Dinner, 30/9/13: Pasta with creamy sausage sauce

It was such a nice lunch I forgot to take pictures until afterwards!

Leek and blue cheese Wellington

carrots with sage and lemon butter

courgette, broad bean and walnut salad.

Apple crumble

and summer berry ice cream (mostly blackberries, but a few red currants and blueberries thrown in for good measure).

Birthday pizza!

Yum!

As it is Sarah's birthday on a weeknight, we needed a meal she liked, but which didn't take too long to cook (so, for example, no roast meats). Pizza is always a good go-to on occasions such as these...

We always make our own, quite thin crusted, pizzas - sometimes we eat them all in one sitting, sometimes there are leftovers for lunch the next day (or breakfast, depending). 

Dinner, 24/9/13: Courgette and Rocket Soup; American Biscuits

Foggy morning

Dinner, 23/9/13: Chicken, potato & anchovy salad

And I threw some other stuff in, as well, such as capers and artichoke hearts. This was from Good Food magazine, but was a Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall recipe. 

Also had some leftover salad from last night, the ends of the weekend bread and some hard boiled eggs. A nice summery supper for the end of the summer...

Dinner, 22/9/13: Lamb steaks with couscous salad and green salad

This salad was lovely - couscous with broad beans, spinach, feta cheese and olives;

this salad was a little more ordinary. 

With a nice lamb steak on the side, an excellent dinner.

Dinner, 21/9/13: Turkey Escallopes, potatoes, green beans

Dinner, 20/9/13: Pasta Puttanesca

Sauce

plus pasta

plus some nice crusty bread...

What more could a girl want?

Vintage Style

It's astonishing how much patience Olivia has for this sort of thing!

Dinner, 18/9/13: One pan spicy rice

One we've had many times. Quick, easy, tasty. Ticks all the boxed. Recipe from Good Food magazine.

Apple Crumble!

Ta da!  As I predicted...

Dinner, 17/9/13: Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Another recipe from my Covent Garden Soup book, except that I didn't use Dolcelatte, as my eldest really dislikes blue cheese and she begged nicely...  Back to soup season!

An Apple Crumble Wannabe

A friend at work has a large apple tree (cooking apples) so brought in a couple bags for us to help ourselves - even if she were inclined to follow her husband's suggestion to make apple crumble every day, there'd still be too many apples. I had a meeting tonight, but I'm hoping to be able to make a crumble tomorrow...

Dinner, 15/9/13: Thai Red Beef Curry

Today's dinner was done in the slow cooker - a nice Thai curry with a cheap cut of beef. The bamboo shoots were added for only last 15 minutes to warm through. We liked this but Geoff and I especially felt it could have done with some more vegetables - long Thai beans or little tiny Thai aubergines or something. Next time, we'll add something!  Recipe from Williams-Sonoma Slow Cooker book.

It was a very close thing...

But in the end, Geoff and I were defeated by the girls...  (Alex was at a friend's house).  We nearly had it - maybe next time!

Dinner, 14/9/13: Hairy Dieters' Cassoulet

From the Hairy Bikers' diet book - a version of cassoulet, which is less fattening but still tasty. We really enjoyed this - it was hearty and warming and tasty and while not quite as filling as traditional cassoulet (probably the lack of confit duck legs) it was also definitely healthier. 

Every recipe I have tried from this book has been successful, and really doesn't feel like diet food.  The best kind!

Served with some crusty bread (made by Mr Wait and Mr Rose, not by me)...

A Night at the Circus

We went to a small circus, Happy's Circus, last night. It's a small, travelling circus, and does a lot of events at schools, etc. Alex's school (also the school where I work) booked them for an event, so despite the appalling weather, off we went - luckily, the circus itself was in a big, dry tent, even if the refreshments, etc, were a little less under cover...  The acts were very good - and of course we were quite close, as it wasn't a huge big top (though still fairly good sized). There was an aerialist, who performed on high silks and a hoop (no photo of the hoop). 

And another performer, who did two acts - one on high ropes and the other, a balancing act.

He ended up balanced on top of 5 platforms - but the part that really impressed me was that he added each one himself as he went along...

There was a woman who did an act balancing knives and swords - here she is, climbing a ladder, balancing a candelabra sword on the point of a knife, which holding the knife hilt in her mouth.

There were also clowns, of course, and a girl who did an act with hula hoops, but I didn't get a decent photo of her.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take my real camera, so these photos are all from my phone - hence the pretty dire quality!

Dinner, 12/9/13: Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

This recipe is basically macaroni and cheese but with some roasted butternut squash in it - some mashed and added to the sauce and some in chunks. I also added some bacon for saltiness to counteract the sweetness of the squash.  It was a nice variation on mac & cheese.

Dinner, 11/9/13: Mixed Bean Goulash

Made this before several times, but this time added some sweetcorn, which was nice. Will probably add it next time, only perhaps a little less. Good basic idea, though.

Served it with cheddar biscuits, with a little thyme and paprika in them. Yum.

Dinner, 10/9/13: Pasta with Broccoli and toasted nuts

This lovely, subtle dish was from a book called Vital Vegetables, which I think is a collection of recipes from Good Food magazine. Anyway, it's very simple, with the broc added to the pasta for the last three minutes and then the other bits added (you toast the nuts a little, then add some garlic, lemon zest and parsley). I used walnuts here rather than mixed nuts (because that's what I had) and some Blue Shropshire cheese as I like blue cheese and walnuts together. Not a big, in-your-face kind of meal, but very tasty, none-the-less. Served with a green salad to add a bit more interest.