Eating My Way Through England

As you will now be aware I am back in the dull grey wetness of good old England, and so to cheer myself up somewhat I have taken to doing what I do best – eating and baking. Having collected all my stuff, jammed the car up with cardboard boxes full of dormant utensils and pillows, and drove my parents mad for a week, I have now landed back in Leeds in my lovely new house.

Between unpacking and eating takeaway upon takeaway I headed out on plenty a shopping tip, including a dash to Aldi where I got myself baking supplies (after having only borrowed my housemates’ during the whole of my second year of university), a new plant, and way too much other stuff to carry in one trip. Stubborn and determined not to pay for a taxi, however, I piled it all up and wound up stopping five times en route to my house… Yikes.

Whilst I have a couple of weeks of relatively free time, I decided to get back into cooking and try out some of the recipes I picked up whilst in Madrid, which have included tortilla española (a Spanish omelette made with egg and potato and, in my case, onion), gambas píl píl (prawns in garlic and chilli) and even an attempt of a salad in a tortilla bowl which was made using the tortilla pans you can see above.

I did, of course, have to put my new gear to good use and get back into my passion for baking – all in perfect time for the start of the most important event on the British calendar – The Great British Bake Off. Rhea invited me out to a picnic with some of her friends so I took the opportunity to destroy the freshly cleaned kitchen in order to make a lemon sponge cake in record time, and six lemons and two whole packs of butter later it was ready to be shared around…

In between all this food I have also been working on projects for Burnley Youth Theatre again, chatting with my housemates and having catch-ups with Danni, and generally settling in with posters and lights galore – photos of those to come soon. I have also recently celebrated both my sister and my dad’s birthdays, both incurring trips back home for some lovely food (here we go with the food again) and laughs with the family.

For now though I am back in Leeds, finishing off the remains of the lemon cake and drinking what may as well be liquid sugar, all in preparation for a 3am website update. Hopefully nobody will see any of that happening – it will be very ugly and I will be wondering why you’re awake and browsing my site at such an hour…