oops, it’s been a while

quick summary of the last week for the record…

Wednesday 19th
Planning to eat the coc au vin this evening
Pret Lunch, ham and egg sandwich with a “vitamin enriched HIPPIE” drink.
Canteen breakfast (Sausage, fried egg, bacon, beans, etc…)

Tuesday 18th
Christmas party food & wine
Gormet Burger Lunch
Skipped breakfast

Monday 17th:
Cheese left over from Saturday.  Leak Pasta
Beef stew and dumplings, very salty
[cooked up coc au vin]

Sunday 16th: (in london this weekend)
Supper with Clare, venison sausage, spinach.  Made mince pies
Late Breakfast, scrambled egg

Saturday 15th:
Dinner party, CP, Pippa, Noz & Drew.  Roast Ham, mash, Cheese, Christmas pudding ice cream
Eggs for late breakfast, no lunch

Friday 14th:

Started to make mincemeat…
? Can’t remember.

Spicy lunch to fend to the winter bugs

After a spot of Christmas shopping with a colleague we pop into a local thai resturant for an ”express” lunch.  Manorom Too.

Spicy chicken soup with mushrooms

Green chicken curry with rice.

all for about £6. 

It must be December

Burger Joint “PJs” just off covent garden played host to us this lunchtime.  The silly season has yet to start in ernest, but for my immediate team we went out for a longish lunch to get the ball rolling.

“When in Rome” I thought…  so went for a real surf and turf menu selection.  Prawns in batter to start with, followed by a cheeseburger.  All good enough but the batter was a little greasy, and the burger surprisingly dry (although the beef was both tender and full of flavour).

We all washed it down with a dry cote du rhone.

Saturday,

Breakfast : Yoghurt & Oats

Lunch : Shared two dishes at “Munchies” on Aldeburgh high street.

1) Cheeseburger in a Suffolk bap (£5.95).  Juicy.

2) Beef hot pot. (£4.95)

(Lashings) of ginger beer to wash it all down.

Over to the in-laws to pick up some furniture; Mother-in-law was cooking a simple tasty looking Sausage dish for supper.

Food:

• onion
• apple (any kind)
• sausage
• mustard

Method:

Slice onions & apples into rings (or whatever) and place in the sort of dish you would cook lasagna in.  Place sausages on top.  Spread a little mustard onto the sausages.

Cook in oven (med/high) for C. 1hr.

The onions and apples will caramelise and you will be left with a delicious “goo” along with your sausages.  Serve with mashed potatoes and savoy cabbage.  Or whatever….

Then it’s off to the badlands of Norfolk for a Christmas drinks party.  Details are a little hazy but I remember it being very wet.  Tasty snack food at the party (sausages, bread and cheese, sausage rolls, etc…) .  Late drive home.

Pub Grub for supper

Wife is in the countryside for the evening. Cupboard is empty so the local pub (Fentiman Arms, Vaxhall) will be providing my supper. Kitchen opens in about 1/2 hour so i’m just refreshing myself with a Pint of Bombardier.This is not pronounced like the French (?) Trains to Airplanes manufacturing behemoth, but rather takes its name (and pronunciation one presumes) from the military role. The member of a bomber crew responsible for using the bombsight and releasing bombs on the target. Fine stuff, or “whatever”, depending on what sort of person you are.tick tick tick 7pm rolls by and the kitchen deigns to accept the supper order.1 x Glass Rioja Crianza 2004 Marques de la Concordia. Well we’ll start with just the one…1 x rump of lamb with dauphinoise potatoes.

Coffee and Cake

Popped into Starbucks to do some work (Still here). £3.95 buys you…

1 x Small/Tall Mocha

1 x Carrot Cake

All in all a combination of sugary goodness that’s hard to complain about. Sure the cake’s not quite as good as great aunt Maude used to make, and the coffee could be a bit hotter but quit your moaning. You can sit down in comfort and do your work, a far cry from granddad having to work down the pit 20 hours a day for an handful of old buttons and a case of emphysema.

 

So….. I’d better get on with that work then…

Christmas Carols Bread and Beef

On the basis that I’d rather include things even if they are brief and poorly written (how will people tell I hear you ask?)…

Afternoon carols at St. Martin in the fields witht the Parents. Wife goes off to further rehersals I Parents and Sister (who missed the concert) head off for a bite to eat.

Charing Cross hotel looks after us for the evening. Dreadful service by staff that appear to be totally unaware of what they are serving. Sister joins later and doesnakt eat. Between the remaining three of us we order a large glass of water, a pot of earl grey, a bottle of New Zeland chenin blanc (in honor of Parents trip there after Christmas) and two glasses.

By way of a nod to supper tradition we also order some food. Croque M., Steak sandwich and some sort of Fish/egg/spinach tart. All good enough in it’s own way but nothing to write home about. Hmmmmm…..

11pm and we are in “The International” at 116 St. Martins Lane. If you have ever walked past and thought that the place looks full of pikey scum then I can confirm your fears [update 0045: On reflection i think I've been a little harsh.  They're all just younger than I am]. That said I’m pretty sure that I’ve had many an evening in this place over the years under it’s various names and ownerships.

Have just asked Wife what her frive favorite foods are “right now”:

Beans
Yogurt
Butternut squash
Feta cheese
Tomato

Laxca (sp?)

2 Sausages in a roll, £2.50

Rushing back from buying a replacement battery for the car and not having long before I have to be up in town for Wife’s concert I just have time to pop into the local (farmers)market to forage for a spot of lunch.  Also find some fine looking Pak Choi.

A small queue has formed by the sausage seller, so on the basis that if somethings good it’s worth waiting for (Oh what it is to be English!)…

a pattern emerging…

Well I’m no nutritionist but I’m starting to see a pattern emerging here. Breakfast is usually a vaguely healthy affair (fruit, porridge, cereal, yogurt, etc…) followed by a more substantial lunch (sandwich, salad, soup, etc…) followed by an enormous blowout evening (fine wines, roasted swan, boiled children, etc…).

Tonight however the mold has been broken. Swan is off the menu at The Builders Arms on Britten street in Chelsea. Instead we make do with some very very young Malbec, scrambled eggs in a box of toast (carve out a box from bread then fry it solid), steak + chips.

All round a fine evening of good honest 21st century Chelsea pub grub. That is to say, not that slightly over priced, honest, poor service and “good enough” food. Still I suppose it really is genuine pub grub for the age.

Time to head home and annoy the neighbours with a bit of the remastered Zeppein Mothership album…

Indulging in a Little Champagne Socialism

“Free Champagne for a good cause? I’ll see you there”

To my embarrassment I’ve never been a very successful ligger, but that it would transpire was about to end. Thanks to Wife I found myself on the corporate equivalent of the penthouse flat with a glass of champagne thrust into my hand…

Chit chat was exchange (I like to think that I gave as good as I got). Speeches given, a general all round feeling of doing good subsumed us all.

Supper consisted of a large number of nibbles.

• Giant prawns in batter.
• Shredded chili chicken in a miniature flan base.
• Lamb kebabs
• Chicken, pepper and onion kebabs in a sweet chili sauce.
• Beef on pesto on tiny toast.
• Mini Bruscetta.

It is difficult to say for certain if these morsels were genuinely tasty or if it was the booze talking. Either way…