"Ring, Ring"….why, I believe it’s London Calling!


We arrived safely in London on Saturday and have spent the past several days wandering about and eating and pubbing. Last night we had our ‘Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese’ fix. We met up with another couple and enjoyed a smashing meal and hand-pulled ales. The pate’ and cheese plate (yes, it included Cheshire Cheese) was as delicious as I had remembered, and the lamb shanks were beautifully done. I followed up my meal with a lovely bread and butter pudding surrounded by a warm custard. My husband had the spotted dick, also surrounded by the warm custard, and we each enjoyed a glass of port to finish off the meal.

Lunch earlier was spent at a cafe’ we found near the hotel…my husband had the Croque Monsieur while I ordered the shephard’s pie (made with lamb). Not bad, but also not fantastic enough to return…

Dinner on Sunday was quite memorable. Eight of us met up at the Harwood Arms. I’ll admit, it was quite the trek to the other side of town (a decent 30 minutes) but well worth the journey. It is a charming pub with delicious food. The special was a loin of venison served with fried potatoes (not really french fry style, more whole peeled new potatoes) and a brussels sprouts/cauliflauer medley. This was perhaps the best venison I have ever eaten. It was beautifully done to a warm center, sliced and topped with small mushrooms. We had the poached salmon with horseradish sauce and minced apple to start off the meal, and they brought out a bread basket with a very tasty bread which I believe had oats in it, but I forgot to ask. Waiting for the cab outside the restaurant after the meal we spotted two red foxes wandering the local neighborhood – quite close in fact! It seemed a bit odd to see them meandering about the city streets, certainly not something one would expect to see in London…And the cab took awhile to pick us up, so we ended up back in the pub for another quick pint of a hand drawn ale (okay, the guys had the pint, I watched!)

Fruitcakes!!!

It is finally feeling and looking a lot like Christmas. This morning I awoke to the wonderful vision of snowflakes falling outside my window…IN TEXAS!!! No, it didn’t stick, but I did manage to take a couple of pictures of the snow which had settled on the roof and shrubs. And then – POOF!! – it was gone, just like that! Oh, well! I was at least able to make the first fire of the season in our fireplace tonight…it crackles at my feet as I type. And I have a tradition of drinking a Manhattan with the first fire of the season, so I did that instead of roasting chestnuts on the open fire. One, I did not have chestnuts. Two, I did have bourbon and vermouth…

Last night I made 2 of my 3 batches of fruitcakes…tonight I will bake the final batch. Each recipe yields 12 small fruitcakes. I will let them dry out for a couple of days, and then I will ‘marinate’ them with a sugar syrup/bourbon/Grand Marnier mixture. It will take a good 3 weeks for them to ‘cure’ and then those babies are ready to eat!

I am a bit ahead of schedule this year with my decorating and Christmas shopping due to our upcoming London trip. This has been one of the busiest seasons I remember, but I have most of my tasks out of the way and can (hopefully)thoroughly enjoy London and the rest of the holiday season. I’ll have to remember to do this again next year…