We  made a mushroom omelette which was quite brilliant…runny where it should be, nicely browned underneath, mushrooms cooked just so and perfectly formed. We all had a quarter of it as a starter…

We then had some Lidl smoked salmon (still the best smoke and the best value that I know of…a good combination) on some excellent italian bread, with some creamed cheese.

And yes, the Campari was finally polished off this evening

From about the 28th October until the 15 November I shall be in the Bay area…. to be precise staying with relations in Castro Valley.

I will not only have the pleasure of finally meeting up with our supreme leader Adam who I hope will take me to all the places he writes about so nicely – the Farmers market in particular – but I would also like to extend an invitation to all the other WIHFDT contributors in the Bay Area to get together in Castro Valley for a little light cookery, and maybe a little heavier drinking and food chat.

Other than from the 3 – 5th November when I will be attending an exhibition in Las Vegas, my schedule is pretty loose, so if we can come up with an evening that suits everyone….well, that would be wonderful.

Any idea on how we shold plan the WIHFDT part of the evening gratefully recieved – Peter

Having yattered on about Campari not tasting the same in the Yookay as it does in Italy….I have been almost unable to stop drinking. The bottle is soon empty and so it might end there!

Tonight the appalling weather set in for a few days and so it felt like winter is heading in our direction.

So we made up a Cauliflower cheese. Pretty good it was too, as we let the cauli drain well, which avoids a watery cauliflower cheese!

We used cheddar for the sauce (which Caroline made) and cauliflower for the main ingredient…..! We also added a large quantity of fried bacon….just to make it doubly unhealthy !

As accompaniment I had a lovely Campari with San Pellegrino water, and Caroline had a glass of plonk.

We ate the 13 amp fuse on the table as pudding

We then didnt watch Big Brother and I played stupid games on my Ipad….I am regressing to be a child !

The plan as such is simple. Although 3 of us are omnivores, there is this one that just refuses to broaden his palate ( claimimg he tries) and separates his foods, and picks out the peppers and onions and the mushrooms…generally drives me crazy. BUT- he loves bread, and sausage, and chicken and cheese, and any combination there of. I dry sauteed mushrooms, peppers and asparagus(also dreaded) with sesame oil and garlic, cooked some sausages and chicken on the grill, cut up a franzella, layered it in the pan, covered with mushrooms and asparagus, sprinkled with herbed olive oil, bits of mozzarella, Parmesan and garlic on top. Hm- separate that! OK I did make peas just in case that goes wrong…and , o well I did make cupcakes.

These veggie dumplings were cooked in sesame oil and soba in a pan with broccoli and mushrooms and poured over with eggdrop,   mmm

I am nothing if not an egalitarian (if that is the right word!)

On the way back to the Alcatraz this evening I made 2 stops along the way.

The first was at Tylney Hall, a truly wonderful…. beautiful hotel set in the Hampshire countryside amidst rolling hills and fields. The gardens are particularly amazing and so was able to reenact my mantra of eat or drink with something to look at as well.

Eat was out of the question tonight – too damned expensive - but I fancined a drink and ordered an Americano (Campari, Martini and Soda)

To my utter amazement the barman asked me if I wanted that with hot or cold milk….!

He hadn’t a clue what it was and had assumed I was ordering a coffee. I explained, patiently…. but what came was an abomination in a cocktail glass (the naffest invention ever other than if serving a Sidecar or a Martini Cocktail..!) with a rather too thick wedge of lime in the glass. Anyway I enjoyed it – sort of –  in the park, looking down the row of oak-trees disappearing into the distance, surrounded by plutocrats and fakirs….!

My next port of call was for dinner…..at Ikea…in Southampton! The sublime to the gor’ blimey!

My camera played silly buggers and so I Googled Ikea Meatball, and up came a total reincarnation of what I was served…complete with artistically placed piece of cilantro (note the easy use of the Americanism…!) and slop of loganberry slop!

The meatballs weren’t bad at all actually…the sauce tasted of papier masche..and the potatoes weren’t too bad either. For the money, and sthe setting – overlooking Southampton Water – it wasnt too bad at all.

I stuffed the car full of tat…which groaned its way the short distance to the ferry and thus back home….