I love this time of year, the British Asparagus is in the shops, which makes me wait patiently for another year, until I am actually allowed to pick mine.....three years seems an incredibly long time.

I also love those massive mushrooms you get in the shops.

This seemed a match made in heaven!! 

A trip to the beach at the weekend left me too 'busy' to go to the shops so there has been no menu done this week.

A rapid dash around the shops on Sunday evening left me staring down the wrong end of a of sad packet of sausages.  Theres was not much else in the house, but theres always pasta and tinned tomatoes.

Tonight we had the goats cheese tart from 'Real Food' 

Such a shame that I forgot to take a picture of it!

In the words of my daughter - 'can we have food like this more often?'

"yes darling, how about next week!"

Am also working on a version without Pastry as I have a wheat intollerant guest next week

Watch this space.

I am always looking for good 'bed fellows' for left over roast Chicken from Sunday.  This need, combined with my current mission with Mr Slaters 'Real Food, left me at an obvious place this evening.

The new potato and spinach seasons are upon us, parmesan is always a good friend, and there is always a bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to be found in my cupboards so this one was going to be an inevitable on the family menu at some point.

Still sticking with my plan to spend a bit more time with the musings of Mr Slater I found myself, whilst roasting my familys chicken absorbed by 'Chicken with Roast Onion and Thyme Gravy'

I was already some 90 minutes in to the cooking time of the bird so there was little I could do to follow the entire recipe but taking inspiration from the ingredients I finely chopped an onion, and a couple of garlic cloves.

Draining the juices from the roasting pan I separated the juices from the fat in a jug and returned a little of the fat to the pan with the onion and Garlic.  Adding in 3 bay leaves and a generous handful of thyme sprigs, I remembered I also had some streaky bacon in the fridge, so after stretching with the back of a knife I rolled one per person and added to the tin. 

Today whilst writing the meal plan for my family for the week, I returned to my 2013 objective of working my way through Nigel Slaters 'Real Food'. as a result my menu plan for the week contains five new dishes to try.

Tonight it was the turn of Pork with Cashews, Lime and Mint.  Instantly there were some problems with the recipe in the book.  Firstly my family doesnt like pork too much - but that was easily solved by changing the pork for chicken breast.

Next my husband cant eat nam pia (fish sauce), so I left it out.  He also doesn't like mint, and I couldn't buy ginger root anywhere today!

Sausages on a Friday Evening.  Its like Horse and Cart, Bread and Butter a pairing made to go together.

However there are only so many things you can do with a sausage, toad in the hole, ragu, grilled, baked ...........so next week try baking your chubby pork sausages with a piri piri sauce and half a chilli.

This dish is a heart warming one for those of you who are struggling with this cold wet spring.

A delightful combination of a cheap cut of meat, slow cooked until its 'melt in the mouth' and chorizo, and heat from carefully chosen spices and a cheekie chilli.

Ideal as a dish on it's own or served with a crusty buttered bread roll........... or some mid week roasties.

After a day on the beach, a quck and tasty tea was called for.

This delicious platter of Buttered Spinach, lemon couscous, yogurt and a chargrilled lemon was accompanied by griddled spiced chicken.

A hit with the family the recipe will be on the next meal plan.

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It was definately a beach day today.  It was forecast and for once they got it right.  So last night I made a few Sausage and Bacon Pies to take to the beach today.

These pies need to be made the night before because they need time to chill.  The dont travel well when warm.

I made the pies with ready made puff pastry - which was an error on my behalf because I picked up Puff when I wanted shortcrust.  The following ingredients will make twelve pies so you will need two packs of pastry or halve the filling mixture.