Cafe Italiano

Last weekend I went somewhere in leicester i had never eaten before, on the recommendation of a freind. Cafe Italiano, with it's almost minimal feel and singing waiter, seriously he'd burst into song ever so often, just a few lines, and banter with customers.
They don't take cards, just cash or cheques, which is unusual these days. It was a lovely restaurant and the food was good italian food, I shall go again soon i think.
Mark ordered spaghetti bolognaise, which is fairly normal, I went for the tagliatelle 4 formaggi, I love cheese!
Here is M enjoying his food.

and my tagliatelle and latte.

I just wanted to say, if you haven't already checked them out, the other food blogs i link to are well worth a look.

crazy bakin

I had a bit of a mad spree of baking tuesay night. Sadly the mixture turnedout to be a bit bland, so while everything is tasty enough on its own, it doesn't deliver the utter deliciousness of the banana cake. Still I bake and learn.
Some of these are destined for icing and stuff anyway, so we shall see how it all works out in the long run.

Dark Chocolate and White choc/vanilla mini muffins


banana muffins, cupcake sized


And todays lunch, scrambled egg on toast. I used three eggs a lump of butter, a splash of milk, a little mustard, some strong italian cheese and some slced pimento stuffed olives.
YUM!

Incidentally, i only have two of these plates and two mugs to match, the pink and a dark brown, they are from Habitat and are more than i usually spend on plates. I just totally fell in love with them.

micro kitchen

I have such a tiny kitchen, and it is so overcrowded, but I thought i'd share some pics.

The Spice rack, by the door into the hall.


The Counter, my only work surface, the other wall houses the sink, the oven and one cupboard with the microwave on top and the boiler on the wall above that,



And on top of the cupboards

So there you go, that's where it all takes place.

Conversions for Kamper

As my one loyal reader here I wanted to give you those conversions.

150g sugar is 3/4 cup
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour is 225g
1/2 cup of sour cream is 120g

soooo, I would go with 50g = 1/4 cup and feel your way from there. To be honest i am hardly the worlds most precise weigher so I don't think you can go far wrong. :)

Ok, Banana cake
this is adapted from the womens weekly cafe cakes book.

3 medium/overripe bananas, mashed
125g butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinamon and nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup milk

perheat oven to moderate
grease a loaf tin (15 x 25 cm) and line the base with greasproof paper, just the base tho.
beat the butter, sugar and spice together thoroughly
beat int he eggs
stir in flour, soda and everything else
stir until your happy its mixed
pour it into the tin and shove it in the ven for about 50 mins
when its done stand it for 5mins, then turn it out to cool.

I iced mine with 1 1/2cups icing sugar, 1tsp of marg mixed, then a few squirts of lime juice and just enough cream to make it a paste, very sweet, kind of fondnty flavour.

I missed something

Not surprising really, being new to reading the community of food blogs out there and not really being a food blogger in earnest, so much as posting a few recipes to amuse myself and keep Kamper busy. ;)
So, much as i am a huge fan of the humble cheese sandwich and of other peoples food blogs i only just stumbled on this
http://www.laist.com/archives/2006/02/18/glossy_mags_vs_foodblogs.php
basically some guy in a magazine said food blogs are about as interesting as a cheese sandwich and as a result a lot of food bloggers posted recipes of cheese sadnwiches in protest.
Well yumm, frankly. :)