So as I have already said I am trying to be a bit healthier for lent. This didn’t stop me eyeing up a ice cream shop on my way back home this afternoon. Luckily for my stomach and wallet, it was closed, so no harm done.
Healthy food can sometimes take a bit of a beating from the old taste bud police, because lets face it everything tastes better with butter and salt. It just does.
So here we are on the first day of the Suppers From Scratch Challenge week. So exciting!
I am not going to write an epic on how great the week will be, how nice the food will be, how it doesn’t matter that it takes a bit longer because the satisfaction is so much greater once you have done it.
That’s all true.
Well I know this post is a bit later than promised but my New Year started with a bang and not the nicest one. So I am only getting my head together now and realise that I never shared my mouth watering meal with you.
Despite this set back I know this year is going to be an exciting one. There are still loads of recipes to master, cheeses to make and chocolate to perfect. And of course now the challenge is spreading.
This is a story about shoving common sense to one side, and blindly following recipes.
As I’ve said before, pasta was a big part of my staple diet before the start of this year, and filled pasta (predominantly tortellini) was the ultimate in lazy. You didn’t even have to make a sauce: just boil some water, drop the parcels in for a few minutes and chuck some grated cheese on top.
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I currently have the luxury of writing my blog in 30 degree heat with a light breeze in the kitchen of a very petite medieval French house in the Languedoc Roussillon – well, more 3 rooms stacked on top of each other but you get the picture.
Writing in the shade on a sunny day, filled with a dappled glow of a truly From Scratch lunch, life couldn’t be better.
Now I was trying to work out, what makes it so good? Is it the holiday or is it the From Scratch food? I am well over half way through my year now and, as holidays always seem to provide, I am starting to get some perspective on the project so far.
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I realised today that what my story needs is a bit of gritty realism in the form of British kitchen sink drama!
Well, really more of a concise look at the reality of eating From Scratch everyday for a year. Not the epic tales of baked goods, the eloquent eulogies of dinner parties, or the devastation of failed chocolate. No. No drama, no comedy, just your average run of the mill tale where you get to peak over the neighbours fence in to the realism of daily life From Scratch.
So the last few weeks have been quite monotonous – I haven’t written anything because nothing exciting has happened: no great successes, no great failures. All pretty bland really – just like my meals over the last few weeks.
Although they have all been fairly pleasant, they have become a tad repetitive and uninspired. The odd moment of inspiration has found its way on to the plate, for example a very tasty and comforting coconut rice pudding and some hearty and juicy home made burgers.
On Friday lunchtime this week, I sat down with my friends and watched them chow down on a veritable feast of falafel. Both of them had fluffy white pitta breads stuffed with salads, hummus, chilli and falafel. Meanwhile I nibbled away at a pot of Edamame beans and a banana.
The gulf in the appetite whetting nature of our lunches was mostly down to my bad organisation, but it spurred two important thoughts. One: when can I eat falafel and pitta, I want it now! and two: I need more interesting lunches.
This week marked another craving… Pasta
Last year I probably had pasta three or four times a week, whereas so far this year I have had none. It has been nearly two months without the Italian shape-shifter, meaning I have missed out on around 28 pasta dishes and counting.
I was heading to my parents for the weekend, and knowing they had made pasta before and had a kitchen big enough to facilitate this sort of activity I decided this would be the weekend of pasta.
So what happens on Wednesday lunch time when you’re sitting in the office eating your From Scratch salad, perusing food websites and emails for inspiration, and you get an email telling you the best place to go for a Chinese New Year feast? – Dim Sum in particular….
Most people in my situation would either ignore it or plan to exploit the loop-hole in the rules and use Chinese as one of their occasional dinner trips to satisfy their dim sum fix. In my over excited state I did neither.
