'There's no place like home'

This weekend we strayed from the usual routine at home, and visited friends in Redhill. After a few hours singing ‘Tommy Thumb’ and ‘the wheels on the bus’ we arrived at our destination. It was well-worth the journey to meet our friends' 18 month old son, and to see their sprawling period property that they moved into shortly after his arrival (jealous, moi)?

On Saturday we went to Godstone Farm – the one that was affected by E.coli a couple of years ago. The boys loved wandering around chatting with the animals (Little M was particularly taken by the huge amount of tractors and diggers onsite). The highlight of the trip for the adults was a cosy hot chocolate in the play barn where the children ran off some steam. I was a little on-edge about all of the posters reminding us to wash our hands, and the notice that said to assume that all of the larger animals have E.coli. I guess it was an exercise in learning to not continually wrap Little M up in cotton wool (although it might have been warmer)! Back home, we had some delicious lamb shanks cooked with chickpeas and harissa, followed by ginger bread and butter pudding (a la Nigella, but not cooked by me for a change). We attempted to watch The Social Network on DVD, but embarrassingly Master M and I fell asleep midway through. We do like our early nights.

Sunday was spent driving home, with a stop at Heathrow to watch the planes take-off and land from the top of the car park. Little M loved this and aeroplanes are now his new favourite topic of conversation. All-in-all we had a thoroughly good weekend - great company and food. I think we had both forgotten how nice it is to get away for a few days.


The really great thing about going away for the weekend is coming home. Once in the door I made a batch of Buttermilk Scones, which we had with some of the Jumbleberry Jam I made at Christmas. The scones are so easy to make – flour, cream of tartar, butter, vegetable shortening, buttermilk, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda; all mixed together, rolled out, cut into discs and egg-washed. The scones are then popped onto a greased baking sheet and baked for 12 minutes. The result is a nice light scone with a lovely bronzed topping. They taste plain yet tangy but the slight sourness really works well against the homemade jam. We all couldn’t resist going back for more.

Looking forward to a trip to the cinema tonight to see a chick flick – perfect start to the week. Happy Monday everyone.

Goddess Mx

PS - didn't get the 'Britain's Best Dish' gig. Their loss not mine! Happy that the pressure is off in a way as now I can get back to what I like to do best - work my way through 'Kitchen'. What shall I make next??