First blog of 2008

1st & 2nd January

Must have been a good New Year – I woke in the night with that thought "If I'd known I was going to be this thirsty this morning, I'd have had more to drink last night." Nonetheless, the morning wasn't too painful: well, not compared to some Ne'er Day mornings I can hazily remember.

Sheila was less affected, but then she'd been more cautious with Elanor's main contribution to the proceedings (apart from her company, of course). This was some form of schnapps she'd acquired in Germany. Herb flavoured (it must be good for you, it's got herbs in it), it was all too moreish. Never mind, it was a good evening, all things considered, so mustn't complain.

As a way of getting fresh air we all made a trip to the recycling bank after a late breakfast. It was mostly full, but we managed to unload the glass and paper, which were the major items.

Shortly after lunch we moved onto the water point briefly to let Elanor unload and go, and then chugged round to Lyme View for the night. The weather forecast was not too good for the next couple of days, being a sequence of windy –> cold and windy –> cold –> windy, but we'll need to tough it out as we want to be down Bosley Locks before they close next Monday for a stoppage. Also, we need diesel and a pump out, and plan to get both at Heritage Marina at the end of the Macc.

In view of the weather, we'd planned an early start this morning, but in fact slept in a bit. Sheila dressed while I made tea, and set off boating whilst I ate breakfast. Then we changed over for her to eat, and thereafter made steady progress towards Macclesfield.

The main hold up was just before Hurdsford Industrial Estate, where we found a shell in the early stages of fitting out drifting in the cut. Its bow was still moored, and it was an interesting exercise in a cross wind to get on board and shaft it into the bank.

In this we were helped by a towpath cyclist (yes, a cyclist) who clambered round with the shaft to the shell's stern and poled it in. Turns out he was a boater himself, but it just goes to show, you can't assume anything on the basis of someone's mode of transport.

We tied on Macc town mooring, avoiding the dog muck for once, and did our usual Tesco run. By then it was lunchtime, and afterwards, just as we were preparing to set off for Gurnett for the night, Cala came into view heading back to Poynton after a fortnight's cruise. They've got the usual list of niggles to get sorted out, but remain very pleased with the boat.

Peter told me to make sure I got this blog done in good time, or Gill gets cross, seemingly :-}, so I'll just add a recipe for the pie we had on New Year's Eve and post it.

Christmas Pie

Put some olive oil in a pan (I use Stellar stainless steel casseroles on both stove top and in the oven) and fry onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped cooked turkey and a tablespoonful of plain flour and stir on a very low heat until the flour has taken up the oil into a roux.

Stir in half a pint of ham stock and keep stirring until the stock has blended with the roux and started to thicken. Slice some sprouts into disks and some mushrooms, and add to the pan. Season with sage, salt and pepper.

Stir all together and put in the oven (transferring to a casserole first if not using a pan like mine) and cook at Gas Mark 3, 190 C for about half an hour, or more as timing suits.

Half an hour before serving, mix four ounces of self raising flour, two of shredded suet and about five tablespoons of cold water in a bowl. Season with salt and some thyme, and mix into a stiffish pastry. Twenty minutes before serving, remove lid from casserole and place rolled out disk of pastry on top of the turkey mixture.

Return to the oven and increase heat to Gas 5, 200 C until top of pastry is golden and crusty. Serve with mashed potato and a green veg – we had green peas, which worked well.

Enjoy 2008, folks!