Are you going to Scarborough fair?

It's like having a small child in the house!  Poppy, as she is officially now known, is into everything.  My shoes have taken a real chewing, the chairs have been savaged and to cap it all, she disgraced herself at the vets on Tuesday!  The vet, a young woman who looked as if she had just left school, examined Poppy and took her temperature.  A minute after extracting the thermometer from Poppy's bottom, the eruption happened! It was like Mount Etna erupting!  Well I suppose vets are used to that sort of thing and I guess if someone stuck something up my bottom, it would probably have the same effect!  She still remains cute though - that's Poppy not the vet!

Anyway enough of the savoury things- talking of which, this week has been another busy and varied week in the kitchen.  Roasted vegetable soup, chilli con carne and cheese, leek and potato quiche were all made on Monday.  The soup I thought was a little bland and needed quite a lot of seasoning to make it taste of anything so I don't hink I'll be trying that one again!  The quiche was very tasty and rich - I made too  much filling so had to make another batch of pastry to use it up! We ate one for dinner with a green leaf and mixed bean salad - I felt so healthy I swear by the end of the meal I had lost a few pounds!  The fillet of pork casserole that I made on Wednesday was also a little dissapointing - great taste and flavour but it looked a little strange as the mushroom sauce it was cooked in, seemd to seperate - Oh well! You can't win them all!  The Thai spring rolls that were produced on Thursday however were a great success - spicy, meaty and crunchy and the Naam aa jaad dip was mouth wateringly hot!  Roasted salmon in teriyaki suace with new potatoes and sugar snap peas heralded the return of Sue's eldest daughter for the weekend whilst another batch of Maman Cope's lobby bubbled away on the hob.  I was so enthused that I made corned beef pasties ready for the rugby on Saturday - by the time I got back from golf yesterday lunchtime, there were only two left!

Wouldn't mention the above to the Health and Safety officer! Electric flex over gas hob?

One peice of sad news arrived in the early part of this week - a friend who I had done quite a bit of sailing with when I was working, died last weekend.  Alan, had been Head of Economics at Atlantic College. He was an inspirational teacher and his passion was sailing - he built his own gaff rigged Essex fishing smack over a period of 7 years and I was fortuneate enough to sail with him on its maiden voyage from Barry down to Penznace.  One of the most magical moments of that trip was anchrored in a small bay in the shelter of Lundy island and sharing a very simply prepared casserole in the warmth of the cabin at midnight.  Alan will be remembered for a lot of things and perhaps, whilst not his greatest acheivemnet, he was responsible for the world wide phenomenon known as "Man, woman, Bulldog" - for those of  you who do not know what this is, it's probably better that you remain in ignorance!

I also heard from three of my Diploma associates this week, Criag has signed up to start the 3 month cookery course at the Ballymaloe Cookery school in Cork starting in April - I hope he keeps a blog as I am extremely envious!  Fem has had a tough time since finishing - her mother died shortly after arriving back in Holland so she has had to sort things out.  She is planning to head back to Majorca and then a holiday in Australia with Steve. Shaun is about to leave the RAF and head out to Spain - you can follow his exploits at http://www.taffygringo.blogspot.com/.

I decided this week that I would try and grow my own herbs so I researched a little on the internet and went out and bought some herbs, rosemary, thyme, mint, oregano, parsely and coriander - planted them in tubs and put them all in an old wheelbarrow.  Nothing much seems to happened so far but here's hoping!  If anyone out there has any good tips or advice please let me know!  I'm fed up of paying 68p in Tesco's for fresh herbs!

Finally, as the weather has been so good this week, I got the old bike out for a bit of a ride on Monday - I still want to cycle through France from the Channel coast to the Mediterranean coast at some point before my joints give out - so a little gentle ride through the byways and lanes of the Vale of Glamorgan.  I bumped into Wattsie whislt having a well deserved shandy in the Plough and Harrow.  Wattsie was on strike on Monday and Tuesday, protesting about the proposed changes to his redundancy package or something.  He is now known as Red Ken, a militant through and through.  So I asked him if he'd been manning the picket line?  "No - had to take the boy to school and by that time it was too late - besides which it was too cold" was his reply.  Tim's mantra was "What do we want?" - "Carling!" - "When do we want it?" - "NOW!"  Our auburn haired host obliged!  Thank God socialism is still alive and kicking in South Wales!

Next week it's into the professional kitchen in Woods' Bar and Brasserie - I wonder what awaits me?