Where are we?

Where are we? That's a good question. At the moment I'm quite sure that some of us don't have a clue where we are. 2012 hasn't been our best year yet, for some of us it's been going pretty well but a few of us are finding it a struggle and that's why you haven't seen us for a while. I'm not going to go into detail, some of it is extremely personal but The Intellectual Dinner Club has had to be temporarily suspended. I know, I can't believe it either for years we kept it going even when we were scrounging for pennies, it's like we are Girls Aloud...we haven't actually split up but we don't know when we'll be back either; I wouldn't mind but we're not even working on solo projects...although Caroline is doing really well with Caddy Slims...I guess she's Cheryl Cole then! The Intellectual Dinner Club's purpose was to get us through the difficult times and inspire us but to be honest times have got a little too difficult and even The Intellectual Dinner Club isn't strong enough to pull us out of this grump. Still, we have set ourselves a goal...we are booked in to the 3 Acres at Christmas to treat ourselves after a tumultuous year. There will be no theme but we certainly will be mulling over the year, having a bitch and trying to take something positive from 2012 in to (what I pray will be a better year) 2013.

For me, I think those of you following the blog will know about my year and it doesn't seem to be getting much better. Right now I'm back in my childhood home following the death of my Father caring for my Mum who has just been diagnosed with Cancer. I can't quite believe it...it's our unluckiest year yet! My husband and I have moved in to my old bedroom, surrounded by my old things...a ratty Bagpuss, a bag full of old Boyzone, Roxette and Take That programs...which my husband has decided to pretend doesn't exist. Yesterday I stumbled upon my old memory box which is crammed full of silly things I hung on to as a child; my old Brownie uniform; notes that my friends and I passed to each other in class; finger puppets; old cinema and concert tickets; a letter from my Grandma; a shot glass I ended up walking home with after a night out at University and a rude birthday card that my friend sent me when I was sixteen. It's amazing how many things I have hung on to, and as silly as they may seem I can't seem to part with them, each item triggered a different memory...a happy memory. When I started to clear my Dad's things I discovered that we were more alike than I thought. He'd kept the bill from his honeymoon, which cost just £4.50 and the paperwork from the purchase of our family home, which cost less than a 4x4 car; school reports; his first job contract...I was surprised because I didn't know that my Dad was so sentimental.

Living at home hasn't been so bad but I miss my own home. I miss walking to our local farm shop on a lazy Sunday afternoon; the beautiful countryside and even the smell of cow poo from the nearby farm. But most of all I miss my friends, I miss meeting up with my fellow witches and having a gossip, I miss the challenge of the themes we used to set ourselves, the excitement of getting ready, picking out an outfit and sitting in the warmth of a cosy restaurant whilst we relax and have a little bitch. Each of my friends have such amazing qualities that just seem to bring out the best in me, when I see them I can forget my problems and return home with a smile on my face. I miss them so much and not knowing when the next time I'll see them will be always makes me sad. I may not feel like the most sociable person at the moment but if I could have one thing next year just for me then it would be to have The Intellectual Dinner Club back...new and improved! It kept me going, it inspired me and I miss it.

This Month's Meal!

It had been 2 whole months since the last Intellectual Diner Club Meeting and I was looking forward to seeing my friends, but just as I was starting to get ready, I received a call from 2 friends, who had been in a car accident. They were thankfully Ok, but their car sadly wasn’t and I needed to collect them from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I called Amanda, who with the other witches, arranged for the meal to be put back for an hour. Having picked up Kate and Andy, I got ready in world record time, knocked round for Amanda and set off for Balooshai in Honley.

It was lovely to see my fellow witches; Dani couldn’t make the meal as she was enjoying a spa weekend. We have all been thinking of Cathy and it was good to see her out. She had just returned from a holiday in Llandudno with her mum and sister and had enjoyed it. Catherine and her mum were the youngest people on the coach trip and due to all the walking had decided to purchase some comfy shoes, (nothing wrong with that I say!). She had also become a female Dr Doolittle befriending a seagull!

I was ravenous and nearly kissed the waiter when he offered us poppadoms. I love a good poppadom and these came with the pickle tray, which had some lovely sauces and pickled vegetables, including some pickled apple which was yummy. Our drinks had arrived. Amanda and I had gone for a G&T which unfortunately was diluted with flat tonic. We asked for them to be refreshed and the waiter was very apologetic and brought us fresh G&T’s with fizzy tonic. 

The previous night had seen the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games. I had stayed up to watch the whole ceremony and was buzzing with the spectacle of it all and so were my fellow witches! The ceremony was very quirky, (Hello – the Queen skydiving with James Bond), at times moving and very, very British! Catherine had invented a fantastic drinking game, involving taking a swig of drink for every country as they came into the stadium. (Needless to say she doesn’t remember too much of the end of the ceremony!).

I didn’t think I would be watching the Olympics, but I am writing this a week in to the Games and have watched more sport than I ever have watched in my life. I am feeling inspired by Team GB, it’s many accomplishments and all the many little stories of the Games such as the rower, Issaka the Otter from Niger a landlocked arid nation, who took up rowing 3 months ago and finished 2 minutes behind the winners, but who just wanted to represent his country. 

2 Members of Team IDC

The Intellectual Dinner Club ladies, were inspired that we decided to represent the ‘Republic of IDC’. Our opening ceremony outfits, would of course be designed by Queen of Chic, Amanda and our flag in order to represent the IDC would consist of a knife and fork and er.. a brain. We chatted about what our sports would be, cake-eating for me obviously, speed cake-making for Phoebe, cake icing for Phoebe and Amanda?  – a mix of lip-pursing and drinking liqueur coffees out of the ‘proper receptacles’.

The restaurant was heaving. Every now and then the waiters would produce a sizzling dish, that when it came past us would cause everyone to start coughing, due to the amount of chilli in it! Our lovely waiter informed us it was the ‘Balooshai special’.

The food was lovely, I had the cheese and onion fritters which were spicy to say the least! (I am a total wuss when it comes to spicy food) and I really enjoyed the Chicken Korma with pistachio nuts. I had been recommended this by a friend and it did not disappoint. I shared rice and a Naan with Phoebe. Because the restaurant was so busy, there was at times a small wait for the food. We could see the waiters running around like anything. Our waiter was lovely and friendly and at the end apologised for any wait we had. I could also see the staff ringing for taxis for other customers, so there were a lot of lovely personal touches. We are very lucky in the area we live, in that we have Balooshai in Honley and the Laxmi in Berry Brow. I think both restaurants are lovely and would happily take my other half to both, so it is a big thumbs up from me to the Balooshai.

We decided to go back to my house and do our themes. We sat on my bed and went through them. I kicked off with my weight loss program. I had then become a megalomanic and decided to go into business with Arnold Scwarzenegger, setting up a spa outside of Paris, complete with courses run by my fellow witches. Catherine did an amazing business plan, with the Kiss me Cake bakery. Phoebe, her business partner had also done her theme on the Kiss Me Cake Bakery. Having sampled cakes from this bakery, it is a winner to me! And Amanda had decided to develop last month’s previous idea by dong her business plan about the ‘Boothroyd’ gallery. 

 

And so it was time to go. My lovely other witches will be posting about their themes in more detail.

Where did June go?

I know...where have we been? Where was June's dinner? Basically it didn't happen. I never thought that I would miss one of our Intellectual Dinners but last month it became impossible when my Dad passed away. He had been ill for a few months but it was still a bit of a shock when in the middle of the night we received a phone call to tell us that it was time. We sat with him for an hour and a half and at 5:30am he decided he'd had enough, he smiled and then took his final breath. Why am I telling you this? Because I want people to know who my Dad was, he was a kind, caring man who liked everything to be right. He valued his friends greatly and he worked hard his entire life to take care of his family. Dad was a strong man who showed very little emotion, he rarely hugged me but that was just who he was. Except earlier this year when I became ill, he was the person I wanted the most and when he came to get me, for the first time I can remember he hugged me and told me everything was going to be alright. I felt safe when Dad was around and now he's gone I feel quite lost without him.

But it's not doom and gloom. We celebrated Dad's life on Tuesday with a dinner dedicated to him. My Dad was a Yorkshire man and so we feasted on bread and dripping, Yorkshire pudding with onion gravy and HP sauce, pork pie, chicken drumsticks and egg custard and trifle. All of his favourite foods. We listened to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and The Shadows, it was an event that I am sure he would have loved. People laughed and swapped funny stories about my Dad and my two and half year old nephew laddered my tights, booed and told the golfers putting outside the venue that they were rubbish and then managed to rake in ten pounds by being cute around the other guests. Dad would have been proud of his Grandson! That night we ate fish and chips and felt content that my Dad had had the best send off that he could possibly have.

Now it's time to get back to normal so last night I met up with the girls for the first time in a while and it was so good to be back with the Intellectual Dinner Club. Last night we sat and discussed what we are going to do next whilst we feasted on cheese, crackers, cake and Cava. This may explain why I am feeling slightly ill this morning. I'm so excited to be back and to get the club going again, our next dinner will be in two weeks so watch this space! I hope that you will continue to follow us for the second part of the year...let's hope it's so much better than the first part!

Catherine x

June's Theme - Business Plans

Alan Sugar’s search for an Apprentice finally came to an end, when he crowned Ricky Martin the outright winner. The prize is a £250,000 investment into a business venture conceived by him. Ricky’s idea was a recruitment business in a niche sector.

This month, the challenge for the Intellectual Dinner Club is to create a business plan for your dream business.

Some ideas of what to put in your business plan include:

·         What you want to do

·         What you would need to do it e.g. shop, premises, training etc

·         A 3-5 year plan

·         How much money would it make?

·         How would it be marketed?

Please note, you don’t have to include all of the above, these are just suggested guidelines. But don’t be afraid to dream as big or as small as you would like!

Mays Dinner - The Caribbean

We were already just over a week into June as we set off for May’s meal, but holidays and other commitments had forced us to push our meal ever so slightly into the next month. And the month was June so hopefully we’d be in for a nice balmy summers evening…the country had in fact seen rain of almost biblical proportions and my toes were feeling the chill as I set off, rather optimistically, in my lovely new sandals.

This evening we were headed for the Caribbean courtesy of ‘Discovery Bay’ restaurant which is situated on a quiet little back street in Huddersfield town centre. It may have felt like autumn on the outside but once the five of us had settled into our seats and Danielle and I had spotted the sunny looking cocktails on the next table, we knew that for the next couple of hours we’d have our own little taste of summer.

Once we’d had a very quaffable jug of Rum Punch installed on the table we were free to cast our eyes over the very tempting menu. Starters of ‘Mango Mushrooms’ and ‘Caribbean Crab Cakes’ were ordered both of which went down very well, the flavours certainly matching up to the delicious aromas that filled the air.



Caribbean Crab Cakes



There was a lot of catching up to do because the five of us hadn’t all been together since the last meal. I’d just come back from a very enjoyable few days in Paris with my sister where I’d dined on escargots, had lots of cocktails and tried steak tartare for the first time and really enjoyed it. Danielle was very excited about the prospect of going back to college as she’s just been accepted on a beauty course – she’s now threatening to wax us all to within an inch of our lives and tan us all in shades of mahogany.

Finger Licking Rum Chicken with Chunky Breadfruit Chips

Pretty soon our main courses arrived at the table. Phoebe and I had both opted for one of the days specials ‘Caramelised Jerk Pork’, Caroline had ‘Rum Pork’, Danielle had ‘Finger Licking Rum Chicken with Chunky Breadfruit Chips, and Catherine, who is approaching the end of her experimental vegetarian month, had ‘Vegetable Curry’. The food was absolutely spot on, the only criticism coming from Danielle who bemoaned the lack of tomato ketchup for her breadfruit chips, peasant that she is. The pork I had was deliciously tender with a rich, creamy, spicy rum sauce and the slices of sweet potato added another layer of taste. Suffice to say we cleared our plates.

Caramelised Jerk Pork

We were offered the dessert menu but were far too full to eat more and decided that coffees were the best option. We needed to vacate the table by 9pm as the restaurant is so popular it runs three sittings an evening. We still had themes to do so we thought it would be a good idea to head on over to the all-night coffee bar next door. After settling up the bill we happily headed along the road only to be stopped in our tracks by a very obviously closed coffee shop. There then ensued the fastest pub crawl I’ve ever done as we hopped from bar to bar, full of Saturday night revellers, in the hope of finding a coffee and a quiet ambient corner. Poor Danielle even had to suffer the humiliation of getting i-d checked. We finally came to the conclusion that drive-thru Costa might be the wisest option and headed out of town only to find that they were closing up. The family friendly pub next door proved to be our salvation where we finally settled into a quiet window seat with a selection of coffees and soft drinks and prepared to present our themes.

 
 

Mays Theme - Cultural Highlights

Amanda's Theme

I chose to visit The Hepworth in Wakefield, a brand new, stunning gallery dedicated to the work of Barbara Hepworth. The gallery is truly inspirational and so for my theme I chose to claim the gallery as my own and re-name it The Boothroyd.

The first room in the gallery would be Early and Formative years containing items such as my Tiny Tears doll and Secret Agent Handbook. On the walls are images of my childhood heroines - Wonder Woman, the Bionic Woman and Charlie's Angels.

Room 3 would be named The Mother and contain every pair of my sons shoes from his very first baby ones right up to his last pair from junior school.

Caroline's Theme

Phoebe's Theme

Phoebe visited Manchester Art Gallery and was impressed with the variety of exhibits on show there.

After wandering round for a while and looking at the various displays she found herself drawn to a photography exhibition, a form of media that doesn't usually excite her that much. This one was different as the photographs all contained a human element which she found much easier to relate to than photographs of static objects. Most intriguing was the man who had created a tiny model house from pieces of skin removed from his own body.

Catherine's Theme

Catherine grew up in Sheffield and witnessed the city, almost consumed with depression and grime, pulling itself out of a huge recession to become the thriving paradise of shopping, galleries and restaurants that you see today. So this month she chose to visit the city's Millennium Gallery.

Dannielle hadn't managed to do the theme but she's intending to take her Dad to Tate Modern next month to see the Damian Hirst exhibition. It'll be worth it just to see the diamond skull.

And so another evening drew to a close. We'd been very impressed with the Caribbean and can't wait to see where in the world we'll be dining next month.

May's Theme - Cultural Highlights

At one time museums and galleries were only accessible to the wealthy and privileged. Now they are available to all, with the majority offering free entrance.

This month I would like The Intellectual Dinner Club to take advantage of the wide variety of culture on offer and visit a museum/gallery/exhibition. You don’t have to go far; we have some fantastic places right on our doorstep.

Whatever you gain from your visit, bring it with you to the next meeting in whatever from you choose e.g.:-

• Write a review of an exhibition
• Give a critique on a particular artefact or work of art
• Give a historical presentation about the building you visited
• Take photos of something that really stands out for you
• Feel inspired to create something yourself

I really don’t mind what you do. Our cultural heritage is out there – enjoy it.

April's Dinner - Italy

We're taking the slow train to Leeds today...it's Sunday lunchtime and the four of us are trying hard not to stare at George Michael who has just boarded the train. It's scary...with blonde highlights, aviator sunglasses and a suntan the resemblance is uncanny and suddenly prompts Phoebe to break out into a rendition of 'Faith.'  Then sadly George disappears from view, shrouded by a sea of bald, beer bellied men in tight T-shirts who have just joined our train at Dewsbury. Our destination today is Italy (if only) as we continue our culinary world tour of West Yorkshire.

We decided that we'd go a little further afield and travel over to Leeds to visit Jamie Oliver's Italian. Danielle meets us there and we excitedly settle into our table and order our drinks: Prosecco's, Bellini's, Caprinha's and delicious Ginger Mojito's. We're experiencing it all lately...work stresses, breakdown, Cancer and divorce are all unfortunately on our agendas but at this moment in time, as we settle into our table, all of that disappears. We're in Italy now and perusing a very sumptuous sounding menu...nothing else matters.

Jamie's Italian is converted from an old bank...the building still retains some original features and combines these with modern fittings and fixtures. The kitchen is visible and forms the central feature of the restaurant, sending the heavenly smell of authentic Italian cooking into the air and giving a friendly feel to the establishment...this place has nothing to hide! 

Jamie's presence is very much everywhere from his personal recommendations on the menus to the rows of his cookbooks across the walls. Everyone who knows me will know how much I love this man...mainly because he taught my husband to cook, meaning that I've never really had to cook again. I was very excited to be sat here, sipping on my mojito and trying to decide what I wanted to eat. Obviously I took Jamie's word for it and ordered what the menu said was his favourite 'Turkey Milanese', stuffed with prosciutto and fontina and served with a fried free range egg and truffles.'Posh' chips on the side drizzled with truffle oil and parmesan were the perfect accompaniment. Dani and Caroline ordered Jamie's Italian burger with funky chips, Phoebe opted for the special of Lamb Ravioli and funky chips and Amanda ordered the Wild Rabbit Tagliolini with Posh chips...which looked and smelled amazing! As our food arrived and we tucked in our table descended into a hushed silence...Danielle with a mouthful of burger was the quietest I have ever known her. Caroline very stylishly managed to pour nearly the entire contents of the ketchup bottle over her food. It was delicious. Every dish was lovingly prepared, combining fantastic ingredients in generous portion sizes. I think I've fallen in love with Jamie just a little bit more.

Delicious Lamb Ravioli

Last month I was surviving on a diet of cup-a-soup and crackers. My appetite had disappeared but staring at the dessert menu I found it had very much returned...there was no doubt in my mind: I needed to have the chocolate brownie with amaretto, raspberries and vanilla ice-cream. Phoebe ordered the same , whilst Caroline had the Tiramisu. Danielle was tempted by the Almond tart but sadly Jamie let her down with the lack of custard (she's a Yorkshire lass after all). Amanda opted for a Latte, of course. As we cleared the last of the food and I tried my hardest to maintain some form of elegance and not lick the plate clean we sat in a hazy glow of satisfaction...the food had been fantastic. I could have gone for another round. It was time to bin the cup-a-soup because my appetite was definitely well and truly cured.

Wooops!

After the generously portioned meal, we were ready for a nap by the time we moved onto our themes. I had chosen the theme 'Travel back in time', which was more like a school project than a theme but I had really enjoyed it and felt like I had truly learnt something. I left it to the last minute as usual but I still managed to get a lot out of it and I hoped that the girls had too...keep reading below for our themes.