Greek Lamb,aubergine bake, 14th March 2012

This meal was a challenge as it came from a cook book entitled, "Readers Digest Amazing Meals for less than £2.50".
The ingredients were mince lamb, aubergine, garlic, tomatoes, fresh mint, dill, spaghetti, yoghurt & egg, and served with a fresh salad. (In Greece the dish is made with Orzo, a small tear shaped pasta, difficult to obtain, but Waitrose do sell it)
Now here's the good news..................It's a healthy meal, with less than 5% fat
It was unusually tasty considering it was a 'healthy meal'  but only achieved a mark of  9/10 because I was hungry an hour later and needed to stock up with a peanut butter sandwich!
Yes, the challenge to cook for less than £2.50.......  Failed......  Either our Chef Christine is going to the wrong suppliers for the ingredients or the book was published in the 1970s

Ginger Biscuits (the best ever) 11th March 2012

Special thanks for these biscuits must go to the local church who unwittingly had a hand in the creation of these 'best ever' home made ginger biscuits. How?......Today the church held a book sale and chef contributed to church funds by buying a cook book (3 actually), and there it was, inside one of the books, waiting to be re-discovered, a fine recipe.
And so with some haste, the oven was warmed up, and with religious intensity Chef set about recreating the latest project.  Fortunately the kitchen had all the ingredients namely; plain flour, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, an egg, and black treacle.
The result was the 'best ever' ginger biscuit, with a crisp outside and soft inner, with a taste strongly reminiscent of Brandy Snap.  No problem here with the mark of 10/10. Well done church and well done Chef.

Roast Chicken (butchers of course) 11th March 2012

Our peripatetic  Chef, Christine created another wonderful meal of roast butchers chicken, with homemade Yorkshire pudding, roast parsnips & potatoes, Lincolnshire fresh curly kale & carrots. On hearing of yet another award our shy chef said," It was the gravy that 'med' it". Quite true.
And then......for afters I indulged in a little bit of history, the two spare Yorkshire puddings were served with treacle.  Before obesity arrived in the uk  I regularly indulged in this hobby of 'afters'. Wonderful!!          A well deserved mark of 10*/10
Note the product placement

Elissa's Gift.......to inspire the author

Elissa, one of our regular Diners at the Lincolnshire Pantry and the Broadstairs Cafe with just two of the food books she has presented the author. How she finds these titles I do not know, they are exceptional. Although, "The man who ate everything" may be a bit sarcastic as the author can eat everything............oh, except, liver, gooseberries, and raw fish!

Our Chef, "with a little help from her friends"

A little secret here; Part of our Chefs stock of inspirations. They make great reading for any food lover.
Sounds like a Beatles song from 1967 sung by Ringo................the last verse;
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends
Ooh I get high with a little help from my friends
With a little help from my friends
Maybe it wasn't a drug song, maybe it was for chefs everywhere!

Fish & Chips by the seaside, 6th March 2012

Not the best photographs, but I needed to protect the food with the box lid to stop the thieving seagulls from diving down and stealing my lunch. Yes a day at the seaside is not complete without fish & chips on the sand and maybe a stick of Scarborough rock for afters.
So when its not a regular meal you should go for the best, which we did. The 'World Famous' Harry Ramsden's on Scarborough sea front was chosen. We concluded it was ok but the chips while perfectly cut and shaped  didn't taste of a good old fashioned chip. Maybe its because no one uses beef dripping anymore or my taste buds are wearing out. Sorry Harry but you only scored 7/10. You should take note from the New Goxhill Chippie, now that is quality ( see the first entry on December 2011)

Cannelloni & Spinach, and Thai Fish Cakes, 4th March 2012

A reasonably healthy meal was the order of the day (well the spinach & fish anyway) on an outing to Scarborough (The Queen of the Yorkshire Coast). There wasn't a lot of restaurants open on this miserable rainy day so Chef and I settled for a good looking specialist coffee cafe called Roasters.
The food was nicely presented but wasn't a lot to write home about. A gracious award of 5/10 was therefore given for the food. The coffee was good and strong and deserved an award of 9/10