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!