Sunday to Thursday - a round up of treats

Apologies for the slight sabbatical from the blog this week - we've been engaged with other things so this is a round up of Sunday to Thursday this week!  We're still trying to be relatively healthy, although I was making the most of finally being able to eat a full meal so you'll have to excuse Monday's fish and chips, but here it is...

On Sunday we had Joe's stir fried udon noodles with teriyaki salmon, and very nice it was too!  I love it when Joe cooks, and bless it seems to have fallen to him a bit more this week.

Teriyaki salmon and udon noodles

Monday was the naughty fish and chips.  Joe and I didn't really celebrate the bank holiday this year - whilst I had some work to do, Joe went home for the day to spend some time with the family.  By the time he came home the last thing we were in the mood for was cooking (how very unlike us!) so it was straight to the freezer for fish and chips.  At some point I'll cave and let him go the chippy for some real fish and chips, as the freezer version is always a bit disappointing, but that'll only be after A LOT of running and a very healthy week!

Fish, chips and peas

On Tuesday I was back in the kitchen, knocking up stir fried noodles with spicy black bean prawns with yellow pepper and spring onions.  It was pretty healthy and went down very well, especially with a nice glass of chenin blanc...woops.  I think the booze ban may be delayed until May after all!

Spicy black bean prawns

On Wednesday Joe was back in the kitchen.  Bless, he had run home after a long day at work so was already pretty tired, and then received a call from me saying I was going to be working late so dinner was up to him!  He did surprise me though, making a pasta bake with broccoli and cauliflower, which was very tasty.

Pasta baked with broccoli and cauliflower

And finally on Thursday we headed to the Adelphi for @homage2fromage's latest cheese night - challenging cheese!  I've been telling Nick for a while that I thought they should do some really filthy cheese.  My favourite cheeses tend towards the face-melting, walking off the plate variety, which is often difficult to locate in the UK.

Well Nick and Vickie certainly came up with some pretty challenging cheeses - there were 8 to try and I liked all but 2 of them.  My least favourites were the Stinking Bishop and the Oxford Isis, which had something of an air of cabbage/fish about it...gross!  The best one by far was the Epoisses, which is washed in brandy and is banned on public transport in France for being so whiffy and the Reblechon was also very nice (I can see a trend with the French cheeses here).  There were some superb varieties on offer and it was a great evening all round.

Just some of the rind washed cheeses

Friday dim sum

I love Fridays.  The end of the week, no work for two days, and an evening to have a bit of a blow out and celebration.

This Friday, my celebration was the visit of the lovely Zanna, long time friend and bridesmaid to be, who was coming up for a general visit and do some wedding planning.   We needed a good catch up and the perfect location was some pre-dinner drinks at the Roundhay Fox.  We supped some white wine and then when the time was right, dispatched Joe to go home and rustle up some M&S dim sum and prawns with broccoli and cashew nuts.  What a star.

It was rather lovely to arrive back at the house to find dim sum steaming, broccoli stir frying, more wine in the cooler and candles lit.  Dinner was also exactly what we needed, even if Joe did try to melt my face with some very spicy chilli!

M&S dim sum - a not too shabby alternative to making your own (and much less hassle)

Prawns with broccoli and cashews (and super spicy chilli!)

Thursday Chilli Prawns

So Joe is out on the town AGAIN!  This time playing (and hopefully winning) pool with the boys he works with.  Don't feel too sorry for me though, my social life hiatus is totally my own doing.  I am going on what should be my last bridal dress shopping excursion next week so I am off the booze and eating steamed vegetables.  No pain, no gain, hey?!

So tonight my dinner comprises of stir fried prawns with chilli, pineapple, steamed broccoli and pak choi with steamed white rice.  It's actually not so bad for a healthy dinner, although I definitely now want to eat all the chocolate in the house....

Chilli prawns with pak choi, broccoli and rice

Monday Stir Fry

So Joe and I have been a little distracted this week...can't blame anyone else and it's not even for an interesting reason, it just means we're a little behind on out blog posts.

No fear though, just because the post isn't up doesn't mean we didn't do food!  Monday was a race against time - home late and wanting to have a relaxing evening after the hectic weekend - I promised Joe dinner within 10 minutes!  And I almost made it - hot prawns with pak choi and stir fried noodles - in 12 minutes!  Grrr!  Next time I'll chop faster and prove its able to do a from-scratch meal in sub 10 minutes.  Challenge on.

Hot prawns with pak choi

Stir fried noodles

Noodles, prawns and prawn crackers.  The race is on.

Wednesday Baked Potatoes

I'm weirdly proud of my baked potatoes.  I rarely get them wrong and a good baked potato is a fine thing.  Well skewered, salt rubbed into the skin and put into a high oven for an hour.  Take it out, hit it on top with a karate-esque chop so the filling bursts out and et voila - the perfect fluffy baked potato!

This week we had it with prawns and salad in a spicy marie rose sauce - a classic for a reason!

As it was Joe's dad's birthday, we also raised glass of whisky - a fitting drink for Burn's night (which we will be celebrating at the weekend).

Baked potato with spicy prawns

Joe's favourite whisky - Dalmore

Friday - another weekend already?

We've had a good, but busy week this week, so we rounded it off by an evening at home with comfort food, wine and movies. 

Since Joe is running so much at the weekends, he informed me that he needs to fill up on pasta.  I'm not usually a huge fan, but luckily back in December we were given some nice pastas by @gustoitalianouk in our hamper of goodies. 

I made a slight fusion dish of pasta with chorizo, grilled peppers, broccoli and prawns in a tomato sauce.  It was seasoned with smoked paprika and everything came together really well - livened up with a squeeze of lemon, it was light and tasty - no stodge in sight.

Pasta with chorizo, grilled peppers, broccoli and prawns

Pasta, topped off with some fresh parmesan. 

Thursday - Fat club and baked potatoes

Joe has stepped up his marathon training since the start of the year, and has decided the key to doing a good time is working on his "core strength".  So on Thursday this week he dragged me along to a circuits class.  I'm not sure I've ever done one before, and I'm hoping the memory of the horror of this one will have eased by the time it comes around next week again!  Shuttle runs, sit ups, press ups, weights, step ups........I was definitely using muscles I didn't know I had! 

On the plus side, we returned home to baked potatoes in the oven, which by that time were perfectly cooked!  I do think I make a pretty awesome baked potato - crispy skin and fluffy inside.  Joe had his with the classic butter and cheese, while I went for prawns and salad.  Really yummy!

Baked potato with butter and cheese

Baked potato with prawns and salad

Friday - Last night in Edinburgh

Our final evening at Chez Barcroft was with the Gebbies and lots of fun they are too! Dinner was appropriate for the occasion, with an array of party food and home made treats that allowed for maximum time to catch up with everyone prior to our departure the next day......They was was too much food to have all the photos on the blog, but take my word for it that it was quite the feast!

Prawns with chilli sauce

Mini pork pies - especially for Joe!

Mini Baked Potatoes

Chicken skewers

A trio of fish

Dessert - mini millionnaire shortbread and popping candy rice crispy cakes!

Monday....and another speaking event! (by Jo Girl)

A few weeks ago Paul Thomas of the Leeds Salon and Culture Vulture contacted me to see if I would like to take part in one of the debates he was putting on about food.  The Leeds Salon is a discussion group which debates a huge variety of cultural, social and scientific issues.  Each session focuses on a different topic, and last night's was foodie based (hence my participation!).  Looking specifically at Rob Lyons' recent book, "Panic on a Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder", we were considering attitudes to food and how it impacts on society in general.  In a very, very small nutshell, Rob's book argues that the West has a bountiful supply of food, much better than was ever available historically, and yet somehow has developed an obsession with what we eat: how much, where from, what kind and so on...

The other panelists were Ursula Philpott, senior lecturer at Leeds Met and expert on nutrition and diet, and Nick Copland, of many things, including Shelf Life, The Source in Kirkgate Market and Homage 2 Fromage.  It was a really fun evening, and clearly a subject everyone feels quite passionate about.  Some of the key themes were that there is a certain distrust of the messages in the news about how bad everything is for you, and that attitudes to food have changed over the years.  I stand by my views that people simply don't exercise as much these days but eat the same, or more, and that the easiest way to get people to appreciate their food is to engage in it, understand where it comes from, and experience pleasure from cooking and eating the end result!

Anyway, rant over, and back to the important thing - our dinner!  We got home at some point after nine last night so it was a quicky - prawn, ginger and spring onion dumplings in hot and sour soup.  Hot and sour soup is most definitely the best thing to eat when it's cold and you've been caught in a downpour - it warms you all the way through with heat and chilli.  Add to that some tasty prawn dumplings, noodles and veg, and you're on to a winner. 

Before the big debate started: (from left) myself, Nick, Ursula, Paul and Rob

Precooked dumplings

And the soup

Saturday - Local Delights and Pasta Power!

Yesterday was a fun day.....after a slightly too lengthy laze in bed we headed out for a whistle stop walking tour through Chapel Allerton and back to Roundhay via Moortown Corner. First stop was Crust and Crumb Bakery where we had a really good lunch.....

Flat white

We both had the chicken & chorizo - 10/10. Coleslaw was a little watery for us

All the bread is made on site - Wow!

It was then to have a quick nose around the Hummingbird Kitchen & Bar and the New Year menus looks seriously awesome. I am unsure if our Wirral to Edinburgh festive period logistics will allow us the time to go but it is highly recommended by us! Next was what was hopefully the last of our Christmas shopping in the lovely shops in Chapel Allerton (it wasn't!) followed by a dart into the retro fayre at St Gemmas Hospice. It was surprisingly brilliant! We bought 2 more Christmas gifts plus a really cook 1970's Thermos Wine Cooler - see below.

Next on the hit list was Haley & Clifford who really helped us out with the final piece of festive jigsaw....thanks alot!!

Across the road from Haley & Clifford is The Deer Park where we spend a decent amount of time at the weekend. We had a quick refreshment stop (me a Black Sheep and Jo a large glass of red) before heading back to the ranch for gift wrapping and dinner which was pasta with prawns as I had entered myself into a 10 mile run in Stockport on Sunday morning and needed the carbs - Idiot!!

Top drawer prawn and vegetables to go with the pasta below!

Tuesday Back to Reality (Jo Girl)

So unfortunately my celebrations of my debating triumph (promise that is the last mention!) were short lived - I was back in Manchester today which meant an early start!  I can definitely tell that Winter is coming fast - gutted - I was hoping the snow would hold off at least until after Christmas!  It was cold and damp in Manchester (although I was not battered by hailstones, unlike yesterday!).  We could also see snow falling on the moors from our court which is definitely a sign that the Indian Summer is over!

Anyways, late nights as always mean quick dinners and tonight was no exception!  A hastily put together prawn and cashew stir fry, with Japanese soba noodles and organic veg.  I love stir fries because they are so healthy and you can put in so many flavours: cashews and prawns are definitely a winner for me!  Heated with a little chilli and ginger, it was yummy!

The stir fry

And again - a close up!

Tuesday Night Feast (Jo Girl)

So anytime I decide it's time for the fall back option of stir fry, Joe always manages to convince me to have some treats with it.  Usually it's limited to prawn crackers (surprisingly low in calories!) but for some reason we were quite giddy on the way home and extended the treats to prawn crackers AND spring rolls.  OMG.

Quite clearly I didn't make either of these treats: spring rolls are beyond me at 8pm on a Tuesday and I wouldn't even know where to start with prawn crackers.  However, the stir fries were all mine - egg fried noodles and veg and super spicy prawns.  Poor Joe, every week I seem to make a dish absolutely overloaded with fish sauce and chillis and tonight was no exception - most of the chillis were left uneaten.  WEAK!  It did taste pretty good though.

Oh...and to round off, and a very small homage to the biscuits part of our title...Foxes crinkles for dessert!

Super spicy prawns

Egg fried noodles

Co-op's spring rolls (I am slightly ashamed by this!)

And the prawn crackers!

A Boring Monday Post - Stir-Fry (Joe)

Tonight I made stir-fry with chicken, and tempura prawns (Tesco's Finest) on the side - it was nice. Now its time for bed and we are both still in recovery from the weekend! - night night.

Monday - Hot, Sweet and Sour soup (by Jo Girl)

Joe and I seem to be making a habit of late nights at work these days, which is impacting on my cooking! Terrible!

So Monday this week was hot and sour soup, which is one of my favourite quickie meals - really good for you and pretty tasty!  I make mine with lots of ginger, chilli, tomatoes, turmeric and tamarind.  This one had some pineapple thrown in as well for a bit of a change, as well as prawns, chicken and some egg to thicken.  All good stuff.........

Because all of that sounds a bit too healthy, we also had some prawn crackers on the side!  We also made the most of having some World Foods dipping sauce on the side, which was very nice (website here).  We used it for a stir fry recently, but I much preferred it as a dipping sauce  - very tasty!

The soup

And some cheeky prawn crackers!  Always some naughtiness....

We also had a bit of the World Foods sauce on the side, which I much prefer as a dipping sauce

North Wales part 1 - Review; The White Eagle, Rhoscolyn

A couple of months ago Manc Mike mentioned that his family had a place in North Wales that they were interested in letting it out. Never one to pass up an opportunity, I offered our services to stay for a weekend and we agreed on a date in October. It is in Rhoscolyn, North Wales and sounded just up our street with peace and quiet, quality walking/ running, water features and a local pub serving good food - more on all of this later.

So after a lovely breakfast at The Spotty Blue Teapot in Hoylake we started the 2 hourr drive to Rhoscolyn with a plan to stop on the way in Conwy on recommendation from Mum.

My breakfast plate accompanied by a flat white

 It took about an hour to get to Conwy, and we were pleased we decided to stop. There isn't a huge amount to see, but what there is is lovely! The best thing was the Conwy Castle and walking all the way around the town on the castle walls.

Joe on the pier in the harbour

Jo on the wall, with a brilliant view

 As we strolled the cobbled streets I was delighted that we stumbled on a butchers with the accolade of the 2011 North Wales Champion in the Pork Pie Category. Unfortunately it was probably the worst pork pie I have had on the Pork Pie quest - it tasted just like one that you would buy in a supermarket and was the total opposite of what I want in a Pork Pie - bland and tasteless meat (although the pastry was quite good).

The award - no idea how they got it!

 We then continued our journey to Rhoscolyn and the below is what we found on arrival. There will be more pictures on the next post, but we were both really really impressed! The house is the very last one down a narrow dirt track and is surrounded by grass, cliffs, the beach and sea - awesome!

The house we stayed in in Rhoscolyn

After a couple of hours exploring, Frenchie Dog Eyes and Sam arrived, and it was great to see them both. We have been on weekends away with them a few times now, and we always have fun and there is never any drama!.....at 7.30pm I strapped on my head-torch and led the way as we all walked along the beach to the White Eagle pub which we had heard really good things about - over to Jo for the words here. 

One of my favourite things is finding a brilliant pub/restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  The White Eagle is in Rhoscolyn, which honestly looks like it has a maximum of 50 houses and is just down the road from Trearrdur Bay.  During the week, it opens at 6pm and serves food until 9pm, along with a range of ales and vino.

Joe and Frenchie Dog Eyes got stuck into the ale, trying brews from Llandudno, Conwy and Chester while Sam and I stuck to the rose (in a bag!)  The food on the menu is more restaurant than traditional pub, with a number of specials on offer. 

Ale from Chester

Rose in an ice bag

Drinks sorted, there were a lot of tasty sounding food on the menu.  Joe and Frenchie plumped for a warm cheese and chive scone with ham hock and leek and cheese sauce.  Although they said it was nice, the fact that it was an actual scone slightly threw them (I think they were expecting something along the lines of a potato scone perhaps...).  I had the prawn cocktail and Sam went for the coarse country pork liver pate.  Mine was lovely, and Sam's was a proper home made terrine.  A good start.

The ham hock scone - definitely a scone!!

Sam's coarse pork liver terrine, which came with gherkins which were amazing!

My prawn cocktail - a nostalgic moment

For mains, Joe and Frenchie decided to match again!  They went for a barnsley lamb chop with pearl barley risotto with chorizo (we were told it was called a barnsley chop because the meat is shaped like a B, but the more likely story is that it originates in Barnsley!).  This tasted absolutely amazing - really tender and rich, almost like a good steak, and the pearl barley risotto was a very nice surprise.  Sam opted for fish and chips, which was also really good, and I had the slow cooked belly pork with stir fried vegetables, which was also very good.  The belly pork was perfectly cooked, and went really well with a savoury soy based sauce.

The Barnsley chop

Fish & chips

Pork belly cooked in soy with stir fried vegetables.  My only slight critcism was that there was too much liquid, which was more like a broth than a sauce.  It was still good though.

Frenchie Doy Eyes enjoying his ale and lamb

Quaffing Joe

A good espresso - another sign of a good pub

And would you believe the boys even made room for dessert?  Eyes definitely bigger than their bellies, Joe went for chocolate bread and butter pudding with chocolate sauce, while Frenchie had raspberry ripple icecream in a brandy snap basket.  Admittedly, they were both really good desserts and between the four of us we did finish them both...chubby kids.

Chocolate bread and butter pudding

Raspberry ripple icecream in a brandy snap basket

The White Eagle pub - if you're ever in the area, seek it out!

And all the info you need...

Oh, and as they were not full enough after all the ale and food, Joe and Frenchie then returned to the house to finish Frenchie's Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which he has been savouring for a year now.  Boys will be boys...

Johnnie Walker's blue label, based on the original 1867 blend