The Rat Inn

Not quite the lazy start of yesterday as Steve was awake around 07:30 so he decided to get up rather than disturb Nic by tossing & turning. Finished off the muffins for breakfast (with egg this time) and then Steve jump started Nic's car and took it for a 20 mile, 30 minute drive to get the battery recharged while she spoke to her Mum & Dad. It really needs to get used more often to stop the battery from running down.

Anyway, we decided to get the shopping in while we had a bit of time and after getting it all back home it was not long before we had to leave to head over to The Rat Inn for our lunch, something we had been looking forward to all week. Today, being Sunday, it was the traditional Sunday lunch on offer with a choice of starters and sweets. Steve plumped for the pheasant terrine starter with Nic selecting the Serrano ham. The pheasant came with well dressed salad leaves and pickled mushrooms, which just set the terrine off really well with the wedge of brown bread. The Serrano ham starter came with a really tasty pickled red cabbage, both crunchy and full of flavour, and salad and pickles. Nic reckoned she could have eaten a jar of the cabbage on its own.

The beef was on the chalk board as served pink and this is exactly how it came. Nice thick slices all very juicy and not dried out and grey, as is often case at other pubs. The accompanying veg was abundant and well cooked - the carrots and broccoli al dente - and so wonderful to see spring greens on the plate. The other main course of roast pork was full of flavour - we've become so used to the prepacked supermarket bland pork that tastes of almost nothing, it's great when you get "porky pork".  It was accompanied by a nice sharp apple sauce - note to everyone, apple sauce shouldn't be sweet!

It was a bit of a disappointment that Nic couldn't manage a sweet but Steve plumped for the chocolate and brown ale cake served with bitter chocolate sauce and chocolate ice cream. Many would think that this would all be too sweet but just not the case. The cake (sponge really) was probably the lightest he had ever eaten and really flavoursome. The chocolate sauce was not overly sweet and the ice cream had nice chunks of dark chocolate in it. The waitress kindly provided an extra spoon ...

All in all, a fantastic end to the meal with hugely attentive and friendly staff.

After filling our boots we headed back home so the Nic could complete her tax return and Steve could play with one of his Xmas games - Assassins Creed III. Nic eventually headed off to cook a lamb curry from Madhur's Curry Easy book for Monday night's dinner and Steve eventually packed in and did the prep (and later cooking) of a light evening meal (had to be after the lunch) of sea bream on couscous with preserved lemon and roasted pepper salsa from the Jamie's 15 Minute Meals cookbook. This worked out great. There was a good variety of textures: crunch from the pistachios and pomegranate contrasted well with the delicate sea bream and couscous.  The sweetness of the fruit again contrasted well with the sharpness of the salsa. Really tasty and something we will do again. Pretty as a picture too.

Interesting Drive, Pizzas And The Hobbit

Well, there was definitely going to be an interesting day ahead of us. After a lazy start to the day and breakfast of bacon muffins we pottered about and I got the car ready for a drive over the A69 via 2 pick-ups in Wallsend. Meaning I topped up washer fluids, chucked boots, shovel & blanket in the boot just in case the forecast snow hit when we were out.

Our morning was already mapped out with picking my Mam up from Wallsend then driving back on ourselves to pick her friend (Viv) up from the other end of Wallsend and driving them to the Gilsland Spa Hotel. Nothing planned, they just fancied going over there for the night so they could dance in the evening and meet other old people to talk about nothing in particular. Needless to say there was never a silent moment on the drive over as they talked non stop and we lost count of how many times they said 'Yes'.

Having dropped them off it was time to drive halfway home to call in on Marion & Mike for a late lunch of homemade pizza and lemon cheesecake and an afternoon of chit chat. We even managed to show them a suitably reduced number of our photos from Vietnam just to give them a flavour of what it was like.

Fed, watered and all chatted out we headed back to Silverlink to see The Hobbit. Luckily our coughing was not as bad as it could have been so we don't think we spoiled the movie too much for everyone else at the screening. A fantastic movie with some great CGI scenes underground with the goblins. Can't wait to see how the story moves along with the next movie.

TGIF

Yay, the last day of the week and a great weekend to come.

Another night of coughing for Steve but it does seem to be getting better, although trip to doctor's later will confirm. After an easy drive into Newcastle he grabbed a bacon roll and coffee from Greggs which, to be honest, is a damn sight better than anything from the canteen or any other cafe nearby. Overdone the cured pork products this week much?

A round of calls in the morning saw Steve head off into Toon for a burrito from Zapatista Burrito Bar. As usual full of flavour and a very popular place, and I now have a loyalty card - which could be a big mistake.






After an afternoon of emails Steve headed off to the Doctor's only to be told there was nothing they could do for the cough and he just had to ride it out - Hey Ho. A quick trip to the shops on the way home saw the ingredients for a chilli with baked potato in the shopping basket then making their way home with Steve sorting dinner while Nic finished off work. And, even if I say so myself, it was a rather yummy chilli.

Thursday - Headed Home Tonight (Yay!)

What can I say - bad night's sleep, bacon roll and OJ for breakfast. At least my own coffee is good.

45 minute conference call followed by 2 hour workshop with customer followed by another 1 hour meeting with customer meant we arrived at the canteen after they had closed. No sarnies but they could offer nachos and chilli or would retrieve a slice of gammon with potatoes and broccoli / bowl of spaghetti bolognese. Looking at the puddles of oil/fat sitting on top of the bolognese sauce I gave that an extremely wide berth - I would hate to see the results of an analysis of the calorie/fat/protein etc. content of it. The nachos and chilli  did not look much better as it was covered by a carpet of high fat cheese so that left me with a slice of gammon which turned out to be OK in the end. As expected the broccoli was overcooked but the gammon had very little fat (which I cut off) and was actually quite tasty.

Because of the late lunch I only had just over an hour before I needed to head off for the train home and a big hug from Nic and some great food - Lebanese.

Nic got this book for Christmas from Paul and Joy:  The Lebanese Kitchen.  We forgot to take photos so these are from the book, but they're an accurate representation of the plated meal, to be fair.  The starter was grapefruit, red onion and mint salad - unusual in that it also had salt and olive oil, but it was delicious. The main was monkfish in sumac with a saffron and cumin rice.  She also made an authentic tabbouleh to go with it.  It was really excellent, the monkfish was tender and savoury, the rice meltingly sweet and jammed with flavour, whilst the tabbouleh's freshness set everything off beautifully.  AND we finally finished Homeland on the Sky+! Result :)

Midweek - Still Rubbish Food

The one thing about working away from home is that unless you are staying in a hotel in a city centre your diet tends to be pretty rubbish. They have changed the menu (and possibly chef) at the hotel and I am going to have to work my way around and see what is best, because so far I am not impressed with the food in 2013.

Anyway, as breakfast costs £8.95 at the hotel and I can get a bacon roll and OJ for £2.69 in the office it's a no brainer. Also, as I have brought one of my Xmas presents with me (BODUM Travel Press) along with some ground coffee I am saving a fortune on coffee and having something that tastes a damn sight nicer. Suitably fuelled by the roll, Wednesday brought a fun filled day of emails, drafting new documents and conference calls in the morning with a break for a (bad) ham salad baguette at lunchtime. The afternoon was taken up by a 2 hour workshop with one of our suppliers to discuss our proposed approach for the desktop/laptop deployment of approx 10,000 machines over 5-6 months to 182 educational establishments - boy do I get the fun jobs ;o)

Finally knocked off at 18:00 and headed back to the hotel for an hour's read (The Hydrogen Sonata: A Culture Novel by Ian M. Banks) before dinner of prawn cocktail and steak with potatoes and salad. At least they managed to cook the steak right tonight but they have definitely changed supplier as the steak was pretty tasteless, not a patch on what they used to serve up last year. Anyway, headed off to room early so I could have a chat with Nic before another night's sleep constantly broken by coughing fits.

Nic meantime was in charge of her own destiny and cooked an adaptation of the prawn and coconut curry from the Hairy Dieters cookbook.  She added extra veggies to bump up her 5 a day.  It was good, but not great.  So far the Hairy Dieters' recipes seem to fall a wee bit short on the flavour front.

A Night Of Coughing

After coughing for the first 30 minutes Steve decided to head off to the spare bedroom and hopefully allow Nic to get some sleep. 40 minutes later still coughing but eventually dozed off only to be woken every 1.5 to 2 hours by another coughing fit. Needless very little sleep was had through the night not helped by having to get up at 06:45 to head off for train to spend next 3 days in Edinburgh.

On arriving in the office. Busy day of meetings, calls and financial re-forecasting followed broken only by a break for a lunch of omelette and salad. Followed by a 30 minute chat with someone who I have enjoyed knowing for the last 12 months but who has just resigned.

Finally packed in at 18:15 and headed back to hotel for late evening meal of grilled steak and veg - requested it rare and it came back more grey than a battleship so was promptly returned to the kitchen for them to cook a proper steak as ordered.

Hoping for a better nights sleep in advance of another long day tomorrow. Hey Ho.

Meanwhile Nic was a bit more in control of her meals: remains of the cawl for lunch and a dinner of roasted peppers stuffed with couscous, feta, olives, mint, parsley and cherry tomatoes.  She's in bed by 9 with a sore throat and cough though, having (inevitably) caught Steve's bug.

First Full Week Back At Work

Well, it had to happen, didn't it.

Nic and I were both ready (sort of) for a full week back at work but perhaps not the early start. Alarm set for 06:00 so that Steve could run Nic into the Newcastle Central Station to get 07:05 train to London for her day of meetings. Dropped off on time Steve headed straight into the office (first one in) for a suitably long day with a lunch consisting of carrot & coriander soup.

Evening meal (alone) was leftover Welsh cawl from Sunday, which was absolutely gorgeous then Steve headed off to meet up with gaming mates for the evening while Nic eventually made it home around 21:30 and enjoyed her own bowl of cawl for dinner (alone).