Claire's Cake Bake & Other Foodiness

Last month we went for an overnight stay at The Punch Bowl in Crosthwaite in the Lake District.  The occasion, our third wedding anniversary and Elodie stayed with Nanny & Grandad for the night.

The Punch Bowl was named Pub of the Year by ‘Michelin Pub Guide 2009′ and after looking at their luxurious accommodation on their website we couldn’t resist a bit of R&R…

The overnight rate included Afternoon Tea upon arrival and Breakfast.  We hadn’t appreciated this until we actually booked in so it was a nice surprise.

From the off, the staff were really lovely.  Not too much, nor too little – just friendly, welcoming and very helpful.  After checking in, we were shown to our room and left to our own devices.  If we had realised that Afternoon Tea was included we may have arrived a little bit earlier so we decided to enjoy it before it was dinner time! We sat downstairs in the pub/lounge area and two scones, jam and cream were served alongside a refreshing pot of tea (using tea leaves, not teabags).

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Elodie had a little party for her friends last Sunday, so I made a little buffet and cupcakes for pudding.  Well, their mums & dads needed feeding too…

Elodie turned one this week. I can’t believe she is a year old already, where has the time gone?

We had a small family party on her Birthday to celebrate and of course, she had a Birthday cake too. It was themed on her wallpaper – delicate girly butterflies & flowers (sparkly of course, but that doesnt show very well in the pics).  It was another traditional madeira sponge with jam & buttercream with white regalice.

This time for my Mums birthday.  Another madeira cake with white regalice and flower decoration.  I didn’t fancy a bow made out of icing (icing overload) so managed to find some wired organza ribbon. It was very tasty and has lasted a good week.

We’d been meaning to eat at 60 Hope Street for a quite while and we’re not sure how we hadn’t managed to get there sooner.  The occasion that finally got us there, however, was my mums 60th birthday.  And on a recommendation from my brother we managed to book a table for what turned out to be a rather pleasant dining experience.  We only wish we’d taken the opportunity before!

On arriving we went downstairs to the Bistro/Bar area and ordered a drink, this was the only sneaky tactic I didn’t like as our table was ready and waiting when we arrived, but some restaurants do have a bad habit of getting you to order a drink before ordering wine for the table.

When we were eventually seated (we played a game of musical chairs first!) the Maître d’ came over and handed out the menu’s.  He then theatrically read aloud the days ’specials’.  We’re not sure if he was new and performing with much enthusiasm or is always so entertaining, but with much gusto he detailed the dishes brilliantly.

It took us a while to eventually decide on what to order but I think between us we sampled quite a few of the dishes.  To start I ordered Scallops in pastry with red pepper & aioli and Anthony eventually decided on the Assiette of Duck.

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Tonights dinner wasn’t something I’d normally make when trying to eat more healthily, but I am participating in a forum monthly challenge and this months recipe certainly made Anthony smile. In fact, anything with sausages makes Anthony happy. The recipe is taken from Jamie’s Dinners – I halved everything to make dinner for two but even they were extremely generous portions.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• Olive Oil
• 2 knobs butter
• 4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks (Mr Oliver uses 1kg/2lb 3oz boned and skinned chicken legs, cut into pieces)
• 2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced into 1cm pieces
• 2 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 sticks of celery finely sliced
• A small handful of thyme, leaves picked
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 wineglass of white wine
• ½ pint milk
• s&p
• 225g good pork sausages
• 1 x 500g pack of all butter puff pastry
• 1 egg

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