In the Larder

When I was a little girl, my Grandmother's pantry used to fascinate me. So many mysterious things lurked within its shelves. She had everything you could ever need, and if by chance unexpected guests showed up, she could prepare a tasty meal in minutes. Perhaps by genetics, I too am a hoarder and there are somethings I just cant live without in my kitchen.

Lemons and Limes: Not only do they look lovely sat in a big bowl on the worktop, but they are so useful in so many ways.

• You can slice them into your Gin and Tonic.


• If you take water to bed and find its gone a bit stale tasting by morning, lemon juice helps it stay fresh and tasty.


• Lemon chicken is a huge favourite in our house, just a simple roasted chicken cooked with lots of lemons and served with a big salad.


• I also use fresh lemon or lime juice to dress salads, squeezing the juice and then leaving the salad for 10 minutes or so before serving.


• Warm water and lemon juice is a great way to start the day.


• Squeeze them over plain crisps for a more exotic taste (One of my favourite Mexico City streetfoods is crisps with lime or lemon juice and a sprinkling of chili power).

In short, my kitchen feels naked without them.

Wordled

Whilst browsing my reading list this morning, I came across http://wordle.net/, its a simple but brilliant concept. It takes the front page of your blog and plays around with the words to make a picture of the themes most important to you.

On the hunt for the perfect Tomato soup

When he was little, my other half went through a phase of only eating Heinz Tomato Soup. It didnt matter where in the world he went, he only wanted that and no other brand would do.


Which leads me to my current dilemma, obviously now he eats pretty much everything so thats not the problem. No, my issue is, how to make the perfect soup. We have tomatos everywhere so thats not it. Ive been experimenting with a variety of recipes but all of them fall a bit short, too sweet, too sour, too rich and so on.



My task this week then is to try and make a soup Im happy with, one i want to eat again and again. Im going to start with a gazpacho as its still fairly warm and muggy here.

Tomato Heaven

The greenhouse is loaded with tomatos. When you enter the heavy sweet scent assails you, enticing you into a leafy grotto where the fruit hangs like rubies.

We cant eat them fast enough. Salads loaded with them, roasted in stews, raw on their own with a sprinkling of salt and crammed into fresh crusty bread with cheese. Yet they are still winning, for every one we eat, another four seem to ripen and take its place.

One of my favourite quick snacks/salad is:

• 2 or 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 avocado, roughly chopped
• half a cucumber, sliced
• blue cheese, crumbled into chunks
• salt and pepper to taste with the juice of half a lemon or lime squeezed over it

Its simple, fresh and tasty.

Heaven or Hell

Every Saturday morning I watch "Saturday Kitchen". Partly because I like James Martin and partly because I like the formula of the show, guests, clips of other cooking shows and of course the egg challenge. However what has me fascinated the most is Food Heaven or Food Hell. Some of the choices people make have me amazed, how can rice.. a staple for so many people be considered hellish? That then got me thinking, what would be my food heaven and my food hell? Despite the fact im considered a picky eater by my entire family and the family of my Boyfriend, as it turned out, picking heaven was far harder than choosing hell. In fact, im still not sure what my favourite food is. On the other hand, whilst thinking of hell, one thing came straight to mind.. a smirking cavorting sprout. What makes my hatred of sprouts particularly odd is the fact that I love all other green vegetables. So yes, the whole sprout thing is irrational and because food should never be about hell only heaven its time to deal with it. Im giving myself between now and Christmas to find a way of making myself enjoy sprouts.