Bank Holiday weekend binge

One of my favourite blog series' is Weekend Things on How Sweet It Is - the photos are always fantastic and it's so clever how your mind fills in the gaps in the story. If anything my love of food photography has grown after completing Project 366 in 2012, so I thought I'd share with you my Instagrammed snapshots from a particularly gluttonous Bank Holiday weekend...

Three Bears' Porridge at Restaurant Story...which one was "just right" for me?! More photos from this fantastic meal coming soon

#Project366 – week 52 and the end of 2012

So that’s it for 2012…no more London Olympics, no more Diamond Jubilee, and no more #Project366! This time last year I set myself a challenge to capture a food-related photograph every day for a year, and confess to feeling a mixture of emotions now that it’s over. I’m delighted that I successfully reached my goal, proud of the improvement in my camera skills during the past 12 months, a tiny bit surprised that I didn’t miss a single day, and relief that there’s no longer the pressure to take a daily photo of something, anything, to do with food!

I’m grateful to my friends and family for supporting me through #Project366 (especially my long-suffering boyfriend!) and to everyone who’s taken the time to read these blogposts and follow my life on a plate for the past year. There were times when I was dashing around the country for work when I feared I wouldn’t find anything to photograph (hence the number of snapshots of train snacks!), and that I’d never write up my huge backlog of weekly updates. But thankfully I got back up to speed before the year drew to a close, and can share with you this final roundup covering my Christmas week menu and seasonal celebrations back in Dorset…

Day #358 - My signature dish of spicy sausage stew, full of smoked chorizo from Flavours of Spain and a secret ingredient that I hope to share with you in 2013…

"Bauble and squeak" after a very merry Christmas

So after all the anticipation and frantic preparations, Christmas Day is over already...why does it always fly by so quickly?!

I hope you had a wonderful day eating, drinking and being generally very merry with your loved ones. My best boys and I had a fun and relatively low-key time together at our little London flat cuddled up on the sofa scoffing lots of chocolates and watching all the seasonal TV specials.

Countdown to Christmas!

Everyone I've seen this week has asked me the same question "Are you ready for Christmas yet?"

The truthful answer is that today is the first day that I've felt anything close to being prepared for the onslaught of gift-giving and gluttony that is imminently approaching. It's just as well that I've finally bought a few presents and received our mega grocery order, given that we now know that the Mayans' predictions were wrong and the world hasn't ended after all...!

#Project366 – week 43

In Nigel Slater’s fascinating autobiography Toast he describes the traditional English dishes that he grew up on, and how incredible it was to try Italian classics like spaghetti bolognese for the first time. Nowadays mixing up our weekly menu with different cuisines from across the world is common place, as perfectly highlighted in this flashback of daily photographs from late October…

Day #295 – A change from my usual street food order at Wahaca, a virtuous chargrilled steak and avocado spicy Sonara salad served in an ingenious (less healthy, deep-fried!) tortilla basket

Power foods #2 – porridge that’s just right for Goldilocks

So apparently today is World Porridge Day - which means it's the ideal time for me to tell you about one of my favourite "power" foods!

Porridge hits all three "power" food buttons – it’s full of fibre that burns up fat, contains beta-glucans to boost your immunity against nasty bugs, and as a complex carb it increases serotonin levels to keep you calm on dark and chilly mornings!  

#Project366 – week 28

A draining week both physically and mentally, which began with me running round London’s landmarks as part of The British 10k and ended with me dashing round the South West for an action-packed day of work visits. See where I sought sustenance...

Day #190 – Special Effect is an incredible charity dedicated to using technology to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities. I was proud to run as part of their British 10k team (dressed as Princess Peach from Super Mario!) and celebrated my 56 minute race time by tucking in to a deliciously rich flapjack kindly donated by Sainsbury’s in Witney

A roasted piece of meat to last all week

In the past, I never understood the appeal of the quintessentially English roast dinner. It seemed to me that people spent a disproportionate amount of their designated Day of Rest slaving over a hot stove, considering how bland and limp the resulting "meat and three veg" often tasted. My favourite part of a roast dinner was previously the Yorkshire pudding, so given the option I would generally have preferred to just eat the batter alongside a couple of decent meaty sausages as Toad in the Hole.

In my eyes it was particularly incomprehensible why anyone would want to spend every Sunday cooking a roast. There’s such a plethora of delicious dishes available from such a vast array of different cuisines - spicy Mexican stews, tender Moroccan tagines, fresh Italian pastas with silky sauces - why would you choose to restrict your weekend dining to a lump of dry meat and a plate of soggy vegetables?

Spicy sausage stew for a sunny day in Spain

The weather gods appear to have misunderstood the meaning of British Summer Time. This year we lost an hour as normal, but didn’t seem to be gaining any increase in temperature in return. So when my boyfriend told me we had the chance to escape breezy Britain for a trip to sunny Spain with his family, I jumped at the chance.

I’d been caught out in the rain so many times over the past couple of months, I’d finally accepted there was no point in purchasing the Gladiator sandals I’d promised myself – so this sojourn sounded like a dream come true. As someone who grew up by the sea, there’s nothing I love better than siesta-ing on a soft sandy beach, listening to the backing track of waves lapping the shore. However, he confessed there was just one tiny thing about the holiday I should probably know in advance…

Resorting to Risotto

Without wishing to sound arrogant, I make a pretty mean risotto.  I don’t really understand how this happened, as I only discovered the delights of this wonderful oozing rice dish a couple of years ago, but it has rapidly become a reliable recipe for storecupboard emergencies and situations when I need to impress.

One of the things I love most about risotto is the way its flavour entirely depends on which ingredients are added to the rice mixture – almost like an Italian version of the fabled stone soup. Creamy and sweet with parmesan and leeks, crisp and fresh with asparagus and smoked salmon, silken and earthy with butternut squash and sage...there’s a combination to satisfy any craving and every mood.

"It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you" - Nigel Slater

I don't make much toast, but I do make a pretty decent bacon sandwich, with lashing of tomato ketchup. It might even have a fried egg in it too, if you're particularly special...