Rugby and Romance this weekend February 13, 2009

The Boy isn’t really a romantic, so I know not to get hung up on V Day (although in our first year of dating he cooked me a three course meal on 14 Feb – he hasn’t since).  Anyhoo, we thought we’d make a bit of an effort tomorrow night, without being frivolous or overly slushy.  Meals out on V Day never cut it with me (all the freaks come out for their one romantic night of the year. Isn’t spontaneous romance better?) – so we’re staying in.

 

AM – jobs time, I am setting seeds for veg in the greenhouse, The Boy will no doubt be doing car related stuff.

PM – I’m getting a hair cut then the plan is to get prep for dinner done and watch the England rugby game with a nice bottle of fizz which my Sis gave us at Chrimbles. After rugger, time to cook (warily, having necked a bottle already). 

 

We are having:

Starter: Salt and pepper king prawns with home made chilli and tomato bread

Main: Duck breast with port and cherry sauce, mash and red cabbage

Dessert: chocolate pot with home made hazlenut brittle.

If I’m sober enough, I might take a pic of the food so you can see the yumster grub. Being realistic though, I’ll probably be a bit sozzled and will wolf it down…

Battle of the Christmas Chefs December 19, 2008

Much to The Boy’s disgust, this week I have been watching cookery programmes in the evening, whilst waiting for my fake tan to dry (can’t move when fake tanned, so consigned to watch telly whilst holding arms out in air).  I’ve taken in Nigella, Hugh and Jamie and here’s my thoughts on the three of them:

Nigella

I hate her.  She does good recipes, as evidenced by my Cherry+Chocolate pie I cooked from her ‘How to Eat’ book at the weekend.  But the woman is a pain in the arse.  Her smug face is made less tolerant by what comes out of her mouth.  “Plumptious beauties” is not the way I would refer to cranberries.  Plumptious isn’t even a word woman!!  The Boy was driven to absolute distraction by her drivel, even wailing out at times because he couldn’t bear it any more.  Recipes = good.  Nigella = only good as form of torture for boys.  I can’t bear to watch her again, with her ethnically balanced dinner table guests (production crew), her lickety lips and her overembellished wordage – she’s like Russell Brand on that front, but with better hair and fatter hips.

Hugh

I like Hugh. I’ve always liked his style of killing, cooking and eating.  In his programme he shot venison which immediately got The Boy’s interest.  I liked watching him butcher it up as well and exude delight that he could use the suet in his Chrimble pudding – which was a roly poly – what’s that all about?  A good attempt to be different but not my idea of a Christmas pud, Hugh.  Having said that, his staff at River Cottage looked like they were having a really good time, especially the mushrooming/vodka duo who took delight in winding each other up.  Boy and I agreed that Hugh would be a good boss, we reckon, although I would have permanent envy of his veg patch.

Jamie

Jamie was on last night and this was my last fake-tan-cooking-programme combo.  I like Jamie, a friend bought me his cookbook and I’ve done loads from it – it’s my kinda food.  The Jerk ham he did looked really fantastic and something I’d like to try, and the turkey and leek pie? I was saying out loud that I wanted to eat it now and Jamie said in the next instance “You wanna eat that, don’t ya?”.  I also liked the addition of the slightly bonkers Italian man – he looked familiar but I couldn’t think who he was, but the combo of him and Jamie worked.  Despite this positivity, Jamie still irks with me as he’s another one who makes up words which don’t exist, in the hope of making his food sound more delectable.

Hugh’s the winner for me.

Oh, and the fake tan worked out well – streak free.  I am now what I consider to be a plumptious beauty.

Top Teas November 24, 2008

Avid readers (if I have any) may have noticed my new ‘Top Teas’ page which I’ve set up on the blog. I didn’t want to crowd the regular blah with these items, so have posted them in a separate section.  Although, this means you don’t get an RSS feed when I update them, so I’m ending up posting a note in here to direct you here, which seems silly.

Maybe in future, I’ll post my review here and then add it into the separate page, so it’s easy for you to find.  Are you really fussed what I’ve eaten on a Sunday avo anyway??!!

Getting back on track…here’s hoping… August 12, 2008

With apologies to my mate Rob, who’s fed up of diets, I can’t help but write about fighting the flab as I’ve come over all motivated today.  Hoorah!

I recently had 2 weeks off work which resulted in my fitness regime crumbling, my fruit intake nosediving and my alcohol consumption rocketing.  It’s sad that a bit of free time puts all my previous work to pot, but now that the normal service of a 9-5.30 job and meal times at regular hours has returned I feel I should be able to get back on track with B2B beautifying preparation (D-Day minus 11 months you see).  I also see the rugby season fast approaching and need some serious fitness work, having been out of the game for 10 months.

This morning I made a good start by managing to drag myself out of bed and into the gym (yawning, unattractively) by 0725.  A sleepy warm up on the bike was followed by some strength work, trampette running (harder than it sounds) and bounding/agility running to get the dodgy knee going.  I’ve also (foolishly) agreed to go along to a Body Pump class tonight with some girls from work.  I was looking forward to it until I found out they do 3 minutes (three. Three!) of sit ups with weights at the end of the class.  I might actually be sick.

Anyway, on the foodage front, as if psychic, a matey of mine emailed today and is also keen to have a bit of a blitz on the bod so we’re becoming Body Blitz Buddies.   Ideal.  I’m rubbish at self-motivation where not eating is concerned and especially where pear cider is concerned, so a like minded lady who I can share progress (or disasters) with will really help I hope.  We’re already on track – tonight is measure yourself and get a food diary night and we’re both out on Thursday for beer and curry, so already planning what low cal options will be best at the restaurant.

I’ve done Weight Watchers in the past and had great success at the time (which was boosted by being dumped and only eating maltesers, sparingly, for four days) – but over time I’ve slipped a bit I must admit.  I don’t want to get back to my depths-of-misery-lovelorn skinny minny look, but a few pounds off and a slightly trimmer waist (and ribcage?) would be welcome.

So, here goes.  Won’t bore you with my progress and food diary entries, but wish me luck…

Stein’s Seafood restaurant serves Beefy: But, Odds are on the money August 10, 2008

Aaaah. Just returning to blogging after a week away and off-line in Cornwall.  To fill the gap left by my ever present computer screen and to cheer ourselves up after lashings of rain, The Boy and I treated ourselves to some fine dining whilst down there. 

 

First up was the famous Rick Stein Seafood Restaurant in Padstow.  We waited rather a while at the door to get noticed but once we were we were shown straight through to our wee table for 2.  They pack them in a bit at this place but actually we were more than happy with our table.  Namely because, as I sat down, I spied none other than I.T.Botham sitting across from us with his family.

 

A proper sporting legend within yards of us was at least as exciting as the menu choices on offer from Stein and it was made all the more exciting when Rick himself showed up to share some seafood chat with Beefy.  Back to the food though, we decided against the a la carte and went for the convenient ‘tasting’ menu which comprised of 6 courses, aimed at those wanting a wee bit of lots of things – ideal for us.  The best course was the sea bass with hollandaise and samphire. Samphire was new to us two but we liked it – actually I really loved it, it’s a strange flavour but quite lush with some white fish.  The lobster and John  Dory courses were also good in my view but the crab and ginger broth was a bit too fiery IMHO.  Choccy pud to finish was lovely, although a bit more goo would have been nice.  All in all though, there wasn’t a lot to fault here, although the Boy concluded, “if that’s the best that fish gets, I stand by my view that you can’t beat meat”.  Refined, he is not. But at least he knows what he likes.

 

Furtive glances to Botham throughout the meal didn’t detract from what was probably the best fish dishes i’ve eaten, in a lovely setting. Although I was perturbed to see someone ask for the man’s autograph when he was clearly on hols with his family – rude.
Moving on to feast number 2, a gang of us visited Odds-The Restaurant in Cubert on our last night and wow, did this place blow us away.  It’s nothing to look at at ground level but a level down, carved into the hill, is a lovely little restaurant with fantastic views across the hills to the sea.  We were pleased to find we were chatting to the owner of the restaurant, Adam Coad, whilst he served us drinks and we took the chance to ask more about the background to the restaurant and the attached farm from which much of the meat comes.

 

The meal began well with pigeon with beetroot carpaccio for me.  I’ve never had pigeon before but if it always tastes as this dish did, I’ll happily wolf it again – it was simply LUSH.

pigeon at Odds. Yum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on to the main, I chose Cornish duck which was cooked beautifully – again, probably the best duck I’ve ever eaten.  I don’t know who their chef is, but he’s a keeper!  The Boy had pork loin and belly and OMG, I tasted some belly and it was like eating caramel – utterly gooey, sticky and slightly sweet. delicious.  The other 2 eaters had a beef dish and a veggie option of Aubergine and goats cheese tian – and we were all making similar ‘mmmm’ noises throughout. 

 

With such a high standard of food, we had to delve into the puddings – I chose a cheese platter which sounds boring but came with home made oat biccies and a spiced pear which was a lovely touch.  One of the eaters had a chocolate fondant and we all witnessed the gooey lushnuss emerging as his fork went in.  Perfecto!!  Boozy coffees ensued until we were completely sated and the last group left in there.

 

Despite a small glitch with the bill you really couldn’t fault the service at this place either – it was friendly and unpretentious.  And Odds proved good value too, with my duck main £20.  A bargain for what it was.  With only a year under its belt I get the feeling this place will be going up and up in food rankings and develop quite a name for itself -I’m just glad I’ve been there in its early days whilst it’s still got seats available! (no sightings of Beefy there yet…)

The New Blitz plan June 24, 2008

After a splurge weekend in terms of calories (including ‘empty’ ones from Irn Bru WKD – what was I thinking?), I’m trying the BodyDoctor’s menu plans for a week or so.  I’m not doing the prescriptive exercise he recommends, owing to gammy knee, but I am being a gym regular.  As far as eating’s concerned, I think I have a short food attention span and I tend to get bored with rice cakes – I fancied something different to counting points too, so I reckoned this was as good a blitz as any…

Anyhoo, assuming I remember to, I’ll provide an insight into my eating habits for the week.

Here’s Day One:

Brekkie – berry and yoghurt smoothie (drank on the way to work, coming from the gym, totally lush)

Lunch – 2 egg omlette with salad, fruit (melon, cherries, apricot, apple)

Dinner – Black Bean Balti with brown rice: very nice and very filling, I didn’t need any dessert, huzzah!

Day Two – currently in progress:

brekkie – warm fruit kebabs with lemon and honey glaze (apricot, straws, banana, kiwi) – made earlier and cooled down and packed up to eat at my desk, owing to another early morning gym visit.  They were yum. But cold.

lunch – bean and veg soup (butter beans, fine green beans and some sweet potato in there as well as usual suspects of carrots, onions etc), plus some fruit (melon, strawberries, fresh apricot)

dinner tonight – chicken provencale (thighs and legs) with brown rice and some fruit and yoghurt.

I’ve finally got round to chickening out. But Morrison’s hasn’t… June 9, 2008

I’ve finally remembered to sign myself up to the Chicken Out campaign, spearheaded by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

I’m watching his River Cottage Spring series at the moment and I really enjoy it. I love the way Hugh’s passion for good food goes right through to how the animals (and veg) are reared, cared for, killed and cooked. I feel sorry for the poor veggie he’s enlisted as his Butcher’s mate, who tends to gingerly sniff what she’s just been forced to cook (last week was lush lamb patties). But then again, come on girl, just GET STUCK IN!

Back to talking chickens (not literally) I have been having real trouble getting free-range chooks at our local Morrisons. They have cottoned on a bit and have more corn-fed stuff in, but there’s no organic chicken and very little free-range stuff. I prefer to go to our local butcher, Arthur Longland in Northampton, to get our meat – I love having a good old chat about what bits of meat are what and whether he has spare potato sacks for our home grown veg (he often does) – but I rarely have time to visit him when he’s open (traditionally, they still close on Saturday avos). He has good free-range, local chickens and makes his own snags and burgers and is basically a good old boy.
But with a limited opening time, this means the supermarket often has the edge over Arthur (actually, he’s called Alan but it’s a long story). With a tres busy lifestyle, I end up doing mercy dashes for food late at night, or doing a massive shop every once in a while, buying far more than we need and subsequently making huge batches of soups/curries for the freezer with the near-past-it food. In theory, this isn’t a massive disaster, unless you make loads of freezer food and then leave the blinking freezer door open overnight….

Bleugh to Hare March 3, 2008

Tried cooking hare last night, in a casserole with some white wine and seasonal veg.  I’m really not a fan!  First off, I had to joint it and when raw, it didn’t smell particularly appetising.

Once cooked, the meat was incredibly rich and gamey and too much for me.  I really couldn’t stomach eating it.  Which, for me, is a first I think.

Now I have three things that I don’t like eating:

 - mint choc chip ice cream (it’s just wrong)

 - marmalade

 - hare

My Christmas Top Five December 21, 2007

I’m feeling Christmassy now, what with practising playing the church carols and wrapping all the pressies up.  Here’s the things I love best about this time of year (not in any order):

1.  Rugby girls Christmas do.  Always so hilarious, to the point where bladder control is almost lost.  This year was no exception with superb comedy elements, including the moment someone put plum chutney in my home-made-from-a-plastic-bag snowman hat, and I nearly put it on.  Someone else got the bad luck of smelling of homemade chutters. Then there was the trampoline moves display, without the trampoline…

2. Cheesy films in the afternoon – and having the time to snuggle under a blanket with a hot chocolate to watch them. 

3. Pub on Christmas Eve after Church.  After playing the carols and politely chatting to the old dears, us kids wander in the crisp darkness to the local for a proper catch up, away from parental ears.  Always some old faces and good beer in the local.

4.  Christmas at home with the family and the odd rituals – like the present ceremony where Dad hands em out and we each open one at a time, and clap after each present is revealed!  And the tradition of a G+T being the first drink Dad and I have; the efforts to get Mum to drink a sherry so she chills out; and the near fistycuffs when we play games.

5. Gluttony.  Dad this year is doing a Goose, Beef, Turkey and Ham for the main dinner. For one course.  The table will look like a medieval banquet! We will inevitably lap it up, yummers!

Merry Christmas, all!