Come Dine With Me

If you haven’t watched TV’s Come Dine With Me then you really should, it rocks. It’s car crash TV at its finest and while I find myself cringing at the Average Joes serving dinner to random strangers, I just can’t tear myself away.

I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of CDWM, you can just look it up. Tonight CDWM comes to Milton Keynes but sadly there won’t be any cameras, a witty commentator or even score cards at the end of the night. And there certainly won’t be a tray laden with £1,000 in cash for the winner.

What there will be is three couples, a starter, a main course and a pudding and no doubt a fair bit of wine. Oh, and a dog too, his name is Archie. Maybe he’ll be serving the drinks? Stranger things have happened on Come Dine With Me!

That said, the host for this evening, who yesterday went home from work with suspected swine flu is sticking to a pork theme with her menu.. she’s just sent this through…

STARTER
Face licks from Archie Buchanan, dog servant extraordinaire

***

MAIN COURSE
Pork and herb sausages with a red onion sauce & creamy chive mash

***

DESSERT
Chocolate swirl cheesecake
Tart lemon cheesecake

The host may be serving dinner from her death bed but I actually think/know that her hubby will be in charge of the kitchen and she’s just looking for an excuse not to do the washing up. And there’ll be plenty of that after we’ve spilled red wine on the new sofa, trashed their food and forgotten to take our muddy shoes off before entering the property. Oh yeah, I’ve just remembered that we get to rifle through her house too, although I’m not sure I want to know what’s lurking in her drawers!

Anyway, I am well looking forward to this dinner party with a twist. I think a generic email inbox will be set up for voting purposes as “scoring a one in the back of a cab” just isn’t practical, and besides, we have no cameraman.

So, tonight is the first of three soirees and the benchmark to beat. Bring it on! I don’t want to get too boastful though because it’s always the ones who think they’re fine dining experts and show offs and boasters who end up getting trounced by the more down to earth diners.

Fingers crossed I don’t wake up with food poisoning tomorrow…

Tip of the week

Want to shed a few pounds in the weight department and gain a few pounds in the cash department? Then here’s my tip: start planning your meals.

This is something I started for 2009 and so far it’s working; I’m spending less money on my food shopping, only need one supermarket trip per week and I am eating healthy, balanced meals that taste scrummy too. No more microwave meals for one! And it doesn’t mean spending hours in the kitchen either.

What I do is draw up a chart, with columns for each day of the week under the following headings: breakfast, lunch and tea, and a fourth section for whatever you do in your evenings. Mine is pretty much defined by a sporting activity, but this could include cinema trips, eating out, seeing friends or working an evening shift.

The first three columns are relatively simple. Just write in what you plan to have for each daily meal. And this is where the fourth column comes in: it helps you decide what to have for tea, depending on how much time you have, and also what to have for tomorrow’s lunch. Will you have time to prepare it the night before?

I know that if I have volleyball training in Leicester on Wednesdays that I’ll need a quick bite to eat before I jump on the M1 – beans on toast perhaps? – and I won’t want to be preparing the next day’s lunch when I get home at midnight, so Thursday’s lunch will probably be a tin of soup.

I only do one shop a week, on a Thursday, and the food I buy keeps me going all week, because I’ve planned it all out. And I’m not throwing away an abundance of rotting leftovers, a common occurance when you live alone.

It sounds like a bit of a chore to be so organised, but it’s saving me time, money and even effort. Before, I was quite capable of spending £80 in Tesco and still have very little that would combine to make a meal, let alone a week’s worth. And I would always nip into Tesco Xpress to get milk, fruit, bread and whatever else took my fancy, on a regular basis. And I could come home after a long day followed by a sporting session only to find I had an empty fridge… and a rumbling tummy.

I know this is a really boring thing to write about but it really has revolutionised the way I eat and shop for food. I am better off and my diet has improved. And I’m enjoying cooking, sometimes experimenting and coming up with new dishes/food combos.

Just try it folks, see how you get on. And if you have any quick and easy recipes, feel free to share…

Dinner to die for

On Friday night I had the pleasure of dining at Simpsons in Birmingham with my family. We all like good food and this was certainly the place to get it.

Billed as one of the best places to eat in Brum, it has a slightly odd location in that it’s not near the hustle and bustle of the city centre or trendy spots like the Mailbox. It looks like a large country house nestling outside the Brummy action.

The decor is fab but on being seated in the lounge area while supping champers and browsing the menu, there was a God-awful noise coming from the restaurant – carol singers!

Carol singers are great, don’t get me wrong, but only when they’re singing in town centres or at people’s doors – not when you’re enjoying some fine dining. They were good singers, yes, but was it relaxing? No, it was just incredibly irritating. And loud.

Anyway, we were shown to our table – a round one, the best kind for our party of six – with a great view through a large window and into the kitchen where a ruck of busy chefs prepared food.

We went for the tasting menu, which meant we got to sample about eight little courses, all of them totally yummers, particularly the scallops and the venison. Mmmmm.

The only thing to let the food down was a pear tartin – fantastic in intself – but ruined by the blue cheese icecream. That’s right folks, I said blue cheese icecream. Blue. Cheese. Icecream. What were they thinking!!! Icky poo. Not a good combo, no matter how forgiving your tastebuds are.

Apart from the icrecream and carol singing blips, it was wonderful. The service was excellent – staff pandering to your every need without being in your face – and they were friendly too. There’s nothing worse than a stuffy waiter who looks down his nose and is unable to make relaxed conversation with diners. The mixture of French and Brummy waiters was quite refreshing also.

So, all in all, a mouth watering night out.

Mince pies and mulled wine, cocktails and canapes

Personally I think Christmas Day is crap, but I do like the build up to what is falsely labelled “the big day”. I lose interest after 25 December, but the rest of the month is usually filled with parties, socialising and general merriment.

Tonight some work buddies are coming to my place for an evening mince pies and mulled wine, the latter being of the homemade variety. The fact that most of them don’t like either of these foodstuffs is neither here nor there; it’s a chance to stuff our faces and exchange banter outside the office walls. A few poor soles have snuffles too, so it won’t be a mad one, but fun nonetheless.

On Saturday, the partying steps up a gear with cocktails and canapes (my pre-birthday celebrations) and then throwing some shapes out in town. I love parties, especially hosting them, although I do get a bit stressed by the incredibly impractical colour of my carpet and the fact people (and me, mostly) keep spilling things on it. Usually dark red liquids, sod’s law.

Throwing parties does have it’s downside. Things get messy – literally – so the next day is spent tidying up, clearing up broken glass and finding people’s left behind belongings – scarves, jewellery, the odd toothbrush or lip gloss etc. But that’s all outweighed by the fun factor. I like to think of myself as a social butterfly and Christmas is the time to be spreading my wings.

That said, I need to fly – gotta fish out that triple-disc Christmas CD…

On the CASE…

Last week I spent four days at the international CASE conference at the Metropole Hotel, Brighton, with a couple of work buddies. Despite being good fun, it was pretty draining what with the days rammed with breakout sessions on all manner of higher education-related topics and lunch and coffee breaks dedicated to networking. And the evenings? Well, that was dedicated to networking too, but on a more social level than a work level.

My chum CK has highlighted some of the conference’s good bits, but here’s my list of memorable moments:

• On our “free evening” we found the best fish restaurant ever – low lighting, high stools and tables and superb food. They were all out of skate knobs unfortunately (we were desperate to say skate knobs to the waiter… so childish) but the selection of fish dishes we got our chops round were totally yummers and the key lime pie was a great finish.
• The gala dinner and the pegging game. Dressed in our super glam dresses we hit the pre-dinner drinks reception with panache, slightly disgusted at those folk who turned up in jeans. Anyway, my colleagues and I, joined by our new mates from Birmingham University, tucked into the wine, strutted our stuff on the dancefloor, did a bit of foxhunting (Mr Dishy, Rossy and Rowey of particular note) and then played the peg game (I found a peg in my bag left over from the weekend’s hen do and thought we should put it to good use.)
• Loss of balance. There’s something about Brighton that makes you lose your sense of balance. I nearly fell head first off an exhibition stage, CK attempted to hurl herself down some stairs in very high heels and Dem tripped up the pavement on a half hourly basis. Luckily, no one was hurt.
• Swimming in the sea. Now, I never swim in the sea. EVER. And I’m even reluctant to take a dip in the pool on holiday if it’s cold. So, how CK managed to persuade me to dunk myself in the Brighton saltwater, I have no idea. Not only was the water icy cold (it made me scream) but navigating my way to the waves in itself was no mean feat. Pebbled beaches equal painful tootsies and I found myself unable to move for fear of the agonising pain. CK lent me her flippers which helped (although we nearly lost them on a few occasions) and I did it. Yes, it got rid of my hangover and yes, I looked like a wally in the process. But it’s all in the name of fun… or insanity… one of those.
• Food. We certainly didn’t go hungry at conference, and always looked forward to our next meal. If buffet was being served we’d position ourselves so as to be able to get there first and we generally ate quite well. The only downside was a pub lunch of a Ploughman’s platter which consisted of a baguette, a bit of ham, Branston pickle, coleslaw and a shrivelled tomato. And it was a tenner! Rip. off.

All in all in was a great four days although totally draining. The social side was fantastic but, on a work note, I learned new things too. I went to all the digital media breakout sessions – anything that had a communications thread – and heard about all the exciting projects other universities are working on. And, amidst all the frivolity, my colleagues and I managed to make a couple of podcasts on “what we learned”.

Ladies wot lunch

Having detoxed myself just the other week I went to the opposite extreme last Friday and gorged on an sumptuous three course lunch.

My buddy and I won an £80 voucher in a raffle to dine at Firenze, a posh Italian restaurant in a little Leicestershire village. Now, after my detox my stomach has indeed shrunk and I although I was full to bursting by the end of the meal, I made sure to clear my place.

After warm bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and olive tapendade, washed down with a glass of chilled white wine, I tucked into beef carpaccio with parmesan (one of my faves) followed by veal “tastings” which included liver, kidney and some other body parts I didn’t recognise but which all tasted good. After a 20 minute break to digest I tucked into apricot and amaretti tart with black pepper icecream. Yumlicious!

The food was great and although we managed to spend £100 on lunch between just two of us, it was a pleasant indulgence. My only complaints were that the coffee was luke warm (I like my hot drinks HOT) and that the restaurant lacked a bit of atmosphere; it was very quiet and with no music in the background and I felt I had to whisper any conversation. I’m sure it’s buzzing in the evenings.

It has to be said that big lunches kinda finish me off and so returned home for an afternoon snooze. Bliss. We then enjoyed a few cheeky beverages in the delightful village of Quorn before retiring to bed at a semi-reasonable hour so we could get up at 3.30am – yes, 3.30am, to watch some of the Olympic beach volleyball. Dedicated to sport or what!