Notes on a dinner party

A lovely dinner party last night, with good friends and good wine.  These days we find it's often easier for friends to come to us, so The Boy can sleep in his own bed and keep to his "routine" (such as there is one!).  The husband outdid himself with a delicious main course of thick-cut pork chops, marinated in a soy, citrus and maple syrup sauce.   I was in charge of nibbles and pudding.

Roasted stuffed peppers

Tescos had a large bag of small peppers on offer, so I had to incorporate them into our menu somehow.  I love the stuffed vegetables we buy in Italy, so I tried to recreate something similar using ingredients I had in the back of the fridge/store cupboard.  Here is the "recipe":

In a mixing bowl, combine:

- 1 small tub of cream cheese

- 1 small bag of Panko breadcrumbs

- a handful of finely chopped chives

- one onion, finely minced

- 2 spring onions, finely chopped

- a handful of chopped green olives

- the pulp of 2 blackened baby aubergines 

To cook the aubergines, you could simply roast them in a hot oven.  However I find it much quicker (and more fun!) to use the gas hob.  Turn the flame up high and hold the aubergines directly in the flame, until the skin is all blackened and the pulp is soft.  It should only take a few minutes, turning them regularly:

Give the mixture a good stir: the consistency should be quite thick and dry.  Season well.  Then de-seed the peppers (they should be just a few inches long, so you may need to use a teaspoon).  I find rolling them on the chopping board loosens the seeds too).  Stuff each pepper with the mixture, then put them all in a roasting tray (well oiled and seasoned - make sure all the peppers are well coated in the olive oil).  Roast in a hot oven until slightly blackened (about 35 minutes):

"Spiked" peach, lime & mint Granita 

We came back from our recent short trip to Calais with a huge box of fresh peaches (€2.50 for 20!).  So I made a peach and brown sugar cake, and this granita (somewhere between a sorbet and a frozen daiquiri!).

In a heavy saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes:

4 cups of water

1.5 cups of sugar

A sprig of mint leaves

Chopped peaches (I used about 10!)

Discard the mint, allow to cool, and then  blend the whole lot along with a cup of white rum and a cup of fresh lime juice.

Put in a large Tupperware, and find space in the freezer.  Allow to freeze overnight.  Then simply "fluff up" with a fork before serving.  Refreshing and delicious!

Vintage wine

Finally, a note on one if the wines we were fortunate to drink.  With these friends we always drink our respective wines "blind".  We all guessed this one was quite old - perhaps 1960s or 1970s - but we liked the taste and were all completely stunned when Chris announced that yes it was the 70s... 1870! Amazing that something which was bottled in the same year that France declared war on Prussia, the era of Gladstone and Bismarck, is still perfectly drinkable.  It still tasted of fruit, fruit that was picked over 140 years ago... Mind blowing.  Needless to say, this old bottle (dust and all) will be taking pride of place on our shelf.

Meatloaf (I would do anything for love...)

I have to, have to have to, share this recipe with you all.  I am on a mission to dispel the myth that meatloaf is dry, tasteless, school-dinner fare.  Nothing could be further from this meal: it is tasty, succulent, versatile and (best of all!) an economical way to feed your family.

Tyler's Ultimate Meatloaf

This isn't my favourite Food Network show (hello, "Man vs Food"!), but I have to admit "Tyler's Ultimate" does a lot of ground research into its features, and this recipe is no exception.  Please take a look, and trust me when I say it really was easy to make and had a huge taste:effort ratio.  Better still, I made it for Friday night tea, and it also did us well over the weekend (you can take individual slices of the leftover loaf, and fry up to crispy perfection - delicious served with a fried egg, or pasta, or whatever leftover vegetables you have in the fridge.)

I'm sharing this over at Honest Mum's

Domestic goddess chicken nuggets

I was given Nigella Lawson's "Feast" cookbook years ago.  I had not long left home to make my way in London, living in a bedsit and surviving on bagels and boxes of cereal.  I remember reading her "Ritzy Chicken Nuggets" recipe and thinking...

"One day I will be the kind of woman who buys buttermilk."

"One day I will live in a proper house, and feed my family things that have been lovingly marinated in a proper fridge for several days."

Well, dear friends, that day has finally come.

It was time to put this legendary recipe to the test. 

The ingredients list is ridiculously simple:

- chicken breasts (1 per serving)

- a tub of buttermilk (enough to sludge them all in - and I've learned from baking that if you can't find buttermilk, full-fat plain yoghurt is just fine)

- Ritz crackers (Goldfish crackers or similar would also do)

- Oil for frying (I used sunflower).

And that's it.

I started by following Nigella's instructions to beat down the chicken with a rolling pin (do this inside a plastic bag, to save your kitchen from raw chicken splatter) and cut each breast into about 8 strips.  All you then need to do is find a suitable bag or tub into which to put the chicken bits and the buttermilk, and leave to marinate in the fridge for several days.

(Of course, I couldn't quite leave it there - so I added a heaped teaspoon of the husband's Steak Rub, essentially a mix of smoked salt, pepper, smoked paprika and a hint or chilli.)

The marinating started on Friday afternoon.  On Sunday evening I was ready to get my fry on.  The Ritz crackers (I used the whole box) were pounded down into crumbs, with an uneven crumb being the goal.  I then took each chicken piece and coated liberally in the crumbs, while heating about a 1cm of oil over a very high heat.  Make sure all small children and animals are safely out of the way for this bit!  You may also want to open all the windows at this point!

I then carefully placed the nuggets in the smouldering hot oil.  They literally took 2 mins on each side to reach a state of golden fried perfection: crispy on the outside, beautifully soft and tender on the inside.

We served them piled high, with just a simple homemade herby coleslaw and cos lettuce.  I have to admit this was as fine a Sunday night tea as I've ever produced!

I'm sharing this over at Honest Mum's

Daddy's birthday cake

So it has been a few days since I updated the blog: I blame IT problems, as well as a happily busy Easter weekend.  We started with the husband's birthday, and packed in a few meals out as well as a lot of chocolate-related fun.  Some restaurant reviews will follow in a subsequent post!

Daddy's birthday cake
We started with this epic chocolate cake recipe, baked the night before.  This recipe has proven to be intensely chocolate-y, with a beautifully moist texture which is robust enough to withstand a toddler's attempts to decorate!  I didn't bother slicing it horizontally, I just kept it whole and tipped a load of dark chocolate ganache over the top, letting it ooze down the sides.  Happily, there was some spare ganache to be kept in the fridge for mummy to later eat with a spoon.

From then on, it was down to the boy.  Of course he was more interested in getting his hands into the various decorations, and tasting them of course, but he did scatter some over the ganache - for quite a pleasing effect.

Linking this post up to


As well as


And

Happy meals

I'm no food campaigner, but if I were I think my cause might be "kids menus" in restaurants.  Perhaps not even just that, but the whole experience of taking a young child out to eat.

Being a parent can be hard and lonely work, but how fortunate it is that we live in a world where taking children out to dinner is no longer frowned upon.  And where some restaurants are practically falling over themselves to entice young families through the door.  We can take our hard-earned cash to places which understand what we need and cater accordingly. But this is not without challenges.

Since the boy was little, we have had a "table for three please" policy.  Babysitters are expensive, a luxury to be afforded only on special date nights, so we have always just taken the boy with us.  When he was really little, he would happily sleep in his buggy - or sometimes even in the car seat, under the table, in particularly busy establishments!  But since he has been old enough to sit in a high chair (or more often now his "BenBat" booster chair), he has eaten with us.  So I've had a fair bit of experience judging children's menus, and the "child friendly" credentials of the London restaurant scene.

Fine dining does not have to equal adult-only dining

I'm just going to put this out there: on a recent holiday to Italy we took our one year old son with us to a 3-starred Michelin restaurant ("Osteria Francescana", in Modena, as featured on Masterchef last year).  It was sublime.  We had a ten course tasting menu for lunch and the boy sat quietly (for almost three hours) eating the spectacular (and unlimited) grissini.  

The waiting staff were accommodating and the other diners did not seem to either notice or mind at all.  Friends and family were shocked, but we all had a genuinely good time.  I'm not sure we would have found a similar reception in any of London's Michelin restaurants, so I am glad we had this chance in Italy.  

My top tips for taking toddlers to "posh" restaurants are:

- always ask well in advance if children can be accommodated.  Check if they will provide a highchair or if you need to bring your own.  Ask if the chef can prepare something for children, or if you can bring your own supplies.

- request a table in the corner, which is well spaced from others but still provides your little one with a good view of the room.

- bring with you any toys or books that might keep your little one quietly occupied.  An iPad on silent mode is ideal.  Also bring raisins, smarties - whatever your child enjoys picking at!

- take your child to the park to burn off plenty of steam beforehand.  Ideally he may then nap in the buggy for a while, by your table.

Kid-friendly restaurants aren't always parent-friendly

One of the most child-focused chains of restaurants in London is Giraffe.  They have branches across town, all serving young families with breakfasts, brunches and antipodean-style fusion food.  They were a pioneer of the smoothie trend, and are genuinely great at what they do.  They are conveniently located near to many of London's children's attractions.  They dish out crayons and balloons,  and never run out of high chairs.  However... The husband refuses to set foot in there.  The reason?  It's hell on earth, basically.  Unless you get there by about 10.30am (for lunch!) there are queues of families snaking out of the door.  It's noisy and chaotic, full of other people's screaming infants.  The food is ok, but often a bit tepid (great for babies, not so much for grown up meals!) and it never quite lives up to its billing.  This is a real shame, as they do have great service and a fantastic children's menu (more on these later).

Here are my top food outlets which we reckon caters well to both children and grown ups:

- Wahaca.  This chain of Mexican street food restaurants was begun by MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers and it has always proved extremely child-friendly.  It is large and noisy enough for toddlers to fit right in, and does a good range of child-friendly food such as refried beans and cheese quesadillas.  There is a kids menu, but if you order sensibly from the adult menu you can all share and enjoy lots of different tastes.  It's two thumbs up from us!

- Yo! Sushi.  We all know the main peril of taking a toddler to a restaurant is the dreaded wait for the food to arrive.  Here you have the perfect solution: entertaining conveyer belt of food items, and food that is ready when you are.  There are plenty of child-friendly options - try the cucumber and avocado rolls, for example.  Our boy is also a fan of gyoza!

- Vietnamese street food kitchens.  There are loads of these across London - Banh Mi Bay, Pho, as well as the originals in North Shoreditch.  The husband and I love the Vietnamese/French fusion food, the banh mi baguette.  But I recently discovered that the boy loves Vietnamese steamed pork buns.  These are soft white buns, filled with a sticky slow-cooked pork mixture.  Perfect toddler finger food.  Everyone is a winner! 

- Pizzerias.  Take your pick, from Pizza Express to Zizzis to Franco Mancas.  Everyone loves pizza, and it's a great treat for a little one.

- Indian restaurants.  I'm not recommending that you take your toddler down Brick Lane on a Friday night. No way.  But there are a growing number of genuinely family-friendly places which cater well to young children.  Our current favourites are Lahore Kebab House (the Norbury branch, not Brick Lane!) and Dishoom in Covent Garden.  

Children don't have to eat chicken nuggets

One of the reasons we eat out is to try new and interesting food, which we perhaps might not be able to recreate at home.  We don't buy chicken nuggets, but I reckon if I wanted the boy to eat reconstituted mechanically-recovered breaded chicken pieces I'd know where to buy a bag of them, open said bag and throw some in the oven for ten minutes.  So it makes me sad when I arrive somewhere new, and see that the only items on the children's menu is variously shaped fried things with chips. Noooooooooooo!

Restaurants, please take a look at Dishoom's children's menu.  They encourage parents to choose off the main menu for the little ones.  But they also offer a number of child plates.  For £7.50 the boy had a fresh squeezed apple juice, and a plate of mahi fish tikka (beautifully cooked but not spicy), Bombay potatoes, and a tomato and cucumber salad.  Yum!

What are your top tips for eating out with little ones?  Any restaurant recommendations you would add to the list?

3 favourite chocolate cake recipes

The husband is turning thirty-something on Friday, so thoughts are naturally turning to birthday cake...

I was visiting Konditor & Cook yesterday and saw they had a new line in their celebration cake range: dark chocolate and hazelnut, with a noisette frosting.  Wow.  That could have been made just for the husband - right up his street!  But given the cost (£38) and the fact that I don't work, I was determined to try and replicate this at home.  Before I get down to Friday's business, however, I thought it'd be instructive to look back on some previous efforts.

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favourite chocolate cakes...

Chocolate buttermilk and raspberry layer cake

This is as much of a "show stopper" as I'm ever likely to make.  The sponge and ganache (and buttercream) are all from my friend Bea Vo's "Tea with Bea" recipe book (available here).  I made the sponge as directed, and sliced horizontally into 3 layers and left to cool.  I then ganached each layer with a thin layer of dark chocolate ganache, before sandwiching together with fresh raspberries and a fluffy chocolate buttercream.  I worked in Bea's kitchen for some time, before having the boy, so I am quite familiar with a "professional" style of buttercream.  This stuff takes a little longer to produce, but lasts much longer and looks so much better than standard buttercream.  It is well worth the effort! All you need is a decent stand mixer and a sugar thermometer...

I presented this to the husband on his birthday two years ago, and it went down incredibly well with a glass of bubbly!

Green & Blacks chequerboard cake

This recipe is taken from the G&B "Chocolate recipes unwrapped: from the cacao pod to muffins, mousses and moles" book (available here).  It's in the "Time To Shine" chapter, and it is a pretty flashy cake.  Taste-wise it is not too rich, so would be ideal for a children's birthday party.  It is essentially a vanilla/chocolate marble cake, but the two mixes are combined by icing them into the tin in circles:

I was very pleased with the end effect!  It is a very satisfying way to practice your piping skills...

Andy's chocolate cake 

There's a bit of a story behind this one.  Essentially I was tasked with producing a cake to impress my little sister's new boyfriend.  The brief: "he loves dark chocolate!"  So I googled "ultimate chocolate cake" and the first result was this 5-starred recipe on the BBC Good Food site.  We were not disappointed.  I used 1.5x the quantities, to make a cake large enough for over ten people.  In total, 3 x 150g bars of good quality dark chocolate were used.  The result was rich, smooth and deeply chocolate-y.  I have to say I didn't do a great job on the presentation, but no one seemed to mind.  Andy appeared to love it, and that was all that mattered!

I'm linking this post up to Honest Mum's And also with Becoming A SAHM's

The daily grind...

I flicked over to BBC2 last night, to watch the first part of a "Business Boomers" documentary series, on businesses which have flourished in spite (or because of) the recession.  Last night was all about coffee, and in particular the rise and rise of the coffee shop chains.

You can still catch "Coffee Shop Hot Shots" on iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040v3ld .

I watched it both as someone with a business interest (a plan to open an independent coffee shop of some description) and as someone who spends a fair bit of time, effort and money in pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee.

Here is a snapshot of just some of the coffee-related paraphernalia in my home:

Not to mention the various bits and bobs bought especially for the PANDAS support group (because in my humble opinion you cannot meet for a chat without a decent cuppa):

I squirmed in my seat as one of the opening statistics was read out by narrator Sandi Tolsvig: we coffee-clutching Brits can spend up to £2000 a year on our habit.  Yikes.  

As a stay-home mum I probably spend a lot less on takeaway cappuccinos than I did when I worked in the City.  But I do still insist on grinding my own beans at home, and making either cafetiere, filter or espresso (depending on mood and time of day).  I honestly cannot remember the last time I bought or used instant (although as a baker I do realise its usefulness as a baking ingredient).  This makes me sound (even more) like a horrible snob, but I'm afraid I'm addicted to good coffee and have no intention of quitting. 

The programme focused on the fortunes (literally) of the Big 3: Costa, Starbucks and Cafe Nero.  These chains are now ubiquitous on our high streets, with thousands of branches throughout the country.  Their annual profits run to hundreds of millions of pounds.  As local pubs have faced financial ruin, coffee shops have thrived.  I can see the merit of these places: they are well designed, were one of the first outlets to provide free WiFi, have a good range of drinks and food, and a "third place" vibe that is neither home nor office.   I am as partial to a frappucino as the next person, in a stifling London summer.

However.

There are some amazing independent coffee shops out there, roasting and sourcing incredible beans from around the world, working with local producers, using good quality milk and unrefined sugar.  These alternatives to the Big 3 are genuinely committed to the taste of the coffee, not just in creating the bland, inoffensive, watered-down offerings of the chains.  My favourite coffee shops in London include:

Monmouth Coffee (http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk )

Association Coffee (http://www.associationcoffee.com )

Four Corners Cafe (http://www.four-corners-cafe.com ).

It's pleasing to find them all included in this ingenious map of all the best coffee stops in London:

I'm not exaggerating to say it breaks my heart that my (very) local coffee shop in Kennington simply doesn't know how to make good coffee.  They have the friendly staff, comfy seats, perfect location - but I have stopped going there, just because I have never had a good cappuccino from them. If I ever plucked up the courage to tell them, I would give them the following (non expert) advice:

1. Buy good quality beans, in small quantities and replenish when needed.  In my house we tend to buy a 1kg bag every 3 or 4 weeks.  It's worth the special journey to Monmouth every so often, just to ensure the freshness of the beans.  Stay clear of vacuum packed beans that may have been sitting around for a while. 

2. Grind the beans fresh, every time.  I'm not sure why, but it does make a huge difference to the taste.  Never, never use pre-ground beans if you don't know exactly when they were ground.  Adjust the gauge of the grinder (if possible), depending on what method of coffee you are making.  Stove top espresso machines need finely ground beans.  Cafetieres benefit from thicker grinds.  Filter paper coffee needs something in between.

3.  Never burn or overheat your coffee.  If stovetop: switch off as soon as the espresso has dribbled through.  If cafetiere or filter: open the lid of the kettle and let the steam out prior to gently pouring over the grinds.

4. Pay as much attention to sourcing the milk, as you would the beans.  Skimmed milk is tasteless.  Full fat milk (or - whisper it - single cream, on occasion!) tastes much smoother and sweeter.  I'm not sure why, but organic milk from small farms does taste better and is worth paying a little extra for. 

5. Never, never, never overheat the milk.  If you have a milk frother, hold your hand against the jug until you can feel it warm to the touch.  If you are heating it on the hob, don't let it boil: turn off when you can see little bubbles form around the edge.

6. Know the difference between a cappuccino and a latte.  There is nothing more discouraging than ordering a cappuccino and receiving something that weighs twice as much as it should.  No, I really don't want to drink a pint of warm milk, I'm not six months old.  On this subject, take heed from Italy - cappuccinos there are half the size of the smallest Starbucks option! 

Happy coffee drinking! 

In praise of the tray bake...

This last weekend has passed in a baking frenzy... And, rather than the usual cupcakery or victoria sponges, it all revolved around the humble baking tray.

Firstly, on Saturday, I tried a focaccia recipe - to take as a contribution to our friend's dinner party.  A few years ago I had enrolled (in a fit of pre-wedding domesticity) on a one-day bread making course at Hugh F-W's River Cottage.  So I dusted off one of the recipes I learned there (with a few crucial adaptations, such as adding about half a pint of olive oil rather than just a tablespoon!).  I prepared it at home (in mega quick time for bread dough - it seemed to rise very quickly) and baked it at my friend's.  The recipe calls for:

500g of flour (I used half strong bread flour and half plain white flour)

5g of dried yeast (I used a whole 7g sachet)

10g of salt (important for taste!)

375ml of warm water

1 tbsp good olive oil (I used much more - probably almost as much as the water!).

I used my Kitchenaid dough hook to mix and knead the dough for a good ten minutes.  It then had a first rise of about an hour, before being knocked back and pressed into a well-oiled tray.  At my friend's house (after a second rise of around half an hour) I pressed my fingers into it (satisfying!) and added olives (to one half) and lots of rosemary and sea salt.  We then cranked up the oven to 260 degrees and baked it for ten mins at this high temperature before reducing the heat to 200 and baking for a further 20 mins (the recipe said just ten, but I found it a bit soft on the underside).  

We managed to let it cool for ten tantalising minutes before devouring.

On Sunday (with a groggy head) it was then on to the sugary side of business.  With the first PANDAS support group meeting on Tuesday I was keen to start preparations.  So in the morning I began with tablet.  This is a peculiarly Scottish treat, much like fudge but with a distinct sandy texture.  I used Felicity Cloake's Guardian recipe, which is relativBely straightforward (especially with the aid of a sugar thermometer and hand mixer).  You start by boiling a kilo (yes 1kg) of sugar with 125g butter and about 250ml of milk for 8 minutes, and then simmering it further to get it to the required 115 degrees ("soft ball" stage on the sugar thermometer).  You then add a tin of condensed milk and mix vigorously until it thickens.  You pour the lot into a well buttered tray and leave to set. The result is seriously sugary, but a little morsel goes a long way!

(Where could that little square have gotten to...?)

After a lovely Sunday lunch with friends, it was back to the kitchen to whip up a brownie.  Now, I used to work for my friend Bea in the bakery of her small chain of cupcake/coffee shops "Beas of Bloomsbury".  I have adapted her spectacular "killer" brownie recipe, used in the professional kitchen, into a plainer affair for home.  I start by melting 250g of stork (why use expensive butter when margarine works equally well?!) over a high heat.  I pour that over 250g of small chocolate chips (I bought a large catering bag of dark chocolate chips the last time we went to Costco - it is much cheaper, and easier to use, than individual bars).  Stir to mix, until all the chocolate has melted. Meanwhile I beat 4 eggs with 250g of white sugar and 250g of dark brown sugar.  Using the dark stuff gives the brownies a gorgeous fudgey/caramel taste.  With the mixer running I pour in the melted chocolate/butter and finally add 250g of plain flour.  This all gets poured into a lined tray, to be baked for ten minutes at 200 and a further ten minutes at 170.  You are aiming for a slightly glossy, cracked in places, top:

Finally, today, I thought I'd better produce another option for those who don't want to be assaulted by sugar and chocolate.  I turned to my favourite lemon-based recipe of choice these days: Fiona Cairn's Very Lemony Crunch Cake.  She makes it in a round tin, but I think this recipe is like a lemon-flavoured brownie (in texture and baking method) and it lends itself to a square baking tray.  You start (similar to a brownie) by melting 175g of butter (Stork!). Whip 2 eggs with 175g of caster sugar, for about five minutes, before blending in the melted butter.  Then lightly fold in 175g of sifted self raising flour, as well as the finely grated rind of one large lemon.  Finally, mix in the juice of that lemon.  Pour into a greased and lined tray and bake at 180 for about half an hour.  When it comes out, prick all over with a cocktail stick and pour over a lemon syrup which is simply 100g of sugar mixed with the juice of another lemon.  The result is a super-light but very moist lemon drizzle slab:

I think we are almost ready for the new support group!  I have looked out some of the boy's old toys to take along.  And I have even invested in some Monmouth Coffee, filter papers and individual filter cones... 

I am stressed and anxious, as if I were planning a party and worried no one will show up. I have no idea how many mums might come along, but the good thing about all the baked items above is that they can stay in their trays, they all keep well, and then they can all be frozen if no one eats them!  The joy of the humble tray bake.

Linking this post up to:
<a href="http://honestmum.com/tasty-tuesday/"><img style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; display: block;" src="http://i.imgur.com/9VwhltV.jpg" alt="Tasty Tuesdays on HonestMum.com" width="301" height="189" /></a>

Just one of those slightly smug BBQ posts... :)

Our garden is a 15x15ft courtyard with a few plant pots and a solitary (but I think beautiful) cherry tree.  Big enough for a BBQ though...

So yesterday morning we schlepped out to B&Q to pick up a Weber grill - charcoal, not gas. And one you can buy a pizza oven attachment for if you are that way inclined.  I left the menfolk at home this morning, figuring out how to work it.  Later in the afternoon we had a couple of friends over to road-test it with us.  

The husband had already marinated some juicy lamb chops overnight (a Tayyabs-inspired recipe involving yoghurt and lots of toasted spices).  We also had "freezer surprise" sausages and I knocked out a few halloumi/shallot/mushroom skewers.  I was also on salad and condiment duty.

We ended up with green salad (courgette, cucumber, spring onion, celery), tomato and red onion, and leftover Vietnamese salad from the other day.

After that I could sit back with a glass of cold wine and watch as the husband tackled the fire and meat.  After a few failed attempts to get the charcoal going properly we were off.  The chops were great, as we're the skewers - and even the surprise sausages!

I failed to get any photos, but for pudding I rustled up a childhood favourite - whole bananas, stuffed with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, wrapped tightly in foil and buried in the embers of the BBQ. Gooey deliciousness!

Let's just hope that this recent spell of fine weather is not our quota for the whole year!