SUNDAY ROAST......

Roast chicken - again - after complaints last week for the different stuffing had to promise to do our 'usual', sausagemeat and sage stuffing for the chicken. Did the usual veg with it. Had one complaint that we are having this too often and one very happy customer. Recipes to follow once I figure out how to do them when they are not links or picutres!

MORE LAMB!
We had a couple of friends coming over for dinner on Saturday night. My fabulous husband had started some lamb shanks a couple of days before so who was I to argue? Did mashed potatoes and green beens with almonds to go with. Julia provided gruyere and scallion mini muffins for the appetiser, that left me with time for the dessert. I had spotted a recipe that cought my fancy in the Times last week, Blood Orange and Olive Oil Cake, there were no blood oranges to be had locally so I used navels. Didn't look as good but tasted great - Graham had seconds and Julia continued to nibble! Had to have a little Epoisse to round off the evening of course.....

SATURDAY NIGHT WITH FRIENDS

MORE LAMB!
We had a couple of freinds coming over for dinner on Saturday night. My fabulous husband had started some lamb shanks a couple of days before so who was I to argue? Did mashed potatoes and green beens with almonds to go with. Julia provided gruyere and scallion mini muffins for the appetiser, that left me with time for the dessert. I had spotted a recipe that cought my fancy in the Times last week, Blood Orange and Olive Oil Cake .

FRIDAY NIGHT SUPPER

Rack of Lamb & Caesar salad, a stable for us and almost a store cupboard meal! We had a rack of lamb from Costco, which is vacuum packed and had been in the fridge for a couple of weeks. We usually have romaine, and always have anchovies and parmesan cheese.
Covered the rack with fresh crumbs (from a wholewheat english muffin) to which I added some fresh rosemary and garlic, basically threw the ingredients into my mini Cuisinart. Cooked for about 25mins in a 500 degree F oven. I have made Caesar so often I don't use a recipe, but the one I started with was from the Delia Summer book. Throwing the dressing ingredients over the lettuce and tossing has never worked for me, I do the dressing separately in the same mini Cuisinart. Forgot to photograph the salad but will next time!

22 March continued - Dinner

Alan bought the chicken on Friday, he does love roast chicken on Sunday! I do too, but we have had the same old with sage & onion stuffing so often lately I decided to do something different.
My sister Dixie ( she calls herself Dee these days but she will always be Dixie to me) had given me a cookbook about 4 years ago. It is Tamasin Day Lewis and to be honest I don't think I have cooked anything from it. Caught my attention a little while ago and I regretted not using it, lots of things look great. Found Roast Chicken with Sweetcorn and ginger stuffing. Can't find a link to the recipe but here's the book its in:
Tamasin's Weekend Food
I thought it was pretty good but had major complaints from Alan & Joseph, just not the same.........
Did roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots and cauliflower cheese, they were appreciated.

Sunday 22 March

Whoopie pies today.
Saw the recipe in last Wednesday's NY Times Dining In/Out, my favourite journey into work every week. So these caught my fancy and I made them, wanted to take something to the Tavernas and Joseph is having his tennis buddies over tomorrow afternoon.
Whoopie Pie recipe
Enjoyed making these, little complaint on the filling part, never got the eggs and sugar to reach 180 degrees. It was not that clear, I carried on whisking once the sugar had melted and maybe I shouldn't have. Anyway, I gave up at around 160 degrees and they seem ok. Joseph says delicious, and they do look good, see for yourself. One more note, I cut them in half, just seemed obscenely huge:

WELCOME

Hello, dear reader, yes, I am assuming there will be just the one!
So, last Monday I was talking to a guy at work about what we had done the previous weekend. Can't remember much about what he had done, but I had had an old friend who was visiting from London for dinner on the Friday night and then my good friend Charlotte and her family for dinner on Sunday evening. For the Friday meal I had prepped the appetiser and dessert the night before and for the Tavernas had cooked good old Sunday roast dinner, chicken, stuffing and the trimmings. 'All sounds great/fantastic/delicious'(can't quite rememer), he said, 'you should start a blog ......and add pictures.......'. So Chris it is all your fault.
Now a couple of quick apologies: Tim, (http://timeldridge.typepad.com/downunder/)I will never be as prolific as you, no matter how much time either of us have. Elizabeth, (http://mypoliticalexile.wordpress.com/)will never be as witty as you but won't give up trying!
One thank you to my son Joseph, for effortlessly setting up this blog. All I can say is that if I had been born in 1995 I would have been able to do that too.

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