shewhomust (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shewhomust) wrote2023-09-19 07:32 pm
shewhomust) wrote2023-09-19 07:32 pm
Banquets and other culinary adventures
On Saturday we visited the Banqueting House at Gibside, our one indulgence in this year's Heritage Open Days. In other yeaars we have scheduled an entire weekend of visits, but this year it has pretty much passed us by. durham_rambler received a notification that visits to the Banqueting House could be booked, and he booked them, but we failed to investigate what else was on offer...
We know the Banqueting House of old, but only from the outside. It is a Gothic Folly on the Gibside estate, which was one of our favourite winter walks, in the days when we spent our Sundays walking; there's a splendid vista across the Octagon Pond, up to the ridiculous spiky building framed by woodland. In the eighteenth century, guests could be brought here and given refreshments (presumably brought up from the house by the servants); now it has been renovated, restored, transformed by the Landmark Trust, and you can stay there. It would be a cosy refuge for two, but Landmark market it for four, which they achieve by putting two single beds into the sitting room. Even assuming that the four and parents and children (or very good friends indeed), since access to the bathroom (shower) is through the bedroom, off one side of the main room, and access to the toilet is through the kitchen off the other side of the main room - I'm not saying you couldn't make it work, but it would reduce the elegance of the experience:
J., who is becoming a real Landmark fan, accompanied us on this outing, and has loaned us her microwave, her steamer and her hot-air fryer. So I am learning to use these devices, and we have hot food. The microwave seems the most versatile - and so it should, because it takes up a lot of counter space, and had better earn it. On Saturday I cooked potatoes and corgettes and bits of chorizo in the hot-air fryer, but since then I've used it mostly to make toast: toast and coffee for breakfast is essential, but I don't think I'm making the most of its capabilities. We spent Sunday afternoon with S., celebrating her birthday, which involves constant snacking, so on Sundaayy evening we had soup, which I heated in the microwave. I have also fried eggs in the microwave. It's all very exciting.
The gas engineer is due tomorrow, and it's not impossible that he will be able to reconnect us. But then, he was due today and rescheduled, so I am trying not to get my hopes up.
durham_rambler received a notification that visits to the Banqueting House could be booked, and he booked them, but we failed to investigate what else was on offer... We know the Banqueting House of old, but only from the outside. It is a Gothic Folly on the Gibside estate, which was one of our favourite winter walks, in the days when we spent our Sundays walking; there's a splendid vista across the Octagon Pond, up to the ridiculous spiky building framed by woodland. In the eighteenth century, guests could be brought here and given refreshments (presumably brought up from the house by the servants); now it has been renovated, restored, transformed by the Landmark Trust, and you can stay there. It would be a cosy refuge for two, but Landmark market it for four, which they achieve by putting two single beds into the sitting room. Even assuming that the four and parents and children (or very good friends indeed), since access to the bathroom (shower) is through the bedroom, off one side of the main room, and access to the toilet is through the kitchen off the other side of the main room - I'm not saying you couldn't make it work, but it would reduce the elegance of the experience:
J., who is becoming a real Landmark fan, accompanied us on this outing, and has loaned us her microwave, her steamer and her hot-air fryer. So I am learning to use these devices, and we have hot food. The microwave seems the most versatile - and so it should, because it takes up a lot of counter space, and had better earn it. On Saturday I cooked potatoes and corgettes and bits of chorizo in the hot-air fryer, but since then I've used it mostly to make toast: toast and coffee for breakfast is essential, but I don't think I'm making the most of its capabilities. We spent Sunday afternoon with S., celebrating her birthday, which involves constant snacking, so on Sundaayy evening we had soup, which I heated in the microwave. I have also fried eggs in the microwave. It's all very exciting.
The gas engineer is due tomorrow, and it's not impossible that he will be able to reconnect us. But then, he was due today and rescheduled, so I am trying not to get my hopes up.
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So I hear. Though by the time my coffee is cold, I've usually wandred away from the kitchen, so I just drink it anyway!
It has been a life-saver, but once we have an actual cooker, I don't think the microwave earns its shelf space, which is considerable.