Home Ground Coffee - Review

I was recently sent some lovely coffee beans to review from Home Ground Coffee.  We were sent two different bags of beans.  You can have the beans ground to suit whatever coffee making device you have but as a coffee aficionado, Neil has a coffee grinder.

The coffee comes packaged up safely in packs of 250g or 500g.  We really loved the packaging which is very rustic but feels authentic and protects the beans well.  I also like the fact that there are a range of different delivery options which means you can tailor the cost to how urgently you require the coffee!

Another great way to enjoy coffee as a special treat for yourself or friends and family is through a coffee subscription.  I actually bought Neil one of these for his Birthday and he was really sad when it came to an end!  I think this is probably one of the best gifts I've found for him as it was a special treat that he could enjoy month after month.

Neil was a big fan of both coffees, but has written up his notes on Ethiopian blend which was his favourite.  

Out of the pack 

• The beans smell sweet with a slight hint of acidity and fruit.
• The roast is medium dark with a good shine.

Once Brewed

• The fruity notes really become apparent.
• The coffee is strong without being overbearing.
• It is a tasty coffee lovers coffee with lots of subtle complexities.

Overall we loved these coffees, they were clearly incredibly good quality, really special and full of flavour.  Now we just have to decide what beans to order next.

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DISCLOSURE:  We were sent two bags of coffee beans free of charge for the purpose of this review.  All words and opinions are our own.

Neil's Yummy Pasta Recipe

- Neil recently invented a very good vegetarian pasta recipe to help use up our mammoth bag load of orange peppers from Lewisham Market.  I asked him to write it up so I could pass the love around. So here we go 

P.s Picture from the first time N made the sauce to accompany stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. Also delicious!
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Hello!

This is a diamond of a recipe – great on its own with pasta as a quick lunch or supper, but equally makes a wonderful alfresco lunch with a chicken breast wrapped in bacon.

4 Peppers – any colour but green. I love the orange ones for the colour.

Half a packet of passata (or half of any canned tomato)

2 tbsp of light muscavado sugar

1 vegetable stock cube

“splash” of balsamic vinegar

couple of fresh basil leaves

A good “twirly” pasta like a fusilini :

Equipment

Griddle Pan (Or Grill on high heat if you do not have one)

Saucepan

Food Processor (Or Blender).

1. Prepare your peppers' by cutting out the seeds and remaining gunk. Press these flat down so they will lie as flat as possible on your griddle pan. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat your griddle pan to a strong heat. Once its too hot to hold your hand over the surface, place the pepper skin down. Your looking for the skin to charcoal, which should take 8-10 minutes. Then, flip these over and griddle for another 5 minutes (NB the flesh is more sensitive then the skin side)
3. Take the pepper off the heat. If you have one, place these a sandwich bag –  or alternatively an air lock container for a couple of minutes. This will help “steam” the charcoaled skin off the pepper.
4. Peel the blackened skin off the pepper – I find it easier to do this under a running tap!
5. Get the water into the saucepan and boil ready for the pasta.
6. Chop up the pepper and put into a pan with the tomato, sugar, stock cube and balsamic vinegar. Just after doing this, pour the pasta with some salt and olive oil into the saucepan and bring to the boil.
7. Keep the sauce on the heat for 10 minutes and let it thicken
8. After 10 minutes, tear the basil leaves into the sauce and pour the source into the food processor. Blitz until smooth.
9. Drain your pasta, mix the two together and enjoy!
   
   
   N.B - I (Jenni) love this with salad and a good vinaigrette to balance the sweetness of the sauce.

Weekend = The Big Feastival

I am so glad to be back again after what has been a lovely weekend.  I'm also feeling quite smug with myself because I finally managed to revise for and take my John Lewis numerical reasoning test.  I applied months and months ago and tried to take the test a few times before only to find the website was in technical meltdown.  I was informed last week that it was back in  business and had 7 days to revise for the test.  Unfortunately for me, I hadn't even looked at a maths test since it broke previously and had meetings every evening but one last week so today was my only day to settle down in to it.  I felt it went ok, but it was really stressful. I could feel the beads of sweat on my brow as I attempted the impossible feat of answering 18 hideously complex problems in 17min. But I got there in the end.  I breathed a sigh of relief (only to find an invitation in my inbox to complete the verbal reasoning test in 7 days) It's a hard life that's what I say!

Anyway, now I am feeling suitably angelic from getting that out of the way I can update you all on the wonderful weekend Neil and I had.  On Thursday I came across a competition to win VIP tickets to Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival which was on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday this week.  Playing on my pregnancy somewhat to win the tickets I detailed what would be my perfect feast and to my amazement we won the tickets. So on Saturday we found ourselves heading out to Clapham Common for a day of free food, drink and good music.  It really was a stroke of luck as Neil and I celebrated being reunited after our first week apart whilst he completes his training at the Teach First summer institute.

The VIP area at 12.30 (Neil already in BBQ queue)

My free fresh lemonade and Neil's free Cava + comfy seats!

It was such a treat, VIP passes entitled us to a private area, a free bbq all day £25 worth of tickets each of the all the pop up restaurants on site (including Locotelli, Wahaca etc.)and free booze for Neil (soft drinks for me).  The whole day was also Dj'd by Hedkandi who specialise in kind of R & B chill out which was perfect for a lazy day reclining on cushions and rugs in the sunshine.

I have to admit we didn't do a lot other than relaxing and eating.  I did feel sick on and off all day but managed to keep it at bay with some delicious chocolate treats being offered by some of the restaurants.  We had a mixture of different things including fish and chips from Canteen, Popcorn Shrimp, Malaysian Satay Skewers, BBQ Pulled Pork and even a hot scotch egg.

And while we were patiently waiting in the queue for the Fish and Chips we even caught a glimpse of Jamie Oliver.  (Spotting him in the pictures below will be more like 'where's Wally?'!)  There was also plenty of celeb spotting to be had, I particularly enjoyed recognising Jamie's wife Jools (who's book on pregnancy I'm currently reading) and Richard Bacon off the Radio.

So I suppose you could say all in all we had the most amazing day, exactly what we needed after a long week away from one another and at 7pm we ambled home, Neil in a slightly worse for wear state....