Monday, 9 February 2004

foodies



It was a very good weekend. On Friday night, Paul made us some fajitas accompanied by a lovely bottle of red wine (Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon, for the curious). On Saturday night, Micky and Susan whipped up a fantastic veggie meal for us. On Sunday, Jack and Heather made us a gorgeous roast chicken dinner with brownies fresh from the oven for dessert. I haven't cooked dinner since Thursday. It was a very good weekend indeed.



I've noticed how my world seems to revolve around food lately (more so than usual). I spent Saturday morning going through cookbooks searching for inspiration or recipes I haven't tried before, especially seeing as I've got this whole new world of meat products open to me now. I've also noticed that my standards are changing. Don't get me wrong, I'll still eat toast with a big smear of peanut butter on it for breakfast (sometimes on a plate, but most times on a paper towel), but lately I've been craving food that's a bit more interesting. For example, I used to favour things like spaghetti with a decent tomato sauce and tuna (which sounds gross but it's actually very nice). Last Thursday, I made grilled scallops, squid, and prawns on fresh angel hair pasta tossed with olive oil, lemon, garlic, chilli, Parmesan, and fresh basil. How very bistro of me. We now keep a pot of Maldon salt next to the stove, which is a step up from the sea salt we used to buy, and yet another step above the Sifto table salt I always used before. I got annoyed when I couldn't find any decent mushrooms at the grocery store this weekend and had to "settle" for shiitake, chestnut, and dried porcini mushrooms for an upcoming pasta dish. I order my sushi ingredients via Internet/mail order. I'm considering getting seafood the same way in my quest to find decent and interesting fish.



I'm going totally epicure with my bad self - which is odd because I really hate pretentious food snobs.



Thanks to Jo for suggesting the book Fat Girl Slim by Ruth Watson. I hate to call it a "diet book" because it's more about healthy eating for foodies. Although I suspect that some of her recipes were "inspired" by other top TV foodies (e.g. Nigella's asparagus dipped in soft boiled eggs or Jamie Oliver's roaster aubergine dip), most are ideas she's put together herself. We're very similar in that we both could eat bread all day, every day and we hate exercising (the term "fun run" always makes me giggle with slightly maniacle glee), and we love good food. It's a good read if you're fed up with the Rosemary Conley's of the world.

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