Two Birthdays, One Dinner| The Highwayman Restaurant Review

Having just returned from the Lake District after a very busy but lovely birthday week visiting my family, I thought it was about time I got back to regular blogging, so will be writing three posts this evening as well as taking part in #bbloggers chat at 8, two to be published today, and one tomorrow.

The first, this one, is about my second birthday meal that I had in a Restaurant outside of Kendal in the Lake District. As the pictures show, I went with my boyfriend, Mum  and her partner. The photos also show my two dogs, who didn’t go, but looked cute so thought I would involve them in this post. The meal was for my mums partner’s, Steve, Birthday as well; a double celebration.

We went the the HighwayMan Inn, owned by Nigel Haworth and located in the small village of Burrow, near to Kirby Lonsdale, I have never been before but was thoroughly impressed, not only with the quality of the food and service, but more so of the concept of the restaurant. What I love is that the restaurants uses exclusively local producers for their menu. As it is close to the borders of Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire they are in a prime location to use many different local and regional flavours. The restaurant was decorated with pictures of the producers with their produce, giving it a real feel of community. The first picture shown in this post was the placemat, which again was decorated with the friendly faces of the farmers and producers.

We had a selection of starters to share, sort of like an English tapas, which included deep fried cauliflower with curried mayonnaise, cheese soufflé, deep fried fish cheeks with an apple and garlic mayonnaise, and bread with olive oil and treacle balsamic vinegar. For my main I had a cheese and onion pie, and desert a lemon meringue pie (pictured). Overall it was beautiful, I admit not the healthiest…diet starts tomorrow, but definitely worth it!

As I mentioned the diet starts tomorrow, which it definitely must! I’m off on holiday in 4 weeks, and the past week of birthday celebrations has not be favourable to my figure, I’m looking and feeling a little more rounded… oh dear! To encourage my health kick, I will be posting a few healthy recipes that I am going to give a go… I’m an awful cook, so it could be quite entertaining!

A Week in pictures

*Champagne cocktails*

*Healthy dinner*

*Mother Bear and her giant salad*

*View from my bedroom at home*

*Zumba Time*

I've had a lovely week, I've gotten over my illness, and had some quality time spent with friends and family.

• Champagne Cocktails- To celebrate finishing our assignments and exams for the past semester me and my best friend went out for a dinner date to celebrate. It was Restaurant Week in Newcastle, where many normally high priced restaurants have special offers on. So we went to Babucio's on Quayside and it was beautiful. We finished off dinner with some gorgeous champagne cocktails.... yum!
• Healthy Dinner- this week I have been healthier, and my lovely boyfriend has been cooking some yummy healthy dinners. This was chicken and noodles with chilli, ginger and garlic, with some sweet potato mash... again Yum!
• Mother Bear and her giant salad- My mum came to visit me in Newcastle for the day and treated me to lunch at Olive and Bean, a great deli that has a wide range of salads, sandwiches and cakes, all homemade... beautiful. We had a lovely shop in Fenwicks as well and she treated herself to a few bits and bobs... a great girly day.
• View from my bedroom window at home- I spontaneously went home with my mother, and spent a couple of nights back home in the country. I love getting away from the city. My bedroom at my mums backs onto the allotments and fells (She lives in the Lake District) so its amazingly quiet!
• Zumba time- My mum also had me exercising with her. I tried the Zumba DVD which is loads of fun. I have the video game for the Wii, so already knew some of the dances, we had lots of laughs!

I hope you all had a great week also.