A Review, a Recipe and a Recording

| 29th January 2011

What a treat for a Saturday night!

We were meeting for dinner with some special friends and rather than either of the wives cooking, the plan was to take to the town….

Now here in West London, we are fortunate to have many a place to choose from; should we visit an ‘Old Familiar’ or take a chance on something new? Also, it would be very handy if it were in walking distance or just a couple of stops on the bus (for purely selfish reasons!).

Well, my brother-in-law, Richard, came up trumps when he recommended Carvosso’s at 210, Chiswick we had a great meal in the most wonderful surroundings. Find out what we thought here. It’s well worth a visit, even if you have to travel a bit further than we did, and they do a great lunchtime menu!

One for you and one for me…

We’ve recently been trying to help some friends who have just had the most gorgeous baby. Little Evie was born on New Year’s Day (so yes, in labour through New Year’s Eve…) though her lovely patient parents had been anticipating her arrival since long before her due date of Christmas Day. For those of you that have children, you’ll know that those first few days and weeks can be tough; it’s feeding, burping, changing, washing all the way (and then you start again). So real food for adults is low on the priority list for new parents continually running run after the baby… As we’ve done with many a new baby, we signed up to the rota that delivered a home-made meal for the family, every day for the first month. Well, this week I decided to bake a tart for dessert which was big enough for either a few days or to share with those ‘oh so many’ visitors. Of course, as it was a new recipe, I had to make one for us as well – just for research purposes, you know! Well, we were rather pleased; so do check out Blackberry Bakewell for yourselves – hope you like it!

With the chefs at Market Kitchen…

As you can tell we do like our food here at Hen Corner and were very pleased to have been invited as diners on the TV Show Market Kitchen Big Adventure. We had a lovely time at their Camden Studios and met Penny Smith, the host, Maria Elia and Mark Sergeant the chefs (pictured here with me!) and the other guests: chef and food columnist Xanthe Clay, swimmer and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Mark Foster and food blogger the Food Urchin who is well worth a follow on Twitter! As diners, we were able to sit at the hob and taste the dishes that the chefs prepared to show case the ingredients of the day. A great programme and well worth watching week days on the Good Food Channel.

In the Garden:

We’ve had a return of Mr Fox… so the poor girls are being locked up longer than they’d choose. But they are all looking pretty healthy – come on Pearl, start laying your blue eggs again!

In the Kitchen:

We’re making the most of the last week of the Sevilles and following the success of last week, we are plotting a few variations on marmalade…

In the Conservatory:

We are playing the Germination Game! Tomatoes and aubergines are under way, six varieties of chillies are in the propagator and we’ve got a couple of keen Melons (Blenheim Orange) that are looking more than viable!

Jobs for next week:

  • Chit the Anya seed potatoes (my favourite!)
  • Winter wash the fruit trees
  • Pin back the espalier plum tree
  • Put up hooks to hold the cold frame open

These are mainly outside jobs that can wait a couple of weeks if need be…. it’s sooooo cold!

Corners aren’t just for squares!

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