Monday 17 February 2020

Fine - But Frugal - Dining

I decided to push the boat out and make a fancy meal for Valentine's Day. It's ages since I went over to Wimborne Market early on a Friday. Having fortified myself with a bowl of porridge, I loaded my Trusty Trolley, and 2 large bags of CS donations and set off. I met Peter, Steve and Mike, three very good friends from church, also buying their veg. I declined their kind invitation to join them for breakfast in Wimborne. 
I bought lots of lovely fresh veg at good prices, and a ham hock from the New Forest Farm Stall. Then into Waitrose for a few more bits. I sat down with my free coffee, and had a pleasant chat with another lady of similar age and height [we were both struggling to clamber onto the barstools!] Off to drop off - but not buy anything - at the CS. Then home... 
Valentine's Menu
***
Smoked Mackerel Pate 
with Rye Crispbread & Red Pepper Garnish
***
Slow Roast Ham Hock, 
with Roasted Root Vegetable Melange
Gravy & Apple Sauce
***
Gu Zillionaires Cheesecake 
with Fresh Cherries
***
Coffee & Chocolates 
***
Nero D'Avola Sicilian Red Wine 
The meal was almost all homemade, I did buy the Finn Crispbread, and the Gu puddings [and Bob's favourite wine] but I made everything else from scratch. The veg mix [thank you Peter for the celeriac idea] was celeriac, sweet potato and squash.
I added a heart garnish to the starter and stuck paper hearts on the after-dinner chocs. And lit the candles in my new candelabra. It was all very romantic, and very well received. The cost of the ingredients of the food we actually ate [not counting the 50%of the meat left for other meals etc] came to just TEN POUNDS for the two of us. A very happy Valentine's day

6 comments:

  1. There are so many places with those bar stools as seating. Do they really mean to exclude people of a certain age or stature from drinking their coffee there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps they do. They don't mind giving a free cup of coffee to loyal customers (with eco friendly reusable mugs) but they don't want the store cluttered up with lots of little old grannies like me having long conversations with each other!

      Delete
  2. A lovely balanced and tasty menu Angela. Mackerel pate is one of my favourite things to eat too. I’m sure that Bob appreciated it very much

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Finn Crisp Rye Biscuits were particularly pleasant. They didn't crumble when you put the pate on them

      Delete
  3. What a wonderful meal and so nicely presented, too, with the heart garnishes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a lovely meal - you put me to shame - I only managed a homemade card, some heart shaped jammy dodgers courtesy of Ikea and sheperdless pie that was the left overs from the previous night!

    ReplyDelete

Always glad to hear from you - thanks for stopping by!
I am blocking anonymous comments now, due to excessive spam!