On Ilkley Moor bah't tat!

You'll be pleased to know that the bout of man flu that I reported last week has now left me and has decided to plague someone else.  Last Saturday seemed to be the worst day - sneezing every 20 seconds and eyes that ran stinging tears down my cheeks whilst I was preparing the 3 course dinner party for Bob and Liz!  At one point I seriously considered cancelling but, as they say, the show must go on!  And on it went - the leek and potato soup, the oven roasted chicken breast with Daupinoise potatoes followed by an orange posset - a successful outcome - even Bob said that he would have paid good money in a restaurant to eat that! 

This week has been spent "up North" visiting family.  After Wales managed to scrape a dodgy victory over Scotland on Saturday and England bored everyone to death against Italy on Sunday and  the Buggeygate scandal was revealed, we headed up to Sheffield to visit Sue's Mum and Dad and Rob and Alice, who are at University there.  I took the opportunity to visit my Mum who lives a little further north in an old mill town called Silsden, near Keighley.  Food is always high on the agenda when visting family and Sue's Mum, Marie is an excellent cook and there's always something interesting on the menu.  Pork fillet stuffed with sage, apple and rosemary was served up on Monday night - delicious flavours and very tender meat, one for my recipe book!  Over to my Mum on Tuesday who was badgering me to cook for her.  So we went out for lunch to the Old Haworth Hall Inn.  Those educated people reading this will know that Haworth is the home of the Bronte family.  But our pursuit was of the gastronomic variety not the literary so we ordered the lamb Jennings and a gammon steak.  The restaurant was busy and set in the old Haworth Hall, as it's eponymus name would suggest! The service was slow but polite and eventually the food arrived - the lamb melted off the bone (I think it was a shank!) and the gammon was juicy without being under cooked.  Not cheap but not too bad!  I did evetually cook for Mum  -pancakes in the evening with sugar and lemon - well it was Shrove Tuesday!  Back to Sheffield on Wednesday for more food and wine.  This time chicken in a mustard sauce with basmati rice - another success.

You can't have failed to notice that the Winter Olympics has been in full swing and  I have been mesmorised by the Curling.  Hardly an action packed, full of spills type of  winter sport, I know but nevertheless very skillful and tactically riveting!  I now watch it avidly whenever it appears on the TV.  I remember having a go at it once in  Aviemore Ice rink, many years ago, and have determined that my interest in it now must be as a result of watching the old men of Silsden partake in the daily ritual of crown green bowling in the park when I was a boy.  I would be playing tennis on the tennis courts and the bowling green was adjacent to them.  So in between sets and changing ends, we would glance down to see who was leading the" ends" and who had "one in the house".  I wonder if Cardiff have got a curling club I could join?

Before I left to go back to Sheffield on Wednesday, Mum and I went for coffee in Ilkley, a small twee town that sits on the edge of Rombald's Moor.  Rombald was a giant who frequented those parts at some time or other.   Ilkley is famous for a number of things and a number of  people.  It is considered to be THE  wealthiset place to live in Yorkshire, if not the entire universe.  It's famous residents have included the late Richard Whitely, long time presenter of "Countdown" and one time boss of Sue!  Yes she worked on "Countdown"!  Another famous one time resident is General Sir Nick Houghton, Vice Chairman of the Defence Staff.  One of Nick's claim to fame is that he went to school with me!  We were good pals right the way through school and played a lot of rugby together.  He was always destined for great things!  Oh the other famous person to come from Ilkley is Bart Hat!

Our return to Wales on Thursday was blighted by the return of the snow.  Battling through the blizzards on the M5 and M50 we made it back.  Thank goodness Jennifer had cooked a spaghetti bolognese for us -  another night out of the kitchen!  More practise was needed and so Friday saw me making sweet potato and coconut soup follwed by home made spring rolls and thai fishcakes with dips! I wish I had taken a photograph of it - exquiste presentation!

Off to get a few tips from Raymond Blanc's "Kitchen Secrets" and to fill in the application form for MasterChef! 

Until next time!