A Food Lover's Worst Nightmare

And so the holidays are coming to a close for me and now is the time I should be working in preparation to go back to work, but no, not me. Too stupid for that. I'm writing the blog that no one reads.

It is indeed nightmare time for me, as I have put on a plethora of pounds over Christmas (and before) and now really do have to consider shedding about 1/4 of them. Yes. It is that drastic. I have to work out how to do that, without alcohol to improve the taste of diet food (see below) and without losing interest in diet rubbish and turning to takeaways, leading me to pile on yet even more poundage. I can reminisce about lovely treats of the past however....

So, since I last posted, I've received a couple of sponsors for my Dryathlon this month - and will of course push this again - it is easy to text, sending the code SEBM73, followed by £5, £4, £3 etc - up to £10 - to 70070.

It was Husband#1's birthday last week and the family came over so again, needed to get some good ideas going. Bil's New Girlfriend (henceforth BGN) was coming too, so extra impressing to do.

We had an excess of blue cheese (this excess only ended yesterday with a portion in the freezer and two litres of cheese sauce being made) so I made caramelised onions - sauteed with a little brown sugar, with Stilton scattered over the top and a small crouton which was brushed with olive oil and garlic and then browned on a griddle. Worked very well actually, especially considering that the crouton was a last minute addition and made out of Hovis 50-50 or whatever it is called....had I the brains to have for-planned, I'd have impressed further by making my own bread!


http://twitter.com/WorkingMumCooks/status/285500947814289408/photo/1/large?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=WorkingMumCooks&utm_content=285500947814289408

Then I went for simple but spectacular and did Chateaubriand with roasted tomatoes on the vine with chips and garlic mayo, of course. Even MIL and FIL ate rare pieces (albeit with the bloody side turned down). I remember several years ago trying desperately to make them a well-cooked steak and it wasn't a moral thing or a blatant refusal to spoil a piece of beautiful fillet. No. They had ten minutes - that's TEN minutes - longer cooking time than the rest and I cold not get the buggers to cook more than medium, so I believe that my inner being simple blocked the heat processes.

Finally I made sticky toffee pudding with homemade custard. I dropped a piece on the floor, devastatingly, and MIL tried to get me to share half a piece with her but NO WAY. I don't go making sticky toffee pudding with homemade custard to only have half a piece. I carefully scraped the piece from the floor and had that with extra toffee sauce....if you want to stop reading these blogs in disgust, please do. Would never give food from the floor to my gals, but for heaven sake this was me and sticky toffee pudding. Half a piece? No bloody way. Anyway, in a desperate effort to impress the wrong person, BGN agreed to share half a piece with MIL. Pathetic.

Finally it was New Year's Eve and we celebrated with octopus and chips, an old but delicious favourite.

Happy New Year Everybody (even though I know you aren't really reading, but I can pretend!).