I'm lovin' it

My opinion on McDonalds - for what it's worth. It's fine on odd occasion. Everything in moderation. Most critics won't even step foot into it. They are a multinational - but so are most things we buy (food/energy/services etc) and so singling out one company seems ludicrous. Those complaining of meat farms often eat meat themselves. Kids love it as well. And they eat meat, bread, fish, potato and carrots. Sounds pretty normal to me.

Crab tart

Saturday kitchen had this recipe: Cream, eggs, grated ginger, chopped chilli, crab mixed. Into a pastry case and baked. Must try it...

Allotment

I want an allotment. Good friends have one, and we're hpoing to share a little. We'll have plenty of compost, and I guess loads of hard work. I would like to plant asparagus, peas, broad beans, savoy cabbage, and what else...?

Peas, cabbage, chard, cottage cheese, cream (reduced), dash of mustard, on jacket potatoes. We all loved it! Well S moaned about it a little.

Villa Italia

M&D looked after B&S today and yesterday. We've been knackered, so decided to go out for tea. We plumped for Villa Italia on Micklegate. Fantastic. I had spaghetti with mushrooms, wine, garlic and cream (hamless carbonara). Garlic bread was excellent. Kids ate loads. All told (five adult meals, one kids meal, 4 kids drinks, 4 adult soft drinks, and 2 pizza garlic breads) cost £45!

Week 2 box

Got a shock - the wrong invoive went into our box - and it said £15 on it! Anyway we have: potatoes, courgettes, broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, white cabbage, cauliflower. We've pretty much used the box contents from last week: small amount of chard left, and that's it.

Love it

There is something really nice about coming downstairs in the morning to pick up the milk/OJ/paper delivery. Fantastic. I don'tsee why milkmen have become so under-used? It's great.

Cows and chemicals

N was told that organic milk (and all sorts of dairy) would help to protect from breast cancer. So, having two girls, we decided to order organic milk from our milkman.

Yaaakkkk!!!! It was minging. It really was horrid. And it was even worse when heated in my espresso maker for a cappuccino. We tried for a week and had to give up. What do they do to non-organic cows (does that mean they are sythetic?) to make the milk taste nice? Anyway, we're back on skimmed milk with added chemicals.

Are they thick?

Tesco man brought a plastic bag with ONE broad bean. ONE, What? Eh? So then I thought N had ordered one, but you could only order by the kilo, and she ordered one KILO. What was the shopper thinking? Their training leaves something to be desired. Complaints to phone line led to the offer of a refund on the 3p the one bean cost. How generous are they?

Half a bottle of white wine

So I'm faced with a half bottle of white wine, a bag of swiss chard, and a courgette. N and I are hungry. I fry garlic, courgette and a small chilli pepper. Add boiled chard, and the wine. And, you'll never guess! Serve with spaghetti and parmesan.

Pretty good.

Local ham

We go to the local butchers on Bishopthorpe Road (M&K Butchers). Me and N don't eat meat, but the girls like ham. So off I go, into the shop. On the wall there is a description of the animals, it practically tells you their names. But, I think it is well worth to buy local produce with a provenance.

Broad beans

I have been surprised by broad beans. I didn't think I liked them - I do. I didn't know what they looked like -furry cases. I'd never cooked them before -boil. I didn't think the girls would like them -chopped and a little hidden they go down well.

You can apparently cook them in the pods when young, but I didn't get them early enough to try that. This came from 'River Cafe Green', where there are a number of bean recipes. For a couple of weeks we ate them with their case, now we are peeling them after boiling.

I'd like to grow them for next year to try them young.

Pasta overload

I'm thinking that the way to get used to this seasonal veg business is to eat loads of similar dishes for a month or two. Then a new variety of veg will come along and we can move onto something new....?

In this vein we have been eating loads of spaghetti. Often (but not always) I have added a dash of basil pesto (not enough for just basil taste), and quite a bit of butter to the spaghetti. Then I have added any combination of:
1. Fried courgette diced
2. Fried garlic
3. Boiled fresh peas
4. Boiled broad beans
5. Crab meat

This has also gone down quite well with the ladies.

Popeye would be happy

Problem: how do get a 5 and a 3 year old eat spinach? Well they sort of ate it in the same way as I have done savoy - layered with potato, butter, cheese and cream.

Dad, not cabbage again!

I was never a big fan of cabbage. But, through no fault of my own, we have had white cabbage, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, pointed cabbage,...well it has not been the easiest task finding ways of cooking these.

The savoy goes very nicely with a dash of cream (although what doesn't?). My favourite was potato thinly sliced (mandolin so useful), layered in oven dish with cheese (strong, cheddary) and savoy (pre-boiled and shredded roughly). Then stacks of cream and bake for an hour.

Best recipes with asparagus

1. In first place - penne with asparagus, loads of parmesan and butter, and an egg yolk.
2. roast with lots of butter, nice served with pasta.

That's it. All I want from spear grass.

1st Thurday - delivery

It is quite an exciting time of the week - waiting to see what 5-7 vegetables we will get delivered. The delivery is from Newton Kyme Farm. Here is the list:

1. Potatoes
2. Carrotts
3. Brocolli (1st time this year)
4. Chard (?Swiss - has a red stalk)
5. A spring green
6. Tomatoes (mainly Plum)
7. 3 courgettes

The beginning

Well, here I am again, sitting typing into a Blog. This one is to record the seasonal food I buy and cook. So the basics:

1. Weekly vegetable box delivery - organic and seasonal (Thusdays at the moment)
2. Milk and OJ delivery three times a week
3. Trips to the local shops (Deli, Butcher, Greengrocer)
4. Some delivered Tesco stuff (not often, mainly heavy)