Jack's Birthday

I've been terrible at blogging recently and I can't believe how quickly the year is passing! I'm going to get back into the swing of things now that jury service has finished.


It was Jack's birthday on Tuesday; I'd already given him his birthday presents a couple of weeks before as they were too big and too heavy to wrap (a huge metal toolbox/cabinet on wheels and a telescopic ladder, both of which he had asked for), but I did take him out for dinner on Tuesday and we decided to go somewhere different and so headed towards Oxfordshire and the Thames to go for dinner by the river. We had a nice dinner in The Swan at Streatley, before having a little stroll by the river to walk some food off. It was a nice hotel/restaurant in a lovely setting and Streatley and Goring are very picturesque, with lots of big expensive river-fronted houses.

After our meal we headed home and our friends popped over for a slice of birthday cake and a game of Shuffleboard. Has anyone else played it? It's a seriously addictive Dutch game where you push wooden discs down a table to try and get them through holes at the bottom for varying points (probably a terrible description of how to play the game)! I bought us a beautiful handmade beech Shuffleboard and we've enjoyed having a game each evening. I'll try and get a photo of it next time we play it.

Birthday Boy!

I spent all of Monday afternoon baking Jack a birthday cake, along with over 100 sausage rolls for him to take into work with him, as requested by his work colleagues who love my homemade sausage rolls. The cake was hard work but it's possibly one of my best cakes to date when I look back and compare it with the previous birthday cakes I've made Jack over the past nine years. It's a 4-layer chocolate 'drip' cake; the layers were sandwiched together with whipped cream, then the cake was covered with buttercream icing and a chocolate ganache drizzled over the top. I then made some chocolate shards (Hotel Chocolat eat your heart out!) and decorated the top of the cake with these and various other chocolate goodies. Jack was amazed with it and I'm pleased to say it tasted great, though too sickly sweet for me so I only managed about half a slice! I made Jack take the rest of the cake to work the next day to get rid of it - we're both trying to be really healthy before we go to America next month! I've included a couple of photos of the cake below, hopefully I'll get a recipe up soon for you all!

Making the chocolate shards was fun!

Em x

Birthday

I had a nice birthday yesterday, though sadly the majority of the day was spent at work!

Jack took me out for a lovely meal last night at a restaurant that opened about a year ago just outside of Newbury called The Woodspeen (http://www.thewoodspeen.com/).

 

The food there was amazing, probably one of the nicest restaurants I've been in. I had a lovely starter of Scallops, chicken wings and black pudding which was really tasty, while Jack had a terrine with amazingly fresh brioche (I must learn how to make it!)

 

My starter

 

I had beef fillet for main which came with an array of different vegetables, but the best was the beer cooked onion - so good! Jack had a lovely big steak (he's a big steak fan) with triple cooked chips which were amazing (have I already said amazing?)

 

My main; beef fillet, smoked potato, runner beans, beer cooked onion and truffle

 

I'm very grateful to Jack for treating me to a posh meal out, made me feel quite special on my Birthday! Especially as I'm usually more than happy to go to the local pub or to Nandos! Jack cooked for me on last year's birthday which was equally just as good, but it's nice to make the effort to go out sometimes and make an evening of it. The Woodspeen's prices were very fair for the quality of their food and the service was fantastic. I enjoyed it so much that I'm taking my Mum there this weekend for Sunday roast!

 

Mum arrives tomorrow and we have a quiet weekend planned. I'm sure I'll get home tomorrow to find she's let herself in and is cuddling Barry on the sofa, he's a ladies man is our puppy and loves being cuddled! I think we plan on going shopping in Newbury on Saturday and Jack is going indoor sky-diving on Sunday (as I've said before, he'll give any sport a go!). My Dad is going on a walking holiday in Whitby with his friends this weekend; they're all members of the CAMRA club and love real ales so it tends to be an energetic version of a pub crawl with 20+ mile walks in between pubs. My parents then leave for France next Tuesday and won't be back in England until November/December, so I'll miss them a lot. We are however going out to France in a few weeks' time which we're excited about.

 

How quickly this year is zooming by...