A big big boost

Yesterday Hubby and I drove a few miles into the nearby countryside. We parked at Sutton Cheney wharf and took a stroll along the canal ... a try out for my new boots!

I'd had to wait until the shops reopened as I wanted to try them on before buying. Friday we were in town for my second vaccination so took the opportunity, they are so comfy. 

Our walk was 3.8km starting along the canal then up and over the bridge to walk some of the Battle of Bosworth Battlefield site and back through Ambion wood to the wharf. There were plenty of others out walking, with and without four legged friends. Everyone stepped aside with a cheery 'good morning'. 

It was so nice to be out and about; an added bonus was we saw some baby Moorhens, I had never seen babies before, so cute! 

It was so lovely to be out in the spring sunshine, it does make you feel good .... and today I feel even better as Mr Postie delivered the best letter ever. 

A few weeks ago I had a follow up scan for my breast cancer, it is awful waiting for results and this was the first scan since my operation last April. I'm sure the whole UK heard my scream .... no abnormality seen .... it's gone, and it was in writing. 

Oh my, what a weight lifted, the last 18 months of yuk yuk yuk have worked. 

I feel so so happy and so so grateful to everyone at George Eliot Hospital and University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, they are amazing! 

Hubby and I opened a bottle of Chapel Down Sparkling Bacchus this afternoon to celebrate, we have saved a little for this evening. We have also celebrated with a glass of Bond Street Distillery Signature Gin, part of a gift from our son which I was saving for when it was all over .... and today it is! 

I am still smiling from today's news, and I think the robin was smiling too. I know who was visiting and his watchful eye has helped me throughout ... thank you Dad 😘

Aldi wine ... with friends

Over the last year we have enjoyed meeting our friends on a video call every Saturday. With life a bit 'off' our regular quiz nights and wine tastings have been very much needed by both of us. 

We had a great Wine Tasting Night in January and a Virtual Cocktail Night in February - both super fun. We all live quite close so swapping the mini bottles is not a problem, in fact it made a nice drive out at times, if only 10 minutes! 

However swapping wines in this way is not possible with our friends who live near London but we did want to do a virtual wine night. Problem solved, we both have an Aldi store nearby so arranged to meet one morning by phone in our own stores. It was quite surreal to be standing looking at the wines talking to our friends 100 miles away and choosing the same wines to try. 

One that caught all our eyes was a white Malbec, I have enjoyed many Malbec wines but never a white wine.

Argentinian White Malbec at £6.99 is a good wine for summer days. As with a red Malbec it has red berries but has a lighter flavour with hints of strawberries and floral blossom. 

 

Our red choice was French, from the southern Mediterranean coast very close to the Spanish border, and made from a grape grown in both couthries - Grenache Noir. 

Pierre Jaurant G has a medium body with plenty of fruit. The wine was slightly tannic even though we had decanted our bottle a few hours earlier, but was fruity with a good finish. It was nice to find a bottle of just Grenache, especially at £6.49

It was a lovely evening chatting by video with our friends and sharing the same wine, something we have enjoyed in person in the past and will hopefully be able to do again in the not too distant future.

It's been a while since we shopped in Aldi, there were many new wines in store which of course tempted us into buying a few to try. We chose four whites and six reds, including the tasting two. 

Our whites were Stellenbosch Chardonnay Reserve,  Pierre Jaurant French Vermentino and Mimo Moutinho Portuguese Loureiro. 

I am looking forward to tasting all of these as they are all new to me, not just being from Aldi but the grape or region. I have had South African Chardonnay but not a Stellenbosch Reserve; likewise with the Vermentino, a grape I have tasted but not from France. The Portuguese Loureiro is one I am especially looking forward to as it's from the Vinho Verde region and a new grape to me.     

The reds were a combination of wines we have enjoyed, wines other people have recommended and new wines that caught our eye. 

Portuguese Douro is one we both enjoy and is great value at £5.49. 

The labelling on the Coteaux de Beziers really stood out, especially as we have enjoyed many holidays in the area and have visited Beziers many times. Listed as Pierre Jaurant French Red Blend it is a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot wine.

It's a good job we picked up an Original Series Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon as it's no longer available. Another label that caught our eye was Cambalala South African Pinotage, it's a grape Hubby enjoys and is looking forward to tasting. 

Our final red was on the recommendation of a member of Cuvée Reserve, a wine forum for sharing everything about wine. I'm keen to try this  Specially Selected Uruguayan Tannat, I'm not sure what we'll be pairing it with so there's an opportunity to study both my wine and recipe books.

All in all a good Aldi visit, we picked great wines to enjoy with our friends and had a lovely evening, and we have some lovely new wines to try .... cheers.

A nod to St Patrick's Day

I have no Irish blood, we have never been to Ireland and as far as I know I have 

no Irish connections .... so why am I celebrating St Patrick's Day? 

Well I'm not really, I just take any excuse to bake something different.

This year I've made my first Soda Bread ... the verdict will be at the dinner table later! 

I've also baked Irish Barmbrack which is a whisky based fruit loaf. I can vouch that it is 

delicious as Hubby and I had a slice with our afternoon cuppa whilst watching the 

Irish winners at the Cheltenham Festival. 

I will of course be having a glass of Guinness later, it would be rude not to.

☘ Happy St Patrick's Day ☘

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿  Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

March 1st brings two events: the start of spring and St David's Day. I love theming our food and drink to special occasions and celebrated days so of course this morning I have baked some Welsh Cakes.

From today, until Easter, I have daffodils in the house in my Grandma's vase. They are so cheerful and bright, it's lovely seeing them on the mantle next to my Welsh dragon. 

Last week we had a short drive to Malt Kiln Farm Shop. They have a great cheese counter with varieties from all over the UK including my favourite Welsh cheese, Perl Las meaning Blue Pearl. 

They also have a good butchery and for tonight's dinner we opted for Lamb Pinwheels.

We do have a bottle of Welsh wine in our cellar but our White Castle Siegerrebe won't be opened tonight, mainly because it's a white wine and as it's a new wine to us we'd like to share it, it will be summer before it's opened. Here it is last summer next to the delicious White Castle Regent and our super size dragon. 

We will however be enjoying a small glass of Penderyn whisky. We have a variety to choose from: 

Maderia        Celt        Myth         Legend 

Whether you are celebrating St David's Day or just the fact that spring has arrived, stay safe, stay well... hopefully it will not be long before we can celebrate with family and friends.

Virtual Cocktail Night

Since last March, when I had to start shielding, our super friends have joined us every Saturday night for a video call. We've had great fun, mostly quizzing but recently we had a super night doing a virtual wine tasting.

I have always enjoyed organising events, be that meals at home for just me and Hubby, dinner parties, or wine tasting evenings. It seemed a shame to waste the little bottles from our wine night and as we have an overflowing spirits cupboard I came up with the idea of a cocktails night. 

I made the spirit part of each, put it in the mini wine bottles and cut the garnishes. All in a goodie bag along with the mixers to make four cocktails, Hubby did a 'deliveroo' ready for our evening fun. As it was Valentine's weekend I added some Love Hearts, chocolates hearts, a red rose and to add a bit of fun some cocktail straws. 

Before we started cocktail making we opened some bubbly as we had some news to celebrate. Two of our friends are to become grandparents again so we had a virtual cheers to the happy couple.

We had great fun making up the cocktails, no shaking but lots of stirring. I also made a set of quiz questions based on each one; the questions were about the cocktail name and its ingredients. I found out many interesting things when researching them. 

Our first cocktail was a Sloe Screwdriver. A nice an easy one to start with; Gordon's Sloe Gin and orange juice. It was quite refreshing to drink even of the colour looked a bit off (red and orange made a murky brown). Next time I might add  Southern Comfort to make a Slow Comfortable Screw.

Our second cocktail was made using the last of my Orange Marmalade Vodka made by Chase Distillery. I first had this quite a few years ago at a Majestic Wine tasting in Leicester. 

Orange Moscow Mule is made with orange vodka, lime juice, a dash of Triple Sec and ginger beer. Ours had a slight variation; I used orange essence instead of Triple Sec and Fevertree ginger ale (the last few bottles from a case I won last year), garnished with a wedge of lime.

Staying with vodka our third cocktail was Black Magic. We were all surprised to discover Eristoff is made in France, perfect as I used French framboise liqueur along with 7up to make this dark cocktail.

It was very different in taste to expectation to its visual appearance. Black Vodka is flavoured with wild berries and with the addition of raspberry it made a lovely fruity drink, it was the favourite of the night, especially as the garnish was a cocktail cherry (I've not had one of those in years). 

Our final cocktail was one of Hubby's favourites. It's quite strong as there is no mixer although you can add soda water if you really must! A Manhattan is made from bourbon and vermouth served in a Martini glass with a twist of lemon. 

This cocktail has quite a few variations, how would you make yours?

Manhattan - 2 parts bourbon, 1 part dry vermouth

Sweet Manhattan - as the original but with sweet vermouth

Perfect Manhattan - 2 parts bourbon, 1 part made of equal amounts sweet & dry vermouth  

Reverse Manhattan - switch the ratios in any of the above combinations so vermouth is the main ingredient 

Rob Roy - 2 parts whisky, 1 part dry vermouth

The downside of having a cocktail night is all the glassware we used - our three kitchens had a full sides of washing up .... a Sunday morning job! 

I'm sure of little bottles will be used again, although we would all much rather be sharing a large sized bottle in person .... it will soon be a whole year since we started our quiz nights .... unbelievable..... virtual party it is then 🎉

Laithwaites in lockdown

Although Laithwaites offer many wine plans I prefer to buy wine as and when I either need more or I see an offer that cannot be missed. Back in January I saw such an offer, these lovely six reds for under £40 with free delivery.

I am starting to enjoy a glass or two but not very often. I have plenty of whites in the cellar but not so many reds. The offer was for a mixed six, all red or all white  but I opted for the reds, especially as there are a couple of my favourites in there that I hope will help get my tastebuds going again.

My own tasting notes are not up to much just now, they would be pretty one dimensional so I have copied the descriptions from Laithwaites. 

Willy Willy 2020 Shiraz - South Eastern Australian shiraz from Bob Berton

Aroma - spiced plum and blackcurrant and hints of vanilla

Tasting Notes - rich, ripe mouthful of black fruit with a twist of pepper

Chateau Loirac 2015 - gold-medal Cru Bourgeois Medoc

Aroma - savoury blackberry, raspberry, with truffle hints, mature fruits

Tasting Notes - silky with mature fruits, cedar and a subtle hint of oak

La Multa Vinas Viejas 2018 - old vine tempranillo from high vineyards made by Norrel Robertson

Aroma - ripe black fruit, wild herb ripple and spice 

Tasting Notes - big mouthful of ripe black fruit,  strawberry, wild herbs

The Waxed Bat Reserve - exviting wine ftom Argentina, made by Opi Sadler

Aroma - ripe black fruits, violets, liquorice, spice

Tasting Notes - bold, smooth, black fruit, violets and a liquorice tang

Tenuta Fenice Nero d'Avola 2019 - barrel-aged from mature vineyards towards the high Salemi hills

Aroma - bountiful, ripe blackberry, spice and liquorice scents

Tasting Notes - velvety and dense with vibrant cherry and berry and rich spice 

Alta Sada Garnacha 2019 - old-vine from a remote high-altitude vineyard in Navarra

Aroma - blackberry, raspberry, violets and wild herbs

Tasting Notes - deep, rich and velvety, luscious raspberry fruits and herbal hints

I really like The Waxed Bat and am looking forward to trying it, hopefully I'll be able to enjoy all its rich flavours. 

Another favourite of mine is The Black Stump. I was delighted to receive an email offering two bottles of this along with two bottles of Baron de Barbon Rioja, all for less then £30 and again free delivery. They will be arriving this afternoon, snow permitting. 

Here's Laithwaites wine notes: 

The Black Stump Durif Shiraz 2020 - South Eastern Australian number one best seller 

Aroma - ripe plum, blackberry, raspberry, cinnamon and clove spice

Tasting Notes - rich and smooth, full-bodied, super ripe black fruit and spice

Baron de Barbon Oak Aged Rioja 2019 - number one best selling rioja 

Aroma - juicy berries with light vanilla and oak spice

Tasting Notes - medium weight, silky and brightly fruity with some spice notes

Thank you Laithwaites for some great wines, I'll be looking out for more of your great offers, especially if PS Petillant Rose is included, it was my Dsd's favourite and one we haven't had for a few years. 

Burns Night

Throughout the year I like to match our food and drink with special days, some are because we would celebrate anyway but others are just an excuse to enjoy different things.

Yesterday was Burns Night when Scotland celebrates its poetic Baird by traditionally having haggis. Neither Hubby or I have any Scottish blood but we do like haggis and after our 2019 tour of Scotland we're quite partial to a wee dram of whisky. 

We had a little trouble this year finding our haggis. We are using online deliveries for our food and shop at either Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury's. Our first order with haggis on was from Asda ... we received haggis in a tin! 

Our next order was more successful as Tesco delivered a proper haggis from Simon Howie, sadly it was a little disappointing as it was so salty. Hubby looked at the ingredients and the salt content was very high. I did enjoy my Swede, carrots and butternut squash though. 

We had a simple dessert; raspberries with cream and Paterson's Scottish shortbread - delicious.

The highlight of the night was our wee dram. This year we opened a bottle of Old Pultney 12 year old. Hubby spotted it before Christmas on offer in Sainsbury's so of course it was added to a shopping delivery. 

As always with whisky it got better as we warmed the glass in our hands. We both thought of Christmas when drinking this, pudding or cake. It had dried fruit, honey, caramel and a hint of vanilla. A lovely smooth finish without any burn especially when nicely warmed.

We did enjoy our nod to Scotland, it was nice to remember our trip and dream of another tour one day, there's plenty more to whisky to find! I'm really looking forward to sharing a dram or two with friends when life allows, I just hope and pray we don't have to wait until next Burns Night.