Come Dine With … Helen

On Saturday evening it was Helen’s turn to host “Come Dine With Me”. Suzy picked me up and on the way over we shared a few preliminary thoughts on the evening:

We also discussed history and current affairs, but l thought I’d keep video on the subject to food – our speciality, I think you’ll agree.

We’d been told in advance that there would be a theme for the evening and when we arrived the elegant table was decorated with an EU flag. Wait, the theme is bailouts? No, it was the Eurovision Song Contest! The show was on television that evening and Helen had organised a few quizzes based around the event. Had I known this was to be the case, I may have studied a little and perhaps looked a little further into the rather odd “Euro” definition that includes countries that are not even a little bit part of the European Union.

There were also challenges to link the country to its flag (or not, in my case) and to link the country to its capital (thank you, Hubert, for touring eastern Europe – that helped!). While we worked, swapping pens for each round, Helen prepared the starters and the Song Contest began to entertain us.

Out came the first dish, each plate beautifully presented. The starter was smoked trout and watercress, with an egg, dill and cornichon salad, served with a thick slice of toasted bread.

Our verdict on the start of the evening:

Ozzy visits Madame Tussaud’s

7 Days – spring 2010 mosaic

1. Kuky Ideas | Pupipanu | kvon540 | Anja9276 | girlwithgreencardandfabric!

11. ksands9101 | Snowfairy | Ricki / Tawandaaa | cwerner567 | Andrea loves autumn skies

The summer run of 7 Days starts on Saturday 19th June 2010

Feeding myself

I have been picking the first thinnings from my rows of mixed salad and rocket – that job that I find so difficult because in order for your crop to come to anything, you first need to massacre what currently looks like such a delightful pile of growth. But when you get in there, the seedlings are already getting leggy and though you don’t like the idea of taking out as many as it takes to leave seedlings standing x inches apart, the chances are the people who wrote the instructions on the seed packet did so for a reason. Stupid people.

Anyway, the thinnings are big enough to eat and so they are the first “harvest” this year to make it to my plate. My current favourite sandwich is a sub roll with gouda, beetroot, mayonnaise and some salad leaves. This was originally lettuce leaves from the farm shop, but now my mixed salad and rocket leaves takes their place. Yum. Later in the year, maybe I’ll even be making this sandwich with homegrown beetroot too.

And with the amount of wheat growing below the bird feeders from dropped seed maybe I’ll even be making this sandwich with homegrown flour one day too…

Leaves appearing

Though there is still a lot of bare soil out there, green leaves are beginning to appear in the vegetable patch. There are two rows of mixed salad, the seeds for which came free with a Lakeland order. Only time will tell exactly which salad leaves will be provided. There aren’t many of the plants with frilly leaves, or dark red leaves, so I must be sure to leave them when I’m thinning the seedlings. Otherwise this mixed salad may not turn out to be so mixed after all!

The rocket (top row) is growing like mad and I’ve sown a second row just out of shot, where the lettuce seeds were sown and watered, but conspicuously failed to grow.

The mangetout is up too, protected by a little plastic fence to ward off hungry slugs. Tiny little tendrils have already begun to form here and there and in a few weeks they’ll find the willow fence behind them and will start to climb.

Co-gardener

I spent some time in the garden yesterday, taking my camera with me to document the few vegetables that have dared to poke their heads above ground. Though temperatures are beginning to climb, it’s still pretty chilly here. While I was working I hear some loud cheeping and looked up to find a chaffinch not very far away, pecking up dropped seed from the bird feeders that hang in the rowan tree. He seemed unperturbed by my presence and I was even able to step away to grab my camera from where it sat on top of the compost bin and step back to photograph him without him taking fright.

CDWM: Dessert

And so to dessert, which had been prepared earlier in the day and decided to surprise me by cracking in half while I was eating the main course. No worries though, the crackless photo had already been taken and the ravine served as the first cutting line. By now the kitchen was a mess and I was serving up four fancy desserts in about a 4″ square space, with a fold-up food cover that decided to spring open again and throw itself onto the lemon tart I was trying to slice. It was while I was having those adventures that the girls had been leaving their judgement of the main course. But soon enough I was calling them back to the table for their dessert:

Though one slice wasn’t enough for some:

The final judgement from Suzy, Lauren and Helen. They’re all so kind, we’d be of no interest to TV producers, who would far prefer we scratch each other’s eyes out.

While they made their final video I went to the office and recorded my own little summary of the evening at the computer.

During the meal the conversation had turned to giving people frights, which is what Suzy had been attempting to do here. The only flaw in her plan was that the Photo Booth camera ended up acting just like a pantomime audience, shouting “She’s behind you!” as she momentarily lost her balance in the hall and teetered into view.

It really was a great evening – and how handy to have sofas into which we could sink afterwards to rest our bellies; that’s a plus for eating in! The next Come Dine With Me will be hosted by Helen in three weeks’ time – I can’t wait!