12 course meal, lovin it

Well I have to say, as I quite often do, some days I impress myself. Not wanting to take all the credit for the medieval banquet mind you, as between Jane, Grandma Mo and Mum, everything fell into place and rolled out like clockwork.

The first course of "Moules Eclade" went reasonably well, however the strong cross winds affected the burning pine needles and hay resulting in a slightly smokier burn than we would have liked.

Course 2, goats cheese truffles. Having seen them on TV the other night Jane said she liked the look of them so I volunteered her for this course. Although a little messy in the production, the finished product looked exquisite and went down very well.

On to the third course, French onion soup. I'd started it off at 5:30am Saturday by caramelising the onions and then reducing them down, almost to treacle. The addition of stock, white wine and a small amount of seasoning and job done. Later in the day I fried off some giant croutons to complement the soup.

The last of the starters was a magnificent display of sliced meats. Dave and Chrissy had gone to great lengths, producing an apple tree former before decorating it with the meat.

And so we hit the first main course. Three legs of lamb pierced with garlic and rosemary and then slow roasted for four hours in the pizza oven. These were served up with roast potatoes, carrots, ratatouille, cabbage (with cream and lardons), boiled potatoes and mint sauce.

The second of the mains was a large salmon poached with 'herbes de provence' and butter. Sid, as he became affectionately known, unfortunately had a small accident on route to the banqueting hall leaving him tailless but he was cooked to perfection and consumed with delight.

Course 3 was the belly pork which Jane had managed to crackle to perfection. The French have a habit of removing all the fat from pork and replacing it with reconstituted fat sheets. Luckily Jane found some slabs with the fat still attached and there was more interest, and fighting, with the crackling. The last of the main courses was the beef rib. After 4 days of marinading in red wine and black pepper, this was roasted off for 2 hours. At this point I was starting to wonder if anyone would have any space left but I had nothing to worry about as very quickly it started to disappear. This was served up with some homemade horse radish sauce which had the ability to bite back and clear your sinuses.

First up on the puddings was the crème brulees which disappeared as fast as I could caramelise the tops of them.

Second up on the puddings was Chrissys home made apple pies served with local cream or custard. How people were still fitting food in I have no idea.

The final pudding, not counting the triple birthday cake, was Krusti. I made 400 and I reckon we got through 200 of them.

When we got to the cheese course, you could see people were done so we wheeled out the birthday cake, a Neapolitan of sponge, chocolate and fruit. Thank you Jill for a lovely cake.

All done and dusted, the night was an amazing success which I thoroughly enjoyed. Watch this space for future activities.

I went digging

In preparation for our medieval banquet, now only 11 days away, I decided to have a dig around in the banqueting hall to investigate the very unhealthy smell that was emanating from the floor. Just the fact that the ground was permanently damp suggested that there may be a leak in the drains somewhere.

What I uncovered was a little horrific to say the least. The drains were constructed of concrete tube sections merely butted up against each other and wrapped with builders sacks. A feeble attempt to keep the water and waste in which had failed dismally. There was only one option, as always, which was to do the job right.

Rain had stopped progress on the pizza oven so I hopped in the car to go and get the appropriate materials. I won't go into an in depth description of the stench that filled the room as I removed the old, fat and hair clogged, pipe work but it was pretty gross. It reminded me of my days of fixing sewage pumps.

With the site cleared and all the old tat removed I had no choice but to progress on with the new installation. The hardest job was reconfiguring the bath waste, previously running into a tin jug, to incorporate a trap and sit down under the level of the floor.

All done for today and I feel very contented. I believe a shower may now be a necessity though.

Great food, Great company Great quantities of alcohol

Apologies if you think I've been neglecting my blog duties recently. We've had some fantastic friends staying with us since last Wednesday and my attentions have been focused on the important things in life like eating, drinking and guitar hero.

We've had a major cook off over the last 5 days, culminating in some locally grown duck breast on Saturday night followed up with a binge session of creme brulees. Friday night was steak night which were barbecued to perfection, I'd expect nothing less from Russell.

In between times we've managed to off load a van full of hay, mend the ride on mower and cut some grass, make some progress on the pizza oven and have a thouroughly good time in the process.

Depressingly though Lucy and Russell had to return to their hectic city life and we have descended into a proper Norman autumn. Today has been overcast with a fine mist of sideways rain soaking everything in it's path. I chose to hide away in the log shed cutting the first load of logs for the impending winter that seems to be creeping up on us far too rapidly.

On the socialising front, we're having a medieval banquet on 29th October to celebrate my friend Davids 60th birthday and my 37th. After that things will be quiet until just before New Years when we look well on track to having a full house. As for next year, just to really confuse people, our annual May Party will be at the beginning of June. This is because the bank holiday that it usually coincides with has also been moved to the beginning of June and, on the brighter side of things, a bonus bank holiday Tuesday has been added to the week to celebrate the queens jubilee.

A blog from Kirsty

Saturday the 24 of September: Josh,me and mummy went shopping and bought a banana tree.

Tuesday the 27 of September: Mummy was at work, and Josh was at college, Peter and my teachers were on strike so we had to go to work with daddy and then I stayed and played with my friend and I stayed with another friend for the night.

Wednesday the 28 of September: Mummy was at work,daddy went to work, and Josh,me and peter to a friends house. Thursday the 29 of September: Mummy was at work,Peter and I were at school ,Josh was at college and daddy was working. Friday the 30 of September: Mummy was at work,Peter and I were at school ,Josh was at college and daddy was working.

Saturday the 1 of October: Daddy and Josh went to work and Peter,me and mummy went shopping and the rabbits were sun bathing.