jill dupleix's sesame chicken salad with cucumber and celery

Incredibly Ana is out again tonight - although this evening it's more work than pleasure as she's being voted in as secretary for the nursery parent's committee. Get her!

With no idea how long this regal investiture/corrupt ballot is going to take, and with one eye on getting svelte for the summer, we're aiming for something quick. On a whim, and partly to use up the carrots, basil, coriander and celery languishing in the fridge, we go back to a classic from last year - Jilly D's sesame chicken salad.

It wasn't all plain sailing however, as I had to make a dash to Sainsbury's for some sesame oil...

sources
sesame chicken salad with cucumber and celery - Jill Dupleix

valli little's hearty vegetable pie

Ana is off to Kendra's for dinner tonight and there's a new Midsomer looming, so dinner is either going to be a sandwich or something from the freezer. As we've got no bread, the freezer wins out with a massive portion of Valli Little's left-over vegetable pie - but with a twist!

Sadly I was charging the camera so there's no picture, but to be honest it looks pretty much exactly the same as it usually does. The twist however, came in the form of mixing in a couple of massive spoonfuls of my mum's spicy mango chutney, which completely lifted the flavour onto an entirely zingy realm.

I suppose on reflection lentils and chutney form a pretty solid component of a lot of Indian cuisine so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, and given I've got about three jars in the cupboard it's an experiment definitely worth trying again.

sources
hearty vegetable pie - Valli Little, Delicious, January 2007, Parsley Book

donna hay's pasta with cherry tomato sauce

More unseasonably warm weather today - hurrah! - so what better use can you put a punnet of cherry tomatoes slightly on the turn, than with Donna Hay's pasta and cherry tomato sauce? Especially when there's a double-bill of Danish crime drama looming...

Sarah, The Killing has completely wiped out the cultural landscape (as well as large tracts of time) over here. So much so people are now seriously thinking of buying Faroese Fishing jumpers as worn by the heroine, Sarah Lund, and off the back of it people are properly getting excited by the third series of a French crime drama called Spiral which has just started on BBC4.

Honestly, it's insanely brilliant and I cannot wait for Series Two to arrive in the autumn. You'll definitely get it I should think, although would anybody screen a glacial-paced, subtitled drama in Australia?

sources
pasta with cherry tomato sauce - Donna Hay, Instant Cook, p58

chick pea and tomato soup with chorizo

Essentially this weekend is a write-off, almost entirely because of Miss Janine Smith's birthday celebrations at Heavy Load. A night that begins with lovely hugging and reminiscing with lovely C4-type people, plus Peter Leary Esq and James Hurley, before ending up stumbling around the kitchen whilst trying to get undressed in the dark at 5.35am.

There was a modicum of unwellness all of Sunday, and not even meeting Angela Hazel White and Ed in the Treehouse for a couple of reviving Guinness' can save it.

What this means is we're light on food blogging for the weekend. We had some sausages whilst watching the Barbecue at Claire's, and chips at The Treehouse, and that was pretty much it. Other than booze. Milo had some more piratical eggs though:

So with a distinct feeling of *boilk* today, there's only thing that can address the combination of Monday blues, imminent dehydration, starvation and the need to watch Glee. Hearty soup:

sources
chick pea and tomato soup with chorizo and green chilli - Bill Granger, Delicious, February 2008 p68

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

Has it come to this - cooking whatever is to hand, in the quickest way possible, so we can watch two hours of foreign crime drama on the computer? It would appear so...

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

jill dupleix's lamb tagliata

Having not eaten last night, and it being a lovely, lovely day, tonight we have one of our favorite summery dinners - Jilly D's Lamb Tagliata, with amazing M&S lamb steaks, extra roasted cherry tomatoes, and a swag load of rocket!

Even better, because it's quick we can get two episodes of Denmark's bestest crime drama in before bed - hurrah!

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: Cheerios, toast & Philadelphia;
Lunch: tomato and sausage pasta, followed by chocolate custard;

sources
lamb tagliata - Jill Dupleix, Delicious, October 2007, p138

television stops play

After all the chat about regularly updating the blog I find I'm a week behind and it's pretty much we've found some more TV crack to addict ourselves to.

First up, tonight the new series of Misdsomer Murders started - complete with racist furore, but lacking a certain J Nettles. It should've been awful but in fact was utterly brilliant, and I'm loving the new DCI Barnaby and his dog, Sykes.

Now whilst I'm watching telly Ana is out at Zumba, her second exercise class of the week, and in the fridge are two lamb steaks just waiting to be tagliata'd on her return. But does she do it? Does she cobblers, she makes (herself) a sandwich and leaves me wilting in Midsomer Worthy, before we start mainlining on our second new fix, The Killing.

With 20 hour-long episodes to go, if we disappear over the next month you'll know where to look...

Food of the Milos
He's off to Julia's this morning with neither breakfast or milk, which is odd and unfortunate as I've not got any snacks with me for the journey.
Breakfast: Choc Krispies, toast & butter;
Lunch: Flowers made out of cheese, tomatoes, grapes and toast & marmite, although he didn't eat the tomatoes;
Dinner: Dippy egg, toast, apple and fruit;

angela boggiano's spinach and parmesan meatballs again, again

So, you'll be pleased to note we did not die of food poisoning last night - although in future we'll be applying Lucy's new rhyme. Also lovely Sarah, the cashew nut dust doesn't really impart much flavour, it just thickens it, so it's not particularly like a satay either Luce...

Anyway, having flirted with death last night tonight we're staring it in the eye again as we're eating the last of Friday night's meatballs. Crazy eh? All it needs is a little extra passata to stretch it out and we're all happy. And I do mean "all":

Yes that's right, at 21.45 military hours Mr M T Barnes is having his second dinner having decided he's not in the slightest sleepy.


Food of the Milos
So as you can see from above, things haven't gone quite to plan today. It started off okay, but it looked like he'd come down with a bug when he sparked out at Claire's. It turned out to be a two-hour powernap to give him enough energy to stay awake way past his bedtime.
Breakfast: The usual;
Lunch: Ploughman's lunch at Claire's - chicken, cheese, tomatoes, granary loaf, but he didn't eat it because he was a bit under the weather. He did perk up enough to have a kitkat for the journey home, mind;
Dinner #1: Can't remember;
Dinner #2: Meatballs

sources
spinach and parmesan meatballs - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, December 2007, p46

bill granger's light chicken curry

I see. One touch of the sun and suddenly we're back on a diet - humpf! Tonight we dice with death by using up some chicken which may or may not be the wrong side of fresh. It's been in the fridge all week and whilst it doesn't smell, it feels curiously granular.

Somewhat foolishly (although I like to think of it being 'brave'), we try an experimental Bill Granger curry Ana found in the pile of Waitrose Food Illustrated's my mum gave me, and then eat it whilst deciding who would look after Milo tomorrow whilst we're off with food poisoning, and how quickly our parents could make it up.

It's a very easy dish, with an interesting twist - you thicken it with cashew nut dust you blitz up in the blender. Crazy.

We'll be having it again mind, but not with chicken flirting with decay.

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: The usual smorgasbord of fruit, cheese, ham and half a hot cross bun;
Lunch: Ham sandwiches, more fruit and some yoghurt tubes;
Dinner: Fish fingers, mini broccoli, mini carrots, two yoghurts, fruit. Again.

sources
light chicken curry - bill granger, waitrose food magazine, March 2010, p26

angela boggiano's ultimate burger & homemade chips and hugh fearnley-whittingstall's lentil and bacon soup

We're admittedly slightly brackish this morning after last night's one or two drinking, so we have a fairly low-key day lined up. The absolute minimum is achieved; we watch some Scooby Doo, eat pancakes for brunch and then head over to Nursery as we're on the gardening rota.

An hour of battling with leaf-blowers and sweeping sand later, we have a mini-lunch, go shopping and finish the day in the sun in Palewell Park, where Milo decides he's a dog and we spend 15 minutes throwing a stick for him to fetch. Seriously. Had this been five years earlier, say in Tewkesbury, we'd have been in The Bell feeling slightly wonky on the quiz machine, so this is probably a step forward. Maybe not.

Anyway, the sun has clearly gone to Ana's head because she requests, for the first time ever, burgers for dinner! I'm agog, and we quickly find a positive side-effect because if you describe them as 'sort of like meatballs', somebody will actively volunteer to help make them:

Here is my first plate, replete with cheese, pickles and IoW relish:

It's definitely the first taste of summer, and I'm looking forward to doing some more burger recipes this year. We've got a turkey and lemongrass version from Billy G which we used to have fairly regularly, and there's a tandoori lamb one which has caught my eye. Fingers-crossed the weather rocks this year...

Eating together has another benefit which means I've got time to make up a week's worth of soup. This time an experimental Saint Hugh's lentil and bacon soup. It smells amazing simmering away:

sources
ultimate burger - angela boggiano, Delicious, June 2009, p46
lentil and bacon soup - hugh fearnley-whittingstall and fizz carr, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, p328

why I shop in waitrose...

Earl Grey's Gingerbread Gentlemen - take that pile 'em high, sell 'em low big supermarkets!

We've been quite-to-very busy recently what with book clubs, birthdays, visiting deepest darkest Worcestershire, Nursery events and the like, which *has* meant my new year's resolution has taken a bit of a battering. However, I am slowly catching up (as ever), so you should see a lot more stuff appearing in the gaps between the 5th March and the 14th, and the 15th onwards. Up to Thursday 17th so I reckon I'll be back on track by the end of the week. Or something.

Bon nuit!

meatballs, again

Okay, you know we're having meatballs tonight, accompanying Ireland's glorious victory over England, and providing vital energy for the final game of the day, Wales' ignominious defeat in Paris. Oh well, there's always the World Cup...

However, of more import is the rest of the day which from Milo's point of view, is pretty much a never-ending feast, finally proving our current growth spurt theory.

After the usual pre-breakfast nibbles to accompany Scooby-Doo, and with Ana out registering him for a gymnastics course, we spend the rest of the morning playing an extended version of Jack and the Beanstalk, whereby he's Jack and I'm a nice Giant looking after him. This spills over into our brunch of boiled eggs and marmite soldiers, with a Jack and nice Giant egg:

After brunch the two of us head out in the sun to Richmond pool. Sadly/luckily (delete as you feel, but definitely 'Luckily'), the outdoor pool was still closed so we had to splash around the heated little pool instead. When we get home, Ana is trying to get the garden in shape, so we make toad-in-the-hole for little people, and Philadelphia sandwiches for the smaller and bigger-sized people:

We watch most of the Italy v Scotland game fuelled by doritos and houmous, then the meatballs, then it's bedtime for Milo and booze time for us. Of more import, I can't believe I missed ITV3's all-day Midsomer fest for Wales aimlessly hacking the ball forward, and then floundering around at the resulting ruck. Gahh!

angela boggiano's spinach and parmesan meatballs

Ana's out with the girls from college tonight, so there's a certain amount of planning ahead going on tonight to take into account the high likelihood of being drunk tomorrow night after three, back-to-back, games of rugby on the box. Throw in the need for Milo to be able to eat whatever it is, and the solution quickly becomes blindingly clear - Angela Boggiano's Spinach and Parmesan Meatballs. Don't they look great in the new Christmas pan?

I've noticed since trying to be more SEO-friendly, we seem to eat more meals from La Boggiano than I previously realised. It's not interesting, but it's a fact so deal with it.


Food of the Milos
It's Red Nose day so Milo goes to Nursery in his pajamas, and does a 'fun run' around the playground. In the rain. It's what comedy and charity is all about!
Lunch: Boiled eggs and toast.
Dinner: Slow-cooked lamb with lemon and cherries tomatoes was only a partial success. He ate the lamb but had to be cajoled, refused the cherries but for the first time ate the cous cous without any problems.

sources
spinach and parmesan meatballs - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, December 2007, p46

book club: silvena rowe's slow-cooked lamb, spring onions, lemon and cherries

Once again we're faced with the classic book club dilemma of what to cook for a room full of women who probably won't drink much, and are all on some sort of diet or another. However, the clement weather proves inspirational and we revisit Silvena Rowe's spring-like lamb stew.

It has many things to recommend it: It looks amazing when you serve it up in a whacking great Le Creuset (my gran's in this case), cherries are incredibly du jour, and other than stirring through some parsley at the end, all you've got to do is lob it all in the casserole and leave it for about two hours. This gives plenty of time for Ana to finish the book, and me to surreptitiously eat crisps and drink a couple of brewskis in the kitchen whilst we wait for the ladies to arrive.

For the record, we read David Gaffney's Sawn-Off Tales which may not have been the most popular book we've read - only two stars from me. Sorry Kiki...

Food of the Milos
There's definitely a growth spurt in the air, and it's not Ana. We've suspected it with the amount of food going into him, but the ankle-swinging nature of most of his trousers have given us final proof. He'll be a teenager soon...
Breakfast: Chocolate Rice Krispies, toast and Phili;
Lunch: Ham, carrots, broccoli and mash, followed by custard;
Dinner: Big old bowl of rigatoni with chicken bolognese, apple and yoghurt.

sources
slow-cooked lamb with spring onions, cherries and lemon - Silvena Rowe, Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume. Reviewed in Delicious, July 2010, p17

bill granger's rigatoni with chicken bolognese

Because we try, as much as possible, to force Milo into eating whatever it is we have, we very rarely cook specifically for him. He tends to get for dinner whatever we had the night before, unless it's a particularly fiery curry or stir-fry.

However tonight's is one of the few dishes which are specifically for the urchinous youth. Not that it stops us from eating it of course... with the caveat Ana doesn't get any pasta 'bits' from the bottom of the pan.

Curiously though, despite appearing in the meals for kids section of Billy G's Simply Bill, we actually picked it up in the Aussie Delicious whilst in New Zealand. In fact I particularly remember Ana managing to pour in almost a whole bag of salt, and then having to try and desperately scrape out as much out as possible before the juice absorbed it all. We were almost successful.

sources
rigatoni with chicken bolognese - Bill Granger, Simply Bill, p87

pan-fried cod with creamy new potatoes and courgettes

There has been a definite hint of spring over the past week or so. I've sat in the sun every lunchtime with my thermos of soup, and today it's the lightest it's been on the ride back. With a full fridge and summer (theoretically) around the corner, it feels right to revisit this experimental fish dish, and not just because cooking fresh fish is ten times nicer than week-old fish.

Again we use creme fraiche rather than cream, and this time I don't forget to keep some stock back so the creamy new potatoes and courgettes are much closer to what I imagine they should've tasted like. However for a second time running the fish just falls apart in the pan. I can't think what's going wrong; the pan's hot, the oil is hot, I've seasoned the fish and lightly floured it, but it just doesn't seem to hold together. It's still nice, it just looks odd:

Food of the Milos
With trips to the park, Homebase and a visit from Jude, it's all action for the little beast and we also have further evidence of a possible growth spurt...
Breakfast: crumpet, cherry tomatoes, apple and cheese;
Lunch: spaghetti hoops on toast and an alpro soy custard pudding I got free at Oxford Circus on Friday;
Dinner; two (2!) helpings of last night's hearty vegetable pie, mini broccoli and carrots, and three yoghurt tubes.
He has also inexplicably decided he no longer likes the following things (not that we listen to him of course): Peas, blueberries, marmite, bananas.

sources
pan-fried cod with creamy new potatoes and courgettes - Delicious, June 2010, p24

valli little's hearty vegetable pie

What with the sunshine and warmish wind, I'm feeling positively Chaucerian today - April showers piercing the root, sap rising and all that jazz. It's definitely spring, so much so I've taken the arms off my cycling coat for the journey in, after all how cold can elbows get?

At lunchtime I head off to Cavendish Square for some of last night's leek and potato soup and a read in the sun. It's amazing a square within 100 metres of Oxford Street is so empty, not that I care of course...

However, by home time the skies have clouded over and the wind has whipped up, putting me in the mood to finally tackle our EU mountain of carrots via valli little's perennially popular hearty vegetable pie:

Now usually I make this with red lentils/split beans but I don't think they can stand up to the long-ish cooking time, going too mushy and invariably sticking to the bottom of the pan, so tonight I experiment with green lentils. It's a partial success I think; they hold their shape much better, but they could've done with an extra ten minutes to completely lose their hardness. Still, it's a pretty good weather-beater, and there's enough for Milo tomorrow *and* for the freezer - hurrah!

Food of the Milos
After the weekend's hi-jinks at the Taylors' it's back to reality with a bump with Nursery
Breakfast: Porridge with maple syrup, followed by pineapple at Nursery;
Lunch: Lazy pasta with cheese, nibbles;
Dinner: Fish fingers, peas and spaghetti hoops, and a yoghurt;

sources
hearty vegetable pie - valli little, Delicious, January 2007, Parsley Book

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's ratatouille

Bad news for Ana tonight as not only is it ratatouille (which she's now decided she doesn't like), but we're having it with jacket potatoes. She does however, eventually graciously concede that I make a mean spud, but the damage has already been done to our marriage, and given she's supposed to be eleswhere tonight, she's lucky to get anything.

This is obviously Ana's plate, as I always have a minimum of two potatoes, so just imagine the above with twice the tuber and ratatouille on it. A bit like this in fact.

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: Cheerios, apricots, toast and Phili;
Lunch: Ham, mash and veg, and custard. Interestingly according to Julia he said he doesn't like sweetcorn, but still ate it. I'm sensing some impending pickley-ness;
Dinner: Fish fingers, cherry tomatoes and baby broccoli

sources
ratatouille - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Cookbook, p105

bill granger's poached salmon and orzo salad

After extolling the virtues of Sockeye Salmon recently, tonight the pink-skinned pisces bite me in the bum. Not in a terrible-appearing-on-Jeremy-Kyle way you understand, more in a taking-twice-as-long-to-poach-as-planned way. And one of the spotlights has blown in the kitchen, so the photo is wonkier than usual:

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: Cheerios, apricots, toast and Phili at Julia's;
Lunch: Dippy egg with toast, Marmite and cheese chunks, custard;
Dinner: Cheesy pasta, but no pudding - for some reason he's now decided he doesn't like peas...

sources
poached salmon and orzo salad - Bill Granger, Holiday, p14

angela boggiano's spiced chicken noodle soup

Having made two-thirds of the Boggiano poached chicken trilogy, tonight we complete the set with her spiced chicken noodle soup.

If we're being strictly truthful, this was the only part of the triumvirate I ever used to make, with one vague attempt at the creamy chicken, chive and mustard gratin years ago, but this is the first time we've made all three dishes in a vaguely concurrent time frame. Anyway, the trick to all these recipes I've discovered is the noodles - any sort of dried glass noodles are a fast-track to gloopy-awfulness, dried egg noodles or fresh(ish) ones pretty much guarantee success:

Weirdly though this recipe almost slipped through the net as all three of them fell prey to my tidying drive, and ended up not in the Owl book, but somewhat controversially - the veggie Cow Parsley book. I will have to remember this...

sources
creamy chicken, chive and mustard gratin - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, February 2007, p61, now the Parsley book

angela boggiano's rich beef ragu

Despite going shopping yesterday, tonight we're having a use-it-before-it-goes-off dinner partly inspired by Milo's recent claims Claire's spaghetti bolognese was the best he'd ever eaten (oh really!), and partly to use up the remaining mince from Thursday's chilli.

To be honest I don't need an excuse to make spagbol, or meatballs for that matter, as there's something comforting in the earthy smells the combination of rosemary, carrot, onions and garlic produce, and both dishes appeal to my constantly-tasting-with-bread approach. Although at some point I *will* have to go to the gym.

Curiously I notice it looks almost exactly the same as the last time I cooked it - consistency eh?

An unexpected benefit of cooking a dish with a fairly long simmering time is that whilst it does mean we eat quite late, I do manage to get a stack of recipe pasting done to further diminish the pile of out of date Delicious Magazines cluttering up the kitchen.

sources
rich beef ragu - Angela Boggiano, Delicious, March 2007, p51

roast chicken

After the weekend's fannying about, it's nice to get back into the kitchen to make some actual food - particularly if the cupboards have been filled from a morning spent wandering the aisles of Waitrose.

Unlike our recent attempts to eat together on a Sunday, today it's all too much for him to stay up any longer, so whilst he snuggles away from the cold in bed, we watch rubbish TV with roast chicken on our laps. Well, not literally but you get what I mean...

bad ballet, chilli faux pas and lovely kendra's lovely birthday

This post is going to be a 3-in-1 bumper edition (lucky you) mainly because we didn't cook anything for three whole days. This was only partially planned, and by not cooking anything you do have to take into account the fact I did spend several hours simmering a chilli whilst reading Biggles, but we'll come to that.

So, other than getting up at 5am to entertain her grandson, the main reason Kay had come up was because her and Ana were going to Royal Opera House to watch the ballet on Wednesday night. This meant I had to get home early to pick Milo up, however who should we see walking up the road whilst we were counting stars in the frankly-freezing early evening, but mummy and grandma. Apparently there had been an almighty cock-up with the trains (South West trains' cock-up rather than Ana and Kayosaurus'), so they missed the ballet and came home with a bag full of consolation wine and beer. My original plan had been to get Milo into bed, and then cook up the massive chilli I'd been roped into to making for the Nursery quiz night on Friday, with maybe have a smidgeon for my tea. Instead Ana belligerently ordered pizza, and I sat in the kitchen occasionally testing the chilli whilst reading the aforementioned Biggles.

Friday then was Nursery Quiz Night and I know for a fact I was looking forward to a) wiping the floor with the other parents using my amazing trivial knowledge, and b) wiping the floor with the other parents with my amazing chilli. One of the other mums in our team had also made a batch so there was a certain amount of intra-team banter about whose was best. Banter which didn't take into account the fact they'd simply tip the five or six different chilli into a big saucepan and cook the lot up together. We came joint second-to-last as well.

Finally then, lovely Kendra's lovely birthday! Having spent the day in the car on a flying visit home I was more-than ready to be royally feasted by Mr Tom Aikens in Tom's Kitchen, which looks a bit like Ollivander's Wand Shop from the outside.

Anyway, in between discussions of Argentinian barbecue techniques, a discussion of whether Little Eyolf is Ibsen's funniest play, rugby and working with Jean-Luc Picard, the delightful company of the birthday girl (closer to 40 than me), Mr Brian Bolger (a New Zealander, and therefore only to be trusted marginally), and the super couple of the acting world, Mr Alan Alan of the Alan Alan's Pearce and Mrs Caroline "And then all her clothes fell off" Martin, Ana Louise and myself were treated to the following:

• Spicy crab cakes (me)
• Baked scallops (Ana & Caro)
• Beetroot & Feta Salad (Brian, Kendra & Alan)
• Steak (Ana & Kendra)
• The world's smallest Shepherd's Pie (me)
• Seven Hour Confit of Lamb (Alan & Caro)
• Cod and Chips (Brian)

It was all amazing, and my initial misgivings about the size of the Shepherd's Pie were allayed by it's moist densosity. I couldn't have had another, although I might have given it a go.

bill granger's porcini and pancetta risotto

With Kayosaurus up for the ballet (and relentlessly making dens in the lounge until Hell freezes over) this week, and nothing in the fridge due to the fact I was drunk watching rugby rather than shopping on Saturday, we're all about buying a couple of ingredients each day to bulk out the cupboard stocks. It's like rationing, only 70 years later...

For some reason one of the only things we *do* have in the fridge is a kilo of pancetta, plus we've got a box of risotto rice, so I think we all know where this is going - Billy G's porcini and pancetta risotto:

As I said last time, you do not need much so there's plenty for three of us plus seconds for people who want it. Have you tried it yet Sarah? I can stick the recipe up if you need?

sources
porcini and pancetta risotto - Bill Granger, Feed Me Now, p76

chick pea and tomato soup with chorizo

Despite our best efforts, tonight we had an extra pair of hands in the kitchen:

He quite likes stirring soup, and he likes chick peas *and* he's not in bed so he's happy as Larry. His ministrations turn out a good soup as well...

sources
chick pea and tomato soup with chorizo and green chilli - Bill Granger, Delicious, February 2008 p68