Missing the Alps!

For the last 3 years we've been to the French Alps for our Summer holiday - but not this year (we're trying something more tropical - will let you know how it pans out...)
We usually stay with our good friends at Chilly Powder, and though we'll see them for the ski season, we're missing them in the Summer this year...

So here's a favourite recipe of ours, simple to make and delicious (and filling) to eat - inspired by Chilly Powder - a french tartiflette!

Ingredients:
2kg floury potatoes
250g smoked bacon, cut into strips
1-2 onions, depending on size, thinly sliced or chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced (or 2 teaspoons of garlic paste if you're lazy like me!)
500ml single cream
100ml white wine
a whole reblochon cheese - or try it with a goats cheese for a change.

1) Peel and par-boil potatoes for about 10 mins. Chop the potatoes into thick slices, then chop further until you have flattish cubes.

2) fry up the bacon, then add onions and garlic and fry until onions softened but not coloured.

3) Add potatoes to an oven-proof serving dish (preferably about 2L capacity, reasonably shallow), then add bacon, onions and garlic, and mix.

4) Pour the cream and wine over the mixture.

5) Cut the reblechon (or goats) cheese inyto slices about 0.5cm thick (keep the skin on) and layer the cheese on top of the mixture.

6) Bake in a 170 degree centigrade oven for about 30- 45 mins, or use the baking oven of an AGA to start and transfer to the roasting oven for the last 10 mins (in a 2 oven AGA cook on an oven shelf on the floor of the roasting oven)

Serves 6, or 4 if you're greedy!

Serve with fresh baguettes and green salad.


Yum Yum - just can't wait to be back there!

A 9th birthday sleepover....

So it was son number 1s birthday yesterday. A trip to see the new Harry Potter film in 3D, lunch out (narrowly avoided McDonalds), then a quasar party with his friends, followed by a sleepover for 3 of his best friends - a busy day!
Harry Potter was great (and I'm not a massive fan), the kids got told off for being too competitive in quasar (it was a joint party with one of his more competitive friends, and they may have taken the shooting thing a bit  far...!), then back to ours for a football kickaound, a DVD, and sleepover. They decided to do some dressing up, so it looked like 'Village People' had appeared in his room, as they were variously dressed in Native American headress, cowboy outfit, spiderman attire, and a pair of boxers with a monster mask!
Bed just before midnight, then up before 7am (the kids, that is). We're knackered today, even if they're not!

Beaver camp.....

OK, so I spent the weekend in the company of 18 six to eight year olds, and their parents (largely Dads, just me and one other Mum - glad you were there, Kathy!)
Son number 2 is a Beaver, and Hebden Hey was the destination for the annual weekend away. Son number 1 is a cub and they were camped in the next field.
Oh joy - cloudbursts on Friday evening, though thankfully by Saturday the weather had improved to only occasional heavy showers. Mud was the order of the day, but the kids loved it, cleaning off (sort of....) in the river after a muddy walk which also involved lots of icecream and rabbit poo collecting.
Sleep was in short supply - woken at 2am, 5am and 6am by excited children, and a couple of them fell out of bed (the top bunk, but luckily no injuries...)

So now I'm knackered, so are they, and work/school will be a drag tomorrow - but it was fun,and no doubt we'll do it all again next year!

Starting out

OK - my first blog!
What to write?
My life - a husband, 2 kids (aged almost 9 and 6), a job 4 days a week, a house in a lovely village just north of York - life is good, really, can't complain...