Indugent Friday dinner

Boiled new potatoes, crushed and fried in olive oil and butter

Milano salami, very thinly sliced

Rocket
Assembled, with a bit more olive oil. Very tasty. 

Pasta for tea

Eaten so much chocolate I ws unable to eat much. But it was very tasty. A puttanesca sauce. 

Chocolate making workshop with work

A fun afternoon of chocolate making in London at 'My Chocololate'. We had a talk on the history and making of chocolate, and then got to play at making chocolate truffles and chocolate fudge.

White chocolate is flavoured with cardamon, dark chocolate with chilli and orange.

Dried, roasted coffee nibs, and a lump of cocoa butter.

Chocolate decorating. A big bowl of tempered chocolate, and various accessories. 

Out for lunch with work

Belgo's in Covent Garden. An unintentionally interesting shot of a glass of Leffe Brune

Roast chicken in a chilli and ginger sauce with chips 

Beans on Toast

Beans on toast. I added chilli flakes to make them a bit more exciting. For me, the secret is always to ensure a strong bread / beans ratio. 

Left overs dinner

I had some pork left over

So experimented, and ended up with pork and green beans in a Thai green curry sauce on coconut rice. I always enjoy it when left overs meals like this work, and this one was surprisingly good. 

Quick Monday night dinner

Was planning to grab some pasta in the 35 minutes I had between getting in and going out again, but a long swim and a lot of sandwiches recently meant that I felt the need for something more. So following a quick trip to the corner shop. . .

Pork chops with new potatoes, green beans and a tarragon and shallot butter

I like it that corner shops got good 

Sunday night dinner

Cheese on toast

Always tasty 

Dinner in North Wales

Dinner at an excellent restaurant in Llandudno, North Wales. Starter was wild mushrooms on brioche.

Main course was fillet steak, with garlic butter. It said it didn't come with anything, but they did sneak some potato and green beans in there. This rendered the chips a little redundant, but they were very nice so I ate them all anyway.

A nice Chilean Pinot noir in the background.

Trio of sorbets shared for pudding - passion fruit, strawberry and lemon. Lemon was best. I love sorbets after a meal, but you do tend to get given far more than I'd ever want, and pay lots for them. My perfect restaurant would offer you a small single boule - perhaps from the separate sorbet menu? 

Thursday dinner

Pasta puttanesca

Gu puddings

Quick and easy - very tasty 

Monday night dinner

Cooking . . .

Blinis with smoked salmon and caviar (well, onuga)

Mushroom risotto - River Cafe recipe

All yummy 

Sunday lunch

Grilled goats cheese salad

Action shot! Roast chicken, potatoes, bread sauce, stuffing, carrots, gravy.

Not sure I like carrots. They're fairly dull, as vegetables go. Good raw, but less good cooked. Any recipe ideas, anyone? 

Saturday lunch

Bread, cheese, tomatoes, apples, olives, sausages.

An easy lunch - there's a great market in St Albans, so it's really nice to go shopping on a Saturday morning and pick up tasty ingredients for a meal. 

Veg box

Bananas, grapefruit, apples, carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, little gem lettuce

The apples have been great for the last few weeks - small and sweet 

Cheese and Wine evening

An evening of cheese and wine matching in the vaults at the Royal Society of Arts. Really interesting, and good fun too. New learning for me was Sancerre with goats' cheese - what good looks like. 

Lunch out in London

Tabernacle bar and restaurant in Shoreditch for a long lunch. Food was excellent. Started with pappardelle with a venison ragu and fresh horseradish. The ragu was just right - didn't overpower the fresh pasta, but still tasted nice and meaty.

Followed by a rib-eye steak with butternut squash, tomatoes and courgettes. Very good meat - beautifully sweet fat and very tender. I wouldn't have thought of serving steak with butternut, but it worked well. 

Mmm Pizza

Tasty (but small) pizza for tea. Spot the commonplace brands! 

Dinner at Brasserie St Quentin

Very good food - I had the roast partridge on creamed savoy cabbage with wild mushrooms.