A trifle too full

Noones written on our blog for a little while, I guess it's because we've all been too busy stuffing our faces with turkey, trifle and fine wines. I was so excited at the thought of Christmas dinner I forgot to take any pictures - my husband's mother is a fantastic cook and did a splendid lunch with all the trimmings. We didn't sit down until 4pm and we were still at the table eating cheese at 11pm in between rounds of Scrabble and limoncello liqueur!

But it wouldn't be Christmas without a trifle, would it? And he's a picture of my Mum's homemade version we had on Boxing Day, made with fresh fruit, sherry, custard and cream, with almonds on the top. Always a winner. But this trifle had a contender ... a chocolate gateau, again homemade with no less than 99% cocoa chocolate that we bought in France before Christmas. It was scrumptious - deliciously rich. I had to be carried to the sofa for a nap afterwards!

By the way it seems like fellow blogger Food Slut has had a delectable Christmas! Please put a couple of your pics up here for us to salivate over!

I was pretty excited when I saw this...

Well, relatively excited, or maybe as excited as I could be seeing a new product in a supermarket that I don't care that much about. Anyway, I thought this 'panini pizza' looked like it had potential. (Roasted veg, mozzarella, panini/pizza - great!) Sadly, I was wrong. Ok, I know pictures on ready-made food boxes aren't always to be trusted, but really... this only had about 2 bits of veg in it, and a load of cream cheese (it says creme fraiche but I think they are lying).


I griddled it, as instructed 'for best results'. It was pretty horrible and I wouldn't recommend it.

Hangover tuna etc...

Today I had a mammoth hangover. It was our work Christmas party last night and we made the most of the free booze. Fortunately I made it into work - I might not have been particularly productive, but I guess those who managed to make it in were able to show a bit of willing! At lunchtime we needed carbs - carbs and cheese. And somewhere cheapish with a free table for 6 in central London 10 days before Christmas.

The obvious choice? Well, Pizza Express, of course as they don't take table reservations. I decided to have an American with extra sundried tomatoes - I guess they didn't have any sundried as when my pizza turned up I saw they'd replaced them with the marinated, oven-cooked tomatoes they've recently added to their menu as an appetiser. Much better - I love those tomatoes. It was wonderful - a perfect pizza in my view - but my plate was dirty with bits of old spinach which I could have done without. I wasn't sure afterwards if I felt better or worse, but by about 5.00pm I was ok, I think.

Anyway, tonight I needed something healthy and we had a pack of stirfry veg in the fridge so I thought I may as well use that. I went past a Tesco Express on my way home and saw they had tuna steaks on offer - I got two for £2 something - I thought that was pretty good. We put some brown rice on to boil and I smeared the tuna in a mixture of finely grated ginger and garlic, a couple of dessert spoons of olive oil, a spoon of lemon vinegar, some dried coriander leaves, a crushed, dried chilli and a bit of black pepper. We did the stirfry veg in a wok and added a dash or two of soy sauce and sherry vinegar, then griddled the tuna steaks on a high heat for a couple of minutes each side, or maybe even less time than that. With nutty brown rice, simple veg and deliciously tender tuna this felt like a healthy end to a decidedly unhealthy day.

Going nuts

Last week a fellow blogger and I went to a stylish new restaurant jumping on the eco-bandwagon - Acorn House. I had read great reviews about the place but it did seem a little good to be true ... delicious food, a great atmosphere and totally environmentally sustainable. All caring and sharing - the perfect place to keep our guests happy for a few hours.

We started off well with a refreshing pear juice - I could even choose the fruit myself from the baskets behind me that decorated the walls. This set us up well for a delicious mozzarella salad (the cheese was divine, just the right bitterness/creaminess/chewiness). Just how mozzarella should be. For the main course I chose sea bream with roasted vegetables. The fish was just lovely, but the butternut squash still quite crunchy - I prefer it a bit creamier. My colleague chose cavallo nero ravioli. Cabbage ravioli. Doesn't sound the most appealing of foods and to be honest he didn't look enamoured with his portion of just five pieces at first - but he tells me it was very tasty.

By this time we'd polished off a few glasses of wine and we were soaking in the jovial atmosphere of the place. It's kind of a cross between a posh cafe and Fresh n Wild, the organic shop. Fortunately I had left just enough space for the chocolate ginger cake. Yum. So we left feeling very satified that we'd just enjoyed a lovely meal - and had done our bit for the planet too!

Sunday roast beef

Wow, I'm stuffed. And I think I might pop into our local butcher's on Monday morning to give Tom the Butcher a kiss - the joint of beef (Scotch topside) he sold me yesterday morning was simply incredible. It even looked so perfect when it was cooking that I took a photo of it in the pan (see below).

I dabbed it with a mixture of grainy mustard and butter, roasted it at 220 degrees centigrade for half an hour, then sloshed a glass or so of red wine over it and turned the oven down to 200 for about an hour. I left it to rest for a good twenty minutes while I simmered the carrots and beans and made the red wine gravy. As you can see from the steamy photo, we had roasted salad potatoes (I had lots in the cupboard and when roasted they're lovely and sweet), roasted parsnips and boiled carrots and beans. And we opened a bottle of beaujolais - roast beef just wouldn't be the same without a glass of red wine.

Somehow, everything worked perfectly - the meat was rare and beautifully tender, just how I like it, the potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle and everything else turned out really well. I was really pleased as I haven't cooked a roast for ages and last time I overdid the potatoes (even I admitted they were a little too charred, and I love crunchy roast potato) so I wasn't expecting too much from this one. And I even had a bit of gravy on the meat - as its main ingredient was red wine.

And yes, of course we had seconds. But fortunately I bought such a large joint there's loads left for the rest of the week. Cold roast beef butties - I can't wait!

Boxtastic

I must be honest - my interest in the fruit and veg box has started to wane slightly lately. Every time I open the fridge door instead of the usual chocolate digestives I'm confronted with a pile of fruit and veg - there were three cabbages in there at last count! It's good cos it means we are getting a stack of vitamins but I'm constantly racking my brains for ways to cook beetroots and red russian kale. But on Tuesday when I found the box waiting on my doorstep it looked so delicious that I couldn't resist taking a picture. And with my eagerness renewed I've vowed to sort out some good recipes this weekend. Cabbage, anyone?

Pizza Express, 83-7 Parkway, Camden NW1 7PP

I've just been out in Camden, but as we had an hour or so to kill before the gig we were going to started, my boyfriend and I met at Pizza Express. To review it succinctly, the food was good but the service was terrible, even though the restaurant was almost empty.

I had an American pizza (tomato, mozzarella and pepperoni) with extra chargrilled Italian vegetables. My boyfriend had a Bosco salad (marinated, cooked mushrooms, mini mozzarella balls, spinach, a honey and mustard dressing and dough sticks). I spied a new nibble on their menu, rustic tomatoes, which I thought I'd order to try, but sadly they didn't arrive until after our main course had been served and I'd had a chance to remind the waiter.

The rustic tomatoes had been marinated and oven-baked then left to cool. Served in a little dish with a few cocktail sticks, they were succulent, sweet and actually made rather a nice accompaniment to the pizza and salad, although they would have been equally as good as an appetiser. My pizza was pretty cold, but not cold enough to complain, and it had a good amount of topping as they didn't stint on either the pepperoni or the veg. The waiter had tried to persuade me I'd ordered an American Hot, but fortunately it seems my real pizza was waiting for me as it arrived virtually instantly. I do like Pizza Express pizzas, as (when they're made and cooked well) they have the perfect ratio of topping to base - I can't bear a bare pizza, or one with so much crust your jaws ache just looking at it. The salad across the table from me looked a bit small, so, to put it smugly I was pleased with my choice, which is always satisfying.

I sipped a half bottle of house pinot grigio, which was fine, and my boyfriend drank peroni after peroni, served in an effeminate, tiny, branded glass - very strange. He wanted banoffee pie, which I grudgingly said I'd share. Of course, when it arrived I ate most of it, although it was fairly disappointing - too much tasteless cream, not enough toffee, a thick, cardboard-like base and some old and tired banana. I've made it sound worse than it was, but it tasted more factory than home-made - and it's hardly difficult to make banoffee pie at home, or, I'd imagine, in a Pizza Express kitchen.

We waited so long for the bill and had to ask for it three times, so I wondered whether they wanted us to pay at all. It was £42 for the lot - not bad really considering the booze, but I think the poor service might put me off returning to that particular branch, although the pizza and salad were the usual reliable fare.

Sweet chilli prawn salad

After consuming much more pâté than we had intended - it was just so moreish - we needed something fresh and zesty for our Sunday supper, and we had some big prawns in the fridge which we fancied eating. So I made this quick and easy salad with baby spinach leaves, halved cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced organic carrots, sliced yellow pepper and the prawns scattered artistically, I hoped, over the top. I made a tangy sweet chilli dressing (about 2 teaspoons of Blue Dragon sweet chilli dipping sauce, a couple of dessert spoons of sherry vinegar, about 4 dessert spoons of olive oil and some seasoning), poured it over and got stuck in. Lovely.

Patchwork Pâté

Patchwork Handmade Chilli and Lemongrass Chicken Liver pâté. Wow. Rustic yet elegant; rich yet light; traditional yet suffused with a modern, pan-asian twist; I like it a lot. It's even got parsley and mustard seeds sprinkled on the top to make it look pretty. Spread on bread - absolutely delicious.

Oh, and it's got nice-looking ingredients (chicken livers (57%), fresh onions, fat spread - only dodgy bit - fresh garlic, fresh ginger, red chilli (4%), lemongrass (2%), kaffir lime leaves, freshly ground black pepper, sea salt). Find it in a deli/butcher's/farmer's market near you... it's not sold in supermarkets.

Another great breakfast...

A bacon and egg butty. This morning's was cooked to perfection by my boyfriend - we think it's possibly the best thing he's ever cooked me. Toasted wholemeal bread, 3 rashers of unsmoked back bacon, grilled to a crisp, a perfectly fried egg and a swirly squeeze of tomato ketchup in the finished butty. It looked so good I took two photos of it in different stages of its construction. Oohh, with the runny egg about to drip out of the edge of the sandwich... doesn't it look good?

Chocolate peanut tart

Well, I had to have this to make me feel satisfied after my paltry salad. I was looking for a brownie but our cafe didn't have any, and this was enthusiastically recommended by the cafe staff. I wasn't sure when I saw it was a chocolate peanut tart, as I'm not a huge fan of snickers and chocolate/peanut mixes in general, but actually it's fantastic. It's filled with a rich and smooth ganache, which does taste quite strongly, but not overpoweringly, of peanuts, and it is very chocolatey. The pastry is thin and crisp - perfect really. At £1.19, it's pretty good value and I think I'll look out for it again.

Insalata Tricolore - Zizzi, 73-5 Strand, WC2R 0DE

Well, we've just returned from a bloggers' lunch to welcome a new colleague at Zizzi's on the Strand. There were seven of us in all, and we had 4 pizzas, a calzone, a pasta dish and a salad between us. Mine was the salad - an insalata tricolore. It looked lovely - green and healthy, with cherry tomatoes, slices of avocado and tiny balls of mozzarella nestled in the spinach leaves and a pesto dressing. But I was slightly disappointed with the amount of mozzarella - I think I had six miniture balls - not really a main-course size. The avocado was all perfectly ripe - which was very welcome - but it was slightly flavourless; there were plenty of halved, sweet-tasting cherry tomatoes, but there wasn't anything like enough pesto dressing. All-in-all it was fine and looked pretty, but it wasn't anything to write home about. And by the end of the meal everyone else was stuffed, but I was still feeling a little peckish - that'll teach me not to choose a salad next time...

Oh, also, they got my order wrong and brought me a crayfish and snowpea salad instead of the tricolore, so I had to wait several minutes for my meal while my fellow diners were tucking in. This was unfortunate - we'd all had to wait an inexplicably long time for any drinks or food to arrive. I wasn't too bothered about it, as these things happen, but I thought they could have made a better salad as I'd had to wait so long for it.

Jumbo king prawn stirfry

Tonight we had a prawn stirfry, using Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Jumbo King Prawns (half price at £2.99). They were so nice we had to make a concerted effort to stop nibbling on them before I put them in the pan to heat through - it was one of those 'just one more each' moments, but we finally managed to resist after about six between the two of us.

Sharing the wealth between the supermarkets, I added one block of Sharwood's fine egg noodles (bought through Ocado, from Waitrose) to a pan of simmering water, put a Tesco mushroom stirfry pack into my wok with half a pack of Budgens' baby spinach and once it was cooked, a sachet of Blue Dragon chow mein sauce to warm through. (It's not like I'm proud of shopping at supermarkets so often - I wish other shops near us were open after normal working hours but sadly they're not, and if I want to do any independent/market shopping it has to be done at weekends, and that's not always possible.) So, anyway, back to the food... I drained the noodles, tossed it all together in a pan, tipped it into a couple of bowls and we ate it in front of the telly. Healthy, warming (see the steam rising from the bowl), filling, and taking just ten minutes from fridge to mouth, it's ideal fast food.

Pie Day

Feeling very proud of myself as I made a chicken pie last night. I started it on Monday night when I realised I had chicken and leeks I had to use up, so made the filling (using a recipe from Jamie's Dinners - highly recommended) in advance like some kind of uber-housewife. My husband got so over-excited about the meal to come that he wrote 'Pie Day' on the calendar - does that mean we need to get out more? Last night added some ready-made puff pastry to the top, baked until golden and served with mashed potato, mmmm. And we ate ALL the pie!

Yes, I feel sick.

I finished it a good ten/fifteen minutes ago, and I still feel sick.

Caramel slice

People say sushi is filling, but sadly they're wrong. It's only 3 hours since my 'deluxe' sushi meal and I'm already feeling pretty empty around the belly area. As I'm due to play netball in another 3 hours, I thought I owe it to my body to find something to raise my energy levels quickly. Intending to buy a Honeyrose Organic Brownie, I went downstairs to the cafe, only to find they'd run out. And there was a lonely looking caramel slice sitting just where the brownies usually reside. So it seemed like it was meant to be. It has a very thick, wonderfully sweet caramel layer; I would have liked the chocolate layer to be slightly thicker, as you can't really taste it much, but the shortbread underneath is light and crumbly and, although it doesn't have much flavour, it does its job - chiefly to support the caramel, just as the chocolate does its job topping it. Very sweet, very caramelly, very satisfying, and I imagine I'll feel very sick when I've finished it.

Pret 'deluxe' sushi

For £4.99 (and a stonking £5.85 to eat in) it's a rip-off. The maki rolls are fine, you do get lots of ginger and soy sauce, and and at least the rice sticks together so it's easier for novice chopstick users to eat without spilling it everywhere. But the ginger is very dry and flavourless, and the same goes for the prawn, salmon and tuna nigiri. All-in-all, it's pretty rubbish and I won't be buying it again.

Leerdammer cheese

Leerdammer cheese is pretty good stuff, you can add it to lots of things and it doesn't taste too offensive. Today I enjoyed a lovely Leerdammer, bacon and processed cheese combo on wholemeal brown rolls. Ketchup and HP sauce too, of course. Think I might have a KFC for dinner. Yum.

Pizza Expectations dashed

I was so disappointed when we went to Pizza Express last Saturday. I don't mean to have a bitch about it, as I hate it when food critics just moan and groan about meals they have eaten in lavish restaurants, but I actually left the restaurant feeling like I was going to be sick! In fact, I couldn't actually finish my lasagne because I started gagging, which was rather embarrassing. Normally it's a La Reine pizza every time, but I wanted to line my tummy as we were going out on the lash. My father-in-law raves about the lasagne there, so I thought I'd give it a try, but honestly, it was the worst I have ever eaten. Maybe it's just because I've had a few too many Delia home-made lasagnes? Her recipe is the best ever. Maybe I should forward it to Pizza Express. Gloopy and tasteless, their dish had the consistency of an Asda ready meal and surely noone in their right mind eats those. Yuck. You have been warned...

Scrambled eggs on toast

Is the best breakfast to warm you up. Creamy, steaming eggs on hot toast (preferably buttered with lurpak and spread with a thin layer of bovril) is also the ultimate comfort food. It's great when you're ill or wake up on a cold November morning and your heating is on the blink, like I did this morning - scrambled eggs on toast was just what I needed. It would have been best with crispy bacon too, but it was difficult enough in my semi-frozen state to do eggs, let alone bacon too. And the flat was so cold I didn't feel it was sensible to let the toast lose any heat as I buttered and bovriled it, so I had it without. It was good though - a hot breakfast on a chilly morning just can't be beaten.

Last night's dinner...

Was a triumph for a cook with no time, if I say so myself. I was knackered when I came in, but had to go and play netball, so I put the oven on to just under 200 degrees centigrade, stabbed a skewer through two big baking potatoes, shoved them on the middle shelf of the oven, then went out.

An hour and a half later I came home to a delicious smell wafting through the hall outside my flat (sorry, neighbours, if you came in hungry too). I went to the freezer and took out a tub labelled 'Beef and Ale casserole 24/09/06'. Ooohh, nice - please excuse the way I'm bigging up my own domestic goddess prowess, but I'm more used to peering at frozen meals I've cooked weeks before, wondering whether they're meatballs in a tomato sauce, chicken curry or some veg concoction, and worrying how long they've been stuck at the bottom of my freezer, then nuking them in the microwave and hoping I'm cooking the right accompaniments. But anyway, I love having home-cooked meals ready and waiting in the freezer. It took about 12 minutes in the microwave (2 stirs in the middle) for me to be sure it was piping hot throughout, then I left it to stand and shoved some leftover sweetcorn in the microwave too for a couple of minutes. I took the crispy (yet fluffy inside) potatoes out of the oven and, lo and behold, we had a warm, home-cooked, nutritious and tasty meal all ready in 15 minutes. Plus the potato cooking time, of course. Very satisfying.

Chocolate and walnut brownie - Kastner and Ovens

I seem to have unwittingly found myself on a quest for the best brownie. It feels like a challenge I can't refuse.

While my friend Nicole assures me that Leon do the best brownie in London (I'll try that another day), today I already had my sights set on an offering by Kastner and Ovens in Floral Street, Covent Garden.

It's a very pleasant little deli, which does hot food and soups at lunchtime, a few sandwiches and chilled food and has an amazing array of cakes, tarts, biscuits and all things sweet. And you can choose your own delicacy from the arrangement of plates - I always like that.

And the brownie? Well, it's a nutty type - it contains chunks of walnuts, the perfect amount in fact, if you are to have nuts at all in your brownie (I'm not always convinced they're necessary). It looks home-made, like it was turned out of the tray this morning. It's slightly crumbly and flaky on the outside, but it is the inside that kills the competition. It's cloyingly sweet, so moist and chewy it glistens in the light and is sticky on your fingers like a perfectly-made meringue.

Wow, this is very, very nice. The only downside I can see to this brownie is that at £1.80 it's pretty pricey, and it is verging being too sweet for me. Sadly I haven't got my camera today, so it seems I'll have to go back to obtain photographic evidence. Shame.

October Saturday food

Mushrooms on toast for a late breakfast:
I know they don't look particularly appetising, but they tasted great. I gently fried a small onion, halved and sliced, in a pan with a clove of garlic, then added sliced chestnut mushrooms, a tiny sprinkling of mixed herbs, a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce, lots of freshly ground black pepper and, to give some creaminess, a spoonful of natural yoghurt. Served on wholemeal toast, with heinz tomato ketchup - perfect.

I ate a stack of sesame ryvitas with Sainsbury's fresh tomato salsa in front of the telly, which I suppose counted as lunch, then in the evening I fancied doing some proper cooking, so made salmon, semi-poached in a foil parcel, potato dauphinoise, roasted veg and green beans. And, for those who might be interested, here is the recipe: for the potatoes, peel some big ones and slice as thinly as possible (no thicker than a coin). Wipe a halved garlic clove around an oven-proofed dish, then finely chop or crush the rest. Finely slice a white onion (optional) . Layer the potatoes, garlic and onion, and some seasoning, starting and ending with potatoes. Pour milk into the dish until it is level with the top of the potatoes. If you have cream (sadly I didn't - and this was another 'make what you can with what you've got in the fridge/freezer/cupboard meal) use half cream, half milk, mixed in a jug. Cover and shove in an oven at about 200 degrees centigrade, for at least an hour and a half and preferably longer, or until the potato is cooked through when tested with a knife. Take the lid off for the last 20 mins or half an hour of cooking so the top browns.

As I'd decided to cook dauphinoise, I thought I may as well use the oven as it was on, so I prepared chunks of veg to roast (organic carrots, a yellow pepper, a couple of small onions) and added them in a pan with a couple of whole garlic cloves, unpeeled, drizzled with oil and seasoned with black pepper. They went in for about 45 mins to an hour - about half an hour before serving I added cherry tomatoes, scored at the stalk end so they wouldn't burst.

And the salmon - I shoved two fillets in a foil parcel with a bit of milk, to give moisture, and some seasoning - cooked in the oven for about half an hour. Perfect.

Oh and I simmered some green beans too, for just a few minutes so they still had some bite.

And for pudding, would you believe it, but I still had a couple of plums left over from my fruit basket which, inexplicably, weren't mouldy yet. They had such tough skins I peeled them, then stoned and chopped them quite small. I put these in a pan with a couple of apples, also peeled and chopped into small pieces, a load of sugar (probably a bit too much) and splashed some water in, then simmered on a low heat as we ate the main course. The added a dash of bramble whiskey and served over Wall's softscoop ice-cream (cheap, but oh so nice).

Nachos - The Lyceum, 354, Strand, London, WC2R 0HS

3 intrepid Our Food Blog bloggers shared these nachos on a Friday after work with a few cheap drinks. As you can see, they're really not very pretty, but as pub nachos go, they're basic but good - there is a satisfying amount of melted cheese and reasonably large spoonfuls of salsa and sour cream. And a few black olives. No guacamole though - but usually that's a good thing.

Honeyrose organic fudge brownie

Now, this is a real brownie. It puts EAT's concoction to shame. Rich, chocolately, just the right balance of goo/crumble, it tastes freshly made and indulgent. It looks fairly plain but makes up for that in flavour. Just like a real homemade brownie, the inside is darker and gooier that the dryer, lighter coloured outside. And the organic ingredients list is short but sweet - cane sugar, chocolate (21%), wheat flour, butter, free-range eggs and wheat syrup. (But why the wheat syrup?)

The Honeyrose Organic Handbaking's Organic fudge brownie is quite simply delicious and I'd say with confidence it is the best shop-bought brownie I've ever tasted. Heavenly.

Wagamama...

Is a great, big con. I can't understand why so many people are taken in... To be fair, I've only been there twice, but that was enough for me to dislike the chain. They pride themselves on their noodle soups so the first time I visited Wagamama (Covent Garden branch) I chose the kare lomen, which they describe as 'a spicy soup made from lemongrass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chillies, fresh ginger and galangal, served with ramen noodles and garnished with grilled prawns, beansprouts, cucumber, lime and fresh coriander'.

Sounds lovely, don't you think? It looked ok (the similar chicken kare lomen can be seen to the left) and was garnished with a few sprigs of fresh coriander and a wedge of lime. I delved in with my chopsticks but was soon disappointed. There were three butterflied prawns, decidedly overcooked, in a muddy coloured bowl of thin soup which contained a large handful of beansprouts, shredded cucumber and noodles. The soup tasted nice, I could pick out the lemongrass and chilli flavours, but that was about it. Beansprouts and cucumber (and noodles) have to be the most boring, tasteless and cheap fillers for any meal, and at £8.50 a bowl, with 3 prawns and not much else - the sum of the ingredients must have been just a few pence - it's horribly overpriced. And then I must account for the appalling, rude service, the way they rush you to order, the very expensive drinks and how they allow for their erratic service by stating they won't bring your table's meals together (or even within the same half an hour, as we found) as they 'want to ensure the freshness of your food'.

My second visit was just as bad. As I was aware that the prawn dishes arrived with very few of their main ingredient, I chose chicken, and was disappointed again. I pointedly chose a different noodle soup - the chicken itame - noodle soups are their 'signiture dishes'. Yet again, the bowl was stuffed full of beansprouts and not much else. However, a friend did choose some deep-fried duck dumplings (duck gyoza) which were tasty and contained a good amount of duck, particularly for the price... but I can get nicer duck in my local vietnamese.

Wagamama is inexplicably popular - it is not good value, the food is shoddy and it has rude service, yet people still continue to rave about it. All I can think of is that it must have a great marketing team behind it and someone, somewhere must be rubbing their hands in glee over how much they are conning their customers.

Introducing...

I'd like to introduce you to my latest creation. I call it Renegade.

This is not merely a sandwich. This is four slices of ultra-masculine wholemeal toast, each topped with grilled cheese. This is two slices of bacon napalmed to a blackened crisp. This is a chicken breast torn apart by hand, and scattered like landmines in a hostile Eastern European country.

Renegade is composed of three different animals: cow, pig and chicken. If there were more animals in my fridge, Renegade would be composed of those as well. Renegade is 100% guaranteed to destroy your hunger.

Renegade 1 was paired with a playful spiral of HP sauce. It was immense. After finishing it, I had to sit still for twenty minutes. Renegade 2 was cluster bombed with Heinz tomato ketchup. I had ketchup dripping down as far as my wrists. It took a while, but I finally finished it, although I suffered some breathing difficulties immediately afterwards.

I encourage you to attempt the Renegade challenge.

Some days you just need cheese

And today is one of those days. I had a knackering day yesterday and I am feeling it today. I knew that what I need for lunch is something, anything, with melted cheese. Too weary to leave the office before getting some calories down me, I went to the cafeteria, which has chicken and roasted peppers paninis on special at £2.25. Tempting. But I needed cheese, so, lacking inspiration, I got one of those with extra mozzarella. Yes! Cheesy! I held the warm plate in a bag in my hands as I came back up to my desk, the earthy smell of cheese and chicken wafting up on the steam.

On Thursdays they do a special - with a deli sandwich you get a free piece of fruit or packet of crisps. Normally I go for salt and vinegar hula hoops, but today the fruit looked quite nice, so I took a banana. Healthy. Well, kind of.

And... the panini is ok. It's certainly filling - I like the roasted peppers a lot, but I swear I get more if the sandwich is made in front of me (the specials are prepared and waiting to be cooked) and I love melted cheese in virtually any form, but while some of the chicken pieces are fine, most of it is pappy. Why is that? Why can't all places serve quality chicken? Is all chicken so intensively farmed and shoved full of drugs that it loses its texture and flavour? Perhaps I just want too much of the office cafeteria - they can't be expected to provide organic, free-range chicken all the time on the sort of budgets I assume they have. But I wish they did.

[photo to come]

EAT chocolate brownie

Bought from Paddington Station branch of EAT. It had a fairly crumbly texture and the chocolate chunks on the top were slightly stale-tasting and had bloom. It's a shame the chunks weren't inside the brownie itself - they may have been more protected from the heat/cold exposure that I've been told causes blooming. Overall it had a nice, rich flavour and, although it was crumbly on the outside corners, the inside had an element of goo - necessary for all brownies in my opinion. The verdict? A pretty good product if you need something to keep you going when you're on the run, but do not expect a fresh-tasting brownie.

Succulent chicken

I love the word 'succulent' it makes me feel all naughty. Anyway, had a crap day today of sneezing and spluttering, but everything felt better after my delicious dinner.

Gorgeous slices of chicken breast, fluffy oven baked potatoes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage leaves in a creamy cheesy sauce. Perfect food at the end of a grey rainy day.

The Brussels sprouts were especially good. Lush green, crisp and snappy. They had a flavourful whiff of soil about them, and were full of crunch. They can be horrible if over-boiled, but are superb when done correctly. Just make sure you keep them crunchy.

More fish pie decadence

decadent > adjective
- characterized by or reflecting a state of moral or cultural decline.
- luxuriously self-indulgent
[The New Oxford Dictionary of English]

We've just been to our friends S&R for a home-made, fish pie supper, and my god, we are stuffed. You can see the meal to the left - succulent, creamy, filling and perfect on a stormy Sunday night like tonight. The broccoli was a crisp, strong green and delicious and the sweetcorn, as you would expect, was sweet. Both not only looked colourful, as you can see, but were a good match for the meal. It was so moreish we each had seconds, and had there been any left, I reckon everyone could have eaten a third portion, but more was to follow, courtesy of M&S puddings...

This was not just chocolate pudding. It was overpoweringly rich Marks & Spencers' chocolate pudding. It needed cream, and we had it with ice-cream too, as a decadent addition. Even in quarters, and it wasn't that big, it just tipped us over the edge into that slightly sick yet satisfied with the amount of full-on food feeling. I needed to lie on the sofa with my stomach in the air afterwards - in a good way. As shop-bought puddings go, I give it fairly high marks, although it wasn't particularly exciting - hence the need for cream and ice-cream.

It's 3 hours later and my stomach still feels nicely rounded from the inside. I have a pre-hibernation, autumnal Sunday evening feel. We shouldn't have to go to work tomorrow. Great meal guys - thanks!

Quorn sausage sandwich

A hearty breakfast treat was needed, although it was too late in the day for a fry-up.

Fried Quorn sausages topped with roughly chopped spring onions, double gloucester cheese and recklessly dispensed salt and pepper. As you can see the toasted brown bread is buttered generously with Lurpak. I don't care if mycoprotein is a mold grown in vats, it's sexy and delicious.

McDonald's, Victoria Station, SW1V 1JT

This was a bit multi-brand. M&S cheese and tomato roll, Sainsbury's lemonade and delicious potato wedges from McDonald's. A most pleasant dining experience, enjoyed in the delightful McDonald's at Victoria Station. Classy.

And... this is what you need on a Sunday morning

A bacon butty. Best with brown or wholemeal toast, crispy back bacon and heinz tomato ketchup. People who like their butty with sliced white bread, floppy bacon and brown sauce are just wrong.

This is what you need before a Saturday night out...

Something to line the stomach. Wholewheat penne - keeping you full for longer - a rustic-style tomato sauce with a bit of chilli, herbs and garlic, lots of veg to make it interesting (peppers, onions, courgette etc) and cubed mozzarella, added at the last minute so it's melting gently. What do you get? A delicious mass of filling, flavourful, warming food, served a little messily in a bowl for easy eating. That's home-cooking. And I didn't even crave pizza/kebabs/curry on my way home. Ideal.

Feeling the burn again

It's not been a good week for burns. I was creating a tuna nicoise salad last night... I put the organic Charlotte potatoes in to boil, then later on added green beans to the pan. I finely chopped a red onion and sliced a few olives (I only had green rather than black), some cherry tomatoes, added it all to the bowl with some lettuce and a drained tin of tuna in springwater. I made the dressing (crushed garlic, grainy mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil, a pinch of sugar and seasoning) then I thought I'd better give the spuds and beans a quick stir as the beans as usual had floated off to the sides of the pan. But as I stuck the spoon in to stir, in an unfortuanate mix of circumstances somehow the potatoes bundled on top of each other, splashing boiling/simmering water straight out of the pan and on to my stomach. Owww... Bloody painful. I cried out with an animalistic, shrill yelp. Which even at the time sounded weird.

I drained the potatoes and beans, boiled then shelled the eggs and mixed the salad together, all with a great big block of ice held to my belly. I've got the leftovers for lunch today and they'd better be good. I just hope burns don't come in threes...

Fish pie à la Ruskie

I was having a quick look through my holiday snaps last weekend and I came across this one of a rather elaborate fish pie I had when we went for dinner one night in St Petersburg. Once we had ordered, it took quite a long time to arrive, so I had sunk quite a few wines before actually getting round to eating it, but as far as I remember it was pretty delicious and had big chunks of salmon, a rich creamy sauce and crisp pastry. And the table deccies were rather amusing too... [pic to follow]

Mash

On a damp, dark Autumn evening, sometimes all you want to eat is a great big pile of comfort food. Last night was one of those nights, so I decided to make Shepherd's Pie (well, when I say decided that makes it sound last-minute. What I actually mean is I had been thinking about it all day). I made my mash with a mixture of normal potatoes and sweet potatoes, with some creme fraiche, which makes it lovely and yellow and smooth and gorgeous. The sort of food you don't even have to chew so you can shove as much in your mouth as quickly as possible. We washed it all down with red wine and then, mad with joy, discovered a tub of forgotten M&S flapjacks in the cupboard. It was so nice I didn't even feel guilty eating it in front of You Are What You Eat.

Ramsay Rant

How can Gordon Ramsay put his name to such a shoddy, commercially produced, sickeningly flavoured chocolates as his Just Desserts range? I was persuaded to indulge in an Ocado delivery recently as they promised me £10 off my shopping, free delivery and a box of Gordon Ramsay's 'luxury' chocolates.

Luxury?! I've never tasted such heinous confectionary or, as it happens, desserts. From the disgustingly sweet strawberry and white chocolate concoction to the cloyingly synthetic flavours of the honeycomb dark chocolate thing, and to the appallingly chosen combination chocolates - if you're using ginger, use dark chocolate, not bad quality, greasy white - the whole collection was revolting.

And, why did they all look as though someone had stuck their dirty thumb in each chocolate - from the bottom. How did that happen? The packaging was intact.

So, here's the question: did Ocado, the usually reliable purveyors of luxury items and quality food, send us 'seconds' which they knew were damaged, and were a particularly bad batch, or is the whole range of chocolates as unaccountably rubbish as we experienced?

Shame on you, Ramsay.

Slimfast chocolate caramel bars...

are surprisingly nice. Yes, really. Sweet and chewy, admittedly they are covered in about as much chocolate as the crumbs that fall on my desk while I eat a Yorkie, but they actually hit the spot. I suppose only a small-medium spot. And they're only 99 calories. And just 45p from Superdrug. Not bad.

I can feel the burn

I've been trying to save money by bringing my lunches into work for the past few months, but I'm getting increasingly bored of them. At first I varied the food - from salads made in the morning, to leftovers from the night before, or more usually a selection of toppings for ryvitas - smoked salmon and cream cheese (a pricier option), tuna with a twist (by John West, I recommend ovendried tomato and herb or lime and black pepper) with tomato, or cheddar cheese and cucumber, or cold meats and a veg, but I am now tired of home-arranged lunches. I want to be able to make spontaneous decisions about my choice of tucker. It's especially hard to stick to the homemade when there's a 'restaurant' (canteen) downstairs with a sandwich bar, a pretty good salad bar, jacket potatoes, soup and a couple of hot meals - it's not even as if I have to leave the building to change my mind and buy my lunch.

Today my willpower was flaking and I decided to ditch my tuna with a twist, tomatoes and ryvita lunch option, knowing they would last until tomorrow, in favour of the 'restaurant'. I stood in the centre, looking around at all the options, but none appealed. Eventually I chose tomato and herb soup (quite thin but fairly tasty) with a chunk of bread (I wanted brown but the white bread chunks were twice the size so I chose one of those) and as I passed by the fridges on my way to pay, I snatched a tub of grated cheddar. Which really made the difference. But as I sampled a spoonful of soup with melting cheddar, I realised it was too hot. I had made the foolish mistake of taking a spoonful from the middle, rather than nibbling my way around the outside as it cooled down enough to eat. And, in public at least, there's not much you can do about a burning cheesy tomato mess in your mouth apart from swallow. So I did. And now I've burnt my tongue and my throat. They are sore. And I wish I'd just stuck with my boring lunch from home.

Tuesdays will never be the same again

I've finally got around to getting an organic delivery box, been meaning to for ages. Not only does it support local food producers (which we're constantly being told by the Guardian is the good green thing to do), but you also get a box of delicious fresh goodies delivered to your door once a week! I've plumped for the fruit & veg box from Riverford. They're a company based in Devon who seem to have a good selection of stuff including mangoes and calabrese (a large succulent type of broccoli apparently, I didn't know either), are reasonably priced and also give you the opportunity to get extra things like clotted cream and chutneys. Mmmmmmm. Can't wait...

Basilico takeaway pizza

I had heard these were the best takeaway pizzas available. Naturally, I felt we had to sample some. We chose an Americana (italian spicy pepperoni, green and red bell peppers, spring onion chopped tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and mozzarella) with pineapple substituted for the jalapeno peppers - I love pineapple on pizza - and a Roma (tomato, buffalo mozzarella, grilled aubergine, rocket, parmesan, pesto and prosciutto crudo).

I really didn't like the Roma - I can never understand the popularity of ham varieties on pizza, and the prosciutto crudo just wasn't very nice. And the aubergine was hard and fairly unpleasant - had it been cut along its width rather than length, the rather thick skin might not have overpowered the flesh so much. The rest of that pizza was ok. The Americana was pretty good.

But both were very sloppy and messy to eat. They had thin, floury bases, black from the pizza oven, and crusts that were so tough they weren't worth the effort to eat. But the tomato sauce was obviously made from real tomatoes and appeared fresh - it had chunks, which was a nice surprise. The rest of the ingredients seemed to be of good quality.

But, like all takeaway pizzas, at around £11.50 a pizza the Basilico seem rather expensive for what you get. Disappointing.

Honestly, this blog is not all about crisps...

but it struck me last night that these are surprisingly similar to Salty Dog crisps... in fact, if I didn't know the packet was different, I would say they are exactly the same. Interesting.

Hula hoops

Oohhh, they're fantastic, aren't they? Especially the salt & vinegar variety. They're just so much more satisfying than your average crisp.

And, as a child, I occasionally used to have 'philadelphia and little rings' - an absolutely scrumptious high-fat snack. We'd be given a third of a tub of philly and a packet of hula hoops each and stuff the golden hoops with the famous cream cheese.

The days of high-fat snacks were great.

The Corner Store, 33 Wellington Street, WC2E 7BN

Today, to celebrate two birthdays, four of us bloggers went to The Corner Store for a sandwich and chips. Well, one steak sandwich, one pastrami sandwich, one spinach and bean burger and a beefburger - skinny fries with the burgers.

It's a shame the place stinks of frying. I can still smell chip fat on my hair - not a great scent to wear for a Friday night out. It's possibly because there's a semi-open kitchen, next to the bar. The place has a gastropub feel; it's spacious, with sofas that we were very happy to sink into and it became pretty full by about 1 o'clock. The food took some time to arrive but the service was friendly and casual, in a good way. And, as you'll see from the photo [to come], the cuisine looked fine and they certainly didn't stint on the skinny fries. My burger was billed 'served with chips and salad' so I was expecting a little more green on my plate - but apparently it's just in the bun. It had lots of raw red onion, juicy tomato and boring green leaves. The meat was tasty and seemed good quality; it was an attractive pinky colour in the middle and cooked on the outside (a little burnt in one corner though).

Feel fat-filled now though. And a bit like a sack of potatoes... but I shouldn't complain. Happy birthday you two!

Salty dog crisps

They've got a good crunch, those crisps.

The charms of the Courtauld Gallery Café

While the weather is still mild and sunny, husband and I decided it might be nice to have a spot of lunch al fresco. The café at the Courtauld Gallery on the Strand is one of my favourite places for this, with its competitive prices, charming location and excellent range of continental snacks and hot lunches (and generous supplies of fresh bread – I hate it when places charge extra for bread). We enjoyed cassoulet and poulet basquaise, washed down with a nice glass of house red and followed by a stroll around the Somerset House courtyard. Very civilized.

The Barnsbury, 209-11 Liverpool Road, N1 1LX

I have eaten here a few times before from the lighter bites section of the menu and it has been consistently fantastic. Twice I've had a stack of moist aubergine, mozzarella, beef tomato and portobello mushroom drizzled with pesto and garnished with a few sprigs of basil (it was so tasty the first time I couldn't wait to have it again) and I've also shared a crayfish pasta in a creamy sauce and some crunchy, perfect chips - all can be thoroughly recommended. As can the good value bar snack of 'chorizo al inferno' (two skewers of chorizo lapped with flames from booze in a dish underneath, accompanied by a couple of chunks of bread), although it would be helped if the liquor was more palatable than the paint-stripping, toxic variety which looks much nicer swirled with the chorizo juices than it tastes.

Anyway, I went back again last night on a bit of a whim. Aware that I salivate regularly as I remember the aubergine stack, when I saw the 'turkish-style aubergine' starter on the menu I couldn't resist. And I'm glad I didn't. It was just lovely - a substantial slice of aubergine cooked to a squidgy texture, topped with a portobello mushroom and a mix of spices, tomato and unidentifiable veg, set on a plate prettily decorated with dabs of creamy sauce and chutney. We shared it and it didn't last long.

While my boyfriend chose the scallop starter as a main course with chips (well presented and perfectly cooked), I decided on the herb-encrusted, English (local - woo-hoo!!) rump of lamb with fine green beans and sweet potato mash. I asked for it as rare as they would let me have it, and that's how it came. Wow. Beautifully tender, sliced halfway through to show the pink meat contrasting with the crispy exterior - just how I like it - on a pile of beans surrounded with a dark and rich balsamic sauce, it looked great and tasted even better. The sweet potato mash was a little too thin and smooth for my liking, but the flavour melded with the lamb, sauce and beans very nicely. All in all, it was delicious. I was seriously full and couldn't even finish my boyfriend's chips... unusually for me. And we had a fresh and fruity bottle of Sauvignon Blanc which went down well, particularly with the scallops, and wasn't too budget-busting at around £14.

The only annoying thing was that our section of the restaurant was too dark to really see the food (or photograph it successfully - we only had a 2 megapixal camera phone with us). But I won't let that stop me going back. The Barnsbury is not cheap, but it serves top gastro-pub food with charming and friendly service. Mmmmm. Yum, yum.

Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, W1T 6AQ

Have been meaning to go to the Indian YMCA for a while now, finally got round to it today.

I decided on some pilau rice, vegetable curry, dhal, pickle and a poppadom, which cost me a handsome £4.15. Most reasonable. While the pilau and poppadom were pedestrian, I can say with confidence that the dhal was one of the finest I have tasted West of Bangalore. My manservant settled on a lamb curry which he was equally satisfied with, although the spicy aromatics left his Hibernian complexion flushed somewhat.

Despite the bizarre canteen-style seating arrangement and the prevalence of dreadlocked student types, it was a fine dining experience which I would recommend should you be in the area.

Curry and Pie

I was going to take a photo of the Indian feast that I made for friends on Saturday night but my husband couldn't find the camera. It was a good thing I didn't really as the overall visual effect was like a sea of beige, in the way that the weekly junk food intake of one of Gillian McKeith's victims resembles when laid out on a table. But despite its brown hues, the food went down very well: aubergine curry with ground almonds and coconut, dhal, bombay potatoes, chickpea and spinach curry, pilau rice and home-made bhajis! Made far too much, as usual, but we still felt quite virtuous as it was vegetarian. Sadly our healthy glow didn't last long as Sunday dinner consisted of Corsican wild boar terrine followed by a large game pie (with the tantalizing warning 'may contain lead shot' printed on the box) and then plum crumble. Bloody nice though.

A mutter on butter

When you hold a buttercup under my chin it glows so yellow it appears radioactive. But only if the buttercup is branded with a great big Lurpak sign. Or is from the south of France - their butter is delicious too. Other butter just pale in comparison. Or not, I suppose, as it's the paler butters I like - not the brash, nasty, vivid-yellow assult on my tastebuds I get from Anchor butter, or any of the butters they serve in pubs with a ploughmans. Or any cheap butters sandwich shops use. Revolting. Their cows may eat 'green, green grass' but give the poor things the Lurpak cows' diet and I'm sure they'd be better off. Lurpak tastes creamy; it tastes delicate; it tastes high quality. It tastes like it was produced by pretty cows who have happy lives. I hope they do.

It's half-past twelve and I'm trying desperately to wait until 1 o'clock to eat my lunch. It's difficult. I've already had a big satsuma which didn't seem to do much to stave of the hunger pangs. But if I don't wait till 1 the afternoon seems so long and I just want to nibble my way through it. But what is really upsetting me is that I threw away some food this morning. I hate doing that. Sometime last week I needed to get a few things for the fridge so I stopped off at a Sainsbury's Local on my way home. Annoyed they didn't have Lurpak slightly salted butter, I realised that as we were out of spread I should probably buy a pot (surely not a pat as it's in a funny-shaped carton) of Lurpak Spreadable Light - thinking I should stick with the brand I know and love. It might have fewer calories, but sadly it has zero flavour, but usually it will do.

However, although I know other butters are inferior, I had been recommended Yeo Valley Organic butter - the ingredients looked fine, I'm happy with most Yeo Valley products; I like it that they're organic, so I thought I'd try it. But I had one bite of my marmite sandwich (made with Yeo Valley butter) this morning and I gagged. It took me straight back to when I was six and spread a nice thick layer of butter on my jacket potato in a pub garden, naively believing all butter tasted like Lurpak, only to find it didn't and my potato was ruined. Having a 'waste not want not' attitude to food, I persevered and ate another five bites of my marmite sandwich. But no, there was no way I could stomach it and I had to throw it away.

On a plus note - to fill the gap in my stomach and ease my disappointment I went down to the office canteen and bought two toasted crumpets with chocolate spread. Oh, wow. Velvety smooth, cloyingly sweet - delicious. And all for 39p. I'm still hungry now though. Only twenty minutes to go...

Sweet and spicy Sunday

On Sunday I realised the fridge was almost bare. I had to go shopping but I simply couldn't face it. I also knew we had some big cooked prawns that needed eating and some fruit left over from my fruit basket. It was like Ready Steady Cook - what can I make with what I've got?

We were starving so I decided to concoct something simple, sweet and spicy - and fast. I sliced a yellow pepper and stir-fried it with slightly old and floppy pak choi and fresh ginger in some chilli-infused olive oil. Meanwhile I chopped up a few rounds of the big pineapple and the end of a pack of cherry tomatoes (I didn't have a lot to work with!). I squeezed the juice of a lime and poured it in to the wok, adding the prawns, pineapple and cherry tomatoes to warm through and a pinch of crushed chillis at the same time. It smelt and looked surprisingly nice, but it needed something else, and I suddenly knew where I was headed - a South Asian-inspired soup. I sloshed in half a can of coconut milk, grated some nutmeg on the top and some black pepper, left it simmering for a couple of minutes and voila! It was ready.

It may have been hastily shoved together from a mishmash of fridge and cupboard ingredients, but it was delicious. I knew I should get my camera to record its colourful prettiness, but I'm afraid I couldn't wait to eat it. Yes - my greed won. I am ashamed. Next time, maybe I'll have the willpower to wait...

The Churchill Arms, 119 Kensington Church Street, W8 7LN

Had a splendid bit of Thai at The Churchill Arms today. Feeling adventurous I went for the fearsome number 16 Kwaitiew Pad Kee Mao.

I don't know what that means in Thai, but probably something along the lines of 'eat this and your mouth will blow-up'. On the menu it is marked with three butterflies, which in The Churchill Arms spiciness classification system means very hot. The combination of pleasure and pain is just wrong. Lovely chunks of chicken, crisp veg and saucy flat noodles. I wish I could eat here every day.