LCS at the Smatt’s Rumshack

Posted on October 10, 2012 by nicdempsey

This week is London Cocktail Week.

On Monday the LCS had an event at the Smatt’s Rumshack.

I would love to tell you in great detail about the rum and the three cocktails and the three ice cream cocktails (ice cream that was 15%, really good but not for children!) that Tim Robinson at Twist made and talked about and set on fire..

However, I didn’t have time to write this on Tuesday because of the day job and the Sipsmith event I was at in the evening. So I shall just post some Instagram pictures and say thanks to the Gin Monkey for organising and encourage people to sign up to the LCS mailing list and if you’re in London check out the London Cocktail Week events

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Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes and Beans…

Posted on October 9, 2012 by nicdempsey

I’m never going to be a perfect food blogger. I really admire the bloggers who post perfect recipes and photos but that’s never going to be me. The food posts on this blog are about the things that I’ve cooked and liked. Sometimes that is food that I’ve cooked a lot, sometimes it’s food like this. I really enjoyed it I will cook it again, hopefully next time I won’t forget what time it went in the oven and as result will get a meal that is a bit more liquid!

Despite that, it was really good and therefore worth bringing to your attention.

It’s an adaption of a Jamie Oliver recipe from The Naked Chef (which is now 13 years old!). I didn’t want to serve it with mash, so decided to add beans to it. The thing to bear in mind is that lamb shanks are hugely forgiving of the mad stuff that you might decide to cook them with so you can play about a bit.

What

Half a teaspoon of coriander seeds

Half a teaspoon of chilli flakes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 lamb shanks

1 tablespoon of flour

olive oil

2 carrots

2 red onions

1 clove of garlic chopped

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

170ml/6fl oz red wine

3 anchovy fillets

274g (about 2 cups) cooked flageolet beans

1 400g tin plum tomatoes

How

1) Pre heat the oven to 180°C/350F/Gas Mark 5

2) Crush the coriander seeds, chilli flakes and oregano together and roll the lamb in it, then roll the lamb in the flour.

3) Add the oil to a pan that can also go into the oven and brown the lamb on all sides. Remove from the pan.

4) Add the garlic, carrot, onions and a pinch of salt and cook until they’re soft.

5) Add the balsamic vinegar and let it reduce to a syrup. Pour in the wine and allow it to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.

6) Add the anchovies and tinned tomatoes, then the beans. Give it all a bit of a stir and then return the lamb to the pan.

7) Put the lid on and cook in the oven for 2 hours.

8) This was the point I was supposed to take it out of the oven, but I didn’t and left it for nearly another hour! So I guess what I’m saying is check it at 2 hours and if you’re happy that it’s done great, if not cook it until it has the amount of liquid you’re happy with!

9) Serve with a green vegetable!

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The Weekend.

Posted on October 8, 2012 by nicdempsey

The start of the weekend was also the end of my holiday, Ma dropped me off on Friday afternoon and it was time to tackle the unpacking.

As I get older, I become more like my mother and need to unpack and sort out the washing as soon as I get home. Of course, as soon as I start anything vaguely organised, I start with everything and ended up cleaning the bathroom!

My neighbour Claire, knocked on the door with a parcel that had arrived while I was away, hello iPhone 5! So the rest of Friday was technology related and I really won’t bore you or anyone else with it.

Saturday started slowly. There was some exercise, lots of catching up on blogs and with Ryan.

Finally, I left the house to meet Max for coffee. Danielle and Murphy joined us too…I can’t believe how grown up she’s getting!

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I needed to do some food shopping and my purse was stolen, which really wasn’t good. The purse was eventually returned with debit card (it wasn’t with all the other cards) but minus cash.

So without shopping I went home. Where the wet towels were waiting to be dried. It’s been taking a while for towels and sheets to dry at home, what with the total lack of summer and the heating not being on. So I take them them to the launderette, on a Saturday night because I know how to live.

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Then dinner and some thinking and planning and sleep.

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On Sunday, I mostly cooked and sorted myself out for going back to work on Monday. I’ve got a busy week coming up so I wanted to get stuff sorted so it will go as smoothly as possible. Some of the cooking is coming up here but most of it is for eating in the week on the run!

We’ll see if it works later on this week…

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Sunday Music

Posted on October 7, 2012 by nicdempsey

There has been a lot of fuss this week about James Bond and the Beatles. It’s been 50 years since the first film (Bond) and the first single (Beatles)

I used to have Ma’s original Beatles LP’s, they only went up to Rubber Soul, she isn’t a fan of their later work! You can really hear the Tamla influence on the earlier stuff and my favourite Beatles song is a cover of a Smokey Robinson song. So this Sunday seemed like the right time to play it.

It’s strange to think of the impact that a band that split up in 1970 still have on me and the world in general but then that’s why music is so important..

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October Goals

Posted on October 6, 2012 by nicdempsey

I’m back from holiday and it’s time to think about goals. I’ve set eight, five are repeats from last month. I’ve talked about how I struggle with autumn and the transition to winter and then winter itself. So I wanted this month’s goals to be easy to do, not to easy but something I could accomplish with a small bit of effort and some things that would help ease my usual seasonal gloom.

I’ve also found that knowing I’m going to update the blog on Saturdays really keeps me accountable so I’m going to continue to do that.

The repeats from last month are:

1) Cook a new recipe each week (I’m not making it specifically vegetarian but I will try for  three out of four)

2) Exercise twice a week.

3) Clean floors and hoover once a week (I’m hoping that eventually this will be like the vegetarian days and I don’t even have to think about it!)

4) 10pm school night bed time.

5) Walk 10k four times in October.

The new ones are:

6) Tidy the cupboard. I have a store/junk cupboard off the bathroom that really needs some organising… as you can see!

 

7) Cheerfulness. I’m going to find something that makes me happy every day and will list them as part of the Saturday goal progress report.

8) Forward planning. It’s Christmas in three months and before that Ben, Oli, Christelle and Ma have birthdays. By the end of this month I would like to have their birthday presents sorted out!

Olly’s 1st birthday cake

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Are you sitting comfortably?

Posted on October 3, 2012 by nicdempsey

I moved into this flat over three years ago. When I started looking at flats, I knew I wanted an unfurnished flat because I had so much furniture.

As it turns out I didn’t have as much furniture as I thought I did, I didn’t have a table for the kitchen, a sofa or a wardrobe and I needed some shelves for all the books. I did have kitchen chairs though. Ok so they were the folding Ikea chairs and ok they weren’t the most comfortable chairs in the world but they would do and I was determined that I wouldn’t just buy stuff for the sake of having it, I would take my time and buy furniture that was useful and beautiful and fit my style. So stop gap chairs were just fine.

Over the last three years, I’ve looked for chairs and it’s been tricky, they’ve either been too expensive or not right in various other ways, I want something comfortable that isn’t too expensive and fits my style and doesn’t get lost in the kitchen but at the same time doesn’t clash horribly. That’s harder than you think.

This year for my birthday, my brother gave me money (he always gives me money!) and I wanted to have something solid to show for it.

So I bought 2 kitchen chairs. From John Lewis. I think they look pretty good and guess what Ben’s buying me for Christmas?

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Holiday so far..

Posted on October 2, 2012 by nicdempsey

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Coverham church

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Middleham, we walked into Middleham it was lovely but a bit blowy..

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Over the dales…

It’s beautiful country but somehow it feels more isolated than Amble. I realise what a privilege it is to live in a city where I’m always near a shop that’s open and public transport.

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September Foodie Penpals

Posted on October 1, 2012 by nicdempsey

Although this appears on 1st October, I’m actually writing this on Friday 28 September and my parcel hasn’t arrived yet!

Hopefully something arrived over the weekend, however, I am in Yorkshire, where I might be very wet but I have almost certainly visited my favourite ruined castle, Middleham and possibly got quite (ok almost certainly very) geeky about my favourite king of England, Richard the Third.

It won’t be this sunny but I don’t really care…

Fingers crossed it will be here when I get home on Friday and I can tell you all about it then!

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Sunday Music

Posted on September 30, 2012 by nicdempsey

Lee Dorsey – Give It Up

I love this, it’s music I discovered as opposed to coming from other people and it’s glorious..

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Saturday Goal Update 4

Posted on September 29, 2012 by nicdempsey

How was September? Firstly, I would like to explain that, for me, September ended on Friday, when my holiday started.  The next 10 days are a goal-less limbo while I am away, although we do plan to walk quite a bit, we also plan to eat, drink and generally relax. There will be lots of sleeping in, I may teach myself to crochet because I know how to live!

Overall, I’m really happy with September. This week I’ve caught some kind of bug so it’s not been as good as I would like and explains the lack of posting this week.  However, I’m feeling good about what I did and see where I have things to do…

1) One new vegetarian meal a week

This week I did eggs baked in mushrooms, which tasted ok but was really ugly, so no photo or blogging.

Overall I loved this and will do it again next month, I find myself thinking of different ways to make this one work and anything that encourages me to use my cookbooks is a good thing!

Pass!

2) Monitor the booze intake.

Mmm. Saturday night I was not monitoring anything, lesson is that Mike is a bad influence and as he put it, “we’re middle-aged, middle-class binge drinkers”. But I didn’t drink because it was there and that’s good.

Overall = pass because I set out to be more mindful and I was.

3) Four 10k walks in the month

A big fat fail. All month…

4) Some other form of exercise twice a week

This week I got to the gym once. Then caught a bug from the nephew (I’d like to consider chasing him around the playground and covering him in a blanket to make him a dinosaur as exercise but I don’t think it counts!) and it all went downhill from there. However, for the month it’s a pass and it will be a repeat for next month…

5) Clean the floors and hoover once a week

Pass but I really didn’t enjoy it.  It really needs to be part of the routine not a chore so I’m repeating for next month.  I want it to become something that I just do as part of caring for the space I live in rather than because I’ve made it a goal here.  That’s only going to happen if I do it again next month (and possibly the month after that and possibly several months after that!)

6) Set a bedtime and stick to it.

Pass this week due to hangover and sickness. Repeat for next month because it makes all the difference when I do it.

How was September for you?

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