Dinner, 30/1/19: Pasta with Brussels sprouts and pancetta

I usually make this recipe with orechiette, but my bag of orechiette got covered in face cleanser, when the face cleanser spilled in the shopping delivery and had to be thrown entirely in the bin. (It was nasty.) So, luckily, I had backup pasta, and we used farfalle instead. Tastes just as nice.  The brussels sprouts are sliced really thin and the bacon and cream with this are great. We really like this dish and highly recommend using sprouts this way if you are one of those people who isn't really sure about sprouts.

Dinner, 29/1/19: Vegan Oven Fajitas

This is from my Roasting Tray Cookbook, which I really like -easy recipes which you just stick in the oven and let cook on their own. This one is sweet potato, peppers and beans. I added an extra tin of beans (black-eyed peas) to bulk it up a bit, as we always eat a lot, plus I thought the leftovers would be nice. But it was great - some of us added grated cheese and some yogurt drizzled on; I didn't, and it was still excellent. I did add lettuce for a bit of crunch in there.

Book 9: The Same Sky, Amanda Eyre Ward

This was two parallel stories - a couple going through the heartbreak surrounding a failed adoption and a young girl trying to make her way from abject poverty in Honduras across the US border to join her mother, an illegal immigrant working in Texas. Eventually, the two stories intertwine (though not much); the contrasts and similarities are well done and intersting and the book is a strong portrait of the characters, and well written.

Dinner, 28/1/19: Courgette and Onion Quinoa

This is anothe recipe from the River Cottage Veg cookbook; the texture combination of this was fantastic and we liked the flavour, but felt it wasn't quite a complete supper (even with bread) and either needed another dish on the side or something else in it. One to experiment with, I think.

Dinner, 27/1/19: Squash and Fennel Lasagne

A recipe from a new (to me) cookbook: River Cottage Veg, a gift from my friend Kirsten. It was really lovely. Geoff thought it had a little too much squash and would have preferred more fennel, but I thought it was a good ratio (as did Alex. Sarah doesn't like fennel, so although she agreed, I didn't really count her opinion).  Would definitely make this again. We used parmesan in the meal, but you could use any hard, flavourful cheese if you wanted to be sure it was vegetarian.

Book 8: Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman (re-read)

Having recently come across several references to this book, or things which brought it to mind for other reasons, I decided it was time to visit it again - a sign from the cosmos.  As good as ever. 

Year Long Declutter, week 4 (56 items total)

So, this was mostly clearing out the bathroom medicine cabinet. Clearly I am the only person who ever does this.  Here are some very dried up coughdrops, an empty bottle, three empty tubes of hydrocortisone cream, and a couple of other misc things.

And this one has some more medicine cabinet stuff, my old fitbit wristband which has stretched loose quite a bit (and has now been replaced) and a misc. kitchen item.

Dinner, 26/1/19: Mini toads in the hole, green beans

Book 7: Moonlocket by Peter Bunzl

The second in a kids steampunk adventure series, which I read the first of recently. Our library at school had the second, so I couldn't resist borrowing it to read. It was cute.

Dinner, 25/1/19: Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)

Dinner, 23/1/19: Spaghetti with lemon and olives

Dinner, 22/1/19: Borlotti Bean, Pancetta & Pasta Soup

A nice, hearty, wintery soup. Yum.

Dinner, 21/1/19: Mushroom and Chard Frittata

The mushrooms in this frittata were planned, but the chard was a fortuitous leftover, which worked really well. One of the advantages of the girls not being home most of the time is that we can eat things like omelettes for supper - the three of us all like them, and there's enough to feed three without making much of anything else, maybe some bread and/or salad on the side.

Dinner, 20/1/19: Greek Beef & Onion Stew

A nice slow cooker stew, which allows me to have a leisurely afternoon and evening, because it's been cooking all day... Makes the house smell good as well.

Year Long Declutter, week 3 (42 items total)

A number of notebooks (mostly given to the girls over the years, I think) which are going to school for the prize box, etc. A set of coasters which I never use because I have been given coasters I like better. Some photo paper which I never ever use because it's A4 - I did keep one packet of glossy and one of matte, but I don't need 2 or 3 of each as I almost never use it (my printer prints on 4x6 size very easily).

Some empty boxes, the old battery and charger cable for my laptop (I replaced both a while back, one a time and was keeping the old ones in case - in case of what? who knows.); some batteries which had exploded a bit in the drawer, and so on.

Dinner, 19/1/19: Leek, Potato & Gorgonzola Tart

Yum.  And apparently, I can still win a game of Carcasonne while cooking dinner. (I think Gorgonzola is not technically vegetarian, but you could sub in a veggie blue cheese really easily.)

Dinner, 18/1/19: Prawns with Ginger

Excellent taste to this, as well as good contrasts between textures. I added the green peppers; they weren't in the recipe. There's a reason dishes like sweet & sour involve both peppers and pineapple - the bitterness of the pepper plays nicely off the sweetness of the pineapple. Definitely a keeper.

Book 6: Cassandra at the Wedding, Dorothy Baker

This is a "modern classic", from the 60s, and though I feel I ought to have heard of the author, I'm fairly sure she's new to me. I admit that this was a book which I was entirely drawn to by the cover - though of course, if the blurb hadn't sounded promising, I wouldn't have bought it. I thought it very good, though I did find myself thinking how you can sometimes really tell when a book was written by its style - even quite modern books. This one felt very much 50s/60s to me. 

Dinner, 16/1/19: Penne with Bolognese ragu (Geoff cooking)

Tasty, as always. Geoff used some of the Herbs de Provence which the kids brought back from France this summer, which added a very nice flavour.

Dinner, 15/1/19: Roasted fine beans with chickpeas and tamarind

Despite the look of it, this is not vegan, or even vegetarian, as it contains fish sauce as one of its five ingredients. I reckon you could find a substitute for it (perhaps vegetarian Worcestershire sauce) which would create a similar effect, but I haven't tried that. This was excellent, though, really enjoyable. It's from John Whaite's book "Perfect Plates in Five Ingredients", which I like a lot.