Happy Christmas

Look what I saw in Liverpool the other day!

Just a quick post this week to wish a Happy Christmas to all our guests, past, present and yet to come.

Christmas Preparations

This has been my Christmas preparation week. I've decorated the trees, one in the guest lounge and one in our lounge, and placed decorated smaller trees in each of the guest bedrooms. The main Christmas baking is done and the Christmas meals planned. I've been into both Chester and Liverpool shopping and have bought most of the presents now. The wheel in Liverpool One looks magnificent, although I was definitely not brave enough to go on it!

918 meals

It has been a while since I last posted. The main reason is that, in addition to running the B & B, I was doing the catering for a residential trip with the school where I used to teach. This involved making hot meals for 102 people for two nights in a log cabin in the Lake District, and catering for 918 meals in total! I turned to my favourite chefs for recipes and the children enjoyed Delia Smith, James Martin and Nigella Lawson dishes. One of the favourites, and very popular with B & B guests too, was James Martin's chocolate brownie recipe, available here at http://www.uktv.co.uk/ . I make this a lot, it freezes well, you can double up the quantities, it is very good served at room temperature, and even better warmed.

Outside my log cabin there were pheasants and when I got home I was delighted to see that the pheasants have returned to our garden at Number Fifteen. I haven't managed to get a good photo of them in the garden yet, but these three were just by the golf course.