Recipe: Chicken, Leek & Sweet Potato Pie!

This time of year is for enjoying yourself, stuffing your face and generally being a little indulgent - or it is in our world!

One of my highlights of this time if year is Laura's cooking. Throughout the year Laura will create all kinds of masterpieces but this is pie season and my wife makes a wonderful pie. 

Last year Laura perfected a chicken, leek and sweet potato pie and this year upped her game and made it for a pre-family gathering we hosted for 6 people. Here is the recipe for 4 people:

Click to enlarge

To increase the recipe for 6 people Laura roasted a whole chicken then used the breasts and thighs. The juices from the chicken were then added along with the chicken into the mixture of sweet potato, leeks and sweetcorn. 

For 6 people we used 6 small/medium sweet potatoes and 3 leeks. 

Depending on how you like your pies (we like ours encased in pastry) a roll of pastry was used on the bottom and another on the top. If you just like a pie with a top (is it a even a pie????) then just use the one roll on top. 

The original post can be found here.

Enjoy and if you give the recipe ago let us know how you get on :)

Review: Boston Tea Party

We visited Boston Tea Party's Birmingham City Centre location for Brunch with friends last May and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Recently we visited to the Stratford Upon Avon location with our family and had an great time too.

Boston Tea Party are an independent chain of cafes with a mission to serve good things in great spaces. They focus on investing in the relationships they have with suppliers so food is free ranged and nourishing.

Each Boston Tea Party cafe is slightly different and as their website states that is to give a local feel. The Birmingham City Centre location is in a grand old building that has been kitted out with a rustic mix of wooden furniture. There are booths, sofas and long board room style tables that offer plenty of places to sit and enjoy the range of food and drinks.

There are actually 19 locations in total including Bristol, Cheltenham, Exeter and Plymouth. To see if there is one near you check here: http://www.bostonteaparty.co.uk/our_cafes/

The Stratford Upon Avon restaurant is based in an old school building split into two levels and an outside area.

The best thing, other than the food, is that it's dog and breastfeeding feeding friendly. That's right Bisbee was able to join us and that meant we could relax and enjoy brunch without having to rush to get back to her. She even made it on to the Boston Tea Party Facebook page!

Between the 4 of us our food selection included:

• Chorizo Hash
• Chipotle Chicken and Parmesan grilled sandwich
• Sweet Potato Fritters and dip (so, so, so good)
• Goats cheese, beetroot, candied pecan and orange salad
• And cake....lots of cake - which was freshly baked and out on the side just to tempt us. 

Depending on how healthy and adventurous you are there is plenty of choice, you can get a raw veg smoothie or fruit smoothie! Plus if you are Vegan or Gluten Free you're find plenty of choice. 

There is also a kids menu making it the perfect place for eating with the whole family. 

Price wise most things are between £6 - £8 with sides at £3.25. Reasonable for the quality of food and amount you get. 

Boston Tea Party also runs a blog with recipes: http://www.bostonteaparty.co.uk/blog/archive.php?cat=recipes and other interesting articles. 

If you visit one of the cafes let us know what you think!

Our First Year Wedding Anniversary Part 3 (The Final Part!) - Bob Bob Ricard

I'd seen photos from the glamorous Russian restaurant Bob Bob Ricard in London on Instagram over the last few years, and always had it on my list of 'one day, if we have the money/an occasion' items.

So when I suggested it to my 'realist' wife for our anniversary and showed her the photos, I definitely expected her to say no. It is the most expensive place we would have ever eaten! So I was shocked when she said she thought it was a great idea, and I booked it before she could change her mind.

My parents very generously offered to pay for most of the meal as our anniversary present, so Saturday we set off all dolled up to have our first anniversary dinner!

And let me tell you, it was incredible. I think I thought the experience would be amazing, but didn't expect the food to be stellar, because it would be more about the experience. Does that make sense? But I was wrong!

The dining room was beautiful, very ornate, with the wait staff in suits with tails, and we ordered a cocktail each to get things started. Sarah ordered a chicken, mushroom and champagne pie, and I ordered the filet mignon, with a few sides each.

It was just divine. The filet mignon cut like butter, was medium rare and to die for - the pie was flavourful and warm, and the top of it was beautiful! Weirdly, one of our favourite bits of the meal was seemingly simple - the honey glazed parsnips and carrots almost brought tears to our eyes. We have tried to recreate it since to no avail.

The sides are quite small, but I'd say the flavour of everything more than made up for it.

And then, we noticed the 'Push for champagne' button at each table - and thought, should we?

How could we not take advantage!

We were delivered two glasses of rose champagne, and after a cheers to this wonderful last year of our lives, we got onto ordering dessert.

We ordered the eton mess ball and strawberry and cream soufflé - which paired very well with our lovely drinks, if I say so myself!

Then, the icing on the cake (quite literally) of this amazing night, they had overheard us talking about our wedding anniversary and surprised us with this pretty little celebration ice cream cake, which had sparklers on it and made us feel very special.

In short, we cannot recommend Bob Bob Ricard enough for a special celebration meal out. Delicious food, fantastic service, one of a kind experience. We will be back, whenever we can find a wonderful occasion to celebrate! Surely getting through this week counts - celebration that it's Friday!

Part 1 of our Year 1 Wedding Anniversary celebrations can be found here! We checked out Book of Mormon.

Part 2 can be found here! We were at Pride!

Warming Chicken, Leek & Sweet Potato Pie

In honour of British Pie Week, we teamed up with Jus-Rol™ to create a dinner perfect for these cold evenings (Spring, where are you??). It is delicious, straightforward, and with the help of Jus-Rol™ (all of the yummy pie crust with none of the hassle of creating it yourself!) it's ready on the table in less than an hour including baking time!

 Also if you have a dog, she will be very envious!

Sarah had a long day in London, so I thought I'd treat her to one of her favourite dishes - my girl loves a pie. We have been obsessed with sweet potato lately, so I had to include that, and I knew she'd love it even more if it had chicken in it, as we are eating vegan during the week at the moment, it was a real treat for her!

Yummmm

I made sure to decorate with pie crust hearts - the way to the heart is through the belly!

It smelled amazing, so she was excited from when she walked in the door - and it was so good that she tried to tempt me into giving her the second portion - I resisted so she could enjoy it again today!

Something tells me I'll be making this again soon, and maybe experimenting with other pie fillings, always with Jus-Rol™ of course!

Click the receipe to enlarge!

Please let us know if you give this recipe a go - I'd love to hear how it turns out!

*Disclaimer - Jus-Rol sent us a voucher to enjoy some of their products, however as a loyal product user I requested them, and all opinions in this post are completely my own.

Laura's Left Over Delight

How you feeling after the week of indulgence?

I think it's fair to say we are dreading the thought of putting on proper clothes and starting Veganuray but with new years always comes new starts and we are getting ready to go, go, go.

However before we do we are using up all our leftovers and thought we'd share one particular recipe that worked out really, really well!

We shall call it: Laura's Left Over Delight! The original recipe can be found in 'the great potato cookbook' by Readers Digest.

Makes 2 big pasties or 4 small

Ingredients:
2 cups (250g) of plain flour (all-purpose) flour,
1/2 cup (125g) cold butter
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of flavouring (thyme / rosemary)
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup of iced water

Filling:
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
250g part boiled Potato (peel and dice first)
400g of meat (chopped into small pieces, we used our Christmas beef)
1 cup of leftovers (sprouts, onion, carrot, parsnips, stuffing etc etc)
Salt & pepper


Step 1: Make the pasty casing
Sift the flour into a bowl with salt and flavouring. Add the butter and using your fingertips make a crumbly texture. Work in the water slowly until it becomes a smooth dough.Make it into a ball and put in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour.

Cheat - if you don't want to make your own or don't have the ingredients, you can purchase a sheet of puff pastry in the refrigerated section of the supermarket and divide it in two pieces!

Step 2: Fill
Roll out your pastry into two equal rectangles, about 2/3 cm thick.
After boiling your potatoes, divide them into two piles and place onto the top half of each pasty.

Divide up your leftovers and meat, pile on top of the potatoes. Fold the bottom half over the top and seal them with a fork the whole way around. Pierce the top a few times with a fork to let the steam out in the oven.

Step 3: Cook
Put the pasties onto a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and golden.

Step 4: Eat
Serve with gravy for maximum deliciousness!!

That Time Laura Made a Reservation at a Takeaway

Last Friday we decided to ressurect Date Night from the dark depths of commuting 4 hours a day, living with parents and having zero moneys.

Because I'm on keto, we decided to go to a lebanese restaurant, thinking the salads, meats, halloumi, and deliciousness is relatively keto-friendly in that cuisine. We remembered going to a lebanese restaurant in Hammersmith about 3 years ago for a friend's birthday, but couldnt remember the name of it.

Luckily, Google Maps came to the rescue! I looked at the area, and saw a place called 'Lebanese Tavern' right where it way - perfect! So we set our sights on the Tav, as we were likely to call this new haunt, and got hungry.

An hour beforehand i got nervous that on a Friday night it might be busy, as most restaurants in London tend to be. So, I called them up. 'Hi, Lebanese Tavern? Can I please make a reservation for tonight at 6:15?' (Hey, we're early eaters. Just wait until we are old enough to eat dinner at 5! #moretimefordigestion #yolo) The man on the other end of the phone said something pretty unintelligible, and put me on hold. Must be to the reservations department.

'Ello?'
'Um hi, can I make a reservation?'
'...... (speaks to his colleagues).... for what time?'
'6:15 please'
'Okay yes bye.'

They didn't even take my name! I chuckled to myself and texted Sarah that they didn't seem used to taking reservations. Silly unprofessional London restaurants!

Annoyingly, Sarah didn't arrive at Hammersmith until 6:20, so we were a good 15 minutes late for our reservation. Slightly concerned we'd miss our table, we strolled arm in arm down the street, and.... passed where we were sure the restaurant was. It was now an Indian restaurant.

Confused, we noticed the Lebanese Tavern 3 doors down. 'Phew!' I thought, as we were starving by this point. As we went to walk in, we noticed the large rotating meat on a skewer in the window.....

And then it dawned on me.

I'd made a reservation at a kebab shop.

At 6:15 (surely nobody eats at a kebab shop before a drunken midnight?).

HOW EMBARRASSING!!

For the quick epilogue, we walked through H'Smith and came across the BEST new little Mediterranean restaurant with the nicest owner - and we ate the heck out of all this. And we lived happily ever after.

Laura's Very Keto Weekend

As you probably know, I am following the keto diet during Project Wedding Dress, introduced to me by Bridesmaid Julia, and I am loving it. Because I can eat hella cheese.

This past weekend, I decided to try out some keto-tastic recipes, and have not been able to get them out of my head. Delicious!! So I thought I'd share with you.

Saturday night I made keto pizza. Because what is Saturday night without junk food, anyway? Or at least pseudo junk food! Check this baby out:

It was so hot it steamed up my camera

Julia gave me the recipe for the crust - I translated it to the following.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups mozzarella or similar
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup coconut flour (though Julia used 3/4 cup almond flour and 1 egg, works just as well!)
• seasonings (I used garlic powder and salt)
• 1 dash of water

1. Microwave the mozzarella and cream cheese until melty and pliable
2. Mix the egg and flour with seasonings
3. Mix it all together (you may need to microwave it a bit to get it to mix better)
4. Spread on parchment paper pretty thin, bake at 190 C until a nice light brown

I wouldn't bother with a proper crust, I tried to do it but then got out more sauce to cover it, as it was a bit different of a texture to regular pizza.

Once you've got the base, cover with sauce, cheese and your favourite toppings!

It was delicious, and I could only eat half of it, perfect for Sunday leftovers!

Then, on Sunday I made some breakfast muffins for the week. They are so delicious, and even with broccoli and olives in them, Sarah requested some for her to eat! That, my friends, is saying something.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, and changed it according to what I had in the cupboards. I'll put that recipe in here, but obv put whatever you'd like in it!

Makes 8 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of salami, sliced into small bits
• 1 cup broccoli florets (or other veggie)
• 4 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons of cream cheese
• 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 10 or so olives, sliced
• salt & pepper to taste
• half a cup of cheddar cheese, grated

Boil the broccoli until soft, cut into smaller pieces

Mix everything together

Spray non-stick onto a muffin tray, and fill as many as you can until about 1 cm from the top of each

Cook at 190 C (I cook everything pretty much at 190) for 10 minutes, or until slightly toasted

Just seriously amazing. And only like 75 cals / 0.5 carbs per muffin! Go on, have 3.

But, I also had an epic Pinterest fail this weekend. I tried to make 'Better than Goldfish' keto crackers, and... well, I'm not sure what I did wrong, except potentially not put the batter in the fridge long enough?

Anyway, here's what it is supposed to look like, and what it ended up looking like.

It's just too ugly not to laugh, really.

I'm 29.8 pounds down again, and am hoping to break into the 30s this week. Only 8 weeks to go until the dress fitting. Feeling and looking better than I have in ages, and am generally loving it. 

Have a happy Tuesday night!

Why We Believe We Deserve a Nandos Black Card/High 5 - Prepare to Be Persuaded

 

If you’re a Nandos Fan-do (like we are), you’ll undoubtedbly have heard of the fabled Black Card – which entitles its holder and four of their friends to free Nandos anyday, anytime, anyplace, for a whole year. It’s super secretive, highly sought-after, reserved for the famous and super-awesome, it seems, and we feel we fit under the latter category.

Of course, they say on their website that nobody who has ever asked for a Black Card has ever received one, so we’re pretty much taking ourselves out of the running by writing this post, but we figure we didn’t have much of a chance to begin with, so why not stun them with our top persuasive writing and list making skills? (Thanks, Advanced Placement English Writing!)

1. We wrote our very first ever ‘What We Love Wednesdays’ segment on Nandos. Back when our blog was a baby blog, we were publicly singing peri-peri praises. And if you look through our Tweets, posts, Instagrams, we haven’t stopped – we were dubbed ‘Nandos Fan-do’s’ by a non-appreciator last year, and have taken it as a loving term. Like Directioners, or… Beliebers (why are the only examples we can think of teen boys?)

2. We’ve gone far and wide to visit Nandos. We’ve calculated, we’ve visited 20 different restaurants, in 10 cities, in 3 countries. That’s just in the last 4.5 years, since we’ve been together. According to Google maps, we’ve travelled 14,000 miles in search of a chicken pita or two.

3. We’ve introduced TONS of people to Nandos! Visitors from abroad, vegetarians who didn’t realise just how awesome a chicken restaurant could be for non-chicken eaters, those who didn’t see the appeal (pre-us, of course) – now they are all loyal fans!

4. We’re helping them be better. Laura, the grammar and spelling police that she is, has brought errors to Nandos attention numerous times over the years – the most noteworthy one is a missed letter on a paragraph mural at the Fulham Broadway location in London. She showed the error to the manager, who looked a bit 

perplexed, and has not done anything about it in the 3 years since this happened. To this day the mural says ‘the' instead of 'they' – but hey, we tried! And in research about the new loyalty card, Laura notified them of a classic ‘to’ ‘too’ mix-up situation on their website. Therefore making them more appealing to people who are bothered by errors, like herself. You’re welcome!

5. We are fierce Nando-defenders. You don’t want to get into an argument with us about how you think Nandos is just a more expensive KFC… or we’ll no doubt end up turning you into Nandos fans!

source

6. We are naming our (eventual) puppy Nando. Yeah, this def is happening – our future family has always included an orange/brown fluffy girl named Nando. She will be peri, peri cute (see what we did there?)

Peri, peri cute.

7. Writing all this has made us want Nandos SO much that we’re going to go there for dinner! Watch out Westfields!

We’re convinced! We’re some of the most dedicated fans ever. So we should definitely get free Nandos, don't you think? 

It's The End.... of 2013

We have been up in our new home since before Christmas, and wow how it has flown! We can't believe how lucky we are, and how right this place feels for us.

We were lucky enough to have Christmas day here together this year. We went caroling at the local church on Christmas Eve, then put together an indoor picnic of cheeses, meats and things to dip, and watched Christmas movies as well as Santa fly around the world delivering presents on the internet.

On Christmas morning, we woke up late and opened our presents - we only gave each other one each, as really what present can top a HOUSE? So we opened ones from L's family, and friends. We then went for a walk around our neighbourhood, before Sarah's parents arrived for Christmas dinner.

They brought a few more prezzies, we watched a movie together, and we roasted beef for the first time, as we'd just had Sarah's family Christmas (and a turkey!) the weekend before. Luckily it went well, and everyone loved it.

Sarah's family introduced Laura to Pictionary - 25 and a newbie shocking!!!- whether it was beginner's luck or just pure skill we were the winning team. Oh and Jenga randomly found it's way out of the depths of our cupboards - that game is tension inducing! Her parents then headed back to Reading, and we had a nice long Skype with Laura's parents.

Our low-key Christmas was pretty perfect!

Check out our classy sheet/curtain! Thank goodness, blinds will be fitted in Jan

Since then, we've spent time DIY-ing, building things, painting things, eating (we made cupcakes twice from our new Hummingbird Bakery book from L's parents!) - we aim to do a house post on a few of the more completed rooms in our house in the next few weeks.

And tonight, is New Years Eve! We can't say we are sad for this year to end. 2013 has been a fantastic year, one where we have done a lot of supporting of others, while there have also been HUGE changes in our lives (like Sarah's new job, a new house, commuting and suddenly having to count every penny!) - all good, but stressful. It's been a year of finding new friends and bringing back old ones, it's amazing how happy old friends have been about our wedding and we can't wait to have all the important people - past and present, at the wedding.

Queue random photo of pumpkin pie and mulled wine

It is officially less than 6 months from our wedding, and in less than 10 hours, it will be the year we get married in. We aim for 2014 to be our year - it will be one of the biggest of our lives, and we are determined to enjoy every minute of it. And though it's not looking likely, we'd like 2014 to be less busy! :)

So, in light of that, we've made a few new year's resolutions - not something we usually put a lot of stock in, but we feel there are some things that we need to leave in 2013.

Laura:
1. Sweating for the wedding! Though I'd done well in my weight loss before our trip to Boise in September, since then, with my birthday, and holidays galore, I decided to enjoy myself and forget about it until the new year. But with less than 6 months until the biggest day of my life, there are no more excuses - I will look the way I want to look in June. That means toning up, and not baking any more cupcakes (until July!).

2. This year, I resolve to worry less about others. I've spent a good deal of the latter half of 2013 stressing myself into upset about relationships that I can't control. It's awful for me, a pain and upsetting for Sarah, and completely unnecessary. We've had a few issues of this in 2013, the worst of which being someone we thought was one of our closet friends randomly stopped answering our calls/texts in March, no explanation. I need to learn that I can't singlehandedly keep friendships going - that they are a two way street, if I am giving my best and not receiving back, it is not my responsibility to push until I do. If you are important to someone, they will come to you if they have an issue, and if they just fade away instead after you've tried to figure out why, you need to let them. Caring too much is an odd problem to have, but it is especially important this year as I want to focus entirely on being happy, and spending time with the woman who is to be my wife.

Sarah:
1. Panic less! This year has been exhilarating, exhausting, exciting, challenging, terrifying but ultimately filled with gestures of such kindness. On this roller coaster there have been plenty of tears though - good and bad. And plenty of doubt - mainly in my own capabilities. Laura handles things - generally in a cool as a cucumber 'we got this' kind of a way. I panic. I cuss. I drop the f-bomb if anything looks to be going wrong and worse still I get myself worked up before standing back and working out a plan of action. I get there eventually but in 2014 hopefully I can get there without the panic! Or with less of the panic!

We are in more debt, with more responsibility and about to have the biggest event of our lives and I can't wait - but as much as the buying the house was the right decision it hasn't been without hours of hugging Laura to gain reassurance that it will be worth it. Borrowing money from loved ones has caused us both angst - not because we aren't grateful, quite the opposite - we don't know how to show just how grateful we are - have we really made sure our families know we appreciate it more than we can ever say. Our lives are great because we are together but hopefully 2014 will be the year of paying people back and celebrating!

What are your resolutions for 2014?

We certainly won't be sad to see the back of 2013 - it was meant to be our 'quiet year to save' and that is NOT want it ended up being so who knows what 2014 will bring. All we ask for is the health and happiness of one another and all our loved ones - and of course anyone who reads this :)

The best possible ending to our year - white hot chocolate, Santa size!

As Sarah's Mum Scottish we have the traditional house cleaning to occupy the rest of our day - something about the new year being a clean start! Then we'll be ringing in the new year in our home, hand in hand - we hope you have a wonderful night, and that 2014 is your best year yet!