Piggies

Just like my father I prefer my piggies from free range farms, where the pigs can root around and have a lovely time outside. I am never going to buy Danish bacon ever again. While Jamie isnt my favourite he does have a point in regards to pig farming. And now I really fancy a pork roast for Sunday roast. A nice bit of pork belly. Or get a pork shoulder - as Jamie suggests. Scored rubbed with salt, pepper and olive oil. Next guest turning up will definitely be served that.

Free range chickens and eggs I switched over to a while back. I get mine from Hoards farm - nice large free range eggs that makes great scrambled eggs. Mmm... with some fried garlic mushrooms for brunch on Sunday.

Barb is even better than me, she gets her organic veggies from the local greengrocer, meat from the butcher (even if she does sometime overdo the order) and cheese from the best cheese shop in Sussex. I cant be bothered going around that much, so most of my stuff comes from Sainsburys or Waitrose. And then I go round Barbs to help her finish off her nice cheeses.

Good things in life

Jerusalem artichokes. My favorite vegetable.

Makes January just that much nicer that you can make a nice soup, mix it in the mash, roast it or add to a salad. Mmmm...

Cooking

We bought some lamb shoulder today, on recommendation from the butcher. I am planning on roasting it veeeery slowly tomorrow, at 80 degrees for 6 hours. Am following a recipe by Heston Blumenthal so am hoping it will be good.

This morning I made a banana bread, Matt at work gave me some really old bananas the other day. Love banana bread.

We have unpacked all the souvenirs btw, we have a lot of rum bottles, not big bottles just lots of little ones. Am looking forward to try the Rum Punch recipe we got from the nice bar lady in Dominica. One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of week (plus a couple of her secret ingredients).

Should be ready just in time for parents visit in Feb.

Minivans and local beer

We have spent two weeks in the Caribbean going from island to island, they all have the minivan taxis and most of them have great local beers. My favorite island is Grenada but Dominica, St Kitts & Nevis and Tortola are close behind. Well to be honest I liked most of them, Guadaloupe and Martinique were disappointing and I dont think I will bother going back to St Lucia or Antigua.

By now am quite spoilt when it comes to good beaches and warm water and nice people and beautiful scenery and great food.

Snacks

In response to the Snack blog item from EL.

4 apples
2 snack sized bags of Kettle crisps (1 salt and vinegar, 1 lightly salted)
3 snack sized bags of nuts
2 Refeshers
2 Mars bars
1 Box of fruit jellies
1 bag of Bruschetta with black olives
1 pack of Maryland chocolate chip cookies

I am not going to make sandwiches to bring, am hoping we will get some food on board.

House envy

I have a serious case of house envy.

House 1: Michelle and Chris's detached 4 bed with just larger than life proportions. The hallway downstairs is as big as our living / dining room and the upstairs as big as our bedroom. And its all oak panelled. Kitchen massive. And garden all mysterious with grown trees and a gate at the end leading to shrubland where noone ever goes.

House 2: Louise and Guy's terraced 3 bed (+1 loft play room) which is design magazine beautiful. All white walls, quirky shaped rooms (its in the turn of the road) and a beautiful stair case. And a utility room.

I am hoping I won the lottery last night so I can go and buy our dream house, or at least start looking for it.

Darts

New years day. A day to watch TV. We watched the ski jumping from Garmish Partenkirschen earlir. And now the darts from Alexandra Palace. Go Stompe.