BBC Good Food show

Jeff and I had an amazing weekend – we did so much stuff and it was such good fun. If you’ve never been to the BBC Good Food show in Birmingham NEC, then go, go! (I can say that as I’ve already got our tickets to the winter show, so I don’t mind :-) )

I arrived at Jeff’s house on Friday night and the weather was dire – rain, rain and more rain! Unfortunately this limited what we could get up to, however we seemed to manage OK. Firstly – the strawberry! We have successfully managed to grow our own food again, this time, the strawberry plants seem to have gone mad and a lot of strawberries have appeared. I spotted the first ripe one on Friday so picked it – it was really nice (although I guess we were biased!) Sadly we won’t have enough this year to cook with them, but as they’re all producing baby plants already, we’re hoping that next year we’ll have loads more plants and therefore, loads more strawberries.

As we’re hatching eggs (or trying to) I had ordered an incubator over a week ago. On Friday it still hadn’t turned up and after contacting the Ebay seller, who said she had posted it First Class on Monday, it looked like the parcel was lost in the post. I wouldn’t have normally minded, however we already had the 6 black Orpington Eggs and the 6 Belgian d’uccle eggs and if we didn’t start incubating them soon – they wouldn’t hatch. Therefore I asked the Ebay seller if Jeff and I could perhaps, drive round her house (she only lives in Andover, so not too far away from us) and buy one from her. She was very obliging and thankfully she had another incubator. So Friday night saw Jeff and myself driving over to Andover to pick up an incubator. We got back and turned it on straight away, as apparently it’s a good idea to get the incubator up to a constant temperature before putting the eggs in.

Saturday morning saw us getting up at 6:00am and putting the eggs into the incubator – thankfully the incubator worked fine and was at exactly 37.5 degrees – perfect temperature! We set off by 7:00am as it was just over 2 hours to get up to Birmingham – I felt so tired so we did stop off half way and get a cheeky Starbucks.

We managed to get to the Birmingham NEC for 9:00am and it was already quite busy. When we got inside I think both of us were really impressed – there were loads and loads of stands – food, wine, cookery implements – it was amazing! We also got to wander round ‘Gardeners world live’ which was quite funky. There were some really nice jewellery stands, however I was actually quite good and resisted buying anything! Another quite cool thing, was that there were loads and loads of free samples of things – free Carte Dor icecream, free Crabbie’s Ginger Beer , free cheese – parmesan cheese no-less and we sampled ones that had been matured for 18, 22 and 24 months (the difference was quite impressive!).

Jeff and I were like kids in a Sweetshop, however, unlike kids – we had our debit cards, which were used quite heavily. We bought chocolate wine, hazelnut liquor (absolutely gorgeous) Elderflower Cider…. Just loads and loads of really cool things. I even got a knife Sharpener, something that I have wanted for ages. We didn’t watch any of the live MasterChef presentations as we were too busy wandering around the stalls, however I think next time, we might try and find a seat.

Unfortunately but expectedly, it started getting busier and busier which meant that it was harder to wander round and also harder to view what was on offer on certain stands. Also, the more we bought, the more things we had to carry and after 3 hours, both Jeff and I were carrying about 6-7 bags each, our hands were hurting quite a lot!

We left by 12:30pm, pretty knackered – we could have probably spent another 30 minutes to an hour in there, but not carrying that amount of purchases so I think when we go in November, we’ll be taking a rucksack and also probably taking advantage of the NEC’s ‘Shop and Drop’ as they only charge £1 to look after certain things…

We had actually booked a Premier Inn to stay in as we thought the drive would be too much, but we actually drove back to Jeff’s house the same day and arrived back home by 15:30 – that even included a quick trip to a local farm shop to get some food for Saturday night.

Once back at Jeff’s, we chilled, watched a lot of episodes of ‘Come dine with me’ and drank the cider that we had bought a few hours earlier. It was rather yummy. We also purveyed our purchases – we did buy quite a lot of cool things!

Dinner on Saturday night was steak – marinated in the BBQ sauce we had purchased at the BBC Good Food show. It was accompanied by Cajun sweet potato chips and honey roasted carrots and broccoli. For pudding, it was a summer fruits pie – also bought at the show and that was very yummy too. Even though Jeff was knackered, he rubbed my shoulders which I really appreciated as they were hurting quite a lot from carrying all the bags.

Sunday morning and I actually managed a lie in! Well, I say ‘Lie in’ – it was after 08:00am which is quite impressive for me. Jeff and I got up, we turned the eggs and had a cup of tea whilst we decided what to do. We had dismissed the idea of going to a Farmers market as we had gone to the BBC Good Food show the day before, however Jeff didn’t mind driving to SouthSea and the weather wasn’t overly great so we couldn’t really go out to a National Trust property so we decided we’d go. However, before we did, we made loads and loads of sausage rolls from a recipe in my July 2011 BBC Good Food Magazine. It was a weird recipe as contained lentils and nutmeg, however after we’d cooked them and tried one, they did turn out to be quite yummy. Jeff and I are going to take some into work for our colleagues and I am planning on giving some to my Father as I am seeing my parents on Tuesday.

Once we had made all the sausage rolls, we got in the car and headed down the Motorway to the Farmers market. We were very glad we did, as Southsea actually had a food festival on! It was very similar in some ways to the show in Birmingham. Jeff and I ate quite a lot of interesting things and Jeff managed to buy some more yummy tomato bread which he said he’d eat tonight. We spent an hour wandering around, looking at all the stalls and sampling some of the interesting things they had on offer before heading back home.

I headed off shortly afterwards as I was feeling a bit crap and didn’t want to take it out on Jeff like I felt I had been doing for the last few weeks – I’ve got a presentation tomorrow at work which I’m really nervous of, and whilst Jeff is supportive, I didn’t really want him to say in his usual way ‘You’ll be fine’, as even though I won’t die or get sacked etc, I’m totally bricking it and it doesn’t help to be told that at the moment!

We’re seeing each other on Wednesday and I’m hoping we can have a lovely, relaxing and nice evening.

- Molly

Sunny Sunday with added lemon

In any relationship, there has to be a lot of compromise – currently poor Jeff is working VERY hard at work and therefore we’re not spending loads of time together. Obviously I was working very hard a couple of weeks ago and was very stressed around that time… so whilst we’re not spending a lot of time together, I’m trying to be supportive and making sure that he’s only worrying about work and not about us.

We saw each other for a few hours today – Jeff worked all of yesterday (Saturday) and Sunday morning, before driving home to see me and is currently back at work and will be working all of next week as well. I met Jeff at his home, having let myself in and after making myself a cup of tea and filling up the bird feeders, I hung up some of his washing before he came through the door. After a couple of disapproving comments from Jeff (He isn’t overly keen on me doing his housework – but not only do I find it cathartic, it means he doesn’t have to worry about it when he’s working hard) he helped me hang stuff up, before we had a chat and then got to work on the most important thing of the day – making lemon drizzle cake.

Yet another recipe we got from the BBC Good Food website and as it was the most popular cake (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4942/lemon-drizzle-cake) , we had high hopes. I had already got all the ingredients from the Supermarket yesterday so we didn’t need to go shopping and considering there weren’t very many ingredients to get, it was a very short list anyway.

Jeff and I had decided we were going to make two cakes – one for his work colleagues and one for mine. After the success of the raspberry bakewell cake, I wanted to make something else to see if my work colleagues liked it as much as the other one. Jeff set to work with the lemons, whilst I set to work creaming the butter and sugar together. It didn’t take too long to do – even though we decided to zest twice as many lemons as the recipe said (and it was a good job we did, as it didn’t taste that lemony as it was!) We stuck the first cake in a loaf tin and popped it in the oven whilst we did the second – unfortunately, it was a few minutes before we realised that we had the oven turned on slightly too high… therefore the loaf tin cake turned out slightly more brown than the other one.

As we only had one loaf tin, Jeff suggested we make the next cake in a round dish – no problemo and this is what we did. We had a little mixture left over, so decided to use that in a couple of small cake cases, so we could see what it actually tasted like without cutting into the two big cakes. Whilst they were cooking, we watched an episode of ‘Monsters inside me’ (one of our favourite programmes on TV at the moment) however oddly enough, we didn’t watch any Ina Garten even though we currently have 36 episodes recorded! I think we’re going to have to start watching them at some point soon, else it will get out of control (if it hasn’t already….).

With both cakes done, we made the ‘drizzle’, which was really easy as it was just lemon juice and sugar and drizzled it over both cakes. I think Jeff’s round cake looked better than mine – however I think both will taste nice, although we’re going to have wait until tomorrow for our work colleagues to critique our baking efforts :-)

After our cakes were made (and mine wrapped up in solver foil to put in my car) we actually went to a local pub for a late lunch. I suggested the same pub that we met up in, nearly 6 months ago… the first time we had seen each other in over a year. After we got there, the same table that we sat at, 6 months ago, was actually free, so we sat there, chatted and ordered some food.

It was very nice chatting to Jeff in a pub and the only horrible thing was knowing that in an hour or so, we would have to go. I am thinking that Jeff and I are going to have to do a few pub trips in the summer, however trips where we don’t have to keep clock watching would be good…

All too soon, it was time for Jeff to go back to work, so we said goodbye, had a cuddle in his car (as we both drove to the pub in our respective cars) and we headed off, me, to my house and Jeff to work. We’re seeing each other for a meal on Tuesday night and I’m really looking forward to it. However – not as much as next weekend when we’re going wine tasting AND to a very posh steak restaurant, which is going to be really, really fun and hopefully, very tasty as well :-)

- Molly

Soon the stress will be over

As I get older, it seems to be the case that not everything can ever go right in your life at the same time – last year, I had a brilliant job I was really enjoying, yet Jeff and I had split up and whilst I was ‘getting on’ with my life – going out and enjoying myself with friends as much as I could… it still felt as if something was missing. Jeff said the same thing – even though he lived with his ex-partner last year, he didn’t really enjoy his job and his relationship wasn’t overly happy.

Currently – we both have each other (something we didn’t think would be possible after we broke up in October 2009) however my job is currently exceptionally stressful, which means that I don’t have much energy when I see Jeff and it’s quite upsetting. I know there are studies that say that if you’re stressed, continually thinking about other things and unable to switch off, your libido can suffer, however: just because studies say this, it doesn’t make you feel less guilty when it happens to you. Poor Jeff has been so supportive these last few weeks – not putting any pressure on me AT ALL to have sex or do anything, however I have to admit to feeling quite guilty about not being intimate with him at the moment, especially considering he has been through ‘periods of drought’ when we were dating back in 2009 – I shudder to think how long it was, back then.

However – as per the title of this blog, the stress will hopefully soon be over and I CAN’T WAIT! My job should stop being so stressful and Jeff and I can get on with enjoying ourselves and spending loads of time together. Due to my very long working hours at the moment, Jeff and I only managed to spend Saturday night together and whilst it was very nice to see him – I was so shattered that all we really managed to do is cook (a lovely steak, broccoli with parmesan and pine nuts and sweet potato wedges with garlic) and watch some TV. We did start watching ‘Hookers saved by Jesus’ which is some random program on DMAX about prostitutes in Las Vegas who are trying to come off ‘the game’ by finding God.. however it wasn’t actually that interesting so we decided to go back to watching ‘Supersize vs Superskinny’ instead, which was much more entertaining – however that program would always be entertaining considering the colours and patterns of Dr Christian Jessen’s shirts!

It was lovely cuddling on the sofa – however by 10:00pm I had to call it a night. Jeff was fine with this and we went upstairs, cuddled and he gave me a wonderful massage before we said goodnight. I had to work today and am working all of next week, so I won’t be seeing Jeff until Wednesday – I told him today that I’m cooking him a surprise meal on Wednesday and whilst I didn’t tell him it was because I really appreciate his support over the past few weeks, that’s the real reason… I won’t say what it is, but I shall certainly report back and take some photographs – I just hope it turns out well!

No photographs this time, I’m afraid – However I shall take some photographs of Jeff’s garden soon as everything has grown so much! Our sunflowers are a good few inches tall, our tomato plants are going to need tying to bamboo canes soon and our hanging basket is looking very impressive indeed – even the radishes we nearly killed when we re-potted them, have come back!

Well, here’s to another week!

- Molly

Vodka = bad

Jeff and I just can’t seem to ‘chill’, the whole idea of sitting in front of the TV for hours on end is alien to both of us and as per usual we have managed to do an inordinate amount of stuff in less than 24 hours.

I spent most of yesterday in the spa, with a friend and Jeff played various computer games and pottered around. I got to his house for about 6pm and after watching a little bit of TV and watering the plants outside (everything seems to be going really well, still!) we decided to cook – tonight we had 2 more Ina Garten recipes to try: Steakhouse steaks (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/steakhouse-steaks-recipe/index.html) and sautéed wild mushrooms (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/sauteed-wild-mushrooms-recipe2/index.html) Jeff had got a pepper grinder with the food processor he purchased a few months ago, so we tried to do what Ina suggested and grind our own pepper – it actually seemed to work quite well and we mixed it with some salt and coated the well-oiled steaks with it.

Usually I really enjoy cooking with Jeff, however this time it wasn’t overly fun and I don’t think Jeff thought it was either. I don’t know if we were both tired, but our timings seemed really out and there wasn’t much banter between us – we just got on and did stuff, then got in each others way.

The steak was way too peppery for me and even Jeff (who loves pepper) said it was slightly too peppery. I am assuming it’s a failure on our part – as I don’t imagine that the wonderful Ina got it wrong and she hasn’t let us down so far (let us not forget the Parkers beef stew or the French apple tarts we did recently which were a resounding success!) The cooking method was brilliant though, and we both agreed that we would certainly cook the steaks in the way she suggested in her recipe. The mushrooms, on the other hand – were absolutely brilliant and tasted wonderful, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.

After dinner we watched random TV and I suggested we have a few drinks – BIG mistake. For some reason 5 shots of vodka got me completely drunk and when I’m drunk, my paranoia seems to get 100 times worse. Jeff said he was going to go to the toilet quickly and I went to look on his computer for the dates to Goodwood, Festival of Speed as we had just been talking about going. I mistakenly clicked on ‘My computer’ as on my laptop – the icon for firefox is where his icon for ‘my computer’ is – however, rather than sensibly shutting the window down, I had this overwhelming urge to try and find a photograph of his ex-girlfriend to see what she looked like.

This took about 30 seconds and after I saw a photograph – I felt sick. Completely my fault and I immediately felt bad about ‘snooping’. Jeff came back and I admitted straight away what I did, asked him to password protect his computer and  got quite upset. Jeff was slightly puzzled as according to him, after his ex and he had split – he had deleted all photographs of her. After a lot of coaxing – I showed Jeff where I had found the photograph, only for Jeff to say that it wasn’t his ex, but his exes friend. Did I feel totally stupid? Yes..

I told Jeff that I could probably find out what she looked like within a minute and after 30 seconds, managed to find his exes Facebook profile, complete with loads of photos. Jeff’s response was ‘See, I told you she was ‘fugly’, However from what I could see – she was neither fat, nor ugly… however I guess that’s the thing – your partner is hardly going to say to you ‘My ex was prettier than you’, or. ‘Yes, she was short and brunette – your polar opposite’. Still, whatever anxiety I am feeling – it’s my own stupid fault and if anyone has any tips on how to stop feeling inadequate, it would be nice to hear them :-)

After the stupid episode, Jeff and I went to bed as he had to be up at 05:00am to take some of his friends to Gatwick airport. He got back by 07:50am and when I got up to go to the toilet, he said hello. He made me a cup of tea in bed and by 09:30, we had already had some fruit, watched a ‘Barefoot Contessa’ episode and headed out the door to Petersfield Farmers Market. We went to Petersfield Farmers Market a few years ago and it had torrentially rained, however hadn’t ben there since. It still wasn’t as big as Winchester but it wasn’t far off and thankfully this time round the sun was shining and the weather was really gorgeous.

We decided we were going to do another BBQ for lunch / dinner and bought lots of really nice meat, including ‘pork, goats cheese patties’ and some watercress sausages which I can’t say I overly enjoyed but hadn’t ever tried them before so they were worth trying! We also bought loads of different cheese – ‘pepper and beer’ and ‘garlic and nettle’ amongst others. After we had wandered around the market for half an hour, we headed back to the car and found a cooking shop on the way. Jeff and I both bought different types of thermometers so that we could tell what temperature the meat was, when we baked it in the oven as well as how hot various liquids were in pans.

On the way back home I suggested to Jeff we stop off in a garden centre and finally buy some herbs and the strawberry plants I had wanted for ages. £20 later and we had 5 different herbs and 6 very healthy strawberry plants heading back with us in the car.

As soon as we got home, Jeff helped me wash my car (which had been utterly filthy for the past few weeks!) and after that, I set about potting up all the new plants whilst Jeff cut the grass. Once all the ‘chores’ were done, we started on the BBQ which was really nice – we ate the meat with a lovely cheese and tomato bread and a lovely focaccia which we bought fresh at the Farmers Market this morning. We also had some nice homemade beetroot chutney which we had bought in Hexham farmers market which was gorgeous!

After food, Jeff and I watched a little bit of TV, however Jeff kept falling asleep and looking really tired – he said he was OK, however after a few minutes it was clear that he wasn’t and really should have gone to bed. I suggested I go home early and Jeff replied ‘If that’s what you want’. To be honest… I didn’t, as was looking forward to spending a few more hours with Jeff – however it was pointless (and a bit cruel) to stay as Jeff was so tired. … So I headed home and Jeff went to bed.

The next couple of weeks are going to be hell at work – so I don’t know what Jeff and I will be doing, or exactly how much time we will be spending together… I just hope we can continue doing fun things together and enjoying each others company.

- Molly

Our holiday in Northumberland

Well, we’re back from Northumberland and we had an AMAZING time! It started off well when I managed to get out of work by 2pm, so Jeff and I were on the road, heading to Northumberland by 2:20pm. Unfortunately, the drive didn’t go very well and we were stuck in a LOT of traffic for a LOT of the time! It seemed to mostly be due to the sheer weight of traffic – however we did pass an overturned caravan on the way. All in all, it took over 7 hours to get to Northumberland and that wasn’t even to Jeff’s parents house – that was just to a curry restaurant, where we had something to eat at 9:00pm. After sticking loads of curried goodness in our gobs, we drove to Jeff’s parents, gave them the lemon drizzle cake and the Apple tarts we had baked for them the day previously (his Mother seemed to really like both) before getting the keys to the house and driving over to Beadnell. It took about 30 minutes to get there and it was incredibly foggy. Jeff did all the driving from his parents house to their holiday house and I can’t say I envied him driving down country roads at midnight in the fog!

We were both incredibly knackered the first night so had a shower and went to bed!

The next day we got up and the first task was ‘Swan feeding’ As Jeff’s parents house overlooks the end of the river, two swans which his Mother had named ‘Harry and Sally’ lived very close by and were used to being fed by Jeff’s Mum and other residents. Jeff’s Mum had left us some bread in case we wanted toast but as neither of us were toast inclined, we fed Harry and Sally every morning we were there and thought the noises they made were quite funny.... A kind of grunting crossed with murmuring. I’d like to think they were saying ‘Thanks for the breakfast’, but I imagine it was something like ‘What? That’s it? We want more bread!’

On our first day we drove into Alnwick and went for breakfast in ‘Copperfields’ a local cafe for local people – what was nice (and different to down South) was that when we went in, everyone said ‘Good morning’- It’s very rare you’d ever get that near London! We both decided we’d start the holiday with a ‘bang’ and both opted for a full English breakfast which was absolutely gorgeous, albeit very filling. After a lot of food and tea, we headed to the Metro centre in Newcastle to do some shopping and to meet Jeff’s sister.

Despite the Metro centre being absolutely huge, we parked quite easily and had a bit of a wander whilst waiting for Jeff’s sister to turn up. I bought some jewellery and Jeff managed to buy some new shirts and trousers for his new job which starts today! We met Jeff’s sister and wandered around a bit more, however I felt quite self conscious with his sister – not because she’s a horrible person, she’s not, she’s lovely and very friendly, however I didn’t really want to inconvenience anyone, so didn’t really want to drag her around shops she may not have any interest in. After a bit of a chat, she left as she didn’t fancy going to Yo! Sushi with us. As always, Yo! Sushi was fantastic and we managed to happily munch our way through loads of plates and left feeling very full indeed.

After leaving the Metro centre, Jeff and I headed for the biggest Tescos in the country and bought £70 worth of ingredients so we could cook for his parents and his sister. I have to admit to feeling a bit stressed at this point as whilst it was my suggestion that we cook for them, running about a supermarket for 40 plus minutes was not overly fun, however I managed to ‘suck it up’ and we headed off to his parents to begin the marathon cooking session!

The meal turned out incredibly well. For starters we did the ‘lemon and cumin lamb kofta’s and served them with half a pita bread and some salad. For the main course, we did meat paella and for pudding we did another ‘Juicy Lucy’ with proper Cornish custard. It seemed to go down really well and everyone finished everything – Jeff’s Dad was especially complimentary and we found out afterwards that he had eaten the remainder of the custard that night around midnight!

Jeff and I managed to get back to the house by about 10:00pm and had a cuddle – again, we were utterly knackered.

The next day we were up early again to go to Seahouses. We wanted to see what times the Farne Islands boat tours operated so that we could go to see the seals but also stop off on the National Trust island to see the puffins. Apparently their breeding season has literally just started so whilst we wouldn’t be seeing loads of puffins, we were really hoping we would see at least one or two. We asked a nice bloke at one of the boat boxes what time the trips were and he said 10:30 and 1:00pm – I gave him my mobile number as he said he needed to check with his boss regarding the 1:00pm one and asked that he phone me when he had confirmed the time. We would have gone out on the 10:30 boat trip, however we wanted to drive to Hexham, about 65 miles away as we wanted to go to the farmers market they were having.

Jeff drove to Hexham and it took just over an hour, unfortunately whilst driving to Hexham, the guy in the boat box phoned me and said that he had got it wrong and that the only boat out to the Farne islands was the one at 10:30am, gutted! We decided to continue going to Hexham, hoping that another boat operator had tours to the Farne islands in the afternoon.

We parked quite easily in one of Hexham’s main car parks (close to a very nice Waitrose which we went into after purchasing random things at the farmers market) and wandered into Hexham high street. I have to say, it was absolutely beautiful and whilst I hate it when Americans say the word, it was certainly ‘quaint’. Hexham was also having an Easter fare in one of their parks so we walked around that and observed ‘Welly throwing’ as well as leather crafting, listened to people singing and saw 2 alpaca’s in a small pen (as the stall was selling things made by alpaca wool). The sun was shining and it was an absolutely lovely day – we went into Hexham Abbey which was really nice and the architecture was stunning. Even though Jeff had lived in Northumberland for all his childhood and had visited Hexham before, he hadn’t been in the Abbey, so it was nice to be able to do things with him that he hadn’t done before as I was slightly concerned he would get bored doing the same things again!

We decided we would have a BBQ that night, so got a lot of really yummy and nice things at the farmers market, including a massive Lincolnshire sausage, some burgers, some smoked cheese and some gherkin and onion relish which was absolutely gorgeous! We also bought a pork pie and a pasty for lunch and had half each. After buying lots of ‘stuff’ we headed back via Waitrose to get a disposable BBQ and whilst in there, we found a REALLY funny wine called ‘Chat au Oeuff’ which is obviously ‘Cat on egg’, or maybe ‘Cat on AN egg’ I’m not entirely sure and I don’t think Jeff is either – however, either way it was such a funny name we decided to buy it and drink it that night :-)

After munching our way through the pork pie and pasty in the car, we drove back to Seahouses and thankfully managed to find a parking space – we were very lucky as Jeff managed to reverse into a very small one, which was the last one in the overflow car park! We headed straight down to the boat boxes and asked a lady if there was a trip after 1:00pm (as by this time, it was 1:10pm so we assumed the 1:00pm trip had gone) She said ‘You’re just in time for the next trip’ which was excellent news! We only had to wait a few minutes until the boat arrived so we hopped straight on and were surprised to find only 7-8 other people on the boat as we thought it would be packed due to the weather.

The trip was fantastic, we saw loads of different types of birds and it wasn’t long before we saw some puffins floating in the water. This was brilliant as until then, neither Jeff nor I knew whether or not we would be able to see any. I had my Canon 7D with 70-300mm lens and Jeff had my Canon IXUS 100 so we both took some photographs of the puffins, as well as the other birds on the rocks. We also saw a lot of grey seals and were able to get really close to them – it was absolutely brilliant and I am sure I’ve never taken such close shots before. After an hour or so we landed on the Inner Farne island – free to National Trust members (lucky Jeff) however I had to pay which was fine and got me thinking about joining the National Trust again, especially if we are doing the ‘National Trust challenge’ this year!

Almost immediately we saw some flying puffins and headed down to the rocks, where we also saw a lot of nesting gulls and shags. They were so close to the barrier you could easily reach over and touch them, but thankfully no one actually did and as they’re on an island which you have to pay to travel to, and pay to visit, I imagine the amount of yobs that come there and upset the birds is virtually nil. We had an hour on the island before we headed back, so we wandered around a lot, trying to take as many photographs of puffins as we could. Unfortunately most of the puffin holes were still empty and the ones that were taken were quite far away from the barriers which we were not allowed to cross. Even so, we were able to take some nice photographs and I have to be honest and say I was very, very chuffed that I had seen ‘wild’ puffins as I never had before.

We headed back on the boat and shared some fish and chips – greasy naughtiness! Jeff and I were both glad we shared one as the fish was absolutely huge! We then headed back to seahouses and watched loads of TV and just chilled before setting up the BBQ, which Jeff popped on a ‘proper’ BBQ stand that he found under the house. It literally took about 15 minutes  for everything to be properly cooked and even less time for it all to be eaten as it was gorgeous! We ate both the burgers and the sausage and had them with some salad we also bought at the Hexham farmers market and the wonderful relish (there wasn’t much left afterwards).

We did get rather drunk that night as Jeff’s mother had very kindly left us a bottle of wine in the fridge before we arrived, so we drunk that as well as the ‘Cat on egg’ wine, which wasn’t too bad but was quite weak and I’m not entirely sure we would have it again! Combine fantastic food and nice wine with random crap on TV and you have a very chilled and relaxed night.

The next day was our last day in Northumberland so Jeff and I got up early and went to a local shop to buy a net and a bucket. We had noticed that there were little tiny fish in the lake by the house and whenever we fed the Swans, these small fish would steal some of the bread. I suggested we try and catch one of them and see what they were, before returning them to the lake. Luckily we managed to buy both a net and a bucket for £1 each! After buying the ‘equipment’ we left it in the car for a little while and headed down to the beach, where we successfully managed to get a couple of limpets off the rocks. Whilst this might sound like a rather stupid endeavour, it was due to me, a couple of years ago, trying to prise them off rocks with my bare fingers, not realising how bloody tightly they hold onto things! Therefore when Jeff and I got back into contact, Jeff suggested I try again, but this time, with a screwdriver.

I did manage to get one off a rock – so did Jeff, however we don’t think either were hurt and made sure they went straight back into a rock pool so that they could stick back onto something.

Once back at the house (which was a 60 second drive, maximum!) Jeff attached the net onto a broom handle with some duct tape so it was long enough to dip into the water and we tried our wonderful fish catching plan... which actually worked! I think both of us were quite shocked and even Jeff admitted that he didn’t think we would catch anything. However, after just a few minutes we had 5 small fish in the bucket! We took a photograph of them and then put them gently back into the water and watched them swim off.

As it was getting round to 11:00am we knew that the Wildlife Sanctuary in Ulgham (http://www.wildlife-sanctuary.co.uk) would be open even though it was Easter, so we drove down to there and had a mooch around. It only cost £5 to get and whilst it wasn’t the most fancy, or the biggest wildlife centre we had been to, it was blatantly obvious from the second we stepped foot in there, that the animals were incredibly well cared for and loved – as each one had a ‘story’ which you could read about. There was a hawk with one leg, a grey squirrel which would have got destroyed if it had been given to any other centre (as they are classed as vermin) as well as a young vixen, old goats and horses and a peacock. There was also a very pretty bird in the same enclosure as the peacock, which we had no idea what it was – similar marking as a peacock, but it looked different as it didn’t have any tail feathers.

After we fed the horses and the goats some carrots we had bought at the shop, we headed over to Keilder water and forest park. The sun was shining and it was absolutely beautiful day – we hadn’t decided on doing anything in particular, however as soon as I saw a sign for ‘Bird of prey centre’, I suggested we stop and park and go to look at the birds and Jeff was happy to agree. Parking wasn’t too much of an issue and the bird of prey centre was brilliant. There were loads of flying displays and we caught the end of one display and sat through the next one completely. It was obvious the birds were incredibly well cared for and that the staff loved their jobs – as I love nature photography I was very pleased when I got back home and looked through my photographs as I think I managed to take a few nice ones. One of the nice things about Jeff is that he always offered to carry my photography bag, so I would be on the ground or bent over into funny positions whilst Jeff would carry my kit.

Once we had seen the second display (which involved 2 pelicans wandering around amongst the crowd!) we drove around a bit more until we reached Keilder castle – whilst not the most impressive castle in the world, it was in a very serene place. Jeff and I had a wonderful scone with jam and clotted cream and just sat down on one of the benches outside and chatted – an absolutely brilliant end to our holiday. The rest of the day was spent at his parents’ house, where his mother kindly cooked us a roast dinner and TWO puddings (amaretto trifle which was LUSH!) and a lovely apple sponge pudding. We went to bed absolutely knackered and I think both of us were a bit sad to think that we would have to drive home the next day.

The next morning I was up before Jeff and started tidying his parent’s house so that they wouldn’t have to do anything – after all, it was very kind of them to let us stay there so the last thing we wanted to do was leave it in a mess! After we had breakfast (which consisted of a pear – as we’re now back on the healthy eating BIG TIME!) we headed off to his parents house to give the keys back and started on our long journey down South. Thankfully, the traffic was a lot better and it only took about 5.5 hours to drive back to Jeff’s house.

There were very few ‘bad’ times in our holiday, however one of them was probably on the second day when Jeff realised he had been bitten by loads of midges! His poor arm had loads of bites over them and even now you can see them, despite them fading – I was quite shocked as to how many he had!

Despite my worry about the tomato plants and all the other plants dying outside due to the lack of rain – they were all looking incredibly well and even our tulips have started flowering!!! I headed back home for a few hours to do some washing and sort things out before heading back to Jeff’s and cooking with him – lemon cod with roasted broccoli and vegetables, yummy!

Northumberland was absolutely brilliant and I can’t wait to spend more time with Jeff in the county.

- Molly

Chicken Chilli

Wow! What a very cool night and quite frankly, it was well deserved after a very, very long week!

I popped round to Jeff’s after work and he had put the tulips and the sweet peas out so they could get some sun. I remembered to take a photograph so as you can see, they have grown quite a lot in the last 6 weeks! Whilst it seems to be below freezing tonight, hopefully we will put them out during the days and they’ll get enough light to carry on growing and soon we should see some flowers :-)

Another amusing thing is that the birds in Jeff’s garden seem to have gone through nearly BOTH bags of bird seed that he bought 2 months ago – that’s 30Kg of birdseed in 3 months! They are some greedy birds, although I guess it’s a good thing that we’re helping to keep the Robins, Thrushes Sparrows, Blackbirds, Magpies, Wood pigeons, Green finches, Coal tits and Blue tits in food!

So, after the birds were fed, we headed out to the supermarket to get all the ingredients necessary for Iva Garten’s ‘Chicken Chilli’ – the recipe we saw on her television program a couple of days ago. Whilst we did record it on Jeff’s Skyplus box, I managed to find the recipe online, therefore we didn’t need to re-watch the program for yet another time, hurrah! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-chili-recipe/index.html We roasted the chicken breasts in the oven and chopped up all the vegetables and off we went. I have to say, it was a pretty easy recipe to follow and soon the kitchen was smelling of chicken chilli.

We had bought some nachos, sour cream, cheese and salsa and popped it all on a plate – result! It was absolutely gorgeous and just the right amount of chilli (Jeff can handle much hotter dishes than me, so I was the one who thought it was perfect).

We ate food and then watched some more random TV – tonight was ‘Miami Ink’ which I’m rather enjoying at the moment, especially as I want to get another tattoo this year, however am waiting until I’ve lost a little bit more weight as apparently if you want a tattoo on your thigh, it’s best to wait until you’ve got the shape you want. Soon, though, I hope, I’ll get a peacock feather tattoo! We also watched some more Iva Garten after our success of following her recipe and found a rather nice rosemary and garlic rub for lamb.

I’m writing this at home, with my cat on my lap, having driven back from Jeff’s house – We’re spending the whole of tomorrow together, I’m cooking breakfast for him at my house and then we’re chilling before heading off into London to the classical music concert. Roll on the fun weekend!

-Molly

Sour Sweets, American cookery and foot massages

I was hoping to post this blog update in a happy mood, after all, we have peas! Yes, that’s right, the sweet peas that Jeff and I planted a few weeks ago have sprouted and they’re not about 2 inches tall – this has all happened in the last 5-6 days as when I checked last week, there was nothing to be seen.

So why not the happy mood? As I just found out I failed my ITIL exam by one mark, ONE mark! Talk about being gutted. I don’t usually fail at things so I guess this is a chance to deal with it and try again – Jeff has been very supportive, however I won’t deny I have an overwhelming desire to say ‘I told you so’ as I really did think I failed it. It’s not the end of the world, I know – however it’s never nice to be told you didn’t pass.

It’s a bit of a downer after the lovely night we had last night as well – I popped over to Jeff’s house after work, however he wasn’t back yet as he had been delayed getting some tryres for his car. This wasn’t an issue, so I made sure all the bird feeders were topped up and was quite happy to see that the tree he has out the back, is flowering – I’ll try and take a photograph of it at the weekend, it looks really pretty and I imagine the birds are happy as they have some extra cover for when they hop onto the bird feeders to scoff all the seed!

I also checked on the tulips and the sweet peas and the tulips have grown loads (again, I’ll try and take a photograph at the weekend) I’d say some of the tulips were about 3 inches in length so we obviously bought good ones back from Amsterdam. I can’t wait to see if all the colours were correct and we do actually have some blue and black ones. I suggested to Jeff that we now start leaving them outside during the day as they are currently still in his garage and really need natural light if they’re to grow big and strong!

When Jeff got back we went shopping for bits and bobs as we were cooking something new that night – ‘Lemon cod with basil bean mash’ http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7189/lemon-cod-with-basil-bean-mash I know, ‘What the hell is basil bean mash?’ We had no idea, and trying to find frozen soya beans in the supermarket proved a bit of a pain as well! We (and by that, I mean ‘I’)- also bought some sour sweets as I had a real craving for them. Jeff has a very odd reaction to sour sweets and finds them really hard to eat, which I, of course, find really hilarious. He had one as he was a good sport, but declined any more. If you haven’t had any, I’d urge you to try and find them – they’re really morish!

With the sour sweets and dinner purchased, we headed back home and started cooking – Considering we both thought the basil bean mash would be absolutely vile, we were pleasantly surprised – it was certainly edible, so much so that we didn’t actually use the sweet potato we had bought as ‘backup’. That being said, Jeff thought it was lacking in flavour, so I think if we decide to do it again, we’ll put in more garlic or another flavour to make it more interesting.

Jeff and I then watched some TV – tonight we decided to shy away from our usual repertoire of ‘The Biggest Loser USA’ and ‘Embarrassing bodies’ and actually watch some cooking programs. Oh Dear God – ‘The Barefoot Contessa’ Ina Garten. I’d never even heard of her until last night and we watched a couple of her shows. How much fat is in each recipe? I don’t deny certain things of hers look interesting and she seems a very friendly woman, almost like an American Nigella Lawson, but if you ate all the stuff she cooked, you’d not be able to get through doors unless you turned sideways. That being said, we were lucky enough to catch a show where she did a low fat ‘chicken chilli’ – something you don’t really hear about in England, so Jeff and I recorded her program on his Sky plus and we’re going to try and recreate it on Friday night. Neither of us have ever tried to cook a recipe from the TV before... so it could be ‘interesting’....

After that, I asked Jeff to rub my arms as they were really hurting from the Personal Training session I had in the gym on Monday night. Jeff is a fantastic masseur and whilst he really helps me, I always feel guilty as he’s not really the type who likes being massaged. However, he did agree to let me rub his feet – which was quite funny as I really don’t mind feet in general (I know some people are really squeamish about them) so I managed to get him to let me rub various creams and things into his feet for about 15 minutes whilst pulling stupid faces. He did say it felt nice and I’m hoping it helps – I find most guys don’t tend to care as much about hard skin or nice cuticles as women, although maybe that’s just a false stereotype...

After that, it was time to head off home – this weekend should be really great as we’re heading to London to listen to a classical music concert in the evening. I think our plan is to head to London early afternoon so we can spend a good few hours ‘exploring’ and grab some food.

-Molly

Frustrating Friday night

Since Jeff and I got back in contact, I think Friday night was the first night that we felt a bit deflated and didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Usually we have a plan (and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘me’ and Jeff tends to just go along with it) of what we’re going to do, however on Friday I had a Doctors appointment so left work early and managed to get to Jeff’s by 5:00pm which was great, but after 30 minutes or so, we didn’t really have any ideas as to what we could get up to for the next few hours – unfortunately the reason I went to the Doctors meant we couldn’t get up to anything ‘fun’ and as it had started getting dark, the options open to us were less.

We watched some random TV, however there’s only so many diet programs and shock documentaries you can watch without getting bored so after watching 15 minutes of ‘Sex: How to do everything’ and getting very pissed off with the inequality of the program (full frontal nudity on the woman… why not the same on the guy? How is that fair?) I suggested to Jeff that we stop watching TV and do something else.

Jeff showed me how to play ‘Battlefield 2’ for a while, which was quite good fun, however I got a bit annoyed that I kept dying, plus it seemed to take quite  along time to respawn so I decided it was time to quit. After that, we decided we would order Waggamamas takeaway, however order it online – something neither of us had done before. Jeff was sceptical that it wouldn’t work, however decided to give it a try (which reminds me, it’s my turn to pay for dinner next!).

I then suggested we sort out Jeff’s cupboards – Yeah, I know, who said romance was dead? Thing is, as Jeff and I are doing loads of cooking recently, it would be good to know what he already had and what we needed to buy as he currently has, like, 4 bags of plain flour and 5 bottles of vanilla essence as they’re all hidden around the place on different shelves. I enjoy tidying / sorting things out, so was happy to help Jeff – one thing that I didn’t count on was feeling a bit ‘weird’ when I took down things that I knew his ex used, or things that I knew Jeff had used to cook with her – obviously that’s noone’s ‘fault’ and I didn’t tell Jeff at the time as he’d probably say I was ‘worrying about nothing’, but I guess it was just another reminder that after we split up, he didn’t stay single for very long at all – Still, one of my own insecurities I need to deal with.

After sorting everything out, throwing away out of date things and sticking two bags of rubbish in the bin, Jeff suggested we make some more cupcakes. So we did! However, we made lots of different types, so along with the normal raisin ones, we made some cranberry and hazelnut cakes, some almond ones with flaked almonds on top, some ginger ones with ground and stem ginger and… a gay cupcake. Yes, that’s right – we made a gay cupcake. ‘How do you make one of those?’ I hear you ask… Well, one of Jeff’s friends has a nickname of ‘Gayboy’ (even though he’s apparently heterosexual) therefore Jeff and his friends take the mick out of him quite regularly. So, we decorated a cupcake in pretty pink and purple glittery food colour and chocolate stars. Jeff said he’d see the funny side to it as it certainly wasn’t meant to be offensive.

We then popped out, got food and stuffed ourselves stupid with the Waggamama’s chilli squid, amai udon and ginger chicken udon (oh yes, and some duck gyoza which Jeff rather likes).

It was then time to head home, so I said goodbye and drove off – Sadly I won’t be seeing Jeff again until Wednesday, when hopefully neither of us will be restless and we’ll have something exciting to report!

-Molly

Grabbing a few hours on Saturday night

Although Jeff was working on Saturday, I popped over to his house at 5:30pm so I could pop his slow cooker on and cook the pork shoulder that we bought at Winchester Farmers market a few weeks ago. As per usual, I don’t like the idea of Jeff not having anything nice to eat whilst he’s at work and whilst he is more than capable of buying stuff at work or cooking something himself, I enjoy cooking, so set about making him a healthy ‘toad in the hole’ where I stuck a couple of tablespoons of wholegrain real ale mustard into the batter before cooking it in the oven.

As soon as I arrived I also filled up the 5 bird feeders that Jeff currently has hanging from his bird tree in the garden – The birds are going through a hell of a lot of seed at the moment and Jeff is already on the 2nd 15Kg bad that we bought less than a couple of months ago.

After cooking the Toad in the hole and putting the slow cooker on, I started watching some of the programs that Jeff and I had set to record on his Sky plus box. ‘Bridalplasty’ – seriously, the worst reality TV show I have ever watched in my life…. Ever. If you’ve never seen it, then thank God you’ve not wasted an hour, or more of your life watching incredibly shallow and bitchy women compete over tasks to be ‘top bride’ to win various plastic surgeries. I guess I could kind of understand it if the women on the program are really overweight Mingers, but they’re not! They’re all very slim, very attractive women and for women like that to want to compete for various nose jobs, boob jobs etc – Crikey.. it was certainly an eye opener.

As much as I wanted to sit down for an hour and feel my brain turn to pulp, I started getting restless after about 30 minutes (I guess even I have a limit as to how much rubbish TV I can watch) so I decided to make some fairy cakes – Jeff had all the necessary ingredients in his cupboard so I found a recipe online and made 24 little cakes. A bit of a twist on the normal recipe as I used custard powder as well - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1864/glamorous-fairy-cakes

Jeff opened the door at about 7:45pm – we had a chat, settled down to watch some more crappy TV (‘Embarrassing bodies’ and ‘Beauty and the Best – the ugly face of prejudice’) and drank a bottle of very nice 2006 Riesling that I bought from a wine warehouse just before Christmas. The pork wasn’t quite ready so we didn’t eat until about 8:30pm, however when we did, it was gorgeous – we had it with red cabbage and carrot and potato mash (I’d slow cooked the pork on a bed of shallots and carrots).

In a couple of weeks, Jeff and I are off to a Spa – we’re both taking a day off work and I’m taking him to the Spa I usually go to which will be quite nice. I’ve also got a very cool ‘surprise’ weekend planned for him on the 26th / 27th March (I’m sure he’ll write a Blog about it) So… stay tuned for Blogs about something other than cooking!

More healthy cooking

I say ‘healthy’, it wasn’t totally healthy but for puddings / sweet things they certainly weren’t bad!

I popped round to see Jeff after work and we had already agreed on what we were going to do tonight – cook! I had suggested that we try out a couple of new recipes, Jeff agreed and as he wasn’t working until tomorrow night, he went out this morning to get the ingredients necessary – lemon drizzle cake and ‘chocolate pear crisp’ here we go!

We started cooking as soon as I arrived and for once I didn’t want an obligatory cup of tea (I drank way too much Pepsi Max today at work) so that meant we could focus completely on baking and not on my copious tea drinking abilities! First was lemon drizzle cake which was a recipe I had found on the BBC Good Food website – my firm favourite for this kind of thing. Well, the recipe was ‘lemon AND violet’ but we decided not to bother with the poncy violets (Jeff did have a look, couldn’t find them and we thought ‘sod it’ anyway, it’s not as if you can’t eat cake without some silly decoration.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3066/lemon-and-violet-drizzle-cake

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5132/chocolate-pear-crisp

Anyway, even though it looked like the mixture was too little for the baking tray, it turned out to be exactly the right amount! We only had to bake it for about 25 minutes as opposed to the 30-40 the recipe said and hey presto! We had a rather nice smelling cake! Jeff made up the icing and we just chucked it over the cake whilst still in the baking tray. After letting it cool for a little while we tried some – it was absolutely gorgeous! Whilst I would have loved to have eaten the whole thing, we were quite good and after eating a few little squares the rest went into a couple of tubs for Jeff to take to work tomorrow night for his work colleagues – I imagine the cake is only ‘healthy’ if you have a couple of small squares, not if you eat the entire thing!

Next was the chocolate pear crisp and whilst Jeff managed to get most of the ingredients, he couldn’t find the pear liquor – bummer. However, being resourceful as always, I suggested we chuck some Amaretto in one of them instead after all, it’s still alcohol, right?

We decided we would do one WITH Amaretto and one without and whilst I was busy cutting up the lemon cake, Jeff was busy whipping the egg white for the ‘crisp’ part of the recipe. We folded everything together, put the topping on and in it went to the oven! What was the result? Well... not bad at all actually! I have to admit, the one with alcohol did taste a lot better and I know that Jeff thought the same – not as good as the lemon cake in my opinion, but certainly not bad. I think we are planning on making another lemon cake to take to Jeff’s parents when we visit them at Easter.

After the new cooking exploits, we had a nice dinner and settled down to watch a couple of hours of trashy TV which I had recorded on Jeff’s sky plus box before I had to head home – it’s a short week at work for me which is quite nice but sadly I’m not spending the time off work with Jeff, the next time I see him will be Sunday, when we’re having a jaunt to see my Mother and hopefully do some more cooking :-)

 -Molly

Cooking for Jeff's parents

I think Jeff and I could quite happily do a grown up 'dinner party' after last night!

I phoned Jeff at 12:30 yesterday afternoon to say I was going to be 30 minutes early to his house as I managed to escape from a prior engagement early. Jeff was cool about this but said he wasn't at home, he was still running around, trying to get all the ingredients for tonight's meal and unfortunately one of the Farm shops we usually go to shut at midday on Sundays so he had to head to another one! I said no problem at all and that I'd pop over his and wait for him.

Obviously when I got to Jeff's house and let myself in, I couldn't just sit there, so when I looked outside and saw the bird feeders were empty (no blame apportioned to Jeff here as he'd been working and therefore was knackered) I decided I would fill them all up which took a few minutes and hopefully meant the birds wouldn't go hungry for a few days. After that I decided I'd wash my car - great idea in theory, stupid idea in practice when I realised all I was doing was smearing the dirt around with a sponge and making it look worse than when I started - whoops :-S Whoever said that women were good at cleaning was talking out their arse.

So, Jeff arrived back home and said he had most things but still needed to get a few bits and bobs at the supermarket so I jumped in the car and we headed off. It took about 40 minutes to go round the supermarket as we kept thinking of other things we probably needed to buy for tonight, however after we had run up each isle about 10 times, bought extra plates, new small plates (for starters and deserts) we called it quits.

After getting back to Jeff's, Jeff kindly helped me clean my car 'properly' and got his hosepipe out (oo-er missus!) which helped a lot - it also meant we could water the tulips and the sweet peas which are still currently in Jeff's garage. As we only planted them a week ago, there isn't anything interesting to report, but as soon as there is, I shall be taking photographs and updating anyone who is interested on the 'Tulips and Sweet Peas from Amsterdam'!

We then decided to slightly tidy Jeff's house and prepare as much food as possible before Jeff's parents arrived. For starters we were going to do the lamb flatbreads with pine nuts and a salad - all of this was prepared beforehand which took about 10 minutes and then we could just put it in the oven when we wanted to start cooking. For main, we did the 'pan fried venison' with blackberry sauce. We did a sweet potato mash and green beans for the vegetables and didn't need to prepare any of this beforehand as it took about 15 minutes to cook in total. Pudding was the 'Ginger puddings' and we had bought some lovely vanilla custard to go with them. These took about 50 minutes to steam / cook in the oven, so Jeff and I made them up, put them in ramekins and just waited until we were cooking the main dish to put them into the oven.

His parents loved the food - even his Mother who is a very petite lady and doesn't eat very much managed to eat everything! Well, she ate the three courses, she couldn't manage the cheese board which we created after pudding (but Jeff's Dad and Jeff had a go at it!).

I headed off about 9pm which meant I could get back home, sort things out for work and not be too tired. It was lovely seeing Jeff's parents as they're lovely people and very friendly, however it was slightly weird as, of course, I hadn't seen them since we split up last time and obviously we didn't talk about that - but thoughts did keep popping up in my head such as 'I wonder if they think we're going to split up again?' or 'I wonder how much they know about last time?' Ahh well. We said we would cook for them again when we go and visit them over Easter and they seemed quite happy to let us :-)

Jeff's parents also decided to buy Jeff a lot of meat at their local butchers so I have a feeling Jeff and I will be cooking some of it on Wednesday night, when we next see each other - God knows what we will cook, but whatever it is, I will be sure to take photographs of it!

- Molly