It smells like a French man's rustic kitchen.

In my freezer I have 34 sausages. This is too many sausages to have in a freezer which is only the size of a large shoebox. Some of the sausages I bought in my online shop and clicked 2 instead of 1 on the quantity amount, as I was buying a 241 deal anyway it meant I actually ordered 4 for 2 and there were 6 sausages in each pack. The other sausages I was given in return for a bran cake. As these sausages were posh and organic and the bran cake was a couple of days old and on the small side I think I definitely got the better deal, plus it made me feel like I was living in the middle ages.

So with all theses sausages knocking about (or rather packed into fours and put in little freezer bags) I decided to make a sausage casserole.

Sausage casserole

You will need

4-6 sausages depending on how big the sausages are and how many people you are feeding. (If you don't have any sausages I can lend you some, I've got load)

Carrots (as many as you like)

Courgettes (I ate courgettes nearly every day of the week last week as I bought 3 not knowing that I already had 2 - warning - too many courgettes is not positive for your bottom noises)

Munchrooms

Garlic

2 small onions

Beef stock, Red Wine, Sage - fresh or dried.

It is really super doooper easy to make. Firstly in a frying pan brown your sausages then take them out of the frying pan and leave them on a plate or a chopping board anything you like, except for maybe a dirty floor because that's not very hygenic.

Then chop up your onion, munchrooms, courgette, garlic and carrot and brown in the frying pan. Add back in the sausages (clean, not dirty) and add beef stock and a slug of red wine. Season with herbs and black pepper.  Bring to the boil and then simmer. Then transfer into a casserole pot (I did this over the sink in case of spillage, which there was quite a lot of) and then put in the oven for half an hour to forty mins  - until the carrots are soft.

Serve with a large glass of good red wine and some crusty bread. SOOOO EASY PEASY. P.s if you are a vegeeeeetarian leave out the sausages innit.

Yesterday evening I went to the Didsbury Beer Festival. Even though I didn't like beer it was NOT a problem as they had a whole stall of cider. I had some little tokens and I spent them all on different ciders - Happy Daze I would recommend highly. I think I maybe had too many of them though as I told the man behind the cider counter that he looked beefy and did he go to the gym and he went all red. He was beefy though.

I'm also still thinking about that poor old pigeon, it's the anniversary of his death today. Poor old pidge.

You can have too many Babybels...

I am back in Manchester! I have returneth from Bristol - the coldest city in England - well it was last week.
I was on a course for a week and only had a little jacket with me. At the end of the course in the feedback form we had to give five words to describe the course. By that time my fingers had stopped working from the cold but I managed to write 'Chilly'.

I shall describe my week with food.

We had a free breakfast every day - which is what happens when you stay in a hotel.

Day 1 Delicious Bacon sandwich. For the remaining breakfasts I ate fruit and fibre (leaving the dried bananas in a secret stash on the table for the next guest), fruit salad and babybels.







At breakfast every morning I made up a little emergency rations package for the day, including.....

and...

.......and a napkin full of dried apricots. The apricots were in a bowl next to the cereal counter (as you were meant to sprinkle them on your museli) but I like apricots SOOO much I just eat them without cereal. On days 4 and 5 of the course there were no apricots by the cereal :( I think they had become wise to my apricot poaching.)

On the first evening we had a posh meal with all the course leaders and important people and for the starter we had....

This was chicken with pesto and bit of curry (I think). One boy was so hungry he put his in his bread roll and wolfed it down quick as a bee! I was also hungry because we didn't eat the evening meal until 8.30 and I had eaten my packed lunch on the train that morning at 10.30 because I got overexcited. I didn't put mine in a sandwich though. After I had taken a picture of it a few people stopped talking to me as much so I talked to the sandwich boy as a few people had stopped talking to him as well.

This meal was also delicious.

After a week of being freezing, and eating a lot of chicken based dishes,(here's another one that I ate...)

I wanted something that didn't have chicken or babybels in it and was fairly easy to make so on Friday I had....

Smoked Salmon Pasta with a Rocket Salad.

This meal is delicious, fairly healthy and can be enjoyed at any time (i.e lunch or dinner)

You will need...

Smoked salmon trimmings (from the fishmonger, or you can get it from Tescos, but its a bloody rip off)

Half an onion or a shallot (I always think of shallots as a vegetable that would be fairly high up in a court in Tudor times)

2 tablespoons of white wine

Some munchrooms (maybe 8-10?)

Pasta

Rocket

Creme Fraiche (the sauce base for Guardian readers)

Put pasta on to boil, while boiling...

Finely chop your onion and simmer it in the white wine until the wine has evaporated.

Add the creme fraiche and the munchrooms to the onions and when the munchrooms have softened add the smoked salmon trimmings. Add black pepper.

Drain pasta and pour sauce over the top, grate on parmesan and add some rocket.

I often have this meal without the pasta as the sauce is quite filling, just add some iceberg lettuce to the rocket. You can also have it as a starter if you are hosting a posh dinner party. 

All I can remember from the last week is being cold (I also couldn't work out how to put the heating on in my room so once or twice I turned the shower on in the bathroom and sat near it for the warmth of the steam).

So today by mistake I bought another fur coat!!!! (ooops). However it was a Primarni Cheapo one but is still beautiful and lovely. I can't decided if I'm a dalmation or a leopard though...

Today I saw a poor old pigeon get run over and all its insides fell out. So tonight I will not be having pigeon. 

Poor old pigeon.

It's 6.24 now which means Gin and Tonic time! Goody!

Some people say Tuna tastes like Cat Food.

My Lovely New Coat

A couple of weeks ago I was having a serious dilemma. Where was I going to get my faux fur coat from and what animal would it represent?!!!! Many of you may have been seriously concerned for me as 'tis a serious winter problem. 

Worry no longer!!!!!!

After visiting every shop in Manchester (except for one's like Currys or Carphone Warehouse because they don't sell coats) I managed to find one. Hurrah!!!!

I decided to go for a plain colour as I already own trousers, 3 dresses, 1 playsuit, a bag, a tshirt and a jumper in leopard print so I realised I wouldn't be able to wear any of those with the coat. It is the warmest thing ever to happen to me. This week I have done a bit of sitting in my flat in it but I got too hot and had to take it off so I hung it up so I could look at it. Lovely Coat.

Thats enough coat business for now. I shall move onto the cooking,

Tuna with a Bearnaise sauce

You will need (for two people)

2 Tuna Steaks

For the Sauce:
1 shallot finely chopped
2 tablespoons of white wine
1 bay leaf
Dried or Fresh tarragon (about a teaspoon of dried)
2 large tablespoons of butter
An egg yolk





A bearnaise or hollandaise sauce is not super easy to make. I felt like I had put my soul into this sauce by the time I served it up.

You will need time, patience and most importantly the ingredients. There seem to be very complicated recipes all over the internet involving things like muslin, the blood of a young carpenter, and a cooking process that needs moonlight. I am going to try and  be as simple as possible. i.e no blood.

Firstly put the shallot, tarragon, bay leaf and white wine in a pan and leave to reduce.This should take around 3-4 mins. Simples!

Next whisk up your egg yolk in a bowl and then place that bowl over a pan of SIMMERING water, make sure it's not boiling an add the reduced shallot and tarragon. At this point maybe take out the bayleaf as when you serve it up only one person would get the bayleaf which may cause a bayleaf barney!

Melt some butter (I do it in the microwave, you can do it wherever you want) and then slowly slowly bit by bit add the melted butter to the egg and reduction and keep whisking. If the sauce goes weird i.e curdles/splits/goes too thick then add in some cold water.

Cook the tuna on a griddle or frying pan for about 3-4 mins on each side so it is still a bit pink in the middle.

Serve with salad/mange tout/little potatoes.

You could also have it with rice or any other veg of your choice.

P.s to make a hollandaise sauce - follow the above directions but leave out the tarragon and bay leaf.

This week I saw a boy walking along the road eating a bowl of cereal like he was in his own home, but he was on the street!!!! Silly Boy.