Weekly Love: Week 198
Happy Friday everyone! I’ve been enjoying the beautiful sunshine down in Kent these past two weeks after a weekend spent in London, working from home in the garden during the day, then out working on the election in my home patch in the evenings, joining the team for way too many pints and curries once it finally gets too dark to knock on everyones doors (don’t be surprised if I turn into a peshwari naan before I return to London!) This sort of thing is what I live for, but the weather has already got my so excited to properly get into my first summer in the city for a while: get ready for lots of outdoor dining posts, trips out to the countryside for picnics and barbecues, and of course the publication of my first book, Student Eats!
1. When your hometown gets a Banksy. | 2. First lunch outside this year: a quickly thrown together Caprese Salad with both fresh and sun-blush tomatoes, served in the garden with lots of crusty bread. | 3. Ridiculously fragrant lilac in practically every garden I came across in Shepton Mallet, Somerset (and most of them here in East Kent, too!) | 4. Plump red strawberries coming into season at Borough Market. | 5. A good caramalised onion scotch egg and chunky chips outside The Morpeth Arms in Pimlico. | 6. Enjoying SPAR’s new DOC and DOCG proseccos in the garden *ad*.
- This is the history of one of my favourite cocktails, the classic margarita.
- Rose has perfectly captured what I love about late spring/ early summer in the English countryside: fields of golden rapeseed, and woods of brilliant blue bluebells.
- Laurie has put together the ultimate itinerary for your first trip to San Francisco.
- Claire takes us on an epic food tour of Malton in Yorkshire – fast becoming one of the UK’s foodie capitals – and somewhere I really want to visit!
- Molly’s Saffron, Cardamom and Rosewater Tiramisu looks perfect for people like me who love soft, creamy, cake-ey, trifle like desserts, but don’t like coffee.
- Julia has some great tips for getting all of your hotels booked when you’re planning a trip. She’s also gone shopping in Mexico, and I now want all of the plates and jugs. And a basket.
- Lucy and Kim’s blogger and social media manager on blogger/ social media manager interview has some great tips for influencers and bloggers wishing to work with brands.
- Kristabel has written a post on her choice to move from Blogger to WordPress, one year on. It is something I am seriously debating, and her post is full of great tips.
- Sam went on a culinary tour of Hoi An in Vietnam. I want to try everything she had.
- Mani took the time to visit Hiroshima when she was studying in Japan.
7. Walking around my parents new garden first thing every morning with a cup of tea, still discovering something new at every turn. | 8. Mouthwatering patisserie at Borough Market. | 9. More from the garden: treating myself to my favourite salted caramel ice cream bars from Haagen Dazs before hitting the campaign trail for the rest of the day. *ad*
- How Cupcakes and Cashmere made it from blog to e-commerce.
- Apparently you can replicate barbecued veggies indoors with a panini press.
- Everyone needs to read Jane’s short essay: single and not looking.
- There is an awesome looking, selfie inspired exhibition running at the Saatchi until May 30th.
- If you’re in Menorca, you need to seek our the hidden bar in the cliffs.
- Into The Gloss has written a great piece on how to deal with caring for your skin when you move to a big city. I wish I had known this when I moved to Los Angeles, as it destroyed my skin. Moving back to London in February, I’m still working on getting the balance right!
- The reason why banana flavoured sweets don’t taste like bananas is actually fascinating/ crazy.
- Elodie has put together a great Copenhagen travel guide.
- David Lebovitz has some great suggestions on getting good customer service in France.
- The New Potato has put together a map of all of the best ice cream spots in L.A.
- Food 52 has spoken to several leading cookbook publishers about what makes the perfect book.
- They have also done comprehensive testing to see if you can get away with baking something when the recipe tells you to fry it.
What have you been enjoying this week, and what do you have planned for the rest of the weekend? My parents are back from their trip, so as well as campaigning, I’m looking forward to spending a bit more time with them! For more like this, don’t forget to sign up to my monthly newsletter, which hits your inboxes on the first Sunday of each month, packed full of seasonal eats, mini cookbook reviews, and other updates.
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