Week 3 2021 meal plan – read the recipe properly

Whole lamb shoulder, not diced lamb shoulder My grand plans for a lovely lamb hotpot on a cold wintry day (a Cookbook Challenge from The Pie Room by Calum Franklin) were foiled by the fact I didn’t read the recipe properly, and didn’t buy the correct ingredients. I read 2kg lamb shoulder, immediately decided to […]

Week 2 2021 meal plan – and home school horrors

Working from home with a four year old Well it was never going to be easy, was it? But I won’t complain (too much) as the companies we work for are being very understanding, allowing us the flexibility to work and look after Ioan, and that’s not the case for everyone. Ioan is thoroughly enjoying […]

Getting back into the swing of things – first week of the year meal ideas

I won’t even pretend that I buy into all that ‘new year, new you’ nonsense. January is a notoriously tough month, following on from the excesses of Christmas and New Year, where all your friends are sworn off the booze or tasty food, and it would set me up for disaster to try and strip […]

Week 51 – Christmas menu

Next Sunday, I am hoping that little Ioan will be fast asleep after celebrating his first Christmas, and I will be nursing a Baileys and eating Ferrero Rochers whilst watching some nonsense on the telly. The turkey and Ocado shop has been ordered, the presents are wrapped, the tree is looking beautiful and the cake […]

Week 49 – Christmas is coming

Yes, it’s December, so I am officially allowed to say that Christmas is coming. What with being on maternity leave, I am quite prepared for the silly season: at least I have bought most of my presents (being in to receive Amazon Prime deliveries has its benefits!) and my Ocado and butcher’s order are in […]

Week 38 – a new normal

Since the birth of our son, life has changed dramatically. Of course that won’t surprise you – whether you have kids or not, you know that a baby in the house means that your life is dictated to by a tiny human who can only communicate through crying (and the odd scream), who you simply […]

Week 37 – saying goodbye to Henry

Being one of life’s worriers, as soon as I got my cat Henry fifteen years ago, I started worrying about the inevitable day when we’d have to say goodbye to him. Henry seemed quite keen to start using up his nine lives almost straight away by developing a chronic illness which included crystals in his […]

Weeks 28 & 29 – birthday in Rome, with Anthony Bourdain’s favourite restaurant

My meal planning hasn’t really been particularly noteworthy over the last two weeks as we have been away for a birthday trip to Rome, and Andrew has also been away for a few days in Wales to continue his birthday celebrations (will they ever end?!). I am just about to leave the house to meet […]

Week 17 – piling on the pounds in Poland, yum yum

We were on holiday in Krakow in Poland last week, arriving back in the early hours of this morning, so I spent the week eating Polish goodies and drinking Polish beer and dangerously alcoholic spirits. Although I was keen to try Polish food, I admit I wasn’t expecting anything special: stodge, lots of meat, rustic […]