Oh the glorious Shire!

I seem to have got myself somewhat of a backlog of things to write about. The day job having taken over my life I haven't had much of a chance to remember what I've been doing outside the office - such is life I guess. However on a rare day that I was allowed away from my computer I managed to escape home to my parents house in Yorkshire for the weekend and it was glorious.

I know, being British, that all I should care about is chasing summer and then moaning about the lack of it for the rest of the year. However, I defy anyone who has lived in Yorkshire, or in fact anyone who has been there in autumn when it isn't raining constantly (which is rare, I give you that) not to be in love with autumn. The garden is overflowing with delicious veg and fruit, my god, the fruit.

I am a bit of a geek and love nothing more than taking a stroll through Mum's immaculate vegetable garden and the orchard. It does look fantastic, not just because I want to eat everything in it but also because there is something very comforting and quite beautiful about it. Maybe it reminds me of reading Beatrix Potter.

This is not the only thing I am jealous of my mother for though. She actually gets to eat these delicacies, every day, it doesn't seem fair. The kitchen is brimming with delicious things I want to cook with or eat. Also, just to rub salt in the wound, she seems to display all these things in a way that makes them look like something out of Country Life's lifestyle section. It would be vomit-inducing if it were not for the fact that I genuinely would rather like my kitchen to look like that. Don't get me wrong ours is lovely, for London, but I don't go around with pears displayed in quaint pots.

So, my jealously put aside I decided to actually enjoy the weekend. And what says countryside like an enforced walk up a ridiculously steep hill? So off I dragged (or by the end, off they dragged me) up the old drovers road that starts near Olstead to John Bunting's chapel. If you've ever done this walk you will know that it is not for the faint hearted. As I lied steadily to Bianca that each steep bit was the last and she screamed at me that I had lost all credibility and that she "didn't even believe that it was downhill on the way back" anymore, I questioned whether this was a wise call, but we made it in the end.

However, the real reason for this gruelling stomp up the hill was to justify a trip to the North's latest Michelin Star pub - The Black Swan, at Oldstead. I cannot recommend anywhere more. It may have been the extreme hunger after the trek but I think it genuinely was as good as I remember. I should have more pictures but the food was so tasty that I forgot. I had the most delicious game terrine to start, with some very fancy raisins (at least they must be, they were named after something other then Sun Maid), the chutney to accompany it was also perfectly both sweet and tangy. The next course was a knockout, shin of beef with creamed potatoes, spinach and mushroom puree. I'm sure it was much more complicated than that but it was truly delicious. We had a long discussion about the value of cuts of beef that need to be slow cooked. Everyone was a fan of a still mooing steak but this shin was just so rich in taste and so succulent in texture that all of us were convinced of its superiority. The pudding really knocked us back and sent us into a food induced stupor. I had a special gluten free Chocolate Delice with peanut crisp - WOW. So rich but so amazing.

Yep, it was that good.

But the really amazing thing was the price, £25 a head for the 3 course lunch menu. How crazy is that?! I could not recommend this place (maybe not the walk) more.

Oh I do love yorkshire.