October Newsletter

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Under the Weather Comfort Food

I’m currently in-between jobs, having just left my last one and taking a short break before I start my new one. I left the office for the last time last Friday, looking forward to being a lady of leisure for a few weeks. I had lots of plans for this week: long lunches with my girlfriends; a day out with my Mum; lots of cooking, writing and blogging. And what happens? I catch the cough and cold Rob has had. Bleugh.

It has to be said: I’m not a good patient when it comes to colds. The term ‘man-flu’ comes to mind. Luckily for me Rob’s a very good nurse; fetching me drinks and paracetamol uncomplainingly as I peer out from under my blanket on the sofa, snivelling and coughing pathetically. I struck gold with my husband.

The old adage says you need to feed a cold (and I’m certainly not one to argue with that) and so there’s been lots of comforting and healing food coming out of our kitchen pharmacy this week. Early on I made a leek and potato soup one night and then a pot roast chicken with lots of golden chicken broth another. That huge feat (!) just about drained me of any energy I had left so the next day I declared myself unfit to cook and whimpered to Rob “would you mind cooking tonight?”. He rose to the challenge magnificently and cooked spaghetti bolognese, following my recipe, which I was rather pleased about. And tonight he’s busy making sausage and mash with onion gravy. I think I can manage a modest portion.

Talking of sausage and mash, on my last day at work I lunched with a couple of colleagues at a nearby pub and that was the exact dish I chose. This got us talking about the secret of good mash (is it hot milk, a potato ricer, a wooden spoon?) and then one of my colleagues uttered the magic words: cheesy mash. Well, that was it - immediately I got a craving for some and I just knew I would have to go home and make some over the weekend. And that’s exactly what I did.

I just make the mash in the usual way (I do use a potato ricer by the way – genius invention) and then grate in lots and lots of mature cheddar cheese. My colleague, however, said he likes to grate over more cheese at the end and then put it under the grill and I have to say that sounds bloody fantastic.



Right, that’s me done for now, I’m going back to my blanket, my tissues and my man-flu.

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of October

If you haven't yet checked out the round-up of September's entries pop over to Real Epicurean to take a look.

This month we're getting spooky for Halloween and we've filled the bag with pumpkins. We want you to come up with a spooky dish made with pumpkin and, if you're feeling really creative, carve it too once you've used the flesh. Or you could skip the dish and just carve a pumpkin. I can't wait to see the spooky gallery!

Entry Details
Make a dish using the ingredients and/or carve a pumpkin, and blog about it then send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Sunday 9th November with the following information:

• your name
• a link to your post
• the name of your dish
• a picture of your dish

Rules
Here are the loose rules - but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients 'in the bag' for that particular month, but may leave one out if they prefer. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, with it acting as a central ingredient.

2. Participants can include any "extra" ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged "In the Bag".

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month's host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

'In The Bag' is a food event run monthly by 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' and 'Real Epicurean'.

Hello World

Today’s post is brought to you by the wonders of technology. I’m typing on a teeny tiny Eee PC and using a 3 modem to connect to Blogger. Which means that even though I’m in a caravan in the middle of nowhere with the wind howling outside, I can let you know that I’m still alive (sorry for not posting for over a week).

Rob and I are spending the weekend at his parent’s caravan again with my cousin, his wife and our gorgeous little God Daughter. Yesterday we took her to Wingham Wildlife Park where we fed chickens, stroked deer, talked to parrots and walked among lemurs. I’ll leave you with a picture and I'll be back very soon with recipes and food talk.