Mamma Mia!!!

What is it about Abba songs?
There is a little cinema near us which has been refurbished and you can sit in a really comfortable seat with your wine and gateaux (or coffee and a biscuit depending upon your dispostion and budget) on a tray and watch a really good selection of films. It all seems very civilised and we have become members.
This morning we were up at the crack of dawn, work done and went to watch "Mama Mia!"
We have already seen the stage version at the West End in London but this was even better. Years ago all the "in " people tried so hard to be "cool" and say they didn't like Abba but now there we all were foot tapping. It is surely the best ever feel good movie. What was it about the movie that made me feel like dancing and bursting into song in the bank afterwards?

Planning ahead I had already cooked an all in one casserole ready for when we got home so I just had to add the brocoli and cook it all through and we ate it in the garden in the sunshine and , well, ...........felt great!

Here's what we ate:
Ham and Sweet Potatoes in Orange Sauce
1lb cooked ham cut into cubes ( I just used a hock which I had previously boiled)
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
225 g (8oz) chopped onions
450 gr ( 1lb) sweet potatoes cubed
425ml(3/4 pint) of chicken stock
1 orange
half a fresh pineapple cut up into chunks
1 level tablespoon of cornflour
black pepper
340g o(12 oz) brocoli

I used a cast iron casserole for this but any flameproof casserole would do.
Cook onions in the heated oil for 5 minutes and then add the ham and sweet potatoes and cook for 2 more minutes.
Mix in stock, 2 teaspoons of grated orange rind and the pineapple and cover and simmer for 10 more minutes.
Blend the orange jiuce with cornflower and add it to the casserole and cook for a minute, stirring until the sauce has thickened. Season it with pepper.
Add broccoli, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Serve with crusty bread.


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Eat, Drink and Be Merryfood

A cricketing birthday!

One of our grandsons had a birthday at the weekend. He chose to go to the County Cricket Ground for his birthday to watch the game against South Africa. My husband, son in law and two grandchildren were there all day long.

As soon as they came back they went straight outside to play cricket!! Do they NEVER get tired of playing sport???

The birthday boy was allowed to pick what we ate for tea and chose pizza. To my great delight our little 2 year old grandaughter, wanting to be like everyone else at the table, used her fork for the first time and did really well!

I do so love family meals! (even though the conversation kept coming back to cricket!)


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Should I have said yes?????

Standing over the barbecue with my son-in-law last night he asked me casually if I fancied going up Kinder Scout with him. I felt quite flattered really because I am by no means the fittest member of our family. But, you see, my husband's back isn't too good at the moment, my daughter "doesn't do hills" and my son is away in Canada. So that left me!
However, I was the only one who went canoeing with him in Scotland a while back and I know I am perfectly capable of going up Kinder but , fool that I am, I said "Awwww! You don't want to be held back by your mother-in-law, really do you?"

He smiled as we set the table for al fresco eating....." Okay" he said, "You're quite right"! Grrrrrrrrrr!

I felt really annoyed with myself. I would have loved to go up Kinder. We had a nice meal together though, if a trifle chilly and my mood mellowed and I have to admit that we really are quite lucky to have this particular son in law.
Amazing what a nice meal can do!!!! Do you think I should have just said "Yes?"
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Snoozing on the bus.......

My husband has a group of five close friends , known, for some reason, as "the Lads". The Lads are allowed (and, in fact, encouraged ) by their wives to go away together for a long weekend periodically on what they call "a pilgrimage" .

This year they went to Oxford and stayed at the university. The picture above shows them at breakfast in the dining room. My husband says it was a super breakfast!

They had a wonderful time walking along the canals and the river but the real point of the "Pilgrimage" was to visit various pubs featured in the "Morse" films as all five of them enjoy Real Ale.

Each of the five is a little eccentric in their own way. Each decided to have a doze in the afternoon. Where better to take this nap than on the free open-topped bus going round and round Oxford! And so the five old boys, each snoozed their way happily round and round Oxford so they would be ready to face the evening meal and the evening ahead!

I suppose we all deserve a break and a chance to enjoy each other's company and let our hair down. It is great to be in the company of old friends and enjoy good food, good conversation and their good company.

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Everyone's away.......

Everyone we know seems to be away at the moment. Some friends have gone to their caravan in Norfolk, one couple to the South Coast, others to Japan, one pair have even gone to Venezuela.
Our son is touring Canada with a play and even our daughter and son in law have taken the children to Yorkshire for a holiday.
The most intrepid of our friends though, took possession of our trusty van last year , filled it full of goodies and trundled all the way to Romania where they gave donated goods to an ill equiped nursery and the members of poverty stricken families in a small village. They have made the long journey again this year.
Last year my friend was so appalled by a family of orphans being brought up by an aged grandmother that she even left her own trainers behind for the eldest boy who had no shoes.......and they were thrilled with the various things the trio brought for them including the kitchen knives which one family said would be wonderful for killing the pig!!!!!
Not quite what we had in mind, but still!

Mad dogs and Englishmen..........

Sunday......and all our friends and family are on holiday so off we went to our local stately home. It is only ten minutes away and we are members of the National Trust so we pop along quite a lot.

We went into the gorgeous dining room as,because of our line of business, this sort of thing has always attracted us the most. There on the huge dining table is the most beautiful cutlery made of solid silver, together with lead crystal glasses, solid silver wine coolers the size of a small bath, solid silver table displays candlesticks etc. There are cabinets stacked full of priceless china. Here in that dining room course after course of wonderful food must have been eaten by the rich and powerful.

Then we went down into the kitchen. There, on the wall so that the servants could see it, was the inevitable old notice "Waste not want not!" What an incredible race of people we are!

When we went into the grounds I became even more convinced of this. Coming out of the gents loo was a gentleman dressed in red with a garden gnome's hat on. We followed him and came across this .

Who in their right minds dresses up on Sundays as an 18 century soldier?

But when we watched the display and listened to the commentary it was actually quite interesting......

The thing I couldn't quite get my head around though was why on earth the women in the party would spend their weekends dressed up in woollen 18 century clothing and cooking over this!

I don't know why all these mad people can't stick to being fascinated by churchyards and old gravestones like me!

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Ain't life grand........?

We have had years of working all hours like many other people in business. Years of fourteen or even sixteen hour days and weekends where we only took a few hours off.

Now we have reached a stage where we seem to have this whole time management thing sorted out.

Today, for instance , we popped out with a picnic to our local park at lunch time. We took a cous cous and cold chicken salad and a flask of coffee. This is a picture taken from the bench where we sat. This beautiful park is walking distance from our place. I couldn't help thinking, "Ain't life grand? ........and then we went back to work!
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Playing rounders

More birthdays this week. This time our daughter's friend, (who has been like a member of our family since she was four years old turned forty.) This is so hard for us to believe. Where have those years gone? She shares a birthday with my husband and so, as usual, we celebrated and ,as usual ,the celebration began with a form of sport.
We played rounders! I say " a form of sport" because one young grandson was already tired and grumpy after a day spent sailing and windsurfing, the other ,who is very young, had a bit of a tantrum when he was "out", our daughter caught her foot in some sort of rabbit type hole and went all her length and my little two year old granddaughter insisted on wearing her grandfathers "Birthday Boy" badge and toddling all over the pitch!

We had steak, sausages and salads and a birthday cake indoors because the weather had been unpredictable. Then we dispatched the children to bed and sat in the garden drinking wine by the light of a couple of oil lamps watching the bats circle above us. Another memorable day!
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