~*Merry Christmas 2016!*~

Hallo!

I know it's a little late, but...Merry Christmas! I hope you had a great one :)

As always, I'm posting a photo of my international "Christmas Table" -  as you can see, it's pretty similar to every year. From traditional Turkey and veg to Japanese Sushi and Filipino "Lumpia" Spring Rolls, all of it contributed to my additional festive lbs, which I thoroughly enjoyed gaining!

Can you tell which one I enjoyed the most...?

Merry Christmas!! :)

~*Date night in Paris*~

J and I have just returned from a lovely weekend in the city of love. Though it was a very quick trip, we managed to cram a lot of activities in, from The Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, to Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe and the breath-taking and beautiful Eiffel Tower at night.


Of course, no trip is complete without sampling the local cuisine, and we made it a mission to eat Parisian-style crepes, escargot and frogs legs during our visit to the French capital.


J, who is fairly familiar with Paris (he has visited on a number of occasions, and speaks pretty mean French too!), led us to Quartier Latin  (The Latin Quarter), where there are a number of bars and restaurants to cater for all tastes, but mainly serving French cuisine.


We decided on a quaint restaurant on the main strip called Le Symposium for our Parisian date night. At 15 euros each for a 3 course meal, we thought it was pretty reasonably priced.


The ambience of the restaurant was very French - calm, sophisticated and romantic. An ideal setting for date night with mon amour!


We started dinner with a bottle of red wine (Cotes du Rhone), which was fairly priced (for Paris!) at 18 euros.

For starters, we ordered escargot in garlic butter sauce (6 snails per person), which was amazing!! J and I both love garlic, so this was ideal. The strong flavours of the garlic mixed with the subtle taste of snail resulted in the perfect balance. For those who may be slightly uncomfortable with eating snails, don't be - they are delicious and definitely worth a go! Just don't be put off by the texture! We also had a side of frogs legs which, at 10 euros per plate, I thought was quite steep, given that the portion was pretty small. Nevertheless, they were very tasty and we polished them off with no problems.

Frogs legs!

Escargot in garlic butter sauce

For mains, J ordered a classic French Beef Bourguignon and I had steak (cooked perfectly rare, mmm!!) with peppercorn sauce. Again, absolutely delicious - we couldn't fault either dishes.

Beef Bourguignon

Steak with Peppercorn sauce

Rare is the best!

Dessert was Crème Caramel, which was a lovely way to end such a pleasant dinner.

Crème Caramel dessert

The bill came to 58 euros in total which, for Paris, is not bad at all. The food was basic but fantastic, the service was great and the dining experience as a whole was wonderful.  


We visited the Eiffel Tower after dinner (which was amazing and super romantic - the boy did very good!) and after a couple of hours there, we ended the night with a savoury crepe each, filled with ham, eggs and cheese. There are several crepe vans dotted around Paris so they are readily available. We paid 6 euros each for our crepes (near the Eiffel Tower), but you can easily get them slightly cheaper (around 5 euros) if you shop around.


To me, Paris is like a fine wine - it will take me time to truly appreciate the beauty of it. However, the memories I have of our trip are very happy ones!


If you do visit Paris (or anywhere in France), I would totally recommend that you try French cuisine (like escargot and frogs legs) - it is simply delicious. For when it happens (and I hope that it does)...Bon Appetit!! XOXO  

<3

Le Symposium

29 Rue de la Huchette

75005 Paris, France

+33 1 43 54 28 98

~*Cooking with Bae: Part 2 - Super Easy Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce (aka "Speggy")*~

One of J's all-time favourites but this time, without a ready-made sauce jar in sight!



For part 2 of "Cooking with Bae", we decided on a simple, inexpensive and incredibly tasty homemade Spaghetti Bolognaise sauce, served with a side of warm bread, Italian ham with a hint of Rosemary, sliced Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil and olives, all drizzled with olive oil and mixed herbs. Oh, and not forgetting the red wine to wash all of the deliciousness down...super nom!



It's difficult to go wrong with Spaghetti Bolognaise (or "Speggy", as J calls it). With the simple ingredients that are super cheap to pick up from your local supermarket (ours were all purchased at a reasonable price from Aldi) and the easiness of putting them together, you'll find that the most difficult bit is to make sure that the pasta and sauce are done around the same time.




Again, head chef J did a great job working the cooking tools - you wouldn't think that this was only his second time cooking something from scratch! I only had to guide him occasionally, just to talk him through the order in which things had to go into the pan, how long to cook them for, etc, but in general, he had it all well under control. It was obvious that he had grown in confidence following the success of his Paella (please see "Cooking with Bae" - part 1!) and he whipped this concoction of tomato-based delightfulness up to perfection.




And folks, this is how he did it...




Super Easy Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce (aka "Speggy") - serves 4*



*It actually served 2 in our case. Both J and I have pretty big appetites, though J can REALLY put it away!



1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil
500g minced beef
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1/2 diced onion (white or red) - we used white.
1/2 diced red pepper
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 chopped button mushrooms
Tomato puree
Green olives
A splash of red wine (to taste)
Mixed herbs (to taste)
Salt and pepper (to season)
Shredded basil




1. Heat oil in a cooking pan. Add the garlic and onion and cook over a medium heat for around 30 seconds.




2. Add the minced beef and fry until browned. Stir in the can of chopped tomatoes. To make the mixture more "sauce-like", add a little bit of water to reach your desired consistency.



3. Add the tomato puree. How much depends on how "tomato-ey" you want the bolognaise sauce to be.



4. Allow the sauce to simmer for a couple of minutes, then stir in the red pepper and mushrooms. Add a handful of green olives and a sprinkle of mixed herbs. Let the sauce simmer lightly (over a low heat) for another couple of minutes.



5. Splash (or pour, it's completely up to you!) a bit of red wine into the sauce. As tempting as it may be, please refrain from adding the entire bottle! Mix the sauce.

6. Place a generous amount of sauce on top of cooked pasta (we chose Spaghetti) and decorate with shredded basil. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Chopping away at onions!



Head chef J at work!

Adding a "splash" of red wine...glug glug.

The finished product!

Nom nom!

The sides!

After dinner! Alfie cat missed the dinner party!

~*Cooking with Bae: Part 1 - Simple Paella & Guacamole*~

J and I had been hemming and hawing for a while about what to cook for our first "Cooking with Bae" sesh. Japanese, Mexican, Italian...so many great cuisines to choose from!



In the end, we settled on a Spanish/Mexican/French fusion - a simple Paella, Guacamole dip and a side of baked baguettes (which we didn't bake ourselves - yes, we cheated!), Ardennes pate and Spanish meats. This was served with a large bottle of Sangria.


Head chef J was in charge of cooking the Paella while I, sous chef MY, whipped up the Guacamole and prepped the table.


For someone who hasn't had very much experience in the kitchen, J did a brilliant job of the Paella! I was pleasantly surprised at how well he took to cooking, and he looked so cute using the spatula when mixing everything up in the frying pan...:) I'll be sure to give him a more challenging dish to cook next time...without my help!


Both dishes turned out very well, but the Paella for sure was the star of the show. J was so proud of himself that he ended up cooking the Paella for some friends when he went back down to London. I've been told that he got massive thumbs-up for his efforts too!


Anyway, here are the recipes that we followed for the Paella and Guacamole...enjoy! XOXO

Paella  (serves 2)

1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil
Slice chorizo (please feel free to be generous with this!)
1/2 diced onion
1/4 tsp turmeric
300g cooked plain rice
100g cooked prawn
50g frozen peas
Lemon wedges (to serve)

1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Tip in the chorizo, onion and garlic, then cook for a couple of minutes until softened. Stir through turmeric, followed by the rice, prawns and peas and 150ml of water.


2. Keep stirring until everything is warmed through and the water has been absorbed. The rice should still be wet. Decorate with lemon wedges.



Guacamole (serves 2)


2 ripe avocadoes, mashed
1 diced tomato
1/2 diced red onion (or a whole one, depending on how strong you want the bite)
Chopped coriander
1/2 lemon for the juice (to taste)
Salt and pepper (to season)


1. Place the mashed avocadoes, tomato, red onion and coriander into a bowl and mix well.


2. Take the lemon and squeeze small amounts of juice into the avocado mixture at a time. Keep adding the juice until you are happy with the taste.
3. Add salt and pepper to season.







J working his magic!



The table! Alfie the cat was "guarding" the food at the time!



Made with love

~*Introducing...Cooking with Bae!*~

Hi everyone!




I can't believe it's been so long since my last post (especially after I promised I would blog more)! I would say I've been super busy with life in general, which is kinda true, but to be completely honest, I've been pretty lazy with blogging over the past few months (or years)...but I'm back now!



Anyway the reason for this post is to introduce a new segment to MyMy's Munchies, which is called...*drum roll*... Cooking with Bae!! And you've probably guessed it...I will be cooking with bae! My boyfriend J (i.e. "bae") and I are currently in a long-ish distance relationship (him being in London and me being 294 miles away up north, near Newcastle), and since we both love food and are trying to find inexpensive things we can do as a couple so we can afford travel fares to see each other, we are going to be experimenting with cooking dishes from around the world from the comfort of my kitchen!



As some of you may know, I really enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes, however J hasn't had a lot of experience in the kitchen and is very much a "sauce from a jar" kind of man. In order to challenge his limits, J has been appointed head chef during our "Cooking with Bae" cookathons, a responsibility I am confident he will undertake very well (though if I get food poisoning, you know why!).

We hope that you will enjoy this segment and maybe learn some new and simple dishes to try out yourselves along the way!

Also, if you are an Instagram user, you can find some of our dishes using #cookingwithbae! Make sure you click the "heart" button to like!

Happy cooking!

XOXO

~*I'm baaaack!! With an Italian Spread to Share!!*~

Hello all!

It's been a while!!



First of all, sorry for being rubbish by abandoning MyMy's Munchies for over a year. To be honest, I had a pretty lazy 2015, plodding on with life, going to work, coming home from work, etc etc...but now I am back and ready to share more foodie posts with you all!



I have promised myself that I will be more active in 2016, and it's been a pretty good year so far! I am currently training for my first 10k run (eeek!) which my friend Rachel and I will be doing for Cancer Research, eating better (ish...weekends don't count!) and generally trying to live a happy and healthy life. I'm also in the process of going through something really big (aaaahhh!!!), but more on that once everything has been finalised.

Anyhoo...food!

Recently, my mum and I decided to prepare an Italian-inspired dinner with lots of bread, olives and anything Italian we could find in our local supermarket. We decided on Italian food that day based on my mum's olive and bread craving, as well as her being super hungry. She was literally grabbing anything she could find in Sainsbury's and sticking them in our shopping basket. Note to self - don't go shopping whilst hungry!

With our mounds of stock, we prepared our spectacular spread which consisted of the following:

- Bruschetta (oven-baked tiger bread with garlic butter, basil, tomato, mozzarella cheese and Italian ham)
- Bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a side of black and green olives
- Ham, feta cheese (OK, so we turned Greek here...) and sundried tomato skewers
- Sliced avocado drizzled with olive oil
- Courgette and carrot "vegetti" with Bolognaise sauce

All washed down with a bottle of super sweet dessert wine (you can find a great selection in Sainbury's).

And here is how it all turned out...