Little Chef Surprise

A couple of times recently I have driven to Loughborough on business and stopped at the Kettering Little Chef and had a cracking breakfast. Properly cooked tomatoes, tasty bacon and sausage, wonderful mushrooms, fresh egg and the toast is gorgeous. That is all after real, freshly squeezed OJ. I also love the new decor and the musical toilets and I've been running on to anyone who'll listen about how transformed the LC experience is.

I've just seen a programme on Channel 4 about Heston Blumenthal revamping three Little Chefs and apparently Kettering was one of them. Now I don't feel quite so embarrassed that I took a photo of my breakfast on Monday so here it is.

If you are anywhere near Kettering please try the Little Chef. They're trying very hard and I love it.

Clouds of smoke have a silver lining

We've been moaning like mad the last couple of weekends because our next door neighbour has been waiting until the weekend before going into bonfire mode and producing ridiculous amounts of smoke that drift down towards the houses instead of across the fields when the wind is in the approved bonfire direction. It happened again yesterday morning and we were pretty annoyed as we have to keep the windows and doors closed and we were hosting a birthday breakfast for Soupy. I had to go down the garden to get a spare table out of the shed and "imagine my surprise" (I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again 1973) when I saw that the wilderness that was the bottom of the neighbour's garden has been cleared and tidied.

This is really great news because the bottom of our garden, where we spend a lot of time, was dominated by the neighbour's 20 feet high laurels and conifers and they have all been reduced to about 6 feet so all that smoke will be worth putting up with for the difference it is already making to our garden.

Good job I didn't say anything in the heat and smoke of the moment!

Preserving pears and roasting chestnuts

I've picked the rest of the pears and now need to decide on the best recipe for preserving them. I think I know where to find one that includes chardonnay and cinammon. That's wine and spice, not the new girls on Hollyoaks.

I was mulling over the options while I roasted some chestnuts over the fire pit using my French chestnut roasting tool.

I love this time of year.

Time for a change of subject

I have just finished reading "The Sea" by John Banville which followed "Deaf Sentence" by David Lodge. Two excellent books that I enjoyed very much but both featured men who had lost their wives to illness as the central characters. I am not superstitious but I don't like taking chances so I am now reading "Principles and Practices of Marketing" by David Jobber to make sure I don't get a hat trick.