United Kingdom

After yesterday's searching on the westernmost points, we settled on the UK today; largely as a point of practicality - we've been busy all day, and making British food was less fuss than Spanish, given UK is one of the 3 nationalities of this household.

So Spain will have to wait until tomorrow. Insert your own obvious football joke here

For the UK, we explored bangers and mash (sausages and potatoes), it's actually something of a family favourite, so this one didn't feel particularly adventurous. And in fact, as we only just had colcannon for Ireland, I actually made baked potatoes in the oven, rubbing in a little oil and salt and then cooking on 160C for an hour. This variant is mostly labour free, giving me time for a quick but delightful evening bike ride while they cooked, and also delicious. Then it was time to put the sausages in to the oven (vegetarian. I usually like the Linda McCartney ones, but this time had to make do with Naturli vegan sausages, which were actually better than I remembered).

I also made some mushroom and onion gravy, My recipe, which has evolved over the years, is something like this one, but I use shiitake mushrooms and miso instead of soy sauce or tamari. I also add a splash of red wine just before serving. Together with some fresh peas and green beans it is a great simpe dinner, which everyone likes a lot. ESpecially delicious served with redcurrant jelly and coarse dijon mustard! We had rhubarb crumble (with the last harvest of the year's homegrown rhubarb) and whipped cream for dessert.

No pictures today, because it turns out traditional British food just isn't that appetising to look at, but a lovely warm evening and a good bike ride. This staycation is working out pretty well all in all. On to the slightly more exotic Spain tomorrow.