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;