Cholmondeley Arms, Malpas Cheshire.

I had always fancied visiting the Cholmondeley arms ever since reading Clarissa Dickson Wright's (of two fat ladies) autobiography "Rifling through my draws" this is the place Clarissa stays when she wants to get away from it all to write. Locals talk of seeing her popping in and out of the kitchen and sometimes sitting at the bar chatting and mingling with the locals. She also rates the food quite highly. So when we found ourselves near Malpas last year we made a point of popping in for Sunday lunch.

I was not blogging then, but after a house viewing this afternoon in Kingsley, Cheshire we found another opportunity to drop in to the Cholmondeley arms for lunch.

Set in the beautiful Cheshire countryside the Cholmondeley arms was formerly a Victorian village schoolhouse on Lord Cholmondeley’s estate. Dating back to 1862 the school was converted in 1988. The old schoolhouse was originally converted into a village pub by Julian and Ginny Harrison and Guy and Carolyn Ross-Lowe whom Clarissa talks highly of in her book.

Cholmondely arms is the kind of pub you imagine a real country pub to be.
A sandblasted bare brick interior with very high ceilings, bunches of hops hang on the walls and decorate the bar. It still has that old school feel to it with a mish-mash of wooden tables and chairs, menu's and drinks lists written on Blackboards.

There is a very large beer garden to the front and side of the pub which was heaving with diners, not surprising as we had glorious weather today.
Inside was quieter when we first arrived but that soon started to fill quite quickly. On both of our visits we have found the pub to have a great atmosphere, staff are very friendly and the food is fantastic. I couldn't recommend this place highly enough.

If you find yourself in the area pop in you won't be disappointed!
You can check out there menu HERE

Oh and if you are partial to a drop of Gin they serve over 200 types! and if you drink too many they have fantastic quest rooms. Check rooms and rates HERE

Charming entrance to the Cholmondely arms

The Sunday lunch today was as good as we remembered. Prime roast rib of Cheshire beef, was cooked to perfection with roast potatoes, red cabbage, fresh seasonal vegetables with yorkshire pudding and gravy.

Sue's iced Grand Marnier Souffle

Custard and gingerbread tart with roasted rhubarb

The Botanist, Alderley edge

Two of my favourite things are eating and spending time down on my allotment so when I spotted this quirky eatery in Alderley edge that has been designed to look like the inside of a potting shed my interest was high.

Checking out the menu on The Botanist website and reading some rave reviews had me picking up the phone immediately. 

Me and my other half was spending time with friends in Cheshire this weekend so we decided we would book Sunday lunch on our way home but after showing our friends where we were eating, they also loved the look of it so our booking for two was changed to four.

The Botanist really is a very interesting place to eat. Decor is rustic and film set like. Colours of pale wood and duck egg blue are beautiful, walls are adorned with pitchforks, spades, galvanised watering cans etc and display cabinets filled with plant pots and other gardening Paraphernalia made great talking points.

The food was fantastic my partner and I had the roast beef which was perfectly cooked pink and juicy just how we like it. The beef was accompanied with a giant yorkshire pud, roast potatoes, stuffing and a side dish of the most amazing tasting veg, carrot's, Parsnips and cabbage which had all been cooked in a garlic butter, the gravy nice and meaty in flavour. The little pot of horseradish cream was devine, punchy and nose stingily good.

Friend 1 had the roast chicken sunday lunch and raved about it, she also said it was the best gravy she had ever had in her whole life! While friend 2 chose the Botanist deli board  choosing four items from a list of 16, this was also served with Turkish flat bread. A clean platter confirmed her enjoyment.

Drinks menu is very good especially the cocktail menu which offered some very interesting combinations and twists on the classics. Staff where very attentive and friendly.
Overall we had a fantastic afternoon in a fantastic restaurant and one we will certainly recomend.

 

 

The Leibster Award

I was very surprised and thrilled to be nominated by @Gingeybites you can check out her fabulous blog Here. Alex, Aka @Gingeybites is the person who put the blogging idea to me and I haven't looked back since. It's been a great outlet for me to wax lyrical about restaurants I've visited, recipes I love and cocktails I like to shake. There is also a section for my allotment but as yet not posted anything on that page, weather wise I've not had a great start on growing anything this year, everything is very late going in the ground.

I've also been very busy getting my house ready to go on the market so my blogging has also been a bit slow recently. I plan to move to a semi rural area where I long for a garden large enough to have a vegetable patch so I can grow my own veggies at home. Also looking forward to the country life and devoting more time to blogging my recipes and the likes.

So concidering my blogging has been a bit slow of late I feel honoured to be nominated ! thanks Alex :0)


The Leibster Award. Here it is in a nutshell: "The Liebster Award is for bloggers with under 300 followers and the rules of the award is that the nominee must link back to whoever awarded them, write 10 random facts about themselves, answer the 10 questions from the award giver, and then nominate other bloggers and make up 10 questions for them to answer. it's a great way for new and undiscovered bloggers to meet new people, get more followers and find some blogs that they want to follow."


Task 1 - Ten random facts about me :

1. I have flown a plane, ( a small one )
2. I once hosted a radio show on Elle fm In Livepool for a short while.
3. Contrary to popular belief that only men have sheds, I have two! one on my allotment and one at home. I believe it would put most men's sheds to shame! P.s the one at home has curtains on the windows.
4. I once put tinsel in the blender to make glitter.
5. I use to be a dog groomer and once had to give a dog the kiss of life ( seriously )
6. I've had numerous electric shocks one rendered me temporarily blind for a couple of seconds . I even get shocks of people, I'm full of static !!
7. I'm coming up to 20yrs in my current job.
8. I'm addicted to lipsol.
9. I love roof top bars.
10. If I were queen I would ban chewing gum off the face of the earth.

Task 2 - Answer Alex's question

1.  When and why did you decide to start a food blog ?

           I started my blog in November 2012 because I realised I was posting more and        
           more Images of food I had eaten in restaurants I had visited or food I had made
           at home on Facebook. Not wanting to flood my time line fit to bursting with foodie
           pictures I decided another outlet was in order. One day Alex of @Gingeybites asked
           me on Twitter if I blogged? Thats when the light bulb in my head switched on thus
           Eatslurpburp was born.

    2.    If you could only eat one vegetable for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

           For me the Potato is the king of vegetables, baked, fried, mashed, boiled, roasties,
           CHIPS ! so versatile and so dam tasty. You can even make vodka from them.

    3.    Red sauce or brown sauce?
 
          That depends on what I'm eating, but mostly red.

   4.    If you could have anyone to your house for dinner, who would it be and why? you can
          invite four people.

          My father who died 20 yrs ago, would be lovely to see and chat to him again.
          I'm going to cheat here and pick a double act as one choice as they come as a pair
          and that's Mel Giedroyc and sue Perkins, they would keep the dinner party
          entertained.

   5.    What's the one ingredient you can't live without ?

          Garlic.

  6.    Favourite take away?

         Definately Chinese, hot & sour soup, salt & pepper ribs, crispy duck with pancakes,
         chicken with spring onion and ginger, beef in oyster sauce, and of course fried rice
          Yum!

   7.    What's your most embarrassing food secret ?
 
         Fish finger butties!

  8.    What's your favourite style of cooking and why ?

         French, I love rich dishes, wine sauces, garlic & cream. naughty but nice.

  9.    Cheeseboard or cheesecake ?

         That's a really hard question, but again depends on what I've eaten beforehand?
         after some meals you need something sweet so would pick cheesecake ( has to be a  
         baked one ) If I was going to have a few more glasses of wine after dinner then I
         would pick a cheeseboard.

  10.  Who inspired you most as a young cook and what did you learn frm them ?

        My mother who lives in Spain. My parents separated when I was young and I used to
         visit her in the summer holidays. She introduced me to foods I had never encountered
         before at home like aubergines, garlic, swordfish and dishes like paella. They all
         seemed very exotic. I was also introduced to Indonesian cuisine. My mothers favourite
         restaurant was in the next village to where she lived. I was also introduced to a devine
         chocolate spread we used to spread on baguettes for breakfast called Nutella. Nutella
         was unheard of in England then. I also remember being blown away by a style of
         Swiss cooking called Raclette my mother used to set this up at the table. I felt very  
         sophisticated and grown up cooking at the table with my very own little frying pan.

Task 3 - Nominate other bloggers.

Some of the blogs I read have already been nominated so to keep it interesting I shall pick different ones that I don't think have been nominated yet.

@ellie_bee42       ellie-bee-baking.com
Ellie is an avid baker and tweeter and is always posting interesting bakes.

@nicolelwaterman  www.missfridaysfeast.blogspot.com
Nicole food alway's looks amazing and I love her blog name.

Rebecca Hills @g_streetbite   globalstreetbite.com
Rebecca has been to some very exotic places and her recipes reflect this brilliantly.


My 10 questions should you choose to accept this challenge :

 

1. Which chef would you choose to cook you a private meal and why ? 
2. Where would your ideal dinning destination be and why ?
3. What would you have for a last supper?
4. What's the most memorable meal you've ever had?
5. What do you love most about food ?
6. Your on a desert island - what 3 ingredients would you take with you?
7. Your down to your last £10 what food would you spend it on ?
8. If you had to eat the same thing every day what would you choose?
9. If you opened your refridgerator right now what would you find?
10. What is the most bizzare thing you've ever eaten ?

Clementine, Chocolate and Hazelnut biscuits

Ingredients

• 40z/110g butter - room temperature
• 40z/110g caster sugar
• grated zest of one clementine
• 1 egg
• 9oz/250g plain flour
• 1tbsp cocoa powder

Method

1. In a processor or by hand, beat the butter, sugar and zest together until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg and a pinch of salt.
3. Lightly toast the hazelnuts, I find this gives a better flavour.
4. Add the flour and hazelnuts and mix in gently.
5. Shape the dough into a log about 2in/5cm thick and wrap well in cling film. Leave to chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
6. To bake, heat the oven to 350F/180C/ gas mark 4. Line a baking tray with none stick paper.
7. Cut the dough, straight from the fridge into 1/4 inch / 1/2 cm slices and arrange, well spaced on the baking tray.
8. Bake for about 12 minutes (the exact time will depend on the thickness of the biscuits) until very lightly coloured.
9. Lift the hot, still soft biscuits onto a wire rack to cool and crisp up.