Attending my first cricket match since September 2019 - ready for England v Sri Lanka T20 at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff 🏏

Check in 🗺 — Sophia Gardens, England v Sri Lanka T20 🏏

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Afternoon Sherry and truffles.

Tapas at Bar 44, Cardiff.

Check in 🗺 — Tapas lunch at Bar 44 🫒

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Watched: Beat, 2000 - ★★★½ 🎥

🎵 My Top weekly artists: Field Music (28), The Beatles (13), Alfred Brendel (6), Furtwängler (4) & Donovan (1) via tweekly.fm

Watched: Meet Joe Black, 1998 - ★★½ 🎥

Euro 2020: England v Scotland stays at 0-0. Disappointing and pedestrian by England, Scotland deserved the point. Enjoyed the Turkey v Wales game a lot more. ⚽️

Euro 2020: England 0-0 Scotland. Half-time. England a bit tame, Scotland playing well. ⚽️

Watched: Pull My Daisy, 1959 - ★★★★ 🎥

In the last few weeks we’ve been having a Great Spotted Woodpecker visiting our bird feeders. Not a brilliant photo because it was taken from a distance through a window but it did also capture the squirrels and a robin 🪶 🐿 😀

A Brazilian stew 🍲

I don’t usually make a record of improvised recipes I cook but this turned out particularly well and I’d like to be able to repeat it. If I’d planned this properly I’d also have taken a photo of the finished dish 🙁.

I was attempting a vegan version of a Brazilian feijoada, loosely inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Smoky veggie feijoada.

Ingredients

500g dried Brazilian carioca beans (or pinto)

1 kg (~12) medium/large carrots
12 vegan sausages

2 red onions 4 cloves garlic 5 sticks celery
1 or 2 red/yellow peppers
1 large courgette
700g passata
1/4 bottle red wine

8-10 fresh bay leaves
cinnamon stick
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp smoked paprika (plus extra for roasting the carrots)
fresh and/or dried thyme
fresh coriander

Method

Soak the beans overnight then rinse and put in a large pan with plenty of water, 4 or 5 bay leaves and a cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil, boil vigorously for 10 minutes then simmer for about 50 minutes until beans are tender but slightly firm. Do not overcook. Drain and set aside, reserving some of the stock. Discard the bay and cinnamon.

Wash the carrots and trim the tops off - do not peel. Place on a flat roasting tray (or 2 if necessary!). Sprinkle with smoked paprika and season generously with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil then rub in the oil/paprika mix to coat the carrots completely.

Roast the carrots for about an hour in a 180°C oven. They should be slightly browned and, again, tender but still firm. For the last 20-25 minutes of the cooking add the sausages to the tray, also making sure they get coated with the seasoned oil.

Allow to cool then cut the each sausage into 3 equal sized pieces. Cut the carrots into equivalent lengths.

In a large lidded casserole dish heat some olive oil, add 4 or 5 bay leaves then gently fry the onion, garlic, celery and peppers (all chopped fairly coarsely) until tender. Add the ground coriander and smoked paprika, fry for a couple of minutes more then add the passata, red wine and thyme. Bring to a simmer for about …

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Euro 2020: Turkey 0-2 Wales. Relax now! Great game, tense finish, outstanding performance by Wales (as long as you forget the Gareth Bale penalty attempt!). ⚽️

Euro 2020: Turkey 0-1 Wales. Half-time. Exciting 45 minutes! ⚽️