Archive for November, 2009

The Beckford Arms

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Maths for Mummies:
6 exhausted best friends – (14 children + 6 husbands) + the A303 + 1 roaring fire + several bottles of wine = 24 happy hours in Wiltshire.

Fonthill Gifford might sound a bit like something out of Miss Marple but it’s the home of the rather splendid Beckford Arms – a classic country pub with rooms.

The interior of the Beckford Arms is traditional, simple and stylish – lots of Farrow & Ball-esque colours and real open fire places – but with a bit of a cool edge from a good iPod playlist and some really gorgeous male members of staff.  Service is friendly and welcoming and the place clearly appeals to slightly bohemian Urbanites and post-shoot locals alike.  It’s not a poncy gastropub, pretending to be something it’s not: it’s a traditional, local pub that concentrates on getting all the right things right.

A couple of bottles of Prosecco by the fire slipped down a treat before a delicious and reasonably priced supper.   One friend rated the Salt & Pepper Squid the best she’d ever had; my Ox Cheeks were tender and tasty; the roast pheasant came with a ramekin of pheasant cottage pie on the side.  I enjoyed my plate of British cheeses to follow; admittedly, one Valrhona chocolate pudding had to go back because it wasn’t quite gooey enough but its replacement oozed in all the right places.

There are eight rooms - our standard double was comfortable and well-equipped, if a little snug (which would probably have been less noticeable for a couple than it was for two friends sharing).  Each room has crisp Egyptian cotton sheets, a snuggly goose down duvet, is en suite (with a bath or a shower or both) and has a flat screen TV, DVD and iPod docking station.

The unspeakable bliss of not being woken up at 6am on a Sunday by a small person was followed by a glorious full English breakfast looking outside onto the pub’s pretty garden, while planning our next trip.

The train from Tisbury got us back to London in less than two hours.  Back home in time to do the homework, practise Snow White’s lines for the play and read Stick Man (twice).  Maybe they did miss me after all.

Celia

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Cornish Wedding

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

I am one of four sisters. September 2009 marked the biggest occasion in our sisterly lives, the first to get married. The wedding took place in Cornwall, where the groom’s family resides and where our family has spent many memorable holidays since we were toddlers. My sister was very keen to use local suppliers wherever she could to support the economy. She used a Cornish catering company for the evening meal and barbecue the next day. She also used a local printing service for; menus, the order of service and escort cards.

The stars of the show, food wise, definitely had to be the wedding cake and the barbecue food the next day after the wedding. Both were sourced from Cornish suppliers and boy were they good!

The Wedding Cake
The reception was held at the stunning St Mawes Castle. The cake was castle themed with delicious turrets of white chocolate encasing the chocolate sponge. The sweet vanilla cream icing and white chocolate ‘castle walls’ complemented the deviliciously rich, moist chocolate cake perfectly. The cake was also decorated with edible shells, which added to the sea-side themed wedding. The cake was designed and made by Nicky Grant, who’s cakes and chocolates are to die for. We first spotted her at The Designer Wedding Show. I would highly recommend using this company as the cake was not only visually impressive, the quality of the ingredients were superb, creating a cake unlike any I have ever had in my life.

The Sunday Barbecue
I never thought I would rave about barbecue food. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good bbq but for me it has never been a show stopping experience. Until now.

The food, laid out in the hot Indian summer we often experience in September, looked like the perfect antidote to a slightly heavy night. The menu consisted of; Mediterranean couscous salad, two types of homemade sausages (whole grain mustard and paprika flavoured), beef burgers, chicken skewers, potato salad amongst other tasty hot/cold delights. The sausages were a firm favourite among the crowd. Speaking to the caterers, I learnt that they give their own sausage recipes to their local butcher, resulting in one of my top rated sausages ever. The company again is based in Cornwall.

Well done Sis for seeking out some top quality caterers and food specialists in Cornwall. As Kate pointed out in a recent post, the services and food companies like the above can only build Cornwall’s profile as the UK’s number one food destination outside London.

Life Style Editor at Brides, Polly Atkinson, had this to say about the Cornish Wedding.

Eddie

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Art Attack

Friday, November 13th, 2009

My family and close circle of friends will know that my favourite pastimes are (in no particular order): eating out, watching Columbo and CSI and buying shoes.  So far, so vacuous.  Art has never really figured much in my life. I mean, I know what I like when I see it, but ask me to tell you the difference between a Manet and a Monet, and I’m stumped.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find myself, along with the husband and friend Jen, at Sotheby’s on a Monday evening. The occasion was a preview party  for the sale of 51 works from the collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough. The reason for my attendance – my sister works at Sotheby’s and I’m fortunate enough to receive the occasional invite.

It was everything I thought it would be – cultured, civilised, full of arty farty people and even a few slebs (Mick Hucknall, Trigger from Only Fools & Horses, David Puttnam and Peter Bowles). In all honesty I wasn’t even looking at them  - I was too busy admiring the waiting staff.  Perfectly coiffed with movie star looks, they could have been plucked straight from the set of Gosford Park. Proffering delicious canapés including mini burgers, chicken liver parfaits on toast and champagne served in coupes (coupes!), they made sure we were well fed and watered.

We spent a couple of hours wafting around, my sister acting as a guide, looking at the treasures on the walls. I learnt about First World War artists Lowry, Woods and Nevinson and admired the pictures up close and personal. Both the artistry and technique were amazing and there were a few prints I would have loved to bid on but sadly my finances are not quite up to it. The highlight of the evening came when the Attenboroughs’ son spoke about the pictures that had adorned his family home for years. You could tell he was quite emotional and whilst he was sad to see them go, he was overjoyed to be sharing them with the world. Although I can’t confess to coming away an  art aficionado, I think this could be the start of a new love affair.

Nish

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Who ate all the pies

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

chicken

As a child, bonfire night was one of the most exciting events of the year. It meant wrapping up warm, stepping outside to eat hot dogs and mushy peas with mint sauce and oooing and aaahing at the marvelous colourful sparks that popped and whizzed over my head. I have lived in London for five bonfire night’s now and spent three of them in Chichester at my boyfriend’s parents bonfire party. Every year they hold two parties at their house, one in summer and one around 5th November, each with over 100 guests. I now know that a Hemingway party means good food because Jack’s mum is a fantastic cook and spends two days preparing food for the parties that they hold.

As autumn is the perfect time of year for warming pies and comforting crumble, she made an array of different pies from sweet potato and bean to beef, chicken, cheese, lamb and chorizo – it is entirely by coincidence that she likes to use Jus-Rol pastry, it’s her ready made pastry of choice and good for vegans. Not to mention the bonfire cake – a giant bomb of chocolate cake with a whipped cream, cornflake and malteaser center with more whipped cream smothered on top and orange flavoured Matchsticks and Cadbury’s flakes sticking out.

Unfortunately this year it rained… and rained… and rained, which ruined a few of the fireworks that were brought by the guests. There was, however, an astoundingly large bonfire (for which we made a guy), which was still alight in the morning after a nights rainfall.

Naturally I tried all of the pies, my favourite being the chorizo.  Sunday brought us a day of more pie and a welly-clad trip to the local beach at West Wittering. It was overcast and cold so there weren’t many other people on the beach bar a few families walking their dogs. We made the walk fun by playing beach Olympics, which included tripple jump, discus played with a large shell and high jump (hard in wellies!)

I always love a relaxing weekend break to Chichester and last weekend was certainly no exception – although now my new jeans are starting to feel tighter already. I’ll probably be laying off the pies for the next few weeks.

Sarah

beach

beef

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First Day

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

After a fairly daunting, yet exciting morning in the Wild Card office, Hannah (the other intern) and I decided to go to lunch together. We grabbed a quick sandwich, then to cure our post-sarnie sweet tooth we headed to Starbucks to grab a coffee and cake. However, en route to our dessert stop a brand new Hotel Chocolat had just been opened on the Strand, and it happened to be the launch as we were passing - naturally we couldn’t help but have a nosey round. The fact that there was a man with a tray of freebies at the door may have swayed our decision slightly too.

On entrance we were offered a free glass of Prosecco, which would have been rude to refuse, then shown to the best part and if I’m honest, the only reason we went in; the masses of chocolates to taste. There wasn’t just the one tray, the whole centre aisle of the shop was covered in their entire range from sickly sweet ones, to slightly savoury ones, white choc to 80% cocoa, fruity to chilli flavours, pretty much any chocolate you could think of.

Hannah and I both preferred the Raspberry and Prosecco truffle, I wasn’t a fan of the chilli one as my mouth was on fire for about 20 minutes after. I felt a bit on the pathetic side when Hannah confessed she could barely even taste it. After a somewhat dreamlike 5 minutes of scoffing our faces with choc and bubbly we headed back to the office in a rather more upbeat mood for the second half of the working day.

Lucy & Hannah F

Photograph courtesy of AngelChildVikki’s Flikr photostream.

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