"If you can't get to The Shed..........

..........then we'll bring The Shed to you Nan." (The Company Shed, West Mersea in Essex) That was after i'd teased her saying we only needed 10 minutes to do that actual cooking, when it was asked how long before it was ready "After all microwave meals only take 5 minutes each" I think after an hour of preparing the majority of lunch which was cold she might have sussed that it was going to be something slightly more elaborate than a microwave meal!

A seafood platter is my idea of heaven and once we'd finished there wasn't all that much left. Mum wanted to work out the cost of the meal, with the thought in mind that at the Shed you pay £8 for a platter for one, about £3 for a bowl of salad, £3.50 for a plate of 6 New zealand Mussels grilled with parmesan and herbs, about £4 for a razor clam (or 2) on salad etc etc. and thats not including bread and drink as you have to take your own.



So by our calculations all the shellfish, seafood, bread and salad AND a bottle of bubbly came to £50, which works out £10 a head. So over all if we'd have order the same amount from the shed - which we probably wouldn't because at the shed we would have got a lot more little prawns etc rather that things like New Zealand Mussels and Razor Clams - it would probably have cost more.


In this next photo you can see close up what was on the 2 cold platters: Crab (we bought a whole one and a smaller dressed one too), smoked salmon, smoked mackeral, fantail prawns, new zealand mussels, a whole lobster (frozen from a supermarket helped the budget there!). We also had 2 ramekins of pickled cockles, a small bowl with a couple of roll mops, and 1/2 a dozen whelks for grandpa.

Then on the hot platter which is in the middle of the table in this next photo we had a razor clam each, langoustine and new zealand mussels grilled with a topping mix of bread crumbs, parmesan and mixed herbs.

With a bowl of salad and the bread which you can see in the very first photo (we had a basket of white bloomer and also a granary rustic loaf too) our main course was complete.

A meal thoroughly enjoyed by all. After a break and a clear up, we served the tiramisu which i had made the night before to save time and for ease of transport, the flavour matures nicely too according to mum! Grandpa had one mouthful before we told him he didn't really have to eat it if he didn't want to. so he happily tucked into the Dolcelatte, celery and crackers which we had brought with us for him. but the others enjoyed their tiramisu.

Grandpa claims puddings should carry government health warnings - and the amount of blue cheese he eats shouldn't??!! Nan said he had swapped from 2 thin slices of wholemeal bread to 3 ryvita for lunch and was wondering why he wasn't losing weight or the beer belly - perhaps the name "beer belly" should give him a a clue as to what he needs to really cut down on, or rather simply alcohol in general.