Camera Backlog and Other Magic.

I've finally had time to go through the ole' camera and dig out some nice food snaps from this summer. It's going to be like show and tell, yay! :D 

Righty, so here goes:

OREO BROWNIES. 

Not too impressed with the excess light but they were super yummy and I swear that anything + chunks of Oreo = a good thing. Oreos make me super nostalgic too, I remember when I was in junior school and they weren't in supermarkets so I used to ask my poor mother to go specialist food places to get me my Oreo fix :)

Chrysanthemum Tea Jellies!! 

They are absolutely adorable, and we made them in these cutesy molds. I was totally gooey when I saw them...

Stockpiling Reese's 


BECAUSE THEY'RE SO YUMMYANDADDICTIVE. And because my mum spoils me. Hah.

Eating raspberries in Bloomsbury after taking part in that feature for The Times :)

Home-made macarons sandwiched with Nutella and peanut butter.


...yummy :D

BABY TOMATOES. 


We're growing them in our garden at the moment and they are adorbs.


p.s. I've been asked what camera I use and it's a Nikon Coolpix L120. I bought it as a bit of an exam stress impulse buy but it is one of the coolest things I own. It's super useful and sturdy, fits in my hobbit hands and wasn't expensive at all. (I'm not getting paid by Nikon to advertise btw, but it's just SO AWESOME). 

Short and Sweet ♥

Major Macaron Love! Photography by Robyn Lee

‘All good things must come to an end,’ a phrase first echoed by Chaucer in 1347 and more recently by Nelly Furtado albeit through a different medium, certainly rings true in the following tale to which I now relate. This is because a short while ago, I made the life changing decision to do a sugar detox, that is, completely give up on dessert and excessively sugary snacks for an extended period.


This self induced tragedy may seem quite melodramatic to most ordinary folk, however any seasoned dessert lover will know that kicking this decadent, sugary habit is worse than giving up smoking. There are no friendly and supportive helplines to call when you feel like you’re missing out on a sugar rush, no NHS funded counselling, no patches, or even some sort of bizarre inhaler to help counteract the longing for something luxuriously sweet and yummy tap dancing on one’s palate.

Chocolate Millefeuille from William Curley, yum! Photography by suziedepingu

I did however, have an extremely good reason for taking this somewhat drastic step. For the majority of my life I had happily succumbed to the temptation of every yummy treat presented to me, be it a decadent Ladurée macaron or the humble sticky toffee pudding, with sheer and unabashed abandon, completely reckless as to the possible consequences of my inability to curb my appetite for anything that consisted mostly of sugar. 


Like a bad boyfriend I had indulged for too long, my relationship with sweetness had actually soured with my love for dessert and was playing havoc with my system, in the form of an expanding waistline and constant sugar highs which needed constant refuelling lest they fall into the dreaded sugar lows – all this possibly furthered by my potent fear and hatred of rigorous exercise.


This was quite an extreme regime, but I did want to distance myself away from anything too sugary for a fortnight to ensure that my evil sugar dependence was well and truly annihilated. I have to admit, the no cake rule was somewhat painful but I soldiered on, knowing that it was for the best. I have never crash dieted, mainly because I have zero self control and I am easily persuaded by food adverts (M & S anyone?) so this was really a test of my willpower.

Brownies and Whipped Cream? Ooh yah. Photography by Robyn Lee

My most embarrassing moment, by a mile, was probably when I spent a considerable amount of time eyeing up a gorgeous display in Pierre Hermé not unlike a slimy pervert giving a couple of buxom maids a long and salacious look of lasciviousness. I was however brought back to my senses by an assistant who peered at me through the other side of the shop window worriedly and gave a small wave. 


Although this was nowhere near as bad as being caught playing strip poker by one of my form tutors in senior school, this was pretty high up on my personal ‘everyday life embarrassing incidents’ scale, somewhat above the ordinary awkwardness of say, walking out of the house with hair rollers still attached or perhaps dropping a silver platter on a child’s head (unfortunately all real life incidents that have actually occurred within my lifetime).

Cinnananananamon Buns forever! Photography by Robyn Lee

Despite the fact that this was not a particularly pleasant experience, I now had plenty of time to reassess my excesses. What had originally been occasional comfort eating had turned to a discomforting habit and after my sugar free fortnight, I saw the benefits. My waistline had (not surprisingly) shrunk and I was no longer a victim of my mid afternoon sugar grouches. With great trepidation I have now decided to hit the dessert trolley once more but this time, instead of my previous regime of careless abandon, there will definitely be some casual calorie control going on.


One profoundly interesting thing I did discover though, when I took the time to retrain my palate, was that I was enjoying eating dessert far more than I previously had. I was no longer on a crazed, one woman mission to devour every single type of known dessert on the planet, for I had somehow managed to retrain myself to relish one tasty dessert and leave things be. And so readers, I leave you with another well known saying which summarises what I have learnt from this experience...when it comes to dessert and sugary treats, less is most definitely more.

♥