cfm

Our meal at Andrew Fairlie was rather disrupted by ill-health of one of the party. Restaurant handled this well, to their credit! I can't really remember much about the food, but I did think it was good. I found the hotel itself a bit challenging. I got the real sense that it was all set up to say that "You might think you're having a nice time now, but really you'd be having a much better time if you'd bought yourself one of our timeshares." I even had to fend off a marketing call. The room was eye-wateringly expensive, the TV didn't work, and the electronic controls for the curtains, lights, etc were baffling and inconvenient. There were also, bizarrely, two single duvets on the double bed. I'm open to new experiences and even change, but I haven't replaced our double duvet at home yet...

A top-flight restaurant GAVE AWAY my Saturday night table when I had to change it from a four to a six mid week. I phoned to let them know, they said they would have to ask the chef if this was OK. I asked them in terms whether this meant there could be a problem with a table for four, they said, no they were only saying they had to check with the chef. So, I thought to myself that it looks like there could be a problem, and started asking round other friends to see if I could find two people who might like to have dinner with two people they'd never met, just in case. And when I spoke to the restaurant again, the table was no longer available for four or for six. 'Twas Rugby International night, not an easy one for getting another place booked in time. I was upset and I'm don't use it any more. Which is very bad from a nose/spite/face perspective, as it does very good food. Best in town, I would say.

Like the sharpie people I've become better since I started a system where I only need to find a pen, not a label. I stick a HUGE label on and write what's inside in quite small letters at the top. Then next time I cross this out and write what's now inside underneath. It looks dreadful fo course, but it works for me.

I've never understood why no second star for Martin Wishart Edinburgh. Several of the Edinburgh one stars are better than any two star restaurant I've ever eaten in, but MW I think just stands out for consistency while also keeping things fresh and interesting. EDIT: Edited because might be a lie. Hibiscus in Ludlow was maybe two stars - now that was good.

Many thanks for these. Although damn your eyes Carlovski for introducing the "different sausages for different purposes" theme which could make the whole project doubly complicated! Turns out that Border County Foods come to my local Farmer's market too, so my initial list is going to be their Cumberland, Porkinsons and Duchy Originals. Then I have to try a higher meat sausage in a casseroling type situation to see if I agree that this trumps a breakfast sausage for that purpose. I have no "sausage a day for a year" timetable in mind, but I will try to report back in time. Catherine

Some Chop Chop discussion further up the thread, I thought it was worth mentioning their quite cool set menu idea. I've been going there more regularly since I discovered this. Basically you order "Set menu A" for the whole table, like you would in a typical Chinese restaurant, although you will get less than typical dishes and some of their famous dumplings in that menu. Then, once you'v eaten it (or before that if you see a pressing need), you can re-order anything that came that you enjoyed and the re-orders are all included in the price. Fun, tasty, filling! Catherine

I am fed up with not knowing what kind of sausages I like. More than half of all sausage based meals are spoilt by not liking the random sausage I have picked out on no basis whatsoever. I think that maybe I don't like them too meaty, and I suspect that I might actually prefer a beef sausage, but I'm just not sure. So I'm starting project sausage to sort this out - try a few, take note if I like them, and then buy sausages to my taste in future. So, what are good sausages to try, branded, or from major supermarkets? Hope you have a favourite that you can share, Catherine

Kitchenella by Rose Prince is intruiging me. Subtitle - "The Secrets of Women: Heroic, Simple, Nurturing Cookery - for Everyone." I've had a look at a library copy. I think that the descriptions of what she learnt from who are lovely. Some of the tone is slightly crusading - seems to assume that no readers will have given any of her ideas any thought at all, whereas I suppose some will have considered some of them - but I think I'll get a copy, the ideas are good, and I like the unusual structure. Catherine

Are you in fact my mother? (See my post opening the topic.) I'm loving these. Makes me feel so much better about the sausages. Chopping curly parsley has to be my favourite. I'll count my blessings every time I do it from now on - at least I'm not creeped out by this parsley, I'll say. C

Now cleaning the fridge is objectively quite a bad job, no? C

Sausages for tea. I just hate cutting the links. Tonight they were those butchers sausages where they had twisted the links around each other in bunches like bananas (if bananas joined at both ends) which just makes it doubly tiresome. They sell rindless bacon, why can't they sell separated sausages? I have a theory that everyone without exception has a food fad, so perhaps everyone has an insupportable hatred of some trivial kitchen task? My mother hated putting clean cutlery into the individual knife/fork/spoon drawer dividers so much that she just dumped the whole lot on the top. But I think she may have got over this - will I ever relax around sausage links? Catherine

The Scottish thing is toasted cheese, not grilled cheese. I did try the grilled cheese thing recently for a salad recipe that called for a grilled cheese sandwich cut into pieces. I researched it quite carefully on blogs and so on, was happy that I got a representative recipe, and made it without hitch. It was entirely unmemorable, so I think I'm sticking with toasted cheese, thanks. On the "toasted" element, my understanding of how to proceed is that you toast one side of the bread under your grill/broiler, turn it over, stick the cheese on, and return under the grill/broiler. Catherine

This: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0340835265/ref=nosim/?tag=egulletsociety-20 is quite a good fun book about everyday cooking, and the theme of "falling back in love with your kitchen" resonates with me. Having used it, I thought it good enough to give as a gift to someone who was complaining that they never cooked for themselves anymore, together with a box of groceries, marking each recipe in the book that could be achieved using the things in the box. It went down well. And because of the cool and relevant cover, I am now the proud owner of a stylish bottle of French's mustard. Catherine

Thanks for these. What I take from this is that I'll try booking Lords first, but I shouldn't sweat it too much over the differences. Ideal! Catherine

We are going to stay with friends in the Cotswolds with our new baby. The have volunteered to babysit one evening, to give us a chance to eat somewhere good. They have suggested Lower Slaghter Manor or Lords of the Manor. In the past we'd have got to try both, and choosing one seems difficult. The Lords menu is more difficult to grasp, as it is festooned with the names of rare breeds and producers, but both look nice. Any views? Catherine