Countdown Has Started

As usual on his last day away Steve had breakfast in the office canteen rather than the expensive hotel option. Although on leaving the hotel he mentioned that he had not slept well on the Tuesday night due to the raging wind outside managing to get inside and blowing through the air-con vent in the room - the hotel duly made a note to refund the cost of that nights stay in line with their guarantee of a good nights sleep - well done Premier Inn. Back in the office he settled for Special-K followed by an apple and a bottle of water (in an attempt to start drinking the recommended daily H2O intake). Steve managed an impressive 1.5 litres which is around 1.5 litres more than he would normally drink. Lunch was an omelette with salad (again) but as usual the healthiest option available.

Nic had toasted homemade granary with marmite for breakfast and leftover bún bò nam bô for lunch.

With Steve back home again it meant that Nic was not eating alone and the evening meal was an old favourite of Mexican bean burgers with lime yogurt and salsa in mini tortilla wraps with pink pickled onion. We also pushed the boat out and shared a bottle of alcohol free cider having not had any alcohol since 1st January and sticking to our dry January target. Things might be a little messy however on Saturday when we are having a stint out with friends in Toon - starting at The Hotspur.

Fit to Drop

Breakfast of Weetabix again for Nic and leftover lunch of yesterday's chicken.

Nic's evening meal was Bun Bo Nam Bo - a Vietnamese noodle dish that's easy to make and fresh, light and healthy and has featured before on this blog, so no heavy-duty detail here. More pickled carrots too - mmmm. And enough for tomorrow's lunch, perfect result. Nic also did a good stretch of Fit To Ski exercises, emerging purple and perspiring again and Fit To Drop. The pain that results over the next day or two is hopefully pain she won't be feeling on the slopes in a few weeks' time.

Meanwhile Steve started the day with Special-K then grilled mushrooms & scrambled egg with OJ and coffee - trying hard to keep the calories down. After a day of meetings it was back to the hotel for an evening meal of grilled chicken wings in a fiery sauce followed by mexican chicken salad - not brilliant but trying to work his way through some of the (apparently) healthier options on the menu. After dinner he checked his new toy - Fitbit One, to see if he had hit his daily targets only to find he was just over 800 steps short of his daily 5,000 step target. So back to his room to get his coat as the weather was foul and off into the night to get his step count up. Eventually back to his room and well happy with how the day finished off against his targets: 6,170 steps of target 5,000; 30 floors climbed of target 10; 2,444 calories burned of target 2,184.

Baby's on the road again

Steve's off on his travels again, all the snow's gone and it's blowing a hoolie outside.

Weetabix - with cold milk, naturally (hot milk on Weetabix is an abomination) - for Nic for breakfast, followed by a repeat of the stuffed peppers and tzatziki for lunch, as all the ingredients were in the fridge & larder and it's an easy dish to fit in around conference calls.  The delights of working from home. Steve settled for a cup of soup and a roll.

Nic's evening meal was adapted from an old Nigel Slater standard. This is so simple it's almost criminal, and tastes astonishingly good. Equal quantities of dijon mustard and red wine vinegar are used to marinade trimmed boneless chicken thighs. These are then grilled until just cooked through, still juicy and succulent within and with some of the (slightly curdled) marinade making a spoonful of sauce. Nigel adds equal quantities of olive oil to the marinade alongside the dijon & vinegar, but we're waist-watching ahead of skiing in a few weeks time. The chicken is served up with potatoes, beans and broccoli in this case, but it's equally lovely with crusty bread and a dressed salad. And there's some left for tomorrow's lunch - joy!

Snuggled up in front of the tv with Great British Menu, spicy fragrant chicken and the fire on, it's almost possible to ignore the wind and rain ripping up outside.

In the meantime Steve hit the restaurant in the hotel and tried to find a hooky website so he could stream the Newcastle match to his iPad and watch it with Malcolm while they ate their dinner. No luck so we had to settle for occasional updates to the Sky Sports Football app on Steve's iPhone and text messages Malcolm received from each of his sons. Football-less the dinner was no great shakes better consisting of calamari followed by grilled steak with potatoes and salad - the latter which failed to arrive and was eventually delivered after the attention of the waitress was caught halfway through the meal. The standard of service does seem to be slipping.

It's all Greek to me

Monday morning fried egg on tattie scone for Nic, accompanied by a conversation with her Mum & Dad who are facing some pretty tough weather conditions over in Queensland right now: 130kph winds, 45cm of rain in 24hrs and 24m waves offshore! It's good to be able to check in and make sure they're ok - and fortunately, apart from a few minor leaks, all's well.

Then leftover roast tri-tip and dijon on granary for lunch. The tri-tip has been an excellent buy. It's still juicy and succulent, bursting with umami.

The evening meal was a favourite of Nic's - always, till now, cooked whilst Steve's away in Edinburgh so it was a special request on his part:  roasted peppers stuffed with couscous, feta, cherry tomatoes and olives, accompanied by tzatziki. It has vaguely Greek ingredients but we're sure it's never been on a Greek menu anywhere. Nevertheless it was a bright, sunshiny meal for a very wet and miserable day. The snow has now given way to torrential downpours and the beautiful crisp covering of white in the garden and street has all but gone.

Steve went gaming this evening, whilst Nic watched Great British Menu, did another Fit To Ski session (legs're going to feel it tomorrow!) and read more of - appropriately - Stephen Baxter's "Flood".

The Australian Open

Well, we were guaranteed no lie in this morning as the Australian Open Final was on TV and Andy Murray was playing - Nic would have probably foregone all meals today just to ensure that she did not miss it. After a quick call to her Mum & Dad in Oz to catch up on things she sat down to a breakfast of fried leftover haggis slices, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried egg, potato scone and baked beans. A right plateful but she needed the energy to see her through the match.

Steve also baked a granary loaf, again the Hovis mix which was semi-successful, dropping slightly. Still not at all sure what's going wrong, though it's still light and moist with a delicious just-crisp crust.

Game suitably over and Nic consoled with a cup of tea, we headed off to see Steve's Mam and take her on the weekly food shopping trip.

Lunch was leftover tri-tip beef, rare, with dijon on the granary (& pickled onions of course!) and was followed by a lazy afternoon for the two of us watching The Bridge. After great feedback from friends who've seen it, it's proving to be a big hit in this house too.

Dinner was a mixed fish pie: salmon, smoked haddock and cod, leeks, peas, lemon and saffron sauce with a bit of tenderstem broccoli on the side. 

Saturday - Ups and Downs

Thankfully the weekend arrived at last to provide a welcome break from work. Saturday started with a quick check out of the window to see how much snow had fallen overnight, with Steve very disappointed with only 2-3 inches of snow. Nic headed off to put the pork & leek sausages on to cheer him up. Lightly toasting the last of the loaf that Steve made on Sunday we had some very tasty sausage sarnies before Steve headed off to clear the drive of last night's snow.

With ski boots chucked in the back of the car we headed off to Snow & Rock to get Nic's boots adjusted. However, after about 10 minutes of foot measuring and boot checking we established that the boots could not be stretched and Nic had to buy a new pair of boots putting paid to the plans for a new ski jacket.

Leaving Snow & Rock with Nic's bank account a wee bit lighter we headed into Toon and hit The Forth first for a quick (soft) drink and a snack. We made do with ginger beer as we are staying dry during January and had a light snack of salt 'n' pepper squid with lemon mayo - extremely lighly battered and very tender. So nice to find somewhere that can cook squid so that it is not turned into a rubber band. After The Forth we headed off to Pink Lane Coffee Shop for a couple of coffees and a shared Rocky Road cake. Both having different black coffee with totally different flavours we set about the cake which was extremely moist while discussing the coffee flavour web drawing on the wall.

Suitably refreshed we headed off around Toon for some retail therapy at a Chinese Supermarket, Debenhams, Apple Store, Lakeland, North Face before eventually going to the Laing Art Gallery for a late lunch. We can safely say that this was a big mistake with Nic giving up on her scone after one bite and Steve only finishing the soup as he was hungry - "At least the tea was nice" said Nic.

Nevermind, we headed home safe in the knowledge that we had our tri-tip lined up for dinner. And what a fantastic piece of beef it was too. Really juicy, full of flavour and cooked to pink perfection by Nic. Served up with oven roasted tomatoes, griddled mushrooms, peas and oven chips. Plenty of beef leftover for sarnies tomorrow and other left-over meals no doubt.

Burns Night = Haggis

Marmite on toasted homemade bread for Nic's breakfast, followed by cualiflower dahl and pickled carrots for lunch - all this interspersed around watching the Murray/Federer semi-final at the Australian Open on the BBC sports website in between meetings and calls! Meanwhile Steve settled for his usual Friday 'treat' of a bacon roll & coffee from Greggs to start the day then a cup of very chunky chicken soup for lunch.

The evening meal tonight is - obviously, given that it's 25th January - haggis, neeps and tatties. Steve likes a whisky sauce with this. The haggis was handmade by Charlotte of Charlotte's Butchery fame in Gosforth which Steve picked up on the way home along with some pork & leek sausages for tomorrow's breakfast and a piece of tri-tip beef for tomorrow night's dinner. The haggis decided it wanted to shed its natural stomach skin during the cooking process but this did not detract from the beautiful peppery taste and the extremely meaty texture. The haggis was followed by Cranachan - a traditional Scottish dessert.