Exploring Stroud

Last year I took it upon myself to take a little trip on the bus to a town nearby us, called Stroud. I had been there before in passing, but never had the chance to look around the town properly. What I found was a pleasing, yet hilly high street, full of unique and independent shops plus charity shops galore! It was a little treasure trove. Here are some snaps from my visit with some info on the places I favoured. 

On the way to Stroud high street. The main streets are the high street, where you can find the usual shops such as Boots & Superdrug, as well many independent shops and quaint little book stores; Kendrick street and Union Street where there are many charity shops, perfect for that vintage find.

Here's a link to the map of the town centre: http://www.stroud.gov.uk/info/stroud_tourism_map.pdf

A popular place in Stroud where people gather to watch theatre and musical performances. There are also workshops and classes held there.

http://www.subscriptionrooms.org.uk/general.asp?pid=12&pgid=972

Looking down the main high street

One of my favourite places to hunt down reasonably priced cookbooks! Imprint sells a range of second hand books of a very high quality.

http://www.inprint.co.uk

Woodruffs Organic Cafe was recommended to me by my guidebook to the Cotswolds - Slow Cotswolds, and it was everything it promised! It was cosy with a quirky decor. You can find yourself indulging in a homemade cake and luxurious hot chocolate (see below), or eating a full on lunch, such as one of their many healthy sandwiches (try the falafel and hummus in pitta) or one of their daily specials. 

http://www.woodruffsorganiccafe.co.uk

Look at the foam on that! 

Date flapjack

I know this is a pretty dark photo but it the evening was drawing it and I still hadn't finished my adventure! I had to still try and take a photo of this shop as it's one of my faves. 

Moonflower sells many gift-y items such as gloves, socks, jewellery, lotions and creams etc. It also stocks Cath Kidston (though usually the older ranges) and also boots and wellies. 

Their sister shop is also on the highstreet and it called 'Moonflower Too'. It stocks mainly cards, bath bombs, Neal's Yard products and also Emma Bridgewater mugs, plates etc.

https://www.moonflowershops.co.uk/index.php#.Vop13LR3aT8

Do let me know if you visit Stroud and if this guide was useful!

Disaster stew

I know I haven't written in a while, what with it being Christmas and all, and also having been on my amazing honeymoon to New York (posts to follow); however I had to just let you know something I learnt this afternoon: never use a non-flameproof casserole dish on the hob. 
I know what you are thinking, isn't it obvious? Well I wasn't to know if my casserole dish was flameproof or not! I bought it ages ago at Argos (a cheap purchase when we desperately wanted a casserole), but I couldn't remember from the 'instructions' whether it was flameproof, and I had used it before and it was fine. However this afternoon, whilst preparing a stew for our New Years Day dinner (my parents are also here), I poured in some red wine to the already braised meat, and BOOM, CRACK: the whole pot collapses and out floods the red wine and all the little carrot and meat pieces. Disaster had struck! After finding it all funny and slightly annoying; and participating in amounts of cleaning (thank you Fabio!), we all then had to decide whether we would risk eating what remained of the stew, and possibly pieces of the dish! Did we risk it? The meat did look very nice. It looked like it had the potential to become a a great meal. After some discussion, we all decided that the best bet was to just give in and get a takeaway. So that's what our first meal will be in the Cantoni household to begin 2016. Let's hope this isn't a prelude of dinners to come! Haha.

Traditional Mince Pies

In case you are not already sick of them already, here is another mince pie recipe to add to the collection! I personally love them, and could eat them all year-round. I decided this year to make my own pastry (I know, too much time on my hands!) and since there are so many to choose from, I picked one that was described as 'short and melt-in-your-mouth'. The recipe is a Paul Hollywood one, who I definitely trust, and boy was I right! This pastry is so good, I mean, it literally crumble in your mouth but still holds it's shape. It tastes so buttery too!

Hope you like! I would love to hear which mince pie recipe you rely on each year!

Ingredients
375g plain flour
260g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
1 large egg + 1 for the glaze
A jar of mincemeat
Icing sugar for dusting

1. Put flour and butter cut into small pieces into a bowl, and rub until at crumb consistency. 
2. Add the sugar and egg and mix until combined into a dough. Tip out onto your surface and do what the French call 'Fraiser', which is basically when you blend the dough together with your hands. Be careful not to overwork it though. 
3. Wrap into cling film and chill for 10 minutes in the fridge. If you leave it for too long it will harden (this is what I ended up doing) and it will take a while to become soft in order to roll it out!
4. Heat the oven to 220c/200fan/gas mark 7. Roll out the dough to 3mm thick and cut out using a round cutter. You need to do big circles for the base of the pie and smaller ones for the lid. You can measure this easily by just placing the cutter over the pan you are going to use, and if it's slightly larger, then that's the one to use! I decided to use my star cutter for my lids!

5. Press your bottoms of the pie into the muffin tin carefully, and then fill with a couple of spoonfuls of mincemeat! 

6. Next you need to get your extra egg and beat it lightly. Use this to glaze the edges of your pies. This also helps your tops to stick, which is the next step: top with your lids! Glaze those as well after, then give them a little prick with a fork in order to let out the steam. You will notice in the next picture that I decided to fill some of mine with leftover jam, as I thought I would make some jam tarts whilst I was at it!

7. Sprinkle with caster sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool and then dust with icing sugar.

Festive Christmas Biscuits

You've all had them once your life, and they all probably bring back many different memories. For me, it's eating them at primary school. These crunchy, iced biscuits were always a popular one when placed as a dessert on the dinnertime menu. I am however going to jazz them up a little bit by making them Christmassy! Here's how:

Ingredients

100g Unsalted butter (softened)

100g Caster sugar

1 free-range egg, beaten lightly

1 tsp vanilla extract

275g plain flour

400g icing sugar

Sprinkles and food colourings of your choosing (I found my cute sprinkles at Morrisons)

1. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees (170 fan) and line a baking tray with greaseproof baking paper.

2. Using your beating attachment (or a wooden spoon if you are extra strong!), beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract gradually.

4. Stir in flour until it looks something like dough. 

5. Tip what may look like a dough onto a floured surfaced, and shape into a ball.

6. Roll your dough out until 1cm thick roughly, and cut out your biscuits with the cutters of your choice! I chose some star cutters which I found at Lakeland recently. A pack of 5 cutters for about £3.99, although I just checked on their website, and it looks like they are on sale! I also chose a heart cutter which was gifted to me recently when I got married :) That one is £4 by Eddingtons, available at John Lewis.

7. Bake the biscuits in the oven for 8 minutes roughly, until golden brown. Do not burn the edges like I did! I'm still not used to my oven, honestly! Leave to harden for 5 minutes before cooling on a rack.

8. Now for the fun part, the icing! Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add enough water (about 5 tbsp) to get to a thick, pipe-able consistency. Divide into separate bowls if you wish to colour, in which case you should only add a few drops and mix in with a spoon.

9. Spoon the icing into a piping bag and snip off the end. Pipe around the edges first and then fill in by drawing lines. To be honest, I'm not that happy with how my icing turned out! I could say that I wasn't really feeling well when doing these (full of a cold!) but I think it's just that I can't ice that well! Not one of my fortes! Oh well, I enjoyed it, and it certainly brought back memories! Hope you enjoy too! 

December Tea Favourites

This time of year is the season when we all get excited about hot drinks, but not just ordinary tea (i'm not a fan) or coffee, but herbal, fruit and spiced teas, and special types of coffee! I must admit, I do have quite a large collection that I have collected over the past few years, but recently I have been discovering some new ones.

T2 Sweet Spiced Loose Leaf Flavoured Fruit Tea

7.50 for 100g.

You may have heard of T2 before, or if you are like me and obviously live under a tea shaped rock, you haven't. The first time I heard of T2 was when at the Taste London festival in the summer, where they had a stand. One of my Australian friends pointed out that it's an Australian company and that they do really good tea, and a lot of it. So when I moved to Cheltenham in August and discovered that they recently opened a T2 shop, I was intrigued!
They stock a wide selection of black, fruit and herbal teas, with some very interesting flavours (Toasted Marshmallow anyone?) 
Since it's nearing to Christmas, I opted for the Sweet Spice tea after trying one of their samples. It tasted very much like mulled wine, so a great alternative to alcohol for those designated drivers around Christmas time!

Here's what it looks like inside

What I love about this tea is that the sweetness comes from the little meringue pieces - how cute! Definitely recommend!

lhttp://www.t2tea.com/sweet-spice.html

Onyx London Orange Cookies Black Tea
£8.28 for 90g.
£13.80 for 200g.

Onyx London is a company that has recently launched by one of my patisserie course friends. A lovely couple who obviously absolutely adore tea! 
This tea was gifted to me by them, and even though I'm not usually a big fan of orange flavours, I didn't find it too orangey at all! I really liked it's light flavours which leaves a hint of spice in your mouth afterwards. This tea is perfect for those times when you just want to curl up on the sofa with a blanket, stick on your favourite Christmas movie and just chill out. They also have a gift option too, so also a brilliant Christmas present for your tea fanatic friends. 

http://onyxtea.london/product/orange-cookies/

Keiths of Cirencester Christmas Coffee
I actually cannot remember the exact price, but I reckon around £5.00 for a bag. They also do not have a website.

I recently mentioned my trip to buy this coffee in one of my previous posts here. I have however since tried it, and am really liking this one. I have bought Christmas coffees in the past (I think my last one was from Harrods) but none have compared to this one. It has a bit of a nutty flavour, and a very light spice to it, whilst still tasting like normal coffee, if that makes sense at all! These flavours are not strong, but I just really like using it for my morning caffe latte. With the milk, the flavours really stand out. A great one for Christmas morning I think!

The shop is located in Cirencester on Black Jack St (GL7 2AA)

My Very Easy American Dinner Party

So as you know, I had my sister and her friend to stay last weekend. Because I love my food, I really like to try and experiment when I have visitors - I never seem to opt for the easy, tried and tested route. And since we are off on our honeymoon to New York on 20th December, I thought what a better theme to have than American, to get us all excited for our trip! 
I didn't want to make the meal too difficult though, as we had planned a day of shopping, so I would have to cook it after we got back, and no-one likes that! 
I had a little search on Pinterest and found two really yummy recipes, which didn't take long to prepare and cook at all! 

Firstly, here's my table all ready (I didn't really go American with the table theme as the plan was a little late notice! Also the only table cloths I own are floral, and the most suitable one was in the wash - doh!)

I decided to start with some simple sticky chicken bites, which are basically chicken pieces wrapped in bacon, that has been mixed into a mixture of brown sugar, chilli powder and cayenne pepper. And OMG they were SO GOOD. They literally went like hot cakes. A very good choice!

Here's the link: http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2866960-Sweet-and-Spicy-Chicken-Bites?full_recipe=true

Obviously you can't have an American meal without at least one American condiment... (The Beaver sauce was found at Ocado).

For the main, I choice a simple American style, no fuss burger. I know my plate looks a tad messy, but this wasn't a serious dinner party! This is how food actually looks people! Haha. I cheated on the chips and bought frozen Mcains Peri Peri chips, but then I added on some extra Nandos Peri Peri salt. They were quite nice, but not as authentic as Nandos!

The burgers however, I made myself. And boy they were the easiest thing ever to make. Literally, you just shape your mince into balls and then place them into a really hot pan with oil, and as they were cooking, flatten them as much as you can. They should take about a few mins to cook each side. 

As the blog I found this one had stated, if you are going to make a REAL American burger, then you gotta use real American cheese: the processed kind! I usually hate this cheese, but it really went well with this burger! It wouldn't have worked with any other kind of cheese. 

I didn't bother toasting the buns, as that would be more hassle!

Here's the link where I found the burger recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/freddys-burgers/

Italian Hot Chocolate and Peppermint Cookies

It's that time of year again, where the smell of peppermint evokes memories of Christmas' past, of candy canes hanging on the tree.
I personally love peppermint, especially candy canes! When I saw this recipe, I thought what could be better: cookies + candy = Christmas heaven!

So when my sister and her friend arrived last Thursday, I was eager to try out this recipe on them; to see whether they tasted as good as they sounded: they did. They were super soft and really minty, which I surprised about.

Now the only ingredient that gives the cookies their peppermint taste, are actual crushed candy canes. So if you don't fancy using the recipe I used, you could just add crushed candy cane to your cookies dough and bake as normal. The Americans actually use candy cane chips, which we can't find here, but candy canes work nicely too.

I'm not going to copy the recipe down here because since I took it from another blog, It wouldn't feel right. But here's the link if you want to try. 
http://www.momontimeout.com/2013/12/soft-chewy-chocolate-peppermint-cookies/

Also what better accompaniment to cookies than hot chocolate? And thick Italian hot chocolate too! I found the perfect recipe to recreate memories of our recent wedding and holiday in Italy, where we sat by the square, all cosy in our winter jackets, sipping on thick cioccolata calda. 
The mystery ingredient Italian hot chocolate thickness is cornflour, but don't worry, you can't taste it. This recipe is perfect since it's really quick to make and not complicated at all. 
Again, since I took it from another blog, here's the link instead: http://www.bellalimento.com/2012/01/11/how-to-make-italian-hot-chocolate/


Enjoy!