Costco meat shopping and pork vindaloo with Karma's masala

 Our regular weekend trek to Costco for our raw meat / milk etc ends up a trolley full of stuff. As the children grow older, the quantities of food we buy are increasing....
First pic is pork vindaloo with LOTS of potatoes on the top (made by my mum so have to ask her why the copious quantity of potatoes). Karma's vindaloo masala - the one in a jar thingie for Rs100 odd is lovely. From my other post, I am a big fan of Karma's masalas and stock up when we go to Goa. Taste lovely and available readily. Comes a close second to my MIL's homemade ones.

This is a pic of some of our freezer shopping from Costco - pork tenderloin, pork shoulder and chicken thighs, one skinless and one skinned (difference is a couple of pounds between the two). Used to last us almost a month, now hopefully more than 10 days!
The mince is the only thing I find more expensive than elsewhere, at almost £8 a kilo, other than that, its mostly cheaper and nicer to buy a big quantity.

The children are enjoying the chapatis/parathas from their grandma these days though......

Hoburne Torbay review - draft

First things first, spoke to Hoburne Torbay on the phone and got a stupendous (for August) deal for a week for us. Much lower than their internet price.
Chose Hoburne for proximity to the beach, stayed in the Cotswolds one 6-7 years ago and mainly, the cheapest in the category of near £1000 pounds for a caravan for a week Aug holiday prices. Yes, close to £1000 for a week. Self catering. For 6.

Anyway, it was a lovely experience, need to figure
 out where to start.


The Birmingham-Devon journey was awful, took 6 hours instead of the 3, traffic jams, single carriageways etc. Prepared for it fortunately, experienced it last year on the way to Cornwall. The view of the sea rising up in front of your eyes as you go down a slope approaching Hoburne, in fact a few places in South Devon is something else. 
First of all, from the price we paid, expected a dump, the park looked nice and well maintained when we entered. Checkin staff lovely and gave us our keys along with a map and showed us where to look for the entertainment schedule Went to the caravan a bit worried but it turned out to be spotless. Seriously very very clean. It wasn't an apartment/cottage/hotel room/B&B so the tiny spaces were expected. Kids overjoyed at a mini house.
Got to continue this later.....the joys of having 3 tired children on a Sat evening when I'm meant to be going out :)

Roses

Saddled with a large neglected garden........Since we moved, I've focused on the house and sorting it out. Put the garden out of my mind for a while. With the advent of my mum along with the gardener's absence along with buying hedge trimmers, have been forced to sort the neglected overgrown bushes out. The few flowers that have survived are these stunning huge roses that keep popping up at various parts. The largest is the size of my splayed hand....cut one of these as seen below.

These tiny beauties are not from the garden but from Morrisons - the second flowering. They were just a pound and some and very pretty to look at. There's another similar plant upstairs on the landing with lots more roses. I'm now discovering the thing of cutting roses back after they are dead and have new growth leading to flowers happen again.

Edited to add, this is the rose plant on the landing:

This is the cyclamen, again flowering the second time round, from Cofton Nursery (the City Council) where I've found lovely much cheaper plants. This was bought 4-5 months ago, flowered, died, was left in the garage, resurrected, watered and voila!

Seems to be good luck with the flowers and roses in this house which I have always been careful to stay away from. Hopefully it will continue. Happy to receive any tips for rose growing!

Back from Devon

Seems like a long time since I last posted. Have come back refreshed from a week in Devon. Lots of beautiful pictures to post, yet to be uploaded.
Lots to post, will do it bit by bit. Separate review of Hoburne Torbay though - merits one.
Last Aug, we went to Cornwall and stayed at the lovely Esplanade Hotel, Ive written about it on here.
Great time, fantastic hotel and most of all, stunning Cornwall - Fistral Beach and St Ives.
This year, decided on South Devon as a last minute break. Very very expensive, as was obvious for August. After much looking, I found a slightly less expensive priced caravan at Hoburne - will go into details separately :)
Lots to hear from friends about why stay in a caravan, go to a cottage, its nicer, Salcombe is much nicer than Torbay etc etc. Never mind, we'd already booked so went ahead.
First thing, Torbay, which includes Torquay, Paignton and Brixham was not as run down as reviews and friends suggested. Apart from the lovely sea views, each was different. Paignton is probably my best from the three, with a sandy beach (smallish), then a fantastic very big Geopark (?) play area for the children and then the main road leading to the high street with the usual arcades/amusements. If there is a next time, we are going to book one of the seafront hotels with a 1 min walk to the beach and the play area.
Next is Brixham, lovely little town - called a fishing village. No beach - we drove there once and then went by ferry from Torquay.

The ferry Torquay-Brixham is a must do, for £2 return for around a half hour trip each way. Fantastic views.
Torquay itself is better than I expected, not rundown, cheapest place to park is the Fleet Walk Shopping Centre, walking from most things. Bit strange to find a TK Maxx and Debenhams a few minutes from the seaside!

Berry Head off Brixham is stunning, with a clifftop view of Torbay, the Jurassic Coast and the sea on three sides. Its in the middle of nowhere, yet costs a pound and some to park, like all places in the area. There's a small visitor centre with a lovely volunteer who gave the children cannon balls to hold etc (remains of the Napoleonic Fort).

Last of all and the best bit of our week away was the crabbing at Stoke Gabriel - fantastic! H said it reminded him of crabbing at the river in Bardez in his childhood. The difference being in Goa you get to eat the crabs and here they need to be put back in. Its is a must must must do for anyone with children, or without. Much easier than fishing and there's the instant gratification of pulling up one or two little crabs up in the net in a couple of minutes. The equipment - wire, bait, net and bucket costs a few pounds. In my book its one of the best things to do with children ever.

My final observations -
The beaches in South Devon (and we went to a few) arent a patch on those in Cornwall, and do not compare to the long coastlines in Goa.
There is much less sand on the beaches ie they are littler.
More pebbled beaches than sandy ones.
Horrible traffic jams all along after the M5 (thought Cornwall was bad, this is the same)
Still had a good time and South Devon is lovely!

Uncle S's coconut curry

Uncle S and Aunty H came and went a couple of months ago and a lovely time was had by all, they are H's relatives who live in another country and were on a whirlwind trip in Europe. Endeared themselves to our children in 3 days and left behind lots of memories, one of which is Uncle S's coconut curry  - its similar to kaldin, similar to a mild Thai curry, but its very very easy to do and liked by all who I've made it for.

Fry onions, add ginger garlic, turmeric, and coconut milk, sugar and tamarind to taste. Thats it! This picture is with mussels from Costco. I haven't added the mandatory red Kashmiri chillies because of the children but its even better with them. Also missed out the veg (potatoes/broccoli etc)
Must try :)