Sunday

As I have mentioned, one of my favourite English things to eat are cream teas. Lately I have been making my own scones and I have to say, they are delicious. With some fresh whipped cream and raspberry jam, you would be hard press to find anything as delightful. A perfect tea time snack on a gloomy Sunday afternoon.



The highlight of the garden at the moment is our broccoli. Our first! Who knows if this will actually grow big enough to eat but I love to see our broccoli giving it a good go. And it is nice to see something green in what is otherwise a very bare garden.



This is the bird table Martin's dad made us for Christmas. Who knew watching birds trying to get the food you put out for them could be so amusing? And the bird table has actually attracted not just your garden variety pigeon but blue tits and robins and black birds and a pesky squirrel as well. The birds arrive every morning waiting for our treats. Martin recently experience bird guilt when he was running late and was unable to put any seeds out. I think they have forgiven him though.

Chickens say hi.

Broccoli and Gorgonzola Pie

Another successful dish from Plenty! With some modifications. The recipe calls for two heads of broccoli. I only had one so I added some mushrooms. Also, neither Martin or I like Gorgonzola so I used a smokey cheddar instead. I thought it was excellent. It had mustard in it which Martin is not a fan of so not sure he enjoyed it as much as I. He was also responsible for rolling out the dough for the top :-) I give it four stars.

Airfare Sale!

Worth noting two major airlines are having sales right now...

Virgin Atlantic

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/index.jsp

And British Airlines

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb?DM1_Mkt=UK&DM1_Channel=PPC&DM1_Campaign=Masterbrand&gclid=CP7qt9K7oaYCFQJO4QodyUqrZw

Book now! :-)

Pasta!

For Christmas Martin bought me the pasta maker attachment for my kitchen aid mixer. Is there anything this machine can't do? Above are the results from my first go at making pasta. It was fun! And easy! Had a slight problem with grease and the roller but hopefully that will sort it self out. Put some oil on it so hopefully that will solve the problem. Also made some bread and sugar cookies. I love my mixer!

We had a really nice Christmas and are both sad about having to go back to work on Tuesday. Had a nice long break though. Spent Christmas over at Martin's parents house and came back to London in time to ring in the New Year. Was nice to just spend time in London and not have any place we had to be or anything we had to do. Now the holidays over it will be full wedding mode. I will try and keep the blog updated. So far this year I haven't done anything, though Martin will pick up our wedding certificate next week. Lots to sort out but I am hoping being pro-active will rule out any chaos on the day. Not long now! How very exciting!