tabbouleh

This is a really good fresh and light salad. It's great as part of a main meal, or as part of a mezze spread. I got the recipe from the Moro cookbook which is a great cookbook for middle eastern and eastern med food, particularly mezze style dishes.

serves 2
salad
40g bulgar wheat
200g cherry tomatoes
couple of small bunches of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 small bunch of mint, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped

dressing
1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt
two pinches cinnamon
2 pinches allspice
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
3 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and pepper

cut the tomatoes in half, deseed, then chop in half again
prepare the bulgar wheat - go with the instructions on the packet - I usually boil for 10-15 mins then rinse with cold water to serve in a salad
mix the tomatoes with the herbs and bulgar wheat
make the dressing by mixing all of the ingredients apart from the olive oil together - this is because they will mix better without the oil - then add the oil
toss the salad in the dressing just before serving

aubergine and goat's cheese

I just made this up because I had the cheese left over from a salad and the aubergine from a pasta sauce.



half an aubergine
2-3 slices of goat's cheese
olive oil

slice the aubergine up so you have thin round slices
heat a 1cm pool of oil in a frying pan
fry the aubergine slices up and drain on paper towels
you may have to fry the aubergine in batches so once the slices are drained keep them in a warm dish in a warm oven
when you are ready to serve, place the aubergines in your serving dish andthen crumble the goat's cheese over the top
season with some salt and pepper if you like

The cheese will warm a bit being on top of the aubergine and start to melt a wee bit. This is a good warm salad to have alongside cold dishes in the spring or autumn when there is still a nip in the air.

desks

I love the Yves Pinch Design desk the best, but this is also a great desk. In fact, it is more expensive than Pinch so I feel if I ever splash out on it I will be 'saving' money - haha! This is a much more colourful desk and perhaps would be best in a very modern setting. I feel the Pinch desk could look good in a trad or modern setting. I love the use of colour though and the curvaceous legs - maybe this is because it was originally designed by George Nelson as a 'ladies' desk?



It's £3316 and you can take a peak at designshopuk.com.

wallpaper

Wallpaper hasn't been something I have ever been into. I have preferred either plain cream walls or big and bold colours painted direct on to lining paper.



But a french company called 'domestic' has some wallpaper designs that look more like cool, graphic design posters - even the kids ones are amazing - except for your walls.

Elizabeth David - saviour of the British diet and also a sharp critic!

Elizabeth David changed forever the way we eat in Britain. She introduced pasta and olive oil - now everyday staples - to the UK palate and challenged the restaurant trade to move beyond recreations of what you got at home or at boarding school. Some criticise her as being terribly middle class and pursuing a cuisine that was only accesible to the upper and middle classes - and a cuisine that you would only have discovered if you had the financial aently bility to holiday in the Med, which the vast majority of Brits could not. But like her or not, she brought about the most radical shift in how we see, eat and consider our food. But the reason for this post is that recently Peter Ross, a librarian at the Guildhall library in London, has unveiled the annotated notes David made in the margins of the cookbooks she owned and occasionally reviewed. Ross has been carrying out this work for many years and is now ina position to make available the notes she made. Some of them are quite cutting - and blunt- criticising fellow food writers and particular dishes - which of course if you didn't think anyone else would see them they possibly would be. For the full story head to the Guardian where you will find the cuts.

kitchens

In my continued obsession for round houses, I am often on the look out for interior solutions that involve curves and/or fitting into a round structure. Well, I have found a company called Metris Kitchens who have a range called Peninsula Curve - and their curvey kitchen is just beautiful.



It reminds me a little of 1930s ocean liners and a slight art deco-ish hint - I think it is the sinuous lines of the surfaces. I would probably go for a different surface than what is here but I love the fact that it is curved. After all, who wants sharp edges - cooking and baking to my mind is more subtle than that and therefore needs a more stylish approach and to my mind this is it. I can see shiny, white Mason & Cash baking bowls lined up and ready to be filled with ingredients and mixtures destined for decadent feasts!

steak baguette

This is a good quick and easy meal to make up and tastes great. This serves 2.

two baguettes
bag of salad leaves
whatever salady veggies you have - tomatoes, cheese etc
packet of roast beef slices from supermarket
whatever sauces you like and have in your cupboard - brown, horseradish etc
two baked potatoes
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon juice - jif or fresh - whatever you have



slice the baked potatoes into wedges, drizzle with oil and put on a baking tray
pop the wedges in the oven to bake for 25-30 mins
cut up all your salad items and mix up in a bowl with olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice, salt a pepper
unwrap the beef and pop in a dish covered with foil and put in th eoven 5 mins before the wedges are ready
pop your baguettes in 2-3 mins before the wedges are ready
when the baguettes are warm, slice them and put them on plates, load up with the beef and serve with the wedges and salad

If you don't want wedges, some crisps are good. If you don't want a full salad, you can put some sliced tomatoe and cheese inside the baguette instead.

This dish looks impressive and my husband likes it but is really more about assembly than cooking - easy peasy!