Picnics and Music

Saturday late afternoon we went to Audley End House to set down our picnic rug and enjoy a lovely evening of music in the park.

The stage was set with the beautiful house as a back drop and we joined the crowds in finding our spot, our little tartan rug and picnic basket (we did take a couple of chairs as well) were rather inadequate compared to some who seem to have moved the dinning table, chairs and candelabra from their homes!

I filled my basket with various salad combinations including a pasta and broad bean salad .

Until fairly recently I didn't think much of broad beans, now I seem to be using them in my food preparation a lot! I picked up a cooking tip for 'twice podded broad beans' and they are so delicious and bright green when you pod them twice.

(I am probably the only person who didn't know this but... take the beans from the pod, blanche them for a couple of minutes in boiling water then drain and put them straight away into cold water. The pale outer skin on the beans then loosen and you can pop out a bright green yummy bean)

Don't be fooled, although this was the lovely healthy picnic food I took with us the smell of fresh cooked doughnuts came wafting by and all good intentions went waltzing away with them. Yummmmm.....

The absolutely fantastic Mr Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra provided the music and we danced the night away. (Jools is seated at his piano)

The night ended with Fireworks and we are booking our tickets for next year.