Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

This Sunday Lunch was a record for us. 68 covers, crazy!
Sadly, one customer was not happy. She had been served a treacle rolly polly that was not quite up to par. It was one of the last pieces on the roll and was a little dry and hard.

I’m not shifting the blame here, even though I do ask the waiting staff to prepare the sweets when I’m busy, I should over see everything that goes out of my kitchen so I take full responsibility.

As you can imagine, after so many covers, my chef’s whites were a little less than white and with no clean whites available in the kitchen I had to choose between, asking John, (very capable front of house), to apologize to the un-happy customer on my behalf or to talk to her myself.

I chose to talk to her myself, dirty whites and all.
I wonder what would you have done? I’d love your comments.

Incidentally, we didn’t charge her for her meal so she went home happy in the end.

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

My friend sent this to me, just had to share it with you!
Pat

If you want someone who will eat whatever you put in front of him and never say it’s not quite as good as his mother’s

then adopt a dog.

If you want someone always willing to go out, at any hour,
for as long and wherever you want  …

then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who will never touch the remote, doesn’t care
about football, and can sit next to you as you watch romantic movies

..then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who is content to get on your bed just to
warm your feet and whom you can push off if he snores

..then adopt a dog !

If you want someone who never criticizes what you do, doesn’t care if you are pretty or ugly, fat or thin, young or old, who acts as if every word you say is especially worthy of listening to, and loves
you unconditionally, perpetually ….

..then adopt a dog.

BUT, on the other hand, if you want someone who will never come when you call, ignores you totally when you come home, leaves hair
all over the place, walks all over you, runs around all night and only comes home to eat and sleep, and acts as if your entire existence is solely to ensure his happiness …..

..then adopt a cat!

You thought I was gonna say… marry a man, didn’t you?

Send this to all  the women you know to brighten their day.
Send this to all the men just to annoy them!

….have  a GREAT  Day!!!
Always be yourself because the people that matter don’t mind, and the ones who mind, don’t matter.

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

You will need:

4 Duck Breasts.

A little oil for frying the duck breasts.

4 Large Juicy Oranges, you will need the peel and the juice.

2 ozs of butter.

4 level tablespoons of sugar (about 4 ozs).

1 level tablespoon of flour (about 1 oz).

1 cup of Martini Bianco.

A further 1/2 cup of fresh orange juice.

1 teaspoon of chopped fresh or dried basil or another herb if you prefer.( tarragon is nice).

You first need to cook the orange peel in the sugar.

Using a peeler slice off just the orange part of the skin. Then cut the skin pieces into little strips, (julienne).

Put the skin and the sugar and 1/4 cup of water into a pan and cook boiling all the time until it has gone syrupy but not brown.

Melt the butter in another saucepan and add the flour. Make sure the butter has absorbed all the flour and cook gently until it is free of lumps.

Add the Martini, orange juice and the herbs to the pan and stir until the sauce becomes thick. If it’s not thick enough, then add a tiny bit of cornflour mixed with a little more orange juice, if it’s too thick you can thin it down with either more orange juice or more Martini.
Add the syrupy orange peel and you have your sauce.

To cook the duck breasts you simply pan fry them, skin side first, in a little oil for a couple of minutes then ladle a little sauce over the breasts and pop them in the oven they will take about another 7 minutes in the oven, (note they should be served slightly rare).

Once ready, slice the duck a few times on a slant and arrange and serve with more of the sauce.

Simples!

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

We also had the full £500 to share out between the first three winners.

But, surprisingly, one of the money prizes has still not been claimed.

If you are holding ticket number 402 please contact us as soon as possible.

It’s your lucky day!

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

Buy your belly in one large uncut piece.
Score the skin diagonally so that you have diamond shapes all over, cut deep down to the meat but not through the meat, only the fat.
This is the clever bit…pour boiling water all over the skin. This will separate the diamonds.
Rub the whole skin with salt and if possible, leave the belly in the fridge, un-covered, over night, you’ll find that it separates even more by the morning.

Put the belly, skin side up in a hot oven, about 250 or more. Keep an eye on it and when the skin has puffed up, (should take about 20 minutes, turn the oven down to about 180 and cook for about 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours or until the meat is really tender. It is important not to cover the joint as this will create steam and may soften the crackling.

Happy Crackling!

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

The Cheese and Chip Basket.

I fill the basket with our home cooked chips as usual then I sprinkle shavings of Mature Cheddar Cheese over, then the whole lot is topped with a pile of our home cooked Beer Battered Onions….mmmm

Try dipping the chips into our own, wickedly sweet but ferociously fiery, Chilli Jam.

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’

‘That doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he replied.

Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.

Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged … it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. ‘It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away.. Just for this time in my life.
Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing.

‘Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

The first week we took over The Fox and Duck in Therfield, Hertfordshire, I remember saying to myself, “Get me out of here….fast!”. I had forgotten how hard the pub business was.
We needed to make some quick decisions. Would we open for Christmas lunch? Should we accept a booking for a birthday party on the same day as the massive “New Year’s Walk”, (the pub is a popular starting point for many walking groups). What time would we open and what time should we close?
I would say that, basically, we said yes to everything. The problem was that we needed to turn the business around after the previous owners had lost interest.
When we took over, the pub had been closed on Sunday afternoon and evening, also Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings. Then every day after 2.30 pm the doors were locked and not opened again until 5 pm. There was no food offering except a few sandwiches in the bar.

We have been told of some unbelievable horror stories. Like the time a customer was sitting in the garden with their lunch and a beer, next to others also eating their lunch, only to find that the pub’s shutters had been pulled down and the doors locked! No chance of a sweet then?
We knew we had a difficult hill to climb but we were determined to do it.

This was our plan of action:
Of-course, the first thing we did was to re-open the kitchen.
To start with, our menu was small and full of old favorites like Chilli, Beer Battered Haddock and Lasagna. We provided soup and sandwiches in the daytime for the walkers.

We made the decision to open the doors at 12 pm everyday and to stay open all day. We wanted people to have confidence that if they chose to make the detour to visit us in our little village that they would find us open.

But would they visit us? Would they make a detour to Therfield just for pub grub?

Our changes improved things a little but it didn’t take long for us to realize that the walkers and the locals were not going to bring in enough to turn this business around. We needed a “niche”. We needed something that would make us different…something that would bring people in from afar.

That’s when we thought of, “STEAK at The Fox”.
After extensive research it occurred to us that many of the top chefs were championing English Beef, some of them were even in the process of opening STEAK restaurants. This had to be a sign. We would provide the best steak menu in the area. Not just one steak on a menu, a complete menu of steaks…T-bone, fillet, rump, sirloin, rib-eye even tuna, lamb and pork.
Of-course, it’s not just the steak, it’s what is served with the steak. This is where, I, as the chef could really allow my creative juices to flow. I developed a selection of delicious sauces, old faves like peppercorn sauce and new ones like Bois Boudran. But what really makes our steaks different is the way we serve the steaks on sizzling platters with home made chips all topped with garlic mushrooms and a massive pile of home made, beer battered, onion rings.

So now, when you say, “I fancy a nice steak…where do you think you’d head for? Would you choose to go to the restaurant that has just one steak on the menu or somewhere that has a fantastic selection with all the trimmings?

So what could you do with your business that would make you different? You need to find your niche, your unique selling point that will stand you out from the crowd.

If you don’t know how to cook a good steak then…take lessons!

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.