Potato and Chorizo Stacks

I've just come back from a holiday to Northern Spain and am overloaded with delicious chorizo so was thinking of new ways to serve it when I came up with this idea using fluffy Maris Piper potatoes which really soak up the flavour of the chorizo - enjoy!

Potato & Chorizo Stacks

2-3 Maris Piper potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled till just soft, then drained

1 small red onion, chopped small

1/2 a chorizo sausage, cubed

1 egg, beaten 

handful of parsley, finely chopped

Fry the onion and chorizo cubes together until the onion is soft and the chorizo has begun to yield its oil

Carefully stir the onion and chorizo into the cooked cubed potatoes in a bowl, then mix in the beaten egg and parsley.  Season to taste.

Grease cooking rings and heat a non-stick frying pan with a little oil.

Spoon the mixture into the cooking rings and push down gently.  Cook until the bottom is golden, then carefully turn over and cook the top till golden.

Perfect Raciones!  

What Lies Beneath

When you're on a cruise ship, do you ever consider what lies beneath your ship's keel?  I thought not.  The size and stability of these amazing ocean-going "resort hotels" almost makes us forget that we are, in fact, travelling over the habitats of multitudes of creatures who happen to reside in our oceans.

This photograph was taken by me at Shaab Sataya in the Red Sea.  It is a remote location at the southern end of Fury Shoal (a cruise ship hazard!).  The horseshoe shaped reef is a natural habitat for dolphins who come here overnight to rest. I was privileged enough to be there very early one morning as the pod came together ready to go out hunting.  I was snorkelling whilst taking this photo rather than scuba diving and, whilst the dolphins effortlessly moved through the water, I was swimming at full strength just trying to keep up, and often failing.  Luckily, dolphins are very inquisitive and they kept coming back to see what this strange human was up to.

So, remember next time you are sipping a cocktail on Deck 13 looking out over the ocean, that beneath you lies an (often unexplored) beautiful varied habitat just waiting to be discovered (maybe on your next Caribbean cruise!)

Potato & Sundried Tomato Bake

Another day, another Maris Piper recipe.  I simply can't get enough of these fluffy devils - they are the perfect all round potato.  In a dim and (very) distant past, I was a student of agriculture and worked on a farm that grew potatoes, one variety being the Maris Piper and it became my favourite from that moment, despite having to pick them by hand in freezing conditions!

This is my latest invention that showcases the delights of the Maris Piper. 

Potato and Sundried Tomato Bake

4-5 medium Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and grated (in a food processor for speed and ease) then dried in a clean teatowel

4 eggs beaten

1 small red onion, chopped 

1 crushed clove of garlic

7 sundried tomatoes (preserved in oil in a jar) snipped into small pieces

2 tbsps English Mustard

80g grated cheese

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until softened.

Place the grated potato in a bowl with the beaten eggs and mustard, stir to combine thoroughly

Stir in one third of the cheese and the onions and mix again.  Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Tip into a greased ovenproof dish, top with the remaining grated cheese and bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Perfect served as a lunch dish with a salad, or as an accompaniment to a main meal.  This makes the perfect Sunday brunch dish.

#FluffyMarisPiper Hash

Now Autumn is upon us at long last, I can finally make comfort food (which just doesn't seem right when the sun is shining and it's 20 degrees outside!) - hurray!  Time to ditch waxy new potatoes for my favourite all round potato, the Maris Piper, which has such a wonderful fluffy interior and makes the perfect roasties.

I'm not a big one on having leftovers, I don't like waste in any form and I cannot understand why anyone ever has leftover mash, I have no willpower to resist!  However, I do love Corned Beef Hash so I will make it from scratch for a midweek supper when the weather is wild and windy.  I add a secret ingredient (see the video below....) which really perks up the flavour.  It takes less than half an hour to make it from scratch (less if you happen to have leftover mash) and you know what's gone into your meal which has to be a bonus.

#WhyINeedANewBath

#WhyINeedANewBath 

I sooooo need a new bathroom - this is what we inherited 15 years ago when we moved house, and as you can see, it can hardly be described as luxurious or relaxing.

But because it's perfectly functional, we've never got around to renovating it.  The only thing that has ever been done is replacing the floor when it literally rotted away a few years ago!

So, when Jen at Love Chic Living wrote about a bloggers competition that she is running in conjunction with bathandshower.com to create a moodboard for your bathroom revamp, I knew this was the proverbial "kick up the backside" that I needed to finally take the plunge and decide to create the bathroom I have always dreamed of.

I want the space to feel luxurious and like a spa. This will be my sanctuary, so the first thing that I need is this fab double ended whirlpool bath that will create masses of bubbles and sooth my aches away.  It's great as it's got room in the corners to put my glass of wine and candles whilst I relax (or even a glass each end if we decide to bathe-a-deux! ;)  ).  

Large rectangular travertine-style tiles will cover the walls and floors (which will have underfloor heating to keep my toes toasty warm).  I'd love modern taps like these and a mirror with lights down the side so I can see when my eyeliner is straight!   The basin will be wall hung to make the room feel more spacious but I hate seeing the plumbing, so this one will be ideal.  As well as toasty toes, I need warm towels to envelop me after my relaxing bath so this contemporary heated towel rail will be perfect draped with some deep burgundy fluffy bath sheets. 

So, now I just have to persuade my husband that it's time to get out the tile cutter and pipe bender.....watch this space!

Nostalgia at Home

This wonderful bakelite Bush Dac90 radio belonged to my parents and my mother tuned in every day to listen to The Archers and other BBC radio programmes.  It was a wedding gift to them from my father's parents in 1946.  

I inherited the radio from my parents (having to fight off my two sisters!) and it is still in use by me today - I too have become an Archers fan (probably from all those Sunday mornings half listening to it whilst I was baking as a child with Mum!) and carry on the tradition of the Sunday omnibus.

I love the detail on the tuner bar showing "all" the programmes available then.  When I show children the radio, they can not comprehend that there was so little choice when they have hundreds of TV channels at their fingertips these days, not to mention games and music to download from the web.

I love the nostalgia of this radio, all the memories it holds for me personally, and the fact that my parents' generation looked after the things they owned and would not have dreamt of throwing away something (or even replacing) that was still working.  Nothing was wasted in our house when I was growing up, and I think my parents (and grandparents) would be thrilled to know that I am still enjoying their radio nearly 70 years later!

Cornwall's Forgotten Corner

I love Cornwall.  I don't know many people who don't (make that anyone actually!). Since we moved to Cornwall over 14 years ago, we have been inundated with guests every summer, some come with an invite, some seem to invite themselves......

Whenever I tell people that Cornwall is my home, they always tell me how jealous they are. But when they ask where in Cornwall I live, hardly anyone has ever heard of it.  They all know Newquay, St Ives, Lands End, the Lizard, Looe, but mention the Rame Peninsula and they look at you blankly.

I really don't know why this is as it is a beautiful part of Cornwall. Just look at the beach at Whitsand Bay on the south coast of the peninsula.  It's supervised by RNLI lifeguards from Easter to the end of September so you can bathe or surf in safety.  This beach is miles long and often completely deserted (as you can see in the photos.  Even on the busiest sunny Sunday August afternoon, you can walk down there and just go 50 yards either side of the path and you will have acres of beach all to yourself. Perfect for playing beach games like cricket or frisbee, if you have a dog who likes to run after a ball, or just want to get away from the "crowds". Not many other places with a wide sandy beach in Cornwall that you can say that about!

There are pretty little twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand overlooking Plymouth Sound where the narrow streets are lined with pastel coloured cottages jostling for space.  There's plenty of places to eat, with several fantastic pubs offering fresh local food (this is one of our favourites, directly overlooking Kingsand beach, the Devonport Inn), and of course, you can get the "Best of the West's" Cornish pasty too in many of the local shops.  We have taste-tested many pasties over the years and can thoroughly recommend Dashers Pasties as being the best, based in Torpoint just 8 miles away and available all over the Rame Peninsula

This is where you can have a proper old fashioned family seaside holiday.  Leave the car parked up all week and spend the holiday messing about on the beach with buckets and spades and dipping with a net in rock pools.  I swim with my dogs every day from Kingsand beach in the summer whilst toddlers are digging holes in the sand and teenagers are messing about on body boards or in kayaks.  Mums & Dads relax under the shade of sunbrellas, and everyone enjoys a locally made ice cream from the cafe at the top of the slipway. It's a lovely friendly atmosphere where strangers talk to eachother and everyone smiles.  :)  Even in Cornwall that's a rarity in summer!

When you've had enough of the beach (unusual if you have kids here!), there are over 800 acres of the Mount Edgcumbe CountryPark to explore and miles of coastal and countryside footpaths.  Mount Edgcumbe is the ancestral home of the Earl of Edgcumbe, now owned by the council and open to the public. The Earl does still live on the peninsula and is a well known local character from New Zealand (long ancestral story!) who you may well encounter in the local pubs.  There are lots of circular walks you can enjoy directly from the villages, often with somewhere to refresh yourself en route.  You might even see the wild deer herds that live here if you are lucky.  In the spring, the woods are carpeted with bluebells, and summer flowers are abundant on the cliffs overlooking the sea.  Stop for a cup of tea and a cake at one of the clifftop cafes, or enjoy a chinwag with the Coastguard Watch at Rame Head who welcome visitors in to see what they do.

OK, so just sometimes it rains in Cornwall (actually, surprisingly infrequently on the Rame Peninsula which has it's own little micro climate) so for rainy day activities, you can catch the little Cawsand foot ferry over to the Mayflower Steps in the Barbican area of historic Plymouth.  Here there are many attractions to be found, including the National Aquarium, cinemas, and of course, plenty of shopping opportunities.  The ferry journey itself is an "attraction" in it's own right as it takes you right across the wide mouth of Plymouth Sound, past the historic Hoe where Sir Francis Drake played bowls whilst waiting for the Spanish Armada (now topped by Smeatons Tower, the original lighthouse for Eddystone lighthouse).  On a sunny day, it is sheer bliss.

Cawand ferry

So come and discover Cornwall's Forgotten Corner, you won't be disappointed.  It's like taking an old fashioned Cornish seaside holiday used to be before commercialisation got in the way!  Make the most of it before it gets discovered!

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