Hello everyone,
Caroline Oldham
So I am writing this blog post of the first official day of British summer and I am currently dressed all in black with my rain coat on! It is absolutely pouring outside but hey it wouldn't a UK summer without a downpour. It is still fairly warm outside but the weather still makes me want to revert back to soup and herbal teas!
Last weekend was my best friends Baby Shower which I helped organise along with her husband, mum and other friends, it is the first one of my university friends to have a baby and so it has all been very exciting, needless to say, I have been very carried away with buying baby clothes! As the friend with the complex dietary requirements, I decided to help with the food order and found some great gems which are also not extremely expensive. We did look at ordering a Baby Shower cake in London but the prices were really high coming in for a simple cake at around £200 so we decided to improvise.
My friend Bec has an obsession with Almondy Almond Daim Bar cakes, something I haven't really tried and also didn't realise they were 100% gluten free! You can buy them from Ocado online and they come in at £2.99 which I think is really good value. Bec has had a large craving for this cake we decided it would be the best option to layer a few on top of each other, however, I did jazz it up a bit as you can see from the image! Even if you don't pay a fortune to buy a cake you can always spend a little and create something just as good. For food, we had a delivery from M&S so we went for various sandwich platters plus a few things from the 'free from' range for myself which worked really well.
Restaurant Hangout of the Week
On a recent trip back up to Yorkshire we visited a few restaurants including La Feria which has just relocated a little bit further up the road to a bigger location, it has a lovely rustic and cosy feel to the restaurant when you walk in which I really love. My parents have been raving about this place so it was a perfect opportunity for us to pop along and see what all the fuss was about and we weren't disappointed. The food is Spanish but their speciality is chicken which the choice of lots of delicious sides to go with it. The restaurant is great for gluten free, dairy free and the paleo diet. The menu is really extensive and you will find it really hard to choose, the staff are excellent at letting you know what you can and can't eat but as a coeliac, there are lots of options.
I actually didn't have the chicken this time and just got a selection of sides which I was really impressed with, they are simple things which are slight jazzed up to make really delicious dishes. I had the tomato and pomegranate salad which was so fresh and delicious and I have never myself put those ingredients together but they really work. I also tried the cauliflower & picada, a great paleo dish of roasted cauliflower flavoured with an almond and hazelnut dressing, you have to try this one it is totally delicious. The last one I tried was the fennel, machengo & almond salad, again ingredients which I haven't tried together before but it was so nice. If you find yourself in Harrogate make sure you check it out, they also have a large outdoor area for the summer months.
Until next time.
Tagged in Caroline Oldham