Food Glorious Food

With Freds increasing ability to amuse himself for small periods of time, I have found myself cooking a fair bit. This shouldn’t insinuate that I haven’t been cooking for the past 2 years (I. Do. It. Every. Night. Without. Fail. Even. The. Day. After. Having. A. Baby) but, rather that I am finally starting to cook in the way I had thought would be possible when I packed up my desk last November imagining a quiet life of simple pleasures with my beautiful, sleeping baby (Mwa ha ha. Oh so naive).

So rather than finding myself at a Sainsburys at 8pm on a school night, mentally running through the contents of my cupboards and cool boxes, calculating what will take the least time to cook and remain edible/vaguely healthy - I now stroll with my stroller to the supermarket, list in hand. I’ve poured through my rather large collection of cooking books, marking out future dishes, and now make it a ‘thing’ to cook from those dog-eared pages at least every two days. Now, by most peoples standards I am not cooking anything too revolutionary. But for as I have survived my tenure as our houses lead chef with a simple knowledge of how to cook vegetables, pasta and meat so they are edible, and with about 10 staple dishes on rotation (thai green curry, chilli con carne etc. – you know the stuff) - is is extraordinary for me. And whilst I marvel at those people able to simple throw things into a pan and make magic, I’m a bit of a stickler for a recipe (does that surprise any of you? Thought not.) Because I figure that they know what they are talking about. I couldn’t even begin to tell you all the dishes that Dave ‘the luckiest man in the world’ has eaten this past month, but I have to say – they were all pretty spectacular. I’ve sashayed from blueberry muffins to roasted chicken in milk to wild mushroom soup. And last week I made my first Indian curry – everyones favourite – Butter Chicken. Which was SINsational. Dave, who normally abhors a creamy curry, has requested it again this week and who am I to complain.

And whilst we are doing a food post, it’s probably a good place ot mention that for Dave’s 38th Birthday last Wednesday we went with Chris and Edwina Jamieson to The Fat Duck. (ahem – a 3 Michelin star restaurant that is consistently named as one of the top few restaurants in the world). And it was literally beyond words. We all agreed it was probably the most amazing culinary experience of our lives. I will put a proper post on all that including photos soon).

Hope all is well with everyone, keep sending emails and the like. And eat well – Food is one of life’s great daily pleasures.