Mish Mash

We ran out of shower gel and I had to resort to using a bar of soap someone bought me from their travels to France. It wasn’t really any hardship because it was posh French soap, quite luxurious in fact.

And the scent really got me. The scent of soap. It brought me back to the old days before the arrival of all those fancy shower gels and liquid soaps, back to the days before we installed a shower even and had to run our shower water into the bath and use a plastic scoop to pour water over ourselves. When I closed my eyes for a moment it was like I was 10 and back in the bathroom with the tiny blue tiles all over again.

Di asked me in comments if I bought any jams and chutneys from the farm shop I visited and yes, I did. I bought a three fruit marmalade, some cheese, oatcakes, a treacle tart (which you’ve already seen) and a lemon drizzle cake. It’s just too bad that none of it was very good, which was a disappointment. Even the cake wasn’t good; it was dry, maybe it was stale because the cake from the farm kitchen was nice. Oh well. I guess I just have high standards when it comes to food. And you know I’m spoilt when it comes to jam so the marmalade really didn’t excite my tastebuds at all. But the jar looked cute with that bit of gingham on top. Fooled by pretty packaging yet again!

GM and I went out for dinner after work tonight to a Mexican restaurant near work. It was kind of like a headache-inducing nightmare inside with some really non-authentic, garish decor that passes as Mexican to people who don’t know better. The music was irritating and the service was surly. It smelt a bit inside too, kind of like breath, and the man sitting on the table next to me kept shaking his leg and subsequently shaking the long bench we were all sat on.

Despite my semi-strong misgivings, when the food came I felt a lot better because even though I suspected that it wasn’t really the way the Mexicans would have done it, it was still tasty nonetheless. The nachos we’d ordered to share was huge and they didn’t skimp on the toppings. I ordered a starter as my main because I was quite full and didn’t want to go home all bloated on the train but even that was quite substantial. Both GM and I had tacos and their tacos were of the “assemble yourself” variety, kind of like eating at home, where they gave us a few taco shells and a pot of our meats (beef or chicken) together with some salad, guacamole and sour cream on the side. Still it all tasted good!

Next to our table on the other side were two attractive ladies with two kids. One of them had an American accent and she was the prettier one. She was obviously used to American style service because she wasn’t afraid to question and to make demands. Obviously she didn’t get much more than some blank looks and “Yah chilli” when she asked, “Is the chilli made of beef or pork? I’m allergic to pork”. She ended up ordering some chicken tacos. When her tacos arrived she took one look at it and immediately summoned the waitress and demanded, “Where’s my food?” The waitress told her “That’s chicken tacos” and she replied, “Yes, but where is my chicken?!” whilst waving an empty taco shell at the waitress. The waitress then had to tell her that the chicken was in the pot on her plate. I actually laughed out loud. To give the girl credit when she was told that the chicken was in the pot she said, “Oh that’s chicken?  You do everything different here.  I apologise, I’m Mexican and I’m not used to the way things are here”.  Which I thought was very nice of her.  But she was really funny.  Later on I heard her say to her friend, “Are you kidding me?!  No salsa?!”  I think there was salsa only it was masquerading as the salad on the side.  Well what do you expect from a place that has an orange signboard with a cactus painted on it??

Farm Fun

Helloooooooo!

Last Sunday GM and I went to a farm a little way away just to have a look-see.   Whenever we’ve been fruit picking we’ve always returned to the one farm in another area of London but my mate told me about this farm near us so we decided to check it out.

We looked at the “pick your own” fields but didn’t bother to pick any fruit.  Instead we visited the farm shop where most of the fresh produce was from the fields anyway.

I loved the farm shop – they stock an amazing array of rustic looking jams.

Also lots of chutneys and sauces.

There was also a good bakery section with lots of cakes, some supplied by other farms in the region.

Some cakes close-up.

Some cute piggy packaged chocolates.  I loved how they looked against the gingham.

After browsing through the farm shop and petting the farm animals we went to look in the farm kitchen for a bite to eat.  GM was hankering after some fried sausages and other English breakfast-y foods but we’d arrived too late for breakfast and the lunch menu only had stuff like jacket potatoes, sandwiches, toasties, soup, quiche and cakes so we decided to grab some really good chipolatas from the supermarket and fry up our own fried breakfast.  It was bloody good too.  I also found some cooked beetroot at the supermarket so I bought that.  I know you all hate beetroot but that’s because the stuff we’ve had before was pickled.  Cooked beetroot is actually quite nice – sweet with an earthy flavour.   It’s there at the top of my plate, nestled between the fried tomatoes and chipolatas.

After brunch we had some treacle tart with cream.  I’d read so much about treacle tart in all those Enid Blyton books when I was little so when I saw it at the farm bakery I was majorly excited.  Real treacle tart from a proper farm!

Unfortunately I have to report that treacle tart isn’t my sort of thing.  It’s very sweet and doesn’t have any other distinct flavour.  The crust was also uninspiring – dull and limp.  I won’t be buying this again.

There were loads of cakes on sale in the farm kitchen.  I didn’t try them last Sunday but I did today because I went to the same farm again with my friend.  First we had lunch – she had smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches and I had a turkey and cranberry toastie.  Both our lunches were served with small sides of crisps and salad and it was very pleasant sitting outside in the sunshine on wrought iron patio seating, chatting and eating.  Well it was until “The Attack Of The Wasps”.  The wasps loved us today.  I don’t think I noticed anyone else having any trouble from wasps but we just couldn’t shake them off no matter where we sat!  Maybe we smelt too nice.  In the end we were so annoyed we stopped trying to be discreet with our shoo-ing and started violently waving our trays around at the wasps.  I even used my handbag as a swat at one point haha.

After lunch we had a short walk in the farm shop, then went back to the kitchen for dessert!  It was a lovely eating and gossiping type of day – my favourite =)  I had a slice of caramel sponge.  I was going to have lemon and blueberry cake but that’s something I would make myself so I thought I’d try something I would never ever make.  It was actually very good; nice and moist, not too sweet and with a good crumb.

I had a very lovely day today! =)

I don’t know what this is.  It could be a hamster, guinea pig or gerbil.  It was very cute anyway, a big grey tufty hairball.  Today we saw a really really adorable white and ginger guinea pig which came trundling up to us, its little legs looking like they could hardly support its fat little body but I forgot to bring my camera so I couldn’t take a pic of it =(

I’ve decided spending a day at the farm is a wonderful summer daytime activity so I’m really into finding and visiting different farms around the area now.  GM and I are visiting another farm tomorrow, hopefully it’s nice!

Lavender and Tarte Tatin

I’ve had this event in my diary since early this year – the lavender harvest.

For some reason, sometime earlier this year I suddenly thought “I wonder if there are any lavender fields in London”.  I googled it and not only was there a lavender field in London, it was really close to us and they’ve got an annual harvest weekend.  So I entered the dates in my diary and finally the weekend rolled round this week.

It was a small affair with a few stalls selling lavender products (soap, oil etc) and a big field of lavender where you can pick your own and pay for them later on.

It wasn’t what I was expecting in that I thought I’d be hit with a great gust of lavender scent once I got into the field but there was nothing.  Maybe a very slight whiff of lavender but generally it just smelt like summertime in England.  The lavender was pretty though.  We didn’t bring any money so we didn’t end up picking any, we just took some photos and that was it.

I’m still glad I went.  As I grow older I find I’m appreciating nature more and seeing the field of  vivid purple lavender against the sunny sky made me happy.  It made me happy to live where I live, knowing I’m so close to a beautiful bit of nature.

GM and I were going over to our mates’ for dinner that night so when I got home I embarked on my first attempt at making an apple tarte tatin.  Tarte tatin is a French dessert and it’s essential an upside down apple tart.  First the apples are caramelised in lots of butter and sugar before it’s covered with pastry and bunged in the oven.

It came out pretty good!  It was a bit darker than I wanted it to be though so I had no choice but to test it before giving it to my mates hehehe.  In the end I gave them half the tarte; GM and I ate some each and left a couple of slices at home.  Next time I make it I’m going to cook the apples later so that they retain a bit of bite to them and obviously I’m not going to let the butter and sugar caramelise too much before I put the whole thing in to bake otherwise it’ll turn out too dark again.  I’ll also probably use a different variety of apple because I used cooking apples this time and they turned out quite tart so between the apples and the sugar my tarte tatin was overly flavourful.

The pastry, however, was a triumph and I’m really happy because making tart pastry is a daunting thing for me!  See how flaky it was?

Tomorrow I have to do a written assignment which is part of a job interview.  It’s like a written exam during which I’ll be given a stack of documents to write a report on in one hour.  After that I have to have a little 10 minute discussion with the examiner.  Yikes.  Please pray for me I do really well and don’t freeze, especially in the discussion bit!  Thanks!

Posh Curry

I had quite a foodie day today.  As in, I ate out during both lunch and dinner and I don’t mean a sandwich eaten outdoors.  I don’t think I could have eaten outdoors even if I wanted to; it was far too windy and that wind was cold!

We finally went out for dinner with GM’s relatives as planned.  Unfortunately the “50% off food” offer for the Italian restaurant we’d wanted to go to on Tuesday has expired so we had to find somewhere else to go.  In these times of recession we don’t normally go anywhere that hasn’t got some sort of deal on anymore – why do that when there are so many discounts to be had!

We ended up going for posh Indian food in Covent Garden.  My curry is the one in front in the picture above.  It was vegetable dumplings simmered in saffron yoghurt sauce.  The sauce was great, really fiery and fragrant but the dumplings were a bit weird, they were really mushy and I couldn’t identify any individual vegetable.  I quite liked the dish though, I like soft foods that don’t require much effort haha.

In the middle pot was the lamb curry.  That was not bad too, the lamb was in tender chunks and the sauce, whilst not as good nor spicy as mine, was tasty enough.  In the pot right at the top was seafood curry.  I didn’t like this.  I had a squid ring and it was soft and mushy, no bite at all and the sauce was coconut milk based and very very mild.  No kick whatsoever to it.

I have to show you their complimentary salad.  It’s that big brown board in the middle with all the veg in it.  They bring the board over with the vegetables whole and tell you how to eat it, i.e. cut up the vegetables yourself, sprinkle the spices in the pestle and mortar over them and squeeze some lemon juice on top for good measure.  We had to cut up the vegetables ourselves!  I found that quite bizarre.  Not that I’m so lazy I can’t do it but I don’t see how that added to the experience or taste of the salad?  Was it supposed to provide some sort of thrill?  But I chop up vegetables at home on a regular basis!  It’s hardly bungee jumping.  Like I said, bizarre.

Food Diary

Lunch – Rigatoni (big tube pasta) with torn chicken breast and mushrooms in a tomato sauce

Dinner – Naan bread with a selection of curries, some potatoes and salad.  It was an okay meal, I enjoyed it enough but not so much that I’d make an effort to ever go back again.

Dessert – An ice-cream on a stick.  I think it was some kind of milk flavoured lolly since it tasted like frozen condensed milk.  I liked it.  Almost ate the bit that GM couldn’t finish!

After dinner snack – Muesli with skimmed milk.  I’d prepared this last night before I left for the gym since we weren’t sure whether or not we were going to GM’s aunt’s for dinner.  Since we eventually ended up going I didn’t get a chance to eat it and had to have it when I got home tonight otherwise it would have been wasted.  Normally when we have muesli the raisins are really chewy like wine gums but this muesli had been soaking for so long that the raisins had even turned soft!

Drinks – Peppermint tea, water

Exercise

None!

Sour Chicken

The title of this post is not referring to some new recipe I thought up.  It’s referring to the chicken I ate for lunch today.  I, everyone, am a person who eats gone off food!  (o_o)

I brought in a salad from home today as I have done for the past week.  I don’t like buying salads from shops because they are quite pricey and I don’t think a bunch of vegetables in some fancy dressing is worth £3.50, thank you very much.  Anyway, today’s salad was hot and spicy grilled chicken slices with runner beans, cucumber and green and purple leaves.  I’d tested the chicken last night when I was preparing the salad and it tasted alright, in fact, it tasted really good.

During lunchtime I tucked in as usual and noticed that the chicken had a very very slight sour taste but thought maybe it was to do with the combination of chicken and cucumber.  Why I thought cucumber would make chicken sour is beyond me, but that’s what I very cleverly deduced.  I ate and ate and it took three quarters of the salad before I finally admitted to myself that the chicken was off.  It wasn’t obviously spoilt but it didn’t taste anything like it was supposed to.  Then my stomach started little rumbles.  Oops.

Luckily, I didn’t get a stomach upset or anything but that was a real crappy lunch.

Food Diary

Lunch – Gone off chicken (haha) with runner beans, cucumber slices and green and purple salad leaves.

Dessert – One banana

Snack – One really old tangerine.  Yet another item of practically gone off food that made its way to my stomach.

Dinner – Farfalle alla Genovese: pasta with artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and pine nuts in a creamy pesto sauce.  It rained extremely heavily here this evening and Victoria Station flooded, resulting in the station being closed for a few hours.  At going home time.  Sigh.  So GM and I went for dinner nearby instead of standing around.  He had a pizza and I had pasta.  My pasta was really salty but I liked the pine nuts.  Oh and remember yesterday I said I was going out for an Italian meal tonight?  We postponed that dinner because of the bad weather.  The planned Italian dinner would have been a lot better than the chain restaurant one that I did eventually end up having.  But at least it was hot food eh?

Dinner – 4 calamari rings

Snack – Some cherries

Drink – Peppermint tea

Drink – Diet Coke

Drink – Water

Exercise

None!