Cookery Calendar Challenge: March

Welcome to my first Cookery Calendar Challenge report. I'm joining with Penny at The Homemade Heart who invites fellow bloggers to choose one cookery book each month, select and cook two dishes from it and post their thoughts at the beginning of the following month.

I chose Jamie Oliver's The Return of the Naked Chef, which I almost instantly regretted.  It's not that I don't like Jamie Oliver.  I do.  He's an entertaining TV cook and I value his contribution to the debate over the nutritional value of school dinners, over-fishing etc.  It's not even that I didn't like the book.  It's just that I'm trying to cut down on my meat intake, and although he does offer a number of vegetarian recipes, very few of them appealed to me.  In addition, because the challenge slipped my mind until the end of the month, which coincided with my attempting to use up the contents of my fridge before going away for a long weekend, I found myself even more restricted.

My first dish was Spaghetti with Anchovies, Dried Chilli & Panagritata. Being quick and easy to prepare - boil pasta, melt anchovies in garlic oil, toast breadcrumbs, throw together - it made the ideal holiday lunch.  I shared it with my daughter.  She didn't like it, mainly because of the anchovies.  I did enjoy it, but found the panagritata made it feel a bit dry in the mouth.  If I made it again I would add a bit more reserved water from the pasta and hope it didn't take the crunch from the breadcrumbs.  Perhaps a touch more olive oil would be better?

I'm afraid my photograph doesn't do it justice.  I though afterwards that it would have looked better if I'd tossed it together beforehand.

My second dish was Pappardelle, Spicy Sausage Meat and Mixed Wild Mushrooms.  For practical reasons I swapped pappardelle for tagliatelle, wild mushrooms for a mixture of button mushrooms and broccoli and stirred in a couple of spoonfuls of cream. We ate it for dinner with a green side salad, sharing it with my daughter's boyfriend.  It went down better than the first dish.  Its versatility and the fact that it makes a little meat go a long way means that I'm sure to make it again.

Again, apologies for the photograph with its very shiny plate!

Flicking through the book there are a couple of other recipes I'd try - pukkolla (Jamie's take on muesli), pan-toasted almonds with a touch of chilli and sea salt, salmon fillet wrapped in prosciutto with herby lentils, spinach and yoghurt, his marinades and rubs and chickpea Moroccan flatbread.

My book for April is Rachel Roddy's Five Quarters.  I first encountered Rachel in the Saturday Guardian where she was one of a series of cooks in residence (she now has a regular column) and clicked through her book in Foyles on many occasions before finally buying it.

What's for tea?

One of the joys of blogging is being inspired by other bloggers.  Eliane over at faites simple has challenged herself to plan her week's meals in advance on Sunday evening and to make better use of her 'embarrassingly unused cookbook library'.

This is something I have tried at various points in my life.  When I succeed it transforms my week.  No more midday panics over what we're going to eat that evening, no getting halfway through a recipe only to discover that I'm missing a key ingredient, no nasty discoveries at the back of the fridge ...

So this week I'll be (mainly) cooking from Rose Prince's the new english kitchen.

Monday
Haggis, neeps & tatties (in celebration of Rabbie Burns)

Tuesday
Baked chick peas, peppers & potatoes with yoghurt sauce

Wednesday
Butternut squash risotto

Thursday
Braised red lentils with lime juice & feta

Friday
Tamarind fish stew (from the freezer)

Saturday
Chicken curry (from the freezer)

Sunday
Beef braised with rhubarb

In 2013 I resolve to ...

I'm spoilt for choice.

I could resolve to bake all my own bread ... or do all the dishes before bed ... or read more books ... or lose some weight ... or stop stressing over silly things ... or grow something (anything!) in the garden ... or switch off the light before midnight ... or start running again ... or cut down my plastic consumption ... or spend less time on the laptop ...

While I fully intend to do most (if not all of the above) at some point during the next year, I'm reluctant to set myself up to fall at the first hurdle in a month, or a week, or (in the case of unnecessary stressing!) in a day's time.

I've been interested in what fellow bloggers have been posting on the subject of New Year's Resolutions.  Lucy in the Clouds directed me to Shinypigeon's sound advice.  Karen at A Quiet Corner has been inspired by Meet Me At Mike's resolution to make 2013 The Year of Interestingness.  Jen at Little Birdie has opted for 'plans' while Nancy at The Philosophy of Lists has simply chosen to eat more smoked salmon!  Now there's a resolution I wouldn't mind keeping.  Karin at Green & Generous quotes the Buddha: "The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, nor to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly."  Sue at The Quince Tree is swapping cakes for delicious healthy meals.  I hope she shares her successes.

So where does that leave me on this first day of 2013.

Well, I've decided to (continue to) be open to new ideas and opportunities.  Of course I want to be healthier, and tidier, and greener, and more productive.  But more than any of these I want to embrace life and all its possibilities.  Despite its various shortcomings this is still a wonderful world and I resolve to enjoy (and share) the best it has to offer.

Blog Action Day: The Power of We

Today's Food Programme was about food waste.  15 million tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK every year.  Tristram Stuart interviewed a variety of people involved in trying either to reduce this mountain of waste or at least divert it to people who need it.

There are a number of reasons why food is wasted.  Some of it remains unharvested, some is rejected because it does not meet quality or aesthetic standards, some is damaged in transport or storage, some is surplus to requirements, some exceeds its best before date ... The list goes on.

But there are also a variety of organisations dedicated to rescuing waste food before it is dumped in a landfill site.  Volunteers harvest unwanted crops, collect rejected food from the back doors of supermarkets, pass it on to vulnerable people, use it to prepare meals for the homeless, make it into jams and chutneys ...

It was fascinating listening but the bit that caught my attention was right at the end, when Tristram Stuart observed that the most effective food related campaigns in recent years (ie GM, sustainable fishing, free range poultry) have been largely consumer led, and suggested that if we, the customers, were to ask supermarkets to stock knobbly fruit and vegetables and make more of their food waste available to charities, then they would more than likely do so.

So, if you are concerned about the amount of food being dumped in landfill then exercise 'the power of we'.

PS  It is worth noting that almost 50% of food waste is in our homes, and 60% of this is avoidable. So 'we' could launch our campaign in our own trolleys, kitchens and dining rooms. For tips on how to do this log in to Love Food Hate Waste

Vegan MOFO

My blogger friends Sime and Kay over at Just Humans Being have signed up to Vegan MOFO and will be posting on all things vegan during the month of October.  As a carnivore it would not have been appropriate for me to do likewise but I have decided, nonetheless, to try and explore this meat and dairy free diet over the next few weeks.

The day I first read of Vegan MOFO I realised that my dinner that evening had quite coincidentally been vegan, a runner bean curry and rice.  If there had been any yoghurt in the fridge I'd have dolloped a spoonful of it on the side, but there wasn't, and it was perfectly respectable without.

As I've said, I am a carnivore.  I've considered vegetarianism and even veganism, but although I'm persuaded that I should eat less meat and question its provenance, I'm not convinced that I should give it up altogether. However it's clear that eating less meat makes sense for the sake of my health and the welfare of the planet and its people.  It will help me to live more frugally and perhaps even shed a few pounds.

So I'm looking for inspiration, ideas and recipes.  Knowing Sime & Kay I'm sure they will not disappoint!

Coolpix

Yesterday Alan bought me my birthday present - a new camera. My old camera broke a couple of years ago and I have been borrowing the girls' camera on and off ever since, much to their annoyance.

But now I have one of my own again - a Nikon Coolpix P50 - which is small enough to fit in my handbag and which takes good enough photos for my purposes ie to illustrate this blog. I took a few photos on the way home including this one of the window in the Arnolfini bookshop.

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International Bloggers' Day

4 October 2007

The Beginning

They say that you should never say never ... well I said I would never write a blog ... and here I am. Which only goes to prove that 'they' were right (are they always, I wonder?)

Anyway it may not last very long, so let's enjoy it while it does.

I do a lot of thinking, running things over and over in my head, and I thought that if I ran them over in a blog they might make more sense, and perhaps some of you might like to comment on my musings in a helpful manner.

So here goes ... except that I can't think of anything at the moment, so I'll have to wait until I do.

Meanwhile I'll go away and find out how to make this blog look more interesting for you to look at.