* Spinach and Chestnut Mushroom Risotto

This risotto recipe was born of the need to use up yet more spinach... there's currently a ban on purchasing spinach, in this house. Seeing as I'm the only one that ever does any actual shopping in this household - it would appear that it's not actually the household that is banned from buying the spinach...

It's me.

I'm banned from buying spinach.

Now if only I knew how to enforce such a ban, it might actually work.

However... I'm fairly sure that the next time I'm in a supermarket (tomorrow), that a bag of spinach will unerringly find it's way into my shopping trolley - with absolutely... no. help. from. me. Really.

I love cooking (mostly) - but I don't love cooking risotto (ever). It's a labour of love. One that I can only donate time to if I have a good book. So I can stir the pot lovingly whilst reading something suitably interesting, but not so interesting that I forget to add more hot stock and the risotto drys to a crisp and has to have a half hearted burial service in the kitchen bin.

Nope.

It's got be a book that holds the attention for three minutes at a time, possibly four.

I've yet to find a book that does this. So I had to lovingly stir this particular risotto whilst singing the track to Adele:21 in my head. Got a bit carried away by the time I'd reached Set Fire To The Rain - and was singing at full blast into the spoon that was supposed to be lovingly stirring the pot...but happily, the noise did not kill our dinner.

Or our appetites.

* Bacon and Zucchini Risotto

The only reason I've used the word Zucchini, instead of Courgette (I'm British)... is because I really like the letter 'Z'. That's it. That's the reason.... 'Courgette' sounds like a car with issues. 'Zucchini' sounds like something green, Italian and sexy. I've no idea if Zucchini is an Italian word or not. I don't care if it's Bulgarian for 'Breeze Block'. It's a nice word.

I also like the word 'plank', but it's hard to incorporate it into the title of a recipe.

Actually, it's hard to incorporate into an every day sentence unless used in context or as an insult.

Still. 'Plank' is a good word.

As is 'cheese'.

Back to the topic... Blondie - my partner in crime at work - brought a huge bag of baby yellow courgettes into work a couple of days ago - fresh from her garden - for the rest of us to share. I was really tempted to make another ratatouille hotpot, but as we've only recently had one and I really fancied rice tonight - I made a risotto instead.

Neil is not a fan of risotto, so I called it something complicated and asked if he'd eat it.

He said yes.

He'd cleared his plate and was licking his lips when he decided to ask if I'd just conned him into eating risotto.

I said no.