Smoked Haddock, spinach and poached eggs

Hello dear bloggers,

On today's menu smoked haddock, baby spinach and poached egg on toast.

We decided to have a light dinner as David, my husband has a very bad infection and has just been to the hospital.

He has had a series of small accidents, such a piece of metal that got stuck in his foot and a fall out of bed where he injured his face and he has got a black eye and a cut on his cheek.

His foot size doubled and he has temperature. Nice!

I hope he will fee better tomorrow so, I am simplifying the menu this week.

Here are the pictures:

Spinach being reduced in butter, mustard and lemon juice

Haddock and eggs boiling and poaching away

Both together, nearly lost track of it!

Haddock, egg and spinach on the toasts

Nothing like some cherry tomatoes to add a splash of colour

Have you noticed my lovely cupcake tablecloth? So sweet!

That will be all for today, folks. I need a rest!

See you tomorrow,

Gisele

RECIPE 9

Menu for next week

Hello

This weekend I had a bit of a break from Jamie but not from Cooking as I made some spaghetti bolognese for lunch, quick and easy.

We have been shopping for next week's menu starting tomorrow. I intend to cook more puddings.

Nothing exciting today, I hope you all had lovely weekends.

See you tomorrow,

Gisele

Roasted veg vindaloo with golden gnarly chicken skewers and Romanian Charity

Hello dear blog friends,

Yesterday was Friday and the 7th recipe of the week. I can have the weekend off now! I must say, I feel completely satisfied with all this delicious food I cooked and I don't think I could eat anything today but I managed to have a couple of crumpets and a coffee by lunchtime.

I noticed, when you eat freshly cooked, richly spiced, made with good quality ingredients food, you eat less, you eat better and you feel fuller.

It is when you eat rubbish food that you strive for quantity. I think that the body needs nutrition from many different foods and when the body doesn't get the nutrition it needs, it sends messages to the brain that it isn't satisfied. You then think you need to eat more but in fact you need to eat more variety of food and not to increase the quantity of it.

That's why I firmly believe the only diet that works is the 'eating well diet', eat food from various categories in the food pyramid. It is not about sending starvation messages to the brain but satisfaction messages to the brain. We all live to feel happy and fulfilled and not to suffer. That's why starvation diets just don't work. Another reason is, a body set in starvation mode will learn to live with less and will adapt the calorie burn to the calorie intake. for example, of you give your body 600 calories, it will learn to adapt the burning to 600 calories, and you will stop loosing weight at a point. The body is clever at surviving and the key secret is to keep your metabolism high, so eating varied, little and often. Here is my advice. If you can't sacrifice, accept your body and be happy with it. Nobody likes miserable people around, not even if they are thin.

Going back to the cooking, yesterday it was an indian inspired recipe, very rich in spices, aromas, with lots of vegetables and grains, spicy but not hot.

The marinade had so much garlic in it it made me cry but it gave the beautiful aroma to the chicken and the vegetables. Half of the marinade was used in the vegetable dish and half to marinade the chicken skewers. The vegetable dish had cauliflower, chick peas, corn, peas, spinach, onions, lovely rich greek yoghurt to top it up and some fresh chopped chili. Yummy.

The sauce also contained 1 kilo (or over 2 pounds) of fresh ripe tomatoes.

The marinade had 1 whole head of garlic, red onion, lots of spices, dried red chili, etc, etc, etc... If you want to know more, follow the recipe.

All of it was accompanied by white boiled rice.

I invited over our priest, Nicholas, who has been running charities in Romania for the past 30 years. As you must know Romania was a communist country that has recently come, kicking and screaming, to the capitalist world (for better and for worse).

In the 1980's a madman and dictator called Ceaucescu (I like joking and saying CIAO Cescu!) thought, amongst other brilliant ideas, that he should create a super race, probably inspired by his master Hitler and decided to give young children, blood transfusions. Unfortunately, the blood he obtained was contaminated with HIV virus, and he created a whole generation of sick children.

Some parents abandoned their children because of fear and ignorance and the western world tried to help by creating charities to look after those children. I was involved in this, when I was a student in Paris I was an au pair for a rich family that had just adopted a Romanian boy and I had to look after him in his near death state. This is an experience none could forget, but I won't tell you now, it is another long story.

Cutting a long story short, our priest helps now a charity that looks after 50 women from the streets, some on drugs, some stealing, some pregnant, this charity takes care of them from the age of 16 to 24 and tries to give them some dignity, teach them skills so they can find a job and have a life back.

They need £5,000.00 a month to run the charity and they are always struggling for funds. I then, decided to set myself 2 challenges. One is to cook the whole of Jamie Oliver Great Britain cookbook and the other is to raise money for this charity by inviting people over to share the meal with us and then donate to charity.

This week was a pilot testing week but I intend to start asap, maybe from next week, to get regular bookings and donations.

If you would like to read more about the charity here is the link:

http://www.jubileeromania.org/

Please, take some time to do it, as you will be amazed by what they have achieved.

Pictures of the charity

Now pictures of the amazing Friday food. Thank you again Jamie!

Skewers ready to go

Vindaloo boiling away

Getting the griddle pan flaming hot

Frying and spitting

Getting ready to go

Finalised Vindaloo with spinach, yoghourt and chopped chili on top

Skewers all goldelicious

On the table with a lovely bottle of Australian red

Our last night's guests Nicholas and Sue with my husband David

I always cook with my lovely Le Creuset pans but also with Jamie Oliver pan (I only have one unfortunately) which is great, non stick and it spread the heat really well. The downside of these Le Creuset pans is that they are super heavy and it takes a strong person to lift them especially when they are full to the top.

This recipe is meant to be for 8 people, I think the vindaloo is right for 8 people but I would personally double the quantity of chicken because everyone had 2 skewers and there was nothing left.

Have a great cooking and hope you will join my table to have a lovely evening and help Romania.

See you soon,

Gisele



RECIPE 8

Temple Spa and Creamed Mushroom soup with doorstep toast

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was another cooking day and another friend's day.

I invited a friend over who works with Temple Spa (aromatherapy products) to come over and give us a demonstration of the products. It was a lovely evening. The demonstration went on for 2 hours and we had the chance to experiment all those lovely aromatherapy spa products. After that, I served everyone Jamie's Mushroom soup with mushroom toasts, my 7th recipe of the week.

Aromatherapy is something I strongly believe in but it can unleash lots of emotional feelings and have side effects on the following day, the result was: I woke up with a very big stinky headache.

I have the impression I am anesthetised because of things that have recently happened in my life. I feel I just keep breathing but am not living. I don't know where to go, what to do and to be honest, I am tired of doing what people expect me to do or want me to do.

It is quite frequently that people want to decide what you should do and judge you for what you do and what you don't do. There are no formulas in life and nobody has the right to judge you or your actions because nobody is inside you to feel you feelings, to share your pains, sorrows and fears. Nobody has lived your life and knows what goes on in your past, your history and inside your mind and your heart. Nobody has felt what you have felt or experienced or saw what you have seen. It is so much easier for people to assume and criticise than to listen and support. There are actually very few people that have time to listen and to be empathetic. Most friends, when you most need them, to free their consciousness and feel good about themselves, tell you to go and get some help. Come back when you are sorted out, I have no time for this. Very lonely world.

These moments when you feel you would most need a friend, you can't find any. I can easily understand why so many people choose to commit suicide, they feel that weighty loneliness upon their shoulders and that feeling of helplessness and lack of choice. I do not believe in suicide because life is a cycle. Nobody is always at the top, everyone goes through moments of doubt and anguish, fears, loneliness and I have learnt in life, those moments come and go, we just have to bear with the lows to come back to the highs and highs wouldn't be highs without the lows. Hills are only there because there are depressions. Otherwise it would be all flat and boring.

These moments of darkness are often the moments when you need to reconnect with your own deepest feelings, like going back to the womb and reconnecting with your essence. Throughout life we are always playing roles: children, parents, spouses, professional roles, we can be labled under many names and titles, my sister, my friend, my mother, my cousin, a singer, a teacher, whatever it is you are doing and every person that gets in touch with you only sees a facet on a multifaceted human being you are. The whole picture only belongs to you (and maybe God), and the person you are belongs to your soul and your spirit and what lies beneath all of that.

I think those moments of introspection are a desperate attempt to find that essence that sometimes ends up getting lost amongst all those tiles and roles we play in life. Who am I? Deep down? What is my purpose in this fleeting moment in this world we call a lifetime? What should I be doing or not be doing? Are the ways of the world the right ways for me and why can't I be like everybody else and think life everybody else? I am a free spirited and free thinking person. I have my own opinions and I do not need approval from anybody and do not need to prove anything to anyone but myself. I am constantly searching and rarely finding but for me the search is more important than the find and the questioning is more important than the answers. It really annoys me that everyone seems to have the right answer for everything, as if we lived in this agreeing world based on pearls of wisdom spread via internet. Everybody agrees on everything that they don't even know where these things come from.

Prefiro ser essa metamorfose ambulante do que ter aquela velha opiniao formada sobre tudo. These are lyrics from a song that says: I'd rather be that constant metamorphosis than to have that set opinion about everything.

Mushroom soups can really heighten your state of consciousness. Were there magic mushrooms perhaps?

Coming back to food, all those rich delicious smells and tastes that food brings also give you that feeling that you are alive, to experience the best the world can offer.

I truly admire Jamie Oliver, his passion for life and for food and his creativity and bravery about ingredients are truly outstanding. Not everyone can appreciate it as some people take to food as they take to life. They are not ready to be adventurous and experience what they don't already know. Some people will spend a lifetime eating the same old food with no seasoning, because they are afraid of trying and tasting life. Going through this cookbook has made me embrace another way of experiencing cooking, that richness that the UK has byincorporating other cultures. Throughout history Britain has been a mixture of everything, Britons, romans, Celts, Anglo Saxons, Vikings, and more recently Pakistanis, Indians, asians... What a rich culture!

It makes me laugh all that effort to be 'multicultural' as Britain hasn't been anything but multicultural ever since it existed! There isn't such a thing as a pure breed and thank goodness for that!

I myself am part Portuguese, part Lebanese, part French and God knows what else. We are all part of everything, we are part of the human race and that is enough. Only some people think that differences makes us different but in fact it makes us all the same: humans, and blood in our veins keeps being red, and we all bleed inside and out the same.

I am too philosophical today but I can't help it. I think, therefore I exist. I exist, therefore I eat.

And tonight we will have chicken and vegetables vindaloo. Exciting spicy influences all over again.

Coming back to that mushroom soup, I thought it was a brilliant idea to mix soured cream and lemon, it cut through the 'yukiness' mushrooms can have. I also love the idea of the toasts with mushrooms to go with it, it gives a bit of texture and links it with the soup. Brilliant, again, bloody brilliant.

I bow and take my hat to Jamie. So far, great success, great connection with people, not a crumb left of anything. My husband, who was there every evening is loving it all but his favourite dish so far has been the Glasgow potato scones. To be perfectly honest mine too and this was the recipe that has hit me the most when I watched the tv series, the one that got me all started in this blog.

Thanks for following me. I do not publish the recipes here without Jamie Oliver's consent because I think you should buy the book and start a fantastic adventure in the world of British cooking.

See you soon,


Gisele

RECIPE 7

Sizzling lamb lollipops, sweet little dips and toasted crunchy nuts

Hello

Yesterday's meal was another success, sizzling lamb lollipops with lots of different dips.

We invited a couple of good friends and neighbours,  Julius and Dave,

I started the cooking by making the marinade to spread over the lamb chops.

After that came the dips, a cucumber, yoghourt and mint, a tomato and chili with herbs and feta cheese and a crushed nuts one with almonds, pistachios and sesame seeds. I also added some sundried tomatoes and some extra portion of feta cheese with oregano and olive oil.

I served the dish with slices of pain de campagne, very rustic and full of texture.

I absolutely adore those recipes, each one of them is so full of character, texture and flavours and at the end of all of them we fell satisfied, not over full, but we have the feeling of contentment.

Thank you again Jamie!!

Here are the pictures:

The marinade made with lots of spices, fresh chili and olive oil

Chops in marinade waiting to be cooked

Cucumber, fresh yoghourt and mint dip

Second dip with tomatoes, chili, herbs and feta cheese

Lamb chops, crispy and golden

Our guests with my husband David

Today I have a little spa party and I am cooking mushroom soup to everybody. I need a little simple dinner as I have been eating rather a lot :-)

See you tomorrow,

Gisele

RECIPE 6

Toad in the hole with onion gravy

Hello

I didn't write yesterday as spent all day doing things such as eye doctor for a checkup after my cataract operation in both eyes, then cooking lunch, a hearty omelette, then shopping, then cooking dinner, toad in the hole for my mother in law and husband.

I did the cooking at my mother in law's house (her name is Heather), Jamie Oliver's toad in the hole, mashed potatoes with chives, carrots, cauliflower and Jamie Oliver's onion gravy without the cheat, with true gravy from a beef roast.

I was curious about the name toad in the hole and got an explanation from a Wikipedia page, take it or leave it.

Toad in the hole is a traditional English dish^[1] consisting of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and onion gravy. The origin of the name "Toad-in-the-Hole" is often disputed. Many suggestions are that the dish's resemblance to a toad sticking its head out of a hole provides the dish with its somewhat unusual name. It is rumoured to have been called "Frog-in-the-Hole", at one time, although little if any evidence corroborates this assertion.^[2] It can also be referred to, less popularly, as "sausage toad".^[3]

An 1861 recipe by Charles Elme Francatelli does not mention sausages, instead including as an ingredient "6d. or 1s. worth of bits and pieces of any kind of meat, which are to be had cheapest at night when the day's sale is over."^[4] This recipe was described, as "English cooked-again stewed meat" (Lesso rifatto all'inglese) or "Toad in the Hole", in the first book of modern Italian cuisine of the nineteenth century, L'Artusi 1891), in which the meat was nothing but left-over stewed meat cooked again in batter. During the 1940s, a wartime variation on the original used pieces of Spam in place of sausages. An earlier recipe with a similar style is found in Hannah Glasse's 1747 The Art of Cookery, where she presents a recipe for "Pigeons in a Hole",^[5] essentially pigeons cooked in a Yorkshire pudding batter.

The recipe itself is rather simple but requires some skill to cook perfectly. A pan is placed in the oven and heated for about 15 minutes while the batter is prepared. The sausages and batter are added and cooked for half an hour. With frozen sausages, the meat is placed in the dish while heated. It is normally accompanied by gravy (often onion gravy), vegetables and potatoes, often mashed.

There we go.

Today I am going to make sizzling lamb lollipop. Wait and see.

Enjoy the pictures and see you later.

Gisele