Meat Feast Weekend - Sunday Lunch

So, my forays into cooking meat have covered ambition and nostalgia, but that leaves the social aspect. It's been a long time since I've lived with my parents, or anyone's parents (I'm only really getting used to the idea of being a parent myself) but I love having people round for dinner. Last time Pete went away for a gig I invited everyone around and I did Nigella's sage and onion sausage casserole, with bread sauce. It was good if I remember correctly. It's not that I mind cooking veggie food for all of my friends, it's just nice to branch out sometimes.

This time I wanted to test myself a little, and cook something I've been longing to have for ages, a roast chicken Sunday lunch. it's more about the act of sharing a meal then it is the chicken, but to me there's something significant about cooking a bird and it has been a long time since I have, nearing a decade I'd have thought. We did have a turkey crown when we hosted Christmas a few years ago, but I wasn't really in charge of that.

{Post dinner}

It seems silly to even need a recipe for roast chicken, but I followed a River Cottage one, and it was delicious. Lemon and herbs, with shallots and carrots roasted around it. More importantly I managed to time everything so there was stuffing, and kale perfectly cooked, and roast potatoes that weren't hard. 2 days on I'm still catching up with the washing up from it, even with a dishwasher, but it's renewed in my my confidence to cook for lots of people, not just myself.

It's also lovely to have the house full of some of my favorite people,including little people having a lovely afternoon. We must do more of this.

The Fish Graveyard

I suppose I should update you on the fish - we've currently got 3 Isambard*, Nietzsche , Vince - they seem fine. The extreme cold did a few in and they probably need some proper TLC. Anyway - Pete and I were trying to recall other fish we'd had over the years so I started scanning the blog for fish related posts and I came across the fish graveyard from an old bit of my website that still floating around the tubes of the internet... So here it is - in memory of of the valiant pets of old. And for the ones that don't have little grave markers (or dates) Darnell Bertrand Pushkin Heisenburg I should possibly make a marker for the tomb of the unknown goldfish because I'm sure we've forgotten one... .. time for some more fish? Any ideas for names?? *We were slightly uncertain for a while if it was Heisenburg or Isambard that had survived

Tofu Recipe Round Up

More for my own benefit then anything else I'm going to round up my favourite go-to weeknight tofu recipes. This is different from my pinterest board which is full of things I haven't necessarily tried yet but look yummy. Vegan Tofu Taco Crumbles Vietnamese Fried Tofu w/ Tomato Sauce – Dau Sot Ca Chua (I airfry the tofu for this one) I also like to slather it in BBQ sauce and bake it for about 40 mins with peppers and onions before adding it to wraps with some salad. I've also found it's a great substitute for paneer in things - it's not quite there but it's close oh, and if I do need to press it, and I haven't got time (which is almost always) I used the microwave method from this chirpy little video

The Pretty, The Easy and the things on Sticks #2

I've spoken before about Pinterest, and how pretty everything is on there, but there's another side, a very definite, and I can only guess american trend - the easy fix. Easy cheats, how to make things without the effort, how to cheat, how to make restaurant specials at home, so you end up with a massive jug of frappachino mix or a dressing not too dissimilar from the amazing blue cheese dressing at Pizza Hut (this is our holy grail - we've gone to PH just to eat the Blue Cheese dressing) and it shows an interesting side of people, and if you look at the ingredients they use, and most of these tips and tricks would be impossible to remake outside of the states. Source: therebelchick.com via Rebecca E. on Pinterest This isn't a new thing - Top Secret Recipes was one of the first websites I remember checking back and linking too - even if I was looking at recipes I had no idea what the original tasted like, but it's impressive so much effort is given over to ma...

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