Food ‘n Drink

Welcome to Food 'n Drink, a personal site about food, drink, cooking and basic gardening / grow your own. Born out of a love of food, I hope this site has something for everyone - Sarah

More about Food 'n Drink.

Chilli Plant Update

Back in July I mentioned that our chilli plants had gone a bit dormant after I repotted them and moved them outside. Clearly our cold British climate is just not making them happy! Since moving them all back indoors (we now have a conservatory which is almost as good as a greenhouse!) they’ve woken up, the small plants have grown with very large leaves, and they’ve all been producing flowers.

For a while I wondered if bringing them indoors was the right thing to do as the flowers were coming but just dying and falling off. Then I remembered what a friend of mine had told me last year about how he had manually pollenated his plants and cross pollenated them as well, and that suddenly hit me. Of course, being indoors, there are no bees/wasps/flies to help with the pollenation process, so with a little brush I’ve been keeping an eye for any newly opened flowers and get them pollenated, and most of them so far have started to product the chillis.

Chilli Peppers At present they’re still growing and still green, but judging by the packet they came out of they should turn red so I’ll just keep tending to them and hopefully they’ll start to turn to red at some point :)

So note to self, next year keep them in the conservatory and remember to manually pollenate them!

Review: Cromwells Restaurant, Irby, Wirral

Yesterday we had dinner at Cromwells Restaurant in Irby, Wirral. This was for our 4 year anniversary, and to also try out the newly refurbished restaurant.

We booked via Twitter which meant we got a free bottle of wine, an instant plus in my book! The interior of the restaurant was perfect for a cosy anniversary meal, nicely decked out, and every table having their absolutely fab salt and pepper pots!

The Food

We both opted for Bruschetta with Mozzarella to start with which was some toasted ciabatta bread, sun dried tomatoes with melted mozarella on top (with balsamic vinegar on the side). Usually I prefer to have the mozzarella uncooked, however this was very nice and we both had a completely clear plate by the time we’d finished!

For the main meal David had meatloaf, vegetables and chips, with a jug of gravy. I’d opted for fish and chips. I’ve never had meatloaf before myself so I was pleasantly surprised when I tried his and liked it! The chips dipped into his gravy were nice too :D On to my fish… now in the past I’ve had fish at restaurants and it’s often over cooked and dried out. It’s almost as if people don’t know how to cook fish, a bit like chicken, and overcook it. There’s only two places I know of where the fish is melt in your mouth fantastic, one is a fish and chip shop in New Brighton, and the other is a small chippy in Parkgate, both in Wirral. Well now I know a third place! The fish had the perfect batter around it, it wasn’t dripping in oil and the fish was absolutely gorgeous inside. Perfectly cooked and tasted fabulous!

Finally we had dessert (well it was our anniversary dinner!). David opted for 3 different scoops of their local ice cream, which is Cheshire Farm ice cream, whereas I went for the Tiramisu, a personal favourite, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The Tiramisu was, yet again, melt in your mouth perfect! All rounded off with a latte (which I was was offered a free refill, but alas was full to bursting!).

The Service

All in all we really enjoyed our meal. The service was first class, we were never kept waiting, and we were well looked after. The food was exceptional and we’ll have to return several times to at least savour the rest of the menu! (including the 10oz rump steak that I was eyeing up yesterday before opting for the fish). Unintentionally, we managed to order both starters and main meals within their current meal deal, whereby you get the cheaper starter/main course for free, so for a 3 course dinner out plus drinks it really didn’t break the bank at all.

The food used is sourced locally and that’s reflected in their food. Their Sunday lunches look amazing and at £8.95 for two courses or £10.95 for three, it’s certainly worth having the day off from cooking and going there instead!

So if you live in Merseyside (or are passing through) and fancy a worthwhile meal then I couldn’t recommend Cromwells Restaurant enough!

Graze for Free!

Graze is a site run by Nature Delivered Ltd, a UK based site that delivers a box of healthy food and treats to your door up to 5 times a week (Tuesday to Saturday). They have a large selection of fresh fruit, nuts, dried fruit mixes and healthy treats available on their site, catering for all types of taste.

How it works

You can select a few different types of boxes including healthy eating, pre workout, post workout, select to build your own. There are usually 3 punnets in a box, the large contains fresh fruit, the medium size can have dried fruit, nuts or a mix, and the small punnet can again have dried fruit, nuts, or perhaps a treat mix (this is just an example, please visit their site for more information).

You then choose which day(s) to have the box(es) delivered and rate as few or as many of their foods available so that they can tailor the box to your tastes. You don’t specifically choose what’s in each box, instead the foods are selected based on the type of box selected and the foods you’ve rated. It’s then posted out the day before and arrives with the postman the next day, and easily fits through the letterbox.

Costs

The cost of a Graze box is £2.99, which for a healthy, weekly treat isn’t too bad, and this includes the cost of the delivery to anyway within the UK. Plus the food tastes great and is free from all the artificial rubbish!

However, at present if you sign up via this site you can get your first box for free, no commitment required, so you can cancel straight after if you wish. If you do continue, you’ll then receive your second box at half price, which means two boxes for £1.50, which you can’t really complain at! So for a healthy snack delivered to your door (whether that’s your office or home address), give them a go – Get a free Graze box.

Anniversary Dinner

Next Sunday David and I will have been together for 4 years. To celebrate we’re going out to dinner and have decided to try out the newly refurbished Cromwells Restaurant in Irby, Wirral. The menu looks good and the continued daily desserts menu just makes my stomach rumble!!

I’ll be sure to post up a review of the meal afterwards, however judging by the various comments on their site and on twitter, I’m guessing that it could be a contender for another favourite restaurant of ours :)

They also have a current offer* that if you follow them on Twitter and book a table via direct message you’ll get a free bottle of wine with the meal. With offers of buy 2 starters get the cheapest free, and the same for mains (certain dishes only), you can really dine out on the cheap! See their Menus page for more information.

* Correct at the time of posting. Please check their site to be certain.

Fresh Pickings!

Fresh pickings! on Twitpic Some of the food we’ve got growing in the garden was ready for picking last week, so naturally I took a photo (it’s not great, the camera on my phone isn’t very good!). We got a full box of green beans and some lovely little cherry tomatoes which are so sweet and great to eat on their own or with dinner. The tomatoes are coming slowly, but there are loads still on the plant to change colour yet. We’ve also gone through several lettuces too.

Despite repotting the chilli plants, they’ve not been very happy outside, so I brought a couple in to our conservatory (came with the new house!) and they’ve perked up in there, so I’ve started to bring them all in. A couple of the taller plants have got flowers on them now so I’m hoping to maybe get a few chillis off each one if I’m lucky. It’s quite warm in the conservatory but doesn’t get too much direct sunlight so they seem quite happy in there.

That just leaves the gherkin plant, which has about one gherkin on. I’m not sure when to pick that however, so I’ll need to check on that and not leave it too long!