I’ve been tagged by sue from mouse notebook, this is something of a first for me so I’m quite excited. I was planning on posting my answers yesterday but got a bit carried away down the allotment and ran out of time. So here are the questions.

What are your current obsessions?

I’m sure you’ve already guessed the first one, our allotment - I love being down there on my days off digging, weeding, planting and chatting other plot holders over a cuppa tea. The second is food generally speaking – I love growing it, reading about it, cooking it and eating it. I have started visiting a bookshop near work with a cafe inside and reading a different cookery book everyday lunchtime with a cup of coffee or tea and lovely piece of Baklava from the food market, a bit cheeky I suppose but as a result I now have a very long list of books I would like to buy.

What are you currently reading?

Grow your own veg by Carol Klein (given to me by a friend), Veg Patch which is part of the River Cottageseries of books( can’t recommend highly enough, so easy to understand), The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater (one of my favourite food writers), the new edition of Jamie magazine (just started reading and looking forward to the articles on middle eastern cooking) and  Country Living magazine (article on Teresa Green who I wrote about at last years Origin).

What’s for dinner?

Well you would think some elaborate meal from all the books I’ve been reading but no its an old family favourite Corned beef hash. Thursday is night school for my husband so we just have something quick and easy. I’ve recently given the recipe to a friend and its become a weekly meal at her house, everyone loves it. Its cheap which is important in these hard times and very tasty but also very easy to make. I will have to take a photo of my efforts tonight and post the recipe.

Where do you plan to travel to next?

Hopefully Italy, we can’t decide where in Italy we want to go because really we want to go everywhere. We are undecided between going backpacking and getting the train and staying in hostels or just renting a villa or apartment in one place and really getting to explore that place where ever it might be.

What’s the best thing you ate or drank lately?

I’ve really been pushing the boat out on buying nice food lately so its quite difficult to chose just one thing – we’ve had melt in your mouth Serrano Ham, lovely fresh duck eggs and the best free range chicken from the Manchester Farmers Market. But the one that really stands out is sirloin steak, some of the best steak I’ve ever had and I’ve had very good steak in both Argentina and Australia. We got our steak from a butchers farm shop on the way to Styal in Cheshire.

What is the last thing you bought?

Jamie Oliver magazine this morning while doing a bit of food shopping (I’m starting to sound a bit food obsessed, sorry). I missed the first issue but got the second and read it from cover to cover, it really is a good magazine if you like Jamie’s no nonsense style of cooking which I do. What I like about this issue (from just flicking through) is an article on an ceramics designer and maker that Jamie has commissioned to make pieces to sell in his online shop. Oliver has also commissioned a number of other crafts people including textile designers and printers, you can read about them here.

What is your favourite film ever?

This is so difficult to pick just one so I’ve decided to split them into three categories and pick a film for each, I don’t think its cheating is it? My favourite recent film (last 5 years) is The lives of others next is old classics and it has to be Breakfast at Tiffany’s and finally my favourite non-english speaking film is Il Postino(nothing like that dreadful Kevin Costner remake). I feel I’ve rambled on enough so I’m going into detail on why I like them, if you haven’t seen them then I highly recommend you to.

Care to share some wisdom?

To be happy enjoy the simple things in life.

Where would you rather be right now?

My Mum reads this and I don’t want to upset her or have her thinking I’m unhappy (she lives in Australia and I currently live in the UK). But the one place I would love to be is sat on her patio at the table my Dad made with all the family eating one of her amazing roast dinners and drinking a lovely bottle of Margret River wine.

What is your desert island disc?

This the question I’ve added mainly to stop me from talking about food. But it is quite difficult to pick just one LP and if you ask me tomorrow I will probably have a different answer, so right now it would be Bjork and probably her greatest hits.

 

The rules are to answer the questions, replacing one and adding another, and then to tag eight other bloggers to do the same.
I’ve tagged I love cake, Sarah Campbell, ladysnail, linoforrest, of paper and thread, novembermoon, lobster & swan, after all the world is a beautiful place