Travel Guide: London


A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to go present a paper I wrote in London, England. I was super excited because a) Someone other than my mother wanted to hear about the research I'd been pouring my heart into for the past year, and b) I could try out ALL THE BRITISH FOOD.

I've been to London before, during my fall break while I was studying in France in 2014, but this time I had a better idea of what the city had to offer. 

I used Excursion, my all time favourite free travel app, to save 135 restaurants and sights on an offline map (seriously, that app is a LIFE SAVER!!) and then narrowed it down depending on my location and mood. Now I want to share my list of the best things I did while in the city of double decker buses, high tea, and the Spice Girls.

Iced Matcha Latte 101


If you have spent any time in a coffee shop and/or on the internet in the past few years, you will most likely have spotted a couple bright green drinks floating around. Well, I'm here to tell you all about my love affair with matcha. 

Matcha comes from ground green tea leaves, which means that you get all the nutrients that usually get thrown away when you take your green tea bag out of your hot water. For this reason a nice matcha drink is absolutely loaded with antioxidants, which are great for anything from preventing cancer, to boosting your metabolism. I'll take three matcha drinks, please and thank you!

But aside from all this healthy business, I love love love a nice cold matcha latte on any hot day. Although it's expensive, I bought a tin of it back in January and it's still going strong because you only use at most a teaspoon every time. I'm almost positive there is a more traditional way of preparing this green cup of goodness, but if you know me at all you know I'm not willing to drop $20 for a specialty bamboo matcha whisk (If you have one, I applaud you). Here's my step-by-step guide to making THE BEST SUMMER DRINK!!!


Ingredients

1/2 tsp matcha powder
2 Tbsp + 1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup milk (I've tried it with almond or cow's milk, both are good)
5 ice cubes

Preparation

  1. Measure out 1/2 tsp of matcha powder into a bowl. I sometimes use a whole teaspoon if I'm feeling bold. 
  2. Add in the 2 Tbsp of water. You want your bowl to be big enough to whisk it like no one's watching.
  3. Start whisking until there are no more chunks and little bubbles start to form on the surface.
  4. Add in the 1/2 cup of water and continue whisking. You add the water in two parts because it's easier to get those stubborn chunks to dissolve when there's less water.
  5. Add in the sweetener of your choice or if you're sweet enough skip it! I used maple syrup.
  6. Pour into a glass filled with ice.
  7. Add in as much milk as you would like to fill the glass. Sometimes I'm digging the earthy taste of matcha and other times I want a smoother, milkier drink. A lot of people even replace the water entirely with milk. Go with your gut, I trust you. 
  8. Stir or shake and serve immediately.

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Honey Lavender Ice Cream


First of all, welcome! This feels so crazy to be writing to you because I feel like this blog has kind of been a secret for so long. I had the official launch party this past weekend so now that the cat is out of the bag I'm so crazy excited to share all that I've been creating (slash eating) this summer. I will also be posting all the details of my debut dinner with you folks in the next little while so stay tuned because I made a doughnut piƱata and seven different summer pizzas so good things are coming your way.

I've been wanting to create a new blog for a while but I guess it took me closing one huge chapter/opening another chapter of my life (graduating from university and moving back to Ottawa) to give me the inspiration and final push that I needed. I love my old blog Breakfast at Midnight and it's not going anywhere but I will only be posting new recipes on Breakfast and Business and transferring some of the most popular recipes over to this bad boy. Trust me, you're not the only one that goes insane for my famous ginger molasses cookies

So let's kick things off with a recipe I tried the other day after chatting with a local ice cream maker. She let me taste some of her honey lavender ice cream and I went bonkers and rushed home to make my own version. But I was craving something with a little less cream and a little more ease so I turned to my tried and true banana ice cream recipe with some snazzy new additions. 


Ingredients

2 bananas
1 tsp lavender
1 tsp honey

Preparation 

  1. Peel and slice bananas and place in a parchment lined air sealed container. If you're going to pile the sliced bananas pieces up, lay a sheet of parchment paper between the layers.
  2. Freeze for at least five hours (sorry guys, It's a rough life)
  3. Blend the banana mixture in a food processor. At first it will look crumbly but just keep blending away as the ice cream magically starts to look like soft serve ice cream.
  4. You can add some milk of your choosing if it is hard to blend together but try to keep at it without milk to get that optimal ice cream texture. 
  5. Add in the lavender and honey! You can find cooking lavender in your mother's garden, at farmers' markets, at specialty food stores or spice stores, and online. Most people like to grind it up with sugar in baked goods, but I like just chucking it in to give the ice cream little bits of life.
  6. This recipe is also half vegan because some vegans still eat honey, while others don't. So just clear that up if you're making this for your animal loving friends!
(see my original recipe for step by step pictures)

Enjoy!

One more thing, if you are interested in what I'm cooking check out #gabyblogs.


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Launch Party








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