Amy Comes to Visit!

Last week my dear friend and co-favorite college roommate, Amy, came to visit.  And we had some much needed girl time. Truth be told I'm still lacking in the girl friend department in England so I am pretty sure I talked Amy's ears off.  Yes both of them.  But luckily, seeing as she is our 12th visitor to England, I'm getting pretty damn good at this tour guiding thing.  If only the British weather would cooperate a little better.  

Here's a rundown of our week in pictures....

The first night we went for a sundown walk in the Peak District.

Picturesque, No?

Then we went to Chatsworth.  Again.  

I love Chatsworth though so thats OK.  Especially the gardens.  

They don't get old.

The of course we had to go to London.  

We stayed in a very cheap girls only hostel which I can highly recommend

 for poor female travelers called Piccadilly Guest House.

 The plan was to see the major tourist spots, but England had other ideas.  

So shortly after this was taken we headed off to Harrods where they were having a sale!  

Hurrah!

We had dinner at my favorite restaurant in all of England, Bumpkin, then we went off to the West End to see Dirty Dancing. Ohhh Johnny!  No one puts baby in the corner!

When we came back to Sheffield I took Amy for a little more English countryside action.  

I love the Peak District.  

It's God's country (according to the locals anyways.)  

I must say I agree... at least when the sun is shining.  

I made a lil picnic.

 But then we had to go home because my hair was just not cooperating.  

Forrealz.

But not before Heidi pissed off a herd of sheep.  Eeeeeeeeeek!  

Sheep are creepy sometimes.

But then we saw these cute little baby horses on the way home.  

Awwwwww.  I love country life.

And then Amy and I passed out.

Note:  While we were curled up uncomfortably on the couch Heidi was in my bed.  

Typical.  

I take this to mean I was a successful tour guide.  

ps.  I didn't include pictures of our spa day at Harrogate Turkish Baths .  (this is due to the fact that there were looooooooooads of naked ladies wandering around and taking photos would have been totally inappropriate... fyi the English are so much more comfortable than Americans with nudity.)  But besides the fact that Amy and I were somewhat uncomfortable with nudies, and we creepily checked out the more ample hair styles sported by the very self assured British ladies, we had a wonderful time at the beautiful spa and this is certainly going on the guest list itinerary.  

Miss you already, Amy!

And thanks to Mr. and Mrs. N for buying her plane tickets!  What would we do without our parents?!

Our Cow Molly

Ok so I already admitted Sarah and I are bad influences on each other.

But I must confess - this one was my idea...

Please don't judge.

Our Cow Molly  makes fabulous ice cream right on their farm.

It's the best ice cream I've ever tasted.

Ever.

It's a pretty adorable little shop.  

Speaking of adorable, this little girl lives on the farm.

She introduced us to her favorite cow.

She also likes ice cream.

Note the chocolate covered chin.

I like ice cream too.

I scream for ice cream.

Is there a single picture of me on this blog where I'm not eating?

Don't answer that.

I took thousands of photos so I could make your mouths water.

I had lemon and crystallized ginger ice cream.

A little strange?  Let me assure you it was...

To Die For.

It really was delicious.  

ps.  I am back on the cleanse now.  And I have healthy recipes to share with you soon.

What do you prefer, pictures of ice cream and cupcakes or healthy fresh fruit and veggies?

Chocolate Tasting Evening at Cocoa

Since moving to England I have become addicted to tea.

When in Rome, eh?

I must admit it took me awhile to "get" what the British obsession with tea is all about.

But last night we went to Cocoa, 

a tea and chocolate shop with our new cougar club for a chocolate tasting evening.  

If only someone would've taken me to this place when I first arrived...

I would've jumped on the tea bandwagon much much sooner.

Isn't it the cutest?  

The adorable shop owner took us on a tasting journey 

from 100% dark chocolate all the way up to white chocolate.

I thought I hated white chocolate, 

but I realized I just have never been given the good stuff.

We also got a doggy bag of truffles.  

I am the annoying person who always eats half of each one....

In the front of the shop there were rows of candy and and tons of chocolate.  

My favorite was dark chocolate flavored with chili and lime... 

I never knew what my life was missing until I tasted that.

Delicious!

I have a feeling I will be taking American visitors here and helping them to get on the tea train.

Is it cheating if chocolate is involved?

How Far Would YOU Go... For a Burrito?

Well, I for one, would jump through all sorts of hoops to get my hands on a semi decent burrito in jolly old England.  Unfortunately, authentic Mexican food is hard to come by here.  Not that you can blame the Brits, its not like they have any Mexicans swimming the English channel to get into the country.

But lucky for us, we have discovered a burrito joint in the middle of our local mall (and by local I mean it requires a bus journey AND a train journey to get there - we really do live in the country folks).  Maybe I never grew out of my tween before I got my drivers license phase, but I was pretty pleased my husband decided to take me on a Friday night date to the mall food court.

Chilango.... sound a bit like Chipotle?  Well it is! It's a complete knock off.  We don't mind though.  It's the best damn burrito this side of the Atlantic and we were happy....

So we chowed down.  Thank you Chilango!  I sure needed my burrito fix!

ps.  Is it just me or am I constantly stuffing my face lately?

Nada - Too Much Hype?

Last night my family and I went to Nada, in downtown Cincinnati for dinner.  I was pretty excited as I have only heard good things about this trendy little place.  The decor was bright oranges and reds - really fun and exciting.  My sister, Lizzie, and I got there first and we started off with some drinks.  I had the fuzzy margarita which had peach puree in it - it was quite delicious.  Lizzie had a non-alcoholic pink grapefruit margarita which was also tasty.  They brought us some chips, salsa, and guacamole to munch on while we were waiting for everyone else.  The chips were salty and fresh and the guacamole was chunky, with the perfect touch of citrus.  It was so good we went through two rounds before everyone managed to get there and we ordered appetizers.

For starters the meat eaters ordered the Nada sliders and the ceviche.  According to Lizzie, the ceviche was presented well in a martini glass, and it was fruity and citrusy.  Lizzie also says, "the sliders had a nice golden buttery bun with a good kick of spice."  I had the mexican mac and cheese, which was served in a cute little pot.  The mac and cheese was super creamy and had poblano peppers mixed in which I found very innovative and really brought the whole flavor medley up a few notches.  It was my fave dish of the evening.

After the great drinks, delish chips and guac, and starters I had high hopes for my main dish.  There was only really one vegetarian main on the menu, the vegetarian soft tacos, so that's what I got.  The tacos came and were stuffed with a puree of black beans, mushrooms, and cheese.  And there's not much else I can say about them.  I felt completely let down.  Nothing tasted bad, but for a classy mexican restaurant the flavors were extremely bland.  I know that some chefs don't feel that inspired by vegetarian food - but why bother putting something on your menu that doesn't live up to every other item your producing?  It seemed the chef put no effort whatsoever into that dish - there was nothing creative or exciting about it.  To be perfectly honest, I can get better soft tacos at Chipotle for less than half the price.

The bottom line : What's Nada got to offer for us vegetarians?  Notta!

Salt Yard - Chacuterie Bar and Restaraunt

On Friday night Nick and I went out to dinner after he finished work.  

We were wandering about looking for a place to eat and we saw Salt Yard - which we've tried to get into before but there was a 45 minute wait.
Luckily we got in this time.  

We went inside and had the option of waiting fifteen minutes or sitting outside.  

It was a bit cold outside but Nick chose instant gratification.  

Salt Yard is a Spanish and Italian tapas bar.  

And everyone knows I LOVE tapas.  

They are so much fun because instead of being stuck with the one thing you ordered you can order 3 things, and you can share the things your other dining partners ordered (unless they ordered meat - I try to discourage this).  

First to come were "Courgette aka Zucchini flowers stuffed with Monte Enebro Cheese and drizzled with honey" (7.25)  

These were absolutely fantastic.  

The zucchini was battered and fried and the flower was full of a delightful soft melt in your mouth cheese.  

SO good.   

Next to come was the "Fried baby violet artichokes with pine nut puree and black olive oil" (5.50).  

These were good, but they were a little too dry and crunchy.  

Not my favorite.

We ordered a selection of four goats cheeses which were obviously great - what can go wrong with goat's cheese?  But they accidently delivered a selection of hard italian cheeses with truffle honey.  

Which we returned but not before having a few bites - truffle honey = heaven on earth.  

But I prefer soft cheeses to hard so I must say the goat cheese platter wins.

Then I got "Patatas Fritas with Romesco and Alioli" (3.50).  
Definitely not the most elegant dish we ordered, but still very good.  

The fries were big and thick.  

I have never had romesco before but seeing as it is made up of nuts, roasted garlic olive, oil, and peppers - all things I love - then I think I'll be eating it again.

Nick also ordered two meat dishes which he said were good - but I don't care about meat so we'll skip that.

Dinner was so good we couldn't skip dessert.  

Nick ordered "Lemon and Cinnamon Doughnuts with Coco Nib icecream" (4.75) and I ordered "Twice Baked Bitter Chocolate Cake with Marcona almonds and fresh mint icecream" (5.25).  

My highschool job at Busken Bakery means I have an expertly developed doughnut palate - and  these doughnuts did not disappoint.  

They were light, airy, fresh, and covered in cinnamon and sugar.  

My chocolate cake was thick and fudgey, very dark and bitter, not for the faint of heart but perfect for real chocolate lovers like myself.  

The fresh mint icecream was the most impressive though - made on site - the mint flavor was so fresh you could taste the mint leaves.  
It was as if someone had just picked some mint and mixed it up with the best vanilla icecream ever.  

It was, dare I say it.....?  

Better than Graeter's.     

And for 63 pounds that was our meal at Salt Yard.  

An exceptional restaurant in a sea of overwhelming mediocre British establishments.  

Next time I'll try to remember my camera


Salt Yard is located near Goodge Street station.  
www.saltyard.co.uk

St. Pancras and Benito's Hat

So tonight Nick and I went to "The Foodie Fortnight at St. Pancras".

St. Pancras is an international train station and we knew they were doing something food related, so we went along.

We saw Chef Atul Kochhar, who according to their brochure is the chef at Benares, "one of the best indian restaurants in the world".

He was on this tiny stage with tons of people around him and we couldn't see anything really.

Plus he was making some seafood dish - which I wasn't really interested in.

So we didn't stay long.

However, St. Pancras is one of the nicest train stations I have ever seen.

It was filled with little french looking cafes which I love.

Nick says it's because if the people coming in from france were forced straight into British food they would die of shock.

I tend to agree.

One of the shops in the station was called Sourced Market.

They had great veggies and I was dying to take a pumpkin home but thought it might be a pain to carry.

So we opted to buy cheese.

We got some Stinking Bishop and Stilton.

Hopefully I'll come up with a dish worthy of all the dirty looks I got on the tube this evening.

Stinking Bishop REALLY does stink!

Now as an American in London there are certain struggles I face daily.

These include never making a satisfactory cup of tea, often not being able to understand British accents and nevermind the accents of our neighbors in this predominantly indian neighborhood, oh and trying to figure out how British women wear nice shoes all the time and walk in them without wanting to kill themselves.

But one real struggle has been the lack of Chipotles.

I love Chipotle.  Nick loves Chipotle.  We need Chipotle.

But tonight Nick took me to Benito's Hat, a decent Chipotle substitute.

I must admit the fact that there were no mexicans was a little off putting.

But they made a decent burrito.