rich dark brown bottom and fluffy white top. But it contains Guinness too – and that is what gives it its beautifully moist texture. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t taste of beer.

One of the best recipes I’ve found is this one by Nigella Lawson, laden with butter, sugar and topped with a vanilla cream cheese topping. It’s certainly not for the faint hearted, but then this is a celebration cake, so I think its ok to push the boat out every once in a while!

And if you don’t fancy making your own and happen to be visiting Brighton, I can’t recommend Ground highly enough.

All photography © Heather Elizabeth Wilkinson 2013

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This weekend I decided to jump back into cooking, and what better way then with a gooey cheese-laden recipe. Is there such a thing as too much cheese? I’m pretty sure there can’t be. Aubergine and mozzarella stacks: I can’t claim credit for this recipe, it’s actually one from the Sarah Raven book, ‘Food for Friends and Family’. An amazing cookery book that my Mum introduced me too (thanks Mum!).

In the book, Sarah recommends cooking the stacks on a fire, but that wasn’t an option for me. Instead, I baked them in the oven and they worked just fine.

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A few weeks ago I was invited along to a media preview event to celebrate the launch of Wagamama’s new summer menu. Being a greedy pig, I couldn’t resist the promise of some foodie treats.

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I picked up a copy of this book for a couple of pounds on Amazon Marketplace, and it turned out to be some of the best money I’ve spent in a long while.

Classic pairings like salmon and watercress and liver & onion, but also some more adventurous combinations like watermelon & chilli and blue cheese & peach. Handy kitchen inspiration when you’re stuck for ideas or when you fancy experimenting.

I’m also enjoying listening to this at the moment, introduced to me by a dear friend. Such a captivating story.

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Looking for some light reading to go with your morning coffee? Try Wolf, a free quarterly food journal. Insightful articles and a focus on illustration over photography. Works on iPad too!

Read Wolf Journal

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