Author: Sarah Kemp

Vintage at Goodwood launch at Goodwood Revival

The last year or so has been pretty quiet for me in terms of fancy dress/dressing up activities but the last month or so is a huge exception. I had a friends 21st (theme: Vintage Cruise), Bestival (theme: Space) and two weeks ago, http://www.goodwood.co.uk/site/content/revival/ (theme: 40’s,50’s and 60’s). A weekend of dressing up in the finest vintage clothing was something that excited me greatly and I was there representing Vintage at Goodwood, a new event featuring the best in popular culture from 1940-1089, which will take place on the Goodwood estate over the weekend of 13th,14th and 15th August 2010. Vintage were holding their taster event and had their own tent armed with waltzer chairs, a black and white checkered floor, a cocktail bar and a weird yet wonderful ‘mirrored shoe’ addition from Lost Vagueness. Over the course of the weekend, Revival punters could stop off to dance to 1950’s rock n roll, 1960s northern soul, marvel at the Vintage fashion show with popular pin up model Fleur De Geurre, a burlesque dancer, various DJs …

Her life in Paris – Julie&Julia screening

Firstly, sorry, no pictures. You’ll either have to imagine the greatness of what I’m about to tell you or go and watch the film yourselves (out 11th Sept). I received an email from Niamh (eat like a girl) on Thursday saying that there were 20 pairs of tickets up for grabs to a private screening of the new film starring Meryl Streep on Friday evening. This is one of the reasons that after 4 years of living in the capital, I still adore it. I jumped at the chance, partly because I love a good film and partly because events like this excite me. We turned up, were given our sticky labels and headed to the bar for a quick unwinding fresh glass of wine (it was Friday evening after all). A couple of hand fulls of communal crisps later and we were ushered into the small albeit cosy screening room. I hadn’t done my homework and was not entirely sure what stories were about to unravel before my eyes but all became clear as …

The icing on the cake

Weddings can always be a heated affair. My cousins wedding was no exception, the expected family spats and drunken loons dancing around the dance floor having one too many shandies. Despite this, I actually enjoyed the evening. I was aware that my mum was going to be producing 250 wedding cupcakes for the event. This was her first wedding so as you can probably imagine, she was nervous. I arrived at home on Friday evening and journeyed into the kitchen. Let me tell you, our kitchen is not big, it is awfully small but I walked in and saw a mountain of cupcakes sat on a beautiful cake stand. I knew she was a good cake maker but I had no idea she was THAT good. They looked perfect, each one decorated with a perfect white icing, black butterflies or a silver ball. She had made a square cake for the top tier, a little something for the bride and groom to save until their first wedding anniversary. She had even provided mini cupcakes for …

The Zetter, Clerkenwell

I had been here before on a dodgy business breakfast meeting at a previous job and I rather enjoyed it. Very good scrambled egg I thought and you can never go wrong with a good bit of smoked salmon. So when I saw the offer for 50% off the a la carte menu on Toptable I couldn’t resist. My dad was due to take me out for dinner and I thought it would be good to save him a few pennies too. My boyfriend joined me and we arrived half an hour early. That was no problem as we could sit in the comfortable ‘snug’ area as they like to call it. I had a wine and Jack caught up on some emails. I ordered the drinks at the bar but they seemingly forgot about us and after 15 minutes, the waiter who I ordered with popped his head around the corner and made a face, a face that told me he was shocked and sorry! They were then very quick to arrive. We sat …

Smokin’ salmon fishcakes

‘I just bought a whole salmon for £10!’ exclaimed my other half on Sunday. I had one too many white wines on Saturday evening and I ate like a horse the morning after. A fry up followed by a burger, chips and chocolate pudding from The Walton’s hotel in Nottingham. As you can imagine, I wasn’t really in the mood for salmon. I arrived home and my friends were sat in the garden enjoying the balmy summer evening, having just devoured half the salmon with balsamic onions, butter sauce and asparagus. I was duly served a small plate and I ate it with great intent. The sauce was inspired by last weeks episode of Valentine Warner’s what to eat now and was lip smackingly gorgeous. The left over salmon was refrigerated and used to make salmon fishcakes the following evening. Have a look at the recipe below, if you can get a whole salmon for £10, it’s a cheap and delightful eat! 1/2 of a whole salmon 1 red onion (finely chopped) 1 garlic clove …