Claire's Cake Bake & Other Foodiness

Me? No. Definitely not.

But I have been to the garden centre today & I came home with a big tub, some herbs (how could I resist the 5 for £6 offer?!) & some soil. I had no idea really what I was doing, if I can grow them all in the same pot or if I even bought the right soil but I thought I’d give it a go.

Here they are, sitting on the newly cleaned & tidy balcony…
I thought if I blogged about them I might just remember to water them. Maybe, or going by my track record, maybe not. Lets see!

On Friday I made another batch of chili which was yummy.

On Saturday, I made nothing, not a sausage, ziltch. In the evening we went out for a drink & ended up going for an Indian. Not much to write home about I have to say.

Today we are having the rest of the chili. So a weekend well spent. Hmmmm.

We did however have a nice morning out in Liverpool, wandering around the waterfront to see what all the developments look like from t’other side of the river. I think its going to be really nice when its finished & I am quite looking forward to it. Work has started on the canal, joining the Mersey from in front of the Liver Building up to the Albert Docks, the new stadium is nearly finished (well, from the outside) & it is starting to look like it is coming together. There is still a lot of building work going on though, cranes everywhere, but I have faith it will be done in time for 2008 & will be great.

Here is a flavour of what we saw…
Can you (just about) make out the cone at the bottom of the dock? As usual the fun lovin‘ scousers have been up to their tricks, but blimey how clean is the water?!

The beginnings of the canal

Oh and how could I forget, whilst we were wandering we saw a chap sprinting towards us in his red shorts (no top), just as he got past us he headed down to a dock, stripped of his red shorts & dive into the cold water - eek. Yes I had to look away as he stripped, it wasn’t a pretty sight but how I could I not post this pic… (if you click on the pic to enlarge it, you might just be able to see the desirable swimwear…)

Wednesday nights are great at the moment. First at 8pm we have Neneh & Andi which is an absolutely great non-chef foodie programme.

Followed by some Sweet Baby James - whilst I think the title is quite poor, I do have a small thing for James so I have to watch…

Followed up by The Apprentice, not as good as past years in my humble opinion but I do watch (normally whilst on the ‘bag).

And at 10pm we have the finale, Desperate Housewives, I just love this programme & there’s not many on telly that gets me cheering & laughing quite so much (Susan & Mike have to get back together!).

A bottle of wine always goes down on a Wednesday too - ahem.

Anyway, back to the food. I went a bit mad last night & made:

• Bruschetta (toasted ciabatta for ease, & mixed up some tomatoes, garlic & red onion with a small amount of olive oil, serve with a dash of balsamic vinegar)
• Asparagus & Lemon Risotto (yum) care of Nigel Slater
• Chocolate Chip Muffins thanks to Nigella’s recipe here
  
• I also heated through some ciabatta & onion bhajis for lunch today (based on a Philpotts favourite of ours - ciabatta, hoummous, onion bhaji & spicy mango chutney)

Here are a few pics of the risotto & muffins
The muffins are quite nice but not as sweet as we expected so may try another recipe next time.

And here are some tulips Hubby bought on Tuesday after a small reminder that it was our two-monthiversay.

This recipe was on Something For The Weekend the weekend before last & you may have noticed I’ve been meaning to make it for about a week now.

In the pan we have some colourful carrot, onion, celery & pepper…

Throw in some lentils, stock & a few more bits & bob and after 20 mins add an egg or two…

Served with pita bread (as we didn’t have naans) & some yoghurt with cucumber.

It turned out ok, I’d like to try it again but remember to wash & drain the lentils & maybe cook them until they are a bit softer…

Its my sister-in-laws (that sounds weird, am still not used to my new surname nevermind new family members!) - yes its her 24th birthday tomorrow & for ages she has been wanting to go back to the zoo. So today the three of us went for a nice day out. And I had a fab time.

I commandeered the new camera & I think hubby was a bit miffed but we have some nice pictures of most of the animals we saw. We are both extremely tired now. Anyway, here are a few to brighten up my blog.

So I had the weeks food all planned out & as usual I start to change my mind thinking ‘I cant be bothered making that tonight’ or ‘I don”t really fancy this today’ Wah!

So I made the chilli & it was a success & I did enjoy batch number two.

The lentil bake, well thats still in the fridge - I am aiming to make that for tea tomorrow.

Linda Mc Cartney - pies & chips - were ok, sausages & chips - surprisingly very sausage-like but very salty.

On Thursday I was feeling lazy again but mustered up an asparagus risotto & it was quick & easy to make. It was tasty but could have had a small touch of lemon in just to lift it.

On Friday we went to a sportsmans dinner at Goodison. Hubby supports Liverpool so whilst being in the Everton ground may have been a bit painful for him I did catch him eating the EFC chocolates - and he didn’t choke either.

I opted for the veggie option as I am not keen on meat, especially when we eat out. It was all very tasty - tomato & basil soup, asparagus, goats cheese & red onion tart with some verrrry nice balsamic with veg & then a lemon tart served with mascapone. The tart had just the right amount of lemon tang but wasn’t half as nice as the brulee tart I made a week or two ago.