Pinoy Hubby

A busy car park is surely the sign of a good pub - but it can also be a problem when there is no space. My fiancé's mum had suggested we go to the White Hart for dinner with some friends as she had a voucher she wanted to use; when we arrived in the car park, there wasn't a space to be found. We were on the verge of giving up and cancelling the reservation until my mother-in-law went inside to speak to the owner, who she knows a little, and he suggested parking on the other side of the hedge that separated the pub and its car park from the main road. My fiancé let us out and moved the car, and wasn't very happy when he came back to report he had to walk along a muddy grass verge as there was no path and in the dark he'd walked into some barbed wire! So my advice if you are going to the White Hart is go early if you want to get a parking space - and be careful where you walk! While the carpark was full the pub didn't look that busy inside, with a lot of empty tables...

It was a busy weekend as I went down to Dorset for my wedding hair and makeup trial - and this week I have to finish a cake for a showstopper challenge at work, which I'm probably going to have to make on Sunday, decorate on Tuesday and hope it is still OK to take into work on Wednesday! Monday – out at a blog event Tuesday – something quick that my fiancé can cook as I need to finish my cake for a bake-off at work tomorrow! Chicken burgers and chips Wednesday – out at cake decorating course Thursday- fish and vegetables for me, gammon and mashed potatoes for him Friday – working from home. Butternut squash and goat's cheese enchiladas from Slow Cooker book Saturday Lunch- pasta bake Dinner-  roast chicken leg with roast potatoes. Dessert: slow cooker ginger cake Sunday Lunch - with my family for mothers’ day Dinner – probably back late 

Sumac is a spice I have only started using recently, and since I bought a packet I’ve kept a look out for any recipes that used it. When I was planning to have a vegan friend over for lunch (which didn’t actually happen in the end) I was looking for an easy recipe I could make in advance and heat up for lunch and came across this Sainsbury’s recipe for sweet potato, pomegranate and sumac soup. As I’d bought the pomegranate already before the lunch was cancelled, I decided to go ahead and make it anyway and was glad I did! The soup did me a couple of days worth of lunches and was really filling and tasty. To serve 2, you need: half an onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 1/2 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped, or a pinch of dried chilli flakes or Very Lazy chopped chilli to taste 1/2 tsp sumac 1/2 tbsp. coconut oil 200g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes 150g tomatoes, chopped - the recipe said to use vine tomatoes but I used tinned as I wanted to make this using store c...

Mardi Gras in February is celebrated in different ways all over the world, but the festival is perhaps most synonymous with New Orleans. I visited New Orleans as part of a US road trip in September - you can read my travel review here - but while we missed Mardi Gras, we were able to see behind the scenes at Mardi Gras World. Essentially a factory tour, we were able to see the floats and giant centrepieces of the parade being built and painted. Our visit began by watching a film explaining the origins and workings of the parade and we were able to try on some costumes, and eat some King Cake. King Cake, we were told, is eaten from epiphany until Mardi Gras, and represents the three kings who went to visit the baby Jesus. It is made from a sweet dough that is sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and rolled up into a ring or crown shape, then always decorated with the same three colours - purple, which symbolises justice, green, which represents faith, and gold for power. I found it quite ...

We didn't have the easiest letter for Alphabakes this month and I think it may have left a lot of you wondering why.... or Y! Unsurprisingly there were a lot of yogurt entries and a fabulous looking one involving a giant Yorkshire pudding. Here are the recipes you shared with us this time. I love the name of this Morning Glory yogurt loaf from Suelle at Mainly Baking . It's a breakfast bread popular in America and very moist as it contains pineapple as well as coconut and raisins. Suelle says it's a bit like what we call in the UK a tea bread and I definitely like the idea of cake for breakfast!   I made this chocolate Yule log just after Christmas but didn't get around to blogging about it until this month! It's a less sinful recipe from Lorraine Pascale's Lighter Way to Bake.    I also made this fruity yogurt brulee which is a lovely light dessert and also really nice for breakfast! It was nice to find a use for my cook's blowtorch again. This is a very...