Catch up time

Dear readers, I'm sorry it's been a while since I last wrote properly. Getting back from the UK and then being stranded in South Bend has kinda disrupted my writing :)

So this post I'm going to catch y'all up with some of the meals I have eaten recently that are definitely worth a mention.

Ellie and I went down to visit one of our cousins, Helena in Surrey. On the night we arrived she made a delicious pork and bean stew/casserole. The liquid that it was cooked in was divine and I especially loved soaking it up with some freshly baked french baguette. That was 3 weeks ago (i think) but I can still remember the distinct flavour of the sauce. The meats were soft and succulent which, considering the relatively short cooking time, was both a surprise and a relief (I'm not a fan of stews with dry meat. There's nothing more dissatisfying than taking a bite into a stew that has a yummy sauce but meat that you could sole your shoes with!) Helena's meat was so far on the other end of the spectrum it almost fell off!! It was served with a celeriac and potato gratin.



The hearty tangy first course was followed by the sweet creaminess of a home made trifle. Mmmmm blancmange!!!!! Ok, so I'm going to risk sounding really picky again, but I hate it when trifles have too much fruit cocktail and/or jelly in them. My fave parts are the roll, blancmange and cream. Too much of the other stuff just gets in the way. Helena, again, got that right balance and delivered a trifle that declared it's creaminess but allowed that punch of fruit to make it's statement. I had some the next day for lunch too.



Helena's lovely boyfriend Diarra made breakfast the next morning and it was a salted fish bake served with homemade 'bread'. yummy! I think I already wrote about this particular dish from when we were in France, but it certainly deserves some more photo time. Thank you Diarra!


Last week I had Dr. Wilson (now known as Wilson, as I am no longer a student at his school) for dinner. I was going to make
this recipe but made a few adjustments. What I ended up with was a baked curry consisting of chicken bone-in thighs, fresh tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, onion and spinach. The spinach was added for the last 5 minutes of cooking time, in order to prevent too much additional water to the curry sauce.

Here is Wilson looking really excited about trying some of the curry!

It was delicious, I have to blow my own horn. I am definitely going to make that again, especially for when having friends over. It'll be good to have thrown in the oven an hour before they arrive.

In south bend I had a horrible experience with a hookah. No, I didn't spell that incorrectly, I mean a hookah pipe. I woke up in the middle of the night, after trying the whole hookah thing, with a headache that would not quit. I have never EVER had a headache of such magnitude. I imagine it's what a migraine is like, there was no escaping it and it made me feel nauseous. Matt, the sweetheart, kept putting cold wet hand towels on my head and that helped a little.

Anyway, the next morning I really wanted some home comfort and Matt was able to deliver by taking me to the Fiddlers Hearth in South Bend Indiana. It was the most authentic Irish pub I've been to here in America. That morning I was able to order a full Irish breakfast that had BLACK AND WHITE PUDDING, PROPER RASHERS AND REAL BAKED BEANS!!!!!! Heaven!!!! And I washed it all down with a pot of Barry's tea.



So impressed was I with the place, that we returned for dinner a couple nights later where I had the Molly Malone Stew (mussels, shrimp, scallops, beef, barley, vegetables) Another winner and toasted to with some more Barry's tea.