Today my mum and I spent what felt like a lifetime in Ikea.
My trips there always play out in much the same way. Mum will suggest the trip, she's only looking for one thing. We enter and we wish, more than ever before, that we could look in all directions at once. The rooms set up in their entirety, the gadgets, the cafe!
Then an hour slips past, ( Read more... )

I was in Sanity this morning and was about to leave empty-handed when I spotted two Nigella Lawson DVDs.

Now, I have three of Nigella's cook books and I love them because she writes them in such a way that you have something to read instead of just a handful of recipes artlessly chucked together. However (!) I am in two minds about her. Her recipes ( Read more... )

Just a quick one today:
As you've read before, I love creamed spinach so I thought there could be nothing nicer than putting it on a pizza for lazy Friday dinner.
I defrosted 750g frozen spinach and then chucked it in a frying pan with 300ml of cream and added salt, pepper and a generous shake of nutmeg. When it was all heated through and tasting ( Read more... )

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This recipe is one of the first I ever came up with on my own and the very first thing I ever cooked for Michael when we started going out. It started out just creamy mushrooms and bacon and I thought it needed some texture so I added the walnuts. I do not consider it sad when I say it's one of the single greatest executive decisions I've ever made ( Read more... )

So about a week ago I asked Michael what he'd like to eat on his birthday and he couldn't decide between his two faourites: risotto and my mushroom pasta, the first thing I ever cooked for him.

To put him out of his indecisive misery I decided to make a breakfast risotto and then mushroom pasta for dinner.
Granted that the way I planned it, both ( Read more... )

I don't remember the first time my mum made savoy chicken for us but I remember always loving it. This is the recipe Mum's always used and now I make it and Michael adores it.

I was originally going to serve this with mashes potatoes but at the last minute I changed to cous cous. So glad I did.

It goes like so:
Take 1kg chicken pieces (I usually use ( Read more... )

A few months ago, not sure how, I became aware of French Dip.
If you're not aware of this phenomenon, close your eyes and consider this:
A beef shoulder roast cooked for 10 deliciously agonising hours 'til it's practically falling apart. Then the meat's shredded and served on a fresh, crusty roll with a little bowl of its juice for dipping.
When I ( Read more... )

Michael and I do this thing where we take turns giving each other a gift on Wednesdays. It doesn't have to be something big, just something to remind the recipient they're loved.

Last week Mikey gave me a beautiful bunch of yellow flowers (we don't know what they're called but they look like if tulips and daffodils had babies) so today I thought I'd ( Read more... )

The problem (or one of the problems) with having a job is the time you get home at night. On my stay-back-late day (which just so happens to be today) I work 'til 6 and by the time I've fought my way through peak-hour traffic, checked my email and other internet things I can't access at work, got all the ingredients I need for dinner and got down ( Read more... )