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
Corn Stuffed Tomatoes
A while back Mr C and I decided that we should put some more time into our cooking. We were getting into the habit of eating out quite frequently, and while we enjoyed it, it certainly wasn't doing our waist line, or bank balance, much good at all. Logically, if you are replacing eating out, then you can look to spend a fraction of that money on good quality ingredients and cook at home instead and get just as tasty a meal. We therefore started making the most of various cookbooks that were starting to gather dust on our kitchen shelves and started being a bit more adventurous in the kitchen. ... read more
Cowboy Bean Hash
Tonight was Mr C's turn to cook - something he does quite often and is fantastic at! The first stage, of course, had to be to provide some lubrication for the chef and his assistant. This initial stage sorted, it was time to move on to the main part of the evening's entertainment - the food. Cowboy Bean Hash (our chosen name!) is a meal that Mr C's mum originally taught him to make. Quite where it came from we're unsure. She may well have got it from Delia (many of her meals were) but we can't swear to it. The minimal ingredients and general style make us think not - but we may be wrong. In ... read more
Words
I think this is fantastic! Created with the words in the last few blog posts I think it's really interesting to see what words are included - my passion for reading certainly stands out! Created at wordle. ... read more
Arthur & George – Julian Barnes
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes is another book that I chose to read after seeing that it had been on the Nightingale House Book Group reading list. The blurb that I found about the book at the time of buying simply suggested that Arthur and George were two individuals who lived in Britain in the late nineteenth-century. A series of events that made sensational headlines would then bring the two gentlemen together. That was all I knew at the start. A book about two gentlemen at a time in British history that I enjoy reading about. I didn't think much more of it at the time and just looked ... read more