Tea and Sympatico

I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit. Most of my shopping is covered. I tend to buy things throughout the year, partly to spread the cost and partly as a habit I got into from my days of working in retail when you end up working all hours in December and getting tired and stressed. I used to like to get it out of the way before consumer madness descended. I got my Christmas cards printed up this week. I did a little pencil sketch of some Christmas jumpers and used my local community printers Marc . I've also been getting a bit of shopping in. My mum took me to the new mega Tesco on Salford Precinct last week and I got very excited by the world food isle. Maybe all big Tescos have these, I wouldn't know, there are none near to where I live. There were vegan friendly Oreos, albeit mini ones (great for cupcakes though) and tins of pumpkin on offer 2 for £3. Tonight I got even more excited in Sainsburys. New Crisps for Christmas! Kettle Chips have broug...

I've been somewhat MIA since Mofo finished. Things have been rather busy. I had a birthday and there were several celebrations around that and I had a wonderful birthday weekend away staying at the iconic art deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe. We had a fab time and the staff really looked after my vegan dietary needs providing soya milk and margarine and printing off our own vegan menu when we had an evening meal providing 3 choices for each course. We also managed to fit in a visit to the Whaletail Cafe in Lanchester on the way home so that's another tick off the the Top 10 Vegan Breakfasts list! Matt also released his third Quiet Loner album last week to great reviews. Check out this 10 out of 10 review on Americana UK. I'm so proud of him. It's a great album from the music right down to the handprinted letterpress sleeve created by artists Kev Craig and David Armes. Have a listen, there's a link to some tracks on the right hand side of the homepage o...

I love taking part in the monthly UK vegan food swap. It's such fun choosing what to put in your parcel and so exciting when you receive one. If you want to take part sign up over at Too Happy Vegans by the 5th. I first heard about the swap over on the Vegan in Brighton blog and this month I got my parcel from the owner of that blog Jojo. Very excitingly Jojo had just returned from a holiday in the States and all the goodies in my parcel were from there.  Here's a better look at the contents. I've eaten most of the bars already. I'm saving the pumpkin to make the Vegan With A Vengeance Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins for Christmas Day morning something I've done a few times in the past but couldn't do last year as my stock of holiday purchased pumpkin had been emptied. Something else from the package came in handy for our Halloween Tea. First off I purchased some David Shrigley Brain Bread . 13 loaves of the bread are being sold from 2pm every Wedn...

We're back to Sean Connery as Bond for the last Martini and my last Mofo post. The film to go with the Lemon Meringue Pie Martini is Goldfinger and this cocktail is made with real edible gold leaf. The gold leaf was purchased via Ebay and was tricky to use needing two pairs of tweezers! Lemon Meringue Pie Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 1 shot of Limoncello 1/2 shot of Galliano 3 shots of pineapple juice Edible gold leaf ice Shake the ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a martini glass and use tweezers to float pieces of edible gold leaf on the surface of the drink. Garnish with a cocktail cherry. Goldfinger was the third Bond film and the first 'blockbuster' costing more than the first two films combined with extensive use of technology, gadgets and promotional tie-ins. Hope enjoyed the martini series, we've certainly enjoyed drinking them! Now I'm off to spend November catching up on all the blogs I've not had cha...

I've gone to the Black Forest of Germany for the inspiration for this Martini with our next Bond film not set too far away from there in the Swiss Alps. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the sixth Bond film. The role previously played by Sean Connery was taken over for one film only by George Lazenby. Black Forest Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 1 shot of cherry syrup 1 shot of Creme de Cacao 1 shot of soya cream ice Shake all the ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a sprinkling of cocoa powder. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is also the only film where Bond marries. He gets wed to the Countess Teresa 'Tracey' de Vincenzo played by Diana Rigg. Here's the offical trailer.

I wanted to make an apple pie martini. Apple pie seemed suitably British like Bond but I was struggling to match it with a Bond film. Then my friend Sean, a Bond expert and lover of puns came up with the answer in The Man With The Golden (Delicious) Gun. This recipe makes a simple yet really delicious Martini. I only had powdered cinnamon which you could see floating in the drink. For aesthetic reasons I'd probably try this with cinnamon syrup next time. A cinnamon stick to garnish would look good too. Apple Pie Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 3 shots of apple juice 1/4 teaspoon of cinammon or you could use some cinammon syrup 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract ice Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a martini glass and serve. This was the ninth bond film and the second to star Roger Moore. It also starred Christopher Lee as Bond villan Scaramanga. Here's the original trailer.

So, we went to see Skyfall last night and it was brilliant! I won't give anything away but will just say, go and see it, you won't be disappointed. There was dinner first at Wagamamas and of course cocktails. We went to our favourite Happy Hour cocktail bar Lola's and had Meowtinis made with Snow Leopard Vodka, rosemary and vermouth. We're going back to some old school Bond for today's cocktail, the Cherry Pie Martini. These are inspired by You Only Live Twice which is set in Japan a land famous for it's cherry blossom. Cherry Pie Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 1 shot of cherry syrup 1 shot of lemon juice 1/2 shot of grenadine Shake all the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry. Here's the original trailer for You Only Live Twice. It was the fifth Bond film and again stars Sean Connery with a screenplay by Roald Dahl.