January 2013 ~ Hef's kitchen

Friday, 25 January 2013

I won!

10:48 Heather Allford 15 comments

Woohoo! I won the Ben and Jerry's #captureeuphoria competition, which means you guys get the chance to win a prize too! I have a years supply (24 x Vouchers) of Ben and Jerry's and a huge photography set, including a photography book and two sets of film to give away. To enter just comment on this post, then send an e-mail to Heather@hefskitchen.com letting me know you have (so that I can contact you if you win!). The competition will end at 12pm on 1st February 2013 and then I'll use one of those fancy Internet random number generators to pick a winner. Good luck!

P.s I'll announce the winner on the Hef's Kitchen Facebook page, so keep your eyes peeled!
P.p.s Only one entry per person.

#captureeuphoria Day 7

12:10 Heather Allford No comments

I've loved taking part in the Ben and Jerry's #captureeuphoria competition, even if I don't win a huge photography set, including a photography book and two sets of film, (if I do you get the chance to win one too!) It's been lovely thinking about what makes me happy every day. The last picture I'm going to post is more of a euphoric memory. It's so cold at the moment, I think everyone in the UK is probably wishing for the summer, myself included. So today's picture is from one of my favourite moments from last summer, when Vegan Emma and I were staying at the Creepy Death Cabin. We were on our daily stick foraging mission and exploring the forest when it only seemed right to get a little bit naked and run around. My whole time there was pretty euphoric, but this image sums it up. Remember you can still get involved too by checking out Ben and Jerry's Instagram website or Facebook.

#captureeuphoria Day 6

12:32 Heather Allford No comments

Today's #captureeuphoria post, for the Ben and Jerry's Instagram competition is about my job, because I'm one of those lucky people who wakes up every morning and wants to go to work (apart from on days off, when I don't ever want to wake up). I work in a Lush shop and it really is the best job ever, I love the girls I work with, I love the company and I love the products. So I'm sharing my favourite bath ballistic/bubble bar cocktail, perfectly named the Mermaids bath. It consists of a big blue bath ballistic (lemon, sea salt and lavender loveliness) and a sunny side bubble bar (citrusy, shimmery and uplifting). Together they create the most beautiful turquoise, shimmering bath with a wonderful uplifting sent. I could lay there for hours pretending to be a mermaid (especially as I have't had my hair cut in so long, I can make a mermaid like hair bra). If you want to post your euphoric pictures as well check out Ben and Jerry's Instagram website and Facebook.

#captureeuphoria Day 5

12:26 Heather Allford No comments

You may have thought that after our giant afternoon tea, Mike and I would have had our fill of cakes for the week. Well after a whole week of thinking about Ben and Jerry's we we're quite sure we could fit a little bit more in. So today we made brownies. We took them straight from the oven, topped then with Ben and Jerry's Vermonster ice cream and covered the whole thing in home made caramel. Just look at that picture, if that isn't capturing euphoria, I don't know what is! Get involved in the #captureeuphoria fun by checking out Ben and Jerry's Instagram website or Facebook.

#captureeuphoria Day 4

12:01 Heather Allford 1 comment

Ruby and I didn't get off on the right foot, mainly because I was still in mourning over my lovely springer spaniel Tess when my mum wanted to get her. I didn't like her from the first moment I saw her, I thought she looked like an ugly version of a guinea pig, but when my mum brought this fluffy little bundle of love home (she'd grown from an ugly guinea pig, to ridiculously cute fluffy puppy who could fit in my hand) I fell in love. I absolutely love dogs and Ruby is a wonderful example of how brilliant they can be, even if she totally rules my house, snores, bites me when my mum isn't looking (then pretends she was licking me) and snots on my face. She's given me so much joy over the past 7 years and a lot of euphoric moments, so I had to include her in the competition. I took a majestic picture with my fancy camera of Ruby running through the snow (you can check it out on my Instagram feed @heflar), but it's just not as good as this one of her reading a book, it made me laugh for about 10 minutes straight (She's reading my favourite book, Oryx and Crake, if you were wondering). If you fancy getting involved in the #captureeuphoria fun check out Ben and Jerry's Instagram website and Facebook.

#captureeuphoria Day 3

17:15 Heather Allford No comments

Today's #captureeuphoria picture contains cake, because cake is amazing. The story behind today goes like this... I took my mum to a tea room for her Birthday and saw that they did vintage tea parties. Of course I wanted one straight away, but most of my friends are male and I can't quite imagine them sitting around a cute little table eating tiny sandwiches and cakes. I shared my dismay with my mum, who said Mike would want to come (Mike who lets me boss him around in the kitchen, wears an apron and proof reads these posts). I was like don't be so silly, Mike does like to bake, but he's not that girly. Well, I was wrong, because as soon as he saw my post about Teapots, he was like 'when can we go for afternoon tea, I really want one of those tower things with cakes on'. So today Mikes tower of cakes dream came true and I was more than happy to indulge in tiny sandwiches, cake and tea. Don't forget to check out Ben and Jerry's website and Facebook page to join in.

#captureeuphoria Day 2

13:09 Heather Allford No comments

SNOW! Yes, snow the most exciting hazardous weather condition ever! I love snow for around half an hour every year, before it ruins my ability to drive (I had a tiny accident involving my new car and the curb this morning), makes me really cold and stops everything in the UK working. Regardless, that first half an hour is like pure white magic falling from the sky. There was only a small spattering (is that a real word?) this morning, but just enough for me to run outside in my onesie to make a snow angel, while my less than impressed younger brother took pictures from the window. So this is today's #captureeuphoria post, playing in the snow is pretty much as euphoric as you get. Remember you can get involved as well by checking out Ben and Jerry's Capture Euphoria website or their Facebook.

#captureeuphoria Day 1

12:47 Heather Allford 2 comments

Last week Ben and Jerry's asked me if I wanted to get involved in their #captureeuphoria Instagram competition. Am I going to say no to anything involving Ben and Jerry's? Hell no! So for the next week I'll be posting a picture each day which shows my euphoria for the day. Most of my life and euphoric moments involve food, but I'm looking forward to posting a bit more about other things in my life as well. The best part is you can get involved too, check out the website http://captureeuphoria.benjerry.com/ or the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/benjerryuk for more information.

To start this off, I had to go for something good. So what better than my favourite burger restaurant, Atomic Burger! I ask Mr Hef if we can do a lot of things, mainly things I know he will say no to, such as 'Can we go all the way to Brighton to go to a restaurant? Can we go to London to see the dinosaurs? (he actually said yes to that in the end) Can we go and stay in a tree house?' (I really want to stay in a treehouse). I must ask to go to Atomic Burger on a regular basis now, because it's been nearly a year since our last visit, but this time when I asked he said yes! I've been excited ever since. So this is my first #captureeuphoria moment, because there really is nothing quite as euphoric as that first bite of an Atomic Burger. I had a veggie Big Kahuna, which had swiss cheese, pineapple and teriyaki sauce on top, with a side of sci fries (triple fried, chili and garlic coated fries, mmmmmm). All washed down with a sugar puffs milkshake (which was topped with fizz whizz, of course).

Ramen

22:39 Heather Allford 2 comments

Do you ever get to that point in the week after Christmas where you couldn't possibly stomach any more Christmas food? No, me either which is why I chased this dish with a slice of Christmas cake, but I did fancy making something different. After having Ramen with my brother a couple of weeks ago I wanted to try and re-create it at home. It's a really simple recipe, the only hard part is trying to get hold of some of the ingredients, luckily I still had some miso paste and wakame in my cupboard from when I made miso soup. So all I needed was tofu, sweet corn and some spring onions. It would be good with shitake mushrooms and topped with a hard boiled egg, but I am afraid of eating both of these things.

Serves 2

100g tofu, drained and pressed
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp sweet chili sauce
1 pack of Clear Spring Miso Bouillon Paste
500 ml boiling water
A handful of wakame seaweed
100g ramen noodles
2 spring onions, chopped
50g sweetcorn
1 tsp sesame seeds

Start by chopping your tofu in to small triangles, then mixing the hoisin and sweet chili sauces together. Then pop the tofu in to the sauces and leave to marinate for around 2 hours.
Once the tofu has absorbed all of the flavours, dry fry it (no oil) on a medium heat in a non stick pan until its nice and crispy on the outside, then pop to one side.
Pop your wakame in to a bowl of luke warm water to soak and pop it to one side.
Add the boiling water to a sauce pan, then stir the miso paste in, add the ramen noodles and cook for 3 minutes, then drain the wakame and add it to the miso broth.
Cook for a further minute then transfer it to a bowl, top with your tofu, sweet corn, spring onion (and whatever else you want to add) and enjoy!

Nelson Street Restaurant, Buckingham

17:50 Heather Allford No comments

Have I ever mentioned that I have 2 brothers? Well I do, an older one and a younger one, if you don't already feel sorry for me then you should. I went through years of double brother bullying, but we're all grown up now and are pretty much the Brady bunch (probably a lie). Weirdly we all like to cook, my little brothers (lets call him bearded Hef) specialties are very non vegetarian pulled pork and mega sandwiches (think man vs food) and my older brother (lets call him moustached Hef) has worked in restaurants since he was about 16. This year he started working in Nelson Street restaurant and I've had the privilege of eating there twice. I'm not going to do a proper review because it may be slightly biased, but the food really is spectacular as is the decor, the service and the atmosphere of the restaurant. So I'll leave you with some pictures of what I've eaten there, which I'm sure will be enough to make you want to go!