White Wine in the City

What's making you smile this January?

2011-01-14T00:48:00.001-08:00

My friend Wendy over at Red Boots has started a lovely thing on her blog called 'Whats making you smile this January?' I have emailed her with a list that is making me smile but just in case she has many entries I thought I'd post it here.

New Year. New challenges. A clean slate.
My friend Nia having a baby boy, Oscar.
My Kindle.
Zumba.
Going on holiday soon.
Buying a new hoover, not that it’s even me who uses it!!
The snow melting, I hate how it leaves white marks on my brown leather boots.
Margaritas.
Tea.
Terry's Chocolate oranges.
My bed. Always my bed!

What's making you smile this January? Leave a comment and let me know! Happy 2011!

Paprika chicken - Colemans season and Shake

2010-11-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

I saw Colemans Season and Shake in Asda a couple of weeks ago for the special price of a quid. You don't get much for a quid these days what with the recession and all, so I bought it. I also felt that the roasting bag along side the seasoning was a novelty; the novelty quickly wears off, especially when you are starving and the chicken takes double the time it says on the packet.

The instructions are easy enough to start with - open the top part of the packet take out the little clear bullet with blue tie - this is the roasting bag. Stick the chicken legs in the bag, open the second part of the packet, sprinkle the paprika seasoning into the bag and onto the chicken legs. It then instructs you to use the blue tie to close the bag 2 inches from the top. The tie seems to be sticky and it is also shaped like a tie wrap, so I wasn't sure if it should just be stuck together; if one end should loop through the other and tighten or indeed just tied in a knot. I went for the knot. Simples.

Last instruction is for those that would like extra crispy skin and who the hell doesn't? Pierce the bag several times. I went ahead and pierced the bag.

40 minutes in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 6 and dinner should be done - lies, all lies. After 40 minutes I took the chicken out the oven, opened the roasting bag, threw them into the dish, lifted one and fuck - still raw.

Back into the oven, minus the roasting bag which was now in the bin for another 40 minutes . I didn't think the chicken legs where any different to any others I have bought before so I have no idea why they took 80 minutes to cook - maybe the roasting bag hindered the process rather than helped.

The paprika seasoning made the chicken taste nice enough, but nothing that mixing your own dry rub of paprika, salt, pepper and what ever you want, can't get you.

In conclusion - waste of a quid and what exactly is the point of the bag ?

Angel Delight and sprinkles - I love it

2010-11-17T00:55:00.000-08:00

My dad made me this after a trip to the dentist for root canal treatment, the left side of my face was numb and had a stroke victim look about it. I couldn't eat what my parents were eating, so instead I ate this. I loved it and I love him.

Mushroom Risotto

2010-11-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

Exotic Mushrooms

shimeji

Shiitake
Enokitake

I had this risotto planned for a while, and whena fellow North East Blogger - Mince and Skirlie wrote about his recipe, I decided it was time to give it a try. I would have normally used just plain white mushrooms mixed with chestnut mushrooms, but when I saw that Sainsburys had an exotic mushroom pack it sealed the deal. The only problem being, the pack didn't tell me what they were. I think through using google I have identified them but I could be totally wrong, if anyone knows and I need corrected feel free to do so!

Recipe - served 2 - and the portions were pretty big and filling.

2 small onions finely chopped

150g risotto rice

3 small knobs of butter

olive oil

white wine

vegetable stock - but chicken would work

Parmesan

parsley

mixed mushrooms - your choice

I started by frying the onion in butter and oil, then adding the risotto rice, the skill being to coat the rice and to cook a little before adding any liquid - toasting the rice. I then splashed in a good glass of wine, maybe more but who is counting? I let this cook till it had boiled dry or there abouts, giving it a stir now and then.

Then it was time to get down to the main event, adding the stock which I had in another pan at a slow boil, ladle at a time, stirring until it had all been absorbed before adding another ladle.

The experts reckon a proper risotto takes 18 minutes to make, I didn't time it, so I couldn't tell you.

Will this was going on I fried the mushrooms in a separate pan with butter and oil, I suppose I could have added them in with the risotto at the beginning but I thought they might break up and I really want to keep the lovely different shapes of them all.

Once I had added all the vegetable stock to the rice mixture, and the rice was cooked but still had bite - al dente - like pasta; I took it off the heat, added another knob of butter some Parmesan cheese and gave it a good stir - this stage is called Mantecatura.

When I dished it up, I simply served the mushrooms on top with a sprinkle of parsley and more Parmesan. The parsley made a big impact. Delicious, well I thought so - Richard didn't like the exotic mushrooms. You win some, you lose some!

My Pan Bagnat

2010-11-06T01:43:00.000-07:00

I've always fancied having a go at doing a pan bagnat but was never keen on the filling that is traditionally used. The two fat ladies do something similar but with steak and onions and call it the shooters sandwich. The thing I was looking forward to the most was wrapping it up and pressing it under a couple of bricks!

I started with a round bread called pain de champagne, I doubt there was any champagne in it but it was the nice round shape I needed. I cut the top off and reserved for later to use as a lid, then hollowed the bread out.

Instead of butter or spread I used pesto to cover the base and lid, then I begin to fill it. Mozzarella went in, followed by salami, this was covered by rocket, then some creamy garlic mushrooms I had made, followed by more salami, topped with the last of the mozzarella, then some sun blushed tomatoes with their oil and finally the lid. I thinrk next time I would buy a bigger loaf of bread I reckon the more you put in it, the better it will be; or maybe I am just greedy!

It was then wrapped it up in greaseproof paper, tied with string and placed it in the fridge where it was pressed under my griddle pan and 2 bricks from the garden.
The much awaited unveiling produced quite a flat sandwich, perhaps 2 bricks was 1 too many! When it was cut into quarters it made for quite a pretty sandwich. We both enjoyed it, me three quarters more than Richard (yes I did eat 3/4s of it but not all at once!) Richard pointed out that he wouldn't put pesto at the bottom again as he felt it was a bit soggy in places.
I think it's something I would certainly do again perhaps trying different fillings, we came up with a list of things we would like to try:

meatballs, tomato sauce and cheese

chicken stroganoff

BLT, but that would take some amount of bacon.

What we ate this week

2010-11-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

Jelly Belly Beans

French onion soup

Southern fried chicken breasts in a bun with rocket and tomato

Home made Garlic bread

Filled ravioli with porcini mushrooms and ricotta, with basil pesto and grated cheese.

Chicken teriyaki stir fry with mushrooms, onions, carrots and broccoli served with noodles.

Chilli con carne with creme fresh, grated cheese and crusty bread - it was pretty disgusting since it was made with quorn mince and a weight watchers sauce!

Markies - dine for a tenner - Steak and chips

2010-11-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

I think most people know about the Marks and Spencers deal that happens quite frequently now, buy 1 main course, 1 side dish, 1 dessert and a drink for a tenner - it makes for quite a good meal and depending on what main you pick and drink it can be great value for money.

Last we Richard picked up the steak, chunky chips, vanilla cheese cake and a bottle of wine, quite a bag full for a ten quid.

We started with some scallops and pea puree that were left over from Friday night. Then I grilled the steaks stuck the chips in the oven and fried some mushrooms and onions to accompany them. Richard likes a sauce to go with it, but his favourite is adding markies cracked black pepper cream cheese to the mushrooms and onions to make a kind of sauce. I tried to be artistic with the chips and copy what the restaurants do - what we call jenga chips but they weren't all regulation sized and it didn't work quite as I hoped!

To finish we had the cheese cake which was very nice, not to sweet and a good size portion. All in all not bad for roughly 5 quid a head.

My husband cooks - Scallops and Meatballs

2010-11-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

Married life is treating me well - I'm not sure my husband Richard would agree since he is the one having to decorate the whole house and put up numerous new sets of blinds, curtains and lampshades. Infact looking at so many toilet roll holders and towel rails has made him close to suicidal as one can get and yet he still offered to make me a lovely meal - bless!

Scallops are something we have quite often but we always tend to go down the black pudding road with them, Richard has always expressed his desired to do a puree and this was his chance. He created a minted pea puree and also very skillfully crisped up some bacon - the whole thing was delicious as you can see from the licked plate! It always amazes me that restaurants charge so much for scallops when a dish like this is relatively easy to make. The pea puree was delicious and I hope he makes this again soon.

The main course was meatballs in a tomato sauce with a crispy topping of mozzerella and parmesan served with tagliatelle pasta and garlic bread on the side - another winner.

He may not be a michelin starred chef, but his meal was out of this world and food always tastes better when you don't have to cook it and it has that extra ingredient of love!

One last thing though - these were the only scallops Richard could source and although he didn't do them as per the recipe they came with, ie the breadcrumbs, I was shocked when I did read the instructions. Cook for ten minutes?????? Scallops for ten minutes????? Surely not Markies????

Cheese - it makes everything better

2010-11-03T06:01:00.001-07:00

Sometimes life deals you a shit hand but you have to dust yourself down, put a smile on your face and move on. Nothing helps you feel better than dipping things in hot creamy cheese! (reading that back sounds a bit wrong!) Richard and I needed some comfort food after a couple of rough weeks and a baked camembert with some roast potatoes, mushrooms and crusty bread to dip in was just what the doctor ordered.

Not exactly rocket science, yet this meal seems to look and sound a lot more lavish than it is, and with a couple of bottles of wine to accompany it, it was a real treat.

I simply cut a few slits in the top of the cheese, inserted some slice of garlic, splashed with wine white - if I had thyme I would have added that - and stuck it in the oven. Potatoes and mushrooms where drizzled with oil and seasoned and joined the cheese to roast.

I think ten minutes past of complete silence as Richard and I dipped and chewed, and finally smiled for what seemed like a long time!

Pulled pork - my first attempt.

2010-09-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

During my travels in America and Mexico I came across pulled pork on numerous occasions, it's something that I haven't seen much of in Scotland and certainly not in Aberdeen - which is 20 years behind every where else in the foodie world!
After searching online for recipes of which there are a lot, I went for a cross between a traditional pulled pork recipe and a cochninita pibil recipe from mexico.
The one thing I did notice was that these recipes use cuts of meat called pork butt which translates to pork shoulder in Scottish - something I found strange since shoulder and arse are no where near each other!
The pork was bought from Andrew Gordon Butchers and it was some hunk of meat!

Once the meat was cooked I decided to stick with the more mexican serving and we had tortillas, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and cheese - it was delicious even if I do say so myself.

I became a Mrs and went away for 4 weeks!

2010-09-03T00:12:00.000-07:00

Well I have finally grown up and became a married woman! My husband and I jetted off for a 4 week trip to Seattle, Alaska, Canada and then 2 weeks lying on the beach in Mexico, where we ate too much food and drank a shit load!

But now I am back to reality with a bump, the holiday clothes are washed and ironed and the grass has been cut! So I promise to update my blog soon and to start writing a bit more regularly now that I don't have wedding things to be doing!

I sent a Telegram – Does that make me a Queen?

2010-07-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

This post isn’t about food, and in real blogging fashion I want to be honest and say this is not a sponsored link nor am I being paid to do this. I simply received fantastic service from a company I used and decided to let them know, they responded and I thought I should tell the world, or at least the 5 people who might actually read this blog! Big Spud I count you amongst my 5!

So friends of Richard and I are getting married this week in Italy, lucky buggers! Being the numpty I am, I failed to get organised and send a card before they flew off last weekend. Sitting in the pub on Sunday enjoying a glass of wine Richard told me about the time friends of his got married abroad and he contacted the hotel to deliver a note of congratulations, which brought up the topic of Telegrams – did they still exist and more importantly do people still send them??

Returning to work on Monday a quick Google brought up a company called Telegrams4u. I filled in the required details and for the cheap price of 7 quid, off went my Telegram, well I thought it had! Luckily the very nice people at Telegrams4u realised I didn’t quite have the address details correct – revert back to earlier paragraph, the one which proclaims I am a numpty! Anyway they kindly took it upon themselves to correct them and emailed me to let me know – now that is service. I replied to Martyn to thank him for his great customer service and this ended in a conversation in which he took this service one step further. He contacted the wedding venue in Italy, and although my Telegram should on all accounts arrive in time for Thursday morning, he sent an electronic copy to the venue asking that if the Telegram didn’t make it for the morning of the wedding, would they be kind enough to print out the email version. First Class!

Once again I expressed my thanks to Martyn and the joy that sending a telegram had brought me and I hoped Lynne and Chris would also get a kick out of it and so to the point of the whole post – let’s bring back the Telegram – email, twitter, and blogs are all brilliant – I should know, I have all 3, but surely there has to be something a bit regal about sending a Telegram and even better receiving one! It’s good enough for the Royal family after all.

So thanks to Martyn at Telegrams4u he has offered a discount code, which will save you a lovely 10% off the purchase of a classic telegram, which is already great value. The code is PR22. Martyn tells me the company has only been on the go since January and they are hoping that it will catch on – with service like theirs I really don’t see why it shouldn’t.

So let’s do it, let’s bring back the Telegram….

Salmon and my very own spinach

2010-06-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time to harvest some of our home grown spinach and see if it actually tasted nice! I threw this together and would hardly call it a recipe.

Basically it was a salmon fillet steamed in a foil parcel with spinach, mushrooms,tomatoes, basil, garlic and some white wine. In the oven cooked till done.

Served with rocket and some balsamic, it won't win any awards but it was alright.

and yes the spinach was lovely - bonus!

Spanish Omellete

2010-06-25T04:22:00.001-07:00

After out trip to La tasca and tasting the Tortilla, I decided to have a go at it myself at home, a quick google brought up many a recipe, so I went with what I thought looked like the standard way. I sliced up potatoes and onions and slowly over a low heat fried them in oil, taking care not to colour them. I then put a lid over them to steam them and let them soften.

I cracked 6 eggs in a bowl and beat them…

Once the potatoes and onions where soft, you transfer them to the beaten egg, then back into the pan

Once the bottom had set, it was time to turn the tortilla, and keep my fingers crossed that it was cooking to fall or break up.

I managed!

It wasn’t quite as thick as I had hoped, I thinking my pan may have been too big and a smaller one would make for a thicker tortilla.

Plated up with some rocket, tomato, cheese and some pesto on the side! Even Richard liked it and it’s something I would d

Gardening Part 4

2010-06-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

Just a wee photographic update on the plants.... Richards babies!!

BBQ

2010-06-25T04:14:00.002-07:00

It was a nice sunny afternoon, so we decided to fire up the BBQ, but since we had a disposable once left from before Richard decided just to light this, instead of the one he lovingly built with his own fair hands!

Ian, our friend, best man and lodger made some lovely chilli burgers, I’m not sure exactly what went into them, but once they had a cheap cheese slice melted over the top they were a little bite of heaven!

We also threw some hot dogs on the fire and the boys also enjoyed a couple of sirloin steaks that were lurking around.

All in all, a nice wee dinner!

Dinner at Barbaras

2010-06-25T04:14:00.001-07:00

A dinner consisting of nibles and wine and as much girlie chat as you can fit into one saturday night is the thing of dreams. It was nothing overly exciting, some nice stromboli bread from markies, along with prawns, chicken, onion bhajis, and cheese and copious amounts of white wine it hits the spot and it's a winner!

Barbara still thinks it's funny that I take photographs of food, but what does she know?

La Tasca - a review? and Kevin Bridges

2010-06-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

It’s been too long since I updated this, and this is also a first for me, a restaurant review! It was also my first go at taking pictures in a restaurant, which I am still uneasy about – does this become easier the more you do? Do you need to ask permission first?

Anyway, Richard and I went out way back in May to see Kevin Bridges do his stuff at the Aberdeen Music Hall, for those not aware of Kevin – where have you been? He was his usual funny self, and in the year since we had seem him previously he has come on leaps and bounds with his material. If he comes to a place near you grab tickets if you can!

Before the show we decided to grab something to eat and due to Pizza Express being out the door we headed across to the much quieter La Tasca. Now La Tasca is by no means the real deal when it comes to tapas and I imagine that most of it is either frozen or pre cooked and simply reheated but it filled a gap and it meant I didn’t need to cook!

We ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio and it was nice, so no complaints there.
We then started with some bread and oil, which was also nice, it would be hard to get this wrong!

As you do with tapas we order several plates to share between us, with the exception being the Calamares Andaluza, which I ordered just for me because Richard wouldn’t touch the stuff! Others that we ordered included Alitas de Pollo – marinated chicken wings; Croquetas de pollo – chicken croquettes with garlic mayo – or should that actually be aioli since it was a Spanish restaurant. Meat wise we ordered the chorizo frito al vino, the spicy Spanish sausage fried in red wine and also the albondigas a la jardinera – meatballs to you and me. In my opinion these were a fail. Lastly we went for the tortilla Espanola – which for me was the winner of the night.

Tortilla Espanola

Chorizo frito al vino

Calamares Andaluza – which was lovely if a little pale in colour

Albondigas a la jardinera, Alitas de pollo, croquetas de pollo

croquetas de pollo – which was a huge winner!

La Tasca is nothing special, the service was good, that food is passable, but the prices are pretty cheap. It won’t transform you to the sunny climates of the med, but it does fill a hole before splitting your sides laughing at a funny Glaswegian man!

http://www.latasca.co.uk/

La Tasca – Aberdeen
367 Union St
Aberdeen, AB11 6BT

Where's my pork chop?

2010-06-11T00:02:00.001-07:00

I am a bit ashamed to say this but I have become a bit of an internet voyeur, but not in the dirty way you are all thinking, I'm talking more food porn!
After stalking a few people from the BBC food board over to their blogs and twitter I have found a whole new world in which to skive when I should be maintaining those delightful oil rigs that are in the north sea!
Aberdeen is shite for food, let's face it, we only just got a Yo Sushi and Nandos in the last 6 months and that apparently is us coming into the 21st century. I am so jealous of the people down in London who I regularly spy on when I see their posts about real sushi or indeed all the events they go to, especially when all I seem to be eating at the moment is cucumber and carrots (50 days of diet left!)

Danny aka Food Urchin has not 1 but 2 blogs - talk about greedy - I can barely manage to make my 1 readable - and it was on reading his second blog Where's my pork chop? that I decided I would stop stalking the London foodies but try and joined in even if it only was from a distance. Richard thought I was a bit mad, but after I explain it all to him he jumped on the band wagon and helped me out!

I won't dribble on anymore, but let the man speak for himself so here it is - Where's my pork chop - by post!

Richards Bastard Pizza

2010-06-09T00:54:00.001-07:00

Whilst I was making my white pizza Richard decided he too would like to make a pizza - Italians and food lovers look away now! Richard decided he would make his take on a meat feast. Firstly he added chicken bites , topped that with chicken tikka filler, and in keeping with his digusting toppings used Cheap red cheese to top it, finally being persuaded by me to add some mozzerella.

Now to me this was disgusting, to him - heaven on a plate - he scoffed the lot! Just one of the reasons I love him!

Pizza Making

2010-06-09T00:48:00.000-07:00

I had been reading a lot about white pizza's lately and fancied having a go myself. Google brought up quite a few recipes, switching between a white sauce and slices of potatoes, so I decided to join the two. I made a white sauce the usual way, butter flour, milk and added garlic and rosemary. I par boiled new potatoes and sliced them thinly. I started my putting on the white sauce, layering the potatoes, added riccota cheese and mozerella - it was actually not bad, but I'm not sure I prefer it over a normal tomato pizza. Although it certainly looked nice! Alot of recipes call for it to be drizzled with truffle oil once cooked, I didn't have any but I'd imagine that it would bring another element to the pizza dish and probably make it a whole lot better.

I also did basic cheese and tomato pizza just incase the white pizza was shit!

Gardening - Part 3 the Replant and the Plot

2010-06-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

We did the replanting of our seeds a while a ago now, and when I say we, I mean the royal we - as in Richard did it all. Infact I don't do much now apart from watch Richard water the plants and supervise!

We moved out seedlings from the trays into pots, and also cleared one of our flower beds to plant carrots, spinach and Glasgow lettuce more commonly know as Rocket!

Hestons Tagliata Steak

2010-05-10T07:40:00.001-07:00

Richard sent me this recipe the other day and decided it was something we should try, probably because I have this ridiculous love feast going on for rocket and because it included steak topped with cheese. If you top anything with cheese Richard will eat it - including he says shit! This is the man I am marrying, how proud I am!

Following @BigSpud on twitter, I noticed that he too had tried it. Which I thought was a big coincidence but apartly there has been advertisements about it all over the place, which I haven't seen, 1 because we don't have waitrose in Scotland and 2 because I sky plus everything as I hate adverts!

I got 2 lovely sirloins from Andrew Gordons and made Richard do the frying, because I am such a girl and scared of hot oil!

I have to say although the steak and indeed the recipe was delicious I just don't think there is such a big difference from Hestons near deep frying method and my usual oil to meat, meat to dry griddle pan, but hey Heston is a genius is he not?

Richard also commented when eating it that it smelt nice, which prompted me to ask, "does that mean it doesn't taste nice?" He assured me it did, he was just saying is all!

Scallops with black pudding, crispy bacon and rocket

2010-05-10T07:39:00.001-07:00

Before we indulged in the fillet steaks from Andrew Gordon, we had a simply starter of scallops served on rocket, with black pudding, crispy bacon and a warm balsamic dressing - need I say more?

Fillet Steaks - with mushrooms and onions in a pepper sauce

2010-05-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

I picked up these fillets steaks from Andrew Gordons, they were delicious, served just simply with mushrooms and onions fried with some markies cream cheese with black pepper corns to make some sort of sauce - I could eat this any time any day.

Having a go at Gardening - Part 2

2010-05-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

My very first cucumber plant has started to grow, it looks like it is just sticking it's bum out to test the air, since this 2 others have appeared as well!

The basil is coming along nicely, not sure what to do now with it, do I move it to a big tub?

Parsley has also decided to make an appearance this week - will I really be one day chopping this and actually putting it in my cooking? I'm impressed with myself!

and the amazing tomato plants, we have over 30 now, again not sure what's next for these? Do I seperate them into individual pots - that's a lot of pots - help someone - anyone!

Various dinners over the week

2010-05-07T06:44:00.001-07:00

Tomatoes and rocket on toast with markies garlic and parsley prawns

Chicken stirfry - which rich made and it was awesome! He's much better at stir fries than me!

Chicken Kiev, markies ultimate mash (which is indeed ultimate) and spaghetti.

Chicken breast stuffed with charles macleod black pudding - the best black pudding in the world!

Markies chicken legs and thighs, washed down with wine - delicious!

Dim Sum - markies 3 for a £5

2010-05-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

52 Burrito dates

2010-05-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

Came across this blog on twitter and thought I would recommend it, it's about a chap who won a competition in which the prize was a years supply of burittos (well 52) he has decided to use these as a basis for 52 dates in the hope of finding love.

He's only been on 4 so far, but the blog has started well - thought I'd pass it on.

Having a go at Gardening

2010-04-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have a go at this gardening marlarkey, being in the process of killing my aloe vera plant and my yukka plant - which is supposedly indestructable, I don't hold much hope. Keep your fingers crossed I manage to get something out this lot.

My tomato plants

The delightful little greenhouse that Richard has built me

my basil plants

Chinese style Rainbow Trout

2010-04-29T02:08:00.000-07:00

Drew at work was away on his annual boys fishing trip and very nicely brought back one of his catch for me!

I admit to have never having cooked a whole fish before so a quick look on the t'internet helped me out. I also admit to not liking fishy fish, so I wanted to put some flavour onto it.
I stuffed the gavity, thank god he gutted it for me, with some grated garlic and spring onion, then sprinkled the fish itself with chinese 5 spice, wrapped the whole thing in tin foil and baked it in the oven.

I served it simply with stir - fried veg.

I really wish I had liked it, I really do, but it was just too fishy - rotten!

Various Dinners

2010-04-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

Macaroni cheese and chips - yes double carbs

Fish fingers, chips and spaghetti

No fish for Rich - chicken fingers for him

Grilled chicken breast, rice and chinese curry sauce

Weight watchers filled pasta, with a weight watchers pasta sauce and rocket

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

2010-04-29T01:57:00.000-07:00

I tried my hand at making Vietnamese spring rolls, I picked the wrappers up in the chinese supermarket for less than a quid!

I cooked off some prawns with some five spice and I planned to serve the rolls cold. I mixed those with some shredded carrots, beansprouts, mushrooms, and rice noodles and maybe some other stuff but I can't remember now.

You have to put the wrappers into hot water to make them flexible which is quite weird and I found them quite hard to work with, perhaps practise would make it easier.

I liked them but Richard thought they would be hot like the normal spring rolls you get in the chinese, so we decided to fry one and see what it would be like. Rich prefered them fried, I liked them cold, more fresh on the mouth if you know what I mean.

The dip is just the Yakatori left over from the chicken I made the other week - that sauce would make any old shite taste good!

This isn't just any lasagne, this is a markies lasagne

2010-04-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

when I decided we were having this for dinner I said to Richard, "you know proper foodies will have kittens over this, it's double carbs and that is suppose to be so wrong!"

he replied "it's positively wrong then!"

and he meant positively is a brilliant sense.

It wasn't just any lasagne and chips it was markies lasagne and chips - delicious

A brief round up of one weeks dinners

2010-04-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

Weight watchers chicken tikka masala with sour cream and weight watchers nan bread

Homemade lentil soup and toast

Sausage and weight watchers turnip mash and home made onion gravy

vegetable fingers, chips and spaghetti - totally old school

I'm shit at this - Chicken yakatori

2010-04-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Chicken Yakatori : recipe from the wagamamas cook book, served with noodles and stir fried veg

Yes I know the pictures are back to front, I'm so shit at this

Las Vegas Waitress

2010-04-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

I love reading blogs especially the American ones, how rude are the people over there? It seems to me they always want their food for nothing, perhaps it's the British-ness in me (is that a word?) or perhaps I'm just not a fucking rude yank.

Anyway came across this blog Waiting in Vegas and the stories are fantastic.

The entry called You're doing it wrong had me spluttered my tea all over the keyboard so I had to share it - funny funny stuff!

Saturday 10th April - La Lombarda

2010-04-16T10:57:00.001-07:00

So today my mum, big cat and my chief bridesmaid Barbara came to my house to have the make up trial for the up coming wedding. We had loads of fun with Rae and had our make done beautifully. However too many glasses of wine in the afternoon meant that dinner became a blur.

We had booked La Lombarda which is a lovely restaurant in Aberdeen city centre. I know I had the calamari fritta to start, then the Cozze Alla Marinara - mussels - for main, however I don't remember eating it. The curse of even more wine.

Oh well I had a nice day!

Friday 9th April - Spaghetti on toast with cheese

2010-04-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight Richard and I came in from work and had to start straight away on the house work, you see the Queen was visiting the next day and when I say the Queen I of course mean my mother and her loyal subject the Big Cat, aka auntie Catherine!

So finally after cleaning the house top to bottom, or at least only the rooms our visitors will see we decide to have a quick supper and share a bottle of wine.

So Richard wanted Spaghetti cheese on toast, which in our house turns into a food debate.You see, I like toast done like proper toast, i.e toasted on both sides. Topped with the spaghetti then the cheese grated on top! Topped with a good grind of black pepper.

However my dearly beloved like his done completely different, like something I have never seen before. First he toasts one side of the bread. Then he turns it over, butters it, puts on his sliced cheese before returning it to the grill, once it has melted he then tops with the spaghetti - weird or what!!!

Thursday 8th April - No idea

2010-04-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

I can't really remember what we had last Thursday and there are no photographs to remind me, moral of the post - don't take so long to blog what you eat for your dinner.
Sorry!

Wednesday 7th April - Quiche, Sweetcorn, chips with Rocket and grated cheese

2010-04-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had a dinner that had even Richard suffering from food envy! An individual bacon quiche, accompanied with sweetcorn - which I love Rich hates. I had 100g of chips which equaled about 7 chips! Finally finished off with some greens, half a bag of rocket with a little low fat cheese grated over it. It was some plate of food and I really enjoyed it. Something I will have again in the future.

Tuesday 6th April - Fish Finger Sandwiches

2010-04-07T10:17:00.001-07:00

Sometimes only a fish finger sandwich will do.

Brown bread spread with dairylea, rocket and fish fingers.

As Gordon Ramsey would say "Job Done!"

Monday 5th April - Lentil Soup and Hot Dogs

2010-04-07T10:08:00.001-07:00

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Every day for lunch I take homemade lentil soup - well the little canteen if you could call it that is nothing more than shite.

I start with some celery finely chopped, an onion finely chopped, carrots grated, 100g of red lentils, 4 ham stock cubes, all stuck in the pressure cooked, half an hour later and a bit of salt and pepper and lunch is done.

I had a bowl of this and then some hot dogs with tomato sauce. Yum

Sunday 4th April - Roast Pork Rolls

2010-04-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

Sunday when I was traveling back up from Edinburgh, needing a liver transplant and yet still drinking - well the weekend wasn't actually over - Richard was cooking a lovely leg of pork. Which he shredded up and we had in rolls with the usually bunch of Rocket. Not quite a roast dinner but it hit the spot and we accompanied it with even more wine.

Saturday 3rd April - Highlight Comedy Club - Chicken burger

2010-04-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Saturdays night in Edinburgh was a trip to the Highlight Comedy Club where we had pre ordered food, 4 of us had chicken burgers and wendy had the vegetarian lasagne, which she said was good. My chicken burger was crap, to be honest the comedy club was crap and I got ID'd. The only good thing was the compere who looked like a fat jack black - he was funny.

Top tip go to the stand comedy club - apparently it's much better!

Sorry no pictures!

Friday 2nd April - Hen weekend - Guillanos

2010-04-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight marked the start of my hen weekend to Edinburgh, after a few drinks down on the train, cocktails in Harvey Nichols, followed by wine and then a bottle of champagne. Continued with more wine back at the, hotel as I got ready meant by the time we got to Guillanos I was pretty well on my way!

This meant that while I know what I ordered - Calamari Fritti and Lasagne, I have a picture of the starter and the rest is a blur. I'm sure the food was lovely though, the wine certainly was and it was flowing!

Thursday 1st April - Prawns - Markies

2010-04-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had Markies garlic and parsley prawns, they were awesome, the picture I took of them, not so much. Sorry no picture but a nice smelly breath.

I love garlic!

Wednesday 31st March - Markies ready Meal - Canjun Chicken Fettucini Pasta

2010-04-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight was back to be lazy, but in my defense I had to nip down the town late night shopping, to get my eyebrows threaded and visit my friend Babs who is recovering from her operation to have her appendics out!

To be honest the cajun chicken fettucini was rotten, but half a bag of rocket, some cheese and a good grind of salt and pepper manage to make it edible, I won't be buying it again.

Tuesday 30th March - Macaroni and cheese

2010-04-06T11:58:00.001-07:00

Tonight you'll be surprised in that I have eventually made our dinner from scratch.

I started off with a white sauce, by melting butter, adding flour and cooking it out. I gradually added milk to make a white sauce, boiling it gently to thicken it, adding a wee bit of mustard (which Rich always moans about but I do it anyway!). Then I added half of the grated cheese, I like to use a really mature white cheddar.

I boiled some pasta and made some breadcrumbs and the dish was ready to assemble and bake. Because it was only for two of us I made it in individual portions, I'm a bit sad like that!

I mixed the pasta with the white - now cheese sauce - topped with bread crumbs and the rest of the grated cheese and popped it into the oven to crisp up. The crispy topping is the best part!

I had rocket with mine to break it up - we all know by now Richard didn't!!

It was delicious!!

Monday 29th March - Chicken Tikka Masala and Nan

2010-04-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Tonight for dinner we had tikka masala and nan bread, I cooked off some onion, and mushrooms to bulk it out. Added the chicken and then yes a jar of sauce! I really am a lazy cook! Stuck a couple of nans in the oven and ready steady cook the dinner was done.

We topped it with a big of sour cream just so it wasn't too hot!

I always spill it down my top and tonight was no different, Rich always wonders how I can miss my big mouth!

Sunday 28th March - Fish/chicken turnip mash and spaghetti

2010-04-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a quick, stick it in the oven dinner, I had a nice fish fillet - and Rich being Rich had 2 breaded chicken breasts, served nice and easier with turnip mash and spaghetti in tomato sauce. Before I started this blog I used to think I made a lot of meals for scratch, quite clearly I don't make enough!
Oh yeah and Rich covered his in grated cheese, but he made me take the photograph with only a little, then used half a block!!

Saturday 27th March - Heavenly Pizza 18" pepperoni

2010-03-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had to visit my best friend Barbara in hospital, she is going for an operation, so we are thinking about her and wish her all the best - get well soon Babs.

After the hospital cooking wasn't really on my mind so we stopped at the local pizza place - heavenly and ordered an 18" pepperoni pizza, not great but not that bad either. We are munching it and drinking wine as I blog, probably not the best for the weight but once in a while isn't going to hurt - is it?

Friday 26th March - Quorn burger for me, chicken for Richard

2010-03-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

After work I had a little cat nap, which included an awesome dream about David Beckham, not really dinner related but thought I should mention it.

So dinner tonight was a couple of quorn burgers done on the dod foreman, not great but filled the hole all the same. The rolls were spread with left over roasted garlic, plenty of rocket, the burgers where topped with some cheese and a small spread of tomato ketchup finished the deal.

Richard prefers real meat, so he grilled a chicken breast that he had sliced in 2, stuck that on his rolls with cheese slices, which he melted under the grill, he enjoyed them. However he left the grill on and shut the door very nearly burning our house down - numpty!

Thursday 25th March - Chicken Fajitas

2010-03-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

Chicken fajitas again - no pictures because I didn't make them, I was kindly invited to my friend Lisa's for dinner, she didn't use the yellow kit but the red discovery kit, she also opted for the wholewheat tortillas, she's healthy that way. They were lovely.

Wednesday 24th March - Pasta

2010-03-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a quick supper, I took a wee craving for pasta this afternoon and Richard was happy enough with that! So pasta went into boil, I got a stir in sauce from the fridge that had been lurking there for a couple of weeks, and in ten minutes it was ready to eat!

I have a thing for rocket at the moment, so I piled my bowl with that, threw in the pasta and topped with a wee bit of grated cheese and plenty black pepper, that I am still using up from the steaks on sunday!!

Tuesday 23rd March 2010 - Fajitas

2010-03-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight Richard made chicken fajitas for dinner, he used the good old yellow kits widely avaiable from all good supermarkets! Originally our friend Ian was going to join us but then he decided just to go to the gym, so I ate my two and Richard, well he ate the rest!!

No pictures we totally forgot or to be honest we were too busy tucking in and enjoying it then we realised once we have finished we hadn't taken any!

Sorry!

Monday 22nd March - Chicken sandwiches

2010-03-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

Having cooked steaks on Sunday due to not eating them on Saturday, Sundays dinner was then bumped to Monday night. I still cooked it on Sunday which meant when I came in from work on Monday it was nice and easy to prepare!

Since reading the recipe for Chicken roasted with 40 cloves of garlic down by the blogger Helen on Food stories and then watching her turn it into the best sandwich she had ever tasted I knew I had to have a go.

So I browned my organic chicken in the pan first before putting it in my roasting tin with 3 heads of garlic, 200mls of oil and some thyme. A good season of salt and pepper, covering it with foil and into the oven it went!

On Monday Richard took all the meat off the carcass, I made homemade mayo with 2 egg yolks and the cooled olive from the chicken. Mixed this with the chicken meat.

The garlic cloves I squeezed out of their skins and put on the rolls, topped it with the meat and bobs your uncle, dinner was served. I topped mine with rocket, Richard didn’t – it’s too girlie for him! Delicious!

Sunday 21st March 2010 - Steak

2010-03-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Being down in the town centre on Saturday afternoon we stumbled on what we thought was a new butchers, when we asked how long he’d been there he replied “2 years!” oh well not that new, but new to us!

We bought 2 lovely sirloin steaks which we had planned to have on Saturday night but you have already read what delights I had instead, Richard wasn’t much better he had a bag of nuts!

So having to use them up it turned into Sunday nights dinner! I simply cooked them on the griddle pan, and accompanied them with some onions and mushrooms fried with some low fat cheese and peppercorns, which I bashed up myself in the pestle and mortar. I think I over did it on the peppercorns my nose was running by the end of eating it, but at least it cleaned out the old sinuses!

Saturday 20th Match 2010 - Toast

2010-03-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

Saturdays dinner is a bit of a let down, in so much as I forgot to take a picture and it really wasn’t that exciting!

While watching television and getting repetitive strain injury making the wedding invitations, Richard made me two slices of toast with extra light dairylea – not exactly Michelin star!

Friday 19th March 2010 - Pizza, I think!

2010-03-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well the new blog hasn't exactly started how I wanted, mostly because I couldn't find the cable that attaches the camera to the laptop, so while I started it in ernest it didn't quite work out that way! Nevermind Richard has managed to get the photographs onto our home network somehow, so let's get started!

Friday after a few drinks in the pub we went a quick shop to the new Tesco, we bought a couple of pizzas and a box of sushi. After a few wines I started the sushi, almost forgetting to take the picture then I remembered!

A few more drinks later and a comedy fall off the kitchen chair by myself, well I say fall the whole chair with me sitting on it fell over, I blamed the chair maybe I should have blamed the wine, we stuck the pizzas in the oven, or atleast I think we did! The packaging was in the bin and I took photographs but I don't remember eating it! Couldn't have been that good!

A change of direction

2010-03-19T04:29:00.001-07:00

So when I started this blog because someone, yes you wendy, encouraged me to do it, I thought why not? However it seems that although I have stories to tell, they actually only seem funny told in the pub over a white whine and soda!

I have failed to write anything regular, perhaps my life isn't as exciting as I once hoped it was.

I love reading blogs, I read them first thing in the morning when I come into work and it annoys me when people haven't updated in a while, yet my blog hasn't been written in since way last year. This got me to thinking of deleting it entirely - let's be honest I only have 2 readers!!

But then I had a wee brain wave, yes I do have these now and again, not often mind!
I love reading food blogs, particularly

http://lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.com/

http://www.doshermanos.co.uk/

http://dinnerdiary.org/

Now dinner is something I have, well just about every day - so perhaps this is something I can actually do and keep doing.

The laptop has found it's way down to the kitchen since Richard has been working late every night and I think my camera is charged - not that it is a fancy one, just a point and click, as the terminology goes - but I think it will do.

So, to finish a long rant, I have decided no matter what I have for dinner, whither it be a lovely homemade meal or turkey drummers and beans, I'll take a snap and stick it on here. What do you think?