Too Many Cookbooks.

We’re a cookbook household. We’ve got stacks of them! Anything with beautiful pictures or a familiar face or a tasty TV show accompaniment and we’re there. Valentine Warner is a particular favourite of Oliver and I, Jamie Oliver is a mainstay for the 4 of us, Gwyneth Paltrow is a celeb indulgence Katie and I can’t resist and we’re all in for anything Bake-Off related.

I cook from them quite often, but decided to keep track of what I’d been cooking and from which book. I’m sure I’ve cooked about half of the Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall Veg Everyday book, but nothing from my Wagamama’s bible, a gift from my Mum.

Here's a cookbook vs real thing comparison. This week I’ve tried Hugh’s Tomato, Thyme and Goat’s Cheese Tart...

I scrimped on this dinner, used 2 tomatoes, so next time I’d use 3, so the pastry is totally covered. The goat’s cheese and garlic and thyme were so good together, and I squeezed a huge blob of balsamic glaze on my plate to dip the crispy pastry edges. We have thyme in the garden, so I never have to pay for it. It doesn’t crop up too often in recipes, so if it’s called for, I tend to pounce and go a bit heavy handed. It’s this kind of scenario that made me fall for rosemary, because Oliver had a huge rosemary bush in the garden of his old house and we’d chuck it on everything. Including baked camembert, mmmmm.

Gwyneth’s Coconut Milk and Berries Sugar Free Ice Lollies...

Hugh’s Puy Lentils with Beetroot and Goats Cheese...

Any recommendations?

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Still poor.

Come November, Oliver and I will be embarking on a journey for two, to South America for who knows how long, that is sure to outshine any solitary day in the city. That's almost the purpose of this blog, to have somewhere to share this trip with my family and friends.

I experience excitement, terror, fear, panic and daydreams at a impossible rate recently. I've been dreaming of a big trip like this for so long that it has to be a good idea. It has to be. But recently I was wide awake at 4am thinking "this is the stupidest idea anyone has ever had". Money is my biggest worry, as with most things in life. The fear is forcing me to make sensible decisions about money at every turn. So sensible that I talked Oliver out of a 30p bulb of garlic in Morrisons. I immediately felt terrible about this.

I'm living in some strange paradox. I have a savings account with a steadily rising balance, an unused credit card in a drawer, and a diet consisting of porridge and yoghurt.

Yesterday, we truly splashed out on about £3 worth of chorizo and made a casserole with some cheapo butter beans. It was a good weekend event. There isn't much else you can do on £3 but make dinner.

Payday is on Friday. The anticipation and excitement I feel on this last week of each month is better than a child feels in December. And it's all for the satisfaction and safety of putting near half my wage into my savings account. Pay my bills, pay my rent, set aside enough for birthdays and plans already made. At that point, I'm stoic, looking at my remaining £68. Thereabouts.

This is mostly exaggerated. Poverty is nothing new after prior employment by Odeon. Come November, I'll be living like a queen in Brazil. For about two weeks, then I'll remind myself to be sensible.

Here is our casserole prep...

Posted with Blogsy

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Chorlton Weekends

Last weekend, like this weekend and every other weekend was a relaxed, indulgent joy in Chorlton. It must be the best place in the world to cook, eat, walk, drink and read newspapers. I realize this is a older kind of weekend I imagined for 25 year old me, but you can't argue with the things that make you feel like yourself. And being at home watching James Martin ignore people on Saturday Kitchen (that I record and watch on a Sunday) sets the tone of my weekend. If I don't get to watch Saturday Kitchen, Sky+'d, I know it's gonna be a crazy one. 

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