I consider myself a decent cook, yet today I was looking at recipes of macaroni cheese, because I have never made it before (!!) . I wanted a budget meal and Jamie Oliver’s recipe sounded like a nice one.  I managed to put a nice meal on the table this evening in spite of having a really bad day, when everything was falling out of my hands, I was kicking pans in the cupboard and nearly cried, when a ball of nutmeg fell into my sauce whole, off the grater. I suppose I could just blame it all on the hormones, right?

So, macaroni; while the pasta was in the pan, boiling away, I made the white sauce, starting off like bechamel, plus a few thinly sliced bits of garlic and 3 bay leaves all in before the milk. The cooked pasta went in alongside some grated cheese, Jamie said cheddar, I used what I had in the fridge and needed to be used, a combo of comte and jarlsbeg, plus, to make it healthier and more tasty- some crispy fried bacon. Seasoned with the said nutmeg, which I finally fished out, a few drops of worcestershire sauce and salt/pepper. And into the oven for about 30 mins, to crisp up and turn nice and golden on top.

Served with a nice, green salad, it was a very pleasant meal indeed.

For dessert I made skubaniec, inspired by my mum, who sent me a parcel full of goodies for Izzie, plus 13 jars full of jams, preserves and stuff.  Gotta get cracking with those jars, I thought. Hence skubaniec. Recipe somewhere around, in 2010 I believe.

From GF online.  I thought pancetta and green peas can’t go wrong together. I made it the way I’d normally do  a quiche, plus a tiny improvement of infusing the cream with basil leaves and stalks. Not that it made an astonishing difference to the flavour, I needn’t have bothered.

The shortcrust pastry I’m particularly pleased with. 125 g of plain flour, 63 g of butter, an egg yolk and a splash of water to bind it.  Cooled briefly, pre- baked and then filled with fried pancetta, blanched peas, a couple of cherry tomatoes just for colour and extra chopped basil. Finished  with a mixture of 2 beaten eggs,  pseudo-infused cream, grated mozzarella, lots of grated nutmeg and seasoning.  Baked in 180 degrees until set and slightly browned on top.  Accompanied by a simple green salad.

“Food & Drink” is back for a new season, with skinny Roux Jr and a bint, who suggests great wines with meals, to me, who can only have a small glass once a week. I’m craving a nice, cold Pinot Gris, but with the new financial discipline and the mentioned alcohol abstinence for a few more months to come, the answer is NO.

Roux boy was talking about doing a better job with leftovers, like with remains of the roast chicken from a Sunday. He suggested croquettes, which I’ve been thinking about making for quite a long time. Today I did. But not with the leftovers, I bought 5 roasted chicken drumsticks, warmed them up while I was waiting for the potatoes to cool. In the meantime Dustin has helped himself to one of the drumsticks, little shit, must have smelled good, as he’s normally not walking on the kitchen tops.

So, I riced the spuds, peeled off all the meat and chucked the bones, added some lemon zest- came through really nicely-chopped spring onion, a touch of basil( Roux used tarragon, I hate tarragon), an egg, a handful of grated cheddar and seasoned well. Tossed in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and had them ready to deep fry.

The Frenchie made a chutney too, apparently of leftover tomatoes, which he chopped and threw to some sweated shallots and garlic, cooked off with sugar, red wine vinegar, chilli flakes and seasoning. I’m not amazed at mine, but then I’m not a massive chutney maker and expert. I had a jar of green tomato chutney from Louise though, so served it alongside mine. Both Florek and I preferred Louise’s. It tasted like it was made with a  recipe and love and time.

Will be made again, will be seasoned more bravely, might use a thick bechamel like the Spanish, to make them a bit more creamy. Florek said what would rock would be some cheese oozing out. So, must make again.

One of the best stir fries I’ve ever done. The photo is not really astounding, but I found it hard to take a good one of the noodles in a bowl. The taste made up for it.

I googled he recipe first, lots of different takes and ideas, I decided to go with someone called Ching He Huang, a bit more credible than John Smith maybe. 🙂

Thinly sliced chicken breast got a nice coating of a Chinese five spice, chilli garlic paste( the bird called for chilli sauce ) and soy sauce, after 20 minutes I tossed some corn flour into it as well. What a smashing idea altogether. The chicken was moist and succulent and full of flavour, which went through the rest of the dish. I threw in chopped red pepper, mange tout, some cup mushrooms, bean sprouts, seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil, then the noodles,cooked to packet instructions,  good toss to all if it and chopped spring onions to finish. Florek had seconds.

A link to that bird’s recipes, I’m going back to what she has to say:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?programmes[]=b00cjxzp

Got this idea from The White Hart Inn festive menu, where we ate dinner with Ron a couple of weeks ago. Florek ordered it as a starter, I tasted some and thought he got the best deal of all of us. So I made it today as a starter on a Christmas Eve supper.

I mixed together crumbled stilton with some Philadelphia cheese, finely chopped toasted walnuts, a squeeze of lemon and  some pepper to taste. I served it with a toast and a simple salad of rocket, grapes, pear and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Very nice indeed.