Now that the Murder, She Cooked book is out in the world I have a bit of breathing space and I’m rummaging around in the blog drafts archive for things I hadn’t quite finished. Here’s a LONG one about our Covid postponed honeymoon for those who would like a sneaky peek at some photos.  I realise that if you don’t know us, this will be a bit like having to sit through a holiday slide show like folks gave in the 1970s in a darkened room with one of these.

So if you are just here for the recipe here it is!

I vowed to only cook one thing on my honeymoon and of course, it had to be this.

I’ve loved Angie since I was a kid. When I fantasised about being Police Woman.

This was a sandwich Angie enjoyed when she was honeymooning with Burt Bacharach (I think). Or at least, it was something they both enjoyed at the Tennis Club in Palm Springs.  I like to think of them having it in bed on their honeymoon though…

Unfortunately for Burt, I cannot now think about him without a short video by Madge and Bisket popping into my head.

Bisket is yelling, “ALEXA, PLAY BURT FLAPPERCRACK.”  Brilliant.  If I’m ever at a low point, I just search for them or Pee-wee Herman on Instagram and have a good guffaw at whatever they have posted.

Naturally, I followed Angie’s serving suggestion of accompanying her dish with some champers. Yum yum.

Here’s what you’ll need for this super delicious open sandwich.  Initially, I thought I would have to use the piccalilli I bought at the Eden Project instead of mustard, but it turned out that the little sachet of French’s that Mr R had purloined from a local hostelry was enough for both our sandwiches.

This was a dish composed entirely of Penzance’s local produce.  Bread from Baker Tom’s, ham from Ian Lentern Butchers two types of Cornish cheese from the Cornish Hen Deli, gherkin from The Pirate’s Rest fish and chips shop (I had to hold some back from my fish supper the night before)

and tomato from Thornes Fruit & Veg.  It was 100% delicious.

Here we go with a whistle-stop tour of our honeymoon.  Postponed for over 2 years because of the pandemic, I think you will see that we made the most of it…

We travelled down on the Overnight Riviera Sleeper, it was soooooo much fun.

We stayed in a beautiful place, if you are heading to Penzance and looking for the perfect place to stay, this is it!

The house is in a gorgeous square, with friendly neighbours, dogs, and cats…

I was talking to one of the neighbours about how everyone has such beautiful front gardens.  She confided in me that they all only made a fuss of the front ones, that the back ones were a “dog’s dinner” – haha!  There was a fab room at the top of the house with a glorious sea view.  I got up early most mornings and tiptoed up there to check if the baby gulls we had spotted on the roof opposite had started flying yet…

We visited 13 taverns in total (some more than once)

but hands down our favourite was The Admiral Benbow (please note the man on the roof – a smuggler we presumed…)

We loved one of the local Penzance gins, it contains squid ink, no kidding…

Check out the “bottle”

Our first pasty of the trip, but not the last…

My favourite afternoon was the one we spent at a drypoint etching workshop with inspirational artist Oliver West.  Neither of us has had any experience in this art form, but we had loads of fun and we were both well-chuffed with our prints.

Whether you are an accomplished artist (Mr R) or draw like a seven-year-old (me) I soooooo recommend spending some time with Oliver,  He was so encouraging, and the time the two of us sat quietly and concentrated on something for a few hours in a beautiful calm place was a blissful golden time.  Here’s a link to Oliver’s website – it’s easy to get to his place on the bus if, like us, you don’t have a car.  Do it!

We took a super fun boat trip around the coast with Mermaid Pleasure Trips.

Had a fab day at The Eden Project

and I snuck off one afternoon for a calligraphy session with Emma of Cornish Geek Letters at the glorious Morrab Library.  This is my kind of place!  Loads of index cards…

and rooms jam-packed full of books

with lots of quiet places to sit and write and lovely friendly librarians with tales to tell of lost books and crazy, antiquated indexing systems.  If I lived near here I’d be INSTALLED.  An hour spent with Emma learning creative lettering techniques just flew by.  Bliss.

Finally, I was in my element at The Jubilee Pool and this was the main reason I wanted to go to Penzance.  A beautiful lido built in 1935, it’s an absolute beauty and juts right out into the sea.

It was 18 degrees C in the seawater unheated pool (64 degrees F) and 34 degrees C in the geothermal pool (93 degrees F).  Both were utterly gorgeous. I was insanely happy, can you tell?

So many lovely memories.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to our Honeymoon Fund, it was absolutely perfect. When can we go again?!

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