Always thinking of the next meal...
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you another classic British sandwich you will find on just about every shop’s shelf on this small isle. It took me ages to get around to trying one, since the idea of eating cold sweet corn didn’t appeal to me in the least. Starving after hours on the road Neil grabbed a sandwich at a rest stop and I grudgingly shared it with him. What a surprise it was indeed and after that I’ve been preparing my own at home which tastes all the better.
Inspecting each packet at the vegetable seed stand carefully, broad beans immediately caught my eye. Not having a clue what I was about to grow didn’t matter much to me for as long as it came out of my garden I was happy. Strangely, the plants weren’t like the ordinary bean ones, i.e. needing poles and stood proudly on their own without the need for assistance of any kind. They flowered, and then the beans came. Since I have more ants in our garden than I would dare to imagine I came across something unexpected. One day when I looked a bit closer at the plants, I noted black patches at the top. Tiny black little bugs sat fixed to the stem and flowers. This was the first time I came across these little, disgusting plant lice; blackfly. The ants protect the blackfly, while the blackfly produce honeydew which the ants eat. It’s a match made in heaven for the two species and the pests from hell for me. The blackfly sucked every last drop of life from my beautiful green soldiers until they resembled the poor unfortunate souls captured by Ursula, the Sea Witch, in The Little Mermaid. (No, I haven’t watched the movie with Gabriel for like 10 000 times already. Oh dear, I’m not fooling anyone, am I?) I salvaged one meal’s worth of beans before they bit the dust and they tasted divine simply boiled. Year after year I keep trying to grow broad beans and every single time the ants/blackfly get to them! It leaves me feeling quite depressed…
Recently I received an email from reader Lisa asking for help. She fried some fresh tuna steaks and since it is quite a meaty fish thought a Hollandaise sauce will compliment it nicely, but unfortunately didn’t. What to do?
What started off as an enthusiastic project this year ended up in an overgrown mess in our backyard. I so wanted to have a flourishing vegetable garden this year, being able to eat from the plants as we need them, but alas, it didn’t happen. Things were more or less under control until we went to Ireland for a week and when we came back weeds that came from nowhere were towering over my plants. That’s okay, I thought, I’ll just get them and the next day set about removing them. For three days in a row I weeded 10 bucket loads of the pesty plants, but to no avail. I gave up. The garden won this year.
One of the things I love about roast chicken is its versatility; so much so that leftovers can be transformed into a totally different meal. Take this salad for example. Cool and refreshing, not to mention easy and quick to make; ideal for a hot summer’s day or for taking to work to gobble up in front of the computer.
Phew, now that was a mouthful to type. The title looks as if it was an item borrowed from a fancy schmancy restaurant menu, but let me reassure you this is a dead easy recipe to prepare, ultra healthy and to top it all it tastes divine! Sod any decadent dessert and serve me this dish instead.
My love affair with the Kabocha Squash hasn’t ended. Our love is as strong as ever and I’m sure it will last a loooong time. Every week when Neil is out of sight at the supermarket I dawdle through the fresh produce section, I hear a “Psssst”. When I turn my head, there he is, sitting in all his glory with his dark and light green striped skin with a rough yellow patch or two; as sexy as ever. Without hesitation I will pick him up, caress him and tell him I missed him. When our tender moment has passed I make a dash for our trolley wherever it may be and hide him quickly before Neil sees him. Satisfied and excited I would quietly plan in my head what sordid yet creative business I’d like to do to him when Neil has left for work. Oh, if Neil only knew!
Dieting doesn’t need to be boring. At this stage, currently in my third week, I’m still enjoying it. Yes, Weight Watchers does require a lot of meal planning, if you’re like me and enjoy a different meal every day, but it’s all part of the fun. I found this recipe on the WW online database, but unfortunately it called for nasty low-fat cooking spray, so I simply substituted it with real oil and butter. It makes all the difference!
The first time I came across a hotpot was when Marcus Wareing prepared it in the first Great British Menu series. Even though he took great care to research his subject and prepared it most lovingly I couldn’t help but turn up my nose at it. It’s as if the original cook thought it’s a great idea to throw every single root vegetable under the sun into the pot with a bit of meat in a slapdash way and bung it in the oven, hoping that in a few hours his meal would somehow be magically transformed into something wonderful. Instead all the vegetables turn into the same colour and mysteriously taste the same, seeing that it’s difficult to discern between a potato, turnip and who knows what else that’s been cooked ad infinitum.