Busy times at work led to a need to put on my PJs as soon as I got in and throw myself on to our super duper comfy sofas along with a tumbler of whisky and episodes of Glee, anything with Mary Portas in or Coronation Street (especially now it has a gay girl storyline). Plus Beth was all blogged out with her work blog, MovieTalk.
Anyhoo, all that sofa surfing, plus some dramatic changes at work have resulted in me feeling somewhat creatively challenged, so hence Lezzie Lickin's is reborn!
Where do I start? Well we've been on annual leave this week and that has manifested itself in a series of culinary delights and disasters. On the delight side, being pampered by trainee chefs and waiting staff at the Vincent Rooms. Six courses for £24 cannot be sniffed at, and they are being trained in the Escoffier technique (Fanny's favourite apparently, Fanny Cradock that is). So, huge white plates dotted with tiny food with a bit of foam on top. But it was good and I would recommend it. On the mediocre site was Hix Oyster and Chop House. A gay girl never really knows what to do with a big meaty portion, and it left me feeling decidedly queer all evening....
Beth and I visited a rainy Oxford yesterday and she took me to one of her old student haunts, the Nosebag. Here, simplicity was key and she informed me that the menu and ambiance had not changed since the late 1980s. A trio of chopped cabbage salads in a Turkish style with fresh herbs and a chocolate brownie placated my temper seeing as it took two hours to drive into the city centre after a somewhat disappointing trip to the Roald Dahl museum in Great Missenden. Let's just say, why do adults have to pay more to enter when the whole museum was geared towards encouraging kids to run riot, as opposed to actually learning something about the great man and his books? Rant over.
Thursday involved some sloe picking in order to make sloe gin. We used to do this with my Nan when my parents lived in Essex. Beth and I took a trip down memory lane with my Mum by visiting Linders Field in Buckhurst Hill where the sloes used to be abundant. Imagine our horror to find that all our bushes had been trimmed! Sloe bushes I mean. Anyhoo, we found some and we now have some sloes gently marinading with sugar in a bottle of gin to be consumed during the festive season. We also made blackberry whiskey, which should be fun!
2 comments:
From a horticultural point of view Ms Lickins, are they sloes or blueberries in that rather sunny picture?
Hmmmm, not being green fingered like my lady wife I would not be able to say. I see them when they they have been plucked from their bush.
However, Ms Beth informs me only sloes have thorns.
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