Awww!

To the middle day of the Hatfield House Country Show on Saturday with Sarah and her Dad. Set in the stunning scenery of the Marquess of Salisbury’s historic home, this event was launched in 2005, run again in 2006 but sadly cancelled in 2007 due to foot & mouth. 2008 saw the resurrection of this three day chance for “Town to meet Country” as his Lordship said.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the show before we set out; the Christmas fayre we went to a couple of years ago was less than inspiring.  This, however, was a pleasant change. Not that many stalls trying to sell you tat; quality food stalls from small suppliers (we had burgers from the Marquess’ own Cranborne estate followed by goat’s milk ice cream from Essex. And a good range of events to entertain us:

The National Hawking Show and Richard Savory’s Sheep Show – including dancing sheep!

Meeting 2008 Masterchef Winner James Nathan and tasting his final-winning chocolate pud:

Plus heavy horse racing, steam engines, polo demonstrations, pig and sheep judging, rare breeds and more.  More photos here if you really, really want them!

To the Portland Arms on Thursday with Sarah; it was a nice summer evening, we were out for a walk and fancied dinner out.

We used to live about five minutes walk from the Portland Arms.  At the end of March it changed ownership (the Camra magazine telling us it is now run by Sara Dale – her first pub) but we were somewhat busy with moving house spending our evenings packing boxes and the like and never made it down to try out their fare.  We’re a little further away now but, as we we’d popped round to some friends quickly we thought we’d come back this way and see what it was like.  Previously an award-winning pub, would it live up to its former reputation?

A friendly “hello” welcomed us to the pub as soon as we walked in.  The menu had a good range of choices. I plumped for the burger which was very tasty if decidedly unvegetarian – handmade from local Hedges Farm beef which was very tasty and juicy, topped with caramelised onions in a ciabata bun – far better than the somewhat insipid buns some pubs serve.  Sarah chose the butternut squash risotto which she found delicious and filling; this was presented attractively with a parmesan crisp.  Whilst waiting for the food we had a drink – I can recommend the beer as well kept – and introduced ourselves to Buster the labradoodle who probably thinks he runs the pub himself.  Buster has his own blog here.

After finishing our main courses we were tempted by the desert menu.  £4.50 got us a huge portion of homemade apple and raspberry crumble with ice cream (Sarah) and custard (me) which was truly delicious.

The two of us headed full but happy up the hill back home, sure we’d be back again soon.  Recommended.

Having moved to just around the corner(-ish!), Sarah and I have become friends of the Watercress Wildlife Association.

This little oasis of calm is nestled not far from London Road in St Albans next to a disused railway line and the River Ver.  There’s a mere for the birds, a butterfly meadow and an orchard and a lot more besides.  We finally made it down to have a look last weekend:

Well worth a trip if you’re after somewhere quiet to go.  And in the meantime, why not have a look at their sightings blog?

OK, so some of our friends think we’re just a little cat crazy.  But Phoebe is an important member of the family and has done sterling work comforting Sarah after her Mum died.  So, you’re just going to have to put up with a few more photos!

She seems to like the new house a lot, sitting in the garden with us:

Oh, and the bay in the living room:

Yesterday we took ourselves off in the morning to Hawkswick Lodge Farm just on the outskirts of St Albans. Yes, it’s pick-your-own season, and we came back having picked lots of strawberries, a fair few redcurrants and a small box of gooseberries. Recommended for a trip out – reasonable prices, delicious fruit, adequate car park, friendly staff and acres of fruit. The strawberries are even grown at waist height so you don’t need to bend down to collect them all.
Now, what to do with all of that fruit…

Fruits of our labours	Double, double…
The finished article	Jam packed

Recipe: 900g strawberries, 900g redcurrants, 2kg jam sugar, 3tbsp lemon juice. Put fruit and lemon juice in pan; add sugar. Heat and stir gently to draw out juice and dissolve sugar, then boil quickly until setting point reached. Pour into jars, cover and seal. Takes about 30 mins to prepare fruit then 45mins to heat.

Moo business cards.  That is all.

	Box of delights
Let’s meet!
	Laying my cards on the table

(Get them here)

In honour of Hotel Chocolat being one of the runners-up in the St Albans retailer of the year award, I thought I’d post a picture of the ‘Excellence 2008’ box from their Chocolate Tasting Club.

Click through the picture for descriptions.

For those of you who’ve not heard of the club, they send you, er, a box of chocolates to, er, taste. Hence the name.

I’ve stopped getting the boxes every month and now have them on a quarterly basis, but we do get the annual ‘best of’ box. And this one was a stonker. Not a single chocolate rated less than 9/10 (and there’s normally one or two that I’d score at around 6/10), an average of 9.4 and no fewer than five chocolates I rated at 10/10. Step forwards:

Red, White & Blue Best supporting fruit – white chocolate ganache mixed with redcurrants and blueberries, enrobed in a white chocolate shell.

Caramel Melt Most mellow – A firm praline brimming with earthy hazelnut, blended with an all natural essence of traditionally British caramel toffee enrobed in a silky smooth milk chocolate topped with a 100% cocoa swirl.

Dutch coffee Members’ choice – looks like a little chocolate coffee cup. Filled with ganache mixed with coffee and advocaat, topped with white chocolate lid and sprinkles of coffee.

Eton mess Best members’ creation – wish I’d thought of this one for the competition. Meringue with strawberry buttercream enrobed in white chocolate, topped with freeze dried strawberry pieces. Surely as close as you can get to real Eton mess in a chocolate?

Amaretti Creme Best dressed – amaretto creme in a dark chocolate topped with an amaretti biscuit. Shame one of mine was crushed in the post (very top right) but it tasted just as good!

Made you feel hungry yet?

Finally downloaded the pictures to follow up on last week’s video. And the darn rain meant they really weren’t very good. Here’s about the only one worth seeing: