Beautiful Bolton Abbey

Today we took a walk at Bolton Abbey. I don't think I've been here since I lived in Saltaire, and yet it is a wonderful part of Yorkshire.


We arrived at 11am, and walked until about 1.25pm which is not bad going. We followed the river along to an area called The Strid - a place where the land narrows and the river has to squeeze through it. The couple in the picture had nicked the only viewing seat!

Then we turned back and stopped for a sandwich and coffee at the Tea House in Bolton Abbey Village. Finally, we drove through Appletreewick and Burnsall and then up Greenhow Hill into Pateley Bridge - then across to Ripon and home down the A1.

The greatest stressbuster - being out in the fresh air of the Yorkshire Dales.

Note: I have been trying for a week to attach photos to this blog but it keeps crashing! So I will publish anyway and add the pics when I can. Yay! Pbotos are up! (13th April 2008)

Valentine's Dinner - just a bit late!

Tonight we stayed in and I cooked our belated "Valentine's Dinner". I have to say, I admire those cooks on Masterchef who turn out stunning three course meals in 2 hours or less. It took me about 3 and a half hours to put this lot together:

Starter: Goat cheese and walnut salad with raspberry vinegar dressing

Main course: Fillet steak with mushroom, shallot and red wine sauce. Served with sauteed spinach and dauphinnoise potatoes (got to be the best potato dish in the world!)

Pud: Rhubarb, poached in ginger beer topped with polenta and almond crumble. Two pics - one before the (home made) custard, and a splash of poaching liquor got poured all over it!

Recipe for the pud was courtesy of the Great British Menu cookbook. I'd seen it made on the tv show and thought it looked good. It was. There was a ton of crumble topping left over so I grilled some sliced pear on a griddle pan the following evening and served it with the leftover custard! Recipe follows........

For the crumble topping:
50g/2oz blanched almonds
60g/2½oz plain flour
40g/1¾oz polenta (medium ground)
50g/2oz caster sugarpinch salt
2 drops pure vanilla extract
75g/2¾oz chilled unsalted butter, chopped

For the rhubarb:
200ml/7fl oz ginger wine (I could not find this so used good quality ginger beer)
75g/2¾oz light soft brown sugar
strip of pared orange zest
250g/9oz young pink rhubarb, cut into 2.5cm/1in batons

Method:
For the crumble topping, toast the almonds by tossing them in a heavy pan over a medium heat. Chop finely and mix with the flour, polenta, sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Rub in the chilled butter. Spread out the crumble on a baking tray and chill for about 30 minutes. (Chilling will firm up the crumble so that it will be crisper when baked.)
Preheat the oven to 140C/285F/Gas 1.5.
Bake the crumble for 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven, allow to cool and then crumble into pieces with your hands. Set aside.

For the rhubarb, gently heat the ginger wine with the sugar and orange zest in a large, shallow pan until the sugar has dissolved. Add the rhubarb pieces and poach gently for 3-4 minutes or until soft.
Leave the rhubarb to cool in the liquid, then drain the rhubarb thoroughly.

To serve, stand an individual chefs' ring for each crumble on a plate or in a wide, rimmed bowl (the ring should be about 7.5cm/3in in diameter and 3.5cm/11/4in deep). Pack in pieces of rhubarb until the ring is nearly full. Add a generous sprinkling of crumble, before removing the ring.

And yes, I did buy a set of chef's rings yesterday in Tesco. They are my favourite new toy!

In memory of Stuart Victor Evans, 1967-2007

Stuart Evans is my Mum's cousin's son. That would make him my third cousin, or something! However, Mum's cousin (Uncle Len) was more like a brother to her and that is why we call him Uncle Len.

Len was married to Chris, and they had two children - Stuart and Angie. Chris died in her 30's, of liver cancer, and Len then met and married Ann, a lady with twin daughters, Janet and Helen.

Still with me?

Len and his family have been around all of my life. We spent some holidays with them in Hampshire, when his work in HM Customs took him down south for some years. I can remember going to visit them when they moved back up North, to Formby. I vaguely remember being a bit scared of Auntie Chris cos she made us take our shoes off to go in the house! After Chris died, my mum would have them over for lunch on Sundays.

Len's father - Joe - was my Nana's brother. A lovely man. Unfortunately, he lost his wife, Alice, to whom he was devoted, quite early in life. Alice died of lung cancer in her 50's. Uncle Joe lived alone from then, and used to spend weekends with our family in Rainhill. Uncle Joe was good fun and always had a smile on his face and a tale to tell. I can still smell his roll-up ciggies now! He had a sharp brain and would spend hours trying to teach me how to do cryptic crosswords. I never did get it. He and Mum would play Scrabble together until the early hours. If I ever joined in, I'd usually get beaten, and more often I'd just get fed up because they were SO competitive and would never let anything "illegal" go. Picture the scene: Mum's dining table, the Scrabble Board (deluxe version, of course) a couple of wine glasses, a brimming ashtray and a giant Collins English Dictionary. Happy memories.

Uncle Joe died in about 1996. He'd moved to live with Len before he died, once he got older and a bit frail.

That is Stuart's family... part of my family.

Stuart died in December last year. It was sudden and shocking. He had moved, years ago, to live in Coventry and when Len and Angie could not get in contact with him by telephone, they contacted his friend who could also not get an answer when he called at the house. The police were contacted (Angie is a police officer) and Stuart was found dead in his home. He'd had a massive duodenal ulcer which had burst. Len, Ann and Angie are devastated.

Stuart was cremated in Coventry just after Christmas, and yesterday, we went to his memorial service and scattering of his ashes in Liverpool. The service was short, but poignant. His sister, Angie, read a beautiful tribute. I was surprised by two things: how she had the courage to read out such a personal eulogy in front of us all, and how very close she and her brother were. But then, I never knew Stuart (or Angie really) as an adult. Last I remember of him is as a georgeous (and slightly bratty) kid with platinum blonde curly hair.

Sleep peacefully, Stuart.

Catching up and feeling insecure

More blog news: I have finally written up my holiday notes from the Maldives last year. To read them, click on 2007 and September. It'll be obvious which are my holiday blogs - they all say something along the lines of: ate, sunbathed, snorkelled, ate, drank, slept. But there are nice pics to cheer you up on a Winter day.

The company I work for are known for being "hire and fire" merchants. Recently they've made two people redundant - neither of whom had worked there for very long. And so it kind of makes me nervous. I know that there is little security in any job today, but I really would like to get at least another 12 months in doing this job.

So, it is frosty and sunny and I'm going for a walk now with my new camera (and Roy). It's my lunchtime. Just in case you were thinking I'm skiving.

A wonderful new foodie find

We've been away for a few days, staying at Mum's house. On Friday she had to go in to hospital (the dreaded Warrington Hospital) for a cardioversion procedure to "cure" her atrial fibrillation.

So we went over on Thursday afternoon as I'd been working in Manchester all morning. As we arrived, Mum was just walking out of her building to go to the hairdressers. Do you know it made me really sad to see her coming down the corridor on her own. Didn't seem right. I know that sounds daft, but usually I am with Mum and not watching her going about her normal business alone.

The good news is that the Cardioversion worked and mum's heart rate is now back to normal. She had this done about 4 years ago and it worked then, but the Consultant thinks that the stress of last year may have caused it to kick back to an irregular rythym. That spelling of rythym doesn't look right to me but I can't figure out how the spell checker on this blog works.

So, whilst I was at the hospital with Mum, Roy was decorating Emily's bedroom. It's pink and silver! Very cool paper - fuschia pink leaves on a silver backing. But that's only on one wall, so it doesn't look too overpowering. He's done a nice job, got the wall papered and all the other walls and wood work painted.

Actually I'm fibbing a bit about being at the hospital all day with Mum - they wouldn't let me wait with her in the morning and so I went shopping into the new Mall in Warrington. I got a load of tops for my hols in the sales and a few other bits and pieces.
The nurse said I could go and sit with Mum after 12.30, until she could come home. They finally did the last ECG and released her at about 3.30pm.

Today was lovely - bright and sunny - and so we took Mum out for a run into Cheshire to a pub I'd heard of and wanted to try.
http://www.thepheasantinn.co.uk/welcome.html

It was very good. Excellent food and spectacular views. I know it was sunny but I did think that the people sitting outside with drinks were pushing it a bit! The temperature was about 2 degrees!

So we decided to book a night there in July for our wedding anniversary. Not on the anniversary itself (that weekend is the anniversary of Dad's death and I want to get Mum over here then) but on 12th July. Same day as racing at Chester so we plan to have a nice day at the races and then an evening at the Pheasant Inn.

Well here we are home again, tired and cold (our boiler keeps breaking down so when we got here there was no heating on).

A new Germ Buster record

Well last night I beat my all time Germ Buster record score - I got 1330, previous best was 904. So I feel it maybe time to retire as Germ Buster Champ of our house. Well, actually, the only Germ Buster player in our house.

I've updated my blog for our holiday in Wales last year - go to 2007, 14th - 20th July if you're interested. The blogging bit wasn't the problem, but the photos take ages to upload. There must be a quicker way?

Diet update: Well, since abandoning Slimming World for "Low Fat, Low GI", as I suspected, the control has slipped somewhat. I need a structure of counting or limiting food, I feel. Having a rethink. We haven't been eating badly, but almost certainly eating more than when we were on SW. I'll ponder on this and let you know what we decide.

A pet hate and my favourite fast food

I spend a lot of time online and in particular, on a couple of internet communities.

One of the trends that I dislike is this concept of calling everybody "hun" or "hunny" (ugh, it makes me shudder) and falling in love with everybody within hours of "meeting" them online.
When I say "falling in love" I don't mean in the romantic sense, but some people have this way of forming strong emotional attachments to online friends really quickly.

I don't tend to see it on most of the sites I use, but I think it's very much a trend for younger people. It drives me crackers. So I just thought I'd mention it.





I have visited a lot of online cooking blogs and some of them are amazing. Fabulous recipes, and even better photographs. So I've decided to try my new camera out and take some food porn pics. It's tricker than you'd think.


In the picture is my frittata (last night's dinner). Fresh out of the pan - in fact you can see the steam rising out of it!


I usually serve this with a more substantial salad but all I had in were tomatoes. I had to crop the pic as the plate was resting on the cooker top, and it looked a bit grubby in close up! Despite only having been cleaned yesterday.


Ingredients: Eggs, Mushroom, Courgette, Onion, Spinach, Red Pepper, Cheddar cheese.

Moving to a different diet

Well, Slimming World has been useful in getting us back on the right track, but I feel we have to move on. Mainly because of lunchtimes. It's a nightmare not being able to take a sandwich - which is simple and easy to make and transport and eat!

I'm not up for faffing about with salads or flasks of soup. I know that sounds pathetic, but that's how it is just now.

Soooo... we're moving to the GI Diet. Not exactly South Beach but pretty much the same! Except I want to take some of the low fat principles I used on Slimming World and apply them here, as I've been guilty of doing "low GI - high fat" in the past.

I still have not got to the gym. I promised I was going today - as it's the start of our 10 week countdown to the South Africa trip. And I'm determined I'll be fit enough to do lots of walking.
In fact, I spent far too much time this weekend researching South Africa on line and in books. Maybe an hour away from that and at the gym would have been a better use of time.

On a positive note, I've done my tax return (all bar some info I need to phone and get from my ex-employer tomorrow), sorted my paperwork in the office, and cooked up a whole load of healthy food!

It started with a latte.....

I have to report 2 "iffy" days this week, diet wise.

It all started with a latte. On Tuesday I went to meet a colleague at a hotel in Birmingham. At 12 noon. I ordered coffee when I got there - large latte for her, regular coffee for me. They bought us two large lattes. Instead of sending it back (well the girl who served us seemed a bit educationally sub-normal, and I'm not being nasty here but I'd have felt mean telling her she'd screwed up our order. Oh plus I'm the passive aggressive type anyway by nature) I drank it. After adding 3 large sugars.

So the latte itself would have made a meal, and then Jackie (my colleague) says "I'm starving, shall we order lunch?". I agreed, and instead of looking for soup or salad, which really is about the best option for SW, I ordered a prawn mayo sandwich. Not TOO bad, I'm thinking.... but then ate the crisps that came with it. Well, some of them.

I carried on "as normal" that night, so at least I didn't blow it completely. Next day was a different story though.

I went to Aberdeen for the day. Oh - and I apologise to Aberdeen for calling it a shit-tip on my last visit. This time I was right in the City centre and it's rather nice. I digress. I didn't have time for breakfast at home so I had a coffee and a cereal bar in the airport. Then on the flight they offered us "snacks". I had an apple juice and another cereal bar.... one that was covered in chocolate. So far, so bad. Well not great, anyway. I studiously avoided the biscuits at my meeting and afterwards went to Caffe Nero and ordered a tuna/cheese panini, cappucino AND a seed/cranberry muffin. It's getting worse, isn't it? At the airport coming back I ate 2 ginger biscuits with a coffee. And a small packet of crisps on the flight. Then I got home, at 8.30-ish and made 2 rounds of cheese on toast.

My point, aside from how easy it is to lapse, is how easy it is NOT to eat fruit and veg! Shocking!

On Thursday I was back on track and tried to address the fruit/veg shortfall from the day before.

Aside from that I cannot get over my mental block about going to the gym. More on that another time.