Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Lovely weather today, so we hopped on a Dales Bus to the, um, Yorkshire Dales to have a day of hiking and cream teas. The views were breathtaking of course, but an unexpected highlight was the bus squeezing through the stone arch at Bolton Abbey - this involved the driver taking his wing mirror off, squeezing through with barely inches to spare, then popping it back on. This sort of thing:

https://www.yourharrogate.co.uk/local-news/harrogate/busman-goes-viral-with-inch-perfect-drive-through-bolton-abbey-arch/

Beautiful photos, Kuc. I walked there many years ago. Did you go from the tops and down a steep, steep path and steps?

Or am I thinking of Fountains?

That's so lovely @RasaSayangEh . I've never been to Bolton Abbey but that scenery is beautiful. I'm glad you had such a nice day out.

Lovely day here today too and we took DH's bachelor cousin out for a very filling late brunch (fancy it still being brunch at almost 2pm, but that's what it is until dinnertime apparently).

Lovely photos Rasa. I was in Leeds over the weekend, my first time spending time in the city centre for 40 years. So it’s changed a lot, with the smartening up around the market, river and canal.

Yesterday the weather was so lovely - we went to York Gate garden in Adel which we absolutely loved.

On Saturday morning we went to the Hepworth in Wakefield to see the garden chiefly but there was an excellent exhibition of works by Caroline Walker - intimate paintings of women and children with no male gaze, plus an exhibition of Helen Chadwick works to laugh at. And the newly-acquired Barbara Hepworth piece which is beautiful and very peaceful. Photos of York Gate.

@PoppySeedBagelRedux We love York Gate and have an annual ticket, it's only a bus ride from ours! It is tiny but perfectly formed, beautiful little corners and vignettes every where you look. And the way the garden changes through the seasons is wonderful.

@SinnerBoy @Britinme Bolton Abbey has some fabulous walks, amazing scenery and an overwhelming number of establishments for procuring cream tea or Sunday roast Yesterday we went further though, about 2 hours on the bus to get beyond Grassington (of All Creatures Great and Small TV series fame) and then we hiked back to Grassington on the Dales Way. DDs enjoyed the opportunity to point out various geological features such as hanging valleys and limestone pavements.

Incidentally the rivers and becks were all very high and flowing fast, thanks to the recent torrential rains. The famous stepping stones at Bolton Abbey seemed to be under water.

Some lovely weekend pictures there!

And I’d really like to see the Helen Chadwick exhibition. I saw Piss Flowers again recently at Tate Modern but haven’t seen much more of her work in years.

Beautiful photos!

My brother has finally got back to me with his chocolate spread recipe and it looks very easy indeed. I like this guy's recipes, they're so straightforward and just tell you what to do, with no waffle, passion or emoting, and, in this world of waffle, passion and emoting, I appreciate that deeply.

www.kvalifood.com/page/kvalitella-because-it-rhymes-with-homemade-nutella/uuid/19a923e1-4f7c-11e6-b6ca-d791a54d49eb

Ooh yummy!

Yes my friend and I could have stayed at York Gate for a long time. The view
changes so much even if you move only a little bit; it is remarkable how much there is to see and appreciate. So carefully thought out. We go to Wisley quite a lot and love seeing how things change with the seasons there.
I was sad to see that Bryan’s chip shop has closed. I also liked down by the canal/river: not a place I went to as a child/teenager, as it was so grotty.

Bryan's was our local chippy

On the assumption that nobody on this thread lives anywhere near our local-ish branch of Morrisons, today I discovered possibly the best supermarket biscuits ever: Morrisons The Best All Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Rounds. They are smallish (a negative) but the shortbread is incredibly soft and buttery and the chocolate chip proportion is very generous.

I'm not a big biscuit eater, but I've cruelly hidden them at the back of the cupboard because otherwise MrG would polish off the lot before I got another one!

We don't have a Morrisons in this area, which is a shame because they do some good stuff and the biscuits sound like the sort of thing Mr Veg would like. The only biscuits I go for at the moment are the Nairn's reduced sugar ginger ones. They have crumbs of candied ginger in them and are lovely.

Hmm. I'm sceptical that any biscuit can be better than M&S almond biscuits, but I'll pop into Morrisons this weekend...

I can buy McVities dark chocolate digestives in the British food section in my local supermarket. I’m not a fan of the big soft American cookies, though the crisper ones like Pepperidge Farm Milano biscuits are excellent.

I’ll pop into Morrisons, thanks for the tip. For something simpler, M&S shortbread squares are better than I’d make myself (though I am a greedy, so good, cook):

https://www.marksandspencer.com/food/scottish-all-butter-homebake-style-shortbread-squares/p/fdp21041006#intid=pid_pg1pip96g6r4c1

If anybody does like US-type cookies, I have a recipe for "Famous Amos style cookies" that are way better than the original thing.

Does Famous Amos even exist outside SE Asia? The first shop opened in the (at the time) main shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur when I was 10 years old. I remember the amazing smell of baking cookies wafting all around the atrium, we kids would walk round and round the shop just sniffing desperately. The cookies were eye-waveringly expensive to us, being a pretty low-income family, so I only got to taste them a handful of times and the idea of them grew enormous in my head. Of course, to my grown-up taste (and food generally being much nicer than it was in the 80s) I now find them over sweet and not that fragrant.

I do like soft American style cookies but seldom actually eat them. I was making ginger biscuits to eat with coffee after dinner but stopped in the hot weather and haven’t started again so we are woefully biscuitless at the moment.

The biscuits I fancy trying are the M&S chocolate coated custard creams. I don’t though as I’d scoff the lot in no time and then wonder why on earth I’d bought them.

We are through to the Grand Final! Old Trafford, here I come! (as I meant to post earlier) 😀

So I popped into Morrisons yesterday afternoon and for some Finest chocolate ginger biscuits to try. They also had some Fudges dark chocolate florentines, 6 for £3.00. One of my favourite things.

Reader, I’ve eaten them all. Already. Now I remember why I don’t usually buy them: they are one of the few things the eating of which I cannot control. They were particularly delicious - really crispy and almondy, as sometimes they are a bit soft so not as nice. But still. Won’t be going there again…

It would be cruel to tell you that florentines are really easy to make, wouldn't it?

Only if you don't share a recipe, Squeaky!

Thanks Squeaky. I have tried making them, but they have never been quite as delicious as the Fudges ones. And they seem to have made the recipe even better, judging by the box I hoovered up. But maybe your recipe is better?

Recipe please @SqueakyDinosaur - I’ve never made florentines and it does sound dangerous but even so.

I use the BBC Good Food recipe, but I sometimes mess around with proportions of fruit and nuts, and I always add a pinch of salt.