Meal planning Monday – 28 April 2014

Hooray, I have actually got a plan for food this week! My kitchen is still a state of disaster, but as the builders took a break from their kitchen destruction on Sunday I took the opportunity to clear a space around the oven and make a few bits and pieces for dinners this week. I […]

The easiest dinner – traybake

My kitchen is still a dusty disaster zone, so I don’t have any new recipes to share with you. However, one of my favourite dishes, which happens to be one of the simplest, is a traybake. It scarcely counts as a recipe as you just have to chop up a few things, dump them in a […]

A last meal of lamb pilaf before – doom – no kitchen

I knew that the last few days would be difficult. After a leak from the bathroom in February, we finally got our builder to replace our kitchen ceiling … and whilst he was at it, we decided to get him to take down the naff wallpaper, build some shelves and do a few other cosmetic […]

Happy Thai New Year – green curry, pork patties and coconut ice cream

I do like a culinary theme. It gives me the chance to get my thinking cap on and dream up new recipes (not that I need much of an excuse to think about food), and if I start to feel guilty about eating too much I can blame this blog … it’s all in the […]

Potato gnocchi with wild garlic and baked stuffed chicken

As Andrew very kindly bought me various bits and bobs so I could make Italian dishes, I have been a lot more adventurous in making homemade pasta recently. However, it is a bit of a faff to make, and probably too much effort for an after-work dinner. So I decided to give gnocchi a go, […]

Beautiful Brugge: Flemish beef stew and speculoos biscuits

This latest blog post has been a long time coming. It is almost one year ago since I went to Brugge (more commonly known as Bruges, but the locals prefer Brugge as it is in the Flemish part of Belgium) on a long weekend break. Andrew and I had actually been there before and had […]

Chips

My Grandad would have been 100 yesterday. He made it into his 80s, which was pretty decent considering he was an 80 a day smoker who according to him began puffing before he reached his teenage years, while working the markets in South East London. He was diabetic in his senior years, but didn’t let something […]

Meal planning Monday – 24 March 2014

I am out for dinner twice this week, which I am really looking forward to. Firstly tonight I am meeting up with some old friends. We all used to work together at least two jobs ago, and thanks to Facebook we’re all still in touch regularly, despite Charles now living in Sweden and Dan in […]

Cured salmon fillets, potato bread, poached egg and green butter sauce

If you haven’t ever tried them before, then I recommend that you give cured salmon fillets a try. Cured salmon, when I have bought it at least, comes in fillets which have been lightly smoked, so that they have some of the flavour of smoked salmon but still need to be cooked. It’s rather like […]

St Patrick’s Day Irish stew, chocolate Guinness cake and Baileys ice cream

It’s St Patrick’s day, and even though I only have the most tenuous link to Ireland (I sit opposite an Irish girl at work), I am happy to take any opportunity to join in with the craic. Plus, it’s not every day you have the perfect excuse to make Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Guinness cake, which […]