Happy New Year!
I hope this year brings you happiness, good health and plenty of delicious food.

For Christmas Day…
I made a Butternut Squash Wellington, Roasted Potatoes with garlic, thyme and rosemary and Jamie Oliver’s Winter Salad that I saw on his Together TV show on Channel 4.
I have also started a new tradition for Christmas here in England. I hand’t eaten Christmas pudding before coming to the UK and honestly, I am not wild about it (it’s a lot of dried fruit!), so instead I have started to make Sticky Toffee Pudding with a Salted Caramel Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream as an alternative. Delicious.
I’d love for you to tell me what you made for the holidays in the comments section below.
This week…
I joined the Food Network team to film an episode of their Crack An Egg With… series, without ever cracking an egg. I grew up watching the Food Network on TV, so this feels like a huge achievement. Click here to watch the episode.
This month…
I told you that I was going to become a barista - just for the day. Unfortunately, because of the new variant in the UK, I decided that it would be best to stay home and continue to work on my latte art. Hopefully, later this month I’ll be heading to Union’s roastery in London to have a tour of how coffee beans are roasted, packaged and consumed, and let’s not forget how to make the perfect latte art.
GIVEAWAY…
When it comes to anything remotely close to baking, I tend to let the professionals do their thing. However, I do like a challenge once and a while, so I teamed up with my favourite doughnut producer in the UK - Crosstown (if you haven’t had their doughnuts before, pop them on your list!). I approached them to ask if there is any wastage when creating their doughnuts, Crosstown responded with, “of course”, so we decided to come up with something that uses up leftover doughnuts and the doughnuts that don’t make the final cut.
Introducing the Vegan Bread Pudding by Crosstown and Max La Manna! Combine the leftover doughnuts with an oat milk custard and forced rhubarb and almond crumble on top, and you have got yourself a delicious, no-waste treat!
What’s more, 15% of sales will be donated to The Felix Project who fight against hunger and food waste across London.
To win a Vegan Bread pudding, comment in the section below your favourite Crosstown doughnut flavour, and you might win your very own Bread Pudding!
Online cooking classes are coming back soon. Check out my website later this month to sign up.
My Recommendations:
Book: Hope Not Fear by Hassan Akkad
TV: Stanely Tucci: Searching For Italy
Recipe: West African Peanut Stew by Rachel Ama
Treat: my new favourite ceramic mugs by Lusi
Eat: OAK in Bath
Donate: Choose Love
Take care,
Max
Happy New Year! I love the PBJ one, classic but oh so yum!
Happy new year to you and Venetia! I made a Shepherd's pie with sweet potato and carrot mash and a lentil, pea, mushroom, carrot and pepper filling. It was really yum :)