The Meeting of the Cousins

We've just gotten back to the hotel after having dinner with my cousins tonight. For my sister....from left to right: my cousin David Carter, his wife Margaret, Me, my cousin Margaret Lucas who came up from Wales to see us, and my second-cousin John Woods (many of you have heard about him because he is my family history cohort and you also know he's been so sick for the last few months with his infected spider bite). We went to dinner at the Fox and Pheasant Pub, and I started with a 250 ml glass of pinot grigio (they measure it precisely here!), on an empty stomach! Wow. We finally had dinner at my insistance since I hadn't eaten anything since a very sad breakfast on the plane this morning. We all had the "Carvery". This is sort of an all you can eat buffet where the chef cuts the meat for you and you add potato, vegetables, and sides to it. I had a very English meal of thin sliced roast beef, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and some vegetables. It was very good, but I topped it with dessert. After pondering the dessert menu, I had to try "The Best Ever Sticky Toffee Pudding" (see the photos below). It is, what they call, a sponge cake, boiled with sugar and butter (think Christmas Pudding) and then sliced into a bowl and covered with Bird's custard. You aren't English if you don't know what Bird's custard is. It's not like American custard which is more like a pudding or creme brulee. English custard is more like a sauce. My grandmother used to send the packets of dry mix to my mother and she would boil milk and add that to it. Oh my, this meal was such a throw back to growing up!! Here's the dessert....before and after....

This was so rich that I had to ask for a glass of water to wash it down! Leave it to me to post what I ate today!!! I guess after four months of careful eating, all my willpower went out the window tonight. And by the way, my very adventurous Hubby had Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream!!

Now I've got to get some sleep. Jim is already snoring away, and we have to be up to get to St. Thomas Church for worship at 9 AM. We'll also see my aunt Olive, then go have a visit with Uncle Sam, then have lunch at David and Margaret's, and then John is taking Cousin Margaret and us around to see the old family history sights in the area. Tomorrow night we'll have dinner with my cousin Michael's widow (he died three years ago of a massive heart attack at 51), and her two children. Michael was David's brother.

So that's it for our very busy long day. More tomorrow night!