Habitat's Christmas Supper Club

A couple of weeks ago I headed up to the Habitat store on Tottenham Court Road. Nothing strange about that you might think, but it wasn't to shop. Yes, that's a little bit strange, I'll give you that. Instead of shopping I was off to the first of Habitat's Supper Clubs. What I failed to realise until I got there was that I'd spend the evening eating dinner in the shop window.  Thankfully not alone, but I can't help but wonder what the people wandering past must have thought. 

I'm a big fan of Habitat, it was always the epitome of cool as I was growing up and any item bought from there was treasured. In recent years I've rediscovered my Habitat habit and I'm glad that I have too. And I think it's just as cool now.

I never expected to have dinner in one of their shops, in the shop window or not, but I'm very glad I did. Even better the main course was fondue, so what's not to like. I mean cheese, or should that be che-e-e-e-e-e-se!  I'm not sure I've really appreciated the delights of fondue before, but I'm seriously tempted by one for myself. I mean at home, and of course I'd share, not just keep it for myself.

I had a hunch that we were in for a good evening when I arrived. I mean with a table looking as full and as festive as this, it'd be hard not to right?

After a starter of hot smoked salmon, gin cured salmon, salmon caviar, avocado cream and pickled cucumber the promise of a good evening was confirmed. It was delicious, and you'll be pleased to hear usual service has resumed and I was halfway through demolishing it before I even thought about taking a photo.  And as a half-demolished meal is nowhere near as pretty as it should be, you'll just have to take my word for it being good.

Then there was a chance to make a Mulled Mojito cocktail. It was the kind of cocktail making I like, for making read assembling as everything was laid out for us.  But you'll see from the pictures below, it still takes some concentration.  

Image credit: Habitat

Image credit: Habitat

It tasted great and it's definitely something I'd try at home, actually scrap that, it's definitely something I'll be encouraging MOH to make for me at home. Yes, that's better.

Back at the table the fondue of Gruyere, Emmental and Beaufort cheese with white wine, kirsch, nutmeg and spices had arrived and it tasted even better than it looks. It was served along with boiled new potatoes, green salad, crusty bread and charcuterie and crudites. 

Image credit: Habitat

Delicious. I was skeptical about the charcuterie and fondue, but along with the crusty bread it was my most dipped item. Pure heaven. Charcuterie, cheese, bread, red wine, cocktails, I told you it was a good evening didn't I?

But there was more food to come and while this dark chocolate mousse pudding with espresso mascarpone and banana in smashed shortbread was good, it beat me. It won't be often you hear that from me and while the banana sounds odd, it was gorgeous. 

And if that wasn't enough, with the coffee along came some homemade treats - biscotti, homemade hazelnut bon bons, you know the ones that the Ambassador likes, and some mint aero. Well the mint aero was amazing, so light and fluffy and so much better than the chocolate covered bars. 

And if like me you like the dinnerware and decorations on the table, here's some links to them, or similar items:

Sintra dinnerware

Hamburg wine glasses

Dublin oak and glass dining table

Gold Glitter Dipped Bauble LED Garland

Glitter Circle Paper Garland

10 LED Gold Splatter Boxes Christmas Lights

And if you want some more Christmas table inspiration, pop over to the Habitat blog for this post: Decorating the Table for Christmas.

Thanks Habitat for a great evening!

* This is a collaborative post with Habitat, but as usual, all views and opinions are my own.

Christmas mornings at 139a

Christmas mornings. Everyone who's ever been a child knows how magical these can be, especially if there's children (young or old!) around to share it with.  For us some years we've had that but now that my nieces have grown up it's been a while since we've been entertained by young children. It means our Christmas mornings are generally less frenetic than they might have once been, but they're no less fun.

For me though, I can't talk about Christmas mornings without mentioning Christmas Eve. They are normally frantic. But they should be right?  They're about being prepared and getting as much done as we can. If we're staying at home and having family over there's a list as long as both my arms of jobs to do.

That's most likely to include preparing as much of the lunch as I can in advance and most years Christmas Even means wrapping presents, helped along by a tipple or two and a Christmas soundtrack. We will have already decorated the house, and MOH will arrive home clutching his last few presents and add to the pile. After watching him wrestle with the wrapping paper and sellotape I'll do the decent thing and offer to wrap his too, as long as he writes the gift tags. 

And dinner is always a fish pie. And even now, the evening is full of anticipation.

And Christmas Eves lead to Christmas mornings.  We have three kinds of Christmas mornings. There's the ones where we wake up at home and then head off out to lunch or host lunch at ours, or the ones where we're house guests with family. Each have their own positives, but my preference is to wake up in my own bed on Christmas morning if we can.

If we're off out to lunch,  or starting what I affectionately call our "tour of the country" to visit family, that can mean a rush of a morning, but if we've time breakfast will be a leisurely affair. With no dinner to get in the oven, it can be. 

If we're staying home and hosting Christmas it's likely we'll have overnight house guests, which means we have to get the presents wrapped before Christmas Eve!  

This year it already feels more festive. And we're joining in much earlier than we usually do. Our new tree is up and decorated already as I was keen to see what the Moonlight White Christmas tree from Treetopia was like. It's the first time we haven't had a real tree in a while, and as it's not a real tree I was keen to have something obviously not real, if you know what I mean.

And I've been pleased with how the tree looks. It's six foot and I had to move our chess table out of the way to accommodate it, but it made sense for it to sit in the window. It certainly brightens that part of the room, in a way I didn't expect it to. MOH always says that I have too many Christmas decorations (and sssh! maybe I do) but this year I wanted to just use my glass baubles. Part way through decorating the tree I realised on a tree this size I'd have to use all of them, so my theme became "jewelled" and that's just the permission I need to add to my collection!

I've a mix of lime green, gold, brown, turquoise and red baubles and with the pearlescent white branches they all work together I think. My new owls have also made it into the tree, and while they don't fit into the jewelled theme, they've made themselves at home!

GOLD AND GREEN, THE OWL APPROVES

I've been impressed with the tree, not only for its looks but also for how easy it was to assemble. It comes in three parts which fit together easily. And the thing we always struggle with with real trees is the base. I refuse to have a tree skirt, because I think however pretty they are, they look awful and so often we'll use a clamp base if we can find it in the shed, or I'll use a wooden bucket which takes forever to get the tree straight in.  The simple white base on this tree was a much better solution.  I assembled the tree on my own, and connected the lights for each section, so that'll tell you how easy it was.

TURQUOISE AND GREEN, THIS YEAR IT'S ALL ABOUT THE JEWEL COLOURS

If we're at home our Christmas morning breakfast is likely be toasted bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon with a squeeze of lemon and some freshly ground black pepper.  Delicious. There'll be a teapot on the table, which will be filled and topped up and poured out regularly. There'll also be some bubbles to toast the day. There'll be a spill somewhere, at some point, it's almost part of tradition. And the crockery, cutlery and glassware will have been carefully thought through to eradicate the need for washing up. No one needs washing up going on in their kitchen while Christmas lunch is underway.

After a leisurely breakfast and the final cup of tea, and if the weather's good we'll usually suggest a walk for our guests. That usually involves MOH too, so with some time to myself I can check and double check the time plan to get lunch ready roughly on schedule. 

And with the house to myself I can take my time and lay the table. I want it to look stunning, stylish and festive but as practical as it can be, because there's always a lot of dishes that we need to find spaces for.  Candles always look good but rarely last the duration of the meal. 

A HINT OF SPARKLE COMPLIMENTS THE WHITE GLITTER DECOR ON THE RED BAUBLE

The other thing about Christmas mornings that often gets a lot of thought beforehand is what to wear. It's nice to have something new to wear but not being a huge fan of shopping, that doesn't always work out. But whatever it is, it needs to be comfortable doesn't it. There's often a lot of food so there's really no point feeling uncomfortable, so good eating clothes are required. But presententable ones at that. 

HELLO CHEEKY LITTLE OWL

You might be wondering what happened to the presents - I haven't forgotten. They're definitely a before lunch activity and even now there's mess. It's part of it isn't it, I don't think you can have even several adults opening presents at the same time without some chaos, and throwing the ball of wrapping paper into the recycling bag - or trying to at least - is part of the fun!

A FULL VIEW OF MY JEWEL COVERED TREE

And after lunch, well there's the TV, a board game, perusing my presents - especially the books - and maybe a doze.  Having fun at Christmas is hard work!

How do you spend your Christmas mornings?

* This is a collaborative post with Treetopia, who sent me this tree for the purposes of this post, but as usual, all views are my own.

Making Madeleines at A Taste of London with AEG

A couple of weekends ago we headed off to The Festive Edition of A Taste of London, held in partnership with AEG at Tobacco Dock. We'd cycled past the entrance a few times on our Tower Bridge route, but I'd not been in before. MOH had, and I was grateful for his advice to dress warmly, as a lot of Tobacco Dock is actually outside. There were plenty of people there, and things to do to keep warm, as well as some indoor spaces, and as you'd expect plenty to eat.

We were excited to be part of the #TakeTasteFurther cookery sessions in the AEG kitchen. Kathy from Gluts and Gluttony led the session to make madeleines in just thirty minutes. Now not only does that seem a tall order, but as well as making them herself she was directing at least fifteen other pairs of cooks, and she had no idea of their cooking abilities, and to top that we also made a cardamom butterscotch sauce while we had some spare time. Seriously, it was impressive - and so were the results.

1. A silicone madeleine tray on our workbench was a big clue for what we were making.

3. With MOH melting butter, I could get my hands on the AEG freestanding mixer, which I would happily have in my kitchen. Eggs and sugar went in and took no time at all to beat.

5. First we added flour and ground almonds to the eggs and sugar, along with some orange zest, and carefully folded this in.

7. We piped the mixture into the madeleine tray. In all honesty this was the messiest bit, with a few "exploding" piping bags around the room. MOH, the baking perfectionist, wanted to wipe the dribbles but it was not to be!

9. While we waited for this to boil, I explored the other ingredients on the bench - cardamom, chopped pistachios and more butter.

11. And still the water bubbled, until the sugar turned brown - and that's when you need to watch carefully, because it'll turn quickly.

13. And before we knew it, our madeleines were back again, cooked and looking lovely. 

2. We started by melting butter, in fact you might have noticed I delegated that to MOH.

4. While my eggs and sugar were getting fluffy, I still had time to direct MOH, and take some pictures too. Here's a squeeze of orange juice going into the butter he melted.

6. Then the orange juice and melted butter were also gently folded into the mixture. You'll notice MOH is working in these photos too.

8. With the madeleines cooking, it was time to make the butterscotch sauce. We were both keen to see how this was done, as MOH had tried this at home, not altogether successfully. So water and sugar went into the saucepan...

10.  In preparation for decorating the madeleines I melted some chocolate slowly in a saucepan. At home I use the microwave...

12. Then MOH whisked in the butter, and then added the cream and cardamom and voilà, cardamom butterscotch sauce! Two tubs of it. 

14. With a short amount of time to decorate, we went modern, with dribbles of chocolate and sprinkles of pistachios. 

And the final result, was some very moreish orange, pistachio and chocolate madeleines with cardamom butterscotch sauce. I'd never have thought it would be *that* easy to make them, but it was. And now I need a silicone madeleine tray of my own, so I can make plenty more! 

ORANGE, PISTACHIO AND CHOCOLATE MADELEINES WITH CARDAMOM BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE, RECIPE BY KATHY FROM GLUTS & GLUTTONY BUT MADE MY MOH AND I IN 30 MINUTES...

With madeleines made in record time, we left the kitchen and tried them out while planning our route through the rest of the show. Look out for more posts from the show soon.

* This is a collaborative post, and with thanks to AEG and Kathy from Gluts & Gluttony, as usual views are my own.