The Terrace, Ilfracombe, N. Devon

As I am sure you are now aware, if you have read the surprise Death by Chocolate Wedding Cake post, it was mine and Mr VST's first wedding anniversary the weekend just gone and we headed North for a long weekend break. We were staying about a twenty minute walk outside of Ilfracombe and having settled ourselves in to our B & B we strolled into town. I was surprised at how big Ilfracombe is and the choice of restaurants available and not only that but the choice of restaurants with vegetarian options, and more than one option at that! 

Having wandered around checking all these places out and going for a drink in Ilfracombe's oldest pub (which was great by the way, mobile phones are banned!) we decided on The Terrace Tapas Bar and Restaurant. They had an early evening deal on which was as much tappas as you can eat for £10 per person and once again there were plenty of vegetarian options. You could order two options at a time per person and I can't remember now every dish that we had but I'll try my best.

I'll start with my favourites, the Spanish tortilla was lovely and light with a delicate, sweet flavour as Queen Delia describes it in her recipe. I also really liked the baked aubergine dish which was full of flavour. The mushrooms cooked in sherry on sourbread toast were delicious too. 

The deep fried mozzarella sticks in breadcrumbs didn't really taste of anything to me but they seemed to be popular with everyone else in the restaurant and Mr VST too. The patatas bravas were disappointing. The potatoes themselves were fine but they seemed to be covered in a slightly spicy ketchup and mayonnaise. I can truthfully say I've made better myself.   

It was lively and busy in the restaurant and the service was quick despite the fact that there were a few large parties in there. The food was good value and there was a great vegetarian selection. 

Anniversary Waffles (or not)

It was mine and Mr VST's first wedding anniversary on Sunday, I can't believe it's been a year since the happiest day of my life already! For our honeymoon we went to Iceland and were lucky enough to stay at Hotel Ranga for four nights. I love that place. It is fantastic in every way, the food there was the best I've ever had. For breakfast each morning they laid on an amazing buffet with cereal, Icelandic yoghurt, fresh pastries, bread and a wonderful selection of fruit. One of our favourite items as part of the buffet was the fresh waffles. There was a big bowl of batter next to the waffle machine and you made your own waffles. Our favourite waffle toppings were lashings of honey and nuts. To celebrate our anniversary Mr VST surprised me on Friday evening with the purchase of our very own waffle maker so that we can start our anniversary holiday with a tasty reminder of our honeymoon.

Mr VST slept in on Saturday morning, which was a blessing as I had to ice our surprise wedding/anniversary cake but not so great as we were supposed to be having pre-anniversary waffles together and as it happened we didn't have time before I went to the hairdressers. 

When I returned from the hairdressers Mr VST had set the table and surprised me with a bunch of mango calla lillies (which were the main flower in my wedding bouquet). He is such a romantic!

We set about making the batter and setting up the waffle maker. The batter recipe was one Mr VST had found on the BBC Good Food website. It was really easy to make and he fired up the waffle maker.

The instructions said that the first time you heat it up you need to grease the plates and that it would smoke. We followed the instructions but after the plastic panel smoked quite a lot and became too hot to touch I switched the machine off for fear that it would ignite. 

We checked through all the instructions again and tentatively switched the waffle maker back on, nothing happened. Nothing at all. No lights, no smoke, no heat. We had killed it. 

Waffle batter is very similar to pancake batter so I decided to make some American pancakes with the batter instead. I also thought I'd try and make 'waffles' using my crumpet rings in a pan. These took ages to cook though and weren't great. They were like a cross between a waffle, pancake and crumpet!

The pancakes themselves were good and we filled ourselves up on pancakes with bananas and maple syrup. 

The waffle reunion will have to wait I'm afraid and the waffle machine is wrapped and ready to return. 

P.S. I hadn't made waffles before and so I've been doing some research. I didn't realise that there were quite so many types of waffles!

Death By Chocolate Wedding Cake

It was mine and Mr VST's first wedding anniversary this Sunday, 25th September and it's bringing back lots of happy memories. One of my favourite ways of keeping memories alive is by recreating some of the food we ate at the time. We (and all of our guests) were lucky enough to have my Mum make our wedding cake for us. 

This was no ordinary wedding cake. Being chocoholics we requested a chocolate cake but couldn't have possibly imagined the fantastic cake that she made. It is a death by chocolate layer cake and it's the richest, most delicious chocolate cake I have ever tasted. My mother-in-law was addicted to it, I'm sure. After the wedding there was lots left and she couldn't get enough of it! Neither could Mr VST and I. We took some into each of our work places and then took some on holiday with us, to Iceland! 

I decided to embark on Mission: Secret Wedding Anniversary Cake, not quite realising how much of a mission it would be. 

The cake and various fillings are easy to make but there's a lot of cooling and stages to making it. I thought I was going to have two long evenings where Mr VST was going for a long cycle after work on Monday and Thursday last week. Mr VST, not knowing about this, seemed to have subconsciously tried to scupper my plans by coming home earlier than expected or just plain early (he tells me that as I kept asking him what time he would be home he tried to come home early!). 

I finally got some time on Thursday evening and made the 'sponge', when I say made, I mixed it all up and got it into the oven but Mr VST came back before I could take it out of the oven. I had no choice but to turn the oven off before the cake was due to be cooked, leave it in there and hope for the best. I covered the glass by hanging teatowels over the handle and I hoped that he wouldn't go in the oven, which he didn't. It did mean that the sponge was a little drier than I would have like though.

I got up early on Friday morning to carry out the next step which was to slice the cake horizontally into three, which I did by scoring it around the edge with a very sharp, serrated blade and then cutting through. Then I melted 200g of white chocolate (it was meant to be 280g) and spread it over each of the layers. I knew I'd be home before Mr VST so I covered the cake slices and left them to cool.

When I got home, I mixed the filling, chocolate, butter and brandy, and waited for it to cool as much as I could before reconstructing the cake. I put the bottom layer back into the case, poured in half the filling and repeated with the next layer of cake and filling before putting the top layer on. I then hid it in plain sight, well not quite, but one of the cake tins was out on the top under the fruit bowl and so I hid it in there to cool.

Thankfully on Saturday we were in no hurry. I hadn't wound down at all and woke up early without the assistance of an alarm. I got up at about 7.30am and relying on my knowledge that Mr VST loves a good lie in I decided to risk making the chocolate ganache icing. I needn't have worried as he slept until about 10.30am!

You warm up equal amounts of double cream and dark chocolate, pour the warmed cream onto the chocolate, leave it for five minutes and then gently whisk it to create the icing. While I was waiting I removed the cake from the tin and turned it upside down, having first straightened the top by cutting it and then eating the evidence. I hadn't appreciated the 'sponge' fully before, it kind of gets lost in the cake but it is wonderful, full of sweetness and chocolate and it was moist too.

I managed to ice the cake, I seriously need some icing lessons. I also had to do all the washing up, drying up and putting away so that Mr VST didn't suspect anything. I was so worried about leaving chocolate all over the place. On Thursday when we were eating dinner I managed to get chocolate up my arms, which he pointed out to me, thankfully not realising that it was chocolate! For the same reason I was strangely grateful for the kitchen light having blown. We were waiting for new bulbs to come in the post and they hadn't. It made taking photos difficult though!

The cake was iced - just decorating to do now. Now the material symbol for first wedding anniversaries is paper. I had ordered some rice paper leaves from the internet at the last minute and was desperately hoping that they would arrive before we left. As you can see from the first photo we had chocolate leaves on the original version. I retrieved some of the original gold ribbon that had decorated the wedding cake and pinned that around the edge. I tried cutting out paper shapes but they didn't quite look right so I left it with just the ribbon, put it back in the tin and wrapped the tin in tissue paper. 

As I did this, having taken some 'secret squirrel' time in the bedroom, I called out to Mr VST who informed me that the post had arrived and of course in amongst the envelopes were my rice paper leaves. I unwrapped the tin, took the cake out and arranged the leaves in a '1' shape on the top, pinning them in place as the icing had set and I knew they wouldn't stay in place without help on our journey North.

I managed to safely convey the cake, in the tin, wrapped in tissue paper, wrapped in a plastic bag, in a 'bag for life', wedged behind my chair in the car to North Devon and not only that but it was a surprise! Mr VST didn't suspect a thing. He even asked when I had managed to make it. I told him that I would make it again, every anniversary if I can, but that it won't be a secret next time!

Death by Chocolate Wedding Cake recipe to follow......

Bangers, Mash and Garlic Gravy

Ahhhhh, Friday, I was officially on holiday at last and we were due to leave for a long weekend getaway on Saturday. Friday night I thought I'd make a favourite but I'd been so busy at work that I didn't have time to pick up any onions.

Rather than try a new recipe I decided to use a couple of cloves of garlic and follow the usual recipe and it was a success. Usually the garlic gets a bit lost in the onion but without the onion, it was lovely. 

Veggie Mexican with Real Bread Tortillas

This is one of the meals that has developed over the years. I got the idea when we were at uni and the boys in Mr VST's flat made us a Mexican meal one evening. 

I've always done the usual veggie mix but I used to use old el paso spice mix. Now I just use my own cumin, paprika and chilli powder.

I also used to buy the same brand of soft flour tortillas but since I started making my own bread I thought I'd have a go at these as well.

This time I used 50/50 white and wholemeal plain flours, I managed to make eight decent sized ones, not too crunchy this time, not too thick and easy to fold.

The Olive Branch, Ilfracombe, N. Devon

Sunday was our actual anniversary. We decided that we would go to the Olive Branch to eat Sunday evening, having checked out the menu the evening before, as it had many tasty looking vegetarian options and we liked the look of the place. 

It was our kind of place, clean, modern decoration with music playing in the background at just the right level and plenty of choice in terms of food and wine too.

We don't usually go for starters, my stomach is fairly small and I try and save space for desert, but Mr VST and I couldn't resist the whole baked Camembert with bread and chilli jam. We made the right choice! The chilli jam had just the right level of warmth and this contrasted beautifully with the warm, soft cheese. There was a selection of different bread and although I don't think it was traditionally (i.e. non-Chorleywood) baked the seeded bread was lovely. 

For our main meals I had ordered the vegetable tagine with cous cous and tzatziki. I was already pretty full up from the cheese and bread but this was delicious, packed with veggies and topped with almonds. I really enjoyed what I managed to eat of it. The tzatziki was a great addition to the usual mix. 

Mr VST went for the beetroot burger with potato wedges and salad. As you can see the wedges were proper home made wedges of potato. The beetroot burger was great too, tasty and packed full of seeds and topped with cheese. He loved it. Great place this, I'd like to stay there next time if we go back if the guest house is anything like the restaurant. 

Curry

Wednesday evening saw the return of a veggie packed curry with lentils. I make it with Patak's Rogan Josh curry paste but I'd love to make my own from scratch, hmm, another thing to add to my list of things to make next week......

Mushroom and Rice One Pot

A quick and easy mushroom and rice one pot on Tuesday.

Cauliflower and Broccoli Cheese

Mr VST is training for the Exmoor Beast and went out for a training ride on Monday evening after work. I thought that he'd appreciate something tasty and filling for dinner and so I went for this slightly Wintery baked potato with cauliflower and broccoli cheese. It was good!

Real Bread Cheese on Toast

After a weekend of eating good food and stopping by Kingsley Village and partaking of half a Rowe's cheese and onion pasty and half a vegetarian cheesy Scotch egg I didn't feel much like eating dinner. I went for a snack instead, two slices of cheese on toast made with lovely home made granary bread. 

The cheesy scotch egg was made with a mix of mashed potato, spring onion and not a lot of cheese instead of the sausage meat. The breadcrumbs had obviously been deep fried and as a result were light and crispy. The vegetarian scotch egg was an interesting item, definitely worth a try. A cheesy overdose last weekend it seems but it was gooooood!

The Sandsifter, Gwithian, Cornwall

I find myself a week behind on the blog once more so going back to last weekend we went down to Cornwall to celebrate my brother in law's 30th birthday. During the day the boys had been for a mountain biking session and we had arranged to meet up with some more people at the Sandsifter above Gwithian beach. The company was great and I managed to have a cuddle with a four day old baby which was lovely. The food was great too.

For us veggies there was more than one choice (yipee! and it wasn't goat's cheese and caramelised onion tart, double yipee!). Mr VST and I went for a burger each, the falafel burger and the mushroom burger. They both came with lovely, salty French fries and we cut the burgers in half and shared them. The falafel burger was served in a soft white bun with some iceberg lettuce and mayo (I think). The mushroom burger was a ciabatta, sliced lengthways and full of buttery, garlic mushrooms. The falafel was lovely, I wasn't so keen on the bun itself. The mushroom burger was absolutely delicious, definitely mine and Mr VST's favourite of the two. Prices were very reasonable too, I think it was about £8 per burger. 

We tried to resist desert, but as is often the case, this was futile and so we chose to share a chocolate fondant with chocolate ganache. It was served with clotted cream, as is compulsory for all deserts in Cornwall, and was truly mouth watering. The atmosphere was great, friendly and relaxed and the staff dealt with the varying and constant demands of our large party very well. If you're down that way I can definitely recommend popping in there. Oooh! and they do amazing hot chocolates with whipped cream and marshmallows too. 

http://www.sandsiftercornwall.com/

Superjack

The weekend plan was for the boys to go mountain biking which they did. Mr VST needed to keep his energy up and so I made some superjack to keep him going. 

 I made plenty in fact so that the girls would have some to eat too.

I used demerara sugar this time as my original recipe suggests. I didn't manage to dissolve it all properly as there were crunchy sugary bits in the flapjack. 

I chopped up some dark chocolate and mixed it in at the last minute before popping it all in the oven.

Great energy food this and very tasty indeed.

Beetroot Brownies

I made these before and swore never to make them again. The other day I made a beetroot risotto and the beetroot was so sweet that I was convinced to make these with the one remaining beetroot from the bunch.  

 I couldn't remember which recipe I used last timebut when I googled it there appeared to be only one, a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall one so I went with that.

 Mr VST and I made them together which made them super easy to make. He first melted the butter and chocolate together and then grated the beetroot while waiting for these to melt.

 I mixed the beaten egg and sugar together and then added the melted chocolate and butter to that before folding in the flour and the beetroot.

 The recipe says that you have to use cooked beetroot, which I did, and then it says you can either grate or purée it.

 We grated it but I think I would try pureeing it next time. Anyway I mixed it all together and popped it in the oven.

 I popped it in the oven after the I took the pasta bake out and did so without realising that I had switched the oven to 'grill'. Halfway through eating our pasta bake I could smell burning and realised that I'd grilled the brownies rather than baked them. 

 I cut the burnt top off and Mr VST and I ate it with some ice cream, it tasted fine. I thought the brownies were cooked but they were still a bit soft inside and so I popped them back into the oven to cook through. 

 They turned out fine. The beetroot didn't ruin the brownies by giving out an earthy flavour as it had the last time. I took them down to Cornwall and had them tested by the masses and they went down well. Maybe beetroot brownies have earned a reprieve.