Nobody Wants To Know What We Had For Dinner

… which has 3 chopped garlic cloves and parsley, fried in olive oil, and added to boiled spaghetti. We added grated Grana Pedano (less fat that parmesan) cheese to it. It’s simple, but very tasty, and from the Vegetarian Bible recipe book (see panel on right).

… and remembering that I used to make flapjacks about a million years ago, I went to one of my recipe books. Then I thought – why shouldn’t I use the internet? So I made some raisin and honey flapjacks (although I used sultanas instead). I think next time I’ll cut down on the sugar a little.

I like recipes like this – chuck everything in a pan (put the pan on the scales and zeroed them out, and just added ingredients as I went along), melt it all together, stick it in the oven … job done!

… although we have been scoffing remarable well. We had gnocci (Sainsburys, fresh from the chiller cabinet) with lots of cheese, peas and spinach. With enough left over for lunch tomorrow. Very nice.

… which is always a bit of a strain. Fortunately (for me), Annie finished early, so she put a Sainsburys quiche in the oven, and steamed some potatoes (some left for lunch tomorrow), and steamed broccoli and carrots, to which we added various chutneys and mustards.

Incidentally, we bought a steamer from Aldi, for something silly like £10, which has worked faultlessly for at least 50 steams, maybe more.

… although we had lunch out in Maldon, and we both had deep-fried whitebait with brown bread, and I had a pint of Guiness, although Annie was good (again) and had mineral water.

For tea (home), I did toasted olive bread from Walton Bread and Wine, with peanut butter for Annie, and I had a toasted sesame seed bagel, again with peanut buttter and a sprinkling of garam masala powder. I know it sounds weird, but it tasted nice!

… because Linda and Roger came to test Roger’s boat. We went to Walton Bread and Wine again, and Annie and I had scone with jam, and coffee for me and tea for Annie.

Later on, we dined at The Ocean indian restaurant in Walton, and I had lamb tikka rezala, with special fried rice and tarka dall. It’s a great restaurant, and deserves to do well. The food is great, and the service good. Annie had her usual vegetable thali, which she always enjoys. A lovely evening.

… and we’re hooked on Any Dream Will Do, and to supplement our TV watching we had filled pasta, and Annie made a tomato-based sauce with cheese sprinkled on top, and then heated under the grill for a while, so the cheese went brown and scrummy.

… because we had some of the curried potato and cheesy peas that we had last Tuesday. We’d frozen some and took it away to Walton with us.

… and Annie asked me to make a stir fry for tonight’s dinner. She was visiting a friend who had just had a baby. I have a problem with stir fry. I don’t understand why, but I’m just not confident doing it. I’ve watched Annie do it loads of times, but I seem to have some sort of reluctance to actually do it myself. Anyway, I prepared the veg, which was mini corns, sugar snap peas, French beans, and mushrooms. When Annie came home, she kindly took over, and added the rather splendid wok-ready noodles from Aldi. Tasty!

… with a Sainsburys quiche, and boiled potatoes and broccoli. I also added some sun dried tomatoes and chutney, which made a lovely mix of flavours.