UK Food Bloggers Association

Julia Parsons
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Started Feb 10

Unwanted advertising/Spam or Fake member profiles
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Farmersgirl Nov. 29, 2009.

Back In The UK

Replied Nov. 29, 2009

Julia Parsons's Blog

Julia Parsons

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of June

In the Bag Logo June 09

Here we are in the heart of June in what is promising to be a hot summer. To help us all cool down this month's bag contains refreshing watermelon and cooling mint. What exciting recipes can you come up with… Continue

Posted on June 20, 2009 at 9:55am —

Julia Parsons

Come and Visit us at the Covent Garden Real Food Market this Thursday

The UKFBA will be at the Covent Garden Real Food Market this Thursday selling produce from the first ever official food bloggers market stall. Each week will see different bloggers and some selected producers selling all sorts of delicious food and drink.

This Thursday, for the very first appearance of the UKFBA stall,… Continue

Posted on June 2, 2009 at 9:00am — 3 Comments

Julia Parsons

BBC2 Food Series: 'What to Eat Now'

The UKFBA has been contacted by a Fraser Mullen, who is a researcher on the BBC2 Food Series, 'What to Eat Now', to ask if any of our members may be able to suggest some people relevant to the show - whether themselves or someone they know. Here's what he says:

"Essentially ‘What To Eat Now’ is a seasonal food series that aims to showcase the best British produce and give people an idea of where and when to get the most out of seasonally available food stuffs. In each programme our chef, Valent… Continue

Posted on April 24, 2009 at 6:00pm —

Julia Parsons

Let's Here it for the British Asparagus Season

At long last the British asparagus season is finally here. St George's Day marked the official start of the season which runs through May and June. Hooray!

For asparagus posts, tips and recipes take a look here and watch this video by The Times Online.

Posted on April 24, 2009 at 12:15pm —

Julia Parsons

The first ever UKFBA Market Stall will be at The Covent Garden Real Food Market this Summer

I'm very excited to finally be able to announce that the food market where the UKFBA will have our very own stall through the summer is none other than the Covent Garden Real Food Market.

Following the huge success of 2007 and 2008, the Covent Garden market is running again this year, every Thursday from April 16th to September 24th 2009, and it features an array of scrumptious, fresh produce from some of the UK’s finest food producers. People i… Continue

Posted on April 19, 2009 at 10:30am — 6 Comments

 

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Profile Information

UK based food blogger or friend of the UK bloggers?
UK based blogger
Name of blog or website
A Slice of Cherry Pie
URL of blog or website
http://asliceofcherrypie.blogspot.com
About me
Self-taught home cook from England. Author of the blog 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' and founder of the UK Food Bloggers Association.

Currently working on my first cookbook, due to be published by Absolute Press in Spring 2010.
Region
South East

Comment Wall (100 comments)

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At 5:36pm on March 1, 2010, Graze and Guzzle said…
Julia, see my recent post on the Rye Bay Scallop Festival www.grazeandguzzle.com

Thanks, Lorne
At 9:21pm on February 11, 2010, Chowpatty SupperClub said…
Hi Julia,

I am a passionate foodie and have started my supper club called Chowpatty in London and wanted to know if it is possible to feature my event over here (it says waiting approval).
Thanx,
Padmini
At 12:29pm on January 25, 2010, Jill Richmond said…
Julia,

I work with a Cordon Bleu Chef and run a regular supper club called Urban Sage. Due to 3 incredibly successful events are beginning to scale - up our events. I would love to discuss ways we might feature ourselves on this site and ideas with you.

Please feel free to drop me a line.

All the best,

Jill
At 10:11pm on November 27, 2009, Sabrina Ghayour said…
Hi Julia,

How are you??? Just wanted to drop you a line to say hello! Hope you arent working TOO hard!!! Bet you are planning Christmas like the rest of us, eh??? have a great weekend!!

S
x
At 2:59pm on October 30, 2009, Simon johnson said…
Hi Julia

I joined ukfba 3 weeks ago to help spread the word about my Pata Negra Hams and so far have made some really good contacts . Im putting a few readers and competition for Sabrina over on foodiepedia and would like to see if you would like to do along the same lines .

Hope to hear from you soon
At 9:14pm on September 29, 2009, Sabrina Ghayour said…
Hi Julia,

Thanks so much about your notice regarding the AA Home Cooking Competition! I have sent my entry through and am keeping my fingers, toes (and everything else) CROSSED!!! Great update! Loving your site, its great to see what others are doing and great to share what i am doing with others!

Thanks so much

S
x
At 8:01pm on September 18, 2009, Kate the Bake said…
Hi Julia
I joined about a month ago and am so pleased to have discovered UKFBA. It is a fantastic resource for food bloggers - especially novices like me. I have learnt so much in the short time I have been a member.
Thanks so much for making this happen.
Kind regards,
Kate
At 8:37pm on September 11, 2009, LizW said…
Hi! What a great idea for a network. http://soeat.blogspot.com
At 10:51pm on May 31, 2009, John Lewis-Stempel said…
The Wild Life.pdf
At 3:18pm on May 16, 2009, Susan Smillie said…
Here tis, if you get a chance to stick it somewhere, that'd be ace. Hope it's not confusing - I kept switching from three courses to two last night on twitter. Suffice to say, it's been a long week! Good weekend. Suse x

http://ukfoodbloggersassociation.ning.com/profiles/blogs/guardian-challenge-two-courses

A Slice of Cherry Pie Blog Posts

Pigs' Trotters

IMG_1460

When it comes to all things culinary I'm up for trying most things once. I say most things, I would probably draw the line at brains, testicles, eyes, that sort of thing. I'm not really an offal girl, you see. Yes, I admit it, I'm a little too squeamish and blood, guts and gore on a plate just don't do it for me (I'll leave that to Sweeny Todd and Mrs Lovett). If you were to measure my level of adventurism I would say I stand firmly past the 'average' line but neatly tucked away behind the long line of those in front of me who are the Indiana Joneses of the culinary world.

My own little adventures have included trying frogs legs, cooking a lobster, lopping off a cow's tail and simmering it for soup (OK, I didn't do the lopping), becoming a bunny boiler, and cooking with duck's eggs. OK, the last one may not seem all that brave but you may be surprised just how many people exclaim to me 'eww, duck's eggs!?'. I really don't know why (if you, reader, are one of them please do comment and let me know, I promise I will not judge you; we're all opening up on this post, or at least, I am).

Now, pigs' trotters. They seemed harmless enough, I mean, OK, they're feet, and they're feet that are particularly comfortable in, um, poo, but they get a very good clean-up before they're sold to you and, really, what could be so bad about little tootsies? I've always been intrigued and when I saw them being sold for less than a pound at my local supermarket I grabbed them fast. I was quite excited all the way home and was even more encouraged when I enthusiastically waved them in Rob's face saying 'look what I've got' and he muttered that he'd try them and then carried on what he was doing while shaking his head at his wife's crazy antics. Excellent. Off to the kitchen then.

All started well; they were very clean indeed, had very few hairs on them and when I neatly arranged them in a pot they looked quite promising. I covered them with cold water and brought it to the boil. As the water started to bubble the aroma coming from the pot reminded me of something. It took a while to put my finger on it but when I did the likeness was quite remarkable. Dog food, that was it. They smelt disgusting. It wasn’t a good start.

As the trotters continued to boil scum started to come to the top of the water. I'm used to scum, that's no problem at all, you get it when you make stock, it's quite normal. This scum, though, had a greenish-tinge to it and the water started to take on the look of pond water. I wasn't encouraged. But after this moment of doubt I mustered up my enthusiasm again and figured all would be well when I rinsed away the water and added fresh, along with lots of lovely stock vegetables. So that's what I did.

IMG_1471

Three hours of simmering later and Rob and I peered into the pot. Rob was the first to break the silence 'They don't smell too good'. 'No,' I agreed 'They don't'. The dogs looked pleadingly up at us and for once it was looking likely that they may just get their wish. Rob was the first to go in with a fork. The trotters seemed to be all bone, skin and gristle, but he picked around for a bit and finely found a morsel of meat. He popped it into his mouth and I looked at him expectantly. 'Bland' was his unimpressed conclusion. And bland they were. In fact, completely and utterly tasteless may be a better way of describing them.

Now, at this point it seems that many cooks will painstakingly take off the meat, mix it up with all manner of flavoursome ingredients (I wonder why that is...), make them into little terrines, or coat them in breadcrumbs and fry them up. They are also often cooked with Chinese ingredients. The common theme seems to be to add so much other flavouring to them so that they actually taste nice. I just don't really get it, I mean there's hardly any meat on them and what meat there is tastes (to me) bland at best and disgusting at worse. And if you have to add other ingredients to make them flavoursome and substantial why bother? Somewhat perplexed I Twittered my findings and was surprised and relieved to find that I wasn't alone in my conclusion. I guess, like many things in life, pigs trotters are one of those things you either like or you don't.

IMG_1477

If you want to try this unappetising dish yourself here's what I did.

Ingredients

2-4 pig trotters, cut in half lengthways
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 or 4 sprigs of thyme
A small handful of flat leafed parsley
1 bay leaf
8 peppercorns

Cover with cold water and bring it to the boil, then empty away the water, rinse the trotters and put them into a clean pan. Cover them with fresh cold water and the rest of the ingredients. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 3 hours.

Just don't say I didn't warn you.

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of January - The Round-up

For January's challenge we decided a bit of a detox was needed, so we put lemons, garlic and sesame seeds into the bag. Here's a round-up of the entries from Pan Gravy Kadai Curry, As Strong As Soup, Said Simon to the Pieman, dlyn:

Pan Gravy
As strong as soup
Said Simon to the pieman
dlyn



A Peek Inside the Cookbook

Chocolate Cake



Pear, Fig and Stichelton Salad


Cashew Nut Brittle


Photography Cristian Barnett (www.crisbarnett.com), food styling Andrea O'Connor. Copyright Absolute Press. All rights reserved.
 
 

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