* Smoky Sausage and Beans

I started this post with the pre-requisite "This Smoky Sausage and Beans.... yadayada" and got bored before the first punctuation mark. You can read the recipe then... maybe even cook it... to find out just how yummy it is, but it'll have to sell itself because today my legs feel like jelly  -which is far more important (and apparently affecting my ability to concentrate)...

... My legs feel like jelly because I walked a million miles yesterday in the pursuit of a Curly Wurly Thick Shake from The Terrace Cafe/Bar on Plymouth Hoe... and a packet of Cornish Clotted Cream Fudge from the Barbican.

After consuming both (and a panini - go me) within a one hour time slot I confess to feeling a little bit sick and a lot guilty. I hate feeling guilty about being indulgent - so I came home, knackered myself on the exercise bike then dragged my Boldest and her Bairn out for a bimble around the neighbourhood... then this morning I got on the exercise bike again.

In a minute I'm off out with Boldest, her Bairn and my Little Man for a stroll along the Cornish Coast from Lantic Bay to Polruan... where no doubt another panini awaits. I'm not sure I'll be able to stand upright by the end of the day.

If there's a fudge shop in Polruan I'm selling the bike when I get home.

* Shahi Chicken Korma - A Guest Post by Meena Kumar

A few months back, Meena at Elephants and The Coconut Trees asked me to do a Guest Post, and I jumped at the chance... of course, I also knew I'd be able to twist her arm into doing one for me too (which was HUGE motivation). I don't know how we first fell into each other's cyber lives, whether Meena found me or I found her - but here we are...

Meena's food  and photography is authentic and appealing on so many levels. There's something artful in her photography that makes each recipe an event, her gentle musings add to the atmosphere and the recipes themselves will make you wish she was your best friend, lived next door and was always inviting you over to dinner.

I shall stop rambling on about how wonderful she is, and let you see for yourselves... over to you (and the simply GAWJUS recipe you've created... I just want to drop my face into the bowl and inhale!!!), Meena...

***********************

I feel so honored to do a guest post for such a popular blog. A space where I cannot decide which is my favorite recipe. Everything you cook looks so drool worthy. How do you do make it so appealing always! Thank you so much for the opportunity Abbe.

Hello lovely readers, I am Meena the owner of the blog - elephants and the coconut trees. I am from India, currently living in California United States with my husband and daughter. Needless to say I am a complete foodie ready to try any new dish  (drawback of not being a picky eater :)). of late my family thinks I eat, drink and breathe recipes :). Growing up, our family gatherings were always centered around feasts. By feast I mean  24 -30 dishes served in small portions in different courses on a plantain leaf including 2-3 really runny desserts. It requires a lot of skill to see that not even a morsel goes out of the flat leaf :). Only after marriage I started to really cook it was a struggle in the initial days... I must say it took a lot of perseverance in perfecting Indian cooking where masalas, texture and consistency play a crucial role and determine the pass or fail of a dish.

What/who inspired you to become a good cook?

I guess moving to the U.S, lack of easy access to my native food and too much browsing :) staring at good food all the time all led to better cooking.

Do your family love your food or do they have different tastes?

My herd loves what I cook when it is super spicy, non vegetarian or baked stuff but Indian vegetarian is a big no no for my daughter.

Why do you blog about food? Do you enjoy it? Does it fit into your life or do you have to make time for it?

We have lived most of the time away from our country so my daughter has no idea what is usually cooked in our homes so I began this blog just for her sake.Some day when she takes up serious cooking she will at least know the name of the dishes :) or identify by the pic is my hope. I do enjoy blogging and spend some time taking pictures. The blog does fit into my life because I cook dishes we love to have and never to feed the blog.

Do you eat out or do you prefer to cook at home? If you do eat out, where is your favourite place to go for a meal?

Never miss a chance to eat out. Oh Red Lobster! now the waitresses almost know us personally :)

What food could you not live without?

Rice and yogurt.

What food do you hate and why?

Oats ...I just don't like the slimy texture in porridge. I  find it hard to swallow in dry preparations.

What is your "must have" piece of kitchen equipment that you couldn't do without?

Coffee grinder, it works like a charm when it comes to Indian masalas.

What piece of kitchen equipment would you love to have?

Abbe. ..don't ask me, the wish list is endless :)

What's your favourite recipe that isn't your own?

Savory Layered Cake (similar to a layered meat pie)

What are your five favourite recipes that are your own?

Homemade Grape Wine

Purple Potato Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrette (seen in the pic below)

Baked Chicken Wings in Indian Spices

Tiny Sweet Apples

Bok choy and cabbage soup

I hope you like my recipe (below), I can't wait to hear from you lovely people out there.

* Slow Cooker Chicken with Chorizo

I'm not a fan of meat on the bone, any meat... but most especially chicken. I want to eat my food, not play with it, struggle with it or get covered in it - so it's incredibly rare that I buy a whole chicken or jointed chicken. I mostly buy chicken breasts, and although they are convenient - they aren't where the flavour is. The flavour is all in the meat that's wrapped around the bones.

If I buy chicken thighs (I never buy drum sticks), I de-bone them before I use them. Which can be a royal pain in the backside.... so... my slow cooker has been amazing to use when it comes to chicken thigh recipes. When cooked, the meat just melts off the bone - no muss, no fuss - and I end up with a delicious dinner, that was easy to throw together, easy to throw on a plate... and easy to throw down my throat.

This Slow Cooker Chicken with Chorizo is one such recipe that I've just adapted (yet again) from The Slow Cook Book by Heather Whinney.  I can honestly say I have not yet had all of the ingredients to make any of her recipes, off the bat. But they are so easily alterable that the book has to be amongst my top ten cook book purchases for this year... and there have been a few.

This freezes beautifully, especially if you pull the meat from the bone before hand, and goes with everything from Celeriac and Potato Mash to Chicken Flavoured Rice... or even couscous. I can't be bothered to cook tonight, so we're having it again (from the freezer) with Jacket Potatoes and some cheesy garlic bread.

I'm incredibly good at being lazy.

* Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pasta

I've been going through all of my kitchen cupboards doing a bit of cleaning and re-arranging, so that I can see better what food I have available and make space for more.

I'm joking.

There is no space for more... I live in a rabbit hutch. I just had an urge to re-invent the interior of my kitchen cupboards because I made the fatal mistake of visiting Homebase last week and ended up looking at beautiful, stream lined, well designed, brand new kitchens.... then came home and wanted to burn the house down.

When re-arranging et al - I discovered a bag of dried porcini mushrooms that I bought a couple of weeks back... and dinner was decided. Sort of. What I really wanted to make was a risotto, but as yet I have not discovered the trick to making a mushroom risotto that doesn't look like something the cat coughed up.... also - Neil doesn't really like risotto and is starting to suss out when I say "It's a rice thingy", that it is, in fact... a risotto.

So seeing as I can probably only use the "Rice Thingy" as an excuse maybe one more time and get away with it... I made a Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pasta, and threw in a large handful of curly kale at the end, to add a bit of crunch. If I'd had any spinach I might have used that - but me and spinach is doing a Ross and Rachel and we is "On a Break".

Of course... I did have some creme fraiche standing to attention in the fridge, giving me it's best toothless smile, so I bunged some of that in.

How could I resist?

* Pesto Chicken with Spaghetti (and fresh cherry tomatoes)

I bought a jar of pesto in Aldi the other day, and it's been sitting in the fridge waiting for me to pop it's top and put it into to something ever since. So I made this Pesto Chicken with Spaghetti.

I was hoping it would be a much more vibrant green, but then I suppose you get what you pay for.

You can make your own pesto - I'm sure - and although I am a complete snob when it comes to convenience food as a general rule, when it comes to this sort of thing I currently don't have the inclination to blitz a bunch of basil with the other necessary ingredients to make my own fresh pesto... as soon as I do, you can be sure I'll let you know in the form of a recipe.

You can almost guarantee that I'll be a complete convert to fresh pesto only, but until then - the jarred variety will do.

I'm afraid I will never, ever, ever... ever... be a fresh mayonnaise convert. It takes too long and I never like the end result anywhere near as much as I like the stuff from a jar... preferably Hellmanns and LOTS OF IT. If there were two food stuffs that I would rather die than live without, mayonnaise would be one of them. The other would be cheese. All and any variety. Cheese. Life without cheese would not be life at all.

There's cheese in/on this pasta (of course) and some fresh Tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes from my garden. I fancied something quick and tasty that would use up the tomatoes, some creme fraiche (I KNOW!) and let me pop my pesto top. 

I have popped my pesto top, and it was good.

The end.

* Chicken Mozzarella with Tomatoes

OhMyGod this recipe was LUSH! I didn't know what to call it.... Chicken Mozzarella With Tomatoes... Smothered Mediterranean Chicken... Pizza Pepper Chicken Bake. Seriously, food naming is almost more complicated than baby naming. At least it is for me.

All the while I was pregnant, my baby was going to be called Thomas (even if it was a girl)... but when they plonked him in my arms I took one look at his strawberry blonde hair and ginger side burns and realised he was actually called Joshua. See... simples.

Not so simple when naming a recipe... When I look at food - the possibilities are endless. You want to tell everyone what's in it without giving them a list of ingredients. Which is really hard... especially when you're like me and stick bell peppers into virtually everything. It all starts to sound a bit "samey" after a while... so... I stuck three different titles into a hat... and... well... lets just say I put the first two I pulled out, back in...

This was another of those "hate food waste" recipes, that involved using up a couple of fresh chicken breasts, and some mozzarella - I very nearly made a pasta bake (stop groaning) - but I'm getting a bit bored with those (stop clapping), and whilst I'm doing the 5:2 diet I feel as though everything that I can eat on a normal day has to be worth eating.

I rather desperately wanted carrot pancakes for breakfast this morning. I have never made nor eaten a carrot pancake in my life. I have no idea if they are awful, if they are gawjus or if they even work as a recipe. I have not yet delved into google to find out... but you know I'm gonna... and you know I'm gonna share when I do...

... Oooooohhhhh I feel a Meatless Monday post coming on...

... unless they're sh*t.

* Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta Bake

I'm becoming the "Queen of Hate Food Waste" just recently, with all the food I'm managing to use up. I think it makes me just slightly more inventive when I cook based on need rather than on want.

I'll try to explain....

I occasionally buy ingredients to cook for a specific recipe that either I have come up with, or I've found whilst trawling through various cook books or across the interwebz. It's really satisfying to cook from a recipe, but I often have half a jar of this or half a tub of that left over when I'm done - because I mostly use fresh ingredients when cooking. I then get left with an ingredient or three that has a shelf life.... like spinach, creme fraiche, harissa paste, cream cheese (never, ever do I have chocolate anything left over... ever) - to name but a few. If you're a repeat reader you already know about the spinach and the creme fraiche - if you're not a repeat reader - go do your homework... links have been supplied!

This Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta Bake made use of some cooked left over chicken and the remnants of a tub of Philadelphia, and I honestly don't think I'd have come up with it if Melanie Jean on my facebook page hadn't made a request for a chicken and tomato pasta dish with no basil and only a little garlic. I was just gonna bung the chicken in a sandwich for Neil and eat some cream cheese on crumpets until both were gone. Not overly inventive, eh?

This was one of those meals that you could cut the time in half by simply not baking it in the oven, just dish it out straight from the pot if you're in a hurry and grate some cheese over the top. I baked mine because I had the time.

It was nommy.... and there were left overs.... 

... Be still my beating heart ;-)

* Moroccan Style Chicken Stew

This Moroccan Style Chicken Stew was one of those "bung it all in and hope it works" recipes... that worked. Well of course it did - I don't feed you lot any old horse manure, do I?

The stuff that doesn't work, gets spoken about in an aside. I don't give it a recipe title, a picture and a page of blurb - I give it to the dog.

This time, I had half a jar of Harissa Paste that needed using up (something always needs using up), or this might have ended up as something completely different - without the chickpeas and the sultanas. I had thought that I'd got a packet of dried-ready-to-eat-apricots sitting in the back of the cupboard that I could make use of instead of the sultanas.... and I sort of did... but I'm fairly sure that apricots are supposed to be a pale orange in colour - not blue and furry and beginning to evolve - so I ditched that idea, along with the apricots.

It was lovely anyway, with a huge bowl of unfussy couscous and a generous glass (or two) of wine.

Neil enjoyed it, because it had chicken in it. He's really starting to notice when a meal is vegetarian just recently. I had some Butternut and Bell Pepper Curry left over in the freezer, and he guilted me out so much about the lack of meat that I grilled a chicken breast and chucked it into his when I used it up.

I almost regretted it when he gave me an "Atta girl!" upon spying it in his curry. I told him if he slapped my backside and called me a wench he'd be wearing his dinner. Not eating it.

He got the hint.

Dinner was a quiet affair that night.

* Buttered Parmesan Chicken Thighs

Sometimes, just a simple change to how you'd normally prepare something for cooking and eating - makes you feel as though you've just discovered that you can't get pregnant simply by kissing a boy.... yup... honestly thought that could happen and had, in fact, planned to have a baby that way. Right up until I was seven and asked a few too many questions one Sunday morning, when lying in bed with my mum, dad and baby bruvver...

...Since then I have lived by the philosophy that if you don't want to know the answer... don't ask the bloody question.

I did want to know whether or not I could use melted butter, instead of eggs and flour as a base/glue to coat these chicken thighs with though (before dipping them in everything else)- so I gave it a shot and I am NEVER going back. I made "MmmmmMMMMMM" noises all the way through  dinner until Neil put his knife and fork down and raised his eyebrows at me. Neil never puts his knife and fork down until he's finished inhaling his food. I shut up. For about a second.

No, it's not overly health conscious of me to have used butter, but I rarely use it in cooking and on this occasion it was worth it. It took a rather familiar and placid meal and added a comforting depth of flavour to it, that it was previously missing.

We ate ours with new potatoes and vegetables, and the leftovers went into a couple of tiger rolls for Neil's packed lunch the following day. 

Just looking at the photographs of this, whilst I'm typing, is making me think we'll be having this again - or something else dipped in butter - pretty soon.

Oh Oh OH... SPINACH DIPPED IN BUTTER... food heaven or what?!?

* Chicken Chilli

Because I knew I was going to be out all day today, I cooked dinner in advance - I'm not normally this organised, but I have my moments... and they never last. I made a chicken chilli, because I didn't know what we'd be eating today and knew we could have it with or without rice/bread etc, depending on how hungry we were both were.

You wanna know where I've been? You do?!? ... I have spent an entire day sitting in my cousin's garden in Newquay - in the sunshine - with my weird and wonderful family. They are mostly women with a few men thrown in to prevent any fits of uncontrollable girliness... though occasionally it slips through in the form of a blinged up Dorkie.

We've eaten barbecued hot dogs and chips... and trifle. I loooooove trifle. Never quite liked the idea of it as a kid and apparently kicked up merry hell whenever my mum used to put it on the table... then always asked for a second helping. I don't make trifle at home because I love it with a layer of custard, and Neil doesn't eat custard. Neil doesn't like being in the same room as custard. His face distorts into an "I don't like custard" grimace and his whole body physically shudders.

When he does this, I have a hard time not throwing stuff at him. He has never been able to say a polite "No thankyou" if he doesn't like something. He pulls out the whole "I don't like custard" facial/body move at every opportunity - even when faced with something like strawberry ice cream...

Him - "What's for dessert?"

Me (from the kitchen) - "Sod all."

Him - "What. Nufink?" He's common.

Me (opening up freezer to have a gander - I'm common too) - "Errr... there's some strawberry ice cream if you want it....?"

Him - lip curls up, shoulders suddenly appear by ears as if to protect them from the infiltration of strawberry ice cream... aaaannnddd.... "I don't like strawberry ice cream" aaaaand whole body shudders... shoulders relax... lip moves back into normal place.

Me (still in kitchen) - "Did you just pull an "I don't like custard" face? With the body shudder? DID YOU?!?"

Him - "Nnnnnno."

Liar.

Anyway, we had a fab day with fab company and fab food and then we came home and ate this.

It was lush.

* Sherry Chicken and Mushroom Casserole {for Elephants and The Coconut Trees}

I've met some lovely people over the past year of food blogging, and a few weeks back, Meena, from Elephants and The Coconut Trees asked me to do a guest post for her blog. My happyometer hit a new high.

I love Meena's blog. Her food, recipes and photography are absolutely beautiful. I'm really hoping that some of her style will rub off on me, but I've a ways to go yet!

Meena asked that I share a recipe with her readers that I would typically cook, preferably either vegetarian or with chicken to suit the tastes of her readers. So I decided that this Sherry Chicken and Mushroom Casserole, was the right one.

It's good enough for a special occasion, and simple and cheap enough to be included in an everyday menu. As long as you love chicken and mushrooms, you'll love this. Honest.

You know the drill... CLICK FOR RECIPE...

Meena made me a thankyou card. I love her.

One Year Ago: Cappuccino Cake

* Chicken Cacciatore

I know. Long time no see. Don't pretend you've missed me.

If you're British you've been at the beach soaking up the rays of the first heatwave that the UK has seen since 2006. If you're from the rest of the world I have no clue what you've been doing. I just hope you were enjoying it, and if it wasn't legal you didn't get caught.

Me... I... have been with the rest of the UK. Enjoying the Summer. It really has been such a long time since we've had one. My oldest niece is five in September and this has been her first experience of what a British Summer can feel like, and how differently we all behave when the sun shines for more than a day or two at a time. Everyone has soaked up "the happy" to a point where even the British Economy has finally begun to surge in the right direction (upwards).

I've been in the garden. Barbecuing stuff. Then eating the barbecued stuff. There are no photos of barbecued stuff. We ate the barbecued stuff. Very quickly. We have also drunk copious amounts of wine, got drunk with the neighbours (very, very, drunk), been paddling in the river Tamar with Isla Joy (oldest niece), admired Zoe Valletta's (youngest niece) sun glasses and her amazing ability to eat a million plums (Glad I didn't have to change that nappy!), been swimming in an English sea (first time in 10 years), been out to dinner (A LOT) and generally had a holiday at home.

It has been heaven, but now the heat wave has passed and though it's still warm and occasionally sunny, the magic is fading.

My blog has suffered because I've hardly cooked in the past month. I haven't had time. Maybe if I was earning an income from it, I would have paid it more attention. But I'm not. It's a hobby. So I shall warn you now - if we get another heatwave this year... HIGHLY UNLIKELY... I may well disappear again.

I have actually missed cooking (little bit), and this Chicken Cacciatore was the perfect meal to cook on the stove in a warm kitchen with all the doors and windows wide open to let the air in. It doesn't take too long to cook and is absolutely GAWJUS with a glass of red wine...

... or three.

* Chicken Pizza Pasta Bake

I love home made pizza and make it all the time but as yet have never taken the time to photograph and share it. Possibly because I know there will always be another opportunity.... which is good, because I'd fully intended to make and photograph a pizza this time but I was halfway through making the pizza sauce when I realised I didn't have any strong bread flour to make a pizza base, so I had to raid the cupboards for something else to take it's place... which is par for the course in this house.

Thankfully, I've developed a new shopping addiction... it doesn't replace the old one - there will always be spinach in my fridge (well duh!)... I've been on a bit of a pasta purchasing splurge just recently, and have gone from the bog standard macaroni, penne, spaghetti and fusilli sitting in neat rows in glass jars on my shelves... to just about every type of pasta I can lay my hands on that I have never cooked with, including the tortiglioni in this recipe, all wedged into various nooks and crannies throughout the house.

It's a small house.

So.

This is one of those recipes that just sort of 'happened' in a good way. Neil loved it. I loved it. I'll be cooking it again. I have a positive plethora of pasta to use up.

If we have a nuclear war - I'm set. Though it could get a bit dull after the seventh year. Perhaps I should turn my purchasing power to rice and grains as well...

...just in case.

* Roast Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I've attempted to cook a chicken and vegetable soup on about four occasions just recently, and have remained unimpressed with each of my endeavours until this one. Each previous version has had similar vegetables in it, but every time it's all come out a bit... well... bleh.

The temptation to stick a load of herbs and spices in, or a spoonful of curry paste... or even a tin of tomatoes has been HUGE... but if I'd done that I wouldn't have had the soup I wanted. I just wanted something fairly simple and wholesome that would taste... I dunno... a bit... English, maybe. Or maybe I was aiming for a bit Summery. Who knows.

So... there I was, yet again thinking "Sod it, all these ingredients and I'm still not sure I like this bloody soup." I opened the fridge door and stared vacantly inside it, looking for divine inspiration (I do this A LOT... at least, that's what I tell Neil I'm doing when he comes in the kitchen and discovers me with my head in the fridge for the eleventieth hundredth time that day)... when I spotted the mustard, sitting in the top of the fridge door, frantically waving it's little hands in the air shouting "Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!".

So I did. And it worked.

It took until this time to end up with something that I thought was tasty enough to share... and it was all down to a couple of heaped tablespoons of multi-grain mustard. There's a huuuuge chance that it's going to become my new spinach, and go into just about everything that I cook because it worked a little miracle on my soup. It gave it the flavour I'd been looking for that every previous version had been missing.

Even cream hadn't helped it's forefathers.

*Sigh*... I like cream.

* Slow Cooker Chicken Brunswick Stew

Finally, I've had another success with my slow cooker!

The dog looked on in desperation as we cleared our plates (this time)- the poor thing actually starts to get excited when I pull the slow cooker down off the top of the fridge. She's so sure that whatever is going in it, is going to end up in her - whilst Neil and I eat fried egg sandwiches... again.

NOT this time!

Okay. So. It's not exactly a very original recipe, and it was designed to go in a slow cooker... which makes me feel like I'm cheating somehow (don't ask me why. I don't know why!!!)... but it was lush. Very. I'm not normally a huge fan of chicken thigh meat that has been cooked in any sort of liquid because the texture differs from dry cooked thighs, and can be almost rubbery...

NOT this time!

The meat was melt-in-the-mouth GAWJUS. Even if I do say so myself.

The original recipe called for almost twice as much sweetcorn and beans, but I wanted a chicken stew with veg in it. Not a veg stew with chicken in it. It also required flour, but quite frankly I figured it would thicken up enough when cooked, without any additional help, so I left that out too. It worked. I have super powers.

Amazingly, I did NOT stuff a wodge of spinach into this one, because I didn't have any. GASP!

I make no promises for the next one though.

Me and spinach... we is in a rel-AY-shun-SHIP.

* Chicken, Pineapple and Coconut Curry

Last night I was invited to "A Really Good Night In" in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, at my friend Lynne's place. The idea was that we all turn up with a bottle (or three) of whatever we wanted to drink, and some nibbles - then put the money that we would have spent in the pubs and clubs, into a pot supplied by Macmillan. I've no idea how much money we raised, as "the hostess with the mostest" is currently nursing a hangover of mammoth proportions and has completely lost the ability to count...

I - however - am bright and breezy this morning because I drank alcohol-free wine all evening. Yes I did.

Noooo - I'm not back on weight watchers - I had to drive home because I had to go to work this morning. See... I can act responsibly when required. Although - twenty years ago when I couldn't drive, it wouldn't have phased me to go out socialising all night, then get up and go to college in the morning, then to work in the evening... then back out again for more... socialising.

I have NO IDEA how I managed to do that. Even thinking about how I managed to do that is making me feel like I need to go lie down somewhere and recover. It's also making me hungry. Even now, on a night out, I crave junk food of some description. I've spent many an evening sat on a wall, stuffing my face with a donna kebab or a take-out curry... my bum slowly turning blue from the cold. Walls are never warm at night in this country, neither are pavement edges, car bonnets... or boats...

I really need to get in the habit of mentioning my recipe at the beginning of a blog post, rather than ramble on until the end and suddenly realise I have no segway into it. The recipe really isn't the afterthought, it's the reason.

Note to self: Develop better blogging habits...

Dammit... I'm doing it again.

The recipe... the recipe... what's the recipe?!? .... oh yeah. Chicken, Pineapple and Coconut Curry... goes very well with Chicken Flavoured Rice. Of course.

It's lush. Eat it.

* Chicken Flavoured Rice

Plain boiled white rice is all very well, but occasionally it's nice to add a smidgen of flavour to it. My personal favourite is Saffron Rice, but I've just used up the last of the saffron - so that wasn't an option. It's also exorbitantly expensive to purchase in the big name supermarkets... one strand of saffron in a jar will cost you your first born's first born.

My first born hasn't got a clue that he's been born. Not sure how that'd work out as far as offering up my first grandchild as payment for a strand of saffron would be concerned. They'd probably want a refund. Heck... I'd want a refund.

Just think... if I'd bought my son in a shop I could have taken him back years ago and said "This one's broke can I have another?" As long as I didn't tell the shop owner that I broke him when I got him home, they'd have to give me my money back - wouldn't they?!? I wouldn't want an exchange - I've been lead to believe that girls are even more hard work than boys :/

I'm sure you think I'm being mean... but if I tell you that he doesn't eat my cooking... complains almost constantly that he's "not eating any of that foreign crap" (anything with pasta or rice is foreign... apparently)... then goes to the shops and buys himself one of those plastic burgers that you bung in the microwave for a minute and wolfs it down with a 2 litre bottle of cola... then complains that he's caught the sniffles from a passing bumble bee... and please could I make him something hot and spicy and foreign to help clear his nose...

... well...

... wouldn't you at least want to see if you could find the box he came in?

* Moroccan Style Chicken Soup

I have a new passion... Instagram! Yeah, I know the rest of the world discovered it when men were still living in caves and wiping their backsides on badgers, but it's a very recent discovery for me... AND. I. LOVE. IT.

I sort of knew it was there, but honestly wondered what all the fuss was about. Then about a week ago I was bored and somehow or other I downloaded the App. I no longer remember why. I no longer care why. I just know that I. LOVE. IT.

All of a sudden, every opportunity is a photographic one... taking the dog for a walk, meeting my oldest BFF - Kerry - at the beach for lunch and a stroll, the cat snoozing, the cat stretching, the dog eyeballing me while I should be taking her for a walk.... fooooood (obviously). I even took a photo of the washing blowing on the line. Oh yes I did. Didn't share that one though. That would have been passé.

There's a heck of a lot of feet, on instagram. Just random photographs of feet. I've painted my toenails (and shaved my toes) just in case I'm over taken by an incredible compulsion to point my phone-cam downwards and click away.

I'm fairly sure I will. In fact... I might have already succumbed.

If you wanna see what colour my toenails are, come say hello at abbes_antics ;)

I really should try to remember the point of all this, shouldn't I. There is a recipe, there always is. It's soup. Or stew, depending on what time of day it is and how hungry you are. This one is "to die for"...

... much like my undercoating.

* Chicken, Sweetcorn and Red Pepper Quiche

This was only meant to be a chicken and sweetcorn quiche, but when I'd added both to the quiche base it looked so blonde and boring that I had to add something else to liven up the colour a bit. There's nothing worse than being bored by your food - especially before you've even cooked it.

Actually, that happens to me a lot - it's why I never cook what I've planned. I think I spend so much time thinking "I'll cook a spag bol tomorrow night..." that when the time actually comes round to cooking it... I'm bored with the idea. It's a rare thing that we do actually eat anything that I have predicted I'll cook... sometimes even up to an hour ahead. Which is fun.... There's also the rare occasion when it's actually in the oven... which is not fun. Really.

I have the attention span of a rabid gnat. With an itchy arse.

In truth, I'm very surprised that I am still food blogging after 8 months. I can totally understand why people start these things up and then just... stop. I have NO IDEA how some food bloggers manage to find the time to update their blog every day!!! Do they have superpowers?!? How do they keep it interesting too? Because they do.

I have days when I sit here, stumped, and wonder what an earth do I write about today? And other days it just kinda happens. Like today. I had no clue where this was going until I got here. And now that I've arrived, it seems this particular journey has ended.

My mind's a blank.

.... aaaaaaaand now I'm having a Homer Simpson "La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la" moment.

* Chicken Biryani

Guess what I did???!!!

I MADE A FACEBOOK PAGE!!! I did, I did, I did.

I've held off on doing it for quite some time, because I didn't want to share what I've been up to in my spare time with everyone that actually knows me ( a few people knew because I can't keep my mouth shut and because my darling mummy can't keep hers shut either). I wasn't sure what their reaction would be, and it really mattered. Plus I'm a little bit vain and I wanted to tidy up the furniture a bit before inviting everyone in for a cuppa and a slice of cake... or three.

Even after I'd created the page I wasn't sure if I was going to invite my mates to *like* it. But I accidentally posted one of my recipes on my personal page. I was immediately messaged on my mobile phone by Charlene (who I love because she takes no prisoners), saying that she loved my blog. Have to confess that I panicked slightly and thought "OhMyGodI'mNotReadyYet!!!!", but she just kept on saying nice things... mainly recipe titles with drooling words and demands that I get in the kitchen and cook something now.

Everyone needs a Charlene.

Her reaction convinced me to just go for it and invite them all (and all of you) into my little corner of the food blogging world.

I'm so glad I did. They were amazing, and funny and kind and supportive and I'm feeling a little bit lucky right about now.

Right. Enough about them. Lets talk about me. There's a facebook widget in the top right corner of the page. If you want to click *like* you'd make my day. I promise not to plague your facebook pages with random poop that is completely unrelated to what I do in my kitchen.

There is actually a recipe in here somewhere for Chicken Biryani. It's dead easy and dead quick and dead tasty. Just click the linky below to find out :)