I love eat like a girl

Today my friend Sal is coming for lunch so I have the excuse to make an enormous meal.  I love cooking huge roasts and make one pretty much every weekend for Ben and I, but having the excuse to make something a little bit special always makes me happy.

There was absolutely no question about where I was going to turn to for table inspiration today, and that is food blogger Eat Like a Girl.  I'm just going to put this straight out there:  I'm a little bit obsessed with Niamh.  Her blog is pretty much the only one I look at religiously; like more than once a day.  I was devastated when she was back at Covent Garden Market in December for a few days...I work right next door to it, and I happened to not be in the office those days.  I am always in the office. 

Another reason I love Niamh is because her book, Comfort & Spice, was the best cookbook I bought last year.  I have made a ton of stuff from it and everything has been easy, utterly delicious, and turned out exactly how I expected.

On today's menu is Eat Like a Girl's overnight shoulder of pork with spiced apple relish.

The pork is so tender it is completely falling apart and the crackling is break your teeth amazing.  Sides are parmentier potatoes cooked in the pork fat, braised fennel and some pan-roasted chantenay carrots as they were lurking in the veg drawer.  

Dessert is sea salted caramel ice cream from my second favourite cookbook of 2011, Hawksmoor at Home, with some fresh raspberries.  I sort of forgot about dessert so am pretty pleased I made that ice cream last week.

The one thing I'm not sure about during this lunch party is the fact that it's booze free.  Ben's on antibiotics, Sal's on a dry month and I'm avoiding booze where possible.  Will it be as fun? 

Friday night in FTW!

I love Friday night.  I learned from a very young age that the most important mathematical equation in life is as follows:

Night in + Pizza + Film = Friday Night FTW!

Homemade pizza is a thing of beauty.  You can get the crust as thin as you want, artichoke hearts can feature heavily and you can space the meat out so perfectly you don't have to fight over the best pieces. 

The dough recipe I follow is Delia's basic dough which can be found here.  We love our pizza to be really thin so I halve the recipe, or make dough balls when I let myself eat them; the former happened tonight.  I also substitute honey for the caster sugar, it seems to make a lighter dough.

Sadly I am lacking in n'duja pork to make a seriously good pizza sauce, so tonight it's a simple no-cook sauce that's been sitting in a bowl all day allowing the flavours to mix.  Toppings are half fat mozzarella (stupid diet), Mangalica Hungarian Paprika Sausage and jalapenos.  A rocket, parmesan and balsamic glaze salad on the side and we're ready to go!

It works out to be 20 ProPoints; I'm allowed 28 a day so this does eat into my weekly allowance slightly, but I had a 0 point soup for lunch in anticipation.

NOM.  I wonder if Cowboys & Aliens is going to be as good as the pizza?

Feeding a cold

My husband has been sick for a few weeks now.  It's getting annoying, especially as I'm working from home today (in the kitchen) and all I can hear is Saints Row 3 coming from the living room.  It's time to get serious and get rid of this thing, and there's only one thing for it; a soup so comforting and spicy it'll knock the socks off this pesky manflu.

Spicy roasted butternut squash soup 

Serves 2

250 g butternut squash, seeds scooped out, peeled and diced into small cubes

4 shallots, peeled and chopped finely

2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 stick of lemongrass, outer leaves removed, chopped finely

1 red chilli, seeds removed sliced in half lengthways

1 red chilli, seeds removed, chopped finely

1cm ginger, peeled and chopped finely

1 cube vegetable stock

olive oil/olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 180c.  In a roasting dish toss butternut squash, shallots and garlic in oil or a few sprays of olive oil fry light until coated.  Pop in oven, roast until squash is soft; approx 40 minutes.

Lightly coat the halved chili in oil and place on a roasting tray to roast alongside the squash; remove when soft and starting to blacken, approx 15 minutes.  Set aside.

When vegetables are soft, place in blender along with lemongrass, chopped red chili, ginger and a bit of your made up vegetable stock.  Whizz until a dense puree.

Put in saucepan and add more stock until the soup is the consistency you prefer; we like it really thick so I only use about 250ml liquid.  If you would like to add salt and pepper, do so now.

Bring to a low boil, pour soup into bowl.  Slice your roasted red chili and sprinkle on top of the soup.

A dollop of creme fraiche wouldn't hurt this soup, but I prefer it without as it can dull the spice. 

There is something so creamy and decadent about this soup, it's my absolute favourite. 

The best thing about it for my fellow Weight Watchers out there is that it is 0 points if you use oil spray to coat your veg.

Fingers crossed the ginger and chili work their magic and Ben is back on his feet soon!

Getting started

Starting a blog is hard.  It's something I have been meaning to do for ages, and constantly put off.  Always the same things stopping me - can't think up a name, I have absolutely nothing of interest to say, I just can't be bothered.  But that stops here.  I need this blog.  I write all day long, but about the communications industry rather than anything fun.  My brain needs to get a bit more engaged so here we are.

A little bit about me...I'm an American living a little life in Croydon with my husband and two cats.  I love food a little bit too much, daydream about being a chef, and am probably a little bit too much of a homebody for my own good. 

Welcome; hope you find something you like here.