This past weekend, I had a friend that was performing a stand up comedy show at a pub in Camden.  So, I figured I would take advantage of the freakish weather and take a stroll through the market before his show. Of course any visit to Camden Market for me means a trip back to the wonderful food stalls in the west yard of Camden Locke Market. It was good to see that so many of the places I had seen on previous visits were still running strong. Also, there were a number of new places that had popped up to seriously tempt my tastebuds.

Frustratingly, I couldn’t allow myself to indulge too much because I knew I would be eating at my friend’s show but I couldn’t let myself leave that food yard without trying something.  Just when I was having trouble deciding what should be my treat I walked around a corner and came face to face with Jaz & Jul’s Organic Hot Chocolate stand.

Organic hot chocolate in Camden Market

Normally, hot chocolate would be enough on its own to get my attention but this time it was watching the woman on the stall preparing the iced hot chocolate that got me going.  On the warm day it seemed like a perfect indulgence.  What I particularly found interesting was the wide variety of unusual flavours of chocolate they offered.

Hot chocolate varieties

All of them sounded really good and I was highly tempted to try the orange with cardamom and cloves because that just sounded wonderful. However, my eye kept being drawn to the bottom of that list to the caramel with a hint of lime variety. That was a combination I hadn’t heard of before and so decided that was they way I was going to go.

I placed my order for an iced chocolate and was very pleasantly served by either Jaz or Jul (not sure which) and I am happy to report that I was offered a choice of soy milk instead of cows milk. It is always nice when people make it easy to make vegan choices. I am not a vegan but I do have lactose intolerances. So, even on that side of things it is nice when the option to not have real dairy is so easily taken.  I did end up taking the lactose risk though and went for real milk.

Iced chocolate being served

I watched as she scooped chocolate powder out of the various containers on the stall and mixed everything together with cold milk and ice cubes. She asked if I wanted whipped cream on top and honestly couldn’t imagine somebody not wanting extra goodness on top of all that milky chocolate. At last, the iced chocolate was mine to drink.

iced hot chocolate drink

I am pleased to report that it was a really tasty drink that was perfect for the warm weather. The caramel and lime flavouring came in the form of flavour crystals that were mixed in with the chocolate. I imagine that had I gone for the hot chocolate option they would have melted more and given a more intense flavour. In the iced variety, they were more like little candy crystals that you could chew on as you were drinking. The lime felt like more than just a hint but that isn’t a complaint at all because I found it to be a really nice combination with the caramel.

I certainly recommend giving Jaz & Jul’s a try when you are next in Camden market but you can also order their mixtures from their website. I am certain I will be making another purchase in the future but next time I will go for the hot chocolate just to see the difference. Plus, it is unlikely that we will have nice weather two outings in a row. This is England after all.

I do, however, like coffee ice cream. With all the cream and sugar the bitterness is cut to make it enjoyable. Lately, I have been thinking maybe it is time to try coffee again but this time experiment with different types until I find one that works for my tastebuds.

My chance came this week when I, once again, participated in Recipezaar’s Pick A Chef event. In this event, you adopt one or more of your fellow Recipezaar chefs and agree to make and review at least three of their recipes. In exchange, somebody adopts you and you get three of your own recipes reviewed.

White chocolate Bailey's latte recipe

One of the chefs I adopted was Shuzbud. As I was perusing her list of recipes I spotted this White chocolate Bailey’s latte recipe.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about Recipezaar events is that they push me to try new things. It is as a direct result of various events held on the site that I found out I love marinated artichokes, sundried tomatoes and polenta. With such a track record I decided it was worth giving this white chocolate latte recipe a try too.

Of course, I had to do things my style. Which means cheap and cheerful! Instead of actual Baileys I used the Irish whiskey cream brand that you can buy in Lidls. I also bought my white chocolate there (on an aside they have this super yummy strawberry white chocolate bar there now!). I even bought a jar of Fair Trade instant coffee there. I love that Lidls is doing so many Fair Trade items now. It is great that you can make the responsible and ethical choice without having to worry about your own budget all that much.

The white chocolate latte recipe was so simple to prepare. Simply heat the milk (I used skimmed because it is what I keep in the house) on the stove, stir in the white chocolate until it melts and then add the coffee and the Baileys.

I am sure it is because the drink was mostly a white hot chocolate with a little bit of coffee but I really enjoyed it. It was lush tasting without having to cost me much in either effort of money.

Perhaps getting myself to enjoy coffee isn’t a total lost cause and having this latte recipe taste this good is just the springboard I need to explore further.

I have a huge stack of cooking magazines and recipes I have printed out from the internet sitting on my desk as I try to widdle them down to decide what exactly I will be cooking and baking for the Christmas period. You would think after all that foodie focused research I would be settled on a menu by now. The problem is that the more I see the more I want to make but I want to be careful of not biting off more than I can (literally) chew.

One thing I do know is that Christmas cooking period is going to be one of those times where I won’t be sticking strictly to a vegetarian diet. However, I do really want to try as much as possible to be cooking and serving mostly vegetarian Christmas recipes.

The good thing though is that it really isn’t very hard to do that. When you think about it, most of the Christmas cookies and cakes we will munch over the holiday period are vegetarian by their very nature. Then, the normal Christmas dinner trimmings are also largely vegetarian. At least that is the case if you skip doing your roast potatoes in goose fat. Frankly, even when I wasn’t so focused on vegetarian cooking that never appealed to me anyway.

As I make my way through a largely vegetarian Christmas, I will check in and share my vegetarian cooking adventures. Hopefully, it will give some of you also trying to eat mostly vegetarian over the Christmas cooking period of bit of inspiration.

For now though, it is on to finally forming a solid Christmas cooking schedule. So, time to settle down with that stack of Christmas cooking magazines and make my mind up. At least until I change it again.

Of course, I can’t do that research without having a good hot beverage by my side. This month for the vegetarian swap I participate in over at Recipezaar, I picked out this Mayan Hot Chocolate recipe posted by Recipezaar member the80srule.

spiced hot chocolate recipe

It turns out this hot chocolate recipe is the perfect partner to planning my vegetarian Christmas cooking. Firstly, the big sell for me, is that it is actually made with soy chocolate milk. I am lactose intolerant so whenever I make a creamy drink like hot chocolate I have to weigh up the consequences. I could make a normal hot chocolate recipe with water, I suppose, but any lover of hot chocolate knows that is simply never the same. Amazingly though, I had never thought of using soy chocolate milk as the base of a hot chocolate recipe but it really did work.

What really makes this hot chocolate recipe special though are the spices that go into the mixture. First in the pot, is a bit of cinnamon which gives a real Christmas feel to the hot chocolate recipe. Then comes the real surprise, a pinch of cayenne pepper. You would think that would make it hot and spicy but really it just adds a back ground warmth to the hot chocolate.

So, make yourself your own mug of this spiced hot chocolate and pull up your own pile of Christmas recipes and join the foodie December ritual of planning your holiday baking and Christmas cooking. Let the games begin!