A Sprinkle of Sequins

Loving a little orange

After a leisurely day filled with reading, looking at some wonderful photographs at the mac and a having a gentle walk in the park (maybe gentle was a bad idea though, as pretty soon me and my companion were very almost freezing, but in it's favour it did work us up a grand old appetite!), we decided to head back over to the north side of Birmingham to visit Lichfield. 

After another gentle walk and weighing up the various options we decided to try a place which we hadn't been into before but looked popular and welcoming called Joe Delucci's Steak and Pasta House on Bird Street, it's a New York/Italian styled restaurant with mainly pasta and steak as its focus (though enough options of both to give plenty of choice).  We managed to bag ourselves a cosy table and had a wonderful meal (sorry no photo's as i completely forgot to grab the camera before leaving the house, always frustrating).  I fell in love with my starter which i have to confess to never having heard of before but now that i look them up on the net they are everywhere.  I had arancini filled with mozzarella and prosciutto and they were delicious.  Apparently these deep fried beauties are popular in Sicily and arancini means little orange in Italian.  I get the feeling that it would be a good recipe to play with and try different fillings, i like the look of this one from Gino D'Acampo with a lovely arrabiata sauce.

The rest of the meal was good, especially the tangy lime cheesecake with a citrus sorbet on the side, delicious and palate cleansing.  Will definitely have to try a recreation of this one at home!

Better late than never

Welcome to 2006 at A Sprinkle of Sequins.  I haven't written anything in here for so long that i feel a little strange starting again now.  But this year i really want to try to post here more often.  I want to learn more and write more and become better at all of this blogging malarkey! 

So what are my resolutions for the coming year?  There are various things that i want to achieve, though i think my big dreams are going to have to wait for another year or so while i try to have a frugal and fun time (surely not too much of a contradiction in terms?!).  I'm going to set myself some easy targets first of all like learning more about British cooking and the regional delicacies.  I also want to learn more about baking and sweet making (hmm, guess i should participate in a few more Sugar High Friday's).  Also i really want to learn more about Italian cookery.  I have the impetus now that i was bought a gorgeous pasta maker for Christmas with a ravioli kit as an appendage.  I also have tons of cookery books on Italian food which i really should be putting to more use.  So i have decided to take action, i am going to enrol on a course which will hopefully sharpen me up and make me a bit more of a momma in the kitchen!  One last aim (don't know why i used the word resolution earlier in this post as i can't stand the word.  I think it sounds far too serious and pious for a person like me and my little aims, and plus making resolutions in January is always going to be a mistake!  September is my month for making changes in life.  Much more of a forgiving time of year...) i really, really want to become more knowledgable about the world of drink.  I  don't know that much about it and feel a bit shameful, so i am going to take the time to educate myself in this area.  You know i bet it sounds like a really hard job but i am willing to put myself on the line and give it a go, sometimes a girl just has to do that kind of thing, hic!  I really enjoyed a podcast that i heard a couple of weeks ago at Eat Feed which was all about The British Countryside.  An entertaining listen and at the end of the podcast Anne Bramley chats to Annabel Meikle from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society about whisky and all of the regions in Scotland which produce it and what effect this has on the flavours.  The Eat Feed podcasts are fabulous, i really recommend you go over to their site and give an episode a listen sometime.

Here's wishing us all a very happy and tasty 2006.

Autumn Leaves

                                                                   The falling leaves
                                                              Drift by the window
                                                             The autumn leaves
                                                                      Of red and gold

                                                               I see your lips
                                                                         The summer kisses
                                                       The sunburned hands
                                                                   I used to hold

                                                      Since you went away
                                                                The days grow long
                                                        And soon I'll hear
                                                              Old winter's song

                                                                  But I miss you most of all
                                                                             My darling
                                                            When autumn leaves
                                                                               Start to fall

Hmmm...lyrics by Johnny Mercer  to one of my favourite songs, especially when sung by Tierney Sutton in her wonderful jazz scat (which i know drives most people to distraction in a very bad way but not this girl).  And now i am happy for the Autumn is almost upon us.  Officially it is the season of burnt colours and hazy mellowness now but i just don't feel that it's here yet.  It's always a feeling i get and it tells me to get happy and sink into the comfort zone.  Not long to go...

                                                                

SHF #7: Black and Sticky

                                                   

Sugar High Friday time again, wow that went quick...So this time it is being hosted by Derrick at An Obsession With Food and the theme for this month is Black and Sticky, which equates to molasses, and because i'm a Brit, Derrick kindly let us use treacle of the dark or light variety if we so wanted.

And yes, how i wanted!  I ended up making the very first thing which entered my mind a few weeks ago.  That is Parkin.  I toyed with making things like a molasses bread, ginger cake, a good old fashioned Treacle Tart but in the end the Parkin won out. 

You know how sometimes you really want to make a recipe at a certain time of year, to suit the season i suppose, but then you get very sidetracked and it falls by the wayside.  Well, that is how it went for me with Parkin.  I had intended to make it about 6 months ago when it was Bonfire Night over here, it's the perfect baked snack for that time of year, spicy, gingery, cinnamon and i love it, but i never got around to making it for myself.  So i guess this is like a 6 month late redressing of the balance for me!

Parkin traditionally comes from Yorkshire, though i have read of a Lancashire version of it, and is all related to being fabulous to eat in the 'parky weather' you get in the winter, which is why it's perfect to eat in November and around Bonfire Night.

The following recipe is basically a replica of this recipe from the i Village website and the source is Olivia Lacey.

Ingredients -

100g unsalted butter

50g soft brown sugar

2 tbsp treacle

2 tbsp golden syrup

175ml milk

100g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloved or mixed spice

100g oats

Directions -

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 deg C/350 deg F/gas mark 4

2.  Grease a 20cm baking tray with butter. 

3.  In a large saucepan melt the butter, sugar and treacle together over a low heat.   Make sure to not let it burn or boil.

4.  Remove from heat and stir in the golden syrup and milk.

5.  Add the plain flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and cloves/mixed spice and mix well, beating to remove lumps.

6.  Stir in the oats.

7.  Pour into the baking tray and cook for 40-60 minutes.  Test by pressing the top with your fingertip.  It should spring back and not leave a dent.

8.  Cut into squares and leave to cool on a wire rack.

This should make about 10 squares and takes about 20 minutes to prepare.  With not too much washing up, a definite bonus!  This is a fabulously easy and quick thing to bake.  Just right when you want to stock up on calories, and fast!

London Calling

                                                

I spent last weekend down in London having a fabulous time.  I will post more about it in the next few days but until then here are a few photo's.

                                      

                                                

                

Definite nutty goodness

                           

There is only one way of describing the cake that i made the other day, and that is heavenly...It was one of those divine baking experiences when you long for it to cook and be ready because the ingredients alone are enough to convince you that this cake is going to be good, really good.

Then i took the cake out of the oven and was a little disappointed...it looked dry...it felt dry...but wait...then i tasted it and wow, wow, this was fantastic!  A dense pistachio taste experience, with lots of lemon, citrusness going on in there too.  The pistachios on the top of the cake glistened like baby jewels...gorgeous.

I really urge you to try this cake.  Go grab a copy of the River Cafe Cookbook Easy.

A New Adventure

I'm feeling slightly smug and pleased with myself this week (i know, never a good thing, you're bound to get tripped up somewhere along the line, but oh well, indulge me!).  It's the kind of feeling you get when you take up something that you've been promising yourself you will do for ages, never get around to it,  but then suddenly something comes over you and you get off your bottom and do something about it.  I have enrolled on, and started a wine appreciation course at Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies. 

First class and the signs are good.  I am a complete novice with wine.  I have always thought myself one of the unfortunates who couldn't taste or appreciate wine properly.  I always drink it and nothing bursts upon me.  I expect to be smelling and tasting huge, wild concoctions of things but then nothing...it completely underwhelms me.  It's always been a means to a bad or naughty end...But then from the off in this class i could feel myself improving.  It made me think and appreciate what i was tasting and it was good!  This week was the introduction week.  We tasted 2 whites (a Muscadet and a Sauvignon Blanc)  and 2 reds (a Beaujolais and a Shiraz), and then a final gorgeous guessing game - it was a Ch Filhot Sauternes 1997, Bordeaux.  People's opinions were mixed but i loved it.

So, i am excited and motivated to learn more on this course.  I hope to come out of it full of knowledge and appreciation for these wines.  I am eager to learn more.  Come to that, can anybody recommend some good introductory books on wine, or some authors to try?

A Strange Mix

Poor dear blog, you have been neglected and i know how you are suffering...no attention, no love, no time lavished upon you.  How can i make it up to you? 

Yes, yes, i can feed you with some photo love!  Look, since i have been gone i have been making things, things to bring you pleasure...

                              

Yes.  Rustic, i hear you say...but it's soothing and homely.  Oh, ok blog, you want something more fancy, something a bit more frivolous...

                                 

and get this...   

Yes, it's the beautiful inside of the gorgeous egg i showed you the other week.  The chocolate was fantastic, and then inside the egg were some lovely little baby eggs - some foil wrapped in glittering colours, others nestled in pastel shells, and then to top it all a naughty looking rabbit sat proudly at the top of the bounty...

Oh fickle blog, what is that i hear you cry?  Some savoury food to nibble on, hmmm.  I can provide you with something spicy and aromatic and colourful all at once.  It is the delicious chicken, cashew and almond curry...

                                

There, is that enough for you?  Are you satisfied now dear blog that i haven't forgotten you?  I have been cooking and baking things with you in mind, it's just that i got rather waylaid along the way and never made it to this final hurdle of posting to you my culinary lovenotes.  I am back and promise not to stray, well at least for a little while...

Things maybe just fine...

Just been reading some of my favourite blogs and have come across a couple of very inspiring and wonderful entries. 

First up is one of Andrea's from Superhero Journal.  All about her friend Marcia, and how years ago she taught Andrea to loosen up a bit and become a bit more of a bad girl!  Check it out, i love this post and i love this blog, it really is one of the best out there.

Then i came across this great entry from Jen, which really made me think about how sometimes we can be so embroiled in worry and how things are supposed to be going, that maybe things are already fine...

Beautiful Noise

                                     

This week has been challenging to say the least...what with gas leaks, exhausting work tasks and general chaos.  All of this though dissipated for one night in the week when i enjoyed an evening of lovely music with some friends from work.  We went to see a singer called Emiliana Torrini perform at The Glee Club in Birmingham.  Her music is understated and yet lush, beautiful and mesmerising.  I read somebody comparing her to Suzanne Vega and Nick Drake, both of which are good comparisons.  Wonderful songwriting, enchantingly delivered, if you get the chance to catch Emiliana live then go see her.  If not then why not treat yourself to her great new album Fisherman's Woman and prepare to be taken on a blissful, chilled journey.