WHAT is THAT SMELL???

We woke one morning this week to a VERY BAD smell. A truly foul, toe-curling, put-you-off-your-food, stomach turning odour! With our hounds-tooth hats and magnifying glasses we set off in search. Something had to be done, and quickly. Heading along the hallway, it became apparent the aroma was oozing from the spare bedroom where Harry and Till sleep most of the time (their own bedrooms reserved purely for ornamental purposes!). On investigation of the room, and relieved it wasn't our children rotting overnight, our noses led us to the en-suite bathroom...where the smell was unbearable!!!!! After sniffing profusely over every inch of this tiny room, we couldn't pin the smell down. We wondered if it was in the wall cavity....or perhaps it was floating up through the drain? I wondered if the toilet was leaking? Frustrated and appalled we shut the door tight and went off to work,  praying the smell wouldn't permeate the entire house.

A day later with the smell growing stronger we tried every trick in the book to deal with it; bleach down the drain, candles burning, vinegar and bi-carb splashed liberally. Even with two doors closed between us and the smell, it still drifted down the hallway torturing us. At what point was this going to end???? Were we going to have to move out?

Finally today, with time on our side, Ben decided to explore under the house. His theory being that Mr Rat (or Mr DEAD Rat should I say) was wholly responsible for stinking out our normally fresh smelling abode. Ben suited up in old clothes, including "hair protection" and a "breathing apparatus" and courageously headed for the door/gate that leads to the foundations of our house; a filthy spider infested place where you'd never find me in a million years.  Thank goodness for brave husbands I say! After crawling under the house armed with torch and plastic bag, he bravely shuffled into the tiny space between the ground below and the floor above. With groans of disgust and grunts of contortion, Ben did come upon that feral rotting smell as expected, half decaying and maggot infested of course. All the while I stood in the safe distance of the door throwing words of encouragement and asking for updates on the situation! That was helpful of me don't you think?

Armed and ready....Ben goes under the house!

Ha - FOUND YOU, Mr Rat!

Can you guess what's in the bag?

So now the smell has been "dealt with" and the aroma restored to rights. And just in the nick of time as we have some friends from Oz arriving on Monday to stay with us a week. We were starting to despair as to where we were going to sleep them!!!!!!

Iron Chef :: Red Lentils

Well Ben and I just participated in yet another fabulous Iron Chef cook-off! Though this time around our regular chef-going group was a little altered. The Mayo family left Norfolk back in January (after 5 fabulous years on The Rock). At their finale Iron Chef competition, which was held just weeks before they moved to Oz, Tam and Dave were deservedly presented with the winners trophy, one last time.

With the Mayo's now off island, and our group of four couples shrunk to three, a new couple had to be chosen and inducted. And so we welcomed Gill and Dave (yes, out with the old Dave, and in with the new) as part of this highly creative, culinary club. It was a very democratic process with nominations put forward, votes cast and carefully counted. It was all done so securely and privately you'd have thought we were electing a new government! We do take our Iron Chefing reasonably serious you know! Initially Gill and Dave did wonder at what crazy caper they'd got themselves into. For some strange reason they'd got the impression we are all trained master chefs. Let me assure you that some of our dishes turn out...um....ghastly! Master Chefs we most certainly are not.  But how we try....and what a LOT of laughs we have along the way.

Now as I've explained before, the winning couple not only hosts the next round, but also chooses and reveals the secret ingredient one day prior to the actual cook-off. Tam and Dave are now over 1600 km's away, but that didn't get them off the hook (what a disappointment we couldn't all fly to Bellingen so they could have been our gracious hosts once again). Thanks to the wonders of modern technology however (ie email), the reigning champions were able to send through the details of their chosen ingredient: LENTILS! Wonderful, wonderful gas fueling economical lentils! Actually, we all sighed a HUGE sigh of relief, having convinced ourselves that Tam would most certainly have chosen Pepsi Max (Tam's Norfolk addiction) as the secret ingredient!

Adding up the numbers at the end of the night, it looked as though our fabulous new couple Gill and Dave were on the home stretch to scoring the trophy first go with their three tasty dishes; lentil soup, vegetable and lentil lasagne and a Scottish inspired oats and lentil dessert, which Gill affectionately calls Flapjacks! But after a controversial recount of the scores (the trophy having already been awarded), it was Ben and myself declared the winners for the night. Our winning combination included a spicy Indian lentil soup, Hungarian lentil stew with jasmine rice and a rich chocolatey lentil infused brownie served with chocolate sauce and fresh cream. All throughout the evening, we were treated to dishes inspired from a variety of countries, with Italian and Morrocan just some of the flavours enhancing the taste and texture of otherwise ordinary dull red lentils! One participant on the night stood out as being particularly creative, presenting three original dishes that portrayed "The story of Norfolk" (in a most imaginative way*). Included in "the story" was a dessert, quite unusual in all forms. Think lolly dinosaurs submersed in jelly. Think floating lentils. Think whipped cream from a can. Hmmm...you probably can't conjure up an image at all. Let's just say this dessert was definitely unforgettable!

Stay tuned for the next Iron Chef!

* Involving (amongst other things) prawns! Ah....a tribute to the Mayo's?