The Best BBQ in the South West!

So it's my boyfriends birthday this week and so we decided to go to Grillstock with friends and family to celebrate!

if you like meat then this is the place to go! Ever since watching Man Vs Food with the Texas BBQs I've wanted to experience a Smokehouse, so when Grillstock opened we just HAD to go!

This is not the place if you're veggie! it is pure meat!

On their website it does say to expect "elbow to elbow" and it really is! there's just one long table with lots of stools underneath it. You don't quite realise how tight it is until you actually get to sit down!!

As there is just the one table there is a fairly long wait. There was 8 of us so we had to wait about 40 mins to get seated together. It was definitely worth the wait though because the food really is amazing!!

Their menu has 4 types of BBQ meat: Chicken, Pulled Pork, Beef Brisket and Ribs.They also do sandwiches, burgers and hotdogs.

I had the Smokehouse Special because i couldn't decide on just one meat to have! I had the pulled pork, brisket and ribs (I decided I could live without the chicken - but apparently it is lovely and tender!)

The boys though (my Boyfriend and Brother-in-law) both went for the Grand Champion Challenge (pulled pork, beef brisket, a whole rack of ribs and a whole chicken with burnt ends, BBQ beans, Sausage, fries, coleslaw and cornbread) they had an hour to eat it (the record is 19 mins!).

How someone managed this in 19 minutes i have no idea!!

Rich (Brother-in-law) wolfed it down in 34 minutes , and Hans (the boyfriend) took his tinme and finished it in about 45 minutes. They both got a Grand Champion tshirt and a bottle of BBQ sauce (seriously the best BBQ sauce i've ever had!).

The two tactics both resulted in different ends to the evening. Hans was full, but could handle it, Rich on the other hand didn't have such a great end to the night and ended up puking it all up on their way home (it was videoed and is now on youtube!).

I seriously would recommend Grillstock to anyone that loved meat and BBQ, i know we'll be going again!

Everybody loves pie!

So I went to my friends for dinner the other night and we had chicken and bacon pie....it's rekindled my childhood love of the chicken pie my Nan used to make and decided I HAD to make it!! It is seriously so simple there's basically no prep involved!

Chicken, bacon and mushroom pie

Diced chicken
Smoked bacon lardons (or chopped bacon)
Button mushrooms
1 can condensed chicken soup
Puff pastry

1. Fry the chicken, bacon and mushrooms until cooked and put into the pie dish.

2. Pour the soup into the pan with a can of water and bring to the boil and cook. I decided against taking a picture of the soup as it's not the most appetizing thing to look at!! Then pour the soup over the filling.

3. Cut the pastry to fit on top the pie dish.  I had a bit left over so stuck a few extra bits on top! Pop it in the oven and cook for 20 mins.

Its so easy to make and easy to change to make whatever fillings you want! 

You could use condensed mushroom soup,  add extra veggies in....you can also change the pastry used on top. 

My Nan always did shortcrust pastry on top which was amazing!  Or you could do the hairy bikers tangle topping with scrunched up filo pastry!

I'm back!!

Hey it's been a while!

Been proper busy with work and stuff! Most weekends have been dedicated to reorganizing the flat to try and make the most of what little space we have!

Cooking-wise I haven't done too much new stuff. I have now got a bread maker. Planning to experiment with that soon! 

I've now started my Mulberry collection....meet Trout and Margaret (Marge)!

Trout

Absolutely LOVE the trout. Its so practical and has so many pockets I can fit pretty much everything I need in it!  Whereas good old Marge is more of a special occasion bag. I love the plaque with the bulldogs and cupcake!

Marge

My next aim is a new purse. I have absolutely fallen in love with the bluebell blue colour being used in the Spring Summer 14 stuff,  it's really bright and it'll be nice to have a pop of colour as most of my bags are black! Oh, and I really like the simple tree on the front.

"We believe in tea and cake"

Cat update!!! Loki's now 5 months old....growing up so fast but still a crazy kitten. She's just been spayed so she'll be allowed outside soon!

Our daily routine is now her waking me up at about 6am by purring loudly in my ear and licking my face.....not because she's loving and  wants cuddles, its her way of telling me she wants to be fed....well it could be worse-  at least she doesn't bite our faces like I've heard some cats do!!

Complete attention whore!

And super cute!!

Meey baby Loki!

So we spoke to our landlord and got the go ahead for getting a cat....so meet baby Loki!

We went for Loki (Norse god of mischief) because we didn't want something that sounded too silly shouting it outside (Buttons didn't really do it for us!) turns out the name suits her nature. We brought her home last night, let her loose and my god she is a cheeky little thing! constantly playing and running around everywhere!

She settled in so well. No pining for her mum, luckily she's very well litter trained so hopefully we won't have too many accidents!

We got a really cool cat bed/ scratching post/ play den for her........she managed to sneak into our bed 3 or 4 times last night, so in the end just gave up trying!  it was lovely being woken up at 5:30 am by a kitten that wants to play!

I have a feeling she will be featuring in a lot more posts now!

Crumble time!

I went to my nan's the other day and ended up raiding the apple tree and brambles down the side of her house and decided to make a crumble. When I was little I always made crumbles and cakes with her.

You can do crumble with pretty much any fruit I think and the recipe is pretty universal.

250g sugar
200g plain flour
120g butter or margarine
Fruit!

1. Chop the fruit up into chunks and pop into a saucepan with 3/4 of the sugar and simmer until soft. Put the fruit into the dish.
2. Mix together the rest of the sugar with the flour and the butter until you get breadcrumb consistency.  (The best way really is to use your fingers - this was my fave bit as a kid!).
3. Pour the crumble mix on top of the fruit, don't pat it down, it needs to be loose, and pop it in the oven for 20 mins.
Can't really go wrong with a good old crumble! 

Yummy yummy! A good crumble always goes down well! i'm going to do a strawberry crumble next!!  

Pulled pork

I'd been fancying having a go at pulled pork for a while now. I got a new slow cooker book called "I <3 my slow cooker". Its a really good book, it has recipes for sauces, soups and puddings too!

2 tbsp brown sugar (I used caster sugar because that was all I had)

1tsp paprika

2tsp rosemary or thyme
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Boneless pork shoulder (I couldn't find shoulder so I've used fillet)
2 sliced onions
185ml dry white wine (I used dry cider)

1. Combine the sugar, paprika, herbs,  ginger and lemon zest and rub onto the pork.

2. Put the pork, onions and cider (or wine) into the slow cooker and cook on low for 12 hours.

3. Remove the pork from the cooker and wrap it in foil and leave to rest for 10 mins. Keep the iuices covered in the slow cooker to keep warm.

4. Put the pork on a plate and pull apart with 2 forks, and serve with mash or chips and use the juices to make gravy.

It was nice. I don't know if I'd use this exact recipe again, it wasn't as flavourful as I was hoping (might try something tomato based next time) but the gravy is what made it I think. It went down really nicely with an Oak aged or vintage Cider!

To Longleat!

So a few weekends ago i went with a friend to Longleat. When i was young a day trip to Longleat was THE day out, and i can't remember the last time i went!

We went on a Sunday for about 10.30 and we really did get there at the right time - all the animals had just been fed so were out in the open!

Bongo's!

The car survived the monkeys....luckily it was such a hot day they didn't seem too bothered about picking apart cars!

This ostrich was inspecting every car that it came across!

Aaaand then came deer feeding time.....

They were everywhere.....i think more food ended up being snorted back into the car than they actually ate!!

It was nice to see the lions not asleep!

They were a bit grumbly because they had food!

I don't think I've ever seen the wolves in the times I went as a kid so to actually see them was amazing!

They had a "walk with the penguins" section where they just had a little penguin waddling around - soo cute!!

I think one of the best bits of the day was the birds of prey show. There were vultures, owls and kites, it really was amazing!  Didn't get any pictures - we were too busy ducking as they flew over us!

It was such a good day out!