Camping in Essex

For three nights we went camping in Essex. I expected there to be a river or a couple of shops or something there - even a tiny forest. But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just fields and roads with no shops. Fine, there were a couple of swings on the site. Really basic plastic swings designed for five year olds, and two plastic slides and this see-saw kind of swing that I could imagine finding really cool if I was half my age. But I am not half my age, and the thing nearly broke when I went on it. So I stuck with the swings. I spent quite long on them, because there wasn't much else to do. And the funny thing is, it was quite nice having nothing to do. I spent my time eating junk, drawing, eating non junk and reading. I tried not to read that much though, because I do that all the time at home and, what's the point in camping if you do the same things you do at home? So I played beach bat instead and went on really long walks, tromping all over the farmers' fields (Even though I tried to stay on the sides) and trying to get through the huge brambly bushes. My mum taught me some songs from a play she was in, too. The play is called, "Oh what a lovely war" and the songs are funny but quite sad at the same time. I think the play's set in the first world war. My sister was singing the songs all the time, 'cos they were stuck in her head, and I got a bit worried that she'd sing them in front of our German guests when we got back. 

It was quite relaxing being there, and sometimes I just lay down in my sleeping bag and rested for a while.

The night before we went home, my father took us to this Indian restaurant, with a SuPeR tasty butter chicken, and really colourful Pilau rice.

On the way home from the site we stopped at a vineyard to try the wine. The vineyard owner was a bit grumpy, but the wine was nice, especially the rose. My mum bought some wine and jam from there, so I'll remember the trip whenever I eat the jam. 

Little cafe in Marylebone

After a trip to The Wallace Collection, my mum and I were wandering around when she spotted this cute little cafe with tons of jam jars in the window. Okay, she'd actually spotted it before we went to The Wallace Collection, but this time we actually went in.

There were tons of sandwich options on some blackboards at the back.

I nearly chose egg mayo - but I saw there were baked potatoes

I ordered a baked potato with beans and cheese. My mum ordered a cucumber sandwich. We ordered drinks two.

While we sat and ate, I looked around. The place was quite old and lined with jam jars, jars of chutney and sauces.

Everything was beautifully packaged.

The shop was very old. Most of the customers were north of 35. There was a salt and pepper stand on our table with a leaflet inside, explaining how the cafe first started. That wasn't amazingly interesting - but the customers were. There were a few people whom I think the staff know. But one oldish guy was quite funny. Not really like he was making jokes, but just sort of what he was saying, and the way he talked. When he entered the shop, he said something like,
"Oh god, I need some sustenance. I've just been to the cinema. I've seen a terrible film. It was was awful. I need something to recover from it. Maybe a coffee. I wonder who vets the scripts these days. Gosh, it was terrible."

Then there was this other lady who came in and started talking to arbitrary people in the cafe about - well it ranged from how Scottish people behave at football matches to people, "With more money than sense" buying cruise liners. The thing about the football match was quite funny. Apparently she'd just seen these Scottish people preparing for a football match. She was talking about how it was so lovely, everybody singing together and being so cheerful and welcoming - how it had such a happy feel. She was half talking to this guy at the back of the cafe and half to everybody there, including us. Then the guy at the back started talking about how the feeling was always the exact opposite at the end of the football match - when the Scots lose, "As they always do"! The woman agreed with him.

The waiter in the cafe was really polite - another way in which the cafe was old fashioned - but in a totally good way. Whenever you asked for something, he said, "Of course you can."

Next time I go to The Wallace collection I'm gonna ask my mum to take me to the cafe again!

New recipe!

My mum made up just made up this rule that everyone in our family has to cook something new each week. When I went to the library I had a look at some cookery books there, but one of them, I accidentally put back, and the other, I wasn't allowed to borrow because it was from the adult's section. So I was stuck with cookery books from home - which isn't actually bad because my mum has a lot of cookery books and the recipes are good.

The books are on a high shelf. I have to stand on the counter to reach them. So I stood for ages looking for a suitable recipe: one that we had the ingredients for, sounded yummy, and wasn't too complicated or time consuming. I looked for ages, resting the heavy cookery books half on my hands and half on my knee, and trying not to fall off the very crowded counter - or knock down the mug stand.

In the end I decided on a recipe that (Surprisingly) we had most of the ingredients for - and the ingredients are quite unusual. If we didn't make sushi a lot they wouldn't be in our kitchen. The only thing that was missing was avocado; my mum went out to buy that when she found out we needed it.

When the cooking counter was clear, I began cooking.

I will now explain what I was cooking. It was from a book called, "Super Natural Cooking" by, "Heidi Swanson." Have you ever tried sushi? The dish was a bit like that. I cooked some brown sushi rice (With a lot of salt), and 

made a sauce for it.

Brown sushi rice boiling

 The sauce was made up of sugar, rice vinegar, soya sauce, orange zest and juice squeezed from the orange. You needed lemon zest and juice too but there wasn't lemon in the fridge so I used more orange. Actually, we didn't have normal oranges either: just these teeny-tiny sweet, peel-able 

clementine-type things.

Orange sauce for the rice simmering

So I added the sauce to the rice and stirred it. You were meant to fry some tofu to have with the rice, but we didn't have the right kind of tofu so my mum made a miso soup with the tofu instead. And to make up for not having tofu with the rice, I took some leftover fish fried in miso sauce that my dad had made a few days earlier, and put that on top of the rice - which I had put into four bowls. Next to the rice, was next placed some avocado, and next to that, spring onion.  On top of the rice, was sprinkled some nori (Dried seaweed) which I had crisped and crumbled up earlier. 

Dried nori (After being crisped and crumbled)

I then sprinkled some sesame seeds on top of everything in the bowls.

We ate everything with some miso soup (In mugs) and some rolled sushi (Which wasn't really sushi 'coz it didn't have sushi sauce and the rice wasn't sushi rice) - oh yeah, and some sweet soya sauce, cucumber and pickled ginger.

An early dinner

An early dinner pictured again!

The leftovers got turned into more sushi (After the normal rice sushi was eaten)

Mmm...

That was yummy!

Jamilondon