Weekend round up

The weekend was very quiet for The Boy and I. He'd had a stressful week at work, and just wanted to relax. The whole thing can be summed up in two words: food and films.

Friday night was fish pie and Ocean's Eleven (the George Clooney one) - Fish pie better than I'd feared (you should have seen the colour of it when it went in...), Ocean's Eleven quite entertaining, but not as much of a romp as I'd been expecting.

Saturday was our usual poached egg on toast with awesome coffee, leftover fish pie and a day spent pootling round the kitchen making muhammara, mutabal, and tabbouleh (lots of charring of vegetables and frenzied chopping!). Films watched were Antitrust (truly awful, and woefully dated) and Catch Me If You Can ( LOVED this, I think it was when Leonardo DiCaprio started to shake off the teen heartthrob burden and become awesome)

Sunday was the scoffing of food made on Saturday (with massive amounts left for weekday lunches), and watching The Incredibles, Toy Story 2, Die Hard and the new Sherlock thing for the BBC. I liked it, though the plot was ever so thin. Maybe now I'll have an excuse to fancy Benedict Cumberbatch...

So much relaxing over two days, so why was I tired when Monday came around?!

Tea with Fergus, or why I love my friends

I had the most decadent day on Friday! I spent the morning watching an old BBC adaptation of Wives and Daughters, then tootled over to West Hampstead to have tea with my friend Fergus.

Fergus isn't one to do things by halves. This was the table when I arrived:

(That's homemade cherry cake, along with still warm scones)

And that was before we got on to the green tea, the shisha or the G&Ts whilst watching Beautiful People... I had to send The Boy a text saying, "I am a terrible slattern, I am drinking gin and not making fish pie".

I also had the opportunity to admire the tapestry he has been working on for months. He embroidered funny things that have been said by him and his best friend and flatmate Tristan over the years, in all the languages they speak. I spent ages looking at it, every time I glanced over I spotted something new

(I love the 'People like us don't use mugs' in the bottom left corner)

Several hours later, I wobbled home and proceeded to rustle up Nigella's fish pie from How to Eat. I find that in all of her recipes, there's always one error. This time it was the amount of liquid needed to make the sauce, but after I subbed and tweaked, it was very tasty.

All in all, a perfect start to the weekend. 

Weekend and Friday pic

It's been a wonderful end to a nigglesome week.

Today I met Michael, friend and former colleague (he's one of the amazing curators behind this exhibition), for coffee at Loafing by Victoria Park. As we drank our (very tasty) flat whites, he used his gingerbread man to tell me about Francois Ravaillac, the fanatic who assassinated Henri IV of France. The picture you see above is of the torture he experienced before his execution (quartering, with the sugar cubes doubling as hot coals). It was hilarious, seeing such a mild mannered chap breaking up his gingerbread man with glee. The looks we got from other customers as they overheard snippets of the conversation!

On the subject of Henri IV, I recommended one of my favourite films, La Reine Margot. Have you seen it? It's indescribably beautiful, and Isabelle Adjani, who plays Margot, is stunning.

And so to the weekend! What are your plans? I'm helping my friend Heaths shop for furniture tomorrow, and there will be some more anniversary celebrations with The Boy at some point - probably Malaysian food at Makan by Portobello Market, unpretentious, cheap and seriously tasty (it's one of my favourite secret spots for food!)

Have a great weekend, all!

Weekend!

los hilos de la vida...
Originally uploaded by LauDeu

What are your plans for this weekend? So far, I'm planning a cycle ride across Victoria Park to pick up some tasty lamb shoulder from The Ginger Pig (The Boy has a craving for a roast on Sunday), mowing the lawn, and mastering my darn sewing machine. I'm clearly not threading it properly, as the material keeps puckering. Sadly, the manual doesn't have a section on "How to use a sewing machine if you're so clumsy that you were banned from touching one in Textiles class and instead put on applique duty for a term", so I'll have to muddle on through as best I can...

Two exciting eBay purchases today: a Polaroid camera and a Super 8 cine camera, for under £20! Must remember that film for both is hella expensive, but I can't wait to experiment!

Have a wonderful weekend, all!