M.O.B Paris

Another vegan place that I went to in Paris was M.O.B. Everything about this place was amazing, from the food to the decor.

My two favourite places in the world are New York and Paris, and M.O.B is a place where the two have come together.

The first M.O.B opened in Brooklyn in early 2012 before opening in Paris a few months later.

Since I visited it has now moved to a larger space which makes me want to go back and explore it!

The food was delicious and the perfect meal for the cold rainy day that we went on. I particularly loved the Raspberry Lemon Fizzy Lizzy drinks they had from America as this was my favourite drink when I visited New York a few years ago.

The best cookies I've ever made

I've been searching for a recipe to make apricot, almond and chocolate cookies for a while and recently I came across the perfect one (after a little tweeking!).

This recipe makes around 12-18 cookies depending on the size you make them.

210g plain flour

half a tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

170g butter (I use Pure sunflower spread)

220g light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

80g chocolate (I use a Kinnerton dairy free bar cut up into pieces) 

70g almonds chopped

120g dried apricots chopped into quarters

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.

2. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

3. Add the flour, soda and salt.

4. Stir in the almonds, apricots and chocolate.

5. Line a tray with baking paper and spoon the mixture on - around one tablespoon per cookie - I usually do 6 cookies at a time to give them room to spread out.

6. Pop them in the oven at 180ºC for 10-12 minutes.

East Side Burgers

A few weeks before travelling to Paris I decided to stop eating dairy and I was determined to stick to my new diet there despite knowing how hard it would be! 

Having lived in Paris as a child I knew that cheese and butter where going to be the main ingredient in most meals, but after a bit of research I found some place that would cater for my fussiness! 

The easiest way to do this was to go down the vegan route as I knew this would completely eliminate the risk of dairy being present in anything.

The first place we visited was East Side Burgers. A vegetarian fast food outlet, they served a selection of tofu burgers which also had a vegan option (they just took the cheese out), as well as vegan hotdogs and for dessert some vegan cookies and tartelettes (they tasted amazing!!). The prices were very good for Paris, with a meal - burger, fries and a drink - only being €9.

The staff were incredibly friendly and the decor of the place was stylish and clean. We loved it so much that we went there twice during our stay (and a third time just to get some tartelettes!!). I will definitely go back there again and I wish there was one in London!!

More information can be found on there website http://www.eastsideburgers.fr/. 

Paris

Last month I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Paris with my friend. Booking our tickets for mid May we boarded the Eurostar and kept our fingers crossed for good weather!

Below are some pictures from our trip and I will be posting a few more blog entries of places we visited over the next couple of days.

All aboard the Orient Express...

Yesterday afternoon I was fortunate to go on the Orient Express thanks to my sister winning a competition with Yorkshire Tea!

Arriving at Victoria Station my sister had managed to secure first spot in the queue ready for our journey.

After a short wait we were able to enter the waiting lounge to collect our tickets and help ourselves to a cup of tea (the first of many!).

Before boarding the train we were given a quick talk by Michael Vaughan although he wasn't able to join us on the journey!

Upon taking our seats in the train we were handed a glass of Champagne each and promptly set off on our round trip of the countryside.

Each carriage was decorated with all things Yorkshire Tea with each passenger getting their very own mini red teapot (which we got to take home!!), a menu and map of the journey.

The food was absolutely delicious, with a selection of sandwiches, scones and cakes to finish. Our teapots were regularly topped up with boiling water so we could continue our tea drinking throughout!

Towards the end of our journey we were then each given a refreshing tea cocktail, made by Jakes Bar from Leeds. 

We didn't spend the whole day eating and drinking, but had a bit of fun too....

At the end of our journey we were each given a personalised 'Yorkshire Tea Times' with our photo on, which had been taken earlier in the day before boarding the train.

Thank you Yorkshire Tea for an amazing time!!

Hello 2013!

I didn't realise it had been quite so long since I last posted anything on here, so I thought I'd do a little round up of 2012 and welcome to 2013.

2012 was definitely an interesting year with a lot of big changes, the biggest one being that I graduated. After four years of working hard I finally got my degree from Chelsea College of Art and Design in Textile Design!

Since graduating life has definitely been interesting and has become a constant stream of job applications,  interviews, internships, paid work and more uncertainty than I'm used to! 

Last year I got the chance to intern at Jonathan Saunders, which was amazing and he is one of the nicest men in fashion that I've got to work with. Working on the prints for Women's Pre Fall 13 and Mens AW13 was really interesting and I learnt so much in such a short amount of time.

Alongside this I also interned with up and coming Canadian designer Cristina Sabaiduc. Working on every aspect of the design process from pattern cutting to sewing toiles to hand embellishment was an exciting journey and has added to the list of skills I am grateful to have picked up throughout my internships. For the SS13 collection we produced a 3D film that was shown at London Fashion Week and received a great response. Having recently finished working on the prints for the next AW13 season, I think this collection will be even better!

2012 ended on a sad note for my family as we had to say goodbye to my Great Gran. As a domestic science teacher, I always looked to my Great Gran as my source of creativity and she helped to support my love for textiles through giving me her old sewing machine and collection of fabrics. I based my first final year project Inside/Outside on pieces of old lace that she had given me, and in a strange coincidence the flowers that were used at her funeral were the same ones I used for my Final Major Project.

My beautiful Bernina sewing machine

 Lace from Inside/Outside

Final Major Project

Looking forward to the rest of 2013, I plan on making it an exciting year. A trip to Paris in May and some exciting work opportunities ahead, will definitely make it one to remember.