Great british good festival

Yesterday we had a family trek to the lovely Ragley hall grounds for the Great British Food Festival. About an hours drive from us, neither of us had heard about the festival or the hall before!

We expected the festival to be inside the hall but it was all situated in the beautiful grounds and it was massive!

So many different suppliers..from cakes and sweet treats..

To pastries and garlic..

Lovely sausage rolls.. (Smile!!)

We got to sample to many lovley things, our favourite was a delicious pizza from Dough It Yourself who make up baking mixes for biscuits, cakes and pizzas bases so you can make you own artisan food in no time, at home.

So easy and quick to make your own tasty pizza base and add your own toppings!

There were some speciality meat stalls, selling mallards, wild boar, zebra and ostrich to name but a few..

We brought a wild boar pie and a lovley game pie from  Peter Gott at Sillfield Farm stall. Neither had an overpowering taste, I thought they may be too "gamey" but they had a pleasant meaty favour, packed with meat and lovely pie jelly.

Throughout the day there were some popular "Man vs..." Meat, heat and cake! We were at the back of the crowd for the extremely popular man vs heat with several courses of chillis, even sick buckets and paramedics on-site in case someone was poorly! As you can see it was definitely one for the spectators!

We sampled lots of food and ale throughout the day. I had smoked brisket bean and coleslaw on a brioche bun. The brisket was very tender, smoky beans added a lovely flavour and the sweet brioche complimented it very well. 

Hubby had a hot dog which had sausage from the estate on, this was also very scrummy and not too overpowering spices, just lovely pork.

We both sampled some of the lovely sweet treats from Narna's Chocolates myself having a gooey chocolate brownie and Rich had a peanut butter fudge cake.. Both were heavenly, rich and a real treat..we could have saved some for later however we ate them regardless!! We should have really brought more!

The stalls were near a fishing pool so we sat there to enjoy a lovely pint of ale from one of the pop-up bars. 

It was an excellent day out and we found out that there is also a christmas festival that we may visit too!

Post baby night out..

Last night was my SILs birthday party, and my first night out since having the Fredster.

I don't really go out much anyway but this time my going out nerves were teamed with baby worry nerves! So stressed I decided to clean the house to take my mind off it for a bit. The jitters were only solved by the hubby bringing me a bottle of IPA!

Piglet was alseep before I went out and had a boys night in with his daddy, whilst I attempted to walk in my Irregular Choice shoes (swapping for flats on the way down, and going shoeless in the resturant)

It wasn't a late one for me, I do not deal well with hangovers, usually horizontal and vomiting all day with a headache like a wardrobe has fell on it. Im always jealous of the people who have hangovers and need a greasy fry up to rectify it, honestly I can imagine how good the salty, greasy goodness is, soaking up all of the evidence if the night before.

I did discover a new fave cocktail though..amaretto sour, literally like citrus marzipan in a glass. Slipped down like a dream!

Anyway. I'm now wide awake, Freddie is wrestling around, awake in his Moses and everytime I look at him he is laughing at me! Little bugger.

Sourdough

Currently I'm having a (basic) baking phase.

I have cracked out cakes, cupcakes, shortbread and scones...now it's time for bread.

Crispy, moreish, comforting bread smothered with thick butter is what I'm craving. So, i'm

going to have a go a sourdough.

Sourdough is made with the use of"wild" yeast incorporated into the dough with a sourdough starter, a basic mix of equal parts of water and flour that you leave to ferment over about 5 days, whilst keeping it warm and feeding it(with more flour and water)Like a pet! The wild yeast is present in your kictchen and the original four you use for the starter, the fermentation and feeding brings it to life.

So, today is day one of my sourdough starter. Here he is, meet Ned. 

(Ned the bread)

He is currently warm and cosy on top of the fridge...ready for a feed Tomo!

Catch up!

It's been a while..here's a little summary of my week..

We had a spur of the moment trip to Llandudno on Freddie's 10 weeker, it was a lovely sunny day and nothing beats the smell of sea air with a crisp pint and piping hot, salty fish and chips!!

Freddie had his injections and RotaVirius vaccine which has knocked him about a little but he is starting to settle slightly today.

I made my first mushroom and truffle rissotto with a tomato chicken roast and I will post that up later.

Very satisfying, we had left overs on the way to the beach!

I got Freddie his first pair of converse..he is just like his mommy now! Jumping on the bandwagon a bit as everybody is wearing cons these days, keeping them pristine white on the ends when ten years ago you brought a pair and immediately worked on making your hi tops look bashed and well worn by treading on the ends.

I still have my bloody migraine looming but I'm hoping it's going to settle soon...draining the life outta me.

So yep, nice little catch up..food festival this weekend so lots of blogs coming x

Wide awake!

wide awake since 3.30 am.

Lingering migraine from today starting to hype back up, feel violently sick, SPD pain is weirdly back all on my left hip side and Freddie is reflexing and hitting the side of his Moses every 5 mins or so.

Add into the mix a cat who keeps scratching at the bedroom door to come in, then to go back out again (yes YOU Rosie Jones..only forgiven as it's your 6th birthday today!)

I think I may as well get up and nap with the dogs!

Catching some Zzzzz!

Last night was another milestone after tooth-ville last week...

Freddie slept through! 7pm-6am. Guzzled a boccy and went straight back off.

At first I did think I had hallucinated, but nope really happened! I don't even remeber even before he was born the last time that I had a nights sleep with no disturbances, not even a wee break! Amazing.

Sadly, I didn't go back to sleep and spent the time cleaning the kitchen sink (yes, really)

Let's see how little piglet does tonight!

P.s look at his cute new bottoms nanny got for him! I'm a sucker for stars & stripes...(Rosie photo bomb miaowing)