Easter Feasting

Easter bank holiday preed me with a whole world of fun to be had, I had time to spend cooking, and enjoying cooking. I'd found some recipes that I wanted to try, and Easter was the perfect time.

The weekend started early, and so Thursday I decided to make pizza, I really love homemade pizza, and wanted to go all out. The toppings were chicken, proscuitto, chorizo and salami...it was a bit of a meat fest. I made my own tomato base using onions, herbs, anchovies and tomato. The anchovy gave it a lovely salty depth, it is definitely my new favourite ingredient.

It was delicious. :)
We went out for dinner on the Friday, so the fish I'd had in mind was saved for Saturday instead. I had seen a great paella recipe in Olive magazine, from the chef Jason Atheron. The recipe itself can be found here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2138651/roast-cod-with-paella-and-saffron-olive-oil I used salmon in mine instead of cod, and I didnt leave it to rest inbetween. The result was great anyway, we both really enjoyed it

Sunday was (of course) lamb. I roasted it with anchovy and garlic, and served it with roast veg and gravy. I also made nutella brownies for dessert. A recipe from a friend, and possibly the most simple brownies ever, they consist of

8 tablespoons of nutella
8 tablespoons (or enough to create the right texture) of wholemeal flour or half and half wholemeal and ground almonds
2 eggs

They were really gooey and delcious, AND (if you want to kid yourselves like we do) full of slow releasing energy .

First Post

Ive started this blog as a scrapbook to document the things I cook, places I eat and how they turn out. So this weekend has been a pleasant little whirl of cooking and baking. Friday nights dinner was pesto coated mozzarella, pesto and roast chicken pasta, and garlic ciabatta, rounded off with (a little too much after all that) cherry frangipane tart. It was the first time I'd made the tart, and it was surprisingly easy. Had a bit of an issue trying to roll out the gluten free pastry case, and in the end just gave up and shoved it into the pastry dish in the shape of a tart. It baked a lot better then I expected. I try to mostly eat a mostly gluten free diet, but sometimes just cant resist (the whole meal, aside from the ciabatta, was gluten free, using brown rice pasta, etc), Im always my own undoing. My food, sadly, isnt often very well presented, no matter how I try.

I rounded the weekend off by trying out a new recipe I found in Olive magazine, for an orange and cardomom loaf cake, which turned out really well. not usuall a fan of cardomom, as I find it quite soapy, but it gave the cake a lovely aromatic edge. Until next time..