COMBE MARTIN ROAD TRIP II

We took a road trip to Combe Martin on the border of Exmoor after being offered a holiday cottage for the weekend. Unfortunately that weekend also coincided with a amber weather warning and a risk of flooding.

The weather got pretty hairy at one point, with rivers rushing, roads flooding and white caps covering the sea as I braved the weather to get a few photos. I think the black and white really adds to how dramatic that truly was.

NOT PALEO - CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

This idea has been floating around in my brain ever since I posted my Banana Bread photograph on flickr and over the weekend I setup my micro studio (an IKEA cutting board and blanket for backdrop) to start shooting. I found a recipe for chewy cookies and decided on a half batch (because cheat day only comes once a week) then got down to shooting, in case you can't follow along with the photos I've reposted the recipe below:

Ingredients

Serves: 9

• 125g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 85g unsalted butter, melted
• 150g brown soft sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 150g chocolate chunks

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins |Cook: 15 mins

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas mark 3. Grease baking trays or line with parchment.

2. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, with each cookie around 4 tablespoons of dough (for smaller cookies, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful and adjust baking time as necessary). Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

FRENCH BULLDOG MEET, LONDON

Back in November last year Hannah and I went to the Frenchie meet in London. It was market research if you like, a bit of window shopping to make sure the breed wasn't yappy or anti social. We couldn't have been more wrong and it only made Hannah more excited to find the right breeder so we could join in the fun

After getting Eggs we had grand plans to attend the Frenchie meet and we finally did this month! As you can see there was a huge turn out with people from all walks of life coming together for a stroll through Regents Park.

BRIGHTON ROAD TRIP

Hannah, Dan, Emily and I got up on Saturday morning and headed for sunny Brighton with grand plans of showing Eggs the sea, consuming good coffee, enjoying adult beverages on the beach and finding some good eats.

We managed all of them except the coffee.. I guess another road trip is in order to catch up on the delights of Taylor St Baristas, Marwood and Ground (Thanks to Mulia for the suggestions).

We started our day with a stop at Seasons to get our morning caffeine hit and got on the motorway for our 2hr drive to the seaside! Once we'd parked we headed to the beach, found the dog friendly section and enjoyed the sunshine and ambiance for a few hours until our stomachs began to grumble.

We settled on Burgers for dinner and Yelp told me the best stop around was Grubbs Burgers unfortunately it seemed to have disappeared to be replaced by Neighbourhood. But what a find! Cheap AMAZING burgers, fries and Pimms soon sated our needs and we finished the evening off with some Strawberry and Lime cider enjoying the last of the sunshine on the beach.

We'll be going again without a doubt!

ROID WEEK 2012

Its Roid Week!

Hannah and I take the Instax any time we go for a day out and have quite a respectable collection spread over two walls. Here are a few of my favourites from the last year :) (In chronological order)

1. A noticed this stack of logs whilst out for a walk on my lunch break
2. A view point just outside Barcelona from our trip last year
3. We took my Auntie to Waddesdon Manor for her Birthday in January
4. The Brooklyn Bridge from our trip in NYC this year
5. View from the Empire State Building looking towards the East Village
6. Brighton Pier from our trip last weekend!

MY BIRTHDAY 2012

This year has been a gastronomic extravaganza! Cookies, Coffee, Cinnamon Buns, Cheesecake!

I've never been a huge birthday guy but I'm turning the grand out age of 24 and a lot of 'stuff' has fallen into place nicely! I had some good news at work, got a Nexus 7 and a nice shiny new laptop to play with all weekend. It made up for the huge amount of driving I've been doing recently.

On Friday night after a good tennis session I returned home to a plate of freshly baked chocolate coffee cookies care of Hannah and a batch of cinnamon buns ready to be put in the oven on Saturday morning which left the house smelling of sugary sweet cinnamon. Amazing!

On Saturday we made our usual trip to Seasons for a coffee followed by a walk with Eggs and relaxed afternoon watching the Olympics whilst enjoying our baked goods. On Sunday I awoke the most amazing present - a Chemex! I've got a Presso, Aeropress and Gaggia Classic and I've wanted to add a Chemex to that list for a while. Now I have! I think this should be the start of a tradition - A coffee themed gift for every Christmas and Birthday.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to my parents for a lovely meal of including champagne, fajitas and my mother's famous chocolate cheesecake. To top the afternoon off Andy Murray made Federer look a little silly to get us some gold and my Mum made some chocolate vanilla cupcakes

Did I also mention my parents got me two tickets for the Harry Potter studio tour? Yeah, a good birthday!

WHIPPET GREY

When Hannah and I got chatting to Dominic a couple of weeks ago I never thought I'd get the chance to shoot his wonderful shop Whippet Grey. The reason for our initial chat? Eggs! That puppy certainly does get some attention.

Dominic grabbed his DSLR when we walked in with Eggs and wanted a photo for Twitter, of course we mentioned his blog and that I was an avid photographer. After we left the conversation continued on Twitter and ended with me being invited to photograph the space.

Whippet Grey is a lovely little shop in Old Amersham selling all manor of wonderful items and I very much like to visit just to browse the shelves and enjoy the interior. As of right now we've only bought Hannah's cardboard moose head but plan on buying a few bits for the kitchen when we get the chance.