Good Morning Early Birds!

[waterboatman]

Monday. After a very windy Christmas day, all is calm and peaceful this morning. The sky is clear and all the stars a shining like sixpences in candle light.

Some shoplifting to be done this morning. My newsagent is away on holibobs, so the shop is shut until tomorrow when a 'retired' employee will hold the fort until next week. It's about time he and his wife had a break. I hope they have fun...and bring me back a pressie..yeah. right!

Have a happy day everyone.

[Buenchico]

The only prezzies I've ever had from newsagents have been big bills for newspaper deliveries. (My local newsagent in Sheffield would repeatedly tell me that he was too busy to calculate my bill when I tried to pay him. Then, several months later, he'd issue a really shirty final demand for a massive amount, threatening legal action because he'd not been paid!)

[Buenchico]

Oh, good morning, by the way ;-)

[waterboatman]

Morning Chris. That sounds like the paper shop to avoid. Mines as good as gold. They have been good friends for many years.

[Buenchico]

As usual, I've been up all night and I'm trying to decide whether to have another drink or not before going to bed. (I've hardly been hammering the stuff. I've just finished the bottle of vino I opened to go with my Christmas lunch, and that's all the booze I've had). I quite fancy a glass of something but I'm not sure whether or not I'll want to take the car out later on today. Decisions! Decisions!

[waterboatman]

Only you can decide that Chris. Do you need to take the car? is the question.

[Buenchico]

Theoretically I might take a look at the sales but the chances are that I'll get up too late anyway and there's nothing I really want/need. So I've decided to drink the last glass and a half of claret which is looking lonely in a bottle ;-)

[waterboatman]

Sounds like the best plan to me mate! Enjoy! :o}

[Buenchico]

Did you have a good Crimbo?

[waterboatman]

Very pleasent thanks Chris. Visited friends for a coffee and chinwag in the morning, then home to enjoy being a slob for the rest of the day.

I had a boned gammon joint. Wiped it dry and coated it with honey, covered the dish with foil and slow cooked it. Delicious. Did some cheesy mash with purple sprouts and multi-coloured carrots. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and of course, there is plenty of gammon left.

[Buenchico]

I took the easy way out for lunch. I bunged a frozen giant Yorshire pudding in the oven and filled it with this:
http://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals/beef-meals/Rump-Beef-Brandy/
I added some sprouts and creamy mash and that was my Christmas lunch. (It was just as tasty as when I've spent ages cooking duck, etc).

Then I basically did nothing all day. (I hardly even bothered with the telly).

[waterboatman]

That looks lovely. Well done. I didn't have the idiot box on until the evening. I had the radio on, local BBC.

[waterboatman]

The purple sprouts and a wee bit sweeter than the green, I bought them on the vine from the farm. They are really nice. The multicoloured carrots from the same farm. Out of the ground the day before.

[Buenchico]

I'd bought some carrots but didn't bother cooking them. To be honest, I didn't really need the mash either. The giant Yorkshire pud (40p from Asda) made an excellent accompaniment to that beef dish. (Our local farm shop stocks some of that range. They're lovely but, for me, way too expensive for everyday use. However I like to treat myself occasionally and I can choose between this
http://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals/chicken-meals/chicken-alexander/
or this
http://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals/fish-meals/salmon-and-asparagus-gratin/
from my freezer for lunch today).

[waterboatman]

They look good. I'll leave the fish one, I'm allergic to all fish. Some of it looks lovely too. :o{

I don't buy from farm shops, but from the farms that don't have shops for that very reason, therefore I get things much cheaper. A full sized bag of organic potatoes for £7 for instance, free range organic eggs for £2 a dozen. The vine of sprouts was £4, the carrots £3 a big bunch. I had two of those. They are a bit sweeter then the orange ones you get in the shops.

[Buenchico]

THere's NOTHING cheap in our farm shop! It's the sort of place where cheese starts at about £20 per kilo. (However it's superb cheese!). Their beers are fairly expensive too but they've got a fantastic range of specialist German beers, so I do get tempted from time to time ;-)

http://tinyurl.com/gpvhy49
(Drag the image to look around)

[waterboatman]

Looks good Chris. But it's all that setup that costs money and is expensive to run, therefore the cost of the produce is higher. I buy from 'the farm gate' as it's called, so no overheads. I have to wash the potatoes, eggs and carrots etc, but it's worth the effort as I save many pounds.

[Buenchico]

I can't think of many 'farm gate' places around here. It's all posh delis, food halls and upmarket farm shops.

You might remember the BBC series 'Jimmy's Farm', with Jimmy Doherty (who has since presented other food programmes on the box) setting up a new piug farm. It's very close to where I live and heavily promoted but everything there is very expensive. (A latte in the cafe costs £3.50, or £4.50 if you want a flavoured syrup shot in it. A cheeseburger costs £9.00). That seems to be the norm in Suffolk :(

[Buenchico]

^^^ piug? PIG!!!

[waterboatman]

Just beginning to get light now, Some cloud has come in, but not a lot. Looks like a nice day on the way.

[paddywak]

Good morning everybody