My Favourite Day of the Year

PANCAKE DAY!!!! I love Shrove Tuesday, because although I know I can eat pancakes any day of the year, I don't, and then this day comes and I eat enough to last me the whole year! My problem got out of hand two years ago, when, egged on by lots of friends, I managed to eat about 15 pancakes (and then felt very sick). So these days I try to be a bit more reserved. However, I can't resist a little bit of competition, so out came the scoreboard again - I think you'll see I did pretty well!Every year, I always try to get a picture of the mandatory pancake tossing, but as my old camera used to take about 20 seconds before it took the picture, meaning that it was pretty much impossible to get the picture. This year I have a nice new camera, so her is the action shot we've all been waiting for.
Having written this post I now want more pancakes! Hurry up next year!!

Girlie Night Out

Now, usually we have girlie nights at someones house, and we all bring food to fit in with a theme. But, for a change we decided to go out for a meal. Galicia's in South Croydon was our restaurant of choice. I've been before but this time we decided to order from the tapas menu. There was discussion on how many dishes to order each because we weren't sure how big each portion was. We made the decision to go for three dishes each. About 15mins later our food began to arrive. 5mins after that, the extra table was brought over so we could fit all the food! So.. the moral is, if you go to Galicia's, two dishes each is enough!

The three dishes I ordered were, black pudding with cannellini beans and pork; mussels; and meatballs. The first dish I wasn't too impressed with - the black pudding wasn't as good as other black pudding that I've had, the beans were just beans, and the pork was mainly just fat, 5/10. The mussels were awesome, really good portion size, tasty sauce, and wonderfully cooked, 9/10. The meatballs were also really tasty, a good texture and there were 5 in a portion, 8/10.

Some of the other food I sampled - the whitebait, I ate most of this because the rest of the girlies turned their noses up at this (so you're probably wondering who ordered it - I made my sister!). This was good at first, but the portion was huge and I soon got bored, but I'll still give it 7/10. The patatas bravas was nicely spicy and the potatoes weren't too hard, which can sometimes be a problem, 7/10. The spanish omelette was average, 6/10. The peppers in olive oil weren't really my thing, 3/10, the pork wasn't nice - bit chewy and strange taste, 2/10. The aubergine dish that we ordered for the veggie was very nice, but I don't remember what is was called, it was kind of like a lasagne type dish but with aubergine instead of pasta, 7/10.

Now, I'm not really sure that's all the food but there was sooo much I'm having trouble remembering it all! Also, the sangria helped wash it all down very well!

Pub Lunch at the Forge

It had been a long time since we'd been to the Old Forge in Otterbourne, as the last time we went there was a caterpillar in my food, and the roasted veg looked very much like it had been boiled to death. But, that was over a year ago, so we decided it was time to give it another try.

It was a lunchtime outing, and we had to be back at work within the hour, so we only had one course. I ordered the Pork & Wild Boar Sausages. These came with no veg, just mash & gravy. I was also a bit concerned with the speed they came out so figure they were probably microwaved - which for the price I think is shoddy. 7/10

Ian ordered Pork fillet with black pudding & caramelised apple. The portion was tiny and the apple was unidentifiable. Apparently the pork had no flavour (I didn't get to try it because I noted how small it was and didn't want to deprive Ian!) and the accompanying veg was sat in water. 4/10

Friend K ordered Sticky honey & lemon chicken with chips. Her comments were 'the chips were good, right amount of crispness and saltiness. Portions bit small for the price. Sauce was more like a salad dressing, not as thick as you would expect for something advertised as 'Sticky' 7/10'

So... to be honest, it was a bonus there wasn't a caterpillar in my food, but I don't think we'll be going back.

Candy Floss!

For Christmas, Ian got a candy floss maker. We experimented with it earlier, but since then we have ordered candy floss colouring so that we can experience the candy floss properly. Here is a picture of the sugar after we added the colouring. Here's what the candy floss looked like. I must say, although the candy floss maker is not the most healthy addition to our household, it is probably the easiest gadget we have to clean and therefore I love it .Look out for the other colours - pink, green & yellow!