Day 164 & 165 - Roadworks, roadworks, roadworks!

Well, I decided last week that I would not post every day if I didn't have much to say. I haven't posted for a couple of days as not a lot has happened, but I thought I'd better let you know that I'm still here!

Work was a complete disaster yesterday. One of the quietest days I can EVER remember. I think this has probably got a lot to do with it...

Let's be serious, would you want to eat here...?


It really annoys me when I think about the situation, so I'm gonna shut up for a few minutes!

I'll talk about the goings on at home... The pool was still not right yesterday - it would appear that we have a filtration problem - but our landlord has been out today and has assured us that it will be ok by tomorrow. Fingers crossed. I haven't swum for 4 days now, so I'm in desperate need of some exercise.

Mindful of my impending weigh in on Saturday, I decided that as I was not doing any exercise, I would need to eat less calories and make sure it was healthy. The inspiration for last nights dinner came from my son, Harrison, who asked me to make Minestrone soup! I love it when he tells me what he wants, as normally when I ask him he just says 'I dont know'! Its so nice to know that he has asked for something specific, as a) you know he likes it, and b) you know he wants it. The bonus of him asking for Minestrone is that its so healthy and I love it too! I may not have had every ingredient that I would normally use, but I'm a big believer in the theory that recipes are just a guide and they should never be followed to the letter. You should adapt them to your own preferences and make them your own. I'm always nicking ideas from here, there and everywhere, but I make them personal to me. So back to the soup. I made a sofrito using the Holy trinity - onion, carrot & celery - and sweated them gently for a few minutes. Added some diced courgette, canellini beans, tinned tomatoes and chicken stock and cooked gently for a bout 20 minutes. I then increased the heat and added some vermicelli pasta. You could always substitute the vermicelli with spaghetti broken into inch long pieces. At the end of cooking, I chucked in a load of spinach, turned the heat out and covered with a lid for 5 minutes. While the spinach was wilting, I made a pistou. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a combination of basil leaves, garlic and olive oil blitzed together to make a cold 'sauce'. Its not far off a basil infused oil or even a good pesto and it works amazingly well in a soup. As I don't think I've unpacked my hand blender yet, I mushed it all up in a mortar and pestle. Here's what it looks like being made...

And then with the soup...

I like to make it quite thick, (as you can see), as it gives me the feeling that I'm eating loads of food! To be honest, its incredibly filling. I like to shave some Parmesan over the top just before serving. A little soup when making this type of soup... Never throw away the end bit of your Parmesan. Instead, save it until you make minestrone and just chuck it in. You don't eat it when you serve, but it adds a unique flavour....

On to today. We started this morning in the same way as we finished yesterday - dead. It was VERY quiet until around 11am, when all of a sudden we got busier and busier and actually ended up with a decent day's takings. We had to open the restaurant  for a while to accommodate the people we couldn't fit inside. I was mostly cooking this this morning...

Poor Laura and Kathy, running up and down the stairs all morning! It was heartening to see the cafe so busy baring in mind the goings on outside. This scenario was going on for about 2 hours, but our customers fighting spirit shone through...

I really am amazed that anyone would want to eat their food less than 6 feet away from this, but I am also very grateful to those who did. 

Got home and 'had' to spend 2 hours on the xbox with Harrison, as I was trying to help him with a really difficult level on Sonic! It reminded me of being 20 again and playing it when it first came out! We eventually finished the level. Fortunately for us both, Laura cooked dinner tonight, as if we'd been waiting for me, we would have gone very hungry! She made a Lamb Tagine with cous cous, and it was excellent. It was one of her party pieces many years ago and she fancied making it tonight. I love tasting new flavours, and although the components were not unfamiliar to me, I had not experienced the flavour before. Here it is...

That's it for today peeps, hope I haven't bored you too much! I'm guessing I'll have a fair bit to report tomorrow as the restaurant is open, so until then, nite nite

I'll be back soon :0)

Jimbo

Day 162 & 163 - My longest blog ever! Sunday lunch & Monday's roadworks....

I must first start by filling you all in with the visit from the man from the town hall. I wrote it on my last blog title, and then forgot to fill you in! If I begin with the words 'what a knobhead', you will immediately get an idea of purpose of the visit! Baring in mind that the works began on the renovation of the pavement today, (see pictures below), he had the down right cheek to tell us that our pavement tax was going up to 2,500€! Apparently instead of charging per table, (we have 4 outside), they are now charging square meterage. Here's the best part...he has measured from the front of the cafe to the edge of the pavement where it meets the road. We dont have any effing chairs and tables there!!! We now have to take photographs of the chairs and tables we have, and where we put them, and submit it to the town hall. Problem is, as you can see from this photo, its a bit difficult to do that with the way the outside is at the moment....

 

ONLY IN SPAIN!

 

I will of course keep you up to date with the final result!


So another Sunday has come and gone and finally now that the stupidly hot days have just turned into very hot days, our regulars are definitely returning in their droves... We started the day with 25 bookings and ended up having to turn people away as we were fully booked. Thats more like it. Its so nice when you know you have a lot of bookings, as you can make a real effort with the food and know its not going to be wasted. By that I mean, why spend half an hour and extra money stuffing a loin of pork with sage, rosemary and apricot and wrapping it in streaky bacon when you only have 12 booked? Why spend time and extra money creating a really interesting starter, when you only have a few bookings. At least when you have a lot of bookings, you can make the extra effort knowing that there shouldn't be too much waste. A certain chef is slowly getting a little excited!

Although I have used it on the set menu a couple of times, I dont often put the 'goats cheese, caramelised onion, serrano ham and balsamic bruschetta' on the Sunday lunch menu. Thought I'd stick it on this week. It was about par with the minestrone soup for orders, so I was pretty chuffed. Here's a piccy (for those of you who havent seen it 100 times before!)

As I was a little busy during service, I didnt get much chance to take too many photos, so there is no picture of the minestrone soup. Its a shame, as the soup was excellent! I made some pistou, (basically just fresh basil, garlic and olive oil blitzed together), and spooned it over the top just before serving. If you've never tried it, its a must. It takes a really nice soup to another level. I cant describe what it does, just try it. Oh, and dont forget to put a message on the blog telling me how it was!

One of the puds this week was a home made lemon cheesecake. Although 99 times out of 100, we put a cheesecake on, (as there would be uproar if we didnt), we do try and rotate the type of cheesecake as often as possible. As we had an abundance of lemons this week, it seemed silly not to use them. Here then is this Sunday's lemon cheesecake...

No fancy coulis or sauces. Somtimes the simple things are the best. I'm not a dessert man, but I could eat this all day long!

So that was Sunday....

On to today, and a day off, yipee! We took the little fella to school this morning and then had to queue up for 20 minutes in the canteen to purchase his school books for this year. Only 130€! Popped in to work to see if the road works had started and to drop some baguettes in. This is what we were greeted with...

Great for business, eh! Not only can we not put tables and chairs out, (it averaged 35C today), but we couldn't open our doors up either, as I dont think those customers who braved the disruption would have wanted the dust and crap ending up in their food! As I have asked before, why have these imbeciles started the work now? Whats wrong with November? Really makes me mad! They can stick their 2,500€ pavement tax up their ridiculously illogical, disorganised arses...

We decided to pop to a nearby cafe for a light breakfast. Normally,we would have stayed at our own place, but didnt fancy it. I wonder why! If we, the owners, didn't want to sit there, what are the chances of the general public doing so?

We went to a nice, modern air conditioned cafe about 5 minutes walk up the road and I had 'tostada con tomate, (tomato on toast!), with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. It filled a hole...

We needed to get a couple of bits for work, and try and look for 2 bedside tables, (as I'm sick of putting everything on the floor!), so headed off in search of those. Didn't find any!

We had invited over a couple of friends for a BBQ this afternoon as a thank you to them for helping us with our pool problem, so also needed to a little food shop as well, before picking the little fella up from school at 1pm. Just read this sentence back as I always do, and realise I had typed 'poo problem'. Thank the Lord I checked!!!!!

After collecting Harrison from school, we took him to 'Burger King' for a little treat. They have an indoor play area in there, so he likes to let off a little steam. I was very good and ordered a salad. As salads go, it was pretty dull!...

Didnt enjoy it, but patted myself on the back for not giving in to the temptation of the 'Bacon double cheeseburger'!


We had some left over fish, chicken, spinach, courgette and streaky bacon at work, so I got my thinking head on and came up with these...

Firstly, I made a spinach, sun dried tomato and ricotta filling and wrapped it inside some BBQ'd strips of courgette. Never tried it before, but it was pretty yum...

 

 

I then skewered some cod and streaky bacon and sort of entwined the bacon around the cod...

 

The picture isn't great, but you get the idea... I brought home the pea puree from work and used it as a sauce for the above and it was pretty darn good!

 

Laura made a paella, which is better than any Spanish version I have tried. I honestly believe that the Spanish have some very good ideas about food, and some interesting recipies, but they just dont know how to execute the dishes properly. I find that a lot of their food is just too bland for me... Here's the paella...

 

 

This isnt the greatest picture in the world, but I also made a Caesar salad and some BBQ'd chicken breast. Forgot to take a picture of the chicken, so here's the salad...

 

 

 

So that's basically it! My last 2 days in their entirety. Hope I didnt go on too much!

 

I'm off to bed and I shall speak to you all very soon

 

Nite nite

Jimbo

 

 



 



Day 160 & 161 - A man from the town hall popped in...arrrrrgh, The regulars are returning, and results form the weigh in

I will start with yesterday...

There seem to be many of our regulars returning from the UK this week. Lots of old faces popping in to say hello and book for Fish & Chips and Sunday Lunch!

We were in the 30's again last night for fish & chips, which considering that for the last 5 or 6 Fridays we have been averaging about 20, shows an upturn in trade. We also already have 24 booked for Sunday lunch tomorrow, so again, an upturn in bookings. The locals are most definitely back...

On to today...

Had half a day off today. Well, I went to do the shopping this morning and then took it all to work. I then popped round the corner to the 'Beauty Box' to be weighed and arrived back home at about 11am, so had 5 hours before needing to be at work. I suppose its as near as damn it to half a day off!

Notice I moved swiftly on from the bit about being weighed... Probably something to do with the fact that I put on 1lb this week. I'm totally confused and bamboozled... Unless I'm going completely insane, I know I'm eating sensibly and I know I'm exercising, so why am I not losing weight. I started to wonder how much weight I would have put on had I not have been execising. Its all very strange to me. I haven't had a fizzy drink for nearly 3 weeks. I understand the whole ethos behind losing weight. I know about burning calories. I know about what foods to eat and which to avoid, so why have I not lost any weight for a month?

All I can do is go back to what I was doing at the beginning of the journey, and log down everything I eat and its calorific values and see what happens next week... I am determind not to get into the rut that I have in the past with every other weight loss attempt I have made. On other weight loss journeys, when I have plateaud, I have slipped back into bad habits and ballooned in weight. NO way this time. I have too much to lose. I am in the right  frame of mind this time and the lack of loss just makes me more determined than ever...

OK, of to bed. Got a busy lunch tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep. I will be back tomorrow with news of Sunday Lunch.

Sleep well all
Jimbo (the huge great big fat chef who hasnt lost any weight in one month)!

Day 158 & 159 - We're getting busier and still no roadworks!

Not alot happened yesterday (Wednesday), so I decided I would only be boring you all to tears if I blogged, so I didn't!

When I say nthing happened, I really mean it! Work was pretty busy, but nothing to write home about, or even write here about!

Today was a little mre interesting. Thursday is prep day for me, so at around 11am, I leave the cafe to go upstairs to 'my office'! I had some pork loin that I didnt use n Sunday, so decide to stuff it with sage, apricots and some chopped mixed nuts and then wrap it in bacon. It was a toss up between apricots or peaches, but I had the apricots already, so they won! I have done the dish a couple of times for Sunday lunch, and it seems to go down well, so I thought I'd stick it on the set menu and see what happened. Here it is and the rest of the menu too!

The pork before it went in the oven......

 

and then on the plate.......

 

I sometimes wonder if we are too cheap.............................

 

We had  26 in tonight and 6 of those chose the set menu. We sold a portion of everything and the feedback was very good! I was really pleased that we sold a couple of fish pies as I put a lot of effort into it! Here's a piccy. Not the most flattering picture, but here it is any way!

All in all, I was really pleased with all the food tonight and although I forgot to take a picture, the pasta with cream and mushroom sauce was pretty damn sexy! Due to its calorie and fat content, I only had a little taste, but I could have eaten the lot! In general, the night went well, until the fuse kept continuosly tripping,and as we were busy, it was difficult to isolate the problem. Something has burnt out somewhere and the electrics in Spain are from the dark ages, so gonna have to call an electrician in the morning.

The morning is also the first day back at school for Harrison after 12 weeks off, so I better be off in a mo for some much needed sleep!

Nearly forgot to mention that we inherited a rabbit today, from a lady who could no longer look after it. He's called Eric and has settled in well with the 2 guinea pigs, 2 tortoises, 2 fish and Maisie the dog! Our house is becoming a mini zoo!

Before I forget, I must plug the book I am currently reading. Its called 'Humble Pie', and it is the life of Gordon Ramsay. I cant put it down. A must read. Thank you Kerrigan for the recommendation...

Sleep well peeps and I'll speak to you all very soon
Jimbo

Day 157 - Have the roadworks started yet?.....

Well, once again, I peered round the corner as I approached work, wondering if the road works had started.....

Guess what... NOTHING! Well, unless you count this bloke who removed a loading bay sign...!

So that was the full extent of the 'works' today. A good thing really, as we were quite busy. I'm thinking that when the works actually start for real, we are going to have to open the upstairs restaurant for the cafe clientelle. Time will tell.....

I managed to have a 5 minute chat with my fitness guru, Sam, today and voice my concern that I hadnt lost any weight since I started the training programme. He told me not to worry, as it was perfectly normal. He also said that sometimes its not about the weight loss, its more about body shape. That made me feel better..... With that in mind, I had a fair old swim this afternoon, followed by my work out. I have upped some of the weights as the exercises were getting a little easier, but I still find bicep curls really difficult. I've never really had muscley, (new word!), biceps and I've never really done a job or sport that uses them, so I find curls very hard work! I dont have a problem with the leg exercises, as I've always had pretty strong legs, (they've needed to be, carrying all the weight over the years!), its just the curls....arrrrgh! Don't think I'll be upping the weights on those for a while! On a positive note, my back pain is still there, but seems to have eased a little. :o)

Laura has just made dinner... Beef stew and dumplings! I will not be eating any of the dumplings as they are ridiculously high in fat and calories...

Ok, off to eat my dinner now, and I have a night of poker ahead, so I will bid you all farewell for now and I'll speak to you very soon

Nite nite
Jimbo

Day 155 & 156 - A decent Sunday lunch yesterday and Did the road works start today?......

I have decided that on days where I do not have that much to report, I will blog every other day. I wouldnt want to bore you all now, would I?! It has been suggested to me in the past, but I have always been reluctant to do so, as my viewing figures always drop on the day after I don't blog. Its a bit of a toss up for me deciding which way to go, but I think better to give interesting material every other day, than wishy washy boring stuff every day. So here goes with the last 2 days worth....

We had a decent Sunday lunch this week. The temperatures have dropped by 5-10 C, and its no coincidence that numbers are getting back to normal. I was also delighted by the fact that we sold out of the bacon and brie salad starter, as I was sure they would all plump for the safer bet of mushroom soup! All in all, a good day. Sadly though, it seems as if my little 12 year old helper Jamie is not interested any more. He hasnt been now for about 5 weeks, so I think he's lost his desire to be a chef. Probably seen what its done to me!

We've just had another couple of very nice reviews on TripAdvisor today, that's 3 in a week! http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187526-d1896877-r139188398-Lauras_at_Westbeach-Calpe_Costa_Blanca_Alicante_Province_Valencian_Country.html

We had gone from NO.2 to NO.5 just from the 2 dodgy reviews I spoke about a couple of days ago, so hopefully these will push us back up. It always seems to take a week or so to update itself, so we shall see...

On to today... I walked tentatively around the corner towards work this morning, as I wasnt too sure what to expect from the road works due to start today. For those of you not familiar with my blog, the local council have deemed in their infinite wisdom that the pavement directly outside our restaurant was going to be completely dug up for modernisation purposes. A positive thing I hear you all saying. Yes, very positive, if they hadnt decided to do it in our busiest month of the year! Where would we put our chairs and tables..., where would the customers sit..., would we have to open the restaurant upstairs to accomodate those who couldn't sit outside. The questions I was asking myself were endless. I needn't have worried. Here's the scene outside work this morning...

 

That's all they managed on day 1! A few plastic barriers. No work started yet. Fortunately for us, as we had a pretty busy day today, which we certainly wouldn't have had if the pavement had been dug up.

 

It was nice to see a few old faces return today from England. (A lot of our regulars go back to England for June, July and August as its too hot for them here during those months). We also had 2 couples pop in who had visited last year and looked in to see if we were still surviving! Ironically, they had come when the road works had started last year too!

 

 

We had some fish left over from work that needed using, so I brought it home with me this afternoon and set about making the filling for a fish pie. I sweated off some carrot, celery and leek, added some rosemary and smoked bacon and gently cooked for about 20 minutes. I then added some double cream, mustard and nutmeg and brought it all to a simmer. Added the chunks of cod, a couple of handfulls of spinach, some seasoning, and viola! It looked a bit like vomit, but it tastes really good! See what you think...

 

 

I'm guessing that no one will try it, but I'll keep you posted!

 

Right, that's it, it's 2am and I'm off to bed! Take care all and I will be back soon

Jimbo



Day 154 - The Italians left a review!! And result from weigh in....

Firstly, after whinging for weeks about how hot it has been, I thought I'd let you know that it has drastically dropped down into the high 20's, and I'm delighted by that! Didn't even have the fan on last night....

My day started as it always does on a Saturday, with a trip to the 'Beauty Box' for my weigh in. I was very confident for once, as I knew I had been doing everything I should. I have exercised a lot, I have eaten the right things, I have completely cut out fizzy drinks and so I was hoping for a decent loss. It didnt happen! I remained the same weight.... I'm not going to change anything just yet, as I feel thinner, my clothes are baggier, (is that a word?) and I know I'm doing the right things. If in 2 weeks time I still ahvent lost any more weight, perhaps I will rethink my strategy. Until then , I wont be panicked in to anything hasty....

On to work... A pretty average day after yesterdays madness, both in the cafe today and in the restaurant tonight. The usual 'All you can eat' V 'Set Menu' ensued, and as is normally the case, 'All you can eat' won hands down. Only one customer ordered off the menu! I had changed it a little from Thursday night and put on a new main course. We had a little fish left over from last night, so I decided to do a cod fillet with pancetta and pea puree, served with 'poor man's potatoes'. Once again, I dont know why I bothered, as no one ordered it! Is it me? To me, that dish sounds really nice. A little different to the norm. A little imaginitive. To all my customers, it may as well say 'dog shit' on the menu.........

On a lighter, more heartening note, the 2 lovely Italians who came in on Thursday and said such nice things on the night, have also left a review on TripAdvisor for us  http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g187526-d1896877-r138918298-Lauras_at_Westbeach-Calpe_Costa_Blanca_Alicante_Province_Valencian_Country.html

We've has a couple of dodgy reviews recently, so it was nice to get a decent one again. One of the reviewers actually said that our decor was 'seedy and from the 70's'!

 I suppose we are all entitled to our opinions.

Another (Spanish) reviewer complained that they didnt think that our menu, (see below), was value for money at 11.95€ (drink included), as they were used to paying less! I'm virtually giving the food away! How could I do it any cheaper? Toss pots! Here's the menu in question.....

Ok, rant over, its nearly 2am and Sunday lunch is looming, so I'm off to bed

Sleep well all, and I will be back tomorrow

Nite nite
Jimbo