Kitchen Crushes - Beyonce special!

Thank you to Nordic Leaves Blogger for sharing her beautiful kitchen!

Hey everyone!  I hope you all had lovely Bank Holiday weekends.  Now it's a 4 day week - and that's kind of cool too!

Just wanted to share with you a few of my kitchen crushes this week.  Some really lovely coloured goodies for you as always and an extra special recipe from Beyonce herself!

This first B.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l kitchen is Edina's over at the super-stylish Nordic Leaves blog.  I absolutely love the SMEG fridge, don't you?  What a great colour!  And check out the Andy Warhol framed quote on the wall.  I love her style and choice of colours so much -  I could really imagine just sitting down in this kitchen, reading a paper and munching on some of my gluten free banana bread I made last week (I will share the recipe soon I promise, I want to share it with you all because it's possibly my favourite gluten free cake recipe to date!)  - Thank you Edina for sharing your stunning kitchen!  Edina's blog is also equally cool so check it out!

I really love Andy Warhol quotes, so when I saw this poster in the Nordic Leaves kitchen I loved it, and then I came across these awesome Andy quote pencils from Urban Outfitters.  SO cool!

Also stumbled across this very cleverly designed recipe notebook from ETSY seller ohNOrachio.  I really need a new notebook for all my recipes!  I've just come to the end of another and am currently writing on the back!!

And lastly, this adorable picnic basket and tableware from good old BHS (British Home Stores)  which is my absolute steal of the week for only £25!

And how could I forget this extra special recipe from Beyonce herself?!

Beyonce recently shared her dinner menu for her tour on the internet and on it was a Sweet Potato and Coconut soup!  I was so excited because I've been making this soup for a few years and it's so quick, delicious, healthy and awesome!  So here's the one I use.  Make it tonight, it's lick-your-lips-able-delicious!

Food revolution at the Star Bistro

I must just write and tell you about the fantastic evening I had on Friday at the Star Bistro, Ullenwood Cheltenham for Food Revolution Day.

The Star Bistro is a joint venture between The Wiggly Worm charity and National Star Foundation enabling young people with disabilities to gain real life work experience. It's a really fantastic set up!

The Bistro and team recently won the hearts of the nation where they were finalists in the 'Food Glorious Food' TV show competition with their Pimms Summer Fruit Jelly!

Yes, you guessed it, I chose the Pimms Summer Fruit Jelly for  dessert and - WOW - it tasted better than I could have imagined. It sure deserved to win. It was so tasty, I think I polished it off in record time.

My friends had the pannacotta with poached local rhubarb, which looked equally deliciousramous!!  I think you'll agree!

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the starter and main course (doh!), but when food that good comes to your table, you don't really want to do anything but tuck in!

I will just tell you that the Goat Cheese Souffle with local Asparagus from Primrose Vale Farm, and the Bibury Trout were nothing short of amazing.  I must also thank the Chef and his team for being so accommodating - I know I'm a bit of a nightmare to cook for because I'm not only a Gluten Free eater, but I have a nut allergy too. (Yep, don't ever invite me for dinner!)  But the team were totally awesome.  Of course the menu was such that I didn't have to worry about the Gluten Free aspect as all dishes were, but as the main course came with a Waldorf Salad, the team prepared mine separately and removed all nuts for my dish.  It made me feel so much more relaxed and accepted, which I sometimes don't feel in restaurants.  So big thank you team!

The evening was hosted by our local Food Revolution Representative Laura Milne (founder of Your Final Fitness Formula), who introduced and bought the night to fruition. Thank you Laura!

Our very much loved and talented Cotswold Chef, Rob Reese MBE (who is instrumental at the Star Bistro and Director of Wiggly Worm Charity) made a guest appearance and demonstration preparing dishes using local produce.  Rob is a great entertainer, who gets the audience involved and makes cooking look so easy and so much fun while giving us lots of tips and tricks to prepare great food for our families!

Thank you not only to The Star Bistro's super-star talented team, headed up by super-chef Matt, but also to the volunteers who helped at the evening from
The Wiggly Worm charity.

We sure did have a great Food Revolution day, celebrating the beautiful diversity of fresh food, sharing cooking skills, while meeting old and new friends!

A few of my favourite things

Here's a few of my favourite things right now!

(Left to right, top to bottom...)

1. Shiny.  LOVE these pumps, don't you?  They're from ASDA and a real steal at £12! I dare say that space-age is coming back into fashion, no?  Maybe we'll all be wearing tin-foil trousers again soon, in the style of 1990.  Maybe even shell suits will make a new appearance.  Can you imagine?! ;)

2.  Herb pots!  I am really trying to motivate myself to plant some herbs in some pots on my window sill.  I don't have a garden to make a veggie patch or anything like that you see (although my best friend Karen, who lives on the beautiful south coast, told me recently she's planted a veg patch and I can't wait to see it and maybe try some of her produce! How exciting is that?!)  If you have a veggie patch and live close to Gloucestershire, then please let me know as I'd love to cook up something tasty from it.  There's nothing like home grown veg, it tastes so amazing.  So anyway, I saw these herb pots on the Minted Blog and thought they looked so cute.  I'd probably plant 3 pots of my favourite herbs, Basil, Coriander and Mint.  I put them in everything, makes food so flavoursome, try it!

3. Cute.  This T-shirt is just such a hoot (haha!)  I love it because I wear similar glasses -  I'm on the look out for a new pair of specs actually, but that's another story!  (This tee is from ASOS.com)

4. I really love these tumbler glasses.  They're from Marks and Spencer's Home.  I'd love to pour a glass of summertime Pimms in these (with some mint from my herb pots, if I grow any, of course!).

Extras...

A few other things that caught my eye during a swift internet surfing spree this week was this article, five tips for dining out if you're eating gluten free.  Great advice, check it out.

And I love this rendition of Bruno Mars's track from Bridget Mendler on Youtube here (I keep listening to it over and over, she has such a beautiful voice).

And talking of favourite things... did someone mention there was another Bank Holiday coming around soon?

See you soon!