Well Into the Week and What Did We Eat?

Well into the week now, the weekend seems a while ago! The ‘foodie’ offerings over the last days consisted of salmon (with lobster bisque) on Thursday, an Italian trio on Friday (the party), lobster Thermidor on Saturday, roast lamb with torn potatoes on Sunday and chicken and chips on Monday. All very tasty and all on our usual family ‘foodie’ rotation. We had the added bonus of a pizza lunch at pizza express on Sunday as we felt the children had deserved a tryout in public to show us (and all) their very bestest table manners. How did that go you may ask yourself?

Before we entered the restaurant I asked John “are you sure you want to do this”? He confirmed he was and we entered the pizza restaurant. I was apprehensive, but followed our not so famous five in. Thor was at the front of the group. The waitress was about to show us to our table and all of a sudden, not two minutes in, Thor let out an almighty shriek, spontaneously followed by a change in pitch and a loud aaaah followed. Scowling at John, “I told you so” was my initial thought, but I bit my lip and made my way to the front and comforted Thor, rubbing his head for him as he yelped. He had bent over beneath a thin bar / shelf that was running he length of the wall to the right of the door, stood up and smack wallop. I told everyone to go to the table and Thor and I went outside, head rubbing as we did and sat on some seating. I calmed him down and soothed him. We talked a little about behaving well when we were out. Tears wiped away, we re-entered the restaurant and joined the others. That incident aside, the pizza lunch went very well, no screams, no fighting, only well behaved children. Do you know what? I was so impressed with all of the children, so a BIG well done to them all.

Yesterday saw three of our ‘seasonal’ pumpkins cut, washed and boiled, then strained, mashed, cooked and bagged. I tried to pour off any excess water that was released from the flesh as I mashed the pumpkin. They really do hold a lot of water. But remember my earlier trick to bag and freeze the pulp and the excess water will be released on thawing out before making a scrumptious Jam with it.

The plums that were left over from the party were washed, cut and boiled down to a pulp also. Sugar was added and then cooked on a rolling boil for around 20 minutes. This resulted in a most flavoursome plum jam. The addition of a good volume of calvados (pear brandy) and this humble jam was elevated to manna from heaven. The full recipe I will publish a little later, but for now, just imagine this heady marriage of flavours – a very grownup jam indeed.

Thursday nights dinner: