roasted brussels sprouts

Now, I know that brussels sprouts are much maligned, and many people claim to hate them. Well, we don’t – we love ’em. I bought a stalk of sprouts before Christmas for a quid, and there are still some left; the stalk has been out in the cold, in the log store, and they’re still…

smoked salmon and pasta

We’re getting to the time of year when we’re using up all the bits and bobs of festive fare. The last of the goose has gone into the freezer, the rest of the cheese is destined for lunches this week, along with the gammon. We’ve eaten far too much rich food over the past few…

chicken pesto pasta

Here’s another 20 minute recipe (although, to be fair, I used cooked chicken – you’d need to allow a bit longer if you used raw; if you do, cook it off as the first stage). Put some olive oil in a deep frying pan and heat it up (just low-medium is fine), chop up a…

a timed supper

  As my regular reader will know, Tuesday night is pasta night. I just open the fridge and concoct something from its contents. For people who don’t have time to cook, here’s a 15-20 minute supper. Bear in mind I have an ceramic hob, so you can skip the “put the rings on” bit if…

pasta with chicken, mushrooms and blue cheese

We bought some chicken breasts from our fabulous butcher up t’road, wrapped them individually, and froze them. And then fetched one out at the weekend to make a stir fry and, readers, it was *huge*. Well, huge to us, because we don’t eat much meat. So we used half in the stir fry, and the…

green beans and pasta

This is another ridiculously quick and easy supper, and pretty cheap too (depending where you shop) – certainly well under £1 per serving. Works well with runner beans as well. serves 2: 1 pack green beans (89p from Aldi, I think) 125g of pasta (fusilli, quills, whatever – Aldi fusilli is 49p for 500g, so that’s…

meatballs and tomato sauce

The mystery butcher’s bag in the freezer turned out to contain about 150g of sausagemeat, clearly bought for sossidge rolls for the festering season. Hmm … what to do? I added some chopped mix herbs to the meat, and mixed it all together. Into the slow cooker went onions, garlic, a diced courgette and some…

courgette and pasta bake

We make this recipe (or a variation on it) fairly often, and it involves far too long standing over the cooker in a cold kitchen (the hole in the wall is being mended tomorrow – hurrah!). So in the interests of experimentation, I thought I’d have a bash at doing the sauce in the little…

pork and pasta

I had a boneless pork chop, about 120g worth, loitering in the freezer. We’re trying to eat up all these oddments, so I fetched it out on Monday to do a stir fry. Pete volunteered to cook it, and while it was very nice, it would have been even better if he’d remembered to put…

chicken and ricotta

We had a chicken stir fry a couple of days ago; when I got the chicken out of the freezer, I discovered there were two breasts melded together. One went on the stir fry, and one was left.  On Sunday, I made a quick cheesecake, as the friend coming for supper had requested same. So…