Run (not so) fat boy, run!

This weekend all of Joe's running training came to a head as we headed north to Edinburgh for the marathon weekend.  As well as Joe, my brother Michael and his friend Alan are also gluttons for punishment and had also signed up for the marathon, and it was a bit of a Barcroft fiesta as my cousin Rosie and her boyfriend Karl were up to do the half marathon too!  We were also joined by Uncle John and the lovely Jean who were up to see Rosie cross the finish line.  Unfortunately Joe's mum was not able to join us for the weekend but was there in spirit and Joe has already signed up for the Liverpool marathon so she can join me on the next finish line. 

Joe and I went up on Friday after work, making a quick stop off at the pub in Leeds train station (quite the treat!) where I very generously bought Joe a drink, and then promptly knocked it over and spilled it all over him...woops.  Well it's best to get your mishaps out of the way early.

Me, post beer spillage.  Oops!

Joe, pre-beer spillage.  Look how happy he was!

Friday night dinner - my mum's brilliant fish pie

Clearly the focus on Saturday was getting the runners prepped for the big race.  Rather unusually Edinburgh was super warm this weekend (just typical on the weekend when everyone had to run long distances!) so we were able to have a bit of a picnic party in the garden.  We even treated the family to a sneak preview of the wedding pork pies - which received a resounding thumbs up!  It seems you can spend forever researching the best food to eat before a marathon, and I'm sure there is some science behind it, but we just went for the general carb-load.  Lots of pizza, pasta and bread, along with some more fun treats for the lazy ones in the party!

The only thing I am certain of is Eurovision makes for perfect pre-marathon viewing - very distracting car crash tv!  Poor Engelbert but he was outdone by some European calamities.  I love Eurovision.

Saturday's pre-marathon fiesta.  Count the carbs!

The Haley & Clifford pork pie

Dad and I enjoying the sunshine

Rosie and Karl looking a touch nervous before the half marathon

On Sunday we were up bright an early.  The half marathon kicked off at 8.00am, with the marathon starting at 9.50!  The runners all started in Edinburgh city centre and then made the long stomp out to Musselburgh, with the marathon runners continuing on to Longniddry and back.  26.2 miles sounds damn long to me!  Mum, dad and I were all well positioned at the finish line to see the runners come in - the first ones making it in at just over two hours!  Incredible!  For spectators, the sunny day was fantastic, but I'm sure the runners would have appreciated a little cloud cover after a while.  It was a fantastic day, cheering on the athletes as they made it down the home stretch, encouraging the ones who looked in difficulty and applauding the showmen.  Joe made it across the finish line in 4 hours and 3 minutes, a fantastic time made even more impressive with all the heat. My brother and Alan made it in at around 5 hours and 20 minutes, which was just brilliant as well and I'm incredibly proud of them all. 

Joe's pre-marathon breakfast - bagel with peanut butter and jam, beetroot juice and an isotonic drink.  Breakfast of champions!

Joe before the race, looking very fetching in his pink Breast Cancer Care vest

Michael and Alan just before the race

Mum and dad at the charity enclosure waiting for the runners to come in

Joe, 25 metres before the finish, looking good

After the race, champion!!

After the marathon we retired to mum and dad's so Joe could kick back for the first time all weekend.  Some well deserved beers and fizz in the sunshine and a chicken and chorizo stew were just what the doctor ordered. I think Joe was fairly dazed for the remainder of the day, and now appears to be sporting some very interesting tan lines! 

John and Jean

Joe and I, toasting his success

Joe and my dad, definitely sun-kissed!

Post marathon dinner - chicken and chorizo stew with rice and garlic bread.  Well, you can eat what you want after a marathon!

Post marathon treat wine

We were back on the train on Monday, leaving behind a beautifully hot Edinburgh (but not without a quick pause in Princes Street Gardens for a sunbathe and some photos!)

It was a fantastic weekend with some great achievements.  I am in awe of anyone who can run a marathon, but more so my wonderful and family and friends who made it across the finish line.  This time last year Joe was a part time runner at best and is a great example of what can be done with a bit of determination (or bloody mindedness!).  Congratulations Joe, Michael, Alan, Rosie and Karl - very well deserved.

Me reclining in the gardens before jumping back on the train to Leeds

A beautiful sunny day in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens

And our dinner, and Joe's first spice in a week - barbeque'd prawns with a sweet and spicy noodle salad

A weekend in Edinburgh

This weekend we were in Edinburgh, combining some important wedding planning (the food!) with baby Tom's first birthday.  It was a fantastic weekend and Joe and I stuffed ourselves silly with home cooked delights and some wedding food, which will not be previewed here - that's just taking it too far! We also got to catch up with friends and family, including Werner and Zita who dragged themselves from lovely sunny Germany where it was 25 degrees, to Edinburgh where it was about 10 and rained most of the time!  That's dedication to your loved ones...!

Joe and I arrived on Thursday night after a rather treacherous drive up the A1 - torrential rain all over Yorkshire, the A66 closed by flooding, and heavy cloud all over - not so fun!  That said, its rare we ever have a straight forward drive to Edinburgh so it should not have been a surprise.  It was all made better by a warm welcome of spicy pork stew with mash and cabbage and a nice glass of white wine - what could be better.

Mum's pork stew with mash and cabbage

Friday was quite the glutonous day, starting with two food and drink tastings and a wander around Edinburgh.  Zita and Werner arrived on Friday afternoon and joined us for dinner - and with mum in the kitchen again we were quite spoiled!  Dinner was roasted seabass on ratatouille with new potatoes and garlic bread, which was all fantastic and topped off with a lemon tart and a Mississippi mud cake.  As I said, totally stuffed stupid.

Roast seabass with ratatouille, potatoes and garlic bread

lemon tart and Mississippi mud cake - well, how could you choose between them?

On Saturday Michael and Kerstin threw a first birthday party for Tom.  It's hard to believe its been a year since he was born - and its a world away from the tricky times they had at the start.  No more feeding by syringe - he is a healthy little thing who is now rapid on his feet!  He would definitely outrun Michael in the marathon!

Kerstin and Michael cooked up a storm for all their guests - home made pizzas, quiches, breads, cakes and all sorts.  I chipped in on a minimal level with some Thai prawns, tandoori chicken bites and cheese and pancetta straws.  It was a great afternoon, the sun was shining, the drinks were flowing and Joe even now has a tan!  It was lovely to catch up with lots of the family and we had a great time - thanks very much Michael, Kerstin and Tom!

The table, groaning under home made pizzas, breads, quiches, cakes and salads.  All so very good.

Very proud grandparents - Zita and Mum

Home made pizza with courgettes, mushrooms and chorizo

A Weekend Round-up - Edinburgh

I was in Edinburgh this weekend, while I left Joe to party the night away in Leeds.  For ease (and laziness), this is a round up of the weekend, minus the review of lunch at Joseph Pearce which has its own post.

On Friday night we opted for an Indian takeaway from the St John's Curry Club in Corstorphine which was a pleasant surprise.  I'm never convinced Indian food will match up to what is on offer in this area - Yorkshire is blessed with a huge number of very good Indian restaurants so we rarely have a bad experience.  But this one was very good - when the menu said spicy, it meant spicy, as my poor mother found out to her shock (I think she mistook a chilli for a green bean and had a bit of a surprise!).  I also treated the family to some home made bhajis so overall it was a good (drunken) meal.  I would particularly recommend the prawn jhalfrezi and the lamb sag gosht which had a really good sauce. 

My onion bhajis - getting better with every try!

Vegetable samosas

curry...including chicken pathia, prawn jhalfrezi and bombay began and mushroom jhalfrezi (which was also pretty special and included that sneaky green chilli!)

On Saturday night Michael and Kerstin made dinner, with Michael showing off his Italian cooking skills with a lovely seafood and mushroom risotto.  I am particularly jealous of anyone who can make a good risotto as mine is a little hit and miss, and Michael's was pretty special.  I was told the secret is a lot of white wine and possibly a risotto spoon (although they may have been winding me up about that!)  We were also treated to some lovely home made bread and salad.  Yum.  Many thanks!

Salad

Michael's Seafood and Mushroom Risotto

And my plate - a total treat for dinner

Friday - Lunch at Joseph Pearce 5/10

When Joe and I first started doing the blog, it was off the back of a string of terrible restaurant experiences.  Believe it or not, virtually every time we went out for dinner we had some sort of disaster - bad food, rude service, drunken people pretending to work for Michelin starred establishments......

However, since we started writing up our food escapades there have been minimal issues.  Of course there's always going to be the occasional dish we don't like, a hiccup here, a snappy waitress there, but overall we've had a pretty good run of things.

This wasn't going to last though, was it.  I'll preface this with saying lunch at Joseph Pearce wasn't terrible at all: the food was perfectly nice.  But they really p*ssed me off and I can't not be honest about it.

I spent the weekend in Edinburgh doing lots of wedding things, such as dress buying (great success!) and choosing a photographer.  After finally finding a dress that I loved, my mother, brother Michael, sister in law Kerstin and baby Tom met for lunch at Joseph Pearce on Elm Row.

We had picked it as we wanted to try somewhere new, and by all accounts it was a child-friendly, laid back cafe/bar which seemed to get pretty good write-ups.  It was also very convenient, as we had an appointment on Abercromby Place at 2.00pm.  We arrived at about one o'clock, Friday lunch time, and were given our choice of tables.  There was an area decked out for children, but we sat in the main dining area as that was already fairly busy.  Joseph Pearce does have some lovely touches.  The menus are contained in old childrens' books - I think mine was bound in a Winnie The Pooh story, which was really cute.  There's lots of space, so even in the main dining area there was space for a pram and a high chair.

My mum and I ordered some wine (to celebrate the new dress, obvs), and Michael and Kerstin joined us a few minutes later.  We were all planning on having lunch, and had about an hour, which is usually plenty of time during a week day lunch hour.  But therein lay the challenge for Joseph Pearce.   Everything was slow.  They were fine taking orders, although our waiter did seem to be a little unsure of what they had on offer (Kerstin asked for a sparkling elderflower drink - it took 10 minutes to tell her they had a bottle of elderflower wine, or could do cordial with sparkling water).  But it was the half an hour it took them to bring food which really did me in.  We didn't order anything complicated - the menu has lovely but simple options, and it wasn't busy - so it simply baffles me how it could take so long to do the food, especially as I asked after 20 minutes how long it would be and was told, "a couple of minutes".

Perhaps I misjudged it as a place to go.  I'm sure it would be perfectly fine for a very lazy Sunday brunch with the papers.  And the food was nice - mum and I had a BLT which came on rye bread with white truffle mayonnaise, while Michael had the brunch dish (brioche with tomatoes, mushrooms and eggs) and Tom had cheese on toast.  The BLT was pretty tasty, although slightly overloaded with mayonnaise, while the brunch looked good.  But to coin a terrible cliche, the service was so slow it could have been horizontal, and for that they remain unforgiven.

BLT on rye

Joseph Pearce brunch

Wednesday Coffee and Lunch at Iris - Jo Girl (coffee bit by Joe)

We generally don't plan too much when we come up to Edinburgh - it's nice to relax and play things by ear occasionally, but Wednesday was different!  Mum and I were up bright and early to go wedding dress shopping, whilst Joe was dispatched to the sales.  Of course, being Edinburgh, no sooner had we got out of the car than the heavens opened and the hurricane winds started up - my poor umbrella was powerless against it and I was quickly sporting the "drowned rat" look.

Joe was slightly more sensible and ditched the sale shopping fairly quickly, instead preferring to check out some of the recommended coffee places..........

On recommendation from Alex the great Leeds coffee house La Bottega Milanese,  I took refuge from the torrential rain at The Wellington which is in a great location on George Street. It's an independent coffee house that makes up for its lack of size with top quality of the coffee and friendly/ prompt service. While perusing the paper I had a seriously good flat white followed by an espresso which packed a full bodied punch. When there was a gap in the down pour, I ran across to my next destination which again was on recommendation - thanks Richard from Stag Espresso (another very good coffee house in Edinburgh). The Thistle Street Bar is a traditional bar that serves good beer, plays good music (Stevie Wonder when I popped in) and has a roaring fire - again, highly recommended as a pub in the center of town that stands out from the crowd - thumbs up.

My flat white

Post dress shopping/coffee tasting, Joe, my mum and I headed to Iris on Thistle Street to have some lunch with my god mother and mum's close friend, Cary.

The drowned rat look - mum and I

Iris is a small, modern restaurant on the stretch of Thistle Street between Frederick Street and Hanover Street.  Immediately on arrival, dripping wet with very damp feet, we were ushered in, encouraged to leave our umbrellas by the door, hang our coats up and dry out.  For what is a very modern space, it is cosy and welcoming.

They have a lunch deal at the moment, with two courses for around £15, which included starters such as moules in white wine, calamari, duck spring rolls, and main courses of beef and haggis olives, smoked haddock fish cake, chicken with a leek and cray fish sauce, or an aubergine stack.

All four of us opted for the moules to start which were lovely and plump, with quite a garlicky sauce.  They didn't appear to come with any bread for dipping (a must in my book!) but our waitress was quick off the mark when we requested more.

Moules

 Mum and I then went for the beef and haggis olives, while Joe and Cary had the smoked haddock fishcake.  The fishcake was, to quote Joe, "big and fishy and not quite as dainty as expected".  It came with a poached oeuf and a parmesan sauce.  Joe went for fish because he thought it would be less substantial than a meat course, but was deceived!  The beef olives were also deceptively filling, stuffed full of haggis and served with a very peppery sauce! They were very good, but I could have easily shared my main course.  We also had a couple of salads and potatoes on the side, both of which were excellent.  After all of this, none of us wanted any dessert (very unusual for Joe!). 

The fishcake - good poached egg, not for those looking for a light lunch!

Beef olives - man sized!

Mum and Cary

 All in, a good lunch at Iris - definitely a place to go if you're starving - not so much if you're after a light lunch.  A very welcoming, relaxing atmosphere, where I was happy to while away a prosecco fueled three hour lunch.  My only criticism - no need for all the parsley decorations!

Tuesday 27th December - Edinburgh!!!

On Tuesday we escaped the Wirral madness to what we hoped would be a slightly calmer Edinburgh.  Having decided to take the train rather than drive after our eventful holiday driving last year, we made the short journey back to Leeds and then hopped on the train.  Unfortunately (but rather entertainingly so) the train was also full of very early revellers heading to Glasgow for the hogmanay celebrations - fair play, only 5 days to go until new year!  I don't think I've ever seen vodka being swigged from a bottle, followed by a swig of coke - it looked fairly rancid.  We managed to have a very quick catch up with my Uncle John and Cousin Rosie, who collected us at the station, and spent the afternoon playing with Baby Tom and drinking all of mum's wine! 

It's lovely to be back in the 'Burgh for a few days between Christmas and new year, catching up with family and spending some time sightseeing.  We're also making the most of scoffing some of my mum's food, and were treated to some very tasty monkfish with roasted vegetables and chorizo - looks like my mum and I have similar cooking tastes! She also stuffed us further with a very nice apple and dried fruits crumble - thanks mum!

monkfish tails with vegetables and chorizo

Monkfish and potatoes - yum

Apple crumble

crumble with cream - dessert of champions

Saturday - Coffee, Candles & Great Lunch

We were both up at out before 10am, with Jo and Sheila Mum browsing for wedding dresses and me exploring Edinburgh for a few hours before joining everyone for lunch at L'Escargot Bleu.

My first stop (as recommend by La Bottega Milanese) was Stag Espresso which is a cool little coffee place run by Richard in the old part of the city where I grabbed a flat white. As the papers hadn't arrived yet, he lent me his Ipad to browse the Guardian - very generous!

Stag Espresso - definitely worth a visit

On leaving Stag, I headed through the Grass Market to the Edinburgh Farmers Market which takes place every Saturday morning. En-route I passed the Last Drop Pub which is immediately next to the scene of public hangings which took place there back in the 18th century! - Edinburgh is jam packed with these little pieces of history. 

A grizzly history

Next up was the farmers market. As I wasn't in buying mode I didn't stay too long but I would recommend a trip. Its a good size with an excellent variety of local produce.

No where near as good as mine!

A few years ago now, Jo and I were in Paris visiting my family there. We went sightseeing with Sister Sally that took us up to Sacre Coeur which is beautiful; there she lit a candle for our Dad who passed away in 2006. Although Sally isn't religious (or me for that matter) she explained that she lit a candle for him whenever the opportunity arose 'just in case'.....Jo and I have been lighting candles ever since, with mine for Dad and Jo for her Grandad. On Saturday I stumbled across St Cuthbert's Church at the foot of the castle - the candle second from the right is Dads.

The candle - second from right

After some more strolling, lunch was soon upon us. I'll leave Jo to do the review but I will say we had a great time. Food pictures to follow but here are some of my snaps of the diners using Instagram on my Iphone;  

Tom

 Auntie Jo

Tom and Dad Michael

Grandpa Dave

Granny Sheila

Mum Kirstin

Uncle Joe

At lunch we had the full 3 courses and were stuffed! Jo and I can be a little lame sometimes and decided on staying in rather than going on the ghost tour.....rubbish by we were sleepy!!

I spent the early evening doing my Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, which was a success I think!

Jack Skellington

We then headed to Mike and Kirstins for drinks, nibbles and the Sainsbury's party range!

A selection of treats