A Weekend Round-up

Jo has just had a stern word with me about not doing any blog posts over the weekend - after all we pitch ourselves as daily food bloggers! With her away on a hen do in sunny Blackpool, my plan was to do a whistle stop tour of the weekend all in one go - that's my story and I am sticking to it!....so here goes....

FRIDAY:
With Jo working in Manchester for the day, we didn't get to hook up until after 7pm at the Deer Park in Roundhay. She has been working very hard recently, so it was nice to have a relaxing couple of drinks before heading to Marlows Fish and Chip Restaurant to use a Living Social Voucher that I had recently bought. Although I can highly recommend their fish and chips, in retrospect it probably wasn't the most exciting place for a young couple to spend a Friday night....you live and learn!

Great fish and chips

SATURDAY:
Jo had been planning to go for a half an hour run in the morning...she definitely wasn't too keen though when she woke up! After trying to push her out of bed to go (for her own good), I decided that the only way to get her out was for me to go with her....which is what I did. It was actually very nice to get out together before she headed off for her hen do in Blackpool at 10.30 - she didn't take any photos and doesn't want to do any words for the blog, so if you see her make sure you ask her about it! - arf!

With Jo out of my hair, I put into action what I had been planning since I found out that Jo would be away....doing a little work, speaking to Grandad, making picked onions and burger and chips along with drinking White Russians and an after dinner Espresso Martini!....PARTY ON! So I got the wheels in motion with a trip to Haley and Clifford to get some lovely bread for the burgers and also pick up a couple of tickets for a foodie event they are holding in a couple of weeks. It is a brilliant deli that I will definitely be buying some treats from before Christmas. Next was a quick pit stop at the Deer Park with the Times followed by a walk to Tescos for all the ingredients I would need for the next 24 hours. I got home at 5pm and next few hours up to Match of the Day were spent eating, drinking and watching really shit tv...when I decided this would be the best way to spend a Saturday night I don't know!

Cocktail ingredients

Pickled Onion ingredients

Home made burger and oven baked chips

SUNDAY:
Today started well. I woke up at 8am, watched the last episode of Top Boy and they went out for a 10 mile run that I did in a reasonably good time....go me! On my return I set about my next two tasks which were putting the ham in the slow cooker with the apple juice for dinner of ham, mash and parsley sauce, and also to finish off the picked onions - two jobs well done....

Whilst pottering in the kitchen the news came on Talk Sport about the death of Gary Speed after he allegedly hung himself in the night - what the f**k!? - he was Football Focus on Saturday morning joking around with Lauro and Shearer. He was a young man with a wife and two kids, who was manager of a really improving Wales football team, with a great career behind him and potentially in front of him - he must have been going through some horrendous personal stuff to commit suicide, but I guess you never know what is going on behind closed doors...RIP Gary Speed.

It was great to have a tired but not too hung over Jo back this afternoon. We have caught up, read the Sunday Times and relaxed - all the good stuff!!.......and dinner was a triumph - certainly compared to the stew disaster!!...now its almost Monday - again!!! 

Saturday Lunch at Dock Street Market - Review

Before moving to rural Roundhay, Joe and I lived in the Quays building in the centre of town, and the area around Lower Briggate, the Calls and Brewery Wharf were our local patch.  There are lots of good bars and places to eat in the area, but one of my favourite selling points was Simpsons, a local shop selling fun gourmet treats and booze.  Roll on two years, and Simpsons has gone, a victim of these hard times.  In its place is the Dock Street Market, a relaxed cafe/bar selling food and drink in a chilled out setting.

We ventured there for lunch on Saturday to give its food a whirl, spurred on by a sneaky Groupon voucher purchase a few months ago.

The Groupon deal was for a meat and treats platter, served with a couple of glasses of wine and some coffees.  The platter means you can try a couple of the sharing dishes on the menu, including the breads with oil and balsamic, cheese, meats and chutneys, and humous, babaganoush, slow roasted tomatoes and olives.  It was a good tasting plate, and I was a particular fan of the babaganoush and humous, both of which were rich with garlic and lemon.  The oil was a Yorkshire oil rather than olive, and a little tasteless, but that was a very small part of the overall meal.    The wines were nice, as were the double espressos so it was a good lunch all in.

Dock Street Market also sell a selection of sandwiches, salads and other deli treats, including a very delicious looking range of cakes.  They also have a bread counter for fresh sourdoughs and an interesting selection of draught beers.  I'll definitely head back for a few afternoon drinks at some point and to sample some more of the menu and would recommend others do the same.

The Dock Street Market menu

Our platter - breads, meats, cheese, chutneys, olives, tomatoes, humous and babaganoush.  Good stuff.

The slow roasted tomatoes, which had a deep, rich flavour

Babaganoush.  It turns out Joe is not a fan of aubergines, whereas I am...how will we ever get over this?!

Humous

The chutneys, including one which tasted just like mince pies

Me enjoying my wine and my papers - a perfect Saturday!

Joe really enjoying his wine - a good noseful there!

The double espresso - a much needed, very tasty,  caffeine kick

After this, we headed straight for Cornucopia, a food festival at the Corn Exchange, more of which on Sunday's post.....

And this is what is on offer at the Dock Street Market....