Delectable Posts

Here are some more fabulous posts from fellow bloggers:

Eleven Madison Park Revisited (An Anniversary Dinner) from The Amateur Gourmet

Video Podcast: The Olive Oil Experiment from The Amateur Gourmet

The Yellowing Countryside from The Tracing Paper

Rhubarb and Custard from Nordljus

Teddy Bear Breads from Cafe Lynnylu

The Spaghetti Fan

When cooking spaghetti do you stand at the cooker holding it in a pan of boiling water, waiting for it to soften so you can gently feed it, bit by bit, into the water? I always used to, until my Father-in-law taught me this little trick. Simply pop your spaghetti into the centre of the pan and let go so that it fans out around it. You may need to help it spread out around the sides of the pan. That's all you have to do. No holding, no waiting, it will drop further and further into the pan as it softens all by itself. So that’s one less job. Now, what do I need to be getting on with next…?

Solitary Night In – A Recipe

This recipe is perfect after a tiring day when your husband is out for the evening.

Ingredients
Quick and comforting food of your choice for dinner
Food magazines
Wine
Girlie film
Sofa

1. At the station on your way home take a potter around Marks & Spencer for something quick and comforting for dinner such as honey roast salmon flakes to mix into a large plate of lemon and butter coated pasta, and a naughty chocolate desert-in-a-pot

2. Walk into WH Smith at the same station and grab several just-out food magazines

3. Jump on train and get self home

4. Pour a large glass of wine

5. Prepare dinner

6. Turn on TV

7. Put a girlie film on the DVD player

8. Put feet up on the sofa

9. Sit back and relax

Seasonal Spring Lamb, Unseasonal Weather – Is That Right?

It’s been another scorcher today, with blazing sunshine and gloriously clear blue skies. This unseasonal weather has thrown my body clock right out, I can tell you. I’m thinking I’m in the middle of high summer, not mid-spring. Please don’t get me wrong, this is not a complaint – far from it; I adore the sunshine. But there is a natural flow to the seasons; to the weather and indeed to the food we eat. This is spring; we should be experiencing mild sunshine and eating produce such as spring lamb....or should we?

I discovered, through a little internet research and a flick through Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘Meat’ book, that in actual fact the lamb available in the spring is not, contrary to popular belief, the best to eat. These lambs were born around November/December of the previous year and, sadly, sometimes reared indoors in order to meet demand. We have been led to believe that with the first rays of spring sunshine come the first lambs ready for our plate and the traditional meal at Easter is lamb. But spring is the time when lambs are, by the laws of nature, born, not the time when they are ready to eat. They need a few months of maturity first, which takes us to….summertime. This is when the true spring lamb is available and at its best. Summertime is when you will find the lamb that was raised in the spring and ate the new, fresh grass. That has to be good news for the flavour and quality of the meat. Perhaps it’s time to rethink some of the things we associate with our seasons?