The ‘Good Food’ website is brilliant, and one reason for that is because it means I no longer have to keep old editions or cut-outs of the magazine, as I can get all favourite recipes from the website.
A few weeks ago I made ‘Boiled Bacon with Cabbage and Carrots’. It was very tasty and I was left with a rather nice smelling stock which I froze hoping that I might find something I could do with it. I came across a recipe on Delia’s website for a pea soup called London Particular which required bacon stock. Nigel made the soup this afternoon. By coincidence, I had just the perfect amount of stock and it made a really delicious soup. I’d never had pea soup before – never really fancied it – but this absolutely converted me. Yum. There’s nothing quite like home made soup.
April 2008
Sat 26 Apr 2008
Fri 18 Apr 2008
I couldn’t ever do my weekly shop without a shopping list. How on earth can you know what to buy without one? I could never just wander around the supermarket picking up random items hoping I might be able to cobble something together out of them. Before I go shopping I always spend some time planning what I’ll be cooking for most of the following week and writing up a list. It’s a bit annoying and takes a bit of effort, but it’s definitely worth it. It means I can get my shopping done quickly, and I don’t have to think what we’re going to have for tea every day, I just make a plan once a week.
Planning my list tonight for my shop tomorrow morning, I thought I might buy a whole chicken to roast on Sunday, and then use left-over chicken for dinner on Monday or in packed lunches. Looking on the web for ideas for using up left-over chicken I came across ‘Love Food Hate Waste‘ website. I’ll admit it’s not the first time I’d seen this site, but last time I looked (I’d seen it advertised in ‘Good Food’ magazine a few months ago), it didn’t have so much on it. Now it’s building up in to quite an informative and handy website.
On Monday, to use up the chicken, I’m going to make a risotto.
Sun 13 Apr 2008
Well I finally have my life back now the opera has finished. I did actually quite enjoy it, it’s just that it’s hard work and means you don’t really get any time to yourself for nearly two weeks what with rehearsals and performances. Parking in Leeds is a nightmare so I was having to leave the house just after 6pm. The opera started at 7:15 and then finished at 10pm. I was helping an elderly gentleman out by giving him a lift home every night, but he is not well at the moment and so very slow at moving and walking, and that meant I didn’t get back home until 11pm, which is basically bed time for me. But that’s it until next year when it’ll be ‘The Bartered Bride’. So far so good in that I’ve not had any back or shoulder pain yet, so hopefully I won’t have to fork out on any massages like I did last year.
Mon 7 Apr 2008
For the next week I’m very busy as I’m playing for ‘West Riding Opera’ orchestra. This year’s production is Otto Nicolai’s ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’. The first night is tonight (7th April) and it runs through until 12th April at the Carriageworks theatre in Leeds.