Caramel here for a short(cake) time

Am playing a fun game with myself seeing how many of the pack of 12 mini Thorntons caramel shortcakes I can manage to leave to take to Chaz's for dinner tonight. Well fun for me, not them. Three are down so far.. An hour to go. I usually have so little self restraint that the phrase 'Doing a Fran' means acquiring a present of food for someone but accidentally eating it before it gets to them! I'm always terribly sorry.

Later on.. Luckily Chaz is more thoughtful than me and cooked us up this splendid dinner for gurls night. Whoopsy I forgot to capture anything but the bleak remains. You can only imagine how delish it looked. Once upon a time it was chicken fajitas with tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and sour cream.

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Too full to move we couldn't bear pudding. Chazzy deserved it throwing over her anyway for her naughty behaviour with white linen-ed Pasha!

Mums on Tour.2

I've been on so many holidays this summer I almost forgot to drown you with Cornish food info. They eat (clockwise from top) fish and chips, lashings of chocolate gateau, tent bits and bobs, and cornish pasties and ice cream.

Ignore the apples. Real Cornish and I don't touch them. We were all about the Gold bars.

p.s We found a mermaid

Pinot Yoga

It occurred to me that after eating all this food some of you may need some tips for exercise enjoyment. This is from the sweet lips of our very own Bobbeh.

1) Stretch up!

2) Stretch back.Wink to Daddy (in the tent next to us)

3)Down and take a sip of your wine.

4) Fling your hair up sexily.

5) Repeat with more wine.

In no time at all you should be toned up for Summer!

ST I spy food.

Luckily for me one of the bonuses of mostly staying inside the house is that I'm a lot less likely to go out and hook anything like this:

Oh no, these were dressed Norfolk crabs, not the other type. I did enjoy forking this up.

xxxx

My casa e your quesadilla

Got back from work this afternoon, finished off my mountainous chocolate sundae from the day before and fell into a swoony sleep for two whole hours. Swimming in and out of consciousness I thought I could hear Marky rustling in the kitchen. Dave was due at 7pm and right on time he snuggled into my bed for a last few precious sleepy moments. We were roused by Marky who had indeed whipped us up a treat of spinach quesadillas from the waitrose app. They were absolutely delish. They probably had some more ingredients in them but I can't ask him now as I'm late night blogging in the bath (no internet in my room) and he's watching a noisy action film in his room. I know he baked them in the oven, unlike mine which I do in the frying pan.

A bit later who should turn up but Alex, swiftly followed by Roast. Unfort by the latter's arrival we'd munched up the grub so Mother Fran fixed him a cheese and tomato toasted pitta which he enjoyed immensely.

Luckily he know what he likes and he likes what he knows!

Bake me, I'm yours!

Avoiding boys like I do means I often have to seek elsewhere for comfort. You can imagine therefore how much I relished soaking up this great wedge of homemade lemon sponge with homemade lemon curd. It was a cuddle for the mouth. Certainly got jammed into mine enough whilst I was sleeping (thanks Alex).




Alex had made it for Roast's birthday picnic which we ate at Kew Gardens.
Also attending were 4 boxes of strawberries, double cream, cheese straws, baguettes, dips and crudites, mini Cornish pasties, mini other unidentifiable pastries, Kit Kats, Mr Kiplings and a little salade on the side. I ate as much as I could and never felt right again throughout the day.

Via a market where I ill-advisedly purchased the biggest olive ciabatta ever for dinner we nestled up together on the long train home, transferring ourselves straight into bed from there.

If only I'd stayed like that as my plan of a night on the town was thwarted by a very bad stomach ache from all that food. Bad olive ciabatta! Bad baguette! Bad cheese straws!

Shrimp and save

At home being doleful this evening I was delighted to receive an invite from a fellow food writer for dinner. Well my drink date was being sick so I had a window.

Have you eaten? Oh no, I pitifully replied. Well, apart from that other dinner I had at four. But curry, rice and poppadoms don't really count. I've got to eat lots and often as I don't know where my next meal is coming from. I'm just like Oliver.

Luckily I was scooped up off the streets and right into a bowl of brown shrimp risotto with broad beans and pea shoots. One tub of mascarpone, one tub of shrimps, lots of rice and some wine I nicked from Netto. I've dreamt about tasting a brown shrimp since I cut out a picture of Waitrose potted brown shrimps and stuck it in my scrap book when I was but a scrap myself. It's like all my dreams are coming true at once:

Pudding was a squidgy three chocolate brownie. A Stork tub was being used for storage like we were back at Primary school and Bob was growing up too fast. Erm Miss...

Sleep tight my darlings xxxxxxx

Splinach splash

The alliteration of Spanish spinach omelette made me start singing,

'Splish splash, I was taking a bath/Long about a Saturday night/A rub a dub, just relaxing in the tub/Watching Sherlock Holmes on Iplayer..' it would have gone if I had written it not Bobby.

But having splashed in the bath for a full episode 1hr30 mins I hurriedly had eggs to fry not songs to write.

I'd been to Blue Granny's a few nights back so was swimming with rows worth of home grown spinach.

Now it may have just have been quiet tasting compared to the pot of rocky road chunks we ate for energy whilst cooking, or we may just have forgotten to season but it was just a bit like eating a garden centre. I am however looking forward to eating the leftovers for pack up. I imagine the flavours sink into each other a bit more.

Afterwards we had time to kill till Shooting Stars was on so we whipped up an Eton Mess. Looks like a bag of meatballs and sick but it was quite nice really and it was lots of fun to make I promise. Do it for the laughs.

Cook with Mother mess

After the sadness of the apricots in vodka hitting the dust (moral of the story: eat first ask questions later) I was really hankering for some soft fruit of my own.

I had the full weekend off and wanted to do what normal people do on a Sunday. I got up late, invested in a paper, some eggs, soldiers and a glass of milk. That accomplished I set to work on the recipes in the paper. Peach pie? Thanks Nige.

It was fairly simple although really couldn't have made more mess. Made the pastry with grated lemon zest in it, layered the peaches inside with a kitchen bomb of cornflour and grated orange zest then tucked it in with some more pastry snugly on top. Half cooked it to take to Chazney's for roof top dinner. Can safely say I was the sweetest smelling on the bus. Although probs the most spilly!

Once at Chazzy's we piled onto the rooftop along with an assortment of delicious cheesy stuffed roasted peppers, potato salade not a la fran, houmous and toz n moz salad. Unfort the benches had been taken away but we constructed an oh so moderne wine bar with some driftwood on a very high plant pot. Whoops can't see Chaz.

We then fully sated ourselves with generous helpings of pie with dollops of mascarpone cheese.

Oh what a peach of a day! p.s i don't know why the first two paragraphs have underlined themselves.

Spoon with Fran

I think you'll pleased to know that I've branched out into books.

Took an old rag (British food by Mark Hix) and converted it into something infinitely more readable. Seasonal veg, seasonal smedge.

Just crossed out his writing and pasted my old blog posts over his boring food photos. Whoever said word art was dead?

Holler if you want a copy. Night night xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Prawnography

Watching Alice Robert's wild swimming on tues night whilst locked in the sticky office at work I was ever so yearning to plunge into some beguiling wild waters. I suppose the next best thing for now is a succession of wet food.
Prawns in brine. Grapes. Ooh I could just dive into this pot of chocolate cookie sundae.

Tempted me to do some marie rose saucy swimming of my own! Well my wellies had both fallen in and these two didn't look like they were fetching them!

Feeding time for Fran

For Marky's day time birthday treat we hopped on over to ZSL to take in some cute animals. Obvs only went for Dog Blog material http://woofwoofpawpaw.blogspot.com/

I have been gagging to go for my whole three years in and around London. Many is the time i've been distracted with the baubles of 'oh but lets just play sims' or 'but lets just eat crumpets in bed'. Not that i'm complaining. Two of my all time favourite activities really.

But if you are looking for something more adventurous then let me recommend this as one of the best days out i've had.

Went to see the penguins feeding time but got a bit hungry myself so had to have a sit down in the corner with Granny's fruit loaf. Daytrip 101: never forget to pack a whole loaf of snack.

Don't have the recipe. Just go to Granny's and she'll give you one out of her factory freezer xxx

oh p.s with the money I saved with my 241 zoo ticket I splashed out on a whole curry, rice and pitta at the family cantine. mmm. Nothing like hot food in hot weather.

Gone with the mince

I've decided I should watch more classique films and cook less meat so what more of a perfect way to marry the two but dinner with Dani Vegelez Bristol.

Post sleep in shift that morning I blearily pushed my way round Morrinov assessing whether pinenuts (£3.99) or vegeburgers (£1.50 for four) were a tastier deal. The latter won so butternut squash risotto with pinenuts and feta was out the window and vegeburgers in pitta with cherry tomato jammy sauce, caramelised red onion and sweet potato wedges were in through my mouth.

Dani popped over at six after my all day nap and luckily was conscious enough to do everything herself. The only thing we tampered with was loads of fresh thyme on the wedges.

By a cheeky 7.20pm we were replete and looking for a cuddle on bed with clark gable. Only managed the first 2.30 hours so stay tuned for the next dashing dinner. Frankly, my dear, as long as it's tasty I don't care if it's animal or plant.

xxxx

Soft soft soft

Had a bit of a disappointment the other day. I've been very much taken by this jar of apricots in vodka sitting in our fridge for a good four months. They just look really soft. I was waiting and waiting for Marky to open them so I could have/steal one. Then the other day when we were hanging out in the kitchen together he spotted they had gone a bit mouldy and so before I could blink had chucked them unopened into the bin.

My heart sank to the bottom of the bin with them.

But don't fret. This tale of dreams gone bad has a happy ending. Now, I've been lusting after a particular type of marshmallow since 2009. I had lots of time and a RA members card and managed to rack up a visit to the Anish Kapoor exhibition a grand ten times. Opposite is Fortnum and Mason and I would slide across to lunch from the cheese, bread/dip, and pie taster sections, and gaze lovingly at the glass fronted piles of mallows. But they were seventy pence each and I was unemployed so it wasn't to be.

Cut to ten months later. DB and I went for a Sunday coffee at the towpath cafe and whilst dipping our toes in the cooling canal she presented me with the luxury treat of one whole marshmallow with real raspberry bits in it.

Oh she treats me well. I'll just have to find a new food crush now to not try till 2015. Keeps me busy!

xxxxxxx

Happy Birdday!

Responsible parents and animal rights lovers look away now. It was Marky's birthday on Friday and we were incredibly naughty. We got him two zebra finches in a pretty lime and orange cage.

We could hardly draw ourselves away from them to mooch out to dinner at one of the local Vietnameses but somehow we managed and it was very enjoyable. I of course had prawns and managed to stay away from Alex tricking me into slurping up chillies. Ouch.

After aperitifs in the Stag's until 11 we stumbled on to Angel for a few hours of Stewart Lee at the Screen on the Green. As we sank into large velvet sofas I knew I was going to have trouble staying awake, however funny he was. Luckily the men next to me enjoyed plying me with sweets to keep me awake. Figured that even if they were rohypnolled it'd be an excuse to sleep, so a win win.

Nearly had another meal at 2.am on the way home but as we approached McDonalds the lights dimmed and that hope with it.

Sweet slumber petals xxxxxxx