Apologies!!!

For some reason, whenever I publish a post, it ignores my paragraphs and bunches everything up together, which is very annoying, especially as the Larkin poem is meant to have Stanzas! I am going to contact blogger and find out what is wrong. Until then I can only apologise-sorry guys!

Adele x

Arundel - The prettiest town in the South East

Philip Larkin is one of my favourite poets, so I was surprised, when My Dad reminded me of his very famous poem from his Whitsun Wedding Collection, An Arundel Tomb, that I did not think of it when I visited there yesterday. I was obviously just so taken with the town and the Castle that I had no room for other thoughts. Nevertheless, here is Larkin, with his jaded tones, describing how our human intentions always fail at the last hurdle:

An Arundel Tomb

Side by side, their faces blurred,

The earl and countess lie in stone,

Their proper habits vaguely shown

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,

And that faint hint of the absurd -

The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque

Hardly involves the eye, until

It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still

Clasped empty in the other; and

One sees, with a sharp tender shock,

His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

They would not think to lie so long.

Such faithfulness in effigy

Was just a detail friends would see:

A sculptor's sweet commissioned grace

Thrown off in helping to prolong

The Latin names around the base.

They would not guess how early in

Their supine stationary voyage

The air would change to soundless damage,

Turn the old tenantry away;

How soon succeeding eyes begin

To look, not read. Rigidly, they

Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths

Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light

Each summer thronged the glass. A bright

Litter of birdcalls strewed the same

Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths

The endless altered people came,

Washing at their identity.

Now, helpless in the hollow of

An unarmorial age, a trough

Of smoke in slow suspended skeins

Above their scrap of history,

Only an attitude remains:

Time has transfigured them into

Untruth. The stone fidelity

They hardly meant has come to be

Their final blazon, and to prove

Our almost-instinct almost true:

What will survive of us is love.

Our human intentions did not fail yesterday, we had a great day. Mother Nature decided once again to grant us a day of glorious sunshine, I believe we're having an Indian summer, however, I think I'm just going to call it summer seeing as the months of May to August were pretty poor. Coincidentally, as my husband and I were waiting at the traffic island to cross the road, we saw my mother's car, her driving, and my sister and her boyfriend as passengers. We welcomed the company and spent the afternoon strolling through the castle and the grounds and then later through the town.

The Castle is absolutely gorgeous: As a Briton I think we take castles and stately homes for granted, but even with hundreds of historical based school outings under my belt, i was still in awe of the stately rooms. The Duchess of Norfolk and her family still live in the castle for some of the year! It it's very reminiscent of Hogwarts, I felt envious as I reached the never-ending library, my imagination would have run riot if I had my hands on it as child. The gardens were beautiful, the Rose Garden in particular had the scent of summer with fuchsia pink roses still in bloom.

As you know I am a devout foodie and Arundel turned out to be quite a find in culinary terms. I found a fantastic deli, that had an abundance of cheeses, meats and wines. As it is National Cheese Week (yes, it is strange I know that) husband and I opted for some very pungent Stinking Bishop and some Smoked Goodwood, with fennel crackers from The Fine Cheese Co. There was also a butchers next door but sadly that was shut, I will return however, and recommend a trip to Arundel for anyone looking for somewhere with character and not a Burger King in sight!

Today being Sunday I have decided to cook a roast dinner, this week we will be having pork and crackling, homemade apple sauce and of course crispy roast potatoes and gravy. Then we'll settle down, tipsy on Riesling and eat our cheese with promises of going to the gym tomorrow. Hope you are having a great weekend

Adele xxx

Minestrone

I haven't added any recipes for a few posts, so here is the recipe I followed at college for Minestrone.

300g Mixed Veg (onions, turnips-note to northern readers, a turnip is what you call a white swede, celery, carrots, cabbage, leek)

Olive Oil

3/4 litre chicken stock

Bouquet garni-see note

Seasoning

25g spaghetti

25g peas

25g french beans

1 potato

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tomato, skinned, de-seeded and diced

50g fat bacon

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

2 cloves of garlic

Parmesan to serve

This amount served both me and my husband, this can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled etc

1. Cut the peeled and washed veg into paysanne (small dice or triangles, see Ready Steady Cook post, it has a video) and crush 1 garlic clove

2. Sweat the veg in the oil, you want the veg translucent and al dente, not brown.

3. Add the stock, bouquet garni and seasoning, bring to boil and then simmer for approx 10-15mins

4. Add the peas, beans cut into diamonds.

5. Add the spaghetti in 1 inch lengths (see note 2), the potatoes cut into paysanne, the tomato puree and simmer until the veg and pasta is cooked.

6. Meanwhile finely chop the fat bacon, parsley and garlic and form a paste.

7. make little meatballs, about the size of a pea and drop into the soup.

8. Remove bouquet garni and season with salt and pepper.

9. Serve with shavings of Parmesan.

Note 1

Bouquet garni is a term used to describe a bundle of herbs and spices, wrapped in muslin or in this case a leek leaf. Take the green outer leaf of a leak, place a bay leaf, some fresh thyme, some crushed parsley stalks and about 5 or 6 peppercorns into the middle of the leaf. Fold the leaf over into a square and tie with string, it is a bit tricky and the leaf will crack but trust me, it all comes together. Then place into your pot with the string over the side so you don't have to play hunt the bouquet garni.

Note 2

Wrap the spaghetti in a tea towel, when done with both hands, hold each end of the tea towel. Still holding each end, pull one end down over the side of the work surface, do this a couple of times and voila, broken spaghetti.

Wedding Relic

As I was sorting out my study I came across some boxes in the closet that have been shoved in there since we moved in, I open one up and come across my wedding dress, so beautiful I could cry. It's funny to think that something that was so preciously regarded just over a year ago has spent the rest of its days in a box, I feel cross with myself for not getting it cleaned and stored properly. I spent a huge portion of our wedding budget on the dress, I'll probably never wear (in fact, absolutely never) something so magnifcant and expensive again. I can't part with it, I'm to much of a Romantic and besides, I hope that in a few generations time, it will be worn again. Better get it cleaned...

The walls and sufaces of our house are covered in wedding pictures, but every now and again I do like to sit down with the album and have a flip through. Our photographer, who also took a huge part of our budget, was fantastic, and if you don't believe me have a look here:

http://www.gregallenphotography.com/ If you go to GALLERY, you will find a slideshow called Adele&Andy-That's us! You will see my dress in it's former glory. For now, the dress is going back in it's box, back into the cupboard but I WILL get it sorted, promise.

''A successful kitchen never knows what it is to be cold''

Being a Devout Foodie you can imagine I have a lot of cookery books. I do. Loads. But that doesn't mean I will stop buying them, despite rapidly running out of shelf space. In the college library there is a very substantial section on cookery that will keep me in reading for the entire course. It was in there that I stumble upon this fascinating book called The Ivy: The Restaurant and its Recipes by AA Gill. I have always loved cooking at home but since my move towards professional cookery I have a new interest in anything slightly chefy. The library's copy has even been signed by the executive chef Mark Hix, who you may recognise from the BBC's Great British Menu. The descriptions of this famous restaurant's kitchen are so rich in imagery, it inspires a would-be chef:

'A commercial kitchen is as different from a domestic one as a tiger is from a tabby. There are none of the small rustic niceties of a family home and hearth here...There is not a single chair here-no time for one. This is a war room, a factory that manufactures hand-made food with dozens of moving parts, dozens of temperatures, textures, liquid, solid, fire, ice, propelled with pinpoint accuracy and machine gun rapidity, plate after plate, the same and unique.'

'It's a masculine place, incorrect, unfair, hierarchical. A hard-knock, sharp-edges, fat-and-fire place. That's not to say that women don't fit in here, or are not respected, it's just that kitchens don't say please, and thank you for a reason...This is not a place to have doubts, want a view, miss fresh air, be squeamish or become a vegan. Kitchens are tough because nobody can fail alone in them: everybody works together or they all fail together. It's not that too many cooks that spoil the broth, it's one-the one who forgets the salt.'

The recipes are actually quite simple and will be just as successful at home as they are on a much sought after table at The Ivy. I now find myself looking on Amazon for a cheap copy, I don't mind if it's been splattered with food, wine or even better champagne (reading this book gets you in the mood for some of the bubbly stuff). With '13 weeks until Christmas' being posted by some excited friends on Facebook, it also makes me think it would make the perfect gift for fellow foodies, I know I would have been very happy to get this under the tree.

Ready Steady Cook!

First of all, I have to say that I didn't think anyone was actually reading this apart from my faithful friend and fellow blogger, Amy (Check her blog http://www.tatamachance.blogspot.com/ this girl is a talented writer) and a couple of family members when they remember. So imagine my suprise when my lovely friend Jemma said she has been following with her husband Jay. So a big hello to The Cages and an official warm welcome to my blog :) Anyone else quietly reading in the wings, don't be scared to say hello, we're all friends here :)

College this week has been really fun. On Monday I was told off in true school fashion for forgetting my neck-tie, oh dear, but I did turn out some fantastic scones and a WI standard victoria sponge. In the afternoon session we were set a Ready, Steady, Cook! challenge. On my team was Caroline and Steven. Steven is already in the industry and seems to be a very worthy chef already so we had a little bit of a head start. After inspecting the trolley of ingredients and nabbing the cheap bottle of white wine, Caroline and Steven set about making a main dish of poached chicken supreme, wrapped in pancetta and stuffed with a mushroom duxelle, served on a potato rosti and creamy white wine and thyme sauce.

I took charge with the dessert: a white wine, strawberry and vanilla infused jelly with vanilla cream, strawberry coulis and strawberry crisps (which, in all honesty weren't quite crisp but that was a time issue, not a chef issue!). We were the only team that didn't use a recipe book, instead entirely relying on our own knowledge. I was really proud with our efforts and Paul, the chef, seemed quietly impressed too.

For Tuesday's session we had some theory and then a cooking skills class, in which we made minestrone. It was to get us used to cutting veg and now, for the rest of the week at home I will be practising cutting things into paysanne, without losing any fingers. (Paysanne: cutting into small dice or triangles) Just for you guys I found a demo of paysanne on you tube, I particulary like the crazy oriental music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqcetdDZMn8

Isle of Wight feat. The Chairlift of Terror

Fair Skin + Sunshine =

Films I forked out good money for at the cinema this summer

Isle Escape

It is sunny. And warm. I am wearing a skirt, and grecian sandals and a vest top. I love Britain and it's totally confusing weather. So my man and I are off on a jolly little trip to the Isle of Wight tomorrow. Pictures will follow.

Last night I had a lovely dream about

The Holy Grail

With only a few more days to go until the Sex in the City Movie comes to DVD (extended version no less-yippie!!!) I decided to make do with watching a few classic episodes (note to reader seasons 2 and 3 are classic SATC in my opinion, Big/Aidan affair, LA episodes, Charlotte's wedding/Trey's impotance etc) and by Zeus's Beard, what do I stumble across? An episode from season 3 , called Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! that I had never seen before. To me this was MEGA. I thought I had seen all 6 series, many times over, how could I have missed it? It made my week-damn, it made my whole summer.