The Outsider

When food can be eaten next to a view like this, you know you're on to a winner. Luckily, the Outsider, nestled unobtrusively in Old Town doesn't just rely on the view to pull in the hungry people of Edinburgh.

When Ben and I popped in for a late lunch, we were greeted by polite staff and shown to our seats in the light and airy restaurant. We ordered some bread to munch on while we made our choices. The bread, though delicious, fresh and cut into enormous chunks, was fairly standard. However, the green dip that came with it was out of this world. Essentially, I think it was just garlic infused oil, but there was another taste I couldn't identify, and I stupidly forgot to ask the waiter what it was later on. So you'll just have to take my word that it's worth ordering the bread just to get some of that dip on your taste buds!

For mains, Ben went for a crab and crayfish linguine with lemon, herbs and spinach. It was absolutely jam packed with crab and crayfish, which is so satisfying, as so often you come across meagre sprinkles of the key ingredient on the top of dishes like this.

I decided to stray a little bit away from my comfort zone and went for the rabbit, leek, mushroom and tarragon pie, served with mash. Pie is something I wouldn't usually order - I don't enjoy vast amounts of pastry - but I love rabbit, so I decided to risk it. Luckily, my risk paid off! The pie was definitely filling heavy not pastry heavy, and the rabbit was pure melt in your mouth deliciousness. 

All of this plus two soft drinks (I highly recommend the ginger cordial with sparkling water) came to around £19, which when you consider the price of other restaurants in the area, the size of the portions and the quality of the food is very reasonable. I had a nose at the dinner menu, and while it's a bit more pricey, it's definitely something I'm going to be back to sample soon. There also seemed to be a really good range of daily specials.

You can find The Outsider at
15 - 16 George IV Bridge,
Old Town, 
Edinburgh,
EH1 1EE

Week Forty Two

Monday - The Botanical Gardens revealed Autumn in all of its glory

 Tuesday - Mid cooking lunchtime omelette

Wednesday - Bulgar wheat risotto with butternut squash, goats cheese and balsamic dressing. I am recently obsessed with bulgar wheat. It's not quinoa in terms of "trying to be healthy before the Christmas eating gets going" but it's better than rice.

 Thursday - What's not to love about a salmon pink bird? 

Friday - Smarties getting seasonal.

Saturday - Lunch with a view - more on this later in the week.

 Sunday - Happy Sunday breakfast. Love is getting up at half eight to make blueberry pancakes and bacon as a breakfast treat.

Halloween Baking Inspiration

I have a love hate relationship with Halloween.

The hate is pretty simple - I'm a scaredy cat. I rarely make plans that involve leaving the house on Halloween, basically because I just can't handle it. Case in point - last year I ventured to the library and popped into a shop on the way. I ended up shouting at someone who jumped out at me in fancy dress, then burst into tears and went home. I know. A complete over reaction. I felt really terrible for shouting at the person afterwards.

So, I favour house parties, and then, I love it. I love dressing up, I love decorating the house, having people round and seeing what they're dressed as, but most of all, I love all the fun you can have with Halloween Baking. Above are a few highlights of Halloween from the last few years. As you can see, I like it cute. Little faces on food, pumpkin bunting and bows in my hair.

I thought I'd kickstart everyone's inspiration with a few bakes I've seen floating around online,

1. We'll start simple, with a Halloween twist on the classic Gingerbread Man - Gingerbread Skeletons from Betty Crocker

2. Have you seen all those cakes with stuff falling out the middle - the Pinata Cakes? This takes it one step further, Trick or Treat Cookies from not martha

3. These are up there with the cutest things on the list, Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats from Food, Family and Finds

4. Did I include these cute little ghosts just because I thought the name was hilarious? It's possible. Good old BBC, never let you down, especially not with Malloween Ghosts

5. These Brownie Owls from Pink When are quite American in their ingredients, but I think the only thing you can't get over here is the little orange corn thingy? I think an upside down gummy bear (sorry gummy bear) would do just the trick instead

6. Delightful and Made have a suitably delightful recipe for Spooky Spiderweb Cupcakes

7. There is a huge collection of Halloween Marshmallow Pops over at You Wash I Dry but these little bats are the cutest things ever! In my opinion...

8. Things are getting a little classier now, with this beautiful Marble Pumpkin Cheesecake from Roxana's Home Baking

9. Classy is now at the next level. This cake from The Cake Blog is quite the show-stopper

10. We're going back to the super cute for the last bake on the list from A Spicy Perspective

Week Forty One

We're zooming through Autumn, and I think I can risk saying I'm finally starting to get some routine back, both in blogging world and in the real world. 

Blogging - this is the first time in forever I've got this post up on a Sunday, as of yesterday I'm up to date on my bloglovin' feed and I'm finding time to dig out some other Edinburgh based blogs (if anyone has any recommendations I'd love them). 

Real world - This week I've handed in my first essay, I've made a tentative start on my next and I've started the research for my placement project. I managed dinner one day and coffee another with friends from the Frozen North, went out partying on a school night *gasp* and made plans to visit home in a couple of week time.

PROGRESS. Now, on with the photographs.

Monday - We won the pub quiz! We've been every Monday night since we all moved here, so finally winning was very satisfying. I told you all about how amazing the food is at Clerk's here, so as you can imagine we're all looking forward to cashing in this voucher!

Tuesday - Courgette Pizza Bites with salad for dinner.

Wednesday - Rice cake topped with cheese, grapes and balsamic glaze.

Thursday - One day a week I have this view out of my office window. I kid you not. 

Friday - Autumn colours out of the window.

Saturday - Salad with roasted butternut squash, mushrooms, kale, pine nuts and goats cheese.  

 Sunday - I made banana and peanut butter cookies. Sounds promising doesn't it? Sadly they're possibly one of the most boring things I've ever tasted, so the recipe will not be with you soon!

Butternut Squash Cake

Vegetable cake is all the rage these days isn't it? But other than a classic carrot cake I've never really given the concept much thought. So when I had the end of a butternut squash crying out to be used in the fridge, I thought it was high time I joined the party.

Vegetable cake wasn't the only bandwagon I jumped on this week though, no way. Browned butter. Something else you can't browse pinterest without hitting on every other pin. People rave about the stuff, actually rave. You must have seen it. So I embraced all of the current trends, and decided to top my butternut squash cake with browned butter frosting. 

After browsing for a suitable recipe, I came up with a lot of cup measurements, too much butter and lots of bundt tins (something I don't own). I did notice though, that a lot of the recipes were similar to the one I use for banana bread. Sort of. I then got fed up, and basically winged it. Incredibly, I struck lucky! It worked! So I absolutely have to share it with you.

It's perfectly Autumnal, in both taste and looks (orange cake!). If you give it a try, please let me know how you get on.

Butternut Squash Cake

220g Roasted Butternut Squash
150g Melted Butter
150g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
200g Self Raising Flour
1tsp Ginger

Browned Butter Glaze

40g Butter, Brownes
90g Icing Sugar


1. Preheat your oven to 200°C. Peel and chop your butternut squash and roast for 20 minutes. As you can see by the picture, mine was slightly crisp around the edges, and I was worried about how that would taste in the cake, and what that would do to the texture, but it was fine. Obviously, if you can avoid burning it, do, but I'm still adjusting to my new oven. 

2. Once the squash has cooled, mash into a relatively smooth paste, and then add the melted butter.

3. Add the caster sugar, followed by the eggs one at a time, and finally the flour and the ginger.

4. Pour into a prepared loaf tin and bake at 180°C for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely.

5. Brown your butter by slowly heating it in a saucepan over a low heat. It will melt, then it will bubble, and then it will start to turn darker. You want it a pale brown - if it gets too dark it will taste bitter.

6. Leave the butter to cool for five minutes, then sieve the icing sugar in and mix well. It should be thick but pourable. If it's too thin, add some more icing sugar a little a time. If it's too thick, a splash of milk. 

7. Put into a sealed piping bag, then snip the smallest bit of bag away and drizzle over the loaf.

Week Forty One

Monday - I hate Monday - can you tell?

Tuesday - Roasted veggies over sweet potato mash topped with crispy kale and goats cheese.

Wednesday - I went to a talk about a long term neuro-degeneration study that has published a book about the lives of the people who contribute to the study. A really amazing piece of public outreach.

Thursday - I just love penguins. 

Friday - Have you all seen my latest recipe - Chocolate Orange Brownies 

Saturday - Always happiest with my face in a cake 

Sunday - A glorious sunset on the way back to Edinburgh from Newcastle 

Chocolate Orange Brownies

It's never once crossed my mind to make brownies with anything other than plain dark chocolate. But when I was pondering in the supermarket yesterday, a bar of dark chocolate flavoured with orange caught my eye. And then, slowly, an incredibly obvious idea started forming. I could make brownies with flavoured chocolate. And then the brownies would have that flavour!

I know. Give the girl a prize.

The idea started buzzing in my head, and it wouldn't go away. So I picked up the chocolate, an orange to make the brownies pretty and a bottle of Cointreau to give them a kick. I then sliced the orange and boiled it up with some sugar, water and a healthy glug of Cointreau.

Once most of the liquid had evaporated, I whipped out the slice, lay them out to cool on a rack and got on with making the brownie mix. Once that was finished, I lay the orange slices on the top of the brownie mix and popped it in the oven. It really couldn't be simpler.

Of course, the boozy orange slices aren't necessary, but I like how chewy they are and I love how they look. You could choose to boil them just in sugar and water, or you could leave them out altogether. I've used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe for brownies, which I've detailed below and is my absolute go to, and I've explained how I went about candying the orange slices.

Candied Orange Slices
1 Orange
75g Sugar
Water 
Cointreau 

1. Slice the orange into slices about half an inch thick

2. Put in a small non stick pan and cover in water and Cointreau. How much of each you put in is up to you, just make sure the orange slices are quite well covered.

3. Add the sugar and bring to the boil, occasionally flipping the orange slices.

4. When the liquid has reached a thick (but still runny!) syrup, pull out the orange slices and leave to cool.

Chocolate Orange Brownies
200g Orange Flavoured Dark Chocolate (it has to be dark chocolate, milk chocolate won't work because of the higher fat content)
175g Unsalted Butter
325g Caster Sugar
130g Plain Flour
3 Eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the brownie tin
2. Melt the chocolate and the butter together, then stir in the sugar.
3. Fold in the flour, then finally add in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Bake for around 35 minutes, until a knife comes out mostly clean, but still with a little bit of chocolate goop on it. That way, your brownies will hold their shape, but will be lovely and gooey on the inside.

P.S. Sorry about the date stamps on the photos. I borrowed a camera!

Week Forty

It would appear that keeping up a photo project when moving house, redoing a flat and starting a masters is nigh on impossible. So, September is lost, life goes on, here is week forty!

 Monday 29th September - A beautiful sky out of my living room window

 

Tuesday 30th September - Getting to grips with my new oven.

 

Wednesday 1st October - A beautiful sunlit walk through the Meadows.

 

 Thursday 2nd October - Marker at the top of Corstorphine Hill

 

 Friday 3rd October - Still getting to grips with my new oven.

 

Saturday 4th October - A little treat from my Mum who was visiting for the weekend.

 

 Sunday 5th October - Over a month after I moved in, I finally got some bookshelves and unpacked my last box. Something I doubt I've ever mentioned here - I've got a real obsession with the poles. I've crossed the Arctic Circle, but haven't actually made it up to Svalbard (or even further!) yet, and certainly not down to Antartica. Top of the bucket list.