Make Bake and Grow

Calling all bakers and crafty types... the Charming Armley Cake Competition is back but under the new guise of Make Bake and Grow.

On Sunday afternoon there will be a competition for all items you have baked, made or grown:

"YOU CAN ENTER ONE OR ALL, WE DON'T MIND, IN FACT, WE'D PROBABLY PREFER IT IF YOU ENTERED A FEW...!

Cakes: This year's categories are Little ‘Uns, Stroppy Teens, Grown-Ups, Weird & Wonderful, Pimp My Cake and Cookie Cake Pie

Home Brew: Enter your cordial, ale or wine, or all three!

Preserves: Enter your jams, pickles, chutneys, no toe nails please!

Craft: Enter your perfect pinnies or tremendous teacosies, with 'Pimp My Spoon' activity on the day for kids! There is an open class for anything else you have made.

Vegetable Art: Turn your humble fruit or veg into an art work that Picasso or Henry Moore would have been proud of!"

I will be entering and so should you. If last year was anything to go by there will also be the chance to eat all of the entries at the end... you cant beat free home made cake.

There will also be a Morris Dancing workshop and display from Briggate Morris too and all sorts of wonderful craft stalls to browse.

Read the report from last years event here. I hope the weather is a little better this time!

Visit the Make Bake and Grow Blog and Facebook Group for further details

12pm-4pm Charlie Cake Park (At the very top of Armley Town Street) Sunday 4th October 2009

The Olive Tree Headingley

My friend Emma and I decided to go for a Greek themed lunch at the Olive Tree in Headingley. This is a well respected local business with three restaurants in the city.

We decided to order from the lunch menu which offered a good choice of meals for £7.95. For starters we shared Potato Keftedes- deep fried potato cakes with a delicious nutty flavour, and some lamb meatballs in tomato sauce. The potato cakes were particularly interesting, nothing like what I expected but really good.

For the main course we both had the Lamb Moussaka. The portion size was generous and the dish tasty although I felt the bechamel sauce was very thick and almost a bit gloopy.



We also shared a nice bottle of Greek Rose.

The service was friendly and attentive throughout and it was a lovely (and filling) lunch.

The Olive Tree

*Traditional Greek Food
*Good value lunch menu
*Good Service

74 Otley Rd
Leeds,
LS6 4BA
0113 274 8282

Website

Grub Excursion #14 Otley- Jewel of India

I was in Otley at the weekend for the Folk Festival. A large group of us decided that we should all go for a curry, a table was booked at the Jewel of India at the top of Bridge Street.

The restaurant is in a tiny cottage, the dining room split over 2 levels. We were put upstairs in an alcove that nicely accommodated our large party.

The menu is not unlike any other Indian, although it was laid out clearly and there was a section entitled 'milder beginners dishes'.

We were provided with a pickle tray and poppadoms whilst we looked at the menu. I always like to see a pickle tray that has a nice selection and includes lime pickle, it sometimes gets left off!

I chose onion bhaji for a starter and the Chicken Kashmir for main course. We did the usual thing of sharing rice and naan breads.

The onion bhajis were huge, nice and crisp, I was glad that I was sharing mine! The 1970's style lemon wedge squeezer made me giggle, it was a bit retro and unnecessary!

The main courses were impressive, these were the Special Thali dishes:
My Chicken Kashmir was nicely presented with slices of banana, and the rich, sweet, fruity sauce was full of chunks of pineapple and lychee. The portion was a reasonable size, enough but not too big, some curry houses have the tendency to serve unfinishable portions.

Every dish looked different, and everyone scraped their plates which was a good sign. The service throughout was good humoured and attentive, but a little slow towards the end, especially when we were waiting for our bill which was really annoying as we had somewhere to go afterwards. This however was the only low point of an otherwise excellent meal. The bill including drinks worked out at under £15 per head.


The Jewel of India

*Traditional Curry House
*Tasty Food
*Slightly slow service

1 Bridge St
Otley,
LS21 1BQ
01943 467138

Home for Tea, Radio interview

Home for tea is complete! Still digesting all of the food, and then we will start doing the write ups. In the mean time you might want to listen to my interview about the day on BBC radio Leeds. You can listen to the show Here. The interview begins at 45mins into the show. Enjoy and make sure you donate!

Just Bean Coffee

I was getting one of my favourite blueberry crumble slices from Out of This World, when I decided that it would be perfectly complimented by a coffee.

Just Bean is a tiny little kiosk in a side street just opposite the Corn Exchange, selling mainly drinks and a few sandwiches (most of which are vegetarian/vegan). All of the hot drinks are fair trade and organic including the milk and sugar, and small coffees start at just £1.

I had a mocha (just £2). It was made with 2 shots of espresso and cocoa powder, and even with 2 spoons of sugar it was strong, verging on bitter, but just perfect with a big sweet slab of cake.

If you want the ethical option without breaking the bank, and you like your coffee strong, Just Bean is just the place!

Just Bean
*Fully fair trade and organic drinks
*Coffee from just £1
*Vegetarian/ vegan sandwiches

18 New Market St
Leeds
LS1 6DG
0113 245 6900

Salsa Mexicana Revisited

We had another excellent, good value meal in Salsa Mexicana last night and I thought it was worth a mention. There has been a bit of a re-jig with the menu, with a few new dishes and a bit more variety. They now have a website where you can see the menu. Well worth checking out. Read the original post Here

Latitude Wines

As part of the Send me to Sydney competition that is going on at Sourrain's Blog we went for a wine tasting at Latitude wines.

We tried a number of wines from the Hunter Valley in NSW and we were told all about the varieties of grape grown in the region, and how the weather affects how the wine tastes. It was really interesting, and you could tell that the staff were really enthusiastic about the wine we were trying.

I have been to Latitude a few times and I have always found that the staff are helpful and knowledgeable about the wines and always willing to help you to choose a bottle.

If you want to do a bit of wine tasting yourself, there is a free wine tasting session every Friday from 5pm to 7pm. There are always 2 wines to try and you get a 10% discount if you buy 2 or more bottles of the features wines.

Latitude Wine

*Independent wine merchant
*Knowledgeable staff
*Regular free tasting sessions

5 Cherry Tree Walk
The Calls
Leeds,
LS2 7EB
0113 245 3393

Website

The Russian Restaurant

We had to do a bit of a planning trip to Bradford for Home for Tea, and spent an afternoon of hard work wandering round looking at the lovely buildings and doing research with the locals in the City Vaults pub.

As time was getting on we decided to stay in Bradford for our evening meal and try the Russian Restaurant.

You enter through some big red imposing doors, and go through the bar area into the basement level restaurant. The tables are separated by ornate carved wooden screens and the smell of incense fills the dimly lit room.

I have never had Russian food before and really had no idea what to expect. The restaurant owner Vlad made us feel very welcome and helped us choose from the menu.

To start I had a pancake that was filled with pork and egg and then fried, which was pretty tasty, Gev had borscht and Tom had a soup from the specials board made with lamb and tomato which was really really good.

For my main course I had Kotleta which was described as a stuff minced turnover. It was like a patty of minced meat that was then served covered in a creamy mushroom stroganoff. Again really tasty, and when served with the buttery mashed potato it made for a hearty comfort eating experience. It was made all the better washed down with a couple of bottles of the Baltika 7 larger, a pale refreshing brew.For pudding we shared an Almond Tart with chocolate. It sounded irresistible with 'biscuit base and butter nougat cream with caramel, roasted peanuts and milk chocolate'. The only way I can describe how it tasted was like a thin layer of densely textured almond sponge, with a melted snickers sat on top! It was delicious, but I'm glad I shared it.

We decided that it would have been rude to leave without sampling some of the vodkas on offer. We all had a shot of the Polish cherry vodka, which was so sweet it could be sipped and on Vlads recommendation Tom finished with a shot of the super chilled (to the point of being syrup) Russian Standard Vodka, with the obligatory pickle to finish!

The restaurant currently has 10% off food and 25% of alcohol if you go Sunday to Thursday, so after the discounts our total bill worked out at just £25 each. We thought this was a great bargain, and happy with our bellies full and glowing from the vodka we toddled over to Forsters Sq station, conveniently just over the road from the restaurant for the train back to Leeds.

This is the only Russian Restaurant in Yorkshire, and it certainly is a wonderful and unique dining experience.

The Russian Restaurant

*Traditional hearty Russian food
*Good value (esp. with off peak discounts)
*Friendly, personal service

15 Manor Row,
Bradford,
BD1 4PB,
West Yorkshire
01274 733121
Website

Home for Tea, An Update

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, CLICK HERE for more information)

I'm really excited, Home for Tea is just 2 weeks away. Loads of restaurants are showing interest, Salsa Mexicana and Sandinista have welcomed us with open arms, we are still making arrangements with others.

We hope to raise loads of money for the lovely Smile Train, a charity that helps children with cleft palates in the developing world. Please make a donation now on our JUST GIVING page and join our FACEBOOK GROUP.

We need to say a really special thanks to Vector Design Concepts who have kindly designed and donated this excellent poster and a logo, look out for these posters springing up in destination restaurants over the next couple of weeks.

Please get involved however you can, its going to be a really fun event.