Chrimbo - good thoughts to all

What to do when the shop ran out of sprouts - Chrimble is the time for friends sharing...
Our friend - having heard the Chaps awful situation of zero sprouts; posted us a wee care package...

Bless her.  (Personally I couldn't hate them more if they were basted in Marmite but there you go -that's just me!!)  At least the Chap was happy.  Hope you all had a lovely and good festive period with your family and/or friends and/or family that is made up of friends - they're there for a reason so treasure them.  Merry wotsit all. xxx

Path passable, christmas comes, girly shock!

Water levels have dropped a bit now...  if only I had a wood burner there's plenty of fuel just needing drying out left behind.
Weather's still grotty but I shall venture forth into it later for one small item of giftedness followed by a chrimble catch up with a good friend.  Starting to actully feel a bit more festive now - hard to when you have to concentrate on work rather than being able to wind down.  Might even get the tree decorated tomorrow!  (Bought it last weekend!!)  Looking forward to the lovely coloured lights and my pretty things to hang on it.  Yup - I'm a bit of a girly at heart.  :-D

Delightful weather!

In common with most of the rest of the UK we've been getting a bit clobbered by the weather this week.  Admittedly nothing like as bad as further north and Scotland have but we've had a wee bit of rain...

This morning we had a wee bit more...

Anyone want to take the riverside path?

No, I thought not!!

Cold beauty

The lovely sunrise this morning on my way to work.

Makes up for all the nightmare trying to get round shops at the moment!!  I must have spent a good 15-20 minutes queuing in a shop on Sunday for a couple of items.  It was only the thought of having to go through it again that stopped me dumping my basket and scarpering.  You'd think we were expecting a siege the way some people are going at it.  Ok-  if you're having to cater for ten extra family members then yes - you need a wee bit more in the way of food but otherwise - do we really need so much more stuff for a whole day when the shops are shut?  No - I really don't think we do!

Upcycling

Spotted these in a local shop a couple of weekends ago.  Love them but £49??!!!  Repurposed items can look great but I kind of think that as recycling is a frugal thing so the price should perhaps reflect that too.  Now I just need a strong workbench with vice and I too can bend spanners with my bare hands...

The familiar becomes unfamiliar

They're (finally) resurfacing our road.  Consisting of Victorian (I think) terraced housing parking is at a major premium round our way and normally the street is chocka both sides up the street with cars, vans, motorbikes and the odd camper van wedged in and overhanging the corners where the double yellows start.  Due to the resurfacing though everyone has to be cleared out by 8am and it looks so so very different.  It's actually quite a wide street without all the damn cars up it!  I like it but they'll all be back by tomorrow I think.  You can see why it needs re-surfacing though - looking a little bit patchy eh?!

It makes me wonder what it was like back in the day to see it looking so unfamiliar.  I'm quite interested in the random little bits of history you only pick up by (for example) perusing old photos on the walls in pubs or flipping through those self published old postcard collections.  I find it fascinating to see places I know so well looking so different - sometimes just a scant handful of decades before.

Movember

Last week at work we had various moustache themed goodies on sale in aid of Movember.  This is a charity event where men grow a moustache for the entirety of the month of November in aid of mens health charities but in particular testicular cancer.  A very worthy cause as I'm sure you'll agree.  We managed to raise a not too shoddy £116.36 with our munching!

My friend's husband has been growing his own 'tache for this and I'd like to shamelessly plug his page on their site.  If you'd like to make a donation he'd be very very appreciative - no matter the size.  Consider it - even just £1 makes a difference!  Will's Movember page.

If you fancy having a go yourself next year then check out their handy guide to moustache shapes below!

Reality tree

I was walking back from the doctors earlier (gastroenteritis if you were wondering - not fun) and I was feeling a little sorry for myself.  Then I happened upon this tree and the colours and the perfect carpet of yellow the leaves had made, made me stop and stare and forget the rest of the world just for a moment. 

It started me thinking why was I feeling sorry for myself?  It's not a life threatening illness, here at least.  I have a roof over my head, clothes, a job, I don't live in a famine zone or the arctic ice where conditions make life infinitely harder than I've ever had to deal with.  We take so much for granted - easy access to the doctors being one when really; I'm very definitely not that badly off.  This therefore is my tree of wisdom today - stop and look at something beautiful and get a sense of perspective every once in a while.

Salt, Pepper & Chilli Squid & Prawns

I made this for us on Sunday.  It's one of my favourite things and it's pretty quick and easy to knock up.  Perhaps not the ultra healthiest as it's fried but drain off any oil really well and as you only have a starter size portion it could be worse.  (That is assuming you do only have a starter size portion!!)  I adapted my recipe from one found here on the Gastronomy Domine blog.

For 4 starters: (Halve it for 2)
500g raw squid and raw shelled prawns mixed - or all one or the other whatever you like.  Get your fishmonger to clean the squid for you and cut into thin rings and the tentacles into short lengths - 2 inches ish.
3tbsp rice flour
3tbsp cornflour
1-2 fresh chillies - to your taste
2 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns - whole
1 tbsp freshly ground (for preference) black pepper
1-2 tbsp sea salt (I actually used the lemon fennel and chili salt I bought at the farmers market a little while back)
Oil - for frying so sunflower / vegetable etc

Dry fry the Szechuan peppercorns in a heavy pan for a few mins to release the flavours.  (If you have trouble finding Szechuan peppercorns try health food shops or oriental supermarkets.)  They're less solidly dense than the black ones so you can crumble the odd one up a little with your fingers to add to the textures of this dish and make the flavour of them more accessible having more available surface area.
Slice and chop the chilli finely aiming for small squares no bigger than the peppercorns - it's up to you whether you leave the seeds in or not - of course depending what type of chilli you're using as well.  I used Aji Limon - a yellow one with a slight citrus taste that's nicely hot but doesn't blow your head off and I only used one so I left the seeds in.  [This is the one plant of mine from the 13 chilli plants in 11 different varieties the Chap brought up this year!]  Incidentally if you're as rabidly paranoid as I am (fueled by all those horror stories of people inadequately washing their hands then touching their parts in the bathroom or rubbing their eyes etc) then you can get a pack of these plastic gloves and use those for chopping chillies.  They can be washed and reused as long as you haven't holed them and their tight enough to the hand to enable you to feel properly to chop.
Place the chilli, flours, salt and black pepper in a bowl and add the Szechuan peppers once done and mix well together. 

Put the oil on to heat - about an inch deep will suffice.  It needs to be frying temp - 180/190ish C (that's 350-370ish F or when a cube of bread browns in 60 secs).
Gently dredge the squid pieces and whole prawns in the mixture and fry them off in batches.  Use a slotted / holed spoon and keep turning them regularly; removing from the oil once golden and crisped to your taste.
Drain on  kitchen towel and serve.  A fresh crispy lettuce side would provide a refreshing contrast with this and a piquant chilli dipping sauce of some kind would also work.  Yum!

Meat Cooking for the Faint Hearted #3 - Roast Chicken

It being cold and miserable and generally grim I thought I'd treat the Chap to a nice roasted chicken dinner when he got home from work on Monday.  Having text him about it and got the boy all excited I realised I have zero idea how to do roast chicken.  Despite reading many and varied cookery books and recipe websites over the years I tend not to retain the details of the meat recipes so much, not eating it myself.  So - how do you roast chicken?  Answer - google it.  :-)  Top results are Jamie, Delia, BBC &c &c.  I'm afraid I don't tend to go for Delia's recipes very often as I dislike her needlessly didactic tone so I checked out the Jamie Oliver and the BBC effort as well as a handy page here which deals with the entire process including weight vs cooking time tables.  I settled for Jamie's recipe in the end as it sounded tasty with the lemon and herbs but pretty straightforward with a minimum of faffing about - just what I wanted after a long day at work.
So - roast chicken.  First buy your chicken.  Depends on budget whether you'll go for an organic or free range but at the very least please get a 'higher welfare' bird.  From watching various stuff like Hugh's Chicken Out campaign &c I've heard that the free range and/or organic birds taste better - a more concentrated 'chickeny' flavour so I guess you can get that bit more out of them in terms of stock, leftovers etc.  The next decision is size - the Jamie recipe quotes for 4 people but I was cooking for 1; albeit 1 large appetited Chap.  So - I thought I'd look for a smaller size chicken.  Pointless!  In the stupormarket they had large - deffo too big, then medium and small sizes.  The medium were about 1.4 - 1.5 kilos - the recipe seemed to be for 1.6kg bird.  The smaller birds were anything from 1 kilo to 1.2 but were only about 20p cheaper than a medium size!  A no-brainer so I went for the medium.  First hurdle out of the way.  (You may be wondering at this juncture why I feel the need to chronicle my chicken buying exploits in quite such detail but as a non-meat eater who went veggie before she learnt most of her cooking; buying meat is not something I'm familiar with at all, nor confident about.  So - I'll share with you guys and maybe help a fellow 'faint hearted meat cooker' or more likely - you can tell me how to do it properly. :-D )

Ingredients as used by me:
1 chicken
2 red onions
1 parsnip
2 carrots
Approx 3" section butternut squash  - from the narrower neck end
About 4/5 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
Sprig rosemary
Olive oil
S+P
1 lemon

Home then and after sticking the oven on at 240 - top temp - I peeled the veg (except the garlic which also stays whole) and scraped the carrots as they were looking a little tired and sorry for themselves.  Chopped them into chunks and piled on the baking tray and drizzled with oil as per Mr Oliver's instructions.  Well - I say drizzled - kinda had a bit of a gushing out moment so there was a bit more oil than I intended.  My little big sis has greatly recommended an oil drizzler to me for moments like these - given that she is the least domesticated person I know I'm not sure how she knows this but perhaps I should suggest it as a suitable chrimble item.
Righto - using the tips from the 'help with cooking' site linked above I made sure to wash the chicken - inside and out - then dabbed dry with a kitchen towel.  Apparently this helps get a nice crispy skin.  As my chicken was tied up and Jamie's recipe didn't specify I chose to untie it as the tips site seemed to think this could help it cook more evenly. 
I sploshed some oil on and rubbed it in then realised my obvious error and had to ask the Chap to grind on the S+P for me to then rub in.  After a good washing of the hands I duly stabbed my lemon and microwaved it on a plate for 30 seconds as recommended to bring the flavour out.  Insert herbs and lemon inside chicken - possibly whilst averting your gaze as this really is a bit 'ick'.  Plant bird firmly atop your veg and bang it in the oven - turning this down to 200 at the same time.

Cook for 1 hour 20mins, basting half way through.  Basting means getting the whole lot out and spooning the juices that have come out of the chicken back over it to help prevent it from drying out.
Remove chicken and put on board - cover with foil then a tea towel (don't ask me why - it's what Jamie says to do so I duly did) and leave to rest for 15 minutes.  His recipe then helpfully says: 'Now is the time to make your gravy' without offering the slightest hint how you go about this.  Well - in my house I'm afraid gravy comes from veggie granules; generally Aldi's own so I made some of these up a little bit thicker than usual and left some room in the jug.
I poured off the juices from the meat tray into a mug and stuck it in the freezer - the Chap does this when he's had roast beef so the fat solidifies and can be removed easily leaving the stuff with the meat flavour in it that you then add to the gravy.  This fat didn't really solidify, quite possibly because a) it didn't have enough time and b) there was a fair bit of olive oil in it but we managed to pour it off and added the meaty juices left to the chaps gravy jug.

I then carved (first time ever!) as per Jamie's instructions - quite easy once I worked out where the leg joint was he mentions.  And ta - daa!!  Roast chicken all by my own fair hand!

Light displays

No fireworks for us this weekend though we had a busy one.  We were at the Chiefs game against Gloucester on Saturday; sadly we lost 19-24 but we put up a valiant fight.

After the game the sky put on a good show for us; even without any fireworks.

Then we saw this on the way out - not sure where it landed from but I rather like how it looks.  :-)

Frugal tip and unseasonal plant madness

Frugal tip of the week - Boots has Aquafresh toothpaste on half price at the mo - that makes it 52p rather than £1.05!  Even cheaper than their own brand which is 70p - not a bad deal so I thought I'd stock up and got 6 tubes.  :-)

We were in Dorset last weekend and I noticed that in my mothers garden these poppies were not only still blooming - they're bursting back into life with new buds!  It's been an odd 'Autumn' so far for the weather that's for sure.  How lovely they were.

Let's hear it for Local! Devon Flats.

Devon Flats.  That's what these are.  I have to admit to never having heard of them until this time yesterday when I went in search of a simple and quick biscuit type recipe I could make some halloween biccies for work with.  They're very simple although my recipe differs from a purist one in that it uses double cream rather than the original clotted cream and has the addition of spices.  In these biscuits the cream takes the place of butter / other fat.  Anyway - here you are:
Halloween Devon Flats
8oz SR Flour
0.5tsp allspice / mixed spice
4oz Sugar
0.5tsp salt
1 egg - beaten
3.5 fl oz double cream (100ml if that's an easier measure)
Approx 1tbsp milk - plus extra for brushing
Vanilla sugar - optional

Put oven on to heat - the recipe I based these on said 190 which I reduced to 180 as mine's a fan oven but ended up back putting up to 190.  I think 200 would be better having scoped a few more recipes out now.  Greaseproof paper a couple of trays.  Again diff' recipes said you could grease them - I haven't tried it so can't vouch for any sticking / non-sticking using that method.   They didn't stick to plain greaseproof paper so I'm happy with that.
Sieve flour and spice into a bowl and mix sugar and salt through.
Stir in beaten egg and cream and enough of the tbsp milk to make a stiff dough.  All the recipes I saw said if it's sticky pop it in the fridge to firm up.  If like me you don't have time for this as you decided to do these at 7am before work rather than the night before like a sensible person then you can just add a wee bit more flour instead.
Roll out on a very well floured surface to just under 1cm thick.  Keep re-flouring both surface and rolling pin - these want to stick.
Cut into shapes of your choice, whack on the trays then brush with milk and sprinkle with vanilla sugar if liked.  You only need to leave a little space in between these as they spread but only a very little - they puff up more.  (Described as a cross between a cake and a biscuit.)
Stick 'em in the oven for 5-10 mins until golden-ish - mine looked quite pale but were cooked through.  May have had something to do with the temp' changes.
That's it - very easy and one of those recipes that can take endless variation.  Leave out the spice and use a tbsp of cocoa instead.  Or ground almonds.  Or - most things really.  Enjoy!  Oh - and I guess I shouldn't forget the obligatory WOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOooooooHHHHH!!

As this is an old local recipe I'm going to enter it into Chris's 'Bloggers around the World - Great Britain' challenge.

What a week for the weather!

I think we've had it all this week!  Ok - so no snow down here in the South West but Monday it was torrential rain all day long, Tuesday dawned bright and lovely but had resorted to the monsoon affect by the end of the day. 

All this rain brought the river levels right up but did result in some nice rainbows.  Excuse the pic quality as these were on my phone rather than camera.

The sky was amazing yesterday evening though...

Sloe gin a go-go

We went foraging for sloes at the weekend.  As the fruit has all been early this year we found the lower branches already stripped clean.  However, we gave thanks for short people as I [being the slightly taller of the pair of us] pulled over the higher branches so we could reach the berries on them, before letting them spring back unharmed. 

We collected a respectable 1.64 kg (him) and 1.8something kg (me) giving us about 3.5 kg total between the 2 of us which took us just under an hour and a half - not bad going.  We ended up a little scratched - more from the brambles growing throughout the bushes than the blackthorns themselves but it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the sun pootling along the river.  There's got to be worse places to pick sloes surely...

The sloes are now safely ensconced in the freezer (in lieu of the first frosts getting them) and we have the sugar and the le parfait jars - just the gin to get now and we're on our way.  :-)

The furry faced escapologist

A quick update.  Zeke being the sneaky little catfink he is managed to break out of the house on Thursday night meaning he couldn't have his bits snipped on Friday.  Tsk.  He's now at the vets today instead and I've just called them to check on him.  He's all fine [phew] albeit a little bleary still from being put under.  I'll be picking him up sans danglies later and no doubt spoiling him out of misplaced guilt all evening.  :-)

Autumn sky

Well the temperature fell with a thump in the last 2 days - damnably chilly on the way home last night although not helped by the revolting cold I currently have.  (Thank you very much to The Chap for that one!)  It does make for some spiffing views this time of year though.  I always love it when you see the rays of light coming through the clouds - perfect!  Here's today's pic then.

I'm hoping to have a bit more time for a decent length post soon but hope you're liking the pics meanwhile. 

Taking Zeke off for his snip tomorrow followed by waiting in for the broadband men - I'm hoping that out of the 1-5pm slot I've been given they turn up closer to 1 as I really want to get down the allotment too.  Mind you that also depends on how much like death I feel - better keep taking the vitamin C!

Have a happy weekend all.  :-)

Random pics #3

 

People releasing chinese lanterns on a windy autumn evening.  nice.  :-)

Random pic #2

Walking home on Friday I came across this scene.  People practising their tight-rope walking between 2 trees in the park.  How random!  I hastily snapped this - and yes - I know it's wonky but I wanted to show you all.  The South West is a wonderful place to be!!  :-D

Swifty end of week round up

Yesterday saw a big colourful bus pulling up outside our building.  Much to our surprise it was the Olympic torch!!  You could get your photo taken with it and nominate someone to be one of the 8000 people that will carry it on it's journey before the Olympics next year.  It's going through Exeter hence this visit but it's not for the first time.  Exeter saw the torch go through back in 1948 too. 
I had my pic taken with it - you had to wear gloves and they stuck you in front of a green screen then made you choose between backgrounds comprising Tower Bridge, Stonehenge, Angel of the North and Edinburgh Castle.  You also got a free mini can of coke - I went for coke zero and it was nasty!  I'm not a great cola type drink lover tbh but if you forced me I'd go for pepsi max I think.  Anyway - I digress.

A nice freebie was my sample of new biscotti flavour Baileys.  This arrived in the post a couple of weeks after I signed up for it on Facebook - it's totally free; you 'like' the page then 'post a toast' to nominate a friend to receive one too then when they accept you both get sent the samples.  Nice.  :-)

A random note to finish - though frugal related.  Having bought the 'value' pack of mushrooms from the Co-op last night [I aways get these packs if I'll use them all up as it's so much cheaper] I was suprised to find no less than 9 'twinned' mushrooms in there!  I've never got the thinking behind a natural product like fruit or veg needing to conform to an ideal shape / size / colour but I'm more than happy if this gross stupidity in others means my purchases come that wee bit cheaper.  Hail the freak mushrooms say I - for they are beautiful and taste the same!!

Happy Friday my friends.

Foraging season

It's foraging time again - although really there's something available just about all year round.  However the fungi are most plentiful around now and I'm itching to get out there gathering.  For now though here's the little pretties I picked up last year - I also wanted to share them as part of Black & White Wednesday over on The Well-Seasoned Cook.

The other free food that should be bountiful now are sloes - we're determined to make vast amounts of sloe gin this year as last year's single batch really didn't last us long enough.  This time we're thinking dawn ladder raids and blow everyone else!  :-D  Maybe gloves this time too...

Random pic du jour

There's a major construction project going on opposite the building I work in and they're roofing it with copper.  I love the colour of copper - it's such a shame it doesn't keep it's lovely warm sheen but goes green instead.

I seem to have been waitng for what feels like weeks to get a pic of it with the sun shining off it - hopefully before it goes green and dull!  This will have to do for now.

Lovely things - and cheese!

It's fatal - they have a farmers market at work now!  Look at all these things I bought. 

Chilli choc from a different chilli farm - though it's not all for me!  Lovely tasting cordials - the lemongrass and ginger one tasted like it'd be fab in a G&T.  Seasoned salts and some 2 year old mature cheddar and a blue goats cheese from Tickelmore that do the Beenleigh blue I had a while back.  Not a bad little haul for a friday at work!

The beauty of a sphere of mahogany tinted burnished autumn colour...

...or Conkers to be precise!

They're so beautiful yet fleeting in their gorgeousness.  Only a few days pass and the shine has dulled and the covering wrinkles - a little like life in a few days - yet inside is the potential for a whole massive new life.  Truly a wondrous sight that shouts 'Autumn' to me...

Autumn views

It's that time of year again!  I spotted this fine fungi on my way home last night - not sure what this one is but all of a sudden all types seem to be springing forth as we hit these cooler drawn in times.  Here in the south we still seem to have the sun at the moment - just; though I feel this may be drastically changed by tonight.

The other item that drew my eye was this pole covered in what I presume is dead ivy - I've always loved how nature will take over; how a mere blade of grass will manage to punch up through concrete or tarmac, how we really can't stop it.  Nature - I salute you.

First week of term means week of mentalness for me.  We book 'em in, we test 'em and then we register them with nary a hiccup on the way.  Which if believed by your fine selves does somewhat lead me to the conclusion that I could tell you any fib I wanted and be similarly believed.  ;-)
It does mean I've failed to get a post on for which I apologise but here are a few things I have managed to do.
Admired the misty mornings before enjoying the late sunshine - this was my journey to work on wednesday.

Made the Chap a full mixed grill - truly heroic meat cooking by the faint hearted I reckon!  He had local west country fillet steak, boneless lamb shoulder 'lump' (steak / chop / er...?), honey roast pork chipolatas and a duck leg.  All the trimmings bar onion and he said don't worry about that - there was no more room on the plate!

I have also enjoyed my beautiful flowers the Chap got me last week opening up and the scent of lilies that greets me each day on my return home.  Ahhh...  Happy Friday all!

And the years roll on...

Super quick post today.  It's my birthday!  Also it's the best one I've had in years and it's not over yet!  Lovely Chap gave me a birthday kiss this morning before quietly sneaking off to work leaving me in bed.  Well... until he realised he'd somehow contrived to lose his van keys in the 100 yards between the van and the front door last night.  After a somewhat less calm half an hour of tearing the place apart whilst I blearily looked on he found them inbetween the t-shirts he'd been choosing from this morning.  Doh!

I had to work as this is our really busy time of the year [as opposed to the rest of the year when it's just somewhat busy] but had secured my bosses ok to take an extended lunch as 2 forum friends from CSH were in Exeter visitng from the USA and Ashburton.  We popped in Tea on the Green for gluten free pasties for them and seafood crepes for me - really good but a large was too much!  We then had a little look at the cathedral - I've finally been in it now after10 years living here!  Then we walked on looking at a little church perched incongrously inside an outside bit of a shopping centre [yep - that really is the best way I can explain it] before I sadly had to leave them in the Cook Shop.  Hopefully they managed not to buy the entire stock!  :-D

I returned to work to find these beautiful flowers on my desk along with some chocolates from the Chap - what a star eh?  I've never had flowers delivered to me at work before and being a hopeless romantic was rather happy - a colleague mentioned my 'cheshire cat' grin.
Now I'm off to posh up as we're going to a mystery destination for dinner.  Apparently it's posh, I haven't been there before and we're catching the train.  Watch this space!

Chiefs stormin on

It’s been a good start to the season for the Chiefs.  First proper game (after trouncing Connact 47-10 then local boys Cornish Pirates 58-3 followed by the somewhat closer 16-13 result against the Scarlets in the pre-season friendlies) was away to Leicester Tigers.  Tigers [Hwak ptooie] have been omnipresent at or near the top of the table for some time now and much as I’m not a fan, they are a force to be reckoned with.  However – whether it be due to having several (ok - 11) players out for the world cup, bad defending from them or damn good play from us [guess which I'm favouring] our opening game of the season saw us scrape a 30-28 win over the Tigers on their home turf.  Woop!  Only the second time they're been beaten at home in the last 3 years.  Not bad for a club starting their second season of the premiership that this time last year had been written off by all the bookies and the 'big boys'.  I wasn't there to see it being busy entertaining BBQ style at the time but was mighty happy when the Chap looked the result up for me.

After securing my season ticket for this year; with the grace of Great Aunt Joan, I was looking forward to the first home game against Newcastle last Saturday.  England had recorded a lacklustre win that morning against Argentina in their opening game of the world cup so we were up for something a little more exciting.  First try for us went over in the first minute - that exciting enough?!  We won against a valiant Newcastle side 32-15 to give us our first ever 5 point win and make us top of the premiership table for the first time ever in the clubs history.  So - all to play for against Bath tomorrow and yes - it's on the telly at 5.30pm Sky Sports 3 should you wish to join  me in cheering on the Chiefs.

A different cheese and tomato sandwich

Take a cheese topped bap – mine was from S’burys and you can taste the cheese on them.  J  Better yet – make your own – I might try this with beer bread – we have tasteless lager left over from the BBQ last week and I picked up a set of those dinky loaf tins in TK Maxx the other day – shh – don’t tell the Chap!  He’s firmly of the opinion I have enough kitchen stuff cluttering up the place already.  He may even be right – stranger things have been known… :-D  Anyway – I am now in possession of some terribly cute wee tins so I’d best get on and use them so I can feel justified in buying them.

Once you have your cheese topped bap [at great length it seems] slice open and spread with mayo.  Fill generously with slices of fresh tomatoes and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  [I was at work so sadly was forced to forgo the pepper but it tastes just fine without it.]  Munch away endeavouring all the while not to throw tomato seeds all over your top.  This worked surprisingly well; such that I thought it worth sharing.  Having initially thought that just a tomato sandwich would be a little dull the fact that the roll was cheese topped really elevated it to something I’d chose to make another time – rather than a mid morning snackette at work made because a colleague had generously brought a box of home grown surplus toms in.  Enjoy!

Sunny September

It may be sunny but there's a definite chill in the air - autumn comes on apace.  I have to admit to putting the fire on briefly last night in the lounge as we were a little chilly once the heavens opened.

We had a fun weekend with our BBQ; and it didn't rain until 2am so I think we got away with it!  I think we managed to sate all that came and the Chap did a sterling job of the cooking.  To add to my pleasure the Chiefs won their first game of the new season away to Leicester - get on!!  Read about the game here and gloat with me if you will.  :-)