Weekend Wonderland

What a weekend. Where to even start? Thursday was the 1 year anniversary of my first date with the boy (yes we're romantic and mushy like that sometimes) and the start of an epic weekend of food and fun.

To celebrate a year together we went back to the bar where we had our first date straight from work and had a little celebratory drink. I got a cute bunny card and had some prosecco = happy Fi, despite a manic day at work. From there we went back to his where I was surprised with flowers and a mini bottle of champagne - even though we said we weren't doing presents! I'm not going to complain, but I did feel guilty as he didn't know about the surprise I had planned.From there it was straight out to an all you can eat meat feast at a Brazilian Restaurant in Nottingham for our friend's birthday, it's a hard life but someone has to do it.







On Friday we both finished at lunchtime and jumped on the train to Manchester to go to Warehouse Project and see Jamie XX. The mini champagne was the perfect way to start the weekend of celebrations properly. You've got to love a man who comes prepared for a train ride with plastic champagne flutes. When we arrived in Manchester we checked in at our hotel (Britannia Sachas) right on the edge of the Northern Quarter. I'd seen some pretty bad reviews online recently but we we got there there was nothing to worry about, plus the location is amazing!




Seeing as we properly met at the Christmas Markets in Lincoln last year it only seemed right that we went off to explore the giant Manchester Christmas Markets. Boy loved the giant santa made of lights and I loved the mulled wine to keep my hands warm as we wandered. I wanted to eat everything in sight but luckily didn't as we ended up at Home Sweet Home for dinner that night. Wow. Total foodgasm. We shared the Winner Winner Chicken Dinner and Nachos with Pulled Pork and I don't think I've ever had nachos that good. They were properly constructed meaning you didn't run out of toppings for the last crisps or have soggy mush left at the end and the flavours were amazing. Unfortunately there was definitely no space for dessert - I guess that means I'll have to go back to sample the famous cakes.




WHP was amazing as expected - the atmosphere was great for Jon Hopkins and Jamie XX and the light show and production was great. I ended up bumping into one of my old housemates and his friends in there which was nice and I got a little bit over excited when I saw one of my rowing friends. I didn't know any of them were going but it made me remember how small Manchester can be at times - in a nice way.

Saturday lunch was the time for the big surprise. I'd booked a table at Dogs n Dough and had been scheming with the manager James to organise a surprise for the boy. The game was given away a little when we were asked if we still wanted the Haribo pizza, but I don't think the boy was prepared for what was coming out. His face lit up like a kid at Christmas when he saw it and he couldn't stop grinning on the way home. The pizza was incredible. So much sugar and general awesomeness and a great way to round off our trip to Manchester. 


We'll definitely be back now he's seen what the city has to offer - any suggestions on what else shouldn't be missed?

Chocolate Orange Brownies

When I first tried the mixture for this last night I knew I was onto a winner. All over the internet there are versions of these healthy brownies, falling roughly into one of the following categories: vegan and gluten free (such as these from Deliciously Ella), paleo (like the ones here) or vaguely traditional ( like this).

Of course following a single recipe out of all the ones I'd found would be far too simple, so I took it upon myself to do my own version and for once actually recorded what I did. The result? A fudgey brownie that tastes exactly like a Terrys Chocolate Orange. I don't have weird flours on my single baking shelf, nor do I like using millions of eggs in a single recipe, so I used what I had on hand, crossed my fingers and hoped for a good result. The risk paid off, so I figured I'd share the method to my madness.

Recipe
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and steamed until soft
About 20 pitted dates (mine were old and small and had gone a little hard, so I soaked them in boiling water for 20 minutes to soften them up)
3/4 cup ground almonds (mine were fairly chunky as I blitzed them in the mini chopper)
1/2 cup plain flour
5 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp honey
1 egg
zest of 1 orange

Preheat the oven to 180C and line an 8x8 inch tin with greaseproof paper.
Blitz your dates and sweet potatoes until smooth. I only have a small blender, so I did it in batches, as long as everything is fairly smooth it doesn't matter.
In a large bowl combine all the ingredients aside from the egg and orange zest and mix well. Beat the egg in a cup and then add to the large bowl to help stick everything together and then stir in the orange zest. The mixture will be very thick, but try to ensure everything is well incorporated and that there are no patches of flour left.
Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin and spread it out evenly, trying not to each too much mix in the process.

Bake for 35-40 minutes in the middle of the oven and leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Initially I baked mine for 20 minutes, however then decided it was still much too fudgey and so stuck it back in the oven. If you want it to firm up a bit more then bake for longer, but be careful that the edges don't catch and burn slightly.

Sweet Potato Pie Crust

Today when I got home from work I had just enough time to prep my dinner before heading out to training and I was really hankering after a savoury crumble. Unfortunately all the recipes I found involved breadcrumbs, flour and butter - and as I usually try to avoid gluten heavy meals this wasn't going to work.

After a bit of digging on the internet I decided to try a Sweet potato topping, with the hope of it ending up slightly crispy. In the end I was pretty happy with the results. Texture was good, nice and crispy although the sweetness of the potato was a little much for me. I am now definitely going to try baking with sweet potato soon though!

I used the topping over some mixed med veg, which I left nice and chunky and seasoned with black pepper and oregano, but I think this topping would work really well over a sort of smokey BBQ filling.

Sweet Potato Crust
1 Sweet Potato, chopped into even chunks.
handful of oats
1 tbsp olive oil
small handful almonds, roughly chopped
Salt and black pepper
1/3 cup grated mature cheddar

Cook the sweet potato until soft, I microwaved mine with a little water for about 7 minutes in total, checking it halfway through. Mash up the sweet potato and add in the oil, oats, nuts and seasoning. I found it tasted slightly too sweet for my taste at this point so added in a little extra salt. Once the mix has cooled slightly add in the cheddar.

Spread the mixture on top of your filling , top with any extra seasoning you want (I put some paprika on) and bake at 180C for around 25 minutes. The topping should brown and go crispy on the top.