Dan's Company Christmas Lunch

Dan was supposed to have his company lunch on Thursday 22nd December but due to work it was moved to 23rd which meant I could make it, hurrah!  I finished on 22nd for Christmas and partners were invited along (it's a tiny family company). 

We went to The Swan in Kettleshulme (near Whaley Bridge).  The food is the best food I've ever eaten in a pub.  It's not cheap for the seafood dishes but the quality is fantastic (the seafood risotto is £20 but it comes with all kinds of fresh shellfish and a tool kit to tackle it all - not for me!).  The pub is charming, cosy and welcoming and I was very much looking forward to it even though I was driving and therefore not drinking. 

It was a miserable old day on Thursday - windy and wet.  I did consider the monkfish and tiger prawn Thai curry (which Dan had) but decided I needed proper comfort food and went for the Desperate Dan Pie with mushy peas and chips. 

Wow, check out the size of this pie!!  It was huge, the chips were really not needed with that much potato but the extra gravy was most welcome and the mushy peas were divine.

I ate most of it anyway, it was delicious if a little heavy on the old potatoes.

Dan's food was amazing, I kind of wished I'd gone for the Thai fish curry when it arrived but he shared.  Love Thai curry and this one did not disappoint.  In fact last time we ate here I had a Thai chicken curry with lychees and it was better than most good Thai restaurants that I've been to.  Give this pub a try if you can.

We drove back late afternoon and I decided that I was going to such a lot of trouble for Christmas Day cooking that I required new crockery (like you do) so took myself off to Tesco.  Spent a fortune on not very much - my fault for leaving it so late. 

Anyway, back to food...  We weren't hungry until quite late so I made my quick spaghetti recipe with onions, garlic, chilli, smoked bacon and mushrooms.

Fry the bacon in olive oil (don't be mean, plenty of it), add the onions, chillies, and garlic (cut all very finely) and then a healthy chunk of butter and the mushrooms.  It takes about five minutes to cook, so cook the spaghetti in the meantime then drain and add to the other ingredients and mix well.  Sprinkle with fresh parmesan and chopped parsley, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.  It's a good, fool-proof quick and satisfying meal :)