apple cider pancake doughnuts with homemade apple cinnamon rosemary and spiced rum jam

It was delightfully autumningly raining yesterday afternoon, and I was delightfully exploring many a blog in my (yes I will admit it) fluffy leopard print dressing gown when I came across this recipe for... wait for it...apple cider doughnut pancakes! Oh my lord!

It was enough to get me out of my dressing gown, into my car for the first time in a few weeks, and down to the shops to grab some supplies. That was it! I had Sunday morning all planned. Before I could think about the pancakes it struck me that this would be the ideal time to try an apple jam I've been thinking of creating for a while...yes i'm a little jam obsessed at the moment! I thought (and rightly so) that this would be the perfect accompaniment for these incredible sounding treats! This was all my favourite things, fruit, spices, booze, baking, woody herbs, rum, sugary goodness. So I got straight into creating this jam, ready for breakfast in the morning. The result...Yum!

farewell summer, it's been brief but full of yummy salads!

As I type farewell to summer, it is in fact 30 degrees and i'm sitting outside with a cup of tea after a burger theory (check out the greatness.... http://www.facebook.com/burgertheory)  picnic lunch, sunning in the park! Not bad for being well into the second month of Autumn! But I can't help but reminisce of lazy afternoons with good friends and jugs of pimms and some awesome salads I created. I knew the only way I could commit to eating healthy after retuning from the lands of pan au chocolat and dream pasta was to make the healthy taste awesome!

Here are a couple of my favorite creations this summer!..

jam

I love community, I love local and I love sharing. I especially love when it leads to awesome Jam! I'm very lucky to live just a few doors down from a great honest, specialty coffee place. There is just something great about walking in, leaving your money on the counter, having a great chat and leaving with your coffee without even having to order it. It's that thing I guess, we all need to feel we belong somewhere. 

So towards the end of stone fruit season my (yes my) awesome local coffee man gave me a huge box of organic plums from his tree, after discussing our mutual love of making jam. In desperate need of a bit of down time after a busy holiday eating my way round Europe, this called for a Saturday night in with a bottle of red, a box of plums and a whole lot of expectant empty jars, all ready to be filled with thick rich plum jam!

to finish off my travel adventures...budapest, prague, krakow, milan, barcelona, sydney

I left Paris armed with two giant macaroons, (novelty and taste!) one consumed before I even boarded my flight, the other just after take off an I honestly didn't think i'd ever eat again after a Dutch Christmas and Parisian New Year!

But sure enough after landing in Budapest and being taken by my travelling companions to a restaurant named 'Fatale' boasting the biggest schnitzel in the world, I was ready to give Eastern Europe my best! I passed over the schnitzel which really was the size of a family pizza and delved straight into the cabbage, dumpling, roast pork.

my first meal in paris was salad...

yes, really salad. of all the pastry, crepe, macaroon, champagne goodness on offer, I went for salad, and after all the heavy Christmas eating we had done in the Netherlands, this was needed! But the most wonderful French find a way of making even salad rich and tasty. Dominating the vegetables on my plate were honey croutons topped with grilled slices of goats cherve - 3cm's thick, lardons of bacon, toasted walnuts and fried slices of potato. I was in a very happy place! And sharing a creme brulee with the lovely Katherine....ahhh Pari! It was a lovely finish to a stroll around Montmartre, which was still adorned in Christmas lights, little market stalls and plenty of Vin Chaud! 

travel food!!!

I have so been looking forward to this!!! High on my list of priorities for my European Winter adventure this Christmas: FOOD!

an apology and a cake (though the cake isn't for the apology...anyway)

So i've been slack. Super mega big time, terribly slack and haven't blogged for what seems like ages. So to the 3 of you out there that care, please accept these flowers as my humble apology.... 

I'll change my ways honey, i promise! It won't happen again! So now that you forgive me, onwards to cake!