Pumpkin Spice Latte Pancakes

05-10-2016 Local Black BookAutumn, breakfast, cake, cinnamon, coffee, Fall, latte, pancake, pancakes, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, Pumpkin Spice Latte, recipe, starbuck3 Comments

Shorter days, longer nights, chilly mornings & sweater weather… It looks like summer’s indeed over!

Which can only mean one thing: it’s Pumpkin Spice Latte season! Excited much?

I’m not a big coffee drinker (my stomach won’t let me) but Starbuck’s PSL goes far beyond being the hot drink of the season.

In my opinion, it’s also an excellent way to autum-up some of your favourite sweet treats.

My favourite to date? These Pumpkin Spice Latte Pancakes.

I mean, pancakes and coffee and cinnamon all at once?

Fall brunch winner right there!

Pumpkin Spice Latte Pancakes (serves 2-3)

Ingredients:

120g wholemeal flour
120g plain flour
1 bag of dehydrated yeast
1 egg
1 tall Pumpkin Spice Latte (cream and all…)
Coffee or maple syrup to serve

1. Mix all the ingredients together until you get a kind-of smooth batter. Let the batter stand for at least an hour or overnight.

2. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat (add a bit of oil or butter if necessary), then add a laddle of batter into the pan. When the top of the pancake starts to bubble, turn it over and cook for about 10 more sec. Repeat until all the batter is used up.

3. Drizzle with syrup and serve immediately.

PIN FOR LATER:

Autumnal Quinoa Salad

07-09-2016 Local Black BookAutumn, butternut, Fall, feta, gluten-free, healthy, healthy eating, low carb, lunch, lunch box, packed lunch, paleo, pine nuts, pumpkin, quinoa, recipe, salad, savoury, vegetarian5 Comments

If I’m not all that happy to wave the Summer goodbye, I must admit there are things about Autumn I’m rather excited about.

Besides the fact that my workplace will FINALLY be turning the AC off and I won’t have to wear cashmere to avoid catching a cold in the middle of a heatwave, that is.

Top of my list is the comeback of all sorts of winter squash onto the list of seasonal fruit & veggies!

I love squashes & pumpkins of all kinds, and couldn’t help but pick up one of the first butternuts of the season at my local farmers’ market last week.

It almost ended up into my favourite soup, but a bit of fridge foraging later and this beautiful Autumnal Quinoa Salad was born…

Easy to make, healthy & super tasty, it’s the perfect dish for a light Autumn dinner or a colourful, vitamin-packed lunch!

Autumnal Quinoa Salad with Butternut, Feta & Pine Nuts (serves 2)

Ingredients:

200g quinoa (I got this pretty mixed-coloured one from Waitrose)
300g butternut squash, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp olive oil
50g crumbled feta
20g pine nuts
sea salt, cracked black pepper, oregano

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200°C (gas mark 6).

2. In a bowl, mix the slices of butternut with the olive oil, a pinch of salt, some black pepper and a generous pinch of oregano. Spread onto an oven-safe dish and bake for 35-45 minutes (or until the edges start caramelising).

3. Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil, then throw in the quinoa and cook for about 20min, then drain.

4. In a dry pan, fry the pine nut kernels until golden.

5. Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl or pile them up onto two plates, top with a little more oregano and serve immediately.

This dish can also be eaten cold, which makes it a brilliant packed lunch option as well!

PIN FOR LATER:

This was Halloween | Abney Park Cemetery

01-11-2015 Local Black BookAbney Park, angel, Autumn, cemetery, Fall, halloween, London, nature, park, Stoke Newington3 Comments

There’s hardly anywhere more fitting to celebrate the Day of the Deads than their very own playground.

Some think cemeteries are hallowed, other belive them to be haunted. But one thing is sure: they are absolutely beautiful this time of the year.