Feed Him To The Tigers!

And so with it being Bank Holiday Monday, and our son in his usual Pterrordactyl mood, we decided to find our most local Tigers to feed our little son too!

I still live in a world lit by candlelight (she never lets me have the light on in the lounge ya see) and the simplest of technological advances blow me away.  Wondering what to do with an additional day to our weekend I successfully discovered an unknown wildlife park, found its opening times, and even worked out how much it would cost us ..... from the breakfast table ..... ON MY PHONE!!

So we set off for Shepreth Wildlife Park, only about 30 mins from us but we never knew it was there!  They have weird furry creatures, guaranteed to be a hit with kids!

 

And all of the exhibits are within enclosures that have fairly low walls so you can see in really easy, which makes you feel a lot closer to the animals.  There was some really well thought out pens too.  I neglected to include the animals in this shot, so god only who was inside, but it looks like a fun place to be don'tyathink?

 

It definitely wasn't the weird furry creatures though, they were elsewhere still eating lunch!

All these open pens did have me slightly concerned for when it came to the Tigers.  Although I figured it would make it easier to feed Alfie to them!

I was relieved to find them safety contained behind some steel mesh though.  The same steel mesh that the local chicken shop says won't keep out foxes!  But I guess foxes won't attack Tigers anyway.

As it turned out feeding Alfie to the Tigers would have been much easier than I though, he seemed to be quite willing 'Tiger Bait'

 

Alfie had an awesome time squawking at all the animals though.  Even if his face didn't always show it.

 

They have an open bat 'cave' where the bats fly all around you which is pretty cool!  Even if only one bat came out to play. 

And there is also a super cool reptile enclosure where kids can really get up close and actually see whats inside.  Alfie was a big fan of the Bearded Dragons!

 

As every parent does, we had bought some fish food to feed the fishes that live in the big pond.  I'm tempted to report them to Trades Description people though cos what they actually sell is 'try and feed the fish while the f*cking swans eat everything' food. 

This gorgeous little bird joined in though - I have no idea what it is, answers on a postcard!  Its a real sweet little thing, the kinda animal that you hope means 'money luck and love' just so you can find a reason for having it tattooed!

The history of  Shepreth is originally a family home that became a rescue shelter.  At first primarily for hedgehogs, and everything has grown from there.  As more animals have come in, the place has got bigger ... and I like to think the park grew up around the tractor until they could no longer get it out.  And so they fenced it in.

Shepreth also has a kids play area indoors by the canteen, an outdoor adventure zone, and a kids research/discovery 'treehouse'.  It was fantastic, I recommend it to anyone who needs to amuse small people!

They also have signs which would do good as Tshirts for Alfie!

A Taste Of Winter In Summer

After making the cake for Lyds birthday I was left with a remainder of marzipan kicking about that I wanted to do something with.  I really had no ideas; I'm not the biggest cake baker and nor am I the biggest marzipan fan.

So I asked my friends on Facebook what I should do with 200g of marzipan and Ben Frazer (who was also in the Bake Off this year) came up with the genius suggestion of stollen.  Not only is it something I had never tried (which therefore appealed) but its also a firm favourite of Tasha's!

After some searching of the Internet (and also of my cupboard) this was the recipe I stuck together.  Its strongly based on something by Delia, but tweaked based upon others I read and what ingredients were available to me.

350g bread flour
150g milk
50g caster sugar
10g dried yeast
2g salt
110g butter
1 egg
90g raisins (you could split this with sultanas or currants)
40g chopped dried apricots
25g glace cherries (quartered)
25g mixed candied peel
25g ground almonds
25g whole almonds
200g marzipan
a good glug of Sailor Jerry

Here's what ya do....

1) get your raisins and apricots in a bowl and give them a good glug of rum to soak in.  Let them soak for as long as you can.  I've since found a jar marked "boozy fruits '08 which I'll be using next time!
2) warm the milk, add a little of the caster sugar and the yeast.  Set aside and watch it form a foamy head
3) in a mixing bowl add 325g of the flour (notice that is not all of it), the milk from step 2, butter, remaining sugar, salt and egg (beaten).
4) mix it all together and then add the fruits and nuts. (don't add the surplus Sailor Jerry, this dough is wet enough as it is!)
5) knead it on your worktop for 5 mins, clean the mixing bowl, get the dough back in the bowl and cover with clingfilm.  Set it aside to double.  Don't rush these things, mine sat for 2 hours.
6) turn the dough back out onto your worktop and add the remaining 25g of flour.  Knock it back and give it a good knead for a few minutes.
7) push the dough out till its roughly the size of a magazine.  Roll out the marzipan until its roughly the width of your dough.  Place the marzipan at the top of your dough and roll up the dough, tightly wrapping your marzipan within your doughy goodness.
8) set the oven to 190 degrees, dust your baking tray and place your unbaked stollen into the middle.  Lightly oil some clingfilm (this stops it sticking to the dough) and cover the dough once more to double in size.
9) once doubled bake for 35 minutes. 

This will give you a great stollen, equally perfect for breakfast or afternoon tea.  As you can see I went with more of an afternoon tea focus with mine and mixed 110g icing sugar with a tablespoon (plus a squeeze) of lemon juice to make a sweet glaze.

Save this recipe, you'll want it when December arrives I promise you!

Birthdays at Hugh Fearnley-Whatshisnames Place

A few weeks back (Sat 13th August) we were once again bundled into the Mighty Benz at a much too early hour to embark on a day trip to Devon.  With the memories of my previous effort still at the forefront of my mind I was being a right grumpy old man about the trip.

We were celebrating Tasha's Mum's birthday (even though it was actually Michi's birthday) and were looking forward to surprising her with a visit to the River Cottage canteen/deli in Axminster.  I have to be honest, there were a few occasions when I might have mentioned about the eateries we could have visited if we had saved the cash we would be spending on fuel and gone somewhere closer to home - my early morning grump really was in full swing!

Thankfully my grumbles were all proven to be wide of the mark, our early start meaning we beat the traffic and arrived in Axminster to meet up with the rest of the troop by mid-morning!  What was even more surprising was that Lyd hadn't managed to work out where we were going and she seemed over the moon with our choice of venue!

You can't reserve tables at the deli, and so we killed some time around the local shops before the canteen section of the deli opened at Midday for lunch.  After ogling the tasty treats in the deli we queued up eagerly waiting to be seated.

As we peeked inside through the open doors everything looked very 'River Cottage' ...

 

... and with Tim (yeah, him off the telly!) driving the ovens this was the most eagerly anticipated lunches I'd had in a very long time!

 

With the chalkboard menus and the wooden dining furniture it had a real rustic canteen feel to it, and one that I found very welcoming and comfortable.  I felt quite happy to wander about and explore the place and take a load of photo's!  I forget the menu's, apart from the fact mussels and chips were ordered, but the drinks menu is a little clearer in my mind ...

And what cracking mussels and chips they were too.  Seriously, THE BEST chips I have EVER had!

 

Of course Alfie dived in too and stole as much of our lunch as he could before turning back to his own.  He had a sausage/pasta dish, something I had forgotten until I saw this photo.  It would appear he couldn't quite fit it all into his mouth in one hit (either that or he's pooing mid mouthful).

And I'm guessing I pointed this out to him at the time as I was greeted with the following unimpressed expression;

 

As we were celebrating birthdays Michi and I had made cake the night before (making cake for her own party, how much does that suck!) and we all enjoyed a coffee and walnut battenburg to end the meal.  You'll be pleased to know it looked better than the one I threw together on the Bake Off ... but my squares still weren't equal.  I just can't trim things down, I'm a 'more cake' kinda guy lol.

With our empty plates cleared I was despatched to get Tim to sign Lyd's recently gifted River Cottage book and then figured it would be fitting to grab a photo of the family at the table;

 

but instead I seem to have only succeeded in capturing the moment my son 'checked out' the passing waitress! 

If you scroll back up to the photo of the drinks menu you will see it's hung on the side of a little balcony.  In my adventures I had discovered this leads out to a gorgeous little roof terrace!  I bet this is a brilliant place to be when the sun is shining and the cider is flowing!

Ammie had planned for us to head to Lyme Regis once we finished our lunch; after all we still had most of the day left and it would be crazy not to make the most of a daytrip to Devon.  For some reason the years of visiting my Nan & Granded as a child had left me with the impression that Lyme Regis wasn't exactly the most glamorous place in the world.  I warned the others as such, and therefore I like to think that me setting such low expectations in some ways contributed to how lovely the place was!  Lyme Regis was perfect Devon with a sandy beach, fishing trips, people walking dogs, and even old men riding old motorbikes!

It was only a short trip down to Lyme Regis, but after a long day Alfie decided to take this opportunity to grab a moment of shut eye.  It was a bit chilly, a typical British day in August, so we zipped him inside my top and went in search of the ice cream and the beach!

 

With the beach successfully found, and a wicked ice cream stall sourced, Alfie promptly awoke from his slumber not wanting to miss the tasty treats!  Isn't it amazing how kids always manage to do that!

For the rest of the afternoon we played a little on the beach, and wandered around the cool selection of shops.  We found a particularly fascinating antique shop which Tash and I could probably have spent hundreds in!  But Alfie preferred the beach.

 

With a long return journey ahead of us our departure time came all too soon, and we left Lyme Regis looking to click off some miles before stopping for our dinner.  We found a Little Chef to stop and enjoy our grub (pie's bought from River Cottage no less) and settled in the comfort of the boot of the Benz to enjoy our treats.

 

As I went for a wander with Harry to stretch his legs I thought to myself that this is a perfectly placed eatery.  Fred, Lyd, Ammie, Tom and Michie were making the journey home in their Skoda and I wondered if they too might stop there.  Oddly enough just seconds later I saw a very familiar silver Fabia pull into the car park!!  And so once more we were all seated around the dinner table together!

 

I haven't been to a Little Chef for years, and I was quite looking forward to seeing what Heston had done to the place.  I had to try one of the cherry pancakes that I remember enjoying so much as a child!  I'm pleased to say the coffee they serve was lovely, sadly their pancakes weren't. 

Feeling somewhat disappointed at my childhood memory being shattered there was only one thing that could save the day and cheer me up for the journey home.  Did they still have the takeaway treat to enjoy in the car?  YOUBETYA!

VSCC at Prescott Hillclimb

This happened back on Sunday 7th August.  There was two weeks to go 'till RRG11 and David and I made the trip through the Cotswold countryside to see Prescott in full swing.  We wanted one final chance to chat with the staff, evaluate how our planned layout might work, and see how a well established event got the most out of such a prestigious and attractive venue.

We love the VSCC guys, they were 'in attendance' at our first event in 2007, and they filled the paddock with some awesome machinery.  And educated me on how a fireguard should really be used!

 

I wasn't there to take snaps, but there were a huge number of cars that caught the eye.  And some impressive machinery being pedalled up the hill!

 

The Cotswold countryside makes such a beautiful backdrop, I swear its impossible not to have a good time at Prescott.

 

And much like the Goodwood Revival, folk like to really get in the mood.  Be that with a luxury picnic in the orchard ...

 

... or watching the track action from the comfort of your sofa (in the back of your truck!)

 

 

Just take 5 minutes ...

August is crazy.  It always is.  My show, Retro Rides Gathering takes place on the 21st, and so my mind focuses on nothing else until it is over and done with.  Tash frequently utters the words "next August we are moving out!"

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on!  We've had days out to River Cottage, planned a cycle to Gibraltar and got my face in a book ... but I can't concentrate on any of it until after the Gathering.

The Great British Bake Off gets its first airing tonight, and currently I'm not sure if I'm going to manage to sit down to see it!  I promise to blog about all this, and of course the final part in my Bake-Off adventure, sometime over the next week or so.

Having said all that, I just clicked on something posted by my friend Paul Cullen and was so mesmerised I spent a complete 5 minutes thinking of nothing apart from "wow, that is totally insane, I wish I could do that".  So go grab yourself a cup of Assam Tea, get yourself comfy, and forget about everything else in life!

Houston, We Have Touchdown.

It was a sad day for me today as, at about 11 o clock this morning, the last NASA space shuttle touched down at Kennedy Space Centre.

Space shuttles have just always been around, they kicked off the project in the early 80's (when I would have been a baby) and therefore I grew up with the space shuttles missions going on.  When you're young you don't think about what would have come before, it's all about the now, and space is pretty much the best thing in the world (probably even better than dinosaurs!) - one thing is for sure is that you don't ever imagine it ending!

Above the normal boys fascination with spaceflight, I felt especially engrossed with the whole adventure.  We were living in America when the Challenger disaster happened, and I remember very clearly seeing the TV around the breakfast table breaking the news to the nation that morning.  I will also never forget going to school that day, the way it effected everyone, and how a dark cloud just seemed to descend over everything.

Whilst in the States we also visited Kennedy Space Centre, and I remember having a large toy of the space shuttle.  However, at seven years old it was more fun to believe that the booster rockets were for a destructive purpose than just to provide propulsion.  I also got a load of photos from the visitor centre which I happened to think about, and collect from my Dad's, a few years back.  They are tucked away in a drawer upstairs now.

And so, with the news that NASA was winding down its space shuttle programme (which had been coming since the Columbia disaster) I wanted to catch as much of the action as I could.  I watched the launch of Endeavor a few weeks back and was blown away by the way the thing accelerates (and for how long it keeps accelerating!)  If you've the sort of person who only really sees a few seconds of a launch on the news in the evening then watch this!

A few moments after the launch there was an awesome photo that went around the went like a bushfire in the Australian outback!  It was a photo of the shuttle coming through the clouds, taken from a passenger on a commercial flight.  Its a great photo.  But then today I found this video!  This is fantastic!

I missed the launch of Atlantis, the very last flight, but was determined to watch it re-enter our atmosphere and arrive back on terra-firma.  It was due to land at about 11am (GMT) and I had the live stream going from about 8am!  It was great to see what goes on in mission control, and the screens they see.  The shuttle orbits the earth SO fast!

Who knows what will replace this, and what Alfie will have to amaze him when he is six years old.  And for that reason I wanted to try and show him what was going on.  Sadly the landing was at night, and so most of the images were through infa-red and night vision cameras - none of which are particularly good at grabbing the attention of a 19 month old boy.  Especially as by now he had got hold of my phone case, and whacking the keys on the laptop were far more entertaining!

Once stationary there was a fantastic image on the laptop screen, it even captured Alfie's attention!  I noticed later on in the day someone else had photoed their laptop screen and the BBC were circulating it as the "first picture of Atlantis"

And just like that it was over.  30 years, 135 missions, millions of miles.

I think what saddens me most is that the World seems to be becoming a place where instead of pushing the boundaries of what is possible we are consolidating on what we have with a fear of world destruction or financial meltdown.  Where are the next generation of scientists and engineers going to come from when these type of projects continually disappear?  What are kids going to have to aspire to, and dream of becoming?  You can have as many battery powered or solar charged ideas as you like, but it'll NEVER have the appeal of space flight.  I thought we were always being told that be 2030 we would all be able to holiday in Space - clearly not.

In space, we had the shuttles.  In the sky, we had Concorde.  On land, I can't see anything after Bloodhound SSC.  That's it, adventure over.

I grew up in an era where every eight year old dreamt of being a spaceman ... but by the time Alfie reaches eight spacemen might not even exist.

On The First Day, He Baked!

I don't write too many recipes on the blog.  That isn't cos I want to keep them under my hat only to be passed down to family members when I'm on my death bed, its cos I'm bloody aweful at writing them down!  I often get an idea in my head, research similar recipes, write down my concocted recipe on some scrap of paper and then head to the kitchen to bake.  What happens next is I bake something tasty, and leave behind me a trail of destruction which includes said recipe.  If Tash then clears up, its anyones guess as to what'll happen to my scrap of paper.  I just never seem to have the inclination to write it down in my recipe book, instead believing that I will be able to go through an identical research process to reconstruct the recipe the next time I want it.  It will be interesting this winter when I need to try and do my Christmas pudding again, last years was awesome and i NEED to recreate it!

Anyway, something must have been in the water on Monday cos things were a little odd.  I fancied a day of baking and Alfie fancied a day of sleeping.  Very unusual, but a perfect match!  Its been wet recently which means you can pretty much listen to the courgettes growing!  They go absolutely batshit when the rain falls.  This is our plant, and it may not look like much, but after a nights rain it will have fruit the size of baseball bats on it!

And so I wanted to reduce our courgette numbers, and what better way than to bake a cake.  We had loads of lemons still kicking about, and so a Lemon Courgette cake was planned.  The house was also needing bread, and I fancied throwing the rest of my appropriate ingredients into some cookies.

With the bread dough made and set aside, courgettes were harvested, I stole an egg from the chooks and I set to work. 

Dead easy this.  Whack the oven to 160 and line your trusty loaf tin.  Get two bowls.  Into bowl one goes 200g grated courgettes, 150g caster sugar, uno egg, 125g veg oil.  Mix.  Into bowl two goes 200g plain flour, half tsp salt, half tsp bicarb, quarter tsp baking powder and a tsp cinnamon.  Mix.  Sift your dry ingredients from bowl two into your wet ingredients in bowl one.  Mix.  Stir in the zest from one grande lemon and throw it in the oven for 45 minutes.  Its done when a cake tester comes out clean.  Let it sit for a few minutes in the tin, and then turn it out into a wire rack.

With the cake baked I set to work on some cookies.  Kinda like a cross between choc chip and spicey raisin/oatmeal cookies, with a few other things thrown in lol.  Baked in several batches, I soon had a loaded wire rack!

 

Which was later joined by our weekly loaf.

And finally taken over by a small batch of baguettes.

 

This week has mostly been spent eating!

New Homes All Round!

I've been a little slow in updating the blog recently, perhaps due to my reluctance to sit down for long periods.

Perhaps that seems an odd statement to make, but a couple of weeks back (Friday 8th July) Alfie and I made the trip down to Devon to deliver Red to his new (old) home.  Red had become increasingly anxious around Alfie, and it was clear his quality of life was deteriorating as he shifted around the house to stay away from the little thing that likes to yank doggy's ears.  Tash spoke to Angela, the lady we had got Red from, who jumped at the chance to have him back - her daughter still has his name scrawled on her schoolbooks!  And so, four years and four months after we collected him, I embarked on a dog related journey to deepest darkest Devon to return him to from where he came.

We entered Alfie's room before 6am, and were greeted with an unbelieving "Oooooh Nooooo!" as he was awoken from his slumber .  With the car loaded with drinks, roadsnacks and CD's, we were sticking £70 worth of finest 95RON in the Benz and leaving Tash in Rickmansworth by 7am.  Come 10:30am we were at our destination having only had to pitstop once!  I truely couldn't believe how well the journey had gone!  Considering I was travelling around 500 miles in a day, accompanied by an 19 month old child and a car sick dog, is it any surprise I had been preparing myself for a journey as stressful as the one endured when we tried to day trip to France in December?!

We had some time to kill and so wandered down to a local pub to relax and enjoy a coffee.  Well, what actually happened was I had a coffee, Alfie ran about and climbed over the sofa and Red did a poo in the car. 

Still, we managed to get the formalities done by 12:30pm which meant I was still doing good for time.  As sad as it is to rehome a dog, he certainly seemed to remember the house and the people, and his tail was high the whole time I was there - it gave me peace of mind that he was happy to be there, and also that he we had done well by him to see him so confident so far from 'home'.  As a nice reminder, here's one of my favourite photos of him.

Leaving at 12:30pm, and based on a return journey like our outbound, we should hit Rickmansworth for 4pm ... exactly the time Tash finishes work!  You can see where this is going, can't you?  Cruising at 70(ish) the Benz was munching the miles, and the boy was being surprisingly chipper ... until we hit the M5 outside of Bristol where everything came to a standstill.  But the boy was asleep, so it was OK.  However, two hours later and we were still in previously mentioned traffic jam ... and now Alfie was awake.  And unhappy.  And hungry.  And thristy.  And his arse was numb (i'm guessing that bit, but mine was so his must have been!).  We got through it though, but it was already clear we were going to be late to meet Tash from work.  But progress was swift and for a time we were making good progress ... until the M4 decided to stop outside of Swindon.  Another hour was spend crawling along yet another horrific British motorway, which passengers in the Mighty Benz passed by waving at similarly frustrated passengers, trying to catch the magic uppy downy window, and generally playing with ones feet.  I have no idea what time we made it through, but after eventually navigating the rest of the M4 and then the M25 we made it to Rickmansworth.  It was gone 7pm, over 3 hours since Tash finished work!  We had only managed one stop on the way back, and so we decided to reward Alfie with a meal at the Chinese before completing the last hour of the journey home.  On the whole he had been fantastic, and crispy chili beef was just what we needed to raise our spirits!  We got home after 9pm, 15 hours after we had left in the morning - and poor Alfie woke up the next morning sporting a bruise on his backside from all the hours in his car seat!

So that's Red in a new home, but he wasn't the only one.  After Alfie showed a consistant joy at playing in playhouses, and tactically choosing to get attached to one at Mothercare, we decided to get him a little home of his own.  Tash detailed it fully in her blog but he is loving having a door of his own to swing on!  How long do you reckon till I find him sat on the roof?

And so with the Alfie and the Red sorted that just leaves Tash and I.  We're writing this down on an I.O.U as we're sure our time will come to call this one in!

Sour Cherry Meringue Pie

I love it when June comes around, it means it will only be a matter of days until I can collect cherries and that means Sour Cherry Pie!  Best of all it means I get to climb trees!

However this years sour cherry pie was going to be different!  Tash came up with the idea when we were putting together Bake Off recipes, and although there was zero chance I would ever have actually made this (due to the fact it would have been 6-8 weeks too early) I thought it was such an awesome idea we had to give it a go this year once this years cherries filled the trees.  The plan was to take my traditional cherry pie to the next level with a 'meringue twist' - my first ever meringue pie.

So click back a couple of weeks and I'd just got back from the fishing trip.  I took the dogs out for a walk, and took a route that takes me over the railway line to check out the cherries.  As I approached the row of trees I could see an endless collection of cherry stones on the floor - the birds had beaten me to it!

As I walked on feeling pretty annoyed I happened to look up, and was greeted with a sight of unrivaled beauty! (?)  I didn't even know that tree was there!

And so that evening I wandered back over to the tree, and armed with a Waitrose plastic bag I set about collecting as many of the little bubbles of cherry filled joy as I could gather!

The next few evenings saw me revisit the tree and in totally I took over 2.5kg of cherries AFTER they were stoned.  Ah yes, the stoning.  Much time was spent amidst the following layout.  Cherries, stoner, bowl for stoned cherries.  Every evening I ended up with backache and stained fingers, but no pain no gain, right?  Thankfully the accompanying glass of Rioja helped ease the pain and monotony of stoning 4275 cherries (well it seemed that many to me anyway!)

Knowing I was going to make a meringue I decided to give my baking a kick up the backside and bring it into the 21st century - I bought an electric handmixer!  These kinda gizmos go totally against my way of baking, but I knew the meringue was gonna be hard work without one, plus  there was a certain something that sold it to me!

 

A rough recipe was drawn up, pastry was made, a boat load of sugar was added to the cherries and I set about making the meringue pie.  Putting my 'turbo' button to good use I made the meringue, and got the pie swiftly in the oven.

 

A quick peek in the oven confirmed one of my worries - there was way too much juice from the cherries!  Still, that's easily amended for next time and overall I was pretty pleased with the way it came out.

I'd probably go for a touch more meringue next time, but it tasted bloody amazing - quite possibly nicer than
my sour cherry pie!  Alfie certainly seemed to think so!