Food

There is a free little magazine that gets delivered to us about once a month or so and which is more or less a collection of adverts for local shops and small businesses.  I don't look at it all that closely, but both of us tend to flick through it to see if there's anything interesting happening.

Last month there was a voucher for the Marsh Green Farm Shop.  Spend over £50 at the meat counter in Marsh Green and get £10 off.  The voucher was valid in September so on Saturday morning we armed ourselves with it and headed off.  In order to get to Marsh Green we drive past the Nettle.  Alas, it was only 11:00 and much too early to call in for lunch.

We came back via the Nettle as well.  It was still too early to call in for lunch. But we waved at Sanford as we drove past.

We went home and The Builder collected nearly 30 kg of Bramley apples from the tree and I sorted out our haul of meat from the butcher's counter at Marsh Green.  Then we hopped back in the car.  The lure of the Nettle was too much for us.  Off we went for lunch :-)

Ordinarily, when we go to the Nettle for lunch I have a burger.  Occasionally I vary this and have their pie of the day.  On this occasion, however, I decide to throw caution to the wind and have their seafood assiette.  With chips.  And this is what I got:

Fish and chips, Nettle style

It was the nicest fish platter I've had in a very long while. I'm very glad that (i) we decided to head to the Nettle for lunch even if it did mean getting back in the car and (ii) I decided to be adventurous with my menu choice!

I have been catching up with the Great British Bake Off. In the most recent program they had the contestants making Paul Hollywood's fruit couronne.  I have seen Paul Hollywood demonstrating a savoury couronne at the BBC Good Food Show. I have even made the savoury couronne.  A couronne is usually made with a brioche style dough and I found it a bit too rich for a savoury dish. But I had some cheese that needed using up and some tomatoes that were beginning to look a bit tired.  I had bacon from Saturday's adventures in Marsh Green.  So I made this:

But with bread dough rather than brioche dough. And very nice it was too.  We had slow roasted pork for our Sunday roast with potatoes and pumpkin and carrots and sweet corn and zucchini all from the garden or allotment.  I had roasted some apples as well - but we didn't seem to have the room to eat them. Never mind.  They'll do nicely for today!

It was a very quiet weekend, really. We sat outside in the nice sunshine on the patio and watched the ducks and chickens ambling about. We sat inside and caught up on last week's televisual treats.  We pottered about.  I did not get the house ready for the overseas visitors we are expecting over the next little while. It was all good