Share your heart with your Valentine

Valentine's Day is just around the corner - Monday, in case you weren't sure! - which means the shops are full of flowers and chocolates. But if you've had enough of all the usual romantic clichés, we've been busy in the kitchen creating our own twist on a teatime favourite.

Introducing... the jammie heart.



After all, nothing says "I love you" like a hearty snack!

Red chilli jam

As we mentioned a few days ago, we've been busy with our preserving pan. One of our favourite home-made recipes is Red Chilli Jam. But what can you do with it?

Good question. After all, it's not the kind of jam you'd expect in a traditional jam sandwich! However, if there was a sausage or a piece of bacon in that sandwich, our chilli jam would go very nicely.

It's also great with cheese, with cold meats... and with pretty much any other savoury food you fancy. Fish fingers with chilli jam. Quiche with chilli jam. Cheese on toast with chilli jam. Trust us, they all work very well!

Home-made pickles, chutneys, jams and preserves

It's Seville Orange season at the moment... and that got us thinking about marmalade. And not just marmalade, but all kinds of preserves. So we've found our biggest preserving pans and we've been busy cooking.

Call in to The Laine Deli and you'll find a variety of home-made chutneys, jams, pickles and other preserves available to buy. They're great gifts for foodies - and they'll also perk up many a mealtime at home.

In fact, they're so good we've started using them in our own sandwiches, too!

Warm up with a jacket potato

The weather seems to have turned seasonably grim. Damp and unpleasant.

Fortunately, here at The Laine Deli, we've got the perfect remedy. It's the jacket potato!

Wrap your fingers around one of these oven-baked beauties (or keep it in a practical takeaway container if you prefer!) and you're sure to feel better about the day. In fact, because they're nutritious and naturally low in fat, you can feel good about yourself as well!

Outside catering in Brighton

We've finished catering for Christmas parties for another 12 months and we're now ready for everything else that 2011 can throw at us.

Which means - as well as serving breakfasts, lunches and afternoon teas from our Trafalgar Road shop - we can cater for your business functions, parties, buffets, birthdays and any other events that involve sandwiches, cakes, sausage rolls, vol au vents, canapes... well, we're sure you get the picture.

Pop in to the shop, call us on Brighton 686665 or drop us a line for more information.

Our North Laine neighbours

Just over the road from The Laine Deli is The Ironworks, a recording studio that's part of the Miloco group.

Now, we don't claim to know a great deal about recording studios... but the guys at The Ironworks have said some nice things about us, so we thought the least we could do was mention them. And it's also worth mentioning that they're popular with people who do know about recording studios!

We're The Laine Deli - however you spell it!

We've previously explained what the "i" is doing in "Laine". It's there because we're in the North Laine area of Brighton - and this distinctive spelling has been used to describe the North Laine district for hundreds of years.

But that doesn't stop people from calling us The Lane Deli, The Lanes Deli and - a recent favourite - Elaine's Deli.

Now, we'll happily answer to most things... but it's probably best if you don't ask for Elaine!