Week 43 – amazing roast beef and Laguiole carving set

img_3129Many years ago, Andrew went out shopping to buy me a birthday present in his lunch break, and when he returned to the office his colleagues were eager to know what he had bought me. It was a frying pan. They were horrified, but Andrew explained I would be delighted with it, as it would fit in the oven and I would therefore be able to make apple tart tatin. They didn’t believe him, but he was correct, and it’s still a frying pan I regularly use.

Birthday and Christmas presents from him are usually kitchen-related, and I do also get the occasional surprise gift. Last week, he surprised me with a John Lewis bag to open, and inside were two Laguiole boxes. The first contained a pair of salad servers, the second a carving knife and fork.

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Others may prefer chocolates or flowers, or if you are Andrew a Metallica t-shirt or Playstation game, but for me this is an ideal gift (although don’t get me wrong, chocolates would go down a treat too). We already own Laguiole knives, forks and spoons, teaspoons and cheese knives, but I had been hankering after the carving set for some time.

For those of you not familiar with Laguiole, the cutlery is famed for its distinctive bee symbol, and is named for the region from which it originated. The cutlery is beautiful and puts our daily-use Ikea stuff to shame.

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But of course I now needed the opportunity to use my Laguiole beauties, so had to pop to the wonderful Morley Butchers in Crouch End to buy a lovely joint of beef to cook.

As you can see, we had a delicious roast beef dinner on Sunday.

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And the meat was carved beautifully.

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Look at that lovely knife.

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For the rest of the week, I was most definitely a ‘lady what lunches’, and had the following delicious dishes. Pizza from Bar Remo in Oxford Circus:

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Gammon and eggs at home:

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Bubble benedict from Monkey Nuts in Crouch End (WTF with the maple syrup on this dish though – that was  a bit yucky):

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This cookie skillet with salted caramel ice cream made up for it:

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Oh wow – some of the best steak and chips I have had in a while from The Queens in Crouch End:

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A fry up at home:

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A cheeky lemon cake at Baskervilles tea shop in Palmers Green:

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And another look at that yummy roast dinner:

No menu plan for this week! No wonder I am not losing the baby weight …

One Reply to “Week 43 – amazing roast beef and Laguiole carving set”

  1. Jane Billing says: Reply

    Wow, that beef looks wonderful, bet you needed a second mortgage…but worth it!!.
    I love kitchen things for presents but the last time my Partner (Paul) bought me a new set of saucepans they were all wrong. Very expensive but the wrong shape…..so secretly I still use my old ones. I also don’t like maple syrup on bacon and eggs, what is that all about?

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