Who's at the door?

As reported the other day, there's been lots of comings and goings in the Emporium lately and none more exciting than the appearance of this ...

NO! It isn't really a doorstop shaped like a cute red and white polkadot caravan with a flowerbox on the window ... no no no ..

It IS a caravan alright, and one which has sent Mr Doodle into conniptions ... Because this caravan is the home of Mr Doo, and he's a travelling chef chicken! (no, not a chicken chef, because that would be wrong. A chef chicken).

Look! He's already started supervising in the cafe, inspecting the cake rations!

Mr Doo is very impressed with the terracotta range in store. He said that the round shallow dishes in particular make the most ridiculously crispy roast potatoes. Roast potatoes are very nice with salad you know (certainly not with roast cough cough chicken, cough). What you do, is peel and par boil your potatoes as normal - you could even do a "Delia" and shake them around in the saucepan after draining the water out, to make them "fluffy". Then you toss them in oil put them in your terracotta dish, season, then put it all in a hot or cold oven for 30 or so minutes et Voila! as they say in France. Perfectly crispy roast potatoes.

What's in that box?

Hello all! Us Chickens have been very busy this week, observing all the goings on in the shop and have some very exciting things to report ...

Last week there were lots and lots of big burly men trundling through the shop pushing trolleys laden with huge cardboard boxes. But one delivery man had a box SO BIG that he couldn't bring it into the shop and instead took it off his lorry with a machine, and then left it outside! It came all the way from Germany and was met with many squeals of delight. We thought it might be more chickens, or worse, small furry "cute" things, but after the initial excitement, we could hear mutterings of "at last!" .. "took it's time" ... and then, returning to more enthusiastic tones "let's put them with the teracotta" ... "they'll look better in the window" ... and then the "oooh'ing" and "ahhhh'ing" began .."oooh, I like that" ... "ooh that's nice" ... "oooh look at this one.."

What could "they" be? we asked ourselves. Surely not more wildlife?

After a while, lots of small cardboard boxes were carried into the shop little by little. You can see them in the picture with Helen who makes sure all the lovely things which arrive (including chickens) are put on the shelves "just so". We like Helen because she is very clever indeed and she loves chickens. Look, you can tell she loves chickens, because as you can see below, Helen is pretending to be one of us! She's testing seating arrangements for us in order to make sure we get the best veiw. I hope she moves those ducks out of the way first though!



After Helen had unpacked the big box, and then all the little boxes, we discovered just what had been causing all the delight and happiness in the shop. Here are some clues. No more chickens, but can you guess what they are?

Sweet Treats

It was a very very quiet day in the shop today, thanks to all this rain! But here are two lovely ladies who braved the deluge in order to brighten eachothers day over coffee.

Miss T on the right is particularly happy because she is just about to tuck into one of the new Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies on offer in the Cafe.

It just so happens, that in her last job, Chief Treat Orderer, Julia, organised weddings (amongst other things) and was once asked by a Texan hieress' mother to provide for her vegetarian guests "cayrots" (put on best southern accent in manner of Scarlett O'hara) while everyone else tucked into Roast Lamb with all the trimmings. This didn't seem to be much in the spirit of sharing or celebration and ever since then (well, before then actually but lets not go into that), Julia has asserted at every opportunity that just because certain people don't eat certain things, it doesn't mean to say that they wouldn't like to eat nice things the same as everyone else. And that's why she always makes sure there's something lovely for everyone.

Hello World!

We are the Chatty Chickens, and this is the shiny new blog of Eynsham Emporium as told from a Chicken's eye view ... you'll see a few of us here if you look carefully.

From our lofty vantage points all around the shop, we'll tell you what's been going on around here, along with information and tips about the snazzy gadgets, delicious new product lines and fun kids stuff that you can find on the shelves. We might even tell you a few stories too .... if we feel like it of course..

We'd absolutely love to hear from you if you have a story about a particular piece of favourite kitchen equipment old or modern, or if you have a favourite recipe to share, and also if you have any suggestions which would make your shopping experience more enjoyable.

In the meantime, by way of a proper introduction, here's a bit more about us chickens - we live here you know, and very interesting it is too:

Here is Mr Doodle. He thinks he's in charge. (ha ha)


Ma Hen - looks like she's hanging out her washing!


Little Red - as in Rooster


and us, Nosh and Pecks - we love cake, especially those big round ones with all the cream .. yum yum!


So go on, get yourself a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake, and we'll tell you a few things ...