Friday Favourites - Cookbooks

With a weekend of dinner parties ahead of us, what better way to spend an early evening than flicking through a plethora of new cookbooks for some heavenly inspiration. Here at The Amazing Blog, we want to share with you some of the most mouth watering  new cookbooks that have just launched.

Honey & Co  is a tiny restaurant hidden in the backstreets of Central London. It lures you in with their talent of baked goodies. Bringing food from the Middle East, husband and wife team Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich founded Honey & Co. which specialises in the most yummy selection cakes and desserts.

However, now you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your home to get these delicious desserts, as Sarit and Itamar have launched Honey & Co cookbook. With recipes such a spiced carrot and walnut cake, raspberry and rose kadaif nests and apricot and elderflower jam just to name a few. Our favourite has to be cranberry, orange and almond caramel cookies. A simple and easy recipe and which had everyones taste buds going as soon as we opened the oven. Honey & Co: The Baking Book by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich is published by Saltyard Books in £25 hardback. Alternatively you can buy online here from The Book People. Also available as an eBook. 

As fruit goes with seasons so does cheese and reading through the pages of A Year in Cheese cookbook by Alex and Leo Guarneri we discovered so many things we didn’t know about this amazing source of calcium, we were left amazed! Alex and Leo take us on a journey through the seasons, explaining little gems like why you can’t have a proper goat’s curd in the Winter.

Their eye catching pictures will help you to spring from this damp February into a lustrous Summer with the freshness of their mozzarella and ricotta recipes.  And when it gets colder and all you want is to stay at home having dinner with your closest friends, the gruyere and reblochon menu suggestions will be the perfect choice. The recipes are so easy to follow that once you finished you just can't wait to start cooking again! If you want to explore the world of cheese then look no further. The book is available on White Stuff here for £20.

The finalist contestant Luis Troyano from The Great British Bake Off in 2014, decided to share his culinary knowledge publishing his very own book; Bake it Great. It is not a random collection of recipes but a proper baking course that guided us from the fundamentals. Starting from fillings like jam and custard, Luis teaches us how to cook the perfect bases for our little gastronomic accomplishments.

Here there is a recipe for every palate, we only had to open the book and whatever creation came up, we were only too happy to wear our aprons and start baking. We particularly liked the Butterscotch meringue tart and the traditional Empanadas. What we really liked was that at the very end of the book Luis listed few of the best shops where to find some of the harder to find ingredients. Buy your copy here a £13.60 for the hardcover and £10.79 for the Kindle edition.

Hosting a party and need a little inspiration for canapes? Look no further as the Clink Canape Cookbook has got it covered. Behind this cookbook is a heart-warming story, as it is created by Alberto Crisci founder of Clink Charity. This charity aims to reduce re-offending of prisoners through training and rehabilitation giving them new found culinary skills. These are then put into use at the Clink Restaurants in London, Wales, Cheshire and Surrey.

Alberto has compiled a collection of over 100 different canapé recipes from the friends, ambassadors and also from the prisoners at the Clink. With delicious recipes like mushroom and stilton tartlets, peach with cured ham bruschetta and smoked eel and beef terrine with horseradish; this cookbook is sure to get your taste buds tingling with delight. Grab the Clink Canapé Cookbook here for £14.99

Sally Clarke founded her legendary Notting Hill restaurant in 1984, pioneering seasonal fine dining and British cuisine. Now she celebrates it's thirty year anniversary by writing her own cookbook, 30 Ingredients. This book captures Sally’s love and passion for simple cooking.

The recipes are surrounded by Sally’s favourite thirty ingredients that she loves to cook with. There are so many delicious recipes with salad of duck breast with balsamic-roasted peaches and shallots to baked tomatoes with garlic and herb crumbs, you honestly wont know where to start! For more cooking inspiration, click here to get your copy at only £19.99.

Di Blasi – Multitasking Butter and Prickly Pear and Manna Cream

When we get home from The Amazing Blog Office, the last thing we want to do is endure a long skincare regime. However, we have found a solution to this possible problem with the Di Blasi’s Multitasking Butter Makeup Remover as well as the Prickly Pear and Manna Cream. In fact, all you need is just these two products to have clean, soft and hydrated skin.

What we love about the Di Blasi brand and these two products is that they shorten your skincare regime in just two quick simple steps. The Multitasking Butter not only removes your make up with ease but also soothes and hydrates your skin. The ingredients contain no alcohol, so you can wipe away the impurities without stinging your eyes. The Multitasking Butter can be used as a face cream, lip balm, hand cream and even helps to soothe your sunburn, so perfect for the forthcoming summer season. Blended with Shea and Mango Butter, calendula flowers, wheat oil and infused with organic lemon essential oil; which gives it a lovely light fragrance.

The Prickly Pear and Manna Cream will give your skin that extra hydration without leaving behind any oily residue. It is ideal for either oily or combination skin types as it has a blend of natural polysaccharides and mucilage from the prickly pear pads, with sugars from the Manna (which is grown in Sicily) all of which will help keep your skin looking tip top for the spring.

For that glowing and youthful looking complexion, purchase online at Di Blasi here which is £35 for the Multitasking Butter and £32.70 for the Prickly Pear and Manna Cream here.

Thermapen

When cooking, we all like to think we are a bit like ‘Nigella’ in the kitchen and we at The Amazing Blog love to expand our repertoire on cooking, experimenting with new recipes. We have found your must have cooking tool for the kitchen. The Thermapen will allow you to find out if your Sunday joint is thoroughly cooked without having to cut through half of it.

The simplicity of cooking has never been easier after Thermapen came into our lives. We can now stop playing the guessing game with our meat, all you have to do is probe into the joint and read the temperature, and it’s very fast and accurate. The Thermapen isn’t just for meat either, whether it’s baking a cheesecake or making homemade toffee, these normally require expertise skills, with their fussy timing, and the Thermapen however has handled it for you.

We think health and safety should always come first and the Thermapen allows us to put our mind at ease and stay safe. When cooking our Sunday roast we decided to try out the Thermapen for ourselves and we absolutely love how simple cooking was for us. We were able to sit and enjoy our Sundays without worrying about the beef inside the oven. Get yours here for £48. Here’s to stress-free cooking!

The Christmas Grand Sale

At The Amazing Blog, our excitement for Christmas is growing with every passing November day. With the shops starting to decorate and lights being strung along buildings and trees, we thought it would be appropriate to feature The Christmas Grand Sale. It is the perfect event to get some more inspiration for this year’s Christmas gift shopping.

The event will take place next week from 21^st-24^th November at Lindley Hall. This festive fair has an array of gifts from decorative home accessories to fashion pieces from 80 top quality gift companies. The emphasis of the event is on “individuality, style, and price.” This is the perfect opportunity to get even more gift ideas and spend the day shopping with family or  friends. The venue also offers shops with food to grab a quick lunch or snack as you walk around. The exhibitors will be displaying gifts from every department you can imagine. Unique items will be for sale from jewellery, fashion, and furniture to toys and homeware. Whether you’re looking for some stocking fillers, or larger presents, the Christmas Grand Sale is the place to find them!

On the opening night of the event, Wednesday 21^st November, there will be an exclusive sale where proceeds will go towards a charity. There will even be a prize ticket draw for £100 that evening. So why not jump on the bandwagon and start your Christmas shopping now. With incredible prices, the Christmas Grand Sale has a selection of gifts you won’t be able to get anywhere else. You can purchase tickets and view times for the event on their website here. We at The Amazing Blog love to get a head start on our Christmas shopping and feel The Christmas Grand Sale is a great place to start.

Balaton Spa Face Mask

Here at The Amazing Blog we love when we find pure products that are natural and really improve the look and feel of our skin. We have come across a line of products from Balaton Spa that are truly amazing. Ingredients coming from the rare Moorland Areas in Europe, these products are rich in all natural herbs and plants which have been decomposed over time. These essential ingredients are therapeutic and are what make this collection of spa products truly unique. Most of their products include ingredients that are 100% natural from the earth or water. White Water Lily, Camomile, Shea Butter, and Lemon Grass are just a few. Our personal favourite from their collection is Balaton Spa’s Face Mask. This unique mask is 100% natural. It deep cleanses, purifies, and refines your skin. You will see and feel the difference even after the first application. It leaves you feeling like you just had a facial at the spa, but for a margin of the cost. The mask is suitable for any skin type, even sensitive skin. We tried a fabulous morning routine using this face mask that has turned into a bi-weekly ritual. Apply the mask first thing in the morning, then brush your teeth for 3 minutes, jump in the shower, and wash the mask off. If you do this 3 times a week for the first week and then twice weekly, you are guarenteed to have amazing results.

The Amazing Blog also loves Balaton Spa’s travel bag and products. Appealing to men and women, the travel bag contains six products that are perfect to travel with. It includes a 25g Cleansing Bar which can be used as shaving cream or soap; a 20ml face mask; a 50ml bottle of Cleansing & Toning Lotion presented in a spray bottle, which can keep you cool by spraying over your face with a refreshing Lemon and Lime fragrance; a 20ml jar of face cream, the finishing touch to this facial regiment; 50ml bottles of body wash and lotion are included as well. You cannot go wrong with any of these products.

The FIRST 10 PEOPLE who order the Balaton Spa Face Mask for the special offer of £19.99 will also receive the bag and travel sized products- SEE THE OFFER HERE.