Archive for Pubs

Lunch @ Cross Keys

{ August 17, 2010 @ 12:00 pm } · { Pubs }
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We had a fab spot of lunch at the Cross Keys Pub in Leeds on Saturday after seeing their tweets in the morning about their summer lunch menu. It has recently won ‘best family pub’ in Yorkshire in the Great British Pub awards and it’s easy to see why.

We sat outside in the beautiful sunny courtyard, seeking shade under one of the immense Duvel parasols. Tom ordered the salt beef sandwich and I had the sausage sandwich, which was on the specials board. Both arrived as proper doorsteps (and rightly so for around £6 each), on homemade bread served with salad. The salt beef was thickly sliced and balanced with English mustard (too firey for my taste, but Tom loved it!) The sausages really were something to rave about – I’m quite fussy about sausages but these were very tasty indeed. They were apparently West Moor pork, which I believe comes from Easingwold…. we will have to try and find somewhere to buy these from as they were the perfect meaty sausage with no fussy added flavours! To wash it down, Tom tried some of the recommended real ale of the day and I tried an apple beer, which was really light and refreshing.

Millie was very welcome and sat in her bumbo at the table with us sampling bits of our food as well as her own that we had brought along. She enjoys watching the general comings & goings, but as a special treat for kids they have a duck trail around the courtyard. Basically it’s little yellow ducks (like you would have in the bath) glued onto plant pots etc, that the kids can look out for. Millie was quite taken with this and couldn’t understand why if you pulled on them they didn’t come off…!

Anyway, the food was great, the service was friendly and fast, and the setting was glorious. The only sad thing was the lack of customers. Granted it was only about 1pm on a Saturday and gets busier as the Saturday drinking gets going, but really it’s a great spot for a bit of lunch just outside of the hustle & bustle of the city centre.

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Iron Cupcake – Pink & Blue

{ June 13, 2010 @ 8:42 pm } · { Baking, Pubs, Recipes }
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Well, tonight was my first experience of the Iron Cupcake competition in Leeds…. and it was certainly a tough one! It’s a monthly challenge to all budding cupcake bakers out there to come up with the yummiest and most beautiful creation according to the theme of the month.

This month it was ‘blue & pink’ in aid of Cancer Research uk and people had come up with some very clever ideas (14 entries in total). Everyone arrived & set out their cakes and signs. The best cake from each entry was photographed and displayed, whilst the rest were cut up for judging. The entry fee for each ‘baker’ is £5 (which usually gets you a free drink – but tonight was donated to charity). You can also put yourself forward as an ‘eater’ (which Tom did – see his picposterous) and go round with a scorecard – marks out of 5 for presentation & out of 10 for taste. Everyone was having a greattime and giving it careful consideration! And you weren’t allowed to linger around your entry to put any pressure on people!!

I liked the ‘Strawberry & Cream’ cupcake, which was delicious and light, and a gorgeous ‘Blueberry’ one (which came 2nd.) There were some amazing cocktail themed ones, like ‘Blue Lagoon’, ’Cosmopolitan’ (which won) with umbrellas & adornments and lots with very bright blue & pink frosting.

My entry was ‘Turkish Delights’ – based on the red velvet chocolate cupcakes (Hummingbird Bakery recipe) topped with a pink rosewater & cinnamon buttercream, pink glitter and pieces of turkish delight. I was pleased with how they turned out, the cake was rich, the topping was just sweet enough but unfortunately slightly gooey! When cut into quarters, it did somewhat ruin the presentation :( (But I did get some hints from some of the other bakers!) I also forgot to take a photo until they had nearly all gone – oops!

Prizes are given out for first & second place, but that’s not really the point. It was great fun to do the planning and baking and even better to enjoy everyone else’s! And in true competitive spirit I have now retreated to plan my next attempt!

Details:

When: Sunday @ 6pm – see website for dates

Where: The Adelphi, Leeds (lovely function room upstairs)

Idea: Bake 12 cupcakes in line with the theme of the month, bring 3 whole to display and the rest cut into quarters for tasting. You must have a pretty sign to tell folks about your creation.

Website: http://www.ironcupcakeleeds.co.uk/

Cross Keys Courtyard

{ June 6, 2010 @ 10:00 pm } · { Crafts, Culture, Pubs }
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This Saturday it was the Cross Keys Market, and what a gorgeous day for it! We were heading into town and decided to have a browse and a cheeky lunchtime beer.

It’s a small selection of stalls in the back courtyard of the Cross Keys pub (this time there were only 7) from 12 noon onwards. All of them are local food & crafts with the backdrop of the outdoor pub seating and the upcycled Pimms ice cream van! It’s different every time, but you could get your hands on some lovely flowers, rhubarb, cheeses, cupcakes, jewelery and cards.

It was nice to have a chat to some of the stall holders, and we certainly learned a little bit about cheese from the friendly Calderdale Cheese lady. You could try samples and bring home 3 different wedges of cheese for £6 – we went for a traditional Calderdale cheese (cross between Wensleydale, Cheshire and Lancashire), a carmelised onion version and a spicy chilli cheese! Very tasty :)

I also came away with some of my usual craft vices – jewellery, a bird applique bag, some cards and a liberty print badge. It’s lovely quality stuff and reasonably priced. I like to have things that are quirky, safe in the knowledge it’s not mass produced for Accessorize! I also like supporting clever crafty folk and getting a bit of inspiration for myself!

Christmassy Cross Keys

{ December 20, 2009 @ 10:51 pm } · { Pubs }
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It’s the first post-baby blog post! Now she’s 3 weeks old we felt we could risk venturing out for a meal with her in tow. Granted we’re a bit more limited to lunchtimes for now, but there’s still plenty of options!

So today it was a festive Sunday lunch at the Cross Keys pub in Leeds. It’s a lovely cosy pub (part of the North bar group) in Holbeck urban village. It has an upmarket menu of local seasonal food and a great choice of beers. Today they even had their wood fire blazing and Christmas decorations festooned from the beams. Out the back is a lovely courtyard for al fresco drinks in the summer.

The Sunday lunch menu was simple – 3 choices for each course and it’s £10, £14 or £17 for 1,2 or 3 courses. We had booked ahead and had asked for a suitable table to park the baby at – I was glad we did as it was very busy!

For starters I had smoked salmon with rye bread which was really rustic and simple. Tom had Gressingham duck pate which was ‘light as a mousse’.

We both then opted for roast beef, which comes thickly sliced and cooked (refreshingly!) medium rare. The roast potatoes, Yorkshire puds, creamy leeks & cabbage were all delightful. Even the gravy was tasty – all of the common pitfalls of mass cooking roast dinners were impressively avoided! We really enjoyed it, even though we did have to do a bit of shift eating to settle the baby!

Even though we were quite full it felt rude to turn down pudding – so we shared the chocolate brownie with caramel ice cream. It was yummy too, and disappeared before I could finish Reading the culture section of the paper!

Overall it combines atmosphere with quality and friendly service. And with a bill of £40 for 3 courses it’s definitely an affordable treat.

TLLH Day 4

{ September 22, 2009 @ 9:21 pm } · { Family, Pubs }
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Today’s activities have been mostly food related! After a few busy days we’ve been quite lazy (and greedy!) today.

Beigels baby!

After a morning coffee with A & J we set off in search of the best bagels in London, it’s a bold claim! And they are open 24 hours! It’s Beigel Bake on Brick lane, and we can vouch for the salt beef and the salmon & cream cheese. Chewy and savoury, Yum!

Space for a pastry?

Who can say no to a Patisserie Valerie? A good strong capuccino and a delicate strawberry tart mid-afternoon was definitely in order. The branch in Spitalfields is good for a bit of people watching too :o )

Not so general knowledge…

We love a good pub quiz, but we need to improve our trivia! We decided to take on the challenge of the ‘Cuckfield’ in Wanstead. It’s a really nice pub and they do a mean fish finger sandwhich. Well, fish is brain food isn’t it?!

TLLH Day 3

{ September 21, 2009 @ 9:47 pm } · { Culture, Pubs }
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Day 3 got off to a slow start with the luxury of a Monday morning lie in!

Music & Books

A bit of leisurely ‘leche-vitrines’ on Denmark street was the first port of call. All the shops are specialist music emporia from guitars to saxophones and sheet music. Lots of drooling over vintage guitars…. If we had a spare couple of grand…
Onwards to Foyles bookstore, independent and well stocked. It was impossible to resist some of the ‘staff picks’ in the fiction section because they seemed so unusual and interesting. Had fantastic lunch in their cafe (Ray’s Jazz) before stocking up on some fab blues CDs from their dedicated jazz & blues department! Very pleased!

Time for a matinee

A luxury of being off work on a weekday really is being able to go to an afternoon film. Especially if you can go to a beautiful art house cinema like the Curzon Mayfair. (Like a cinema from an Agatha Christie novel.) We saw ‘Away we go’ (Sam Mendes) with a great cast including Maggie Gyllenhall and Allison Janey. Moving story, beautifully filmed and with a great soundtrack. A good all rounder.

Thai @ the pub

After a sunset stroll through Hyde Park, we met up with Tom’s dad in Kensington for a Thai. The Churchill Arms is a proper pub, festooned in flowers on the outside, stuffed with pub trinkets inside. But, with the strange addition of a Thai restaurant out the back. You can have a decent Pad Thai washed down by a pint of London Pride. It’s a popular place!

Back home now enjoying a bit of Wholefoods cinnamon muffin whilst listening to new Buddy Guy cd. Perfect.

The Kings Arms

{ July 30, 2009 @ 8:15 pm } · { Pubs }
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Had a lovely tea last night at The King’s Arms Heath (near Wakefield). It’s a proper old fashioned pub set overlooking Heath Common, where you can watch the sunset whilst horses graze and gallop around freely.

It has lots of little cosy areas with open fires and candles adorning the wooden benches and tables. It also has a lovely bright conservatory and a separate restaurant if you fancy something posher.

We prefer to populate the lovely bar area, where you can get a good pint of real ale and some very decent pub food. Visiting with Tom and his mum we had a burger, gammon steak and a salmon & prawn salad. The food is hearty & well cooked, the service good and with 2 drinks each was still only a tenner a head.

A lovely real ale pub, serving proper food in a great location. Well worth a little drive out of the city!

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