WIP

A hat. Made from scraps. Its going to have little kitty ears and tassles. It was an adaptation of a kid's hat pattern. It may turn out woman sized. It may not.

Eatin' and Drinkin'

On Christmas Eve we went to a Harvester restaraunt. There has been a 15 year gap between this visit and our last, which was in High Wycombe. In those days they were Worzel Gummidge themed, and had models of Aunt Sally and Worzel and they greeted you at the door with a "Have you ever BEEN to a Harvester restaraunt before?" before launching into an hour's worth of Harvester spiel.
Him indoors had "surf and turf" and was violently ill on the way home. I couldn't drive at the time and he suddenly let go of the steering wheel and shouted "steer!" and was horribly sick.
I didnt even think you got Harvesters any more but there is one at Ashton Moss near us so we went in by accident (we had gone for an A and W burger but noticed the Harvester instead.)
Aunt Sally has long gone but the spiel is the same ("Have you BEEN to a Harvester restaraunt before?") as is the free salad bar.
We shared a Deep South platter for 2. I do not like the word "platter". It reminds me of polyester dresses and men in rollneck sweaters for some reason. However it was very nice indeed ; plenty of and not too much of the mass-produced about it (although I am sure it was).

Wednesday saw us in The Crown in Lymm stuffing our faces for the annual Boxing Day family nosh. Except it was the day after Boxing Day and we were missing the ma in law as she wasn't well, so it wasn't quite the same. For the record I had GIANT Lasagne . They have a GIANT menu. It wasn't that giant to be honest but the garlic ciabatta was gorgeous.

Today was spend money on books and things day. I got a Phillip Pullman I didnt know existed - The Tin Princess. I loved The Ruby in the Smoke dramatisation that was on the other night and I ADORE His Dark Materials so I am looking forward to this one. Got a Nick Cave cd, The Corpse Bride on dvd, him indoors got a Ramones DVD he hasn't got - well he has got it on some ancient old video but thats not the same apparently.
Back to the food theme - lunch was in the Cafe Yagdhar in Manchester city centre. Its Turkish. Its grotty and run down. And the food is LOVELY. We had Aloo tikka and a shami kebab to start and shared a chicken tikka kebab on nan. I don't know what they do with their food in there but its gorgeous, and dirt cheap. The floor is all wonky and slippy, the decor is 80s tacky plastic flowers and the radio plays some imcomprehensible foreign news station but I would go as far as to say its our favourite place to eat in town. Go if you can.

I am knitting a hat tonight. With tassles. Watch this space for photographic evidence.

Christmas housewife

We didnt go out on Boxing day for the first time in our 17 years together, as the ma in law isnt well.
So I spent my Amazon gift voucher :-)

Here is me yesterday in the throws of cooking Christmas lunch! I am not really that shape - its the apron - the apron I tell you!

Happy Christmas Everyone !

Christmas non-traditions

I was reading something on a blog that I have now lost the link to but will try and find again and put on here. Basically, the lady was talking about "unusual" Christmas Days that didn't follow traditionally what your family normally does on Christmas Day, wether by design or accident or whatever.

When I was little, right up to leaving home in fact, we almost always went to my Nana and Grandad's house for Christmas Day and had a proper Christmas dinner, followed by telly etc. No presents were opened there - that was strictly first thing in the morning/get stuck into the presents under the tree/thunder upstairs and show sleepy parents what you had got. At least it was till I was about 10 :-)

Not so long ago my mum reminded me that one year we went to a pub for lunch. I think I was about 9. I have NO memory of this whatsoever. It was obviously so not what we DID at Christmas that I refuse to remember it. More details if you have them mother please.

Anyway, the first Christmas me and him indoors spent together, we were living in one room at his sister's house, and she was going to be elsewhere for Christmas Day so we decided to make a proper dinner like a proper, grown up couple (we were NOT grown up:-) )

Off we went to the supermarket on Christmas Eve, and got to the checkout with our carfeully chosen, lovely food and drink and little bits and pieces of luxury stuff you never eat at any other time of the year. I handed the checkout girl my cheque and my bank card (this was in the days of no debit cards and you had to guarantee your cheque with your bank card)...and I had brought my NEW cheque book but my OLD bank card, so they didn't match.

By the time we got home, found the right card and got back to the shops, everywhere was shut. Christmas was looking like it was cancelled, but then we spied a lonely Spar. A Spar (if you dont know) is a convenience store kind of place that sells pretty much everything from magazines to sprouts. Except this was Christmas Eve and even THEIR shelves were looking a bit bare. We did what we could.

Christmas dinner was frozen mini chicken kievs, chicken in breadcrumbs, oven chips and peas.....:-)

It was rather lovely and we did have a nice day. Since then we have made an effort each year to get things together on time. We have a theme each year as well - cuisine of a different country. Not what that country has for Christmas dinner but just some traditional food of that country. We veered off into history one year and had English Anglo Saxon. Russian was an interesting year, especially after all that toasting everything with vodka . That year it actually snowed and we cooled the vodka in the snow in the garden! The 70s Bernie Inn year was pretty groovy too.

So an accidental Christmas cock-up has turned into a tradition all of its own.

Happy Yule All :-)

The tree has gone up

Woooo. Look at the sad cricketer on the telly. More importantly, those presents under the tree are for ME! ME I tell you!!!!!

....

Sorry about that. Ahem. Went into Manchester today and had some more something-wein and got most of the Christmas shopping. Still got a few things to get but him indoors is off till the 3rd of Jan now so he can get it.

Me, I have to go back to work next week. Hey ho. Still, the poor lad works very hard so I spose he deserves a break. He can have one without the pc though because it has to go to pc hospital. Fortunatley I have my laptop :-)

Who sings Blue Christmas? ... Elfish Presley..... :-)

Cooking

Wooo I am a cook! Jamie Oliver I laugh in your face. Heston Blumenthal I laugh knowingly at your "locally sourced" recipes. I COOK.
Oh yes people, I made a pie. A chicken and leek pie. From scratch. Pastry and everything. And it was lovley. In all my life I have never made a pie and tonight I did and it worked. Mmmmm.
AND I made chocolate truffles earlier! From scratch! In little cases with piped white chocolate and little Chrismtassy things on the top!
Nigella Lawson - go home love, I am in town.

First taste of Christmas

We went to the Christmas markets in Manchester today. We don't normally DO town on a Saturday but we did for today for some reason. It was busy!
We had a hot mulled something-wein and him indoors had a german hamburger. Then we bought a lot of dutch cheese (goats cheese with nettles, spicy gouda and three year old gouda!) , then another something-wein, then we shared a german steak baguette, then we had ANOTHER something-wein and then we went home for a lie down :-)
On the way in, I saw a cafe (the Abergeldie cafe in case you are interested) and I took a picture of the sign. Apparently its famous for this and everyone in the world knows about it apart from ME.I very much want to post the picture directly but Blogger wont let me for some reason . Dont get excited - its nothing that good!
www.faerywings.co.uk/photos/terry.jpg