Sunday

Hot. Sunny.

Took my mother (who is 89) out for lunch at her local Harvester. This isn't the best food in the world, but it's generally pleasant enough.

Top marks to our waitress - ALICE - who worked hard and smiled a lot - thank you!

We had:

Free salad bar.

Chicken & bacon stack

Scampi & chips

Cod & chips

Eton Mess Sundae

Quite a lot of reasonable (but very cheap) red wine.

So, a meal for three, with drinks: £41 - it was good value and too much to eat.

Saturday

Today's my birthday! I, therefore, get to indulge myself more than usual.

Lunch was:

Smoked mackerel and noodle salad (oriental inspired, I guess, spring onion (scallion), garlic, ginger, sesame oil, noodles and mackerel).

Dinner was at Loves in Birmingham. We've been before, but not for more than a year, largely because we found the front of house too much 'in your face'. It's better now and the restaurant has been redesigned, though the seats are still far from the last word in comfort. The wine list by the glass is rather better than the website suggests and I had a pleasant cote be Brouilly.

We ate:

Amuse 1: Cold cucumber soup with cucumber sorbet.

Amuse 2: Curried parsnip veloute  with goat's cheese and olive oil.

Ali's starter: Carpaccio of beef with corned beef croquette and pickled vegetables.

My starter:  Slow-cooked belly pork, crispy pig's ear, pickled mussels, black pudding crumb,

Main: we shared Herefordshire middle ribeye, pickled carrots, Paris mushrooms, bearnaise sauce, pomme Mont d'Or, red wine jus.

Predessert: Passionfruit creme.

Ali's Dessert: 'White Rum', rum cake, mango, lime curd, palm sugar ice cream.

My Dessert: 5 local(ish) cheeses, each with its own chutney,

Coffee: petits four.

(By the way, I can't do French accents on this laptop!)

it was beautifully cooked and very well-presented. I've had food that wasn't as good in Michelin 1*'s. Portion sizing looks small, but isn't (if anything, the main was a bit on the big size). I'm still a little unconvinced that it was ribeye ( not a complaint, and probably my ignorance), since I was expecting a bit more fat.

The redesigned restaurant is nice, but the location (Canal Square, a bit off the City Centre's beaten track is a bit of a problem. Car parking nearby isn't good either. Nevertheless, a splendid meal with quite decent service.

Friday

Finished the marking - just have the external stuff to do now!

The temporary filling lasted 28 hours, just long enough for the dentist to be closed - doesn't seem to be a big problem though.

We ate:

Asparagus & poached duck egg.

A Spanish-inspired chicken & rice dish:

Sliced chicken breast and chorizo cooked with onions, garlic, tomato, courgette (zucchini) and paella rice, following a sort-of basic paella recipe.

It was good!

Thursday (it started well ...)

I expected to get pretty-much to the end of the marking today - but, of course, it didn't happen. I was happily munching my lunch (a cold pork sandwich, cunningly saved from Monday's dinner) when I broke a tooth! It really could have been a lot worse, since this was a 'dead' tooth that had caused problems in the past. However, I've just changed dentists (sacked the Redditch one for poor, expensive service) and moved to the local NHS service, so I wondered what this would bring.

They were WONDERFUL - got me an appointment within 2 hours and (temporarily) fixed the tooth in about 10 minutes - I have to go back, of course. AND they didn't charge me - though they could have!

So, I was feeling a bit damaged and we had take-away!

We ate:

Crispy duck in plum sauce

Chicken in black bean sauce

boiled rice

Wednesday (Ali cooks)

Marking, moderation, marking ... what a fun time of year. The end is in sight, however.

Ali cooked tonight. It was to be a simple meal, but the warm weather means that we have a mini-glut of asparagus (generally, it's being a bad year for asparagus, the week of unseasonable warmth at the end of March started it growing too early, then it's been cold). So:

Asparagus with a little melted butter & some fleur de sel.

Fish fingers, chips, peas, tartare sauce.

It was fine!

Tuesday

Another day of marking (with a quick bit of hedge-trimming at 17:00). Ali was supposed to cook today, but decided she was too tired. So:

Turkey & peaches (much nicer than it sounds)

Strips of turkey breast fried with onions and garlic and then braised in stock with tinned peaches. Soured cream added just before serving on tagliatelle. 25 minutes including preparation.

Monday

Another day spent marking (with the sun shining outside!).

Tonight's meal was what we shoukd have eaten on Sunday if Ali hadn't had such a big, boozy lunch:

Roast belly pork (with really crunchy crackling)

Sticky red cabbage (so much nicer than it sounds, a sort of sweet & sour long-cooked red cabbage)

Herb & garlic stuffing.

Sunday

Ali's been out enjoying herself, so I've been cooking. We had:

Roasted red peppers with mozzarella and asparagus

Wild (well, I'd be furious) Alaskan salmon with stringless beans and penne pasta with roasted beetroot and basil (which was exceptionally gorgeous)

Cheese: Manchego with some dried raisins and cranberries.

Wine: Ch Canada (a good one this time) ; Armagnac.

Saturday

Breakfast was bagels with cream cheese and strawberry jam - compensation for the completion of the weekly food shopping.

In the evening, off to the White Swan, Harborne a pub with quite decent food (though restaurant prices [and service]).

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What we ate:

Bob

Scallops with peanut sauce & an aubergine crisp (which was a waste of effort)

Calves liver, with broad bean & peas and a bacon & tomato dauphinoise

Apple & blackcurrant crumble

A big glass of  Collina De Estate, a Sicilian Shiraz

Ali

Soft shelled crab with calamari

Rib eye steak with watercress & frites

Sticky toffee pudding

A glass of Moet & Chandon

The good bits were the starters, especially Ali's which was perfectly cooked. As noted above, an Aubergine (egg plant, for my American readers) crisp was a bit pointless, and not very crisp. The mains were good too - the calves liver was perfectly cooked but it could have been better trimmed, I don't really need to know the physiology of a young cow's hepatic vein.

Desserts weren't so good. The toffee pudding was OK, but the crumble had obviously been nuked in a microwave and was fearsomely hot. I question the value of sprinkling the whole plate (including the custard) with icing sugar and I suspect that the filling was from a can - not that the menue suggested anything else.

Service was pretty good, though the server told us that they'd just started a new menu ...

Friday

Tired. Been marking - still got tons to do ...

'Cheat' dinner:

Chicken Balti (made with 'Seeds of Change' organic cook-in sauce)

Garlic & coriander naan (Sainsbury)

Ben & Jerry's Phish Food

The Naan was good; the balti sauce was not - won't be eating that again