Royal Wedding Garden Party

Though like most Britons we’re hardly enamoured with the royal family, we decided that the bank holiday we were gratefully bestowed shouldn’t go to waste, so we decided to celebrate in the only way we know how, with food and drink!

Because the forecast’s were mixed to say the least I abandoned my idea to have a day long BBQ and decided to make a completely homemade buffet with BBQ food to accompany if the weather held out. Luckily the weather on the day was actually pretty glorious which allowed us to both BBQ and buffet (the best of both worlds). I wanted everything eaten to be homemade but because of a few surprise visitors we eventually had to break the rule and rustle up a few sausages (veggie and pork).

The day itself was a huge success and despite our best efforts we were all whisked up into the romantic and patriotic frenzy surrounding the wedding and by the time the couple drove off in their vintage aston martin everyone was feeling very patriotic.

The BBQ consisted of homemade burgers (meat), salmon fillets (for the pescatarians), lamp chops , chicken skewers and the aforementioned sausages.

The Buffet took a considerable amount of preparation and consisted of a pasta (with a chilli and cheese pesto), a lemon and feta salad, a green salad, homemade cheese and homemade sausage rolls, a BEAUTIFUL satay sauce (which I will dedicate a post to another time), grilled asaparagus with Lancashire cheese, cheese and crackers (admittedly not homemade) and an Eton Mess!

Our lovely friends Hannah and Chloe also made a huge chocolate cake with a message which was very patriotic (if written a little too soon).

All in all it was a fantastic day and hopefully the first off many dinner parties throughout the summer!

Arriabata Pasta Sauce

I’m absolutely obsessed with pasta, I feel like it is one of the most versatile food types out there. It can be made into a winter warmer, or the same recipe with a slight modification can be a light lunch on a summer day. I must eat about 5 or 6 pasta meals a week and it’s probably only Nicola who stops me from eating any more.

The following recipe is one of my favourites, its an arriabata sauce which I make about once a week. I’ve tinkered with it for quite a while now but I don’t think I ‘ll ever stop playing around with the ingredients. The pictures we’ve used here show ingredients which I haven’t included in the recipe but I decided to just write out the instructions for the sauce not the whole meal.

Asparagus Soup With Poached Egg & Grilled Bread

After months of procrastination I finally purchased myself a quality food processor and blender and I can promise anyone who hasn’t bought one, they really are essential. Since I’ve bought mine, I’ve hardly stopped using it. I’m a huge fan of homemade soups and though I know there are plenty of fantastic ways of making soups without a processor, I’ve never really spent much time experimenting with them. That has definitely changed recently and my fridge has been fully stocked with soup this month!

This soup is perfect for either a winter or summer lunch, the vegetables used are really homely but when added together they create quite a light soup. I thought this soup was a lovely mixture of breakfast food with lunch, so we ate this at brunch, I really recommend it! 

The base of this recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at home. It is really easy to make and doesn’t take much time either. Carry on reading for the recipe!

 

Introductions

Hi & welcome to Cook, Eat, Treat. We are Nic & Tom, a couple in our twenties from North West England.

Here at Cook, Eat, Treat we will be posting about (arguably) the finest thing in life; good food! From recipes & photographs of our culinary adventures, to restaurant food reviews & probably some posts about alcohol once in a while!


Expect food photography of enthusiastic-amatuer level & lots of gushing over fresh ingredients & calorific treats. Don't expect much meat on the recipe side of things; Tom is a pescatarian (doesn't eat meat, but does eat fish) and he does pretty much all of the cooking! But Nic still gets her meat fix at restaurants so some will pop up in those type of posts.


Thankyou for reading; we hope you will carry on visiting our blog :)!