Party For Two

 

It's been a long bank holiday weekend with a vast chunk of Britain celebrating 70 years of Liz being on the throne but there's been no jubilee street parties for us, we've been getting festival ready. The trade tent is up, the flooring is down, the rails are bolted together and we've been sifting through the stock in the Kinky shed, in preparation for a fortnight of mending, ironing, pricing, measuring and labelling. We'll be heading to Glastonbury three weeks tomorrow!!!

Doesn't it look drab? It isn't helped by the miserable weather, 11°C and non-stop rain since 10.30pm on Saturday night but hopefully, in a few week's time we'll dreamed up an idea to funk up the frontage and hopefully have an interior like this....

Then it'll be a matter of sorting out my festival wardrobe - the 1970s psych maxi skirt has since found a new home (miles too big) but the 1980s bustier & ridiculous sunglasses live to see another field.

Needless to say we've been absolutely knackered and it's been a struggle to keep our eyes open after we've showered and eaten. After finishing season 3 of Borgen we watched the excellent Bait, a Bafta award-winning film about the tensions arising between Cornish locals and tourists against a backdrop of gentrification, short-term lets and second-homes. Bait was shot on a secondhand Bolex camera using 16mm film and home-processed by director, Mark Jenkin.

We've been binge-watching BBC4's Scandi-noir, Beck over the last couple of nights, the ninth series based on the books featuring detective Martin Beck. Grannen, Martin's mysterious neighbour with the surgical collar, always has us in stitches. 

As I'm sure you already know, I am a City & Guilds accredited chef & silver service waiter, a master sommelier plus have professional pâtissier and pastry chef qualifications. For many years I was a corporate hospitality manager in Birmingham city centre and one of the top earning women in my field, often featuring in trade magazines and addressing conventions and hated every minute. Cookery programmes bore the pants off me and I rarely cook at home but the contents of the Lidl £1.50 "Waste Not" boxes have been so good I've been inspired to get my pinny out and thought I'd share some of the dishes I've made from the contents.

Thursday's breakfast - oranges, banana and kiwi from the veg box along with black grapes and blueberries (already in the fridge) topped with Greek yoghurt and a spoonful of seeds & dried fruit.

Tea - Broccoli, fresh basil leaves and rainbow tomatoes (all from the veg box) mixed with some pimento-stuffed olives, tossed in sundried tomato pesto, topped with vegetarian Cheddar and oven-baked, served with lemon cous-cous and a glass of red courtesy of Jon's uncle Bill who spends half the year in France and the rest in Cyprus (or did until Brexit). 

A Bank Holiday Pudding! Victoria rhubarb from the garden, English raspberries from the veg box with an oat crumble topping.

Friday's breakfast - oranges, honeydew melon, kiwi fruit and banana from the veg box, blueberries from the fridge.

Jacob's lunch - wild rocket, pak choi and spinach leaves from the veg box.

Friday's tea. Imam Bayaldi made with aubergines and rainbow tomatoes from the veg box, spring onions, garlic & mint from the garden and served with English asparagus, also from the box. 

Saturday's breakfast. Shakshuka, made with vine tomatoes from the veg box and spring onions, parsley & mint from the garden. Served with wild rocket from the box.

 

Saturday's tea - Broccoli and leeks (from the veg box) in a Double Gloucester and English mustard sauce served with an oven baked tomato (from the box) stuffed with mushrooms & fresh basil (both from the box), shallots (from the garden) and sun-dried tomato tapenade. Jon discovered a few cans of G&T in the van, they're 18 months out of date but haven't killed me yet.

Sunday's breakfast - Richmond vegetarian sausages on salt & pepper bread with wholegrain mustard, and a few cherry tomatoes and mushrooms from the veg box. 

Fingers crossed we snag another box this week....

In other news we've been visited by the strays, Ollie came for food, Mr Trousers came for fuss.

Since Thursday I've been make-up and jewellery free, my hair's been pinned up and I've worn my Nike crop-top and denim cut-offs on repeat - adding a sweat top and sunglasses depending on the weather.

It felt like a real treat to brush my hair and pull on a dress and head to the clearance charity shop for a rummage this morning. That's Philaphelpus (mock orange) I'm sniffing, it smells divine.

I'm wearing the Dahlia Dress from Seventies Soul.

I was so excited to be out that it wouldn't have mattered if we'd returned empty-handed but of course, we didn't!

We returned with some Bally Italian suede boots (which would have been uber expensive), snake print hot pants, a vintage leather jacket with puffed sleeves, a 1970s chartreuse silky polo, Beyoncé's Ivy Park label joggers, a gingham cotton tie-front top, a Hidesign leather shoulder bag, metallic leggings, vintage Clarks' basket weave shoes and three books - The London Train by Tessa Hadley, Orkney by Amy Sackville and Spies by Michael Frayn.

Right....back to the ironing board. See you soon!