Friday miscellany

I have been dieting for...well, pretty much my entire adult like and I STILL cannot decide whether or not daily weighing is a good thing or a bad thing. 

I like that it is a mini resolve boost every morning.  But it doesn't matter how much I tell myself that day to day fluctuations are unimportant, that it is the overall trajectory that is the key, if the number goes up and there is no good reason for it, it sticks in my bloody throat.  I was up 0.6 lbs this morning despite that fact I was a point under my dailies yesterday AND did over 12,000 steps.  I KNOW that I did not suddenly acquire half a pound of fat somewhere, that it was one of those little fluctuations that happen perfectly naturally, but you try telling my puny little monkey brain that.  It's throwing a tantrum and demanding a bacon roll to cheer itself up.  Sigh. 

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Speaking of daily points - I haven't even lost a stone yet and I've already dropped two points from my daily allowance, such that I am now on the very lowest one.  The weeklies will be next to go - and they disappear in chunks of seven.  My leader...sorry, coach we are supposed to call them now...tells me it is a GOOD THING when you lose points because it means that you're doing something right.  I beg to differ.

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Did I tell you that I've signed up to do a 5k race in December?  Let's pause and let that sink in a second.  Me.  Running 5k.  In public.  With a number pinned to my chest.  Well, not my actual chest but...

I decided that it had to be done and so I picked a Christmas themed race, along a flat route, where entrants are promised mulled wine and chocolate baubles at the end.  I plan to wear reindeer ears (cooler than a Santa hat.  Not cooler as in down-with-the-kids cool but cooler in the actual sense).  But I'm still at the stage where the thought of doing it makes me laugh nervously.  I'm well on with the Couch to 5k, so I should be completely ready in three months times but..hahahahahahaha.

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Current fad: flavour infused coffees.  This one, which I bought from Holland and Barrett, is delicious:

They don't contain any calories or sugar so, unsurprisingly, are not very sweet.  If you're expecting a full on mocha effect you may be disappointed.  But a really pleasant way of zuzzing (is that how you spell it) up one's morning coffee when one is trying to avoid the siren call of the Starbucks just next door to the office.  I've currently got one by Beanies, a chocolate cherry flavour, which I don't think is quite as good and is slightly more expensive, but they have a much larger range and I can't help thinking that gingerbread infused coffee would be perfect come December time.  You know, a few months down the line when we're talking about Christmas and I'm PREPARING TO RUN 5K IN PUBLIC.  Yeah, then.

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Happy weekend tout le monde!!!

TWTWTW: Winter is coming

It appears to be one of the depressing truths about getting older that time is permanently getting away from you.  I am sure that when I was a child, a single weekend would stretch out for days, summer lasted pretty much forever and a year was a lifetime.  And now, at the grand old age of thirty-ouch the whole play reel has sped up to an alarming degree.  I don't know how it can possibly be nearly the end of October, and 2017 approaching its final throes. 

I mean, I understand logically that we must be nearly into November, and thus practically at Christmas, because I made my Bonfire Night parkin today.  It was my second attempt, I am very sorry to say, the first being an abject lesson in trusting my cooking instincts.  Basically, we have an absolute beast of an oven and always have to reduce both cooking temperatures and times whenever we make anything to ensure that it isn't overdone; even bearing this in mind, I still managed to over bake my first parkin until it resembled nothing so much as a big, spicy HobNob biscuit.  Nothing wrong with the flavour, and, if you're happy to lose a few teeth, perfectly edible.  But not squishy, sticky parkin.  For those unfamiliar with this particular bake, I'll stick the recipe up next week.  The key thing to remember is that if it looks ready, smells ready and is only slightly springy to the touch DO NOT PUT IT BACK IN THE OVEN.  Even if you've only baked it for half the specified time.

I've titled the post, winter is coming, but last night's weather - full on wind and rain screeching and battering at the windows - made me think that it is pretty much here.  It was a perfect night to be inside, with all the sparkly loveliness of Strictly on the TV and a fire blazing in the log burning stove.  That stove, which we had fitted back in early summer, finally seeing off the Gawdawful 70s-style gas fire monstrosity, has proved to be our most worthwhile purchase of the year.  It was the first real stamp we put on this house after we bought it from our landlord and it's fabulous. Every home should have one, plus a cat to stare wistfully into the flames.  Example:

I say wistful.  That particular emotion might be slightly beyond her but she does a good impression, no?

In addition to the fire, we were also warmed on the inside by the delicious Rafi's curry that we had for supper (do you see how elegantly I segue into food chat?  Seamless!)  It had been quite a few years since we'd used one of their curry packs, but, now they have a permanent presence in Kirkgate market I can see us buying them much more regularly.  The Xacutti curry, which we made with chicken thighs, red peppers and onion, had a wonderfully rich, almost smoky quality to it.  We both agreed that we could have taken more heat, so, if we repurchase will request the mix be made hot rather than medium.  Served with nothing by rice and a supermarket naan bread it was a perfect Saturday supper.

No news is no news

Not quite sure what happened there but I appear to have blinked and found myself in October.

When I sat down to write this, I tried to figure out why I sometimes feel that I have less to say nowadays.  I'm certainly not eating or cooking less.  I've realised that one key difference is that I am a much more confident cook than when I started blogging seven (seven!) years ago.  Although we still meal plan, the plan tends to be more fluid.  Both of us abhor food waste and will often tweak things to a greater or lesser extent in order to accommodate leftovers, or ingredients that look set to lapse from sadness to inedible at any given moment.  Some of the nicest meals that we have eaten in the last few week have been just thrown together.  And I always feel a bit of a cheat, blogging a dish if it is full of splashes and dashes rather than properly measured ingredients.  But I'm not sure why - Nigel Slater, a food writer whose prose I adore even if I do find his TV persona a little grating, has built an entire bloody career on such a methodology.

So, I am going to try and be better about putting up posts that just describe a successful coming together of ingredients.  Something less formal than a recipe, just a vignette.

Of course, the ability to freestyle more is almost certainly a result of me not following any sort of formalised diet plan.  I think the last time that I was a paying member of Weight Watchers was a good eighteen months to two years ago (I'm sure that a quick trawl back through the archives could tell me if I really cared to know).  Interestingly, I am certainly no bigger for forsaking my membership and probably a little smaller thanks to some initial success on 5:2.  But, as every catch up post that I have done recently seems to repeat, after a good couple of months I seem to have spent the rest of the year trying to reclaim the 5:2 mojo and failing, for various reasons.  Sigh.

Still, I am in a good mood today and unwilling to get too introspective about things.  It's been a beautifully calm weekend of reading, baking and Strictlying.  There's a pork belly joint being pressed on the dining room table ready to be served with braised lentils and a punchy caper sauce.  The cat is chasing a fly. Life is full of quiet, Sunday pleasures.

Very Sunday

TWTWTW: Lazy, hazy, crazy

Well, we haven't done a that was the week that was post for a while, which means that the blog has been lacking in cute cat pictures, which will never do.

La Minx remains as beautiful and capricious as ever, as is the way with felines.  She, at best, tolerates and, at worst, cordially dislikes D despite our ongoing efforts but he forgives her because she is beautiful and has the loudest purr ever to emanate from a little cat.

Now, tell me, where on Earth has the summer gone?  I'm sure we had a few nice days back there in what - May?  June?  But the last few weeks have been terrible!  As regular readers will know, I am not a fan of the heat but the lack of blue skies and the constant threat of rain is becoming slightly depressing.  I feel like I should be talking about barbecues and summer salads but it's really more weather for stews.

Still, miserable weather notwithstanding, we managed to drag ourselves out this week when we went to a really fun Sipsmith gin event at Shear's Yard this week, which I will write about in more detail in another post; I was shocked to find that it has been two and a half years since we last went to that fine establishment (I wrote about it here).  Sadly, both time and money preclude us from visiting such local gems as often as we would both like - and given the continued pressures on independent establishments it's a real shame not to support them more.  Leeds recently lost The Black Swan which was an absolutely wonderful gastro-ish pub that is also mentioned in the above post which goes to show that even places that do everything right are at risk.

We had a few nights midweek where we were a bit lax about cooking for various reasons, but things have picked up this weekend, and for brunch this morning I finally got around to making shakshuka (pictured below with toasted, buttered brioche).

It's been on my "dishes I should really try" list for AGES and, guess what?  It really is worth trying!  I followed Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe, here because I liked the fact that it kept things pretty simple (I mean, in terms of additions to the stewed tomato and pepper mix.)  I can see how adding a garnish of feta, or herbed yoghurt or cooking some chorizo or something in with the vegetables would work well, but loved it just as it was.  It's great for brunch because you can make the sauce the day before (which probably improves the flavour anyway) and then just cook the eggs in the morning.  Although I have to say this: his recipe suggests that you make the sauce then divide it between four pans before cooking with the eggs.  This sounds like a lot of washing up to me.  I cooked the vegetables in a large, shallow, stove-top casserole dish and just broke the eggs into that.  Much simpler.

TWTWTW: Bangers

This week it was Bonfire Night in the U.K. An occasion on which we celebrate, through the respective mediums of bonfires and fireworks, the fact that a bunch of nefarious Catholics were foiled in their attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

(Desperately tries to resist urge to make ironical comment on this given the current state of British politics).

Anyway, certain foods are traditionally associated with Bonfire Night. Sausages, or bangers, for obvious reasons. Chilli con carne (slightly less obviously). Parkin - a rich, sticky, spicy cake (again, don't grasp the significance of the connection. But any excuse to eat gingery cake). Our household being nothing if not predictable, all these foodstuffs were on the menu for the weekend.

I was thwarted in my attempt to make parkin by Waitrose rather rudely failing to provide adequate stocks of black treacle, but I produced a damp gingerbread loaf instead which was almost an acceptable substitute. It was D who really triumphed in the food stakes this weekend though, by using some of the new kit he got for his birthday to produce his very own sausages:

Just look at these plumptious little beauties! At my request, he made a batch of boudin blanc, which is a traditional French sausage consisting of pork and chicken, a combination of warming spices and milk and eggs which give it a light, moussey texture. It turns out that making sausages is neither easy nor clean nor quick, but it does give a person a certain smug glow. Also on the agenda for the next couple of months, plans are afoot to create a house sausage recipe (he is thinking pork and juniper) and some spicy merguez.

In other news, we leave for Paris at 5am on Thursday morning, for a long weekend of Gallic indulgence. And when we get back, we have plans in place which will hopefully mean that this blog goes back to being as much about weight watching (as opposed to Weight Watchers-ing) as it is about food. Colour me excited.

TWTWTW: More of the same...with added bacon

I promise that as some point this blog will go back to being more than meal plans and the occasional bitch about how busy and crap everything is.  Promise.  I'm coming towards the end of a four year professional training course so, understandably, work is preying a lot on my mind at the moment.  The rewards at the end in terms of career progression (and money!) will be worth it, but I've become a bit of a one track record in the meantime.  I hate it, since I am not and never will be someone for whom their career is all consuming.  I mean, if writing about food was my career then perhaps things would be different but until someone pays me to sit at home in my pyjamas and blog (hopeful face), I am definitely a work to live type of person, whose level of ambition is simply being able to provide for a comfortable existence.  You can believe it when I say that no one is more bored by having to prioritise work and studying over everything else than me.

Except, possibly, Minx.

It's not all doom and gloom though!  On Monday, after a day stuck in a classroom with a load of similarly stressed out individuals, D decided that we needed to go and cheer ourselves up with some properly MESSY food.

Look at that, boys and girls!  Almost Famous caused a bit of controversy when it opened because it had some trying-to-be-cool-and-ironic-but-just-coming-across-as-misogynistic graffiti in their toilets but that is gone now and what is left are some seriously gooey burgers.  Yes, those are Doritos that you can see proudly poking their way out there.  And yes, that is a deep fried ball of mac and cheese pinioned to the top.  For all that there was a lot packed in to that burger, the bun stood up very well and the star of the show was undoubtedly the blushingly pink patty.

Oh, and we had to try the bacon bacon fries, for research purposes...

Yes, they're fries topped with bacon AND bacon mayonnaise.  Yes, it's ok to drool a little.

D, who has eaten a LOT of burgers in and around Leeds does NOT rate this one as highly as the offerings that can be found in Nation of Shopkeepers or Belgrave Music Hall.  And, if I'm really honest, some of the nicest burgers I've had recently have been ones we've cooked at home.  But still, sticky of finger and greasy of chin, it was a nice, albeit calorific, start to the week.

Right, now I'm off to stare at some computations and hope that D is the lucky UK winner of the £61 million Euro jackpot (he never checks his ticket until Monday morning so that we can dream for a little bit longer).  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friends, whatever you happen to be doing - unless you're revising for an exam too in which case - I share your pain.

TWTWTW: out and about in Leeds

This week I learned a very important life lesson. Kale and vodka are not happy bedfellows.

Before I get to that though, a couple of Leeds eateries were sampled over the course of the week - it's almost like I'm in danger of having a social life! On Monday, D and I headed out for Thai food at a venue that we've been meaning to try for ages called Zaap. The menu read like an absolute dream with a good mix of small "street" dishes and larger classics like the ubiquitous green curry. The restaurant was bright and buzzy and packed out despite it being the beginning of the working week, but the food left us slightly underwhelmed. Nothing I could put my finger on but it was all just a little greasy, a little lacking in rounded flavours. The minced chicken salad (Larb Gai) was too perfumed for our palates with insufficient salt and heat to balance out the heavy handed application of lemongrass. We both agreed that the slightly more muted venue across the road, Thai A Roy Dee is superior if you're more interested in food than neon signs.

And then on Friday, a posse of ladies who lunch treated ourselves to a tapas and bitch session at the (I think) relatively recent opened Leeds branch of Iberica. Lots and lots to like here - my particular favourite dish being the chorizo lollipops that zinged with paprika heat. At £30 per head for more tapas than we could eat, a bottle of wine, two mocktails and two coffees, it was pretty decent value too.

It was during post tapas cocktails at another new venue on me, Be At One, that I made the unsurprising discovery vis a vis leafy greens and lemon vodka. I don't know whether it is supposed to be tongue and cheek or genuinely try to appeal to the clean eating brigade but the detox cocktail made with lemon vodka, lime juice, spinach, kale and pineapple was actually nasty. There wasn't enough fruit or acidity to balance the taste of iron. I adore kale, but this was just wrong. Fortunately, a porn star martini, made with passion fruit and vanilla vodka, restored my equilibrium and immediately leapt to the top of my favourite cocktails list.

TWTWTW: Goodbye to an old friend

Beautiful Minerva McGonagall Cat left us this week. She was diagnosed with a tumour several months ago which had, at last, started to have an impact on her general health and so my Mum made the heartbreaking decision to put our little friend to sleep. She had been a part of our family for 16 years. I have been surprised at quite how much it has affected me; I mean, I cry at the drop of a hat anyway, but this feels like genuine grief. The level of impact that animals have on our lives cannot be underestimated - poor Minx has been subjected to a LOT of weepy cuddles this week. At the same time, it was the right decision to make and I take a lot of comfort from the fact that my Mum allowed a much loved, elderly cat to end her long and happy life peacefully and with dignity. We should all be so lucky.

D and I went over to spend the evening with my parents to say a proper goodbye to Minnie and, while there, cooked an absolutely gorgeous recipe - this cauliflower risotto by Jamie Oliver. Nothing is as luxurious and comforting as a risotto and this is a particularly delicious example of the genre and brought a smile to all our faces even in the sad circumstances.

Elsewhere this week, D and I popped to Headingley for an end-of-the-working week lunch and had some very nice sandwiches at White's Cafe Bar. I like White's - it has a nice atmosphere with just the right balance of buzzy and laid back, and is equally amenable if you want a good cup of coffee or if you want to drown your sorrows at the bottom of a large glass of wine. The group of very LOUD, very ENTHUSIASTIC students at the table next to us did threaten the mood a bit and, as D pointed out, it is quite dark if you sit at a table near the back of the room. Still, behold these sandwiches:

I went for the Philly cheesesteak which was doused with a pleasing amount of black pepper and American mustard, while D had a BLT with cheddar and coleslaw which was huuuuge. I mean, not "Man Versus Food" huge but still, required a bit of a jaw stretch. How does Adam Richman do it?

Right, I am off to cuddle my cat again - and to all pet owners out there, give your furry friend an extra kiss this week and remind yourself how lucky we all are to share a bit of our lives with them.

x

TWTWTW: Back in the kitchen and the return of the Fakeaway

As mentioned many times on this blog for some unknown reason, when life gets stressful, one of the first things that flies out of the window is the cooking and eating of sensible meals.  I often lose my appetite, which feels ridiculous to say out loud since I do not look like the kind of wan and waif-ey creature who can't bring themselves to eat.  I certainly lose any desire to be in the kitchen.  In these dark days, the toaster becomes the most regularly used tool in the arsenal.

How lovely, then, to finally have got back into some sort of good routine this week.  We have cooked and eaten a number of gorgeous meals and both of us feel a lot better for it.

Yesterday evening, I decided to do a Friday Night Fakeaway for the first time in ages, and cooked a delicious but incredibly simple chicken with cashew nuts, which recipe can be found here.  Chunks of chicken breast are combined with egg white, cornflour and a little sesame oil for twenty minutes or so before cooking, which makes them incredibly tender in the stir fry. Seriously, give this one a go.  I also highly recommend drizzling some curly kale with garlic oil, sprinkling with salt and roasting in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes - you end up with something very akin to the seaweed they serve up at Chinese restaurants; it makes a great side dish and doesn't taste virtuous at all (which is clearly one of the points of fakeaway).

My mojo has returned to such an extent that I currently have some bread dough proving in the sun and, later, I will be giving my new baguette baking trays a whirl.  I have tried baguettes before, and although the taste was successful the shaping...not so much.  Paul "Silver Fox" Hollywood makes it look easy and it really isn't.

I must admit, no points are being counted at the moment - that's the next thing to add in and I'm going to have to spend some proper time pondering how to make the new Smart Points work better for me - my initial impressions were not favourable but the thought of going back to Pro Points, when I rely quite heavily on the online tools, is not really tenable.  I even found myself wondering about sticking my toe in the proverbial Slimming World pool this week - my Mum has had a lot of success on SW and is looking amazing at the moment - but I think that a) I would find it quite limiting and b) I'm just making excuses to avoid putting my head down and getting on with it.

Obligatory cute cat pic of the week:

Minx is, as ever, a furry, purry angel - even despite the fact that she has a charming new habit of coming and waking me up in the early hours for a little bit of a stroke and a cuddle.  Who needs beauty sleep anyway?

TWTWTW: Catch up, Cat, Carriages

Woe

Oooh, all went a bit quiet there, didn't it?  Not to worry, chaps, I didn't decide to run off to the Good Food Show like Nellie the Elephant packing her bags for the circus.  But I have been busy working towards an exam.  And by working towards, of course I mean panicking a lot and shuffling all my bits of paper into piles rather than doing any proper revision.

If anyone out there has some good revision tips then PLEASE share.  I seem to lack the ability to do it properly and just floof about.  Meanwhile, the cat delights in positioning herself in the most awkward place possible.

Joy

The Good Food show itself was great fun.  It was so heartening to see the number of fantastic local suppliers who turned out and plied us with goodies.  Among my take-home haul were several bottles of gin by exciting new distillers and a Yorkshire halloumi cheese which stares at me every time I open the fridge and begs to be fried up until both crispy and squeaky.  I'd like to write up a more detailed post at some point...but time's winged chariot and all that...

More Joy

April 14th was the 12th anniversary of the date on which D and I first met so we went for a belated celebratory dinner at an old favourite: Carriages in Knaresborough.  It's a cute little wine bar-cum-bistro which serves well cooked, decent food and boasts a far better wine list than you'd expect in such a modest establishment.  It's never going to blow your mind but it's the kind of food that most people like to eat, done very well.  I must admit, I ordered scallops and goats' cheese out of curiosity, assuming that it would not quite work, but a delicate touch with the soft, salty cheese mousse actually enhanced the sweetness of the scallops, and showed a real ability to balance ingredients.  They don't have a website but they do have a Facebook page that you can view here for further info.

More Woe

D is continuing to follow the Dukan diet, albeit with a weekend break, and his results continue to be impressive.  My Weight Watching has fallen apart a little bit this week, but I should squeak an STS, having lost a further 0.6 lbs last week.  3.6 lbs in three weeks may not be incredible going, but it's not bad considering that my heart has not really been in it.

Home cooking is a little joyless at the moment; most nights D tucks in to his pile of protein and I add a side of vegetables and whingeing.  We are already looking to recover our cooking mojo in the month of May, and hopefully, I'll get some recipes posted up to the blog - they've been sadly lacking recently.

The next couple of weeks will probably continue to be quiet on the WWF front but I will, at least, try and have another good crack at the Smart Points in the coming week and report back on any progress.

TWTWTW: Easter 2016

The weather outside may be frightful (par for the course during a UK Bank Holiday weekend) but here, chez WWF, all is peaceful.  Apart from the feline member of the household who was bombing around just a minute ago - not sure what it is she is chasing.

So on Wednesday we took ourselves off to Whitby for a couple of nights.  The colour theme of the sojourn can pretty much be summed up by this picture:

Very Grey.  But hey, you don't go the seaside for sunshine.  You go for atmosphere.  You go to take random pictures of seagulls:

You go for FISH AND CHIPS:

That plateful of loveliness is brought to you courtesy of Trencher's which I heartily recommend to you if you find yourself in Whitby and don't fancy queuing outside the Magpie.  I really liked the fact that they offered a small portion which was perfectly Seren sized.  I can never manage all the chips in a standard - when D and I get takeaway I always push for two fish and one chips between us.

Ha, but check out what happened on the Friday that we were heading back to Leeds:

The Weather Gods can be right bastards sometimes.

In other Easter tidings, I made my first ever batch of hot cross buns:

Yes, not things of beauty, are they?  They tasted nice though - a denser, breadier texture than shop bought offerings.  My next attempt will up the spice content, but the basic recipe I used can be found here.

Some sad news cast the slightest of shadows over the long weekend; my parents' beautiful tabby cat, Minnie, has been diagnosed with a tumour and is only like to be with us for a few more weeks.  I got the chance to see her yesterday and she is still in very good health and spirits, eating well and quite happy, so it looks as if the rest of her time here will be peaceful and content, as, indeed, was her whole life.  She will be very much missed.  I wrote a bit about her here.  Minx has kindly agreed that this week, Minnie should provide the obligatory cat picture.

TWTWTW: vet, 80s, teriyaki

I've been quiet all week - full of cold and rather sulky.

Obligatory cute cat picture

Minx went to the vet this week for her yearly jabs and was an angel throughout. The vet commented that she was a "perfect" weight, a rarity in our household. She doesn't appear to be overly bothered by food and will graze from her bowls throughout the day as and when she remembers. A salutary lesson for us all.

I go back to the 80s

I am writing this before the week is truly over, prior to heading down to London for an 80s themed birthday party. I have packed fingerless gloves and blue eyeshadow and will probably need to be steaming before I set foot outside the hotel room. Being aged 0-9 in the 80s, I wasn't particularly au fait with the fashions so have spent some interesting sessions on Pinterest acquainting myself with what passed for style back in the day. I am hoping for proper retro buffet snacks - cheese and pineapple on sticks, Monster Munch...oooh, boil in the bag fish! Not really a buffet snack but I remember eating it a lot as a child - can you still get it?

I do not quite succeed at lamb teriyaki

There has been a dish on the Wagamamas menu for a while now of teriyaki lamb with wasabi and pea noodles of which I have always liked the idea. I tried to make something similar this week and although it was fine it didn't blow my socks off. Perhaps my mistake was, per this recipe, making the teriyaki sauce from component parts - perhaps it's one of those things that you just have to buy pre-made. If anyone has any teriyaki tips then please let me know - I am sure that this dish has potential but I need to have a bit of a rethink.

Have a good weekend dear readers (insert witty sign off here).

That was the week that was

I want to get into the habit of doing the odd round up post. As I get older, I get increasingly forgetful - although it might be the effect of gin rather than years - and lots of lovely things get consumed and then never make it as far as the blog.

Plus it will give me an excuse to throw in Cute Cat Picture of the week:

My culinary horizons are expanded

Last night, if I had been wearing a hat I would have been forced to eat it. We went for dinner with friends and got the opportunity to sample some authentic, home cooked South African food. I, having looked up bobotie online, was not convinced. But it turns out to be divine! Somehow the richness of the meat and the complexity of the spices perfectly balances with the sweetness. I am really quite tempted to try and make it myself. I do not, however, intend to garnish it with banana (sorry, Les) - that was just one step too far from my palate.

Oh, also, peri peri chicken livers. You NEED these in your life, dear readers.

We order too much Thai food

In the hope of reviving my occasional "Cheap Eats in Leeds" series, D and I had dinner at Leeds institution Thai Aroy Dee. Unfortunately, I was tired and he was grumpy after a whole broken glasses saga, so we clearly ordered far too much food and came in over the £30 mark. Mind, we ended up taking an awful lot of it away to eat the following day. We intend to return and give it another go.

Giant Couscous is my new favourite thing

Served this week with lamb and haggis meatballs, roasted aubergine and a creamy aubergine purée - this little grain is an absolute revelation! It has made me think that I need to be a bit more creative with my staple carbs and mix up the standard pasta, rice and potatoes rotation.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday lovelies...(insert witty sign off here).