The Whole Family Are Here

Helen, Andrew and Ethan arrived at 5:30. Another bout of present opening. After dinner Andrew and I watched the Arsenal and Chelsea match while the kids played and the women had a game of Cluedo.

Oh What A Lovely Hat

Great chocolate cake and later for dips with Derritos.

Check out the Picasa link below for more photos in the Christmas album.

Christmas Album

Christmas 2010

ChristmasNewYear2010

I woke this morning to rain on the dorma roof. By lunch time the snow had all but gone. It would be have been nice if  it had stayed  for Christmas Day. At least the kids with new bikes were out as I drove round to Katherine's.

Lunch was slightly late due to the turkey taking an extra 30 minutes to cook.

Now watching a dire Eastenders programme while we wait of  Erin and Rhys returning from their relatives in Prestwick. I might have room for a small turkey sandwich with my red wine!!!

Ethan is Here for a Few Days

Ethan visiting while the Darlington schools have broken up for Christmas holidays.

Paying Homage to the Wii

36th Anniversary - Posh Frock

Jean in her new posh frock. Bought for our anniversary.

Rhys's 6th Birthday

Rhys's 7th Year

Toys all over the floor. Followed by pizza two for one from Dominoes. Due to the bad weather no delivery!

Birthday Cake and candles -- Happy Birthday Rhys.

You may notice the cut above his left eye. A fall at the swimming baths on Monday meant a visit to A&E. Walking down the ramp at the entrance was not an option!

Erin and Rhys: A few photos today

I've not taken photos of the kids in a while. So here's a couple.

Rhys 6th Year

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Jamie Oliver's Veggie Lasagne with Tomato Salad

I've just been reading in the Saturday paper that Jamie O sold 78K copies of his book last week along. The week before I think it was 48K. At £10 a skull that's over a £1.2M in revenue in the last 2 weeks. The second book in the best sellers list was less than half this quantity. Jamie can do no wrong.

So as you know I did buy the book and tonight I cooked my third meal from it. The lasagne is quoted as a summer dish so I had to change the asparagus to broccoli. The accompanying salad should be a variety of season tomatoes, I just used cherry toms.

The recipes are written to be done in the 30 minutes which the TV programme format dictates. This is on the pretense of delivering meals for a busy family of 4.  The approach is fair enough and its reminiscent of Delia Smith's last series on using acceptable "cheats". If you remember the critics response was mixed and I would like to compare her book sales with the above.

The quantity of frozen beans and peas looked enormous and I reduced it. In the cooking I would pay for that decision later. The bulk of the lasagne filling was beans, peas and the stalks of the broccoli chopped up. The cheese sauce is provided by cream and cottage cheese. Half the cheese is used in the initial mix. Mint and lemon rind is added for additional flavour.

All was going well until I had to build the lasagne layers. I had a reasonable size tin for the two of us on a flame to take the finished lasagne. Fresh pasta is used for its short cooking time. I put a layer of filling on the bottom of the tin and put 3 slices of lasagne over it ready for the next layer. As I went for the Parmesan cheese to cover the lasagnes started to curl up into a cup shape --- Jamie's did not do that! Managed to get it flattened out with the next layer of filling.

It was then that my quantity of filling looked a bit thin, The tin was slightly too big for the meal. The next layer was just about covered. The final topping was the rest of the cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and the florets of the broccolli. This was all done while the tin was on the hob. The top layer is cooked under the grill. The edges of the last layer of lasagne were not covered in liquid so I thought that it would come out solid as a rock!

Next the salad. This turned out to be the best of the meal. Grilled chunks of ciabbata bread coated in red wine vinegar, anchovies, capers, Olive oil, red peppers, lemon juice and tomatoes. The bread soaks up the juices. We found the bread filling when eaten with the lasagne. But a great combination of you were real hungry.

The full meal was too much for us in one sitting. I would make it in a smaller tin and ensure the layers were well stocked. The chunks of cottage cheese did not look great but the taste was fine.

If the 30 mins deal is not an issue I would try a proper cheese sauce.

Overall a nice meal and we still have some left over.

Mussels...for dinner. Yummm

Jamie Oliver's Thai Red Prawn Curry & Papaya Platter Meal +

We've been watching Jamie O's new programme which is running on Channel 4 at 5:30 each day.

30 Minute Meals on Channel 4

Jean took a fancy to the Prawn Curry which I cooked today. I didn't follow the full recipe. Did not have the full raw king prawns with shell and head  and the smaller prawns were already cooked. Never the less Jean allowed me to keep my 0.25 Michelin star. We enjoyed it.

The king prawns were cooked in the oven which may not be needed when using the prepared version we had.  Next time I think I would use less coconut milk. The final mix was a little too watery and not as hot as expected.

The cucumber and chillies made up for it.

I did not quite appreciate the Jasmine rice. The tea bags I would leave out.

This is the first time I've tried papaya. Not a great deal of taste. However it was refreshing after the curry.

First time cycling in sometime. I've been under pressure this week at work and had a uplifting ride along the cycle path running along the back of Doonfoot. It was cool but the sun was bright and the first leaf fall of the autumn made for a colourful route.

Ethan's 5th Birthday

The first photo's here are from Ethan's Birthday. No photos of his party as it was in a children's adventure play area - pity about public sensitivity of photographing in public places.

Ethan's 6th Year

Fly Navy: Somerset 2010

Called into a farm shop today and got a couple of home made pies for dinner tomorrew. Ate out  at the Pony and Trap. The No1 recommendation of Tim who rented us the cottage. Fabulous setting looking over the Chew Valley. A number of hot air ballons were landing across the the other side of the valley as we sat down for dinner. Excellent food but some courses served on slates. Dont quite get not using a good old place for eating off. Jean had an enormous fish cake and I had monk fish ramped in pancetta. The monk fish quantity was just enough. Any less and it would have been suspect. Tasted above average.  I had tapas to start on a slate. My pud was chocolate torte again on a slate. Jean had Salmon terrine and tripple ice cream for desert.  The beer was Butcombe... magic.


OK if you don't like aircraft then turn over now...........

Today was a trip to the Fleet Airarm Museum in Yeovilton. Great day for me -- Jean tagged along. Great exibition of all types of Naval aircraft.

Concorde Flight Deck

The Talbot: Somerset 2010

Jean found this old coaching in on the web so we had to give it a go. Real Ale with award winning sausages!

 But of course the day started with breakfast at the Farrington Lodge Hotel. It was better than I expected. Scrambled eggs, plenty of mushrooms and tomatoes which were not over fried and oily. The lone man we had next to use for dinner was again at the same table. This caused me to go to our table from the night before. No idea why I thought this was expected and got slightly annoyed with myself.

As we left to return to our room the early birds from the  wedding party started to make their way down stairs. This wedding theme was to stick with us for the next few days.

The next night was another single overnighter and humping our full luggage up and down another twisting collection of stair prompted a re-shuffle of belongings. The large cases would stay in the car and only my sports bag would get the journey to our room. Including PC and camera bags of course!

The motorway rush was smoother than the day before with only slight slowing through road works. We arrived at lunch time on the out skirts of Worcester. With time to spare be headed into the centre. We found a car park which seemed to be well connected. A walkway from the car park dropped down into a narrow street which was the trendy tourist area of the city. Fashionable pubs, restaurants and fashion shops.

A deli looked promising so we ended up having a light lunch above the shop. Entertainment was watching motorists attempting to park across the small street. Many tried but only 2 succeeded. A big chunky chicken and pesto sarni followed by carrot cake. The lattes were small and weak so I had two. Would I regret that later?

Worcester Cathedral

The Cathedral was just round the corner so plenty of time to have a smooch before our parking ran out. I'm not that big on churches but could not resist paying the £3 for a permit to take photies.  While killing time at my last visit to Helen's I had started reading the manual for my D300 camera. Breaking the habit of a life time! Still stuck in the mode of not trusting technology (yes I work for a techi company) I had never looked into setting some of the automatic features of the camera. I had setup a quick memu option to allow the camera to set the ISO rating itself based on the lighting conditions. In the cathedral this worked a treat. The image quality is significantly better than the old Fuji 1600 black and white film I used to use 10 years ago. The current generation of good amateur cameras truly make film a dead technology. Coupled with my killer app of Lightroom 2.5. The big expense and learning needed for full Photoshops is redundant except for the most demanding situations.

Then on to the Talbot. We did not have exact direction but the Navigation got us within reach of the 14th Century coaching Inn. Our Room 1 was in the "young" addition to the building but it still creaked on most of the floor boards and had tight corridors and ill fitting doors. The room was clean although the plumbing needed attention. The toilet seat was only held on one side and as you sat a realisation that you were swivelling to the left slowly dawned. The light switches had a mind of their own also. Never did work out what they all did.

The highlight of the stay was the beer. Brewed in the place out the back. Theme Valley Brewers, with beers, This, That and T'Other. Jean favoured T'Other but I liked That, £2.30 a pint. We had a couple of beers sitting in the sun by the banks of the river across the small road opposite the pub. Not had beer in the afternoon for a while.

We decided to have dinner early and took the steep stairs down to the restaurant. I had mixed feelings about the restaurant. Blue plates - which are not attractive. However I wanted something special and thought better of it than the  simpler food from the bar. Even more worrying was that there was no one in the room and I had to track down the barman to ask it was actually open. As we sat down others arrived so perhaps it would be OK.


The blue plates were removes as only decoration --- definitely did not appreciate that. Why have plates that would never be used. The menu was limited and not cheap for three courses - fixed price. Onward and upward, everything now said - "OK we'll eat in the bar". But we stayed. The service was real slow. So I got myself into a grumpy mood by ordering the wrong wine, white instead of red. It was all a question of numbering! I had chicken livers for starters and goose to follow it was good. Jean had pork belly for main and a cheese salad to start. She could not resist the plum ice cream and lemon posset. I just drank the beer.

Another drink in the bar and we were done. But for a wedding party which arrived and started the celebrations early. Although it didn't really disturb us they got to bed at 2:30 by my watch.

On The Road: Somerset 2010

 
This is a side track but found this photo on the CF card when I took up the camera. Erin and Rhys at home. Taken with a ton of fill flash. I like it as its not the usual pose and expression. Its getting difficult to take a photo of them in without a big cheesy grin.

Our main destination is a cottage in Somerset which is booked for the week starting on Saturday but I didn't feel like driving down from Ayr in one go. I already drive too many miles to and from work. We have staged the journey into 2 stops.

The first is outside Leyland. Just off the M6. Its about 200 miles from Ayr. Set off about 8am and aimed for a break at Tebay. Tebay the king of motorway service stations. The meals are 100% better than our usual stop at Gretna Green. Vegetable quiche and selection of salad for lunch. The latte was excellent. Not cheap of course, but not at least it looks and tastes good. Less of a feeling you are getting ripped off.

We're booked into the Farington Lodge which is in a small village just outside Leyland. This is THE Leyland as in  "British Leyland". We were looking for somewhere to park and managed to drive into the Leyland factory car park.

The hotel was hosting a wedding the afternoon we arrived. We walked into the main entrance just as guessed were arriving. We where not exactly dressed for such and event and got some strange looks.

The hotel was an old building that had slightly better days but was basically clean. As with older buildings that have been extended odd stairs and corridors look us to our room on the far side of the hotel. Away from the wedding reception which was on the front.

The nightly deal had included afternoon tea and at reception we booked it for 3pm with dinner at 8pm. At three we went down for afternoon tea. We were shown into the bar where a table with a settee was laid out.  The wedding ceremony had ended and guests were making there way into the bar. We were the only other action in the place and we got some strange looks. Especially as we had the prime sofa seats by the window. The afternoon tea arrived, not on towered plates but on silver trays. (Jean was disappointed).The offering looked underwhelming but tasted OK. The coffee was average.
 
We had the uneasy feeling that the wedding party wanted us out of there! After tea we took a turn round the gardens and left the wedding.

Ran out of time for the full description:

    * Dinner -- no wine list until later -- limited menu.
    * Excellent food. Braised Steak was very tender. Chicken liver as starter was OK but I had expected a salad and got it on toast with gravy.
    * Beaujolais for the wine - smooth.