CHARCOAL COFFEE AND STUFFED OKRA.

The other day D. and I organised our spice cupboard!! I realise now that I should have taken a before picture for full effect, but just look at how tidy it is in there now - I love it.  Everything is properly labelled, easy to see and get to, wiped off and clean. If there is anything I like, its things being neat and organised.  I'm still loving our new couch! On the counter to the right here you see Duncan's latest toy as well: a pestle and mortar. He's cooking so many Indian recipes these days so there's a lot of grinding of spices that goes on. Lots of fun actually!  Speaking of food, yesterday I got out of bed an chopped up a sweet potato for breakfast. I know that sweet potato fries etc have been very trendy for a while now, I still love it. One of my favourite ways to use it is in a taco. Mmmmm tacos.  Made almost that, a breakfast burrito! Sweet potato, tomato, creme fraiche, cheddar, jalapeño, fresh coriander and a poached egg on top. Looks creative and slightly advanced, but it's pretty simple and so yummy.  When the egg yolk pops it creates a sauce that runs through the burrito, mmmm. Or it runs all over your hands in some cases 🤔 After breakfast and some chill on our new couch (ok, NOW I'll stop going on about it 🙄) we went for a walk along the canal. I love living around the corner from water, just a shame it's not water you can (legally) swim in.. anyway, saw some flowers in bloom! Is spring also around the corner?????  Walked past a cool looking little place near Republique, looked pretty much the same as Gumbo Yaya, which was unfortunately only ok and not as super exciting and amazing as I had been hoping..  We had a goal though! I had looked up a coffee shop that was supposed to be really nice, someone on tripadvisor described it as "as close to Brooklyn as you can get, without actually being in Brooklyn": Republique of coffee.  I had read about their special charcoal coffee, not sure what went in it but it was incredibly sweet. Way too sweet for me.  I had a regular latte, but when they both arrived they were sadly cold. Now I don't deal well with heat (I can barely pick up my bread when it comes out of the toaster, that's how sensitive to heat I am), but this I could have easily finished in one go. So I assure you - it was not hot. We asked if they could possibly heat them up a bit for us, where after the coffee guy behind the counter put his finger in one of the cups (?!) and told us that "yes, it is hot". Ehm. We finally got two cups of hot coffee, without the milk decorations this time, just grey fluff.  It was also incredibly warm where we were sitting (the heat lights were pointed right at my face), but we weren't allowed to change tables. All of this combined makes me really not want to go back there, ever again. Sorry Republique of coffee, not sorry.   After that fail we went to the Epicerie Anglaise (where you can get all your English and American products) and picked up some fun stuff, including an apple flavoured Fanta that I hadn't seen before. It was nice, but would have been even nicer with lots of ice and a squeeze of lime. Next time!  The rest of our Saturday night was spent hanging out at home, playing with the pestle and mortar, cooking, drinking wine and watching two movies.  I made stuffed okra! It's funny, Duncan made the same thing a few days ago, following the same recipe, and still ours came out very different from each other. Both very nice, just different. It really shows you that recipes only go so far, a lot is up to the person cooking!I kept thinking last night that I'm so happy to be going out with a person who is also my best friend. We have just as much fun dancing around to silly music at home with wine as we do going on a romantic date night. Cheesy, but true. <3 Now I need to head back in to the kitchen, Linda is coming over for Sunday dinner tonight and I need to get prepping! Do you have any Sunday traditions that you follow??