However, in recent years we’ve found that restaurants are choosing to decide what seasoning you may want on top of your food too. On Monday we went out to the cinema and grabbed a quick dinner beforehand. On ordering Tomato and Mozzarella salad I was given a plate with a couple of slices of tomatoes and mozzarella, plus rocket drenched in olive oil, some garlic dough balls and some olives. So a little different to what was on the menu! Most of it was fine (not really liking olives!) however it was all completely covered in cracked black pepper! So the first five minutes were spent scraping the pepper off the tomato and mozzarella, and I didn’t bother with the rocket as I couldn’t get rid of the pepper. In a previous meal (from the same place) I once ordered a main meal and instead of the sprig of parsley on the side it was chopped up and thrown all over it.

This isn’t just happening in one restaurant however, I’ve had it in several different ones now. I really don’t understand why chefs have suddenly taken to adding their own seasoning on top of the meal. Within the food, fine, but this additional seasoning on top is just not essential for serving. We should be allowed to add our own seasoning to our own taste! Assuming what our tastes are when it comes to seasoning just isn’t a wise move. I like salt and vinegar on my chips, my Mum doesn’t, David likes plenty of pepper on his food, I don’t want any pepper on mine (except for a little smidgen on eggs!), in other words we all have different tastes so why try and second guess the seasoning we want?!

It’s frustrating as it doesn’t cross my mind to say ‘please don’t cover in seasoning’, simply because you don’t expect to have to say that! Yes you could send it back and ask it for just what you’ve ordered without the extra seasoning (which isn’t mentioned on the menu) but that usually means more waiting and the hassle of having to complain and send the food back.

Why is this suddenly becoming more and more frequent though? Is it just a ploy to try and disguise the food below the seasoning? Or do chef’s and restaurants honestly think that they know what we want? Regardless of the reason they do need to start realising that people have different tastes and adding unnecessary seasoning is just that, unnecessary!

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After asking on Twitter for local recommendations for a restaurant that sold Lobster (as our previous local restaurant the Lobster Grill has closed down), Kay from Cromwells mentioned that they could do it for us as they do offer it but to order only. After we thought about it for all of five minutes we decided to go out for a swanky meal of Lobster!

We arrived at 7pm, had the first bottle of wine (yes there was more than one!), and shortly after our starters arrived. I had decided to try the warm prawn and ginger salad. It was gorgeous. David had a starter combo for one which consisted of garlic ciabatta bread, scampi, onion rings and potato wedges, all cooked perfect and that looked very nice too!

Then came the Lobster thermidor. Perfectly done and, I must admit, much better than the Lobster Grill used to do it! The meat was perfectly cooked and the cheese sauce was spot on. It was what I’d be thinking about for the past 48 hours and was certainly worth the wait!

Our desserts were again perfect. I had a mud pie cake, and fancied two different types of ice cream and couldn’t decide, so I was given both! (Although David stole half of one of my scoops!!). Plus two further bottles of wine and a latte, our evening was complete.

To give an example of how comfortable we were made to feel, we realised after we left that we’d been there for 4 hours! This wasn’t through being kept waiting for food, far from it. We’d just been so relaxed and chatting with Kay, the general manager, that the time simply flew by! Such a relaxed atmosphere and top notch food and service.

We’ve already booked to take our friends and family here for a meal on the evening before our wedding, to save everyone searching for somewhere to go. Despite not fully knowing the final figures they’ve been happy to accommodate us, offering a special menu, table decorations and a table plan!

When it comes to Cromwells, the food speaks for itself, the service speaks for itself and you’re certain to have a fantastic meal out. They’re currently taking Christmas bookings and they’re open on Christmas day!

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The pub was quite typical in how it dealt with orders. Choose your table, choose your food and go and order and pay for it at the bar. We opted for paté and garlic bread with cheese for starters between us, and their own burger with goats cheese for our main course. My brother and his girlfriend chose their Carvery.

Our starters were brought to us, and were all pretty good. Then my brother had a ticket for his carvery so that he could just go up to the serving area and get his food. This is pretty standard with carveries. Of course with us having a set menu item we assumed they would just bring the burgers to us. However one of the waiters then came to our table to tell us that our burgers were ready for collection… which confused us a little as surely he could have just picked them up and brought them with him?! So David went to get those whilst I looked after my nephew (no complaints from me!).

The burger itself was very good, however that was about it. The salad and chips had clearly been put on the plate when we’d ordered the food, as the salad was limp and uninviting, and the chips were not too nice either. Luckily the burger made up for it, but considering we had to collect our food, I don’t understand why fresh salad and chips couldn’t have been put on the plate on collection (although I don’t know why it couldn’t have just been brought to the table!).

So unfortunately it doesn’t really get top marks. The main food was good but the service and effort on the additions seemed to be lacking.

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For a while I wondered if bringing them indoors was the right thing to do as the flowers were coming but just dying and falling off. Then I remembered what a friend of mine had told me last year about how he had manually pollenated his plants and cross pollenated them as well, and that suddenly hit me. Of course, being indoors, there are no bees/wasps/flies to help with the pollenation process, so with a little brush I’ve been keeping an eye for any newly opened flowers and get them pollenated, and most of them so far have started to product the chillis.

At present they’re still growing and still green, but judging by the packet they came out of they should turn red so I’ll just keep tending to them and hopefully they’ll start to turn to red at some point

So note to self, next year keep them in the conservatory and remember to manually pollenate them!

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We booked via Twitter which meant we got a free bottle of wine, an instant plus in my book! The interior of the restaurant was perfect for a cosy anniversary meal, nicely decked out, and every table having their absolutely fab salt and pepper pots!

The Food

We both opted for Bruschetta with Mozzarella to start with which was some toasted ciabatta bread, sun dried tomatoes with melted mozarella on top (with balsamic vinegar on the side). Usually I prefer to have the mozzarella uncooked, however this was very nice and we both had a completely clear plate by the time we’d finished!

For the main meal David had meatloaf, vegetables and chips, with a jug of gravy. I’d opted for fish and chips. I’ve never had meatloaf before myself so I was pleasantly surprised when I tried his and liked it! The chips dipped into his gravy were nice too On to my fish… now in the past I’ve had fish at restaurants and it’s often over cooked and dried out. It’s almost as if people don’t know how to cook fish, a bit like chicken, and overcook it. There’s only two places I know of where the fish is melt in your mouth fantastic, one is a fish and chip shop in New Brighton, and the other is a small chippy in Parkgate, both in Wirral. Well now I know a third place! The fish had the perfect batter around it, it wasn’t dripping in oil and the fish was absolutely gorgeous inside. Perfectly cooked and tasted fabulous!

Finally we had dessert (well it was our anniversary dinner!). David opted for 3 different scoops of their local ice cream, which is Cheshire Farm ice cream, whereas I went for the Tiramisu, a personal favourite, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The Tiramisu was, yet again, melt in your mouth perfect! All rounded off with a latte (which I was was offered a free refill, but alas was full to bursting!).

The Service

All in all we really enjoyed our meal. The service was first class, we were never kept waiting, and we were well looked after. The food was exceptional and we’ll have to return several times to at least savour the rest of the menu! (including the 10oz rump steak that I was eyeing up yesterday before opting for the fish). Unintentionally, we managed to order both starters and main meals within their current meal deal, whereby you get the cheaper starter/main course for free, so for a 3 course dinner out plus drinks it really didn’t break the bank at all.

The food used is sourced locally and that’s reflected in their food. Their Sunday lunches look amazing and at £8.95 for two courses or £10.95 for three, it’s certainly worth having the day off from cooking and going there instead!

So if you live in Merseyside (or are passing through) and fancy a worthwhile meal then I couldn’t recommend Cromwells Restaurant enough!

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How it works

You can select a few different types of boxes including healthy eating, pre workout, post workout, select to build your own. There are usually 3 punnets in a box, the large contains fresh fruit, the medium size can have dried fruit, nuts or a mix, and the small punnet can again have dried fruit, nuts, or perhaps a treat mix (this is just an example, please visit their site for more information).

You then choose which day(s) to have the box(es) delivered and rate as few or as many of their foods available so that they can tailor the box to your tastes. You don’t specifically choose what’s in each box, instead the foods are selected based on the type of box selected and the foods you’ve rated. It’s then posted out the day before and arrives with the postman the next day, and easily fits through the letterbox.

Costs

The cost of a Graze box is £2.99, which for a healthy, weekly treat isn’t too bad, and this includes the cost of the delivery to anyway within the UK. Plus the food tastes great and is free from all the artificial rubbish!

However, at present if you sign up via this site you can get your first box for free, no commitment required, so you can cancel straight after if you wish. If you do continue, you’ll then receive your second box at half price, which means two boxes for £1.50, which you can’t really complain at! So for a healthy snack delivered to your door (whether that’s your office or home address), give them a go – Get a free Graze box.

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I’ll be sure to post up a review of the meal afterwards, however judging by the various comments on their site and on twitter, I’m guessing that it could be a contender for another favourite restaurant of ours

They also have a current offer* that if you follow them on Twitter and book a table via direct message you’ll get a free bottle of wine with the meal. With offers of buy 2 starters get the cheapest free, and the same for mains (certain dishes only), you can really dine out on the cheap! See their Menus page for more information.

* Correct at the time of posting. Please check their site to be certain.

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Despite repotting the chilli plants, they’ve not been very happy outside, so I brought a couple in to our conservatory (came with the new house!) and they’ve perked up in there, so I’ve started to bring them all in. A couple of the taller plants have got flowers on them now so I’m hoping to maybe get a few chillis off each one if I’m lucky. It’s quite warm in the conservatory but doesn’t get too much direct sunlight so they seem quite happy in there.

That just leaves the gherkin plant, which has about one gherkin on. I’m not sure when to pick that however, so I’ll need to check on that and not leave it too long!

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We had a small crop of strawberries this year. To be honest I think unless you have them in a decent sized container or the ground, you won’t tend to get a good crop of strawberries, either that or the plants are too old for a decent crop now.

At present we’ve got a cherry tomato bush growing, a gherkin/cucumber plant, a few lettuces, some radish and a few fine bean plants going. These were all started by my Dad (thanks Dad!) as I’d packed most of my garden stuff away for moving so he brought these up with him when we moved.

We’ve got a nice little back garden now, although there’s no grass, just some borders and paving slabs. However there’s a nice little suntrap so most of the plants are sitting there as they’re sheltered from the wind but get a good watering when it rains, and any sunshine that’s out during the day. We have a front garden too, but it’s quite overgrown with bushes and flowers so I doubt I’ll plant anything out there.

So I hope your fruit and veg growing is going well this year, let me know what’s on the go

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In the news they’ve now added, however, that fast food is in fact cheaper than buying from the supermarkets, something I complete disagree with! How can paying over £2 for a quarterpounder burger from McDonalds be cheaper than shopping in a supermarket? And just to prove it, here’s a couple of fast food recipes to compete with two of my favourite meals. The difference? The homemade ones will be far more filling!

Quarterpounder with Cheese

You can buy aberdeen angus quarterpounder burgers from most supermarkets. In Marks & Spencers you can usually get a deal of 8 burgers (2 packs) for £5. That’s 62.5p per burger. Or you can get the non aberdeen angus burgers for £4 for 2 packs, so just 50p a burger.

Need

1 quarterpounder burger (Aberdeen Angus from M&S – 62.5p)
1 white roll (20p max)
A cheese slice or some sliced cheddar cheese (10p max)
Half an onion (10p maybe?)
Tomato ketchup (pennies)

Total Cost: £1.05 compared to over £2!

I also like to add lettuce and plenty of it, again, this is not very expensive, 10-20p max.

We usually put our burgers on the George Foreman, and fry our onions. Simply put it all together as you would and hey presto, a quarterpounder with cheese for about £1.00. In McDonalds you can expect to pay over £2 for one, and in Burger King the ‘Angus’ (which is meant to be a quarterpounder but really doesn’t seem to be when you get it) is over £3.

Sausage and Egg Muffin

I adore these and am very impressed that McDonalds uses free range eggs too, however they are still quite expensive (around £1.50-2 for a sausage and egg mcmuffin I think). To replicate this at home:

You Need

White muffin (20p max)
1 free range egg (25p max)
100g Sausagemeat (40p average)
Slice(s) of cheese (10p max)

Total Cost: 95p on average compared to £1.50-2.

Flatten the sausagemeat into a burger shape and either put it under the grill or on a george foreman or sandwich press. Poach the egg. Easiest is to do it in a microwave egg poacher as it stays round then! But you can do it as normal if you need to. Toast the muffin. Then just make the muffin up. Goes well with a good strong cup of tea!

Shopping for Food

We don’t buy ‘basics’. I’m sure some of it tastes just as good as normal brands, and some stuff is normal brands repackaged, however I can’t be bothered to work out what is and what isn’t good! I like decent food, I like meat to be meat and not gristle, bone and fat!

With a bit of trial and error, most fast food meals can be recreated at home, in a cheaper and probably healthier way. Some can seem a little fiddly but once you’ve got the method covered then you’ll find it a quick and easy meal to recreate and enjoy

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