Yum Yums over the past few weeks.

Since my past few blog posts have just been about our trip to London, I'm now playing catch up regarding my 'normal blogging'.

I've been doing some good kitchen based work over the past few weeks, so here is a little visual catchup of all the Yummy stuff I have been doing. :)

Pear & Raspberry Jam Danish:

We get free fruit at work which is nice, but since a lot of people were off work for the winter holidays here in DK there were LOTS of pears going uneaten. So I figured I should put them to use before they rot.

First I pouched the pears in water, lemon juice and some vanilla essence until soft. Then let them cool while cutting the puff pastry, add some nice jam, place the pear on top, add a little meted butter as a wash, pop in the oven for 20min and out pops a great danish! We had ours with a little creme fresh and it turned out great, we will definitely do it again. :)

Warm danish with a little cream...yum!

Basil pesto:

Always wanted to try my hand a pesto because we love it in our household, and since we now have a mini blender there was no excuse!

Basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, seasoning.....blend then eat!

Soooooo good and sooooooo simple.

Chocolate mouse:

We have been watching a show called "Come dine with me" and we saw a lady make chocolate mouse, it looked good so we figured "if she can do it so can we!"

Melt chocolate with butter, once melted whisk in two egg yokes the fold into cream that has been whipped with sugar. Repeat this process with white chocolate and put into a glass, cover and chill.......then look forward to the diabetes!

I almost passed out from the sugar rush while making this!

London pt4

Ok, this is the last picture update from London........I promise. Then we can get back to the normal day to day blogging of my amazing life. :P

It was uncle Terrys birthday while we were over and as always that means drinking and eating in a way that only the Groves family know how to do. We went to a nice pub for drinks and gift giving then went for a nice Thai meal.

Terry with his 'old man cap' we got him as part of his birthday gift.

While in London we got the chance to meet up with Sam, David, Phil and Reb (plus their two cute kids) and have dim-sum in China Town. It seems to have become our ritual when heading back to London to meet this group of friends and have dim-sum at the same resturant. You cant go wrong with good friends and good food.

Lena with Daddy Phil, she only seems to recognises me while on the other side of a very large dim-sum table.

This is Jan, he is the little Brother of Lena. God help me, it was hard to get an in-focus photo of this guy.

Jan with uncle Sam (not that guy from America on all the posters), Jan liked to eat everthing except the actual food.

Fee wanted to see what he would look like with her hair on his head. Everybody was laughing but Jan had this look in his eyes that said:

"why Nik? why are you letting them do this to me?"

London pt3

Normally when we go to London we're so busy that we dont get the chance to go to any of the museums that we loved so much when we lived there. This time round we really made a point to go to the London Design Museum and the Tate Modern to get some real Art & Design in our veins.

The Design Museum had an exhibition about Dieter Rams called 'Less Is More' which was awesome. If you dont know who he is then you should look him up because there is not enough room on this blog to go into all the great things his done. He is an amazing designer who set many standards in the world of consumer products back in the 70s that can still be seen today. You can even see where Apple gets a lot of their inspiration from.

Cool wall graphic of his famous record player.

Look at the number of stations you get on that thing!

Just goes to show, you dont need to be an amazing

sketch artist to be a great designer.

3 arials! 3 I tell you! Must have amazing reception.

"Foot, stop right there, I see you!"

There was a small design collective doing some work in the museum. They had some cool milled vases made out of LEGO.

This was not some avant garde art piece, they just seem very paronoid

about fire at the Desing Museum.

The HUGE turbine room that welcomes you upon arrival at the Tate.

Fee loving the effect the windy London weather

was having on her new hair-do.

One evening we meet up with Auntie Mandie and Auntie Debbie who wanted to take us out for dinner to say thank you for the great time they had at the wedding. We went to a really nice little place in Hammersmith and had a great night catching up.

Michael and Kevin, the aunties love interests. :P

The beautiful Mrs Groves.

Debbie, Me, Mandie.

Only one more installment of our London trip, so dont worry it will all be over soon. :P

London pt2

So here is the next photo instalment of our recent trip to London, as always ENJOY!!!....or don't, see if I care.

Fulham Broadway station is where our journey began, its also the area where I grew up and where my 'Pop' still lives.

We went up to the West end to meet Mark, Sarah and their little girl Holly for lunch. If your wondering Holly is playing with her Mums iPhone and using it very well....kids these days ha!

Holly having a rather intense but fun sugar rush while eating ice cream.

After lunch we dropped into see "The Museum Of Small things" but everything was not as small as I thought it would be.

Very cool picture made with lots of small stickers.

"Peace man"

A projection on a pillow.

Boobies!

Fee shredding some Boobies.

Boobies are no more.....poor boobies, damn you interactive art!

This was rather small...you cant really tell here but its nice none the less.

Me....because I rock. :)

Spooky wooden painted mask thing.

There was a small room with this was paper that was made up of loads of small doodles.

So all in all it was a great day, we had some nice lunch, hung out with friends and took in an art show. We picked up a cool print while there but I'll show you a pic of that once we get it in a frame.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment!

London Pt1

Hello Internet peeps! did you miss me?

We are now back from London and have just about recovered from the excess of eating and drinking that always happens when we hit the UK. We managed to meet up with loads of friends and family while there, every day was full to the brim of lunches, dinners and drinks with loved ones......and as always there are pictures! I'll do this as a few installments as there are loads of images.

Before we even got to London we were stuck in Billund airport for 6 hours because the snow was pounding down hard which resulted in all flights across DK being affected. We were meant to fly at 3pm but we were bumped to the 9pm flight and they recommended we stay in the airport in case there were any changes. All I can say is thank god for my priority pass which gets us into the airport lounge, a glass of wine and a soft seat helped pass the time.

Runway out of shot... because its covered in SNOW!

It was a little 70's but the seats were comfy and there were free drinks.

When we finally got into London Fee's Mama came to pick us up at the airport. We stayed with her for a couple of nights just to catch up and get some bits done in London before the madness started. Plus, meeting Mama means lots of good Chinese food and Dim sum! We had some on our last day with her before she drove us to Fulham to surprise my Dad.

Yan Yan & Mama.

Once we got into Fulham we parked up and put our surprise plan into action. We called 'Pop' to wish him a Happy 60th Birthday and for all he knew we were calling from Denmark. As we were on the phone with him he apologised as he had to go answer the door...who could it be you wonder?... yes, it was us! :)

He was very surprised and happy to see us on the other side of the door, so the plan worked and with any Groves celebration drinking was the order of the day, to the pub men!

A nice classic shot of Uncle Terry at the bar.

This is normally how I see Uncle Terry.

My sister Abi and her boyfriend Toby.

We went to a nice bar just around the corner from my Dads place, me and Fee liked the use of the old school lamp shades.

Uncle Terry and the Birthday boy.

Big brother Spencer, Pop Groves and Uncle Terry....with drink in hand again.

The Groves ladys.

Fee just heard the climax of Spencer's rather 'X' rated story that he was telling.

Still in shock at Spencers story.

Spencer seemed rather pleased with the reaction he got from the story.

Sister-in-law Carole probably not telling a rude story.

Another classic Terry pose... waiting at the bar.

The whole gang having a ripping good time.

It was a great night that ended in everybody going to the all night garage and buying armfuls of food in drunken hunger...classic night out. :)

Stayed tuned for part 2 of our thrilling trip to London!

Yum & Yum & Cute.

So here are the pics I was talking about yesterday of my cooking adventures on Sunday afternoon. We had our good friend Saskia and her super cute baby (Ella) over to hang out so we did a nice lunch and made a day of it.

I went a little crazy and made little sausages in croissant dough, plain & chocolate croissants, Humus with Pitta bread, Guacamole and Fee knocked up an awesome Bulgar salad with green leaves and pomegranate!

That was some good eats.

For desert I attempted a strudel and for the first attempt it turned out pretty good. I used Apple, Pear, Raisins and Walnuts for the filling with a dash of Vanilla to jazz it up. To be honest it was all just an excuse to use my coveted tin of 'Ambrosia Custard' I was hiding in the cupboard for a special occasion.

Words can not express my feelings for you.

As mentioned we had Saskia over so Fee could give her a hand setting up a blog for her new project which is designed to help children. Basically Saskia is offering her services as a photographer for kids parties and events but instead of payment she simply asks you donate to a childrens charity. This is a great project headed up by a great lady with a big heart, so go check out the site and spread the word!!

http://smileforetbarn.blogspot.com/

Fee and Saskia hard at work....booties are optional.

Ella was rather bored of the girls conversation.

Ella was using her mind powers to get Fee's

hand to pick up some Strudel for her.

"Hello....can I help you?"