April

Isn't April the most amazing month.  Everything springs into life.  Buds on trees, yellow daffodils waving their trumpet heads at us along roads and from neighbours gardens.  Colour at last after the grey days of winter.  Spring has sprung.

Lambs are born and skip about in fields, signs of pink blossom and bluebell begin to appear.  The sun shines and showers refresh the earth and makes the lushness of our green and pleasant land.  Mowers begin to whirr again and people seem lighter in spirit.

The rain reminds us it's not yet summer as the temperature tries to stay in double figures, but the sun gives us an energy boost.  Neighbours stand chatting in the street and the parks come alive with children playing outdoors again.

This morning I am up with the larks, or more precisely the blackbirds - there is one sitting on my garden wall wondering why I am typing on the computer at this hour reserved for birds to tweet and gather before the humans disturb the peace.  He has sat there for sometime now, looking this way and that, his mate in the tree above.  Have they had a disagreement?  The chirping has stopped.  Oh nice, he has just pooped all down my garden wall and he is looking at the white line it has made.  Why is bird poo white?

Anyway, I digress.  This is April, the first quarter of the year has come and it will soon be the merry month of May with two Bank Holidays to add in a bit of fun before the summer months.  Holidays and barbeques will soon be here and everyone is perked up with the thought of a bit of warmth and carefree days of relaxation.

I hope your April is going well and you enjoy the small moments as well as the everyday hum drum of life.

A Tasty Treat

Tamworth Lit Fest – What’s Cooking?   By Sue Flint©

Thursday 14^th April 2016

Venue: Tamworth College

Demonstration courtesy of Christopher’s Restaurant – Chef Max cooking Wild Sea Bass.

Christopher Gill looked on as his new young Chef introduced himself and began scaling the gutted large fresh sea bass.  I was glad to see not a speck of blood or guts on his ‘chef whites’, an aptly placed towel tucked into his waistband came in very handy.   Having cut the fins off with kitchen scissors he placed the fish inside a large plastic bag and, using a scaler tool, released the scales without them flying all over the surrounding stainless steel work surfaces.

Max told the young college students and visitors that he had only been at Christopher’s Restaurant for two weeks having previously worked at The Belfry Hotel and Golf Resort.  His youthful exuberance gave the students food for thought as he encouraged them to work towards getting their VRQ Level 3 examination, perhaps working part time to acquire catering experience too.  At 21 he appeared extremely confident in his work and obviously loved his job.

He used a very flexible knife to remove the spine and bones followed by some tweezers to pull out any small remaining bones.  A good sprinkling of salt, to bring out the flavour, covered the flesh before placing the skin side into hot oil in the frying pan. The blue flame of gas heated the metal and it soon crisped the skin.

Max was an excellent multi-tasker tossing spinach, salt and nutmeg in a battered old iron saucepan whilst in another carefully making a white butter sauce, as well as giving us details of all ingredients.  He artistically plated up a scrumptious speciality dish, a feast for the eyes making our taste-buds tingle, which was then divided for all to enjoy. 

As a frequent consumer of good food at Christopher’s Restaurant in The Peel Hotel, this will certainly be my choice from the menu on my next visit.

Sea bass on a bed of spinach with white butter sauce

 Christopher Gill and Max from The Peel Hotel, Christopher's Restaurant

Television Adverts

The Ads.  We love them and hate them, those jingles, lovely ladies and funny men vying for our attention between our chosen viewing programme. They are the loo breaks, the tea breaks and the checking other channel moments but sometimes we just sit and endure them.

Personally, I press the 'mute' button on the controls and play a game or two on my tablet.  Silence is golden.  Have you noticed how they are actually louder in volume than the programme you are watching, especially on the extra ITV channels where they are more frequent, sometimes with only seven minutes of programme before it's advert time again.

Most annoying for me :

• 'You buy one, you get one free' - windows ad.
• 'Go compare' man singing - I have never gone and compared.
• The dancing lad around and in a swimming pool - why is he alone, where are his parents and all the other holiday makers?
• The 'double discount' or 'hurry sale ends Monday' furniture ads.

Bring back :

• For hands that do dishes - Fairy liquid ads.
• For mash get Smash - iconic laughing metal aliens

And ones I quite like :

• 'I like this one (box of tea bags) and I like this one (an Aldi brand) but I prefer tea'
• Adverts that show you forthcoming television programmes or films to see at the cinema.

What do you think of television adverts?  Leave a comment below...