classic british picnic
picnicking in a carpark
food archives
picnicking in a carpark
picking our own
kezia and i went off to pick our own strawberries yesterday as part of her summer school project.
i just loved all these signs with foods that grow around, under, on or near dirt.
i've never seen a currant tree, so that would be a good destination sometime. actually, i think it might be where they keep the currant families like red, black and yellow/green striped.
and what's a calabrese ? i thought that was carpet cleaner
still we got a good fist full. kezia ate a large proportion of them in the car on the way home.
i've no idea if it's cheaper or more expensive to buy via pick your own. on one hand you are saving them the labour, but on the other it's an hour's fun so you might have to pay for the privilege.
this price chart was quite interesting though. quite a few random letters and words left over.
strange food
what exactly are those burnt things in the picture above ?
friends and food
we've been without a kitchen for a couple of weeks (probably a bit longer) but there's hopefully only this week to go before we get reinstalled. over the last few weeks we've had loads of dinners out from people at church and it's been brilliant ! so, thanks to everyone who has had us round !
cow picture outside a utchers
have a look at what you are eating.
everyone remembers their first wimpy
kezia and i went to a posh riverside town and after duck feeding and play-parking we went for lunch in Wimpy. it had everything i remember - knife and forks, disappointingly untasty burgers and poor service (they never brought our drinks and the waitress couldn't have seemed to have cared less about us being there) !
still, it's great to know Wimpy is still going strong and hasn't changed in all these years !
toast wars
i like how cafes often have photos of the food they serve, just in case
you don't know what things like sausages, beans, coffee etc look like.
two cafes close to each other near farringdon station both had pictures of toast.
two cafes close to each other near farringdon station both had pictures of toast.
shrove tuesday
we had a family pancake throw off last night. jane's mum won for finess and enthusiasm. jane's dad won for sarcasm. jane won for just being generally fantastic
bakewell tart
ether and kezia's godparents invited us round for lunch yesterday which was fantastic. we lived in the Sheffield at the same time before moving south. ruth made this fantastic bakewell tart. my piece had a big thumb print in.
kezia and the squirty cream
there's few things more terrifying that a 5 year old with a loaded can of squirty cream.
toast bar
regular readers will know i love signs like these which show the food looking proud to be eaten. this 'toast-bar' also serves chips, as seen here.
i initially read the sign as 'retro-snack'. toast would make a good retro snack
i initially read the sign as 'retro-snack'. toast would make a good retro snack
comedy menus
i had a big pile of raw meat (and a major three day stomach upset) and the miserable with raspberries. a colleague had cuckoo which was impressive.
dinner with the vicar
jane and i went out for a lovely meal at the rectory last night. we so rarely get to go out together so it was great. and the food was most excellent too.
caramel apple granny 99p
nothing and no one was ever wasted
hand made by me
i'm not sure how i feel about the word 'me' on a sign. was it the sign itself who made england's best pork pie (singular)?
cold rice pudding with bombs
good food and company yesterday at the vicarage for lunch. pudding was multiplus, including this rice pudding
liver bacon casserole (and liquid cocaine)
london's drugs culture hits the streets (you might need to click the picture to see the sign in the background)
served whit "free"
"free" meaning not free i guess ? that'll be their whit showing through.
holland fun in london
kezia and i had a dad and daughter day in london yesterday. we started with pain au chocolats in paddington station, then went to london bridge, walked down through borough market, spent a couple of hours in tate modern, then went to this.
My experience of holland has always been good, and this was no exception. nice cheese (made backwards of course). And plenty of clog related activities.
kezia and i danced like loons at the silent disco with music played by this chap (note the suite hanger). he too was a purveyor of fine quality cheese
prown coktial
prown coktial anyone ?
two soups
there's kitchen fresh soup. and then there's guest soup. which suggests that the guest soup isn't fresh. or is made from, rather than for, the guests.
greasy breakfast
i took the girls for a greasy fry-up yesterday morning. i think that's what dads are meant to do at weekends.
whilst we were fattening ourselves, jane was on a 12 mile training run !
wobbly cafe sign
it's interesting that the only plural on this wobbly written sign are beans.
charlie's doughnuts
reader charlie sent me this. he writes:
"Thought you might like this. It says tesco doughnuts, yet contains cornish pasties. How random."
things to make you feel better
i've had a stinking cold for the last week. i stopped at the petrol station for some lemsips and, as is always the way when i got to a petrol station, i also got a box/tin/tube of pringles.
but fancy me if they didn't use exactly the same colour scheme. that could confuse someone who was easily confused
Domhnall's buffet photos
my colleague Domhnall sent me these photos of a recent trip to a buffet.
he writes: "On the plus side we had lunch in a china buffet place today and they had the weirdest instructions. See the attached and you'll realise they charge you for sitting down (unless you ask them not to), how much your children pay depends on their height, and the offer of Chinese Mush was one I personally passed on! "
pub lunch
yesterday, whilst the girls were at a party i went to the pub and had a giant steak and ale pie and chips whilst reading the paper. what a treat.
the giant ice-cream challenge
Esther and i shared this huge ice-cream which contained cream, ice-cream, profitables, chocolate cake, maltesers and flakes. a brilliant daddy/daughter thing to do !
emergency snacks and confectionary
this incident catering unit van was at jane's half marathon. What a fantastic name for a van. And what a brilliant idea too.
they could have all sorts of advertising messages, like "all events catered for", or pun around the words incident/instant.
available now for all your emergency sandwich needs.
and if you click on the picture you'll note on the big version it says 'teapo' on the side. which is a nice idea.
contents may shrink after opening
children can be so lateral. Kezia had some Candy Floss. She'd wanted some for ages and finally got some, and loved it.
on the tub it said "contents may shrink after opening"
and esther said, "of course it will - you'll eat it".
meal combo pack
i like the idea of a combined beer and spaghetti can. food and drink, ideal for street embassadors (my name for tramps/homeless)
dougal cake
a major advantage of jane having the same birthday as our friend andy is that andy's wife gill prepared a fantastic birthday cake for andy which jane could also pretend was for her birthday ! hoorah for andy and gill and jane
bt tower menu
fancy stuff and ... crisps
eat more chips
keith sent me this picture of a lorry he saw. as if us Brits need more encourage to eat more chips. i know i don't.
cow and chips
an identity tag, just in case you weren't sure what your steak was made of.
jam of the day is strawberry
i had a business lunch with someone yesterday in a very posh restaurant, but they were 50 minutes late and i only had an hour for lunch so i didn't eat (the cranberry juice is nice though). During my waiting time i did study the menu quite well and noticed you could get broad beans with jam on. which was a nice idea.
stodge fest
i went out for a stodge-fest with Big Eye and Richard last night. i had a great square orchard pudding with piles of mash and sausages (and a little pot of gravy plonked in the middle)
hamlet
i had some parma ham and melon at Cafe Uno in Henley yesterday. it came with just a teeny weeny bit of ham and black bits on the melon. just in case you were interested. a small amount of ham is a hamlet
