March has been mega busy. And when I write this I have a massive grin on my face, as Things Are Happening and we are moving to Italy in summer.

The house is on the market, we’re trying to agree a good removal company to take all our stuff to Lucca, a new school for Izzie has been agreed, all sorts of logistics are being seen to, but yes- we are doing it! Later on this year we will be living full time in the land of the most amazing food ever.

I popped in to Co Op this lunch time to pick up some mozzarella and some cat food, but I came across the first asparagus of the season, early this year, due to a spell of fantastic weather for the last 2 weeks. I hope Italians have asparagus at least as good as the Brits here in the Cotswolds, to be discovered next spring.

I also made a batch of hazelnut macaroons, which I stuffed with the remaining coffee cream- remaining from a really good pannettone we had after Christmas. Hazelnuts and coffee, anytime!

Even more pancakes? Yes, these deserve to be mentioned here, as they really were delicious. I hardly had time to take some photos, they were disappearing so quickly! Raymond Blanc’s recipe, a definite keeper!

210 ml of milk, 3 large eggs whisked together, to this 90 g of strong white flour. 30 g of butter melted and taken to the point of beurre noisette. 15 g of sugar, I added vanilla sugar. Zest of some lemon and orange- a revelation, it all smelled amazing when on the pan. Pinch of salt. All this well whisked together and left in the fridge to rest for over an hour. This amount of batter made about 7 pancakes, we had them with whatever we liked- plum conserve, hazelnut cream, lemon juice. Will be made again, most likely as soon as this weekend. 🙂

Recipe from souschef.com. I’ve made 4 of these for lunch today and I was very pleased that a certain child, a big fan of pancakes had all of hers and did not complain too much, she did however mention that next pancakes are to be NORMAL.

For 4 pancakes I made a batter out of 100 g of plain flour, 15 g of icing sugar ( recipe asked for 25, but I’m doing really well on cutting down my sugar use altogether), 1 tbsp of matcha, 1 whole egg, 250 ml of milk, all of this well combined. I fried them on a tiny amount of oil, which made them nice and light, served with blackcurrant jam. Nice little recipe!

Today marked 21 days of my commitment to Choda’s daily workouts. 3 weeks. Every day. Without any massive whinging or having to force myself. I do 20 minutes a day on the mat, today I wiped the dust off the “Scalpel” dvd and did 45 minutes. It felt really good. I thought that I’d love to reward myself with a bowl of steamed mussels, but I didn’t. The budget is normally close to zero on a Sunday, moules mariniere are made with cream, which I have not had for over a month ( a very loud applause!!!!) and finally, the weather really sucks these days, gales, rain and general shit outside of the window, not a day to get dressed and go out eating. Instead I’ve made us some delicious, light lunch, which we both enjoyed a lot, but I’m sure we’ll be hungry in about 2 hours- too bad, the fat will not go by itself.

I ordered some lovely Italian cured meats from Camisa again last week, mortadella is long gone with Izzie’s enthusiastic help, parma ham was enjoyed yesterday for lunch, today I used the remaining 3 slices, two kinds of salami still waiting to be opened. I made croutons out of my remaining halloumi bread, very flavoursome, when pan fried. Rocket, olives, cherry tomatoes, avo, feta, sweetcorn, that parma, croutons and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic. Simple, delicious, light.

I’m back on diet. I exceeded 57kg, my waistline does not exist, bread, cheese, pasta, wine, cakes, sweet stuff- I welcome it all, no limits. Having just turned 45 I think it’s far too early to let myself go and stop caring, so I went back to Choda’s team. Last time I managed to shed about 3,5 kg, but to be honest I treated the diet quite loosely. This time I accept the fact I must eat less. I opted for a “mediterranean diet” for 2 months, started last Monday and this morning realized it works. After 5 days I’m only 0,5 lighter, but it’s early days. Again, I don’t follow the script religiously, more like a guidance. Diet or not, I need my food to look attractive and taste well, otherwise it won’t work.

So this evening I made myself a plate of food which turned out to be the best meal I have eaten all week. Truth be told, I doubled the amount of prawns (50 g of prawns?……!!), but weighed my orzo, chucked in as much spinach as I fancied and made it delicious. What helped, was a delicious, proper tomato sauce bubbling away in a separate pan for Florek and Izzie, I borrowed 3 tbps of it and mixed it through my orzo and spinach, which was already wilted on olive oil with some garlic and seasoned with salt. Prawns were lightly marinated in garlic, chili, salt and olive oil, I grilled them quickly and ended up with a lovely, light supper, full of flavour, good for me and roughly according to the diet. And I’ll be keeping this recipe.

One of the lunch options I loved and had twice this week was a crunchy salad made with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olives,sweetcorn, torn mozzarella and freshly toasted croutons made with brown bread with a little olive oil and garlic. It was supposed to be dressed with vinaigrette, but I just drizzled some olive oil and some balsamic vinegar, a sprinkle of sea salt and I enjoyed it a lot. A keeper, too.

I can do it, I think. I have a better idea this time how things work, I’m more determined and if I do manage to shed 5kg by mid March, I will be treating myself to a pair of Levi’s jeans again. 🙂

This type of dish is my favourite option when it comes to lunch. I love rice in general and tossing it on the wok with some chicken and crunchy veggies, soy sauce and drizzled with sesame oil is a lovely way of treating it. This plate was inspired by Marion’s method, but none of it was a major discovery for me, just a confirmation of heading in the very right direction. 🙂

So I had some leftover cooked rice from the other day. I had some cooked chicken, which needed to be eaten. I mixed some soy sauce, shaoxing vinegar and some sugar in a bowl. Whisked an egg. Chopped my veggies ready to go; some garlic, quite chunky, a small onion. Sugar snap peas, delicious in any stir fry. A carrot, just for some colour.

First fried the garlic until fragrant and crispy, onion in, carrots and peas. The chicken. Moved it all to one side of the wok, added the egg, once cooked broke it into pieces. Rice in, the sauces. Finished with some salt, sesame oil, white pepper and spring onions. Very satisfying and very moreish.

And to finish off, my remaining birthday cake, rather pretty in a round tin. 🙂

From Marion’s. I saw this on youtube the other day and actually (I know, I am sick!) dreamed of them last night. There was no other way to it, a bag of Iceland prawns was defrosted this morning and the recipe was made around lunch time. Once the isolation period is over, I will have to top up my prawn stock in the freezer, as well as some spices.

So, the prawns were deveined, all I had to do was to lose the shells and butterfly them. Then a simple marinade was made; about a tsp each of mild, sweet paprika and turmeric, a good squeeze of lemon juice, fresh grated ginger and garlic, salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil to make it all into a paste. The prawns all got a nice coating of it, I got my seasoned flour, egg and crushed cornflakes ready; the cornflakes idea is genius. They need a good crush to resemble breadcrumbs and once deep fried they not only taste great, they stay lovely and crunchy, unlike tempura. Once out of the oil a quick sprinkling of salt and job was done.

Marion’s dipping sauce was different from mine, as I had no tamarind and stuff, so I mixed some sweet chili sauce with a drizzle of soy, sesame oil and yuzu juice. Unbelievable, I know, but Florek had 2….! 🙂

Took me a while to sit down and mention a few highlights from last Christmas. It was months in planning, not knowing if my family will be able to overcome all covid restrictions and hurdles. They did manage and so all my efforts were not in vain, the freezer packed full of goodies ended up well enjoyed. We had traditional Polish carp at Christmas eve, the next day we had ox cheeks and turkey. My main cake was a lovely New York cheesecake with a topping made of fresh cranberries, the recipe from Bake Off book. An excellent cheesecake, apart from the base made with digestive biscuits, which refused to come off the bottom. Maybe a sponge next time.

I have to add, it tasted much better than it looked!

We also had a delicious pate that my mum makes a couple of times a year. Mum and her lovely man Gienek did all the work, I just brought the meat home from the butchers. The whole thing was made out of some pork shoulder, half a chicken, some pork belly and some liver. It took hours to make, then bake, but the result, on a crusty cracker, topped with fresh horseradish is hard to beat. I will be making it myself one day, but for now I still have one of these beauties frozen. 🙂

As usual, we have been eating too much, but I simply had to treat mum to some wonderful Cotswold lamb, we all loved it. Took her out to Cote for some mussels too.

And all this finished with most of us now having caught covid and having to self isolate. Happy New Year!

A decent cook that I am, I roasted a whole chicken once or twice in my life. Tragic, isn’t it? I love roast chicken, especially thighs with the crunchy skin. Florek doesn’t love roast chicken, most of all the bones are in the way for him, but this week he is on a training course, so Mariusz came over and we roasted a chicken. I bought a medium bird off my butcher’s , Mariusz seasoned it well( salt,pepper, herb pepper, two different kinds of paprika) , placed a few crushed garlic cloves inside and left to sit in the seasoning for about an hour and then we placed it in the oven at about 180 degrees, but kept checking and controlling the temperature, as we wanted it perfect, but also my oven was not dealing well with the steam, fat and the spitting – I am NOT looking forward to scrubbing it!! It roasted for around an hour.

The result of our joint efforts was the most succulent, moist, delicious bird I’ve had in a long time. There were chips on the side and a roasted beetroot salad, and with Izzie’s help we practically destroyed 3/4 of it.

The oven is a massacre, I’ll be at it tomorrow! 🙂