Sunday, 10 February 2013

Sugar, Soccer, Sunderland & Scrolls

Well it’s been 9 months since I left Australia, but I have finally done it!  Yep I have finally ticked off going to an EPL soccer game.  Seriously, why has this taken me 9 months! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to organise a day trip to Sunderland to watch Sunderland V Arsenal but after organising it last weekend it seems as though this week went at snail’s pace.

I am not sure how exactly this happened, perhaps it was all the excitement for the game on the weekend but gosh my sugar intake this week has exceeded my whole sugar intake for the year so far!  It started out with a little chocolate Easter egg and then bam, the next thing I knew it was the middle of the week and I was baking! Refusing to leave the house to give myself this sugar fit, I raided the pantry to find a little flour, cocoa and brown sugar.  Well I could work with this, a little recipe searching and I was making a chocolate self saucing pudding.  A very simple dessert that took minutes to mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk & butter before covering it with more sugar and cocoa and boiling water and pop in the oven. Half an hour or so later, out comes chocolate goodness with a gooey centre and crusty top.  The only thing I would have changed was adding some ice cream on the side!
 
Still on my sugar high, the weekend finally rolled around and we were off to Sunderland.  Well only just as we did only make the train with about a minute to spare before they closed the doors.  There was some running to the platform, but the important thing is that we made it there!  I was warned before going to Sunderland that there is nothing to do there and we should spend as little extra time there as possible, I can see what they were talking about as it is really just an industrial town with lots of old old buildings then a huge much newer stadium randomly chucked in the middle.  It was a great stadium though and I was shocked at how close we were to the pitch, I could almost reach out and touch the players.  The Sunderland fans were much tamer than I expected but the atmosphere was still electric especially in the second half as the desperation to get a goal intensified.  Arsenal came out winners with a 1-0 victory, I am still not sure if I am going to support them, I’m not really a fan of there away strip haha.  It was a really great day and another big tick off my list of things to do before I go home.  After the game we headed back into Newcastle before we caught a later train back to Edinburgh. We found a pub not too far from the station to have a bite to eat, turns out it was a good choice by us as it was a sports club with more games on the big screen and a lot of supporters headed there after the game.  Since I had already eaten a bunch of rubbish this week, I decided why not continue and have some nachos. I honestly think it’s the best nachos I have had in a long time, the salsa was so fresh and clearly homemade as well as the guacamole being spot on.  Good impression Newcastle!  I wish we had more of a chance to look around Newcastle as I hear it is a beautiful town but we headed back on the train to Edinburgh for the night.
 
Today I have spent the day just pottering around the house and have actually been in the kitchen baking some snacks.  I wanted to give something new a try and I stumbled across a recipe for savoury scrolls so I gave it a whirl.  Similar to a scone like recipe I suppose I made the dough and kneaded away until I had a reasonably smooth mixture and then rolled out with a make shift rolling pin, aka a glass, topped with some cheese, bacon and tomato paste then rolled it up, cut into 12 little scrolls and popped them into the oven. 20 minutes later and out came some very successful looking scrolls.  They were not quite as light as I would have liked them but still tasted good.  Apparently this wasn’t enough to satisfy my scroll craving so with some spare pastry lying around I also made some sweet chilli, spinach and cheese pin wheels.  Very tasty and you can never go wrong with anything that involves puff pastry!
 
Time now to maybe clean up the mess I have made and prepare myself for another week at work before heading to London next Saturday morning for another action packed fun filled birthday weekend.  Until then, keep smiling :)

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