My birthday weekend

I am now, officially, in my mid-twenties.  I've been spoiled over the weekend to celebrate and loved every minute of it.  

On Thursday, I went to my favorite restaurant in Royston, The Old Bull, with Sam and his family and had the most wonderful meal: roast duck with a potato concoction I'd like to marry.  I don't have a picture of this so I'll have to go back and order it again I guess.
On Friday, my life-long dream of going to Hogwarts came true: I went to the Warner Brothers Studios in Watford where the Harry Potter movies were filmed.  It was the best three hours of my life.

Premature photo of the studio- too excited to wait

Chess pieces used in The Sorcerer's Stone 

 I won't go in too much detail now about how much I adore the Harry Potter books and movies (I'm watching The Prisoner of Azkaban now).  When the books were being published, I would re-read the series up until the latest book.  Every summer.  I have reread the series several times since then.  I have all the books, including my worn and fraying paperback of the Sorcerer's Stone, in print and on my Kindle.  The movies are amazing, even if they leave bits out, and, after learning more about how they were made, they are truly magical.
Also, I love that the over-arching message of such an emotional roller coaster is so simple: love is the most powerful magic.

The Great Hall

Gryffindor common room

Entrance to Dumbledore's office

The ministry of magic's monument in the later movies

Butter Beer on Privet Drive

The most amazing building ever created

Eventually I'll outline in further detail the amazingness that is Harry Potter.

After Harry Potter, we went to the Cotswolds for the rest of the weekend and stayed at an adorable hotel.

Wroxton House Hotel

The building is lovely and old (built in 1649) and we spent our evenings playing Scrabble in front of the fires- true story.  The restaurant was supposed to be incredible and award-winning but I wasn't particularly impressed. 

Coming home today we wanted to stop at Blenheim Palace but it was shut- which we only found out when we arrived.  Although it was a bummer, it meant we were able to get back to this idiot a bit sooner.

Fenway is his cousin's bed. His cousin is a bichon.

Tonight I decided I wanted to cook a roast.  I saw Jamie Oliver on TV cooking his beer-butt chicken and figured I should try it.  It's awesome, pretty easy, and you should try it.  What makes this chicken so good is that it doesn't dry out- at all.  The beer in it provides moisture and so does the olive oil, especially when you rub it under the skin.  The most challenging parts were figuring out to get the chicken to fit in my fun-sized oven, adding the vegetables without knocking over the chicken, and removing the beer can from the final product.  As usual, this recipe lends itself to creativity- whatever rub you like can be used with any vegetables.

Whole chicken, coated in olive oil, chili flakes, salt and pepper.

Olive oil, chili flake, salt and pepper rub

Half-full tall boy, waiting to enter the bird.

Sprouts, carrots, onion, and leek

1/3 of the way through, adding the potatoes to roast

2/3 of the way through- adding the vegetables

Final product

The end!

Recipes

Beer-Butt Chicken with Chili Flake Rub

• Whole, uncooked chicken
• Chili flakes- about 1-2 tbs
• Olive oil- about 1/2 cup
• Salt and pepper

1. Preheat over to 200c/400f
2. Mix olive oil, chili flakes, salt and pepper together in a bowl
3. Coat the chicken with 1/2-2/3 of the mixture being sure to cover it completely, inside and out
4. Place the 1/2 full can of beer on the baking tray/tin and lower the chicken onto it
5. Place the baking tray/tin on the lowest rack of the oven and leave to cook for 25 minutes
6. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the potatoes and vegetables

Roast potatoes, cooked with duck fat

My oven isn't big enough for roasting the chicken and veg separately so I altered my direction a bit.

• 2-4 potatoes 
• 1/4 cup duck fat
• Salt and pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons flour (optional)

1. Cut potato into similar sized chunks- about a cubic inch
2. Boil potatoes for about 5 minutes or until they're just soft
3. Heat a frying pan on the stove and cover with duck fat, leave until hot- about 2-3 minutes
4. Drain potatoes and rough up slightly in colander - if you want them extra crispy, add the flour 
5. Put potato onto the pan and coat fat, sprinkle lightly with salt, making sure all surfaces have sufficient fat
6. Remove chicken from the oven and place the potatoes around it
7. Cook for another 30 minutes

Sprouts, onion, carrots, and leek

• 1/4lb sprouts, 1 onion, and 2 carrots, 1/2 a leek

1. Sprouts- trim and half
2. Cut carrots, leek and onion into small chunks
3. Remove chicken and potatoes from oven, push potatoes to one side of the tray and place the veg on the other side
4. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, until the chicken is done

I'm in the process of making chicken stock/soup with the leftovers and will post about how it turned out in the next few days!