Look!!!!!!!!!!
Stephen bought it for me for my birthday. I love it 😀
Pork Chops
Contining our quest to cook the perfect pork chops and to eat healthily, we chose pork chops for dinner this evening. We did them with the same rub we used last time: garlic, salt, rosemary and bay. We pan fried them slowly as they were really big and served them with mashed sweet potato, green beans, roasted swede (odd, don’t bother) and roasted courgettes (they were on their last chance with me; they blew it).
The chops were good, tender and tasty. We got them from our new butcher, we’ll be having them again I think 🙂
Haven’t I Been Busy
Our spice cupboard is at floor height so when we want to use anything, we have to pick up every jar and look at the front of it. No more! I have labelled the tops of each jar so now we can see at a glance which is which 🙂
G
Spaghetti, Prawns and Rocket
Deja Vu? Yes, we had the same dish last week, but we decided to try it again and improve it. Ironically, it was also the day that we decided that we should cook more different dishes more often. It was worth it though, we added more tomato and it worked well; a little too much lemon juice but otherwise good.
F
Roast Chicken
There’s not much I can say about roast chicken that I haven’t said before. We eat it a lot, especially on a Sunday. We always cook it much the same way, salt and pepper on the outside and inside the carcass. Olive oil on the outside. Some combination of garlic, onion, lemon and herbs inside the carcass. Roasted on an onion for about an hour.
Today, we had a Label Anglaise organic chicken from our new butcher, we roasted it with shallots, garlic, lemon and thyme. Served with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, savoy cabbage and mashed swede.
It was as delicous as ever, and just what we needed after a busy weekend.
Rack of Lamb
For the main course, we had rack of lamb with a garlic, rosemary and bay rub. We’ve used this rub before, on pork chops, it’s brilliant and really versatile. We served it medium rare, with sweet potato and green beans from our local greengrocer. The sweetness of the sweet potato worked really well with the sharpness of the rub. The green beans were perfect, as they always are.
Fred’s Martini
After the hummus, and before the main course, Stephen made a Real Martini – stirred not shaken (James Bond got it wrong, apparently). It’s gin and vermouth. And it’s strong. Too strong for me. I stuck to water, like the good girl I am 🙂
Hummmmmmmmus
Mmmm, hummus. It’s one of my favourite things and something I only discovered about a year ago. These days, I get a bit nervous if I don’t have any in the fridge. I like Sainsbury’s Organic the best. And I like it with celery, pitta, crusty bread or crisps. I eat it most nights when I get home from work, usually while Stephen and I are cooking dinner.
Today, we had a hard day cleaning the house, doing some re-organisation, having lunch at our local pub and shopping. When we got home, we had the hummus with pitta bread.
Steak and Salad
It’s Friday, we’ve successfully finished the week at work and managed to eat healthily. As a little treat, we had steaks with salad. They were Marks and Spencer Organic sirloin steaks which I was originally dubious about because the colour wasn’t great and there wasn’t a lot of fat. I don’t really like Marks and Spencer either, which was undoubtedly something to do with my dubiousness. Anyway, we cooked them and they were good. Very good actually. So maybe I’ll go there again.
Spaghetti, Prawns and Rocket
After Wednesday night’s boring chicken, I hit the cook books to come up with some more interesting options for healthy meals. In Jamie’s Italy, I found this. It was excellent.
Fry one garlic clove and half a chilli in some olive oil. When the garlic starts to colour, add 200g prawns and cook until they go pink. Add half a glass of white wine and 1-2 teaspoons of tomato puree and bubble for a minute before adding a handful of rocket. Mix together with pasta and add some more rocket and some lemon juice. Et voila.
I think it may have benefitted from a little more tomato puree (we only used 1 tablespoon) and some more chilli.
G
