A foody celebration

I've had some time on my hands. Two and a half weeks before going back to work, to be precise. So what better way to use it than to plan a little tea party. And since we'd been to America (duh), I decided to theme it on the US of A.

Which mainly meant lots of red, white and blue and a large dose of sugary, fatty food. Nom nom, etc. Here's the most part of the spread.

Yup, my apron has my name on it.

And that bunting? It goes all along the length of the other wall and it took me a few hours to make. But it was worth it when a lovely friend said it was the neatest bunting she'd ever seen. I didn't have enough time to sew proper bunting (I started it the day before the party, whoops), so I made it out of coloured card and punched holes to thread string through. Easy peasy.

When it comes to cooking, I'm no chef. I can handle one-pot dishes and a roast dinner but that's about your lot.

Baking, however. That's my thang. I follow the recipe to the T and - huzzah! - the cakes come out almost like the picture in book. That's the sort of cooking I like. So I made cakes. Many many cakes. So many that we had some left over (YAYS).

And when I say I like baking, I also like the glory that comes with it. There was a little surprise when I cut into that rather large (and slightly wonky) beast of a cake your saw above...

EEK, IT'S AN AMERICAN RAINBOW CAKE!! There were gasps of delight all around and I was very chuffed indeed. It tasted pretty dang good, too. The cupcakes were either red velvet, white or blue vanilla, too, but I couldn't have told you that earlier or I'd have ruined the surprise.

Other tasty American-style treats included (but not all in the pic above) these stinky corndogs, pastrami sandwiches, pepperjack cheese sandwiches, beef and veggie slider burgers, pretzels, cheese puffs and pickles. Mmm.

Oh, and this incredible American flag pie made by Adam's fair hands - arguably even more impressive than the rainbow cake. I'd like to take credit for finding the picture of the pie and the recipe on the interweb (it's my party and I'll boast if I want to!) but credit where credit's due: the boy done good.

Here's a close-up of the cherry and blueberry delight.

It went down a treat with some squirty cream.

Altogether a successful little party. Oh, and in case you're wondering, there were actual real people in attendance. We just didn't have the camera out because we were too busy stuffing our faces.

Can you blame us?

Martha, I love you

Martha Stewart, that is: high priestess of homemaking.

Last autumn I got Martha's 2010 Halloween Handbook and wanted more more more. But I've struggled to find other Martha-branded mags over here so I was super excited (yes, I even squealed) when I found the May edition of Martha Stewart Living in Borders in Ann Arbor.

It's FULL of pretty pretty things, recipes, party ideas... and because this one was based around florals, it had a section on Northern Californian flower growers and markets. We planned to find some around San Francisco but didn't get the time (great story, I know). I also managed to nab the June issue before we flew back, this one with a summertime theme.

In other trip-related Martha news, I found out about Martha Stewart's line of products at Macy's department store on my favourite food blog. She has a whole selection of bakeware and accessories, but what I was after was this little piece of genius.

Breakfast To Go. This baby takes Tubberware-type containers to a whole new level. It has two clever compartments where you can separate the different elements of your breakfast. Stick cereal flakes or granola in the bottom and it won't go all mushy by the time you get to eat it because that naughty yoghurt has its own little level.

There's more. It comes with a spoon! It lives under the top layer, and you just click the two bits together. So you don't have to have a rogue piece of cutlery knocking around your handbag, clanging against your sunglasses case and getting caught up in your keys. So clever.

Adam was jealous of my find so I bought him one, too. Oh, and one for big sis. I'm starting a UK Martha Stewart Breakfast To Go revolution, me.

But I couldn't leave Macy's with just a a handful of Breakfast To Go pots. Oh, no. I wanted MORE. (Well, I wanted all of it, to be precise, but there's only so much you can sneak onto your boyfriend's credit card account and indeed fit into your suitcase.)

This marvellous invention came home with me, too. Lunch On The Go? Yes, please.

OK, so same concept: the different parts of your meal stay separated in their own little plastic homes. Stick your sangers in the bottom and then have your fruit and some cookies in the top two sections. Lovely.

But the most exciting part about this set is that it contains a REMOVABLE ICE PACK. Come on! (Notice also how the little tubs have measurements on them. Nifty.)

No longer will the full fridge at work render my sandwiches office temperature as they sit under my desk (no one likes sweaty cheese, do they?).

I will simultaneously have the coolest lunchbox and smuggest pre-lunch face my office has ever seen.

Lunchtimes will never be the same. Especially if I use my Breakfast To Go pot as a clever snack receptacle. Carrot/cucumber/celery sticks and houmous. Raisins and crackers plus peanut butter. Oatcakes on the bottom, cheese and grapes on top.

Oh, the possibilities... I can't wait to use them. Is it time to go back to work yet?

LA: revisited

Venice Beach gave us a pretty nice 'welcome back' in the form of this beautiful sunset.

As crazy and lively as the beach is in the daytime, I think it comes to life most in the evening when the masses depart and the beach can speak for itself.

Pretty huh? I got a bit creative with the next one, and used my sunglasses as a filter. Artiste? Moi?

Those footprints belong to Ad's big hoofs. But let's pretend they're The Hoff's. Some of Baywatch was filmed here, after all.

So that was Wednesday evening. Thursday was a bit of a write-off. We slept in, left at lunchtime to go to Newport Beach, drove around trying to find anything that looked like The OC and then gave up, sat on the beach to eat a soggy tuna sandwich (Whole Foods let us down this one time), then drove two hours back through rush hour traffic on the freeway and that was that. The evening, however, was better with a little trip to a Santa Monica cinema to see Thor. FYI, Milk Duds rule.

Friday was more eventful. Universal Studios!

First thing we did was take the Studio Tour, on a big trolley. That's our tour guide.

Dur-da....dur-da....dur-da-dur-da-dur-da-dur-da...DUR-DA! Argh.

This is us getting ready to be be thrown around, 3D style, by King Kong. Excitements. (PS, where's my tan?)

Then we found out about some unlikely neighbours. That's Wisteria Lane, home to Desperate Housewives...

...right next door to Whoville (from How The Grinch Stole Christmas)...

 ...oh, and there's Bates Motel from Psycho. What a nice little community.

The tour continued past cars on fire, impromptu floods and New York streets. And then finished up near this big blue screen. In front of it is the (currently dry) lake where they film water/lake/sea screens, like the one from Pirates Of The Caribbean where Cap'ain Jack is floating in a little row boat. Kinda take the Hollywood wonder away...but cool all the same.

That night, our last in America, we went to an awesome Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica called Lula Cocina. De-lish. I had fish tacos and a mojito (I meant to order a margarita but got confused). Muchos tequila and cool paper decorations. On a par with the Taco Joint in Chicago, I'd say. Well, nearly.

On the way back to Venice, we passed this. I've no idea what it represents or why it lives on a pharmacy's outside wall, but I thought it summed up this part of LA pretty well.

So there you have it. America, we had a blast and we'll see you soon.

YEE-HAW.

Ann Arbor: a food tour

Welcome to our extensive food tour of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Prepare to feel hungry.

First night: falafel. For any Bristolians reading, the Jerusalem Garden beat Magic Roll. Oh yeah, seriously good.



I didn't get a photo of the actual wrap because we were walking and eating, but I did get hummus all over my jeans (which I didn't realise until we came out of the orchestra recital). A worthy souvenir.

The next morning we slept in, so we skipped breakfast and headed out to Zingermans. People, this place is SOMETHING ELSE. It's a Jewish deli-cum-restaurant, and they make pretty much everything inhouse - even the olive oil and cheeses. It was just as well the line was long to get in because we needed about 20 minutes so choose from the massive menu. Eventually, I narrowed it down to the pastrami on toasted rye. Ad and Allie had the fish and Mike went for a wonderful meat combo I think.

When we got to the front of the line, this was waiting for us.

The pimento cheese, made with olives, was incredible. And that was just the beginning of the experience.

Oh, pastrami sandwich. I love you. We also had some mac and cheese. Never again will we be able to eat m&c from a can. This was so tasty.

Unsurprisingly, we were full till dinner (when we went off to explore the musical realms of our MiNDs) so we packed a little picnic to eat in the university union. We're not going to New York on our mini American adventure, but this is one Big Apple.

On Sunday morning, after a hearty breakfast made by Mike...



...we wandered downtown to look in the shops - oh, and to eat even more. Micro breweries are pretty big over here, so Allie and Mike took us to one of their favourites, the Jolly Pumpkin, which has been brewing since 2004.



What you see here are two lots of nine samplers of beer between the four of us. The Siren Amber was a smooth, creamy, yummy beer. The Madruga Obscura was a beast of a poisonous stout. Uck!

It was about 1pm and we (well, me at least) were starting to get a bit tipsy. It was okay, though, 'cause we washed it all down with truffle fries (OMG, so good), a truffle pizza and a delicious margerita with succulent sun-dried tomatoes.




Just a few hours later, after adventures in the awesome record shop and a neverending book store called the Dawn Treader, we went to Blue Nile, an Ethopian restuarant where you use the pancake-like bread to pick up the spiced lentils, cooked cabbage and collard greens and other yummies.



You'd think we'd have collapsed if we so much as looked at any more food... but I couldn't resist dragging us to Cupcake Station on the way home for some treats to have later on.

Here's the Bumpalicious (the chocolate one on the right) and a delish caramel-y little guy whose name I can't remember. Both were hiding a gooey marshmallow filling.



Greedy? Absolutely. But after all...



A sweet end to a super sweet weekend.

Hello Chicago...

And we're done in the Windy City. While Chicago didn't earn that title for its weather (that's right, fact fans), it doesn't mean the wind don't blow in Chicago. It blows and it blows cold. So cold, in fact, that you need to go back to your hotel room for more clothes. Not that you'd guess from these pictures.

Yep, we lucked out with the weather. It was freezing on Tuesday, nose-burningly warm on Wednesday, and freezing again on Thursday, but the sun shone for us most of our stay.

On the Tuesday, after getting breakfast in Whole Foods, we shivered our way up to Oak Street Beach where you can look right across Lake Michigan from Lake Shore Drive. A lake by name but it may as well have been the Atlantic Ocean to my eyes - it goes on for miiiiillles. And, as Chicago resident David Schwimmer told us on our multi-media tour of the John Hancock Observatory, Lake Michigan is larger than the states of Delaware and New Jersey combined (well, he didn't say exactly that but I can't quite remember and this is still true). That's big.

Speaking of the John Hancock building, here's the view. 

Pretty special. And my favourite part of our stay in Chicago (apart from the tacos in Lincoln Park, but I'll get to that in a bit). David Schwimmer's audio tour was great. A little Chicago education via headphones. Plus I hadn't watched Friends in approximately three days, so that made up for it...

We also went to Navy Pier (alas the Ferris Wheel was closed, along with a lot of cafe booths, etc, for the season) and Millennium Park to see Cloud Gate aka 'The Bean'.

On Wednesday, we made use of our sporks (yus!) and had a taste of home with Dorset Cereals, rode the El line and saw the station where While You Were Sleeping was filmed (the pic below is a station or two away from Randolph but whatevs), saw the Buckingham Fountain at Grant Park, walked along the lake shore in the sunshine and ate our body weight in tater tots and battered pickles.

On our last full day, Thursday, old man Gasson and old bird Rice had sore hips from all the walking. So we got a Red Line up to Lincoln Park and strolled the zoo and up to Oz Park, which is named after Lyman Park Baum, the writer of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz and a Chicago resident. Lincoln Park was really nice and chilled, the quiet streets lined with red brick houses and weather-boarded buildings. And it was home to the incredible Taco Joint. Mmmm-hmmm. The tacos were $3! Criminally cheap. Best guacamole I've ever had. If the Mexican food in LA lives up to this then we are onto a winner. (The last picture is a beaut to show just how good that corn was.)

After a quick stop to see Wrigley Field and have a car pull over to tell us, "You do know the Cubs suck? White Sox are down south!!" (first-hand experience of the two Chicago baseball teams' rivalry, awesome), we went to the Art Institute Of Chicago (free from 5-8pm) before having a thin crust pizza at Giordano's - not a patch on Lombardi's in New York, btw.

So that was Chicago. And now to Ann Arbor, Michigan on the Amtrak Wolverine. Choo choo!

Footnote: We're actually in Ann Arbor now. Hi!