Today was the Earthworks Summer Fair here in St Albans. Earthworks is a local charity that offers trainees, often with learning difficulties or mental health problems, work experience and training in horticultural and land-based skills. They have a site in St Albans where they manage it on environmental principles and they use it to grow fruit and vegatables that they then sell at the monthly St Albans Farmers' Market. Mr C and I were helping out on the WWA stand and took a nice walk down the Alban Way to get there this morning. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been kind to us today and ... read more
Archives for July 2008
Lunch in the sunshine
This weekend sees the end of the two week long St Albans Food and Drink Festival. There have been a variety of events around the city over the two weeks, but today was the first real chance for Mr C and I to see what was going on. Today there were a series of outdoor events and luckily the weather stayed dry for them. An al fresco food court was set up along side a stage celebrating World Music Day (which I thought was in June?) and some of the city's restaurants were serving up "outdoor takes" on their usual menus. When Mr C and I arrived, just after 12 noon, many of the chefs were still ... read more
Chocolate brownies
As you may have noticed by now I am rather partial to chocolate. I particular enjoy cooking and baking with it and another of my favourite recipes containing it is for Chocolate Brownies and came from my mother in law, S. The ingredients for this are quite simple: 4oz margarine, 8oz sugar, 2 eggs, 3oz plain flour, 2 - 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and (the bit that makes them slightly different) 2 handfuls of sultanas. You start by melting the margarine in a pan. Once this is done, mix in the sugar off the heat. Then add the cocoa (my favourite part) and beat in the ... read more
Eye for a bargain!
This lunchtime I popped out from work to go to the Post Office to post a parcel. As usual at lunchtime there were queues stretching around and past all the shelves that hold all the standard stationery that Post Offices sell: the boring stationery with plain envelopes, brown paper and parcel tape. Just as I was leaving another shelf full of goodies caught my eye and I found that this Post Office was a step above the others as it was selling books! I was delighted to find that they had a whole section of cookery books, all at very cheap prices! The first book I picked up was James Martin's ... read more
If laughter is the food of love…
Mr C and I have been real party animals this week. Out on two work nights - almost unheard of! Tonight we visited one of St Albans' new restaurants: Stonegrill St Albans. The slightly different thing at this restaurant is that your meat, fish or vegetables are served to your table whilst cooking on superheated natural volcanic stones! (apologies for the poor photo) It's a slightly strange experience, and a bit smokey at times, but certainly gave the steak that I had a completely different taste to normal. I understand that Stonegrill is a chain, so if there is one near you then I'd certainly ... read more
No! I don’t want to join a bookclub
Virginia Ironside's No! I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub is a paperback that I picked up from a local charity shop whilst I was off work ill. It looked quite light and jolly and so I though that it would be ideal light reading. The book is written as the diary of Marie Sharp, starting a few months before her sixtieth birthday. Marie is a woman who is (slightly unusually) looking forward to turning sixty. She's due to become a grandmother for the first time and is thrilled at being able to embrace the time spent with grandson Gene. The book follows her life, along with those of her close friends ... read more
Laughter – the best medicine
After an awful journey home from work, Mr C and I tonight went to see Jimmy Carr at the Alban Arena here in St Albans as part of his Repeat Offender tour. Fantastically funny. Very rude and totally wrong in parts, but still made me laugh until I ached. If you haven't seen him live then do so if you get the chance. Well worth it! ... read more