Category: old blogging

Results of my trip to Brighton today:

• a new jacket, ready for a trip to the races on Friday, as well as a new shirt and smart trousers. Bizarrely for me, all these things came from Debenhams, who seemed to have been exposed to a swift kick up the backside in the menswear department. I was seriously tempted by some Fahri stuff I saw, but it was way beyond my budget – but very cool, nonetheless.
• a new book, Three To See The King by Magnus Mills. Already I’m half way through, so expect a review shortly. So far, I like it. Lots.
• lunch in Food for Friends.
• birthday gifts and cards for the weekend.
• two CDs: Slag Boom Van Loon: So Soon and Andrea Parker: The Dark Ages – all good stuff.
• some bath ballistics.
• a new pair of shoelaces (woohoo).
• ….plus some odds and ends from Habitat.

Book review time (haven’t had one of these for a while – college, work and everything else has got in the way of reading, but now I’ve found more time, and will gradually work through the backlog of books):
Don’t Tell Me The Truth About Love by Dan Rhodes – an excellent collection of short stories all themed around love. I have to agree with some of the other reviews that I have read – Dan Rhodes is brilliantly sparing with words – he can convey not only description, but raw and powerful emotion, using the minimum amount of words. In consequence, his stories flow without being interrupted by long wads of prose trying to convey something – excellent stuff.
The stories themselves manage to convey something of the reality of love, using quite unreal situations – in particular, he focuses on love’s imperfections, on how things rarely work out as well as we dream.
My advice – go get it, read it, enjoy.
Thanks to Vaughan once again.

Not so much Dinnerblog as Graybo’s Handy Recipe Reference. A couple of people have asked for the recipe for the chicken dish I cooked last week that went so well – so here it is:

Chicken with wild mushroom and champagne sauce
Serves 4 (or two greedy people)
Preparation takes about 10 minutes if you are organised, and cooking 30 minutes. It pays to pre-heat your oven to a low temperature so that you can keep the chicken warm.

Ingredients:

• 500g chicken breast fillets (i.e. 4 fillets)
• 300ml champagne (although you can use cava or any other sparkling dry white wine – but nothing impresses a guest quite like champagne!)
• a little olive oil for frying
• 250g wild mushrooms, cleaned and larger mushrooms halved (wild mushrooms includes all those funny ones you don’t often see – ceps, blewitts, girolles, chanterelles – whatever you can get in your local deli – did I say this recipe was cheap? no, I did not)
• 2 tbsp half fat cr&#232me fra&#238che (the only concession to calorie reduction in this meal)
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon (I actually used about twice this amount)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Place the chicken breasts in a single layer in a large saucepan. Pour over the champagne and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, until the chicken breasts are thoroughly cooked.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the mushrooms for 2-3 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden. Strain the chicken breasts, reserving the liquor, and keep warm (see! I told you to warm the oven!). Add the reserved liquor to the mushrooms and allow to bubble for 3-4 minutes. Reduce the heat and stir in the cr&#232me fra&#238che and tarragon. Simmer gently for 2 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly. Season to taste.
• Slice the chicken breasts diagonally into thick slices and arrange of warmed serving plates. Pour over the sauce straight away and serve.

I served this on a bed on white and wild rice mixed with fresh green beans, which worked really well. But then the second bottle of wine had been opened by this point, so it could have tasted of anything to be honest!
Thanks to Waitrose for the recipe.

I have the day off work tomorrow – it’ll be the first day that I haven’t worked since May 13th – yes, that’s right, I have worked every day for nearly six weeks (other than when I was doing my exams, and I don’t count that as holiday). So I’m going to lay in bed late, then probably head over to Brighton to mooch about the shops – if anyone is in Brighton and fancies meeting up for lunch/coffee/beer, give me a shout.

hmm. Readymeals. Instructions:
Remove your meal from the card wrapper and remove the film lid. Preheat the oven to an unbearable temperature. Place the meal in the oven. Leave it there until your flat is unbearably hot. Remove it when you can stand it no more. Discover that your meal is so darned hot that you can not eat it for 20 minutes. Have a banana instead.

yet another way to avoid doing useful work. I blame Mo.

I’m considering taking a short break. Having browsed a few online lastminute.com type places, I’ve got a shortlist: Oporto, Verona, Naples, Venice and Seville. Unfortunately, Stockholm wasn’t available. Recommendations anyone?

strange. But ..um.. rather good. Link nabbed from Robyn.

Beer tonight with Paul F, Ian, Claudette and the lovely Simone, as well as her mate Paul (didn’t get his surname – how do I distinguish him from all the other Pauls? “Paul X”? Noooooo, that makes him sound like a porn star. Maybe he is a porn star?). A relaxing evening, filled with the usual banter and smutty comments – just about what I needed to keep me grounded and in touch with reality (which is increasingly difficult).

Very useful. especially for Americans listening to TMS on the net.