Coffee time

Many moons ago, I learned to master a coffee machine like a pro. It's probably where I got my love of coffee from and why I search out the best coffee shops where ever I go. (Oh hey that rhymed!)

So, as you can imagine I was pretty excited when one of my favourite coffee shops The Green Coffee Machine, Cheltenham (opposite the train station) announced a Barista workshop!

Yes, really! If you love coffee and want to learn about how to get the best from your beans and the secrets of texturing milk and latte art, then this is for you!

It's not as easy as it looks - but with practise, you can be turning out a perfect cup in no time at all.

I trained when I was in Australia and the girl I worked with, Jen, was nothing short of a coffee supergirl. She could pour the perfect cup with the perfect figleaf or heart on top everytime, even after the 300th cup of the morning rush hour. She taught me how to pour the milk and how to make sure the crema was just right. And when it was busy (and could see I needed perking up) she'd shout over 'Angie, do  you want a coffeeee?' and before I could say yes, there'd be a cup waiting for me on the side.

There's nothing like the perfect cup of coffee and when you do get it just right, you'll realise why people like me go crazy about searching for a good cup.

© Angie Browning Art 2013

I must thank my colleague Rich for one of the above photos above. Rich shares my appreciation for good coffee too and loves a cup from The Green Coffee Machine too.

I believe the next workshop is on 4th October so quick! More info here > The Green Coffee Machine.

Loads of things I really like

I haven't done a Kitchen Crushes post for a long time. So here it is!

The nights must be drawing in and getting colder because I'm finding myself doing an Internet-shopping-surf-sessh of an evening all of a sudden again.

(Left to Right)

1 // I really need a cool lunch box for the office. All mine are boring. This will do nicely! It's by Happy Jackson.

2 // And if you were an 80's child like me, you'll find a big smile appears on your face when you see this My Little Pony mug.

3 // I have so many bags full of Random Crap. When I came across this one also by Happy Jackson, I knew it would be great for all my ...well, random crap!

4 // And last but not least - I've saved the BEST till last. You know I drink a lot of coffee, right? Well, I also get a lot of takeaways and I was thinking recently about the amount of cardboard cups I use and got guilty about it as it's so wasteful. So I stumbled on 'KeepCup' the resuable takeaway coffee cup!! Sooo brilliant. And, get this, I designed this Coffee Keep Cup myself! You can customise your own too, right here!

1 // Possibly the coolest house?  Well this one in Buenos Aires I found via Remodelista.  And I really want to serve some kind of 'food truck' food from this serving hatch!

2 // And yep, I found this new book, The Truck Food Cookbook detailing some of the coolest food truck recipes in town!

Food and coffee memories - Part 1

I've been meaning to write this blog post for a while and for whatever reason it's never actually made it to the keyboard.

For those of you who know me, you will know that I love coffee.  Coffee and cafes.  Coffee and brunch.  Coffee and people watching.  Coffee and friends and chatter and gossip.

Photography by Sally May Mills © www.cremaandcrumbs.com

I do have to make sure I only have a maximum of 2 coffees a day now because otherwise it affects my sleep, but I do get by ok :)

When I was out in Western Australia I drank quite a bit more.  Because it's totally different over there.  The quality of the coffee is amazingly good (tasty, not bitter) it doesn't affect me in the same way - and the Australian baristas make it so well too.  They are seriously passionate about the quality of the coffee and are total experts.  I learned so much from them and even went on a coffee workshop when I was there to learn more about these delicious little beans and their origins!

I made some great friends in WA, one in particular was my great friend Warwick.  I say ' great' because Warwick was a whole 6ft 4in tall and towered above me.  I met Warwick in 2009 when we were on a tour together in the South West region of Western Australia.  I remember this tall Kiwi guy who was really laid back and unassuming.  When I returned to WA in 2011 he was the best buddy a girl could ever ask for.  We shared a love of the great outdoors, the beach and coffee... and people watching.  Warwick introduced me to all his favourite coffee hang-outs and they soon became mine too.  Hanging out over great coffee was one of my favourite things to do, even if I would often be whinging like a whinging pom! (Thankfully he trained me out of this terrible british habit and made get a little more 'laid back' like the Western Australians!)

Photography by Sally May Mills © www.cremaandcrumbs.com 

There were a lot of ups and downs during the time I spent in W.A;  I became homesick (yeah I don't know why, it's Australia, right?)  I also met up with a previous boyfriend and ended up (foolishly) falling for him again (the rest of that I'll fill you in on one day!).  Warwick did try to warn me, but as us girl's usually do, I didn't listen (Oops).  I guess you only learn the hard way sometimes.  Like the waves that came to the shore, I was learning which ones I wanted to ride and which to let go.   Thankfully, a cup of coffee was always close by to soften the blow.

Thankfully the happier memories still remain.  The mornings I spent having 'brekkie' and 'brunch' at my favourite cafes in Perth, and chatting with my new found friends...I will treasure forever.

Photography by Sally May Mills © www.cremaandcrumbs.com

There's so much more to Australia than the beach (which you hardly ever go to because it's just too damn hot)  the coffee and the food (and the blue skies) and people I met are what I'll remember the most.

Photography by Sally May Mills © www.cremaandcrumbs.com

I started reading a blog when I was over there called Crema and Crumbs.  Warwick and I would choose our next 'coffee place' to visit through this blog sometimes and when I returned home, reading this blog again bought back so many memories.  The photos really tell a story, and the colours and light really are that vibrant in Australia - Sally May Mills the writer and photographer behind the blog captures the cafe scenes and coffee perfectly - it's just how I remember :)  And she's kindly let me share some of her photos from her travels in this blog post for you all to see and experience a little bit of Australian sunshine and welcome too.

Check out her blogs Crema and Crumbs and Remote and Raw for more sunshine, food, coffee and travel inspiration.

As for the rest of my Australian adventures, memories and story .... To be continued.

A day out in Clifton, Bristol

You may or may not know that I've been without a sofa for the last month. I recently moved y'see and I've been saving up for a new one. (But things like car tax and insurance popped up and all the pennies were suddenly gone. Damn.)

While waiting for a new sofa,  I've mostly been having picnics on my lounge floor and really appreciating that sitting on the floor isn't actually as comfy or as 'cool' as I thought it might be.  And it's kind of hard after a while.

So I went to see a second hand sofa in Bristol and while I was there I decided to pop along to Clifton.  Clifton is a really cool village in Bristol that's just bursting with a cool creative urban vibe ...and a few Banksy originals dotted in between.

My Twitter followers were fast to recommend lots of their favourite eateries, so I set about finding one of them, the Primrose Cafe.  And I was far from disappointed!  I LOVED this place.  Walking down this little 'laneway' street reminded me of Melbourne so much - and the coffee was perfect.  I was one happy Clifton coffee'd up bunny.

a)  Thank you Primrose Cafe for this perfect coffee!  Do you send by courier? ;)

b) Beautiful colourful, fresh fruit and veg from 'Reg the Veg' shop in the same laneway.  I wish I'd bought my shopping bags!

c) A cool tea-towel in a shop window!  Clifton is full of artsy shops and galleries with cool unique finds from independent traders.  I liked them all!

d) The cool laneway - outdoor seating!  This looked even more beautiful in the sunshine (but it sadly went in behind the clouds when I took this photo!)

e) A really sweet little flower shop.

f) Crumbs magazine - I'd followed these guys for a while on Twitter so I was excited when I found a copy in a cafe here which I leafed through while sipping on a cup of tea.  I discovered so many other Bristol eateries that I am already planning my next excuse to go!

Thank you to all the Twitter'ers that recommended their favourite cafes!  I'll be back soon.  Love you all x

Pretty inspired by pastel kitchens

Hey everyone! It’s that time of the week where I daydream about pretty kitchens that I wish were my own.  So, imagine my excitement when I came across Interior Stylist Selina Lake and her candy coloured, vintage and retro style inspired rooms recently!

I really wish this was my kitchen.  Look at the Belfast sink! (You know how much I’d love a Belfast sink like that!)  The pops of pretty pastel colours just make me want to get into that kitchen and bake something special.  And I’d invite you all over, of course!

And look at these dining room tables – the colours, the styling, the vintage feel… Wow.  Really inspirational!  You wouldn’t want to eat out ever again!

Selina has just launched her colorful new book, Pretty Pastel Style, and the photography in it is beautiful  (these photos are a selection of my favourites from the book).  It’s full of ideas on how to use a pastel palette, with handmade, vintage, modern, simple and retro styles.  Definitely what I need to style my new place - you know how I said I’m still trying to work out where to put everything!

She is already a best-selling author with three previous books, Bazaar Style, Romantic Style and Homespun Style all enjoying great success.  Interiors and style blogging queen Holly Becker at Decor8 blog is a big fan and I can totally see why.  You just want to hop right into the photographs and hang out in Selina’s beautiful rooms with her!

I absolutely love this retro pink coffee machine (you know how much I love good coffee too!)  I can almost smell the espresso.  Fancy a cup?

And check out this cheesecake.  I would need a serious amount of willpower not to indulge in that pretty pink thing!

If, like me, you find this cheesecake pretty inspiring - I found this gluten free cheesecake recipe on one of my favourite vegetarian foodie sites Green Kitchen Stories.  Go try it, it’s incredible (and almost healthy).

Pretty Pastel Style by Selina Lake is published by Ryland Peters & Small and is available from www.rylandpeters.com

Lazy days in Lake Atitlan

My brilliant mate Emma is travelling the world at the moment, currently in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala (how coool is that?!) and although I'm very jealous (very! Just look at all the colours and sunshine!) the photos she's taken are just making me drool... ! She's an amazing photographer and here she shares a few tasty ones exclusively for you and me in this very special foodie postcard from Gautemala... over to you Emma!

The food here focuses on combining healthy with yummy! The fruit and veg, fresh from the nearby farmers markets, are full of colour and flavour. My favourite time of the day has to be breakfast - for me it's such a treat to eat out for breakfast!

My favourite cafe here, Cafe La Peurta, bakes a 3 seed wholewheat bread, which toasted is to die for, and you can tell the jam is homemade. It's served with a pot of their house blended breakfast tea or freshly squeezed watermelon and pineapple juice. I just love the colours! I think I could eat here forever :)

We stumbled across a little veggie cafe the other day, and although my boyfriend doesn't really believe a meal is a meal without meat, I managed to persuade him to give it a try! I ordered the rainbow salad with homemade bread and thickly spread homemade hummus. The hummus was amazing! He went for goats cheese salad, all multi-coloured and organic. Food here is not just delicious though, it's almost a decorative art form!

There's this amazing little juice stand in the village, run by a family of beautiful Guatemalan girls. The girls wear the traditional Mayan dress, made from local fabrics. Traditionally the vibrant colours and patterns denoted the village they come from. I think it's so wonderful how they've held on to their traditions in this way. The juices are so delicious, and they are cheap too! It's a win-win!

So let me share with you my current favourite juice recipe, courtesy of the lovely Mayan girls. It's super scrummy! (and if you make yourself one, you gotta let me know what you think!):

2 beetroots
2 carrots
2.5 oranges
fresh ginger

Juice. Blend. Enjoy.

I love it here! I do, I really do! Guatemala has surprised me in so many ways! Its natural beauty, its vibrant colours, its love of good food, and its warm, gentle approach to life. I've been staying at Lake Atitlan in the Highlands for the last week, and it's the kind of place that's hard to leave. Ringed by numerous immense volcanoes, the lake is famed not only for its S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R beauty but also for its prominent Mayan culture and traditions.

Emma Jackson is a portrait and lifestyle photographer, usually based in the Cotwolds in England, but travelling around the world in 2013. www.paperlotusphotography.com