Krimo's DIY repairs

There was a time back in the early days, when money was tight, I repaired everything that broke down. Mixers, tills, fridges, cookers, etc...

The resulting electric shocks, burns, cuts and bruises never deterred me. I've drilled through water pipes, sliced across electric wires, caused total blackouts in entire neighbourhoods...

But the exhilaration when a defunct mixer whirred to life made all these minor disasters fade into insignificance.

Nowadays, three restaurants later, I am quite happy-ish at the inflated repair bills when the staff call out a qualified repairman. This leaves me free to get on with the real business of running restaurants and posting the occasional blog.

There is only one thing that I am always happy to waste time on these days.

The Stick Blender.
This is an indispensable piece of kitchen kit. Without it, soups and sauces would be sadly lumpy. Each restaurant has its own. A hefty £400 essential investment.

Every now and then, one of them grinds to a halt. Fortunately, Stuart, our helpful greengrocing delivery guy, does not mind shuttling blenders between restaurants as he goes delivering vegetables from one to the next.

And all the while I sit at our kitchen table dissecting the fatigued blender trying to bring it back to life.

Last week, Kevin, Casa del Mar's head chef said his had stopped blending.

I took it home and tonight, in between sips of wine, I dismantled it, poked, pulled, cursed and finally repaired it.

I celebrated with a long sip of wine and decided to blog this technological victory.

Krimo's Next Generation...

Our son, Adam has been in the restaurant business with us for as long as he can remember. Once at the tender age of four, back in 1985, he entertained the diners with "When Santa got stuck up the chimney..." on his plastic guitar, on the first and only time we opened the restaurant on Christmas Day.

He has managed first Krimo's and then Casa del Mar for the last nine years and now he has sprouted wings and feels he needs to do something on his own with his parents' blessing and a bit of pocket money.

He is opening...wait for it... A Movie Café...

A What??

A Movie Café. After much research, he came up with the name of Flix Movie Café. A place where one can watch DVDs, dine and drink with family and friends in relaxed surroundings, right here in the heart of Hartlepool.

As with many projects of this kind, the completion date has been a moving target but he now feels confident enough to plan on opening the doors to the public by the end of next week.

For the last two months, I have forced myself to take a backseat and watch him manage the project, helping out only when asked.
I couldn't resist for long so I donned my thinking and graduation cap to come up with the logo and website.

Karen also helped out, picking many of the colours as, unlike me, she can tell the difference between violet and lilac.

So, this is the start of the next generation! Good luck, son!

Krimo's Red Skies...

Red sky at night... A chef's delight.
Hartlepool Marina is my place of work. A wonderful place of work. Not a day looks like the next.
I took this photo on the way back from Krimo's to Portofino. I nearly cause a pile-up trying to park and get out of the car in time to catch this beautiful red sky.
Give me an evening like this and I begin dreaming of the Med, a glass of Rosé and a few sardines.
Just a simple Pavlovian reaction.
Tonight, the Marina was busy and warm. Not a breath of air.
I met and spoke to many people at our restaurants this evening.
A Galician woman and her husband from Middlesbrough celebrating their 30th anniversary.
A woman from Mauritius celebrating her birthday with her Hartlepool husband.
A family from Ayr visiting relatives in town.
Hartlepool, the Centre of the Universe!
Not a day looks like the next.

A lot of allotted vegetables...

Our green-fingered son Les and his wife Jen are living the Good Life.
You'll remember they brought me a basket of vegetables for Father's Day.
Over the last few weeks they have bombarded us with courgettes, onions, cabbages and many other vegetables from their allotment near Blackhall.
Today I decided to go and pay them a visit. It was more like farming than gardening.
So many varieties of potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, peppers...
I once mentioned that one of my favourite vegetables was fennel. They decided to give them a try. They are some of the tastiest I have ever tasted. Check out the leaves on them.

Aubergines and gherkins are next.
Their noisy hens have also rewarded us with many delicious eggs.