'Dinner's Up'

Well dinner went down an absolute treat, utterly delicious. The family seem to approve and they are often a tough crowd to please!
So here it goes, step-by-step guide to the dinner:

Oven-Roasted Lamb Chops with Onion, Rosemary and Chive Sauce, with Garlic Mash and Oven-Baked Baby Chantenay Carrots:

Ingredients (for 6):
1. 13 lamb chops (preferably from the local produce store/farm shop)
2. 1 onion

Sauce:
1. 1 Onion
2. Handful of rosemary leaves
3. 30g butter
4. 25g plain flour
5. 175ml semi-skimmed milk
6. 175ml vegetable stock
7. 1 tablespoon of double cream
8. salt and pepper

Garnish:
1. Watercress

Recipe:
1. Pop your lamb chops in a roasting dish and place your onions between and around them.
2. Season with salt and peper and place them on the top shelf.
3. Cook for approximately 45 minutes (or slightly less if you prefer them pink)

4. Whilst the lamb is cooking, crack on with your sauce.
5. Melt the butter and fry the onions for around 3-4 minutes.
6. Chop the rosemary and chives very, very finely.
7. Add the herbs to the onion.
8. Add Stir in the flour, add the milk and the stock (gradually) and whisk quickly.
9. Season.
10. Simmer for 5 minutes.
11. Liquidise half and return it to the rest.
12. Add the cream.
13. Bring the lamb out of the oven and pour over the sauce.
14. Garnish witht the watercress and serve with the upcoming recipe of roasted carrots and garlic mash.

Garlic and Chive Mash:

Ingredients:
1. Desiree potatoes for the whole family.
2. 25g of salted butter
3. 4 garlic cloves
4. 1 tablespoon of chopped choves
5. Dash of double cream.
6. 40ml milk
7. Salt and Pepper

Recipe: (Nice and Simple):
1. Peel, rinse, chop and boil potatoes for around 20 minutes.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan with the garlic, chives and dash of double cream for a minute.
3. Drain potatoes, mash.
4. Add the mixture to the mash, adding the milk.
5. Season to taste.
6. If this happens to be prepared prior to the lamb, place in a oven-proof dish and pop in the oven with the lamb. This will give it a beautiful crusty topping and keep it nice and warm!

Oven-Roasted Baby Chantenay Carrots:
1. Enough carrots for the family (you know how much they eat!).
2. Cut off tips (for ease of eating).
3. Place in a roasting tray.
4. Drip olive oil on top of carrots and season
5. Place in oven with the lamb and roast away!
6. Will take approximately 45 minutes.

Finally: Finish by garnishing with watercress.

Yum, yum yum.

Goodnight! x

Product of the Week - Royal Love

My fashion pick of the week is this Mulberry Royal Love necklace - with this piece Mulberry have gone back to their true Brit patriotic roots. Perfect to accompany any winter wardrobe. Be quick though - a little bird tells me they are limited edition and bound to sell out soon!!

I bought mine from Lux - an exquisite boutique nestled among some other little gems in Bath. They retail at £130.

Product Of The Week - The Best Brew

Every week as part of this blog, I will be adding a food product of the week and a fashion product of the week - these are the items that I can't get enough of this week.

Here is my product of the week which will create the best cup of tea.

If you are usually a fan of green tea then white tea is a great alternative, I know that Harrods do this tea in a number of fruity varieties but I prefer it without any fuss. You can buy this tea as tea bags or loose-leaf - entirely up to you, I went for tea bags due to ease of use and also because it's cheaper - at £3.50 compared to £9.95 for loose-leaf.

Enjoy your afternoon, i'm off to put the kettle on



Afternoon pick-me-up

You know that feeling, it's a Monday afternoon after a lovely weekend off and you're back to work, uni or college. You want something that will pick you up? Try my heavenly lemon drizzle cake for that perfect pick-me-up.

Ingredients list:
1. 225g unsalted butter.
2. 225g caster sugar.
3. 4 medium eggs.
4. 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.
5. 225g self-raising flour.

For the drizzle topping:
1. 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.
2. 85g caster sugar.

Here is the recipe:
1.Heat your oven to 180C.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.
3. Add eggs - now slowly mix.
4. Sift flour in and the lemon juice - until nicely mixed.
5. Spoon into a lined loaf tin.
6. Bake for 50 mins - remember you can test the cake with a skewer, place it into the centre, if the skewer comes out clean it's ready.
7. Whilst the cake is in the oven mix lemon juice and caster sugar to form the drizzle topping.

8. When the cake is warm insert little markings with a fork into the top of the cake - this will allow the drizzle topping to slowly make its way into the cake.

9. When the cake is cool, drizzle over the topping.

10. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

One for the Road

Before I leave for those farm shops, just wanted to show you how amazing Cat Deeley is looking and dressing. I want what she's got. Come December I will be rocking this look.

Photo from: Daily Mail

Support Your Locals

In preparation for this evening's dinner, I am taking a trip to a couple of small local producers to buy the meat and vegetables. I think it's really important to support the local producers by visiting their local farm shops - it might not always be practical and I must admit that it is much easier just to pop to a supermarket but I believe in visiting them to show your support once every now and then, plus the meat and veg tastes so much better.

One that I found only last week and love is Sharpham Park farm shop - if you are in the South West it is definitely worth a trip to.

It's next door to the Mulberry factory outlet which means you can kill two birds with one stone right? Helping support local farmers means I can treat myself to a bag? Surely? I'm coveting the Mulberry Lily which I spied on none other than Alexa Chung last week, I think this might be my new investment piece.

Photos from: Daily Mail

Preparation is Key!

When it comes to cooking, preparation is absolutely key. There is nothing worse than coming to an ingredient and realising it is still on the shelf at the supermarket. So my tip of the day is to bring out all ingredients from the cupboard before you begin. That way, everything is there when and as you need it. There is nothing worse than an unprepared chef!
So this morning I am writing out my ingredients list in order to prepare for my Piccalilli and delicious dinner for tonight: Oven-Roasted Lamb Chops with an Onion, Rosemary and Chive Sauce, with Garlic and Chive Mash and Oven-Baked Baby Carrots.

Absolutely delicious.

And remember, following recipes to every exact step and measure is not always crucial. Have fun with it! Remember, you are not Jamie Oliver or Mr Ramsay, you are your own chef. So make your own recipes and your own ingredients and you may just find something wonderful.

If you do, remember to share it with us!

'Till later x

Tardis me to Karen Gillian's Closet

I just could not go by another minute without mentioning this, which has just come to my attention...

Well done Karen for making yourself look so fabulously out of place (in a gorgeous way) at the usually- trashy occasion that is The TV Choice Awards.

The DVF blazer looks oh-so-chic and those boots? J'adore!

Well done girl, well done.

Photo from: Daily Mail

Christmas is Coming...

Christmas is almost here, right? Well not quite. But in terms of preparing for Christmas - the season has well and truly arrived.
First on my agenda is Piccalilli. Creating it now means that it will still taste beautiful for all those Christmas suppers.
Some time this week I will be searching for the perfect recipe and putting the pickles to the test!
Check back soon!

Copper-Cool

I have always been a sucker for thick, full-on, blunt fringes. They are uber sexy and so unbelievably cool - on the right hairstyle.
Add that with bright Copper hair and you have the Mulberry Spring/Summer 2011 catwalk statement, which saw everybody saying 'WOW.'

Check out Julia Johansen on the Mulberry catwalk - ooh la la. Ignore the fab clothes for now and look at that 'do. Perhaps you should forget cooking for tonight and get out the box-hair colour.

Let me know how it goes!

Photo from: Grazia Daily