Much good food

We've had a good spell of food, starting with a happy accidental caramelised apple sauce. To replicate that particular mistake, simply over-brown the apples in sugar and butter in the pan, then add a little water and cook until soft. We had its delightful sweet flavour with honey roast pork and veg (and tasty oxo boiled cabbage).  And used left over pork pieces and a re-run apple sauce to make a tasty salad to serve with left over sweet potato pie.

I found some highly desirable recipes online and as soon as we'd picked up a serious chunk of fresh ginger go busy boiling up some crystallised ginger and a bottle of home made chocolate syrup. Both of which proved fairly straight forward to make, but the end results weren't exactly what we were expecting (very tasty though).

 Having waited a while to get our hands on some fresh mint, we squealed with delight when we saw it in ASDA (and promptly bought 3 plants worth).  Why were we so keen? We were itching to recreate the mint tea we had drunk in Marrakesh. So we went to town and also knocked up some Beghrir (Moroccan semolina pancakes), served them with the home made chocolate syrup and saved some for Jack.

Then we had a 3 night run of evening meals with guests. 

Monday: Curry with Ben ( a homemade prawn dish, turkey bhuna, onion bhajis, rice and home made naan breads, served with mango pickle and Pilsner) followed up with Malc's jam sponge.

Tuesday: Italian with the In-laws (spaghetti Bolognese and cheese and herb grilled garlic bread served with nibbles of olives, bread sticks and peanuts and plenty of lemon ice water), with apple crumble with custard for pudding and some perfectionist coffees. 

Wednesday: Soup Swap! We had a few guests pop by to exchange and sample each others soup. It was a lovely relaxed time, with a spiced italian vegetable soup, a take on this roast veg soup (with a variety of roast vegetables added), some potato and parsnip and this gorgeous spicy parsnip soup all on offer. We made some fresh bread rolls and herby croutons, and Jeffers brought some beer.

We also had an experiment in minestrone, which we haven't put to the test yet. I'm hoping it will work out as an instant, home made,  fresh version of a cup-a-soup. I made some intense cooked, herbed and seasoned veg, and froze it in individual portions (in a rubber cupcake tray) with individual portions of spaghetti. The plan is to put one portion of each into a mug or bowl and pour on boiled water... I have no idea if it will work.

Sweet potato pie (with this pastry), with Morrocan carrot & orange salad and spinach. (Preceded by roast tomato soup and herb croutons). 

Garlands

 There are a lot of things hanging in our house. I like it that way.

Before I Met My Wife...

Before I met my wife I used to skate. Not that I stopped after that point, but what had been an almost daily ritual naturally reduced over time until it became an sporadic session here and there, made all the more sporadic by the decreasing quality of my deck. These sessions have, however, remained consistent in that they've always been instigated by my long-time friend Elliot Gibbins. Ell currently lives in China and was consequently unable to attend our recent wedding. However, his present of a new deck and bearings ensured he was never far from our minds on the day. It was pretty obvious what lay beneath the wrapping paper and I opened it excitedly as soon as we got home from the reception. Now that I've bought a new set of wheels too, I have no excuse not to get rolling again.

All of this kit (including the used bits) came from Ideal Skateshop at one time or another. The folk at Ideal have served the Birmingham skateboarding community for something in the region of twenty years, proving a dedication to skating that has outlasted the faddy shops that popped up in the early and mid 00s. If you're a new starter (or a restarter) living in the area, Ideal are worth your attention and ultimately your money.

Assembling my new set up was a more complicated process than I expected. It had been so long since the nuts were last removed from the trucks that they had partially rusted together. This meant that I ruined the end of the threads by taking the nuts off and, rather than paying £45 for a new pair of trucks, I had to delicately shave fine pieces of thread off with a hacksaw.

Frankly, I can't wait to start! I've probably never told Nom this but I think about skating most days! Some guys fantasize about scoring for Man U, some wish they were the frontman of a band, I dream about being a half-decent skater.

Wholemeal Love

[Menu Thoughts]

Occasionally, when I am at a loss for cooking inspiration, I wish that other people posted their menus more often, so that I could dip into them for inspiration. So here's a snapshot of what we're eating:

That's a tiny home-grown pile of salad leaves, pita bread fingers with a yoghurt and turmeric dip, refried beans with bacon (based loosely on this hairy bikers recipe, crackers and oatcakes with a soft brie-like cheese, called coeur de neufchatel from Ultracomida (in Aberystwyth).  Accompanied by a mugful of flattish coke, followed up with a latte (with vanilla syrup) and splendid chocolate brownies (made by our dear friends Pete and Abi).

And for our evening meal: home-made sag aloo, turkey korma, freshly made Sharwood's naan, basmati rice and mango pickle. 

P.S There are often additional photos from those shown on our blog on our flickr stream. 

Just a quicky...

A brief blog post following an all too brief trip.

We headed over to Aberystwyth on Friday afternoon and stayed for only 24 hours. Malcolm had the pleasurable business of choir rehearsing and Nom the tough task of social gathering. It was a lovely time and though few photos were captured they merit online publication.

B+L!

Back in December, just three weeks after our own nuptials, we were fortunate enough to shoot the wedding of our good friends Becca (née Davies) and Lee Dutfield. In brief it was a heart warming family effort with a large amount of purple butterflies, chocolate crispy wedding cake with purple ribbon and...purple in general.

We've known these guys a couple of years from uni and count them amongst our best friends, so it was a major privilege to be involved behind the scenes and share wedding planning with them. Getting to know Becca's family during the hen party and preparations was also a joy.

Becca did a good job of sticking to what she knew she wanted and not letting people persuade her of what she 'should' have, with the exception of a Christmas tree in the chapel - that was Lee's idea, and it worked out well. Most of their day was custom made by Becca's Aunties and other family members, from the dresses (the bride's and the bridesmaids') to the wedding favours (little parcels of hand-wrapped Welsh cakes). 

We arrived the evening before the wedding in time to hang out at the rehearsal and work out some shots, after which we divided into men's and women's groups to collect take away food for the separate households. Becca ended up collecting a huge order of chips for her side of the family, much to the amusement of the chip shop staff, whilst Lee and the boys got an order from Domino's. Then it was full steam ahead putting finishing touches to the table plan, favours and dresses, before finally heading to bed pretty late.

The following morning we split forces. Malcolm followed the groom and groomsmen who, after rising early to help putting finishing touches on the hall, headed to a café for Lee's last cooked breakfast as a 'single' man. 

Meanwhile, I watched the girls as they had their hair and makeup seen to. Becca had four bridesmaids, two young ones and two her own age, plus aunts and her mammy to help her. But in the end she seemed to be the calmest of the lot. Becca doesn't agree with 'faff'.

This wedding was nothing if not Welsh, which is obviously not a criticism coming from two graduates of Wales' finest higher-education establishment. Of course, while the rest of the UK was coated in a beautiful white blanket of snow, it drizzled greyly in Neath.

The service was taken by the dad of best man Pete, John MacDiarmid, or as we like to call him, The Big Mac! John was especially excited to lead the service because Pete and Lee have been best friends since primary school, and gave a visible happy heart skip as the newly-pronounced man and wife kissed for the first time.

I'm not sure Becca even noticed the rain, and it did provide a lovely opportunity for the couple to greet their guests: they walked down the aisle as man and wife to find they had no desire to head out onto the church steps in the rain, so headed straight back into the church to the applause of all their family and friends.

The bride had apparently considered asking all guests to wear a purple item in line with the theme. She eventually decided not to, although many guests embraced it of their own accord.

A highlight of the day came as Becca decided she would add a few words of gratitude to the end of the men's official speeches. Her words were confident, genuine and spoken in a 'tidy' Welsh accent. She thanked her mum for encouraging her to make a bigger deal out of the reception because - and we all half-believed her - 'we'd all by in McDonald's by now' if she hadn't.

After eating and speeches the guests broke out their moves on the dance floor. The disco, provided as a somewhat last minute rescue, didn't disappoint. This was especially true for the Aber crowd who, through a lack of a serious clubbing environment, have learned to throw shapes to just about anything.

As many we know have commented, Becca and Lee have rarely seemed happier than when they're together. We're confident their marriage will be a loving one.

The Daysaver Guide and the Birthday Playlist

One major detail I omitted from the previous post was my handy pizza base-printed, pocket-sized Daysaver Guide. In this Nom included a spider map of some places we could travel to and the buses that linked them, a satelite map of Birmingham, an 'eye spy' page of cool things to do before the end of the day, and a list of noteworthy events and exhibitions (taken from iCal).

 

My favourite page, however, contained the birthday playlist. It wasn't strictly a playlist though: the words 'Happy Birthday Malcolm' were written in a vertical line down the page but no track names were revealed. Nom had loaded her MP3 player with a list of tracks where the first letter of the title or artist's name began with the relevant letter - 'H' was for Happier Than the Morning Sun by Stevie Wonder, 'A' for Animal Collective's In the Flowers and so on - and I was left to fill in the blanks.

 

 

This was an excellent trivia task for a music nerd like me - 'What could "Y" be? Youthmovies?' etc. - and we had a lovely time simply listening through a lovingly prepared compilation as we watched the world go by from the buses. I'd highly recommend this as a present for someone you're close to, if they'll let you near their iTunes that is. In case you're wondering, the final 'M' is for Miles Davis' version of I Loves You, Porgy and 'I' is blank because Nom couldn't pronounce the name of the Angélique Kidjo track.

23: A Daysaver Adventure

For a birthday treat, Nom took me on a Daysaver Adventure. For the uninitiated, a Daysaver Adventure involves catching the first bus that comes to your nearest bus stop, buying a Daysaver ticket - which can take you anywhere and everywhere on the network - and getting off wherever you fancy. We began on Sutton Road with the 905 to Birmingham city centre. When we arrived at Bull Street we took advantage of our proximity to Cyber Candy to pick up supplies (see above) before visiting the New Art Now exhibition at the BMAG and drinking a swift half (or two) of real ale at the Briar Rose.

Then we caught the 47 to Cotteridge, jumping off on the Pershore Road for a canal-side walk.

We ended up in Kings Norton where we had a mooch around the green before catching the 45 back into town. On the way we ate a picnic (cheeky!) of mini pasties, Thai prawn crackers and jelly.

We had some more ale at the Wellington, before heading to Short Heath on the 7 to visit my family, who live nearby, and my grandparents who were visiting. They had prepared a lovely meal of fried plantain, followed by tuna steaks then sticky toffee pudding. My sister also made a wonderful cake which was oozing buttercream! What a day!

The New Baby

As a belated wedding gift from the “Enemy” (my inlaws, who shall not be referred to in such a way again!) we have a brand new [lens]Baby! For its first trip out we went Christmas shopping with P+V to a very snowy Birmingham.

  

D+N (Part 2)

An early service and meal meant ample time to relax in the glow of the early evening sun as it set over Aber. Some of the younger (and more well-refreshed) guests made good use of the bouncy castle, regardless of the rain water it had collected from earlier in the day.

Making no concession for the older guests, the DJ kicked off with Beyoncé's Halo for the first dance before moving straight into a full set of new dance tunes. The couple impressed everyone by keeping the party going until only the élite remained.

D+N (Part 1)

We've decided it takes more pictures than will comfortably fit in one post to tell the story of our second Summer wedding, so we're splitting Daniel and Naomi's across two.

Just how different can one Aberystwyth wedding be from another? Almost completely as it turns out! Daniel and Naomi's wedding was vivid in every sense, all the way from the personalities involved to the bride's evening dress, which was made by mother of the bride, Lindy. We shouldn't neglect to mention that Lindy also made her own dress, the bride's main dress and the cake!  

Things got really exciting in the Morgan camp when father of the bride, Dill, sprang a surprise horse and cart to get Naomi to the church. It's always a pleasure to witness Welsh weddings because everyone seems to take an interest. Half the road turned out to watch the surprised tears of Naomi and Lindy as they emerged from the house to see their new ride. Naomi's Grandad also lent them an antique Rolls Rocye to carry the new couple from St. Michael's church to the cliff railway.

 

We organised a quick tour of some sea front landmarks for the couple shots. Daniel and Naomi proved exceptionally good sports and played happily along with our silly requests, even though we'd only met them the day before.

 

S+L

Two weddings today that we wanted to share from last Summer. They happened to take place in not only the same church, but the same reception venue as well. But the similarities pretty much end there.



S+L

This was the first wedding we shot together. We were obviously nervous and this feeling was only compounded by the rain (which, really, we should have expected being in Wales), but Sam and Louise were so relaxed that we were able to enjoy it almost as much as they did. We were proud of them for their sunflowers (a relatively late change in florist plans that very much suited their style), their attitudes (if it's not sorted months in advance, or even before the morning, that doesn't matter), and their Ugandan-style bike riding. 

Memorable moments include running half of Aberystwyth's sea front promenade and abandoning a coat behind a bench to keep up with the couple as they cycled past surprised guests and passersby. One of our favourite shots shows Louise perched elegantly on the back of Sam's bike, turning to ask an exhausted Malcolm if he was ok. 

If you're trying to pick a reception venue in Aberystwyth, you couldn't do much better than the restaurant at the top of Consti(tution Hill). Its a tad on the small size for a huge wedding, but the food, even for a large group, has been amazing when we've had the chance to try it. Included in their package is unlimited trips up and down the hill on the funicular railway for all the guests throughout the day until the last person has gone home. The view across the whole town and the bay provides a perfect, typical Aberystwyth backdrop.

The meal was followed by a frenzy of creative activity: one table made their table decorations into a tin-can-style phone, others floated theirs on helium balloons or blew bubbles. There were speeches and a truly celebratory Twpath (the Welsh version of a barn dance).

For a special New Year treat we headed over to Barmouth (Wales) for a couple of days with some of our favourite people. So here's evidence of our New Year's blogging resolution, in the shape of a few photos from the weekend. Happy 2011!