The country has now been divided successfully into two starkly different personality types. There are the Cates of this world, those who can be found humming Christmas songs under their breath while they’re wandering around town (and also, to be fair, singing them loudly-ish at the office) and the Cabs, who as you can see from the picture above, are less enthusiastic about aggressive Christmas cheer in November. Let’s just hope both manage to live alongside one another for the next month or so with minimal injuries. For once, I’ve done some actual reading this week and have stuff from other bits of the internet to show you:

• I need to make beer cheese sauce immediately.
• Have you ever heard of stuffed apples? Cause I hadn’t. And now I need to make those immediately too.
• Have you heard the buzz about this new plant based burger that legit tastes like real meat? Pretty much everyone is talking about it.
• Serious Eats reckon you should put baking powder on your turkey to really crisp up that skin – I will be testing this theory and letting you know my verdict!
• Pretty much everywhere has launched their Christmas to-go lunches now, but special credit to Pret for introducing a vegan option!

I always get excited about the Blubird Tea Co Christmas collection, but they have truly outdone themselves this year. The two fruit blends pictured above are both delicious, and I can’t wait to make my own mulled wine, but the highlight for me has to be the mulled wine tea candle. I’ve not burned it yet, I think that really needs to be saved for December, but it smells so fancy and luxurious and high quality and agh, you’ll hear about it the moment I light it. Also available this year will the the UK’s first tea-filled advent calendars and tea crackers – complete with tea related jokes. Seriously guys, well done. Check them out online for more info.

Limited edition launches for winter are kind of what I live for, so I did a little bit of squealing when Kettle Chips sent me their brand new flavour for 2016’s jolly season. Baked Camembert & Oak Smoked Garlic is 100% worth putting on your shopping list for the at-home Christmassy catch ups you’re bound to have over the next couple of months, make it happen. You’ll be able to find packs in most supermarkets.

Both Rosie and Jenna have been going on and on about Wolfie’s for probably well over a year and it’s taken me this long to go try it because I’m too lazy to venture into Hove. I finally went on Sunday night and it’s now officially where I will recommend to visitors as the best fish and chips in town. I don’t think there’s much more to say on the matter than that.

I’m currently on the lookout for my favourite Christmas window display this year and I think I might have already found it.. a round of applause for Bert’s Western Road store please, have they nailed it or have they nailed it?

 

I have been eagerly anticipating the launch of Greggs festive bakes for at least a month and on Tuesday, finally, they were in store again. We went to get one straight after work and despite being pretty much ice cold (you guys have really gotta work on that, Greggs)

You might remember my covering the launch of brand new online food marketplace Caprera a little while back. As a thank you, they’ve sent me a little look at some of the products they have to offer. Everything you’ll find at Caprera comes courtesy of fantastic independent producers, and that really shone through even in the small selection they sent over for me to have a look at. My favourite from this lot was the vanilla fudge, it was out of this world. Also check out MAZA for the most delicious top quality chocolate. MMM.

I haven’t done a good eats of the week in at least a month..

• Potato wedges covered in cheese, bbq pulled chicken, jalapenos, onions and soured cream. So good. (the chicken was leftover from this recipe from last week)
• On the morning of Trump’s election, I had an enormous BLT. It helped a little bit.
• ALDI have started doing incredibly posh desserts all of a sudden, this chocolate and salted caramel ganache pot is everything. Go find it.
• The gammonbert.. recipe coming this week, you’re gonna wanna look out for it.. trust..

Aaaaaaaand that’s everything.

I haven’t talked about Trump’s election because I’m no political correspondent and I’ve nothing useful to say that hasn’t already been said by hundreds before me. But I do have one reflection, and that is try not to be a dickhead. If we all followed that one very simple rule, the world would be a much better place. Work on your empathy, listen to people, and make sure none of your actions or words are coming from a place of fear or hatred. That’s really all we can do at this point.

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