The Museum Cupboard

This is our Museum Cupboard.

It's a glass fronted (and sided) cabinet I found in a charity furniture shop for a lovely bargainy price, which is stuffed with interesting things we have gathered.

It also smells deliciously old-museum-y inside and you get a waft of it each time you open the door.

The nicest bit about it obviously being that we can enjoy all our treasures without having to dust them...

Rapid Refried Beans

This is soo quick to prepare and spectacularly good for the amount of effort it requires!

Serves 2

1 small onion

fresh chilli (optional and dependant on your spice preference!)

1 400g tin beans (any sort will do)

half a tin of tomatoes

pinch fresh or dried oregano

pinch paprika (bit more is you like it spicier)

Salt and pepper

For the guacamole:

1 avocado

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper

optional chilli

To serve:

tortilla wraps/chips

grated cheese

sour cream

Finely chop the onion and fry in a little oil until golden.

Add the beans, tomatoes and spices and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile put the avocado, lemon juice and salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth.

Squash the beans about a bit with a potato masher.

DONE!

Now either dollop over tortilla chips, or spread on a wrap.  Top with a handful of grated cheese, a hefty splodge of guacamole and finally a good blob of sour cream.

Wrap your wrap carefully to seal in all the deliciousness....

...and tuck in!

A Girly Weekend Away

Now that we are all grown up and don't have break-times and frequent half terms to hang out, it gets rather tricky to keep a good amount of time spent in person with two of my loveliest friends.  We have however come up with a simple and excellent solution to this problem, which has now become something of a regular tradition; a girly weekend away.  Last weekend's central meeting point was Cheltenham, which looked like it had a good balance of nice walks and well stocked cake shops.

We arrived Friday evening and went straight our for much needed pizza and wine, just the thing to stuff uncomplicatedly while we caught up on recent news, discussed various upcoming interests and generally set the world to rights.  Sadly by the time we got to it we were absolutely starving and talking hard, so as ever, I completely forgot to take any pictures!  You'll just have to imagine badly taken blurry photos, too much laughing and slightly alarmed waiters...

Having wandered about after supper marvelling at how mild it was, Saturday made an impressively depressing arrival.  Peering at the pouring rain and freezing cold, we decided we'd spend the day wandering about in town where we could hop between warm cakey tea shops and possibly investigate something cultural and indoors-with-heating-y.  We ambled into town armed with brollies and after a poke in the shops and some lunch, headed to the Wilson Museum for something cultural.

The museum was fab and stuffed with a whole range of interesting things; enough to keep us intrigued but finishing just when our legs started aching and it was perfect tea time.

We left the museum in search of a restorative tea, to discover that the weather had completely changed it's mind and was making a determined attempt to start Autumn.  It was bright, crisp, and a good few degrees colder than when we first arrived.  There was nothing for it but slabs of cake and vats of tea, before heading back to our room for a sleepover style, pyjama wearing, chocolate fuelled supper.

Sunday morning we went to a reservoir just down the road from where we were staying and had a gorgeous and very Autumnal walk through the woods.  Everything smelt damp and woody and leafy; a perfect introduction to the new season.

Our final visit was to the Pump Rooms and though we didn't taste the spa water, we did have a quick poke inside the gorgeous room before finding a perfect picnic spot by the river to munch our sandwiches.

Then suddenly and all too soon it was time to go home, each in separate and opposite directions, back to telephone calls and letters until the next get together....

Bacon, Mushrooms and Goat's Cheese on Toast

A small version of this would make a delicious starter but a large version makes an equally delicious quick lunch or supper.

(per person)

2-3 rashers of smoked bacon

1 handful mushrooms, chopped

knob of butter

splash of sherry

pinch of thyme (fresh if you have it, dried if not)

freshly ground black pepper

soft goat's cheese

0.5tsp mustard

2tsp apple cider vinegar

3tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

half a stick of celery

half a crisp sharp apple (British Coxes are now in season and perfect for this!), cored but with the skin left on

an inch or so of cucumber, chopped

optional few lettuce leaves

Cut the bacon into strips and fry in a tiny splash of oil until crisp.

Meanwhile make your vinaigrette by whisking together the mustard, vinegar, oil and salt and pepper.  Add the celery and cucumber, finely sliced.

Add the mushrooms and butter and fry, stirring every now and then.  Cut a slice of good bread and chop the apple into your salad.

When the mushrooms have softened, put the toast on, then add the sherry, pepper and thyme to the bacony mushroomy mixture.  Cook for a few minutes, stirring every now and then.

When the toast is done, spread it with a thick layer of the goat's cheese and top with the bacon and mushrooms.

Serve with the salad on the side and tuck in while it's still hot!

The sharp crisp salad is the perfect accompaniment to the salty richness of the toast with all its toppings.