Recipe: Summertime Lemonade

We have often said that we’re both incredibly impatient people. There are things we know are going to happen, things we know we will end up buying or doing, and we ashamedly haven’t the will to wait; we want everything right away. Food and drink often lands into the same pitfall. 

This impatience is a reason why we can only occasionally make ourselves endure the wait to relish the pay-off of the likes of slow-cooked pulled pork and rich beef brisket stew or ragu. Drinks are no different, and a cocktail recipe with four hundred steps is not going to quench our thirst in a hot second. On a hot summer’s day, and we all know how rare and quickly those jump upon us, you need instant refreshment, coolness and sweetening…

Eurofeasting 2014 – Part Two

The other half of our Eurovision super-post this year is all about the grand final on Saturday. This year Copenhagan are hosting and we have a group of friends coming round to cheer on our favourite acts and eat some delicious European food. It’s often hard to remember that we are all one big continent because each country has such a different personality and cuisine that it’s hard to find a few common dishes that signify Europe as a whole.

Eurovision parties have become the norm and a treasured tradition amongst our group of friends, and it’s always such a laugh to have a few drinks, some food, and watch the final together. People have their opinions about Eurovision but it truly is always a good show and such guaranteed entertainment for a week, every May. It’s so important to us that, since we’ve moved country, a couple of friends have decided to fly over to London this year to continue the tradition and watch the final with us on Saturday.

Eurofeasting 2014 – Part One

To celebrate Gay Christmas (i.e. Eurovision) we’ve decided to go all out and make a song and dance about it, if you’ll pardon the pun. For the week of Eurovision we will be bombarding you with posts celebrating European diversity and cuisine, as well as offering our own unique recipes and euro-inspired creations.

Afternoon Tea at Chateau Gastreau

As much as the title may want you to believe, we haven’t gone and reviewed a fancy hotel’s fairing, as much as we’d have enjoyed that. Basically, GastroMum Bernadette and GastroDad Jimmy (Russell’s side) visited us at the beginning of March for a weekend. As it happened, it was also Bernadette’s birthday on the same weekend. Obviously not wanting to miss a trick and not get a decent present from her emigrated son, the two booked a trip over and both of us got our thinking caps on for a nice birthday surprise.

Initially, the plan was to bring all four of us out for a nice afternoon tea in one of London’s most popular haunts. Then a little thing called “reality” set in, and we realised that we are not the billionaires we think we are, so had to scale it down a bit. But we didn’t mind. We relish a challenge…

Anti-Valenti

A.K.A An appreciation of Lemon; an ode to Liz; a Liz Lemon love letter.

A.K.A. Happy Anna Howard Shaw Day

Both of us are not ones for Hallmark sentiment. We’ve often forgone Christmas presents, we never remember, less celebrate, our anniversary and the two of us will sooner gift ourselves chocolate and wine before buying it for the other. Valentine’s Day is yet another example of our scarce sentimentality; we simply never celebrate it.

Traditions: Little Christmas Canapés Recipes

As you read in our previous post, all about the traditions of ‘Little Christmas’ for the Hanlon household, we promised to share the recipes for some of our original nibbles/finger food/party food ideas. These are inspired by family and adapted by us with a few modern tweaks and festive flavour enhancements.