Tintagel the easy way

So it's time for an educational visit on our holiday. A visit to Tintagel castle is called for, amazing history, glorious views, fabulous weather and a great cappuccino.

Let's get this straight, i don't do heights, so I had the cappuccino and people watched whilst the energetic ones clambered around the Castle.

It will be great getting a lift back up in the land rover taxi, me knees seize so time for a little help.

Off to Boscastle after this.
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I love technology

Yes, I'm a self-confessed geek, I adore technology and gadgets. I've just found a great application for my Windows 7 mobile that allows me to blog on the move:D I might manage to put some content on my blog.
I may be able to manage a few prompts from Shimelle's class now.
Hello morning, time for me to climb into my hamster wheel for the day;)
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Butter

I’m totally spoilt, our tv has been playing up for a couple of months, we have a tradition of treating each other to major appliances for Christmas and Birthday’s, yesterday the tv didn’t want to switch-on so I was treated to an early Birthday pressie of a new flat screen HD tv.

As I was up early this morning, I had the choice of the channels and caught the end of “Julie and Julia” a fantastic foodie film, but the one drawback of watching is my taste buds start tingling and I can imagine the smell of butter.

Dinner – what to cook, in the fridge a piece of brisket, half-a-shoulder of lamb and a chicken. It’s no good, French cooking wins and I decided on coq au vin.

Out came the butter, garlic, lardons, baby onions. I jointed the chicken (I save the breasts for another meal), the carcass is in the fridge for stock/soup later in the week. The aromas in the kitchen are wonderful, fresh thyme from the garden, then the red wine, sheer bliss. It’s now in the oven cooking away and I just as I sit down and check the programme listings, there’s “Julie and Julia” about to start from the beginning. So I am able to watch this fantastic film with aromavision built in.

Our daughter is equally inspired by the film, she is a fabulous cook, but I’ve realised that I don’t have any proper french cook books for us to work from. Off to amazon and I’ve just pre-ordered the Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” double boxed edition, Elizabeth David’s “Provincial French Cookery” has also jumped into my basket.

Time for us to add new recipes to our repertoire, to start using my new mincer attachment that I was given for Christmas, I dream of making pates, sausages and our own mince to use in recipes, having complete control over the food we eat. It is easy to get into a rut with food, at least we don’t have the routine that my relations used to have, you could tell which day of the week it was by what you had for your meal. Beans, bangers and chips were always lunch on a Saturday, whichever of my aunt’s I was with!

Now to decide what to serve with the coq au vin, think spinach and rice may be an idea.

Organisation - areas that need to be covered

OK, so my word for 2011 is yet again going to be organisation.

These are still on my list from last year, but we've made some progress. The cooking plans work really well, when we skip this step we find that we waste food as we forget what is in the fridge. The most difficult thing to keep on top of is sharing these lists, so time to find a method using our new Windows 7 phones to keep consistently synched. Freezer is now here, I've been treated to a new slow cooker as our 20 year old wedding present has finally died on us. I've also got a mincer attachment for my Kenwood Chef, so can make lots more of our own meat products. It's a shame that Littlemoor's Farm shop is no longer, so we now buy most of our meat from Ferndene Farm Shop near Bashley and Waitrose.

I'm also going to get much more active with my Crafty Cooking Blog, creating and sharing more of my own ideas.

Areas that I need to tackle

• Clutter - must start to clear surfaces, but this will involve clearing out cupboards
• Cupboards - these need to be cleared and reorganised, be ruthless and Freecycle/ebay what we don't need.
  
• Cooking - plan meals ahead to better use ingredients and minimise waste
• Shopping lists - keep lists of produce we have, use them to highlight areas needed, keep to strict lists and don't over buy.
  
• Gardening - both greenhouse and garden, must get this properly operational to increase produce and save money.
• Washing - replace the washing machine, save money and get better results.
• Housework - produce a weekly rota so all areas are covered.
• Recycling - better bin, with two sections, then I don't get hit around the head when the bag get's full.
• Assignments - keep up-to-date with the marking, break into small tasks that can be marked as they are done and not wait until submission date to be marked.
• Technology - use it effectively, make sure that it all connects together, so that true picture is available at any moment of family commitments. Not to lose track of time whilst "playing" on the web etc.

I'm sure this list will change, but it is a good start.