Monday Blues

Nic had been organised enough to take bircher muesli into the office for breakfast today (blackberries, blueberries and mixed chopped nuts, delicious) - just as well as delays due to traffic jams delayed us.  Steve nipped out at lunchtime to pick up a couple of chicken salads for the two of us.

Busy day of meetings so dinner was a thrown-together invention of linguini with tuna, olives, basil chilli, lemon, garlic, shallots and cherry tomatoes. Fresh and zingy and very filling ...

Well, At Least One Of Us Does Not Have A Hangover

The day started rather sedately with Nic feeling the effects of the previous day's alcohol and quickly deciding she was going to stop drinking again. After calling her Mum & Dad to make sure they were still OK following the storms in Queensland Steve made scrambled eggs on toast (Northumbrian Miller's) to set them both up for the day.

Steve volunteered to take his Mam shopping on his own so that Nic could let the after effects wear off. Returning a couple of hours later with a mass of flours and seeds and other bread making ingredients he nipped out again to get a few things to knock together a Sunday favourite of quesedillas.

Late lunch out of the way it was back out to the shops for a third time for Steve with Nic also this time to shop for the evening meal and the rest of the week for Nic, as Steve is away again. On arriving home Nic made a goulash with the beef and baked it slowly in the oven for several hours to get the meat to the 'melty' stage. Goulash was accompanied by some of the focaccia Steve had made the previous day and we settled down to watch Dancing on Ice and a few more episodes of The Bridge.

Once again, we've failed to take photos. Must do better.

Saturday is Bread Making Day

As Steve needed to be out of the house around 09:00 to get the bus into Toon for his bread making course at Blackfriars Restaurant an earlier than usual Saturday breakfast of bacon muffins was consumed. Steve then headed off while Nic worked her way up to doing some ski-fit exercises - made all the more interesting by Steve calling about an hour later to find out what she wanted for her lunch when she joined him later in the day. Much huffing and puffing down the phone later we had an order taken down.

Steve had a great start to the bread making course with a real mix of people on the course and lots of relaxed banter helped by an enthusiastic teacher. When he broke up for lunch and headed off to join Nic in the restaurant a surprise was waiting - him Mam was in with her friends for lunch too. The bread making 'students' and accompanying friends thoroughly enjoyed the fare on offer with Nic having home smoked salmon with pickled cucumber & heirloom beetroot followed by Cumbrian chicken & ham pie with honey roast Chantenay carrots. Steve tucked into home-made black pudding with poached egg and mushroom ketchup followed by roast fillet of Scottish salmon with winter greens & hollandaise.

Suitably fed Steve headed back off to the bread making and Nic joined Tony & Shirley in the restaurant (yes they ended up there too) while they finished off their meal and then all three of them headed off to the Crows Nest for the afternoon. Steve completed his course before joining the party, making the following breads in the process:-

• Top left - Northumbrian Miller's loaf.
• Top right - Seeded and Malted bread.
• Bottom left - Seeded Rustic Soda bread.
• Bottom right - Focaccia.

Needless to say an evening or merriment followed with rather a lot of alcohol consumed by the four of us with Tony & Shirley heading off home around 21:30 while Steve & Nic headed down Northumberland Street to Dabbawal for a rather yummy meal. Feeling that we had not had enough to drink we consumer a further bottle of Sauvignon Blanc Vidal Estate Marlborough (New Zealand) and tucked into: -

• Popadoms & Pickles
• Kurkuri Lentil battered Okra
• Hara Chicken Parchey
• South Indian Lamb Pepper Fry
• Yellow lentils
• Plain Naan

Pizza Friday

With both Steve & Nic being in the office today it was a case of heading into the office via Greggs for the usual bacon roll after parking the car. Duly set up for the morning we went our separate ways for a morning (nay, full day) of meetings.

Steve offered to get something for Nic's lunch and duly brought back a pastrami and swiss cheese salad sandwich with pickle & mustard on a seeded roll settling for a chicken salad box himself.

The evening meal was the usual fare of freshly made pizza from Adsa (2 x 10" pizzas for £4) with added toppings when we got home. As we were going to be out with Tony & Shirley the next day for a few drinks we decided to stay off the alcohol for an extra day. Watch out tomorrow.