Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop...a recap of an awesome Alice in Wonderland hen party!

In just 6 weeks one of my very best friends is getting married! It's the first of one of my Harpenden school friends to get married and it's ridiculously exciting! So on Saturday we had an amazing Alice in Wonderland themed hen do in her honour! Here I am with Alice herself!

and here I am with Pippa - my other half for the day! We came as Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, and clearly we weren't that original in choosing our characters because here is the whole group:

There were about four other pairs too! which made for a very stripe filled day!

Here's one of the other pairs: Kiera and Caz, with Lauren - the Queen of hearts.

Nat and Jo certainly went the extra mile complete with fat bellies, giant bow ties and those awesome spinning hats! Amys was the rabbit and Jade made a rather stylish Mad Hatter.

Here Lauren is showcasing her hearts a little bit more!

Mel was another Queen of Hearts and Nat was another Mad Hatter!

Rose was a lovely co-ordinated pink and purple flower! Amy was the caterpillar, complete with pipe,  and clever Georgie had a cool dress she had created herself with all kinds of card suit shapes on! (She was also the one who had made all of our amazing aprons!)

Here Amy is, taking a closer look! and trying to hunt her apron down by the looks of it!

My apron came complete with my name embroidered on it, and a cute little heart which co-ordinated perfectly with my tights!

Once everyone was apron-ed up, it was time for the cupcaking to begin!

I gave everyone a basic demo in how to do perfect frosting swirls, and these creative people were getting busy at the fondant table!

Rose made this amazing cheshire cat cupcake, by colouring each piece of fondant individually and shaping it to make the cats face...very clever stuff!

Anne (another queen of hearts!) and Amy and Grace (another pair of Tweedle-dums and Tweedle-dee!) were getting busy with all the sprinkles on offer!

There was quite alot to choose from!

Here Jade is proudly showing off her cupcake creations!

She had listened carefully to my every word, and it shows - because look at the beautiful cupcakes she created!

Lauren even co-ordinated her cupcake to her outfit, now that's what I'm talking about!  

There was some sneaky tasting going on in the greedy corner!

Everyone picked one cupacke they were going to eat at the afternoon tea and put it on Georgie's tray...so here she is displaying all the masterpieces!

We checked the team plan to see which team we were going to be part of for the day.

I was a diamond, along with the hen herself...and what a great team that turned out to be!

This is the cupcake Laur made for her peanut butter loving fiance!

After we were all cupcaked out...we made our way through to the garden where we had our afternoon tea - but it was more like a feast!

Everything had been decorated so beautifully with lovely handmade bunting, and little eat me and drink me labels attached to everything...along with those awesome coloured doilies

and even heart sugar cubes! yes...every detail was attended to!

down to the lovely vintage crockery and even the little playing card that each of us had at our place!

Here is one stand of cupcakes ready to be devoured!

and here's a little shot of everything in full swing!

After lunch, luckily the rain stopped and the sun came out long enough for us to embark on a fun filled treausure hunt.  We were based in our cars so we were zooming all over Harpenden finding clues and solving anagrams trying to be the first team to make it back!

We also got bonus points by doing various things like having a picture taken with a man you didn't know under an umbrella! This man was more than happy to oblige, it must have been my silly outfit!

Off runs Alice in to the woods to find the next clue!

and here my team mates are dashing back to the car, I was the driver.  This was the final clue and so it was a mad dash back to the car to ensure we were the first team back at the house.

We were! and here we are posing for a victory shot!

After that, there was some candy floss action!

which was met with squeals of delight from Laura! She definitely approved!

and here she is enjoying it with Georgie when the clouds had well and truly disappeared!

The next event was Sumo wrestling! and we had a fantastic (and slightly scary) Russian judge who got things going!

No-one wanted to take Laura on, look at that face - can you blame them!

She was triumphant in her first round win!

and you have to love this shot of Becky!

Jo put up a good fight, but the highlight of the Sumo was when Amy fell flat on her face! sadly I was too busy laughing to snap any pics!

We moved back into our cosy little mini marquee for a spot of candle-lit dinner!

and then there was more fun and games with a Mr and Mrs quiz! Laura did very well and matched an amazing amount of answers with Sam's.  However there were a few incorrect matches, and so forfeits were involved...

and Laura being Laura was only too happy to fulfill them! like seeing how many marshmallows she could stuff in her mouth in 30 seconds!

and fishing for chocolate in a bowl full of flour! Being the chocolate lover she is, this proved no challenge for her at all!

and was still smiling at the end of it!

When she got an answer right she was able to open a present, which resulted in lots and lots of lovely presents for her!

 We finished the night with a quiz about how well we knew Laura, and then we found out the results of   

 who had won the day! Diamonds - my team! had managed to be victorious which we were all very  

 pleased about!

It had been an amazing amazing action packed day, that had been organised so fantastically by the 3 bridesmaids! and was definitely a fun filled day where lots of memories were created that we won't be forgetting in hurry!

Now...roll on September 3rd for the wedding of the year!

Tex Mex Tuesday & Thursday! Santo & Desperados

This week was a double Mexican whammy...and both were a success! We began with Santo which is just around the corner from where we work on Portobello Road.  Unfortunately it was a pretty rainy afternoon when we stopped by but once inside our spirits were soon lifted.

I ordered a sparkling tropical juice, the main ingredient seemed to be Kiwi which was a pleasant and tasty surprise, and they also brought over some complimentary nachos and salsa whilst we perused the menu which is always a thumbs up for us! 

They claim to have the most amount of Mexican dishes to choose from this side of the Atlantic, and their menu was certainly alot broader than most.  We ordered some nachos with chili con carne as a starter, shown in the out of focus picture above, but it was too good not to feature! This had to be the highlight of the visit for me.  Piled high with chilli, sour cream, guacamole and refried beans...we literally finished every last crumb and both unanimously agreed they were THE best nachos ever! 

What followed was a burrito that, for me, knocks spots off any burrito Chilango can rustle up.  Even the outer tortilla appeared completely homemade and was almost pancake like in texture as it was lovely and fluffy.  Mara declared it the best Mexican she had ever eaten.

I ordered a chicken quesadilla and again was so impressed with the actual tortilla used, I literally could have eaten 10 of the things! The ingredients are fresh, inventive and most importantly delicious! Unfortunately they didn't have a dessert menu per se and only offered a few different ice cream options when we enquired about if they did do dessert so that was a bit of a let down...we all know dessert is my favourite part of the meal! but somehow that didn't dampen our spirits as we left Santo because we had been left so completely satisfied with what we had eaten! 

Thursday presented another opportunity for Mexican as I met up with some friends in Islington, and I'm of the mindset the more Mexican the better! Desperados describes itself as a Mexican Cantina & Bar and from the second I arrived I fell in love with it.

From the chilli bunch hanging on the wall...

to the table decor...

to the awesome curly straw and my non alcoholic cocktail! 

Desperados cocktail menu was as extensive as their food menu, so if Mexican and cocktail is your thing this is definitely the place to go! and there were about 6 or so non alcoholic cocktails on offer as well!

One thing we weren't too sure about was the service.  In the 10 minutes after we arrived, whilst waiting for 2 more friends to join us, we got asked by no less than 7 different waiters for our drinks orders!!  The first couple of times we were impressed by how on the ball they were, but eventually it got a bit ridiculous! and we felt they should have somehow had waiters assigned to tables to avoid this happening.

The service was quick though, and we were served our main dishes very promptly.  

Amy's steak fajitas were still sizzling away in the dish as they arrived and we were loving the huge portions! 

I had side dishes of rice, beans, guac and sour cream...along with an actual salad too! It's definitely the place to come on an empty stomach.  I went for an enchilada, and usually would always order chicken but apparently they had run out of chicken that night! so I went for beef...which turned out to be just as well because it was SO delicious and something I may just have to order again in the future! Jade also had to go for a beef burrito...after trying to order a chicken one (it had been a long day for her!)

There was a great vibe at Desperados, and it was pretty packed all night long...the people didn't stop coming which is always a good sign in my book! and it was a great place to spend the night catching up with old friends.

The nacho starter which Pip had as a main course was more than adequate and we thought pretty reasonably priced considering how much you got, check out those awesome nails as well - I couldn't resist! 

When the bill came they brought everyone little shots of one of their exotic cocktails.  The girls were all suitably impressed and if it hadn't been a 'school night' would have probably indulged in some more! 

All round, a great week of Mexican munching!

Tex Mex Tuesday: Taqueria and the best pulled pork in London @ Bodean's!

Last Tuesday we decided we should pay a visit to Taqueria, since it's so close to where we work and we pass it often.  Unfortunately it wasn't one of our smartest choices and I have got to say this was our worst Tex Mex Tuesday in London thus far.

From the moment we stepped through the door, I wasn't really feeling it.  It lacks atmosphere compared to alot of the Mexicans we've eaten at recently, and the seats weren't too comfy either! 

On Tuesday, their speciality is Tamales.  So we ordered one to check out what they are like, it was pretty good.  We weren't quite sure how to eat it but we got the hang in the end! just make sure you don't eat the corn husks it is wrapped up in! 

I tried the pork al pastor Taco's, which was the exact same dish I had at Lupita so I was able to make a direct comparison and they just weren't up to scratch.  My food was luke warm and it came so quick that it seemed like the meat must have been reheated.  The pineapples tasted a little funky, like they'd been in the tin for too long so all in all it wasn't a good meal! 

Mara opted for the Tostada after we'd had some really good ones at Whole Foods a few weekends ago, but it didn't quite compare either.

What surprises me is that with Crazy Homies in one direction and Loco Mexicano in the other, both just a few minutes way and both fantastic Mexicans - you would think Taqueria would up their game but they haven't and subsequently I don't know why anyone would choose to eat there when in the Westbourne Grove area.

We decided to give them one last chance to impress us by ordering their Churro's. Whilst we enjoyed the dipping sauce and the amount of cinnamon they were coated in, they were far too hard and crunchy and they didn't blow us away.  

Luckily for us we had a better dining experience ahead of us later in the week! 

On Friday we found ourselves in Selfridge's, our favourite haunt! Mara was stocking up on her usual supply of foodie magazines when in one of them we saw a picture of some drool worthy pulled pork.  I couldn't get that image out of my mind, and as we browsed some of the sales in the Oxford Street shops I decided I had to get a pulled pork fix! but where?! 

I googled on my phone to find out if there was anywhere nearby selling pulled pork and to my excitement I found there was a place called Bodean's just further down in Soho that had some on their menu! So we set off on my pulled pork mission and when we arrived at Poland Street I wondered why I had never heard of Bodean's before - it looked exactly like my kind of place! 

We hurried inside, just in time to watch the end of the Murray vs. Nadal semi final - Go Rafa! and were impressed with the menu we found...jerk chicken burgers, combos of ribs and chicken, and of course the all important pulled pork sandwich! so I ordered the classic...and imagine my delight when I got to the counter only to see that they were serving root beer too...and not just any old root beer A&W!!! could this place get any better? well yes, it could, I also saw they had Key Lime Pie on their dessert menu but unfortunately after our cupcake stop at Lola's we had to hold off on dessert...but definitely next time! 

Doesn't this shot just make you smile?? root beer makes me happy!

so does the little pig that's their logo! 

Just check out that pulled pork! pure perfection in a bun and a rather delicious bun at that.

This little basket of deliciousness will only set you back £6.95 so not only is the food super tasty but also super reasonable!

What are you waiting for...go check it out!