Old cooker New cooker

 At the beginning of August we had a gas appliance safety check at where we live.  This is a legal requirement on rented appartments in England that have a gas supply.  The photo above and below is the gas cooker that was in the flat when we moved in back in 1999...... when the gas man saw it he said that in the 38 years he'd been doing his job, he'd never seen anything quite like it.

 I think it might've been the fossilised gunk and rust down the side that wouldn't come off even with industrial grade Cilit Bang and pneumatic drill.

 However, after consulting the Managing Agents who consulted with the Landlord, I got a bright shiney spanking new cooker installed a couple of weeks later!!!!  It has a four hob top with a clear cover that shuts off the gas supply when you shut it.....

And then the top bit is a grill and the bottom bit is the oven.

And I didn't have to pay a penny because the Landlord had to pay out!!!

I love my cooker!!!!!

Beanie Cooked Poached Salmon!!!

 Remember that cooking book that we showed you a few days ago?  Well, we tried out one of the recipes recently.  And being an Onerary Bear, it HAD to be poached salmon!!!  We got small potatoes and spinach.

 And a small bottle of dry white wine (this one's a chardonnay but we've tried it again with a Muscadet which we think it better), curley parsley, coriander (Andrea meant to get Dill but picked up the wrong packet!!!), and an onion and a Shallot.

 First of all we chopped up the shallot and got out some of the parsley and coriander and put that in a little saucepan.

 Then we got out the salmon fillet and gently rinsed it.  The recipe said to put a little rock salt on the top, so we did that too.

 Then we poured out half the little bottle of wine which we put in the same saucepan as the shallot and coriander....

 and then a cup of water.....

 Which we put in the pan too.  Later on, we heated that up.

 But first we put the potatoes on.  Because they're little ones, we decided just to boil them whole.

 When the potatoes were half way cooked (about 10 minutes) we got this pan heated up and when it was simmering, we put the salmon fillet in and then put the lid on.

Five minutes after that, we put some spinach in with the potatoes.

and then five minutes after that, it was all on a plate!!  We put some ground pepper on the salmon and some butter on the potatoes and then we ate it all up VERY QUICKLY!!!

This is seriously YUMMY!!

More pages in Beanie's sketchbook!!

 this is one of a series of books I've made with Khadi paper pulp as the sheets.  (the others are on my etsy shop).  This is what I've done so far....

 that little piece of plastic that the pen is sitting on ...... soap wrapper from a mini soap at the Lille hotel I stayed in last March, bound into the book!!!

The little sheet has Bellagio tissue paper gift wrap from a trip to Las Vegas in 2007

 The other side of the small sheet has rubber stamps....

 You can sew fabric into pulp paper as well, holds up really well.

 Paris playing card and washi tape..... one of my lino prints on green paper and some gold wrapping from a box of patisserie wonders from Meert in Lille, France.
The French "spread"!!

 Then some Klimt-ish gilt work for the Royal Academy ticket pages with a quote in between....

With another little quote and some gold paper from Meert pattiserie in Lille France on the rest of the Royal Academy ticket!!

 The Lowry exhibition ticket from the Tate in London.....

That's the Royal Pavillion, Brighton, ticket.....

Followed by The Royal Announcement!!
(which I did first....!)

Movie Review - "Kramer vs Kramer"

Movie review number 17

PLOT

This movie is set in New York City and stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as Mr & Mrs Kramer, who live in an apartment with their small son.  Dustin comes home from a busy day at the advertising company he works at and, whilst yakking away about his busy day at work, Meryl tells him she's leaving him.  She thinks she's a crap mother, and doesn't want to be married any more.  So she takes her packed suitcase and leaves, all the way to the other side of America, leaving Dustin to do the school run on top of a busy job at the advertising agency he works for.

Dustin then discovers it ain't that easy cooking breakfasts for his small son, and doing the school run, and getting the dinner on in the evenings as well as his son's homework AND extra work that he takes home from the advertising agency.... and starts struggling!!  He even ends up screwing up on a deadline at his job and he GETS FIRED!!!  Just before Christmas!!!  OH NO!!!

Now, because he's consulting a divorce lawyer, he's told that he'll lose custody of his son if he's now unemployed..... so Dustin then does a manic job hunt just before Christmas and desperately takes a lower salaried job so he can keep his son.

THEN his wife turns up back in New York City and wants access..... and that's when the arguments start between Dustin and Meryl.  In AND out of the Courtroom!!

But, it does kinda have a happy ending!!!

(Movie trivia - this movie apparently is quoted in real dirvorce courts even though it's a "made up" story!!!)

RECOMMENDED
Yeah, this is really good!!!

SCORE 

Beanie says 8 and a half squeaks out of 10!!

RECOMMENDED SCOOBY SNACKS
French Toast.

You'll have to watch the movie to get the link!!!

More random photos!!

 two pretty flowers in the back garden last month....

And a crazy sculpture thing around the corner from me!!!