First Supper

Hello my lovelies!

How’s your weekend been?

It’s been glorious here and I’ve been busy in the garden, mostly watering, deheading and repotting. 

During the past couple of weeks I’ve completed a few indoor projects too, as some days have not been the best weather wise. 

Along the way, maybe as reward for my hard work at home, I was treated out for our first meal in a proper restaurant, my first I four months, so let’s relax today with a bit of food porn. 

A glass of wine tastes so different when out, don’t you think, and that experience is enhanced when looking out on a nice view eh? 

You can’t see it in this pic, but the window looks out on the sea. 

Here’s what we ate. 

A three cheese soufflé starter with delicate yet intense flavour. 

Turbot with clams served with a cream sauce, served with new potatoes. 

Crab salad first course, served with a kohl rabi coleslaw. 

Tender chicken served on an Asian salad, such fresh flavours. 

I like to recreate dishes at home from restaurant inspiration, rather like a Pinterest style steal but with food. 

We’ve since made a Dover sole cooked in a similar cream sauce but without the clams, I don’t think they were necessary. I wouldn’t ordinarily make a cream sauce with fish as I think it stands up perfectly on its own, but this was a nice variation and one that I

I’d choose/make again. 

I’d like to recreate the chicken with Asian salad too but will have to work on getting those delicate yet pokey flavors just right and that could take a few go’s. 

We always taste each others food to max out on the eating experience.  Do you when eating out?

And throughout the meal we were able to enjoy a fine display of kite surfing right outside our window.  Here our surfer is just a flash of red sail next to a potted plant. 

And here’s what I chose to wear for this pretty special

First Supper, 

a simple and comfortable linen maxi, featured IN THIS POST HERE.

So, is there anything here you’d like to try making at home?

And dare I ask, have you been out-out yet?

A la perchoine,

Mary x.

Monday Mode, Belatedly

Yesterday was my last play date of the school hols.  The weather was glorious.  I went to the beach and frolicked the day away in the sea and the rocks and the sand.

Then, after a shower to rid my hair of the salt water and sand, I went out to dinner with girlfriends.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

So please don't judge me for missing a post yesterday, I had lots of fun and I feel refreshed and I'm sure that is what you and I want for our Pout, eh?


And now, as you know why I was AWOL yesterday, I give you Monday's post, but on a Tuesday.

I've had a couple of outings with The Photographer lately and I was determined that, as we are having a return of glorious summer weather, dresses were going to be an absolute must for date nights.

I bought this Next dress a few years ago.  I liked its pink grey and black print and knew it would be perfectly wearable for posher nights out.  So then why oh why didn't I wear it?!

I think it was something to do with the length which I found a tad on the short side.  Fast forward a couple of years on this blog and wa-heey, I find that I've experienced hemline-creep.  This length is now perfectly acceptable, IMHO.

Another reason for this slow-starter was cardiganage.  What to wear with it?

So when I decided to bite the bullet and pull this dress out of the bag (quite literally!) I immediately thought of my little grey shortie as a perfect partner to the dress.  A shorter length balances the fitted style of the dress.  IMHO.

Cardi - Woolovers summer sale, 2017, grey,  £12. 



With a bold statement print, very little jewellery is called for.  A Wink leather bracelet, Claudia Bradby double pearl earrings, both in grey, and Bob's your uncle!  The shoes can be taupe, can be grey, it all depends on the outfit I wear them with and where my head is at.  Today, my Adesso heels were grey.

A little clutch/cross body in taupe from TK Maxx completed my date night outfit.

And there you have it.  Nothing wrong with the dress.  All it took was a little training via this blog to prepare my mind for this hemline.  And when I wore, I thought "Hemline too short?  Pahh, stuff and nonsense!".

Do you find sometimes that clothing plays mind games?  That your perception of an item of clothing changes over a while, so that when you decide to give it another whirl, magically if feels just right?  It's like hanging around in the archives for a few years somehow changes the piece's attitude?  Or those few years change YOUR attitude?

This little outfit was taken to La Reunion, probably TP's fave restaurant.

 

Sancerre, bien sur.

This tomato salad deserves a mention.  Delicious!  The dressing was laced with pesto which created a truly full flavour.  The miniscule cubes of feta created an acidic bite against the sweetness of the tomatoes.

Chicken with broad beans;

 turbot with samphire;

Pout with empty glass!

A la perchoine.

My Beach Holiday

I've been on holiday.

Well, not really, but it feels like I have.

We've been having glorious weather, mid 20s C and just simply sunny each day.

Which is good because we have family visiting for the weekend.  Our visitors are staying at the hotel down the road from us, to allow The Photographer plenty resting periods throughout their stay and it's worked out brilliantly, as we decided we would act as if we were on holiday too.

The Cobo Bay Hotel looked after our visitor’s so well that I fear Chez Pout may have lost them to those stunning views forever more 😞. 

Find Cobo Bay Hotel HERE 

https://www.cobobayhotel.com/

On their beach-side balcony.  Isn't TP looking well!

We've gone from snow in March and cold temps throughout most of April, to a week of summer weather and temps in the 20s.  Straight from winter to summer.  No spring in between, or though it seems.

It's happened with such lightening speed that I was taken unawares and when it got to going out for a meal on Friday, I looked at my wardrobe and thought "What the heck did I wear last summer?"!!

So I went for a tried and tested "nautical" look.  Striped linen blend top from Magasin in Copenhagen (bought 3 years ago), white jeans from M&S (bought in the January sale £8, bargain!).

I topped it off with an East jacket as I knew it would be getting chilly when we ate al fresco on the terrace later, with the sun started to go down over the yardarm.  My Windsmoor cardi also tagged along, and was a handy drape for one of our visitors later in the evening

OK I'd better sneak in a sea-selfie, gotta be done.

The terrace restaurant served up some delicious meals, not all mine I hastened to add. 

Lemon sole.

Crab thermidor.

And for me, the humble crab sandwich.  My first of the season, methinks

My patient began to flag so we didn't stay to watch the sun sink over the horizon, but our visitors viewed it from their balcony after we left.

A beautiful ending to lovely day.

And the eating fest continued into Saturday.  A birthday lunch for one of TP's daughters at La Reunion.

Yes, another day, another beach restaurant.

I did my two starter trick.  I chose a gorgeous three cheese soufflé to start the meal.  If you're in Guernsey and fancy eating the alltime best cheese soufflé then book a table at La Reunion now!!!

A prawn starter for mains.

Some of the other diners' dishes.

Yummy petits fours ... and they're complementary, so double yummy!

And this strawberry cheesecake was declared The Best Cheesecake EVER by all who tasted it!

I leave you with some of the photographic memories of Friday and Saturday, courtesy of TP's other daughter.

Somebody braved the cold spring water!

And so on to Sunday.  We're going to see a film today.  Now I wonder which film that could be ...

A la perchoine.

The Last Dress of Summer

Hello my darling peeps.  Hope you are well and hurricane-free.

A few days ago I squeezed in possibly my last summer dress of summer.  Sad, weepy face.

For Sunday lunch I wore my Roman Originals dress for the first time.

I think I'm in a state of panic.  The seasons switched from summer to autumn so abruptly that I didn't quite enjoy all the summeriness I had planned.

So many dresses, unworn.  Thus every time we get a sunny day, I sling on something summery.  And this was a summery day.

I like this Roman Originals dress.  It's pretty, the fabric hangs well and it's lined.

It's a slip over the head and walk out the door jobbie.

I added my Adesso heels and a little bag I picked up recently in Primani.  It's roomy whilst still neat and it goes so well with my fave summer shoes.  (I'm a matchy gal.)

I mentioned summer weather but hey, it's September, so a girl needs a cardi.  Woolovers.

Good to go.  Before the weather changes!

We sauntered down to the nearby beachside restaurant.

Nice views from our table.  They always seem to give us a window table.  Not complaining!

The Photographer fancied a posh meal so we came here.  These past couple of weeks have been a major headache (long story) and he needed to get away from it all for an hour or two.

So we tucked into some nice fresh, summery food.

We sipped wine and sat back and enjoyed the view.  And chatted.  It's funny how sometimes one can clear the mind of all other matters and focus on what needs to be discussed, away from home. Do you sometimes need to take a few hours distancing yourself from troubling matters, in order to talk them through more clearly?

I think that may just have been my last chance at a summer dress this year though.

The upside of summer's fleeting is this, harvesting the summer's garden fruits.  Here, little peaches and big pears.

And I didn't forget I set you a little puzzle a few posts ago.  Here's the solution.

Move one side of the glass to opposite side, at a right angle, then move the "bottom" of the glass to form a new bottom for the new turned-over glass.  Hope you worked it out.  Me and my cruise mates didn't!   And if you didn't work it out for yourself, you won't from my 'solution' - it reads as total gobbledygook!

Have you tried any Roman Originals dresses?

And have you worn your last dress of summer yet, ladies?

A la perchoine.