It was inevitable I guess. All that enthusiasm had to die down at some stage.

Although I do have to say in my defence that the first three days of this week involved enough cooking for six days, so even though I cooked the rest of the week, it was just quick and easy. No cookbooks involved.

The week went like this: 

14th January: after years of having no luck with Nigella Lawson (read more here), I went with three recipes from her “Express” book. They were buttermilk chicken, cheesy mac n cheese, and a crunchy vegetable salad. And we finally had a winner. They are all the kind of recipes I can see myself making again.

15th January: I decided to stick to Nigella while things were good, and using the Speedy Gonzalez chapter from “Express”, we had her Chilli and roquamole dip. I also made fish taco’s with baja sauce and homemade salsa. And can I just say OH MY GOD HOW GOOD ARE FISH TACOS! The recipe was courtesy of SBS Food, give it a try here. (I just pan fried the fillets instead of BBQ-ing). Will definitely be making this often. Healthy, easy, inexpensive, and tasty.

16th January: with a few extra people over for dinner I hit the kitchen at 2pm. I was needing to do a test run of my spring roll recipe before publishing it, and with it I served crispy schnitzels and curried fried rice, from the Women’s Weekly Modern Asian. The spring roll recipe made enough filling for thirty or so pieces, but I only had one pack of twenty wrappers. No matter, as I ate the rest of the filling by the time dinner was ready. Plus we had a simple green salad from the garden. And naturally when dinner involved anything crumbed and/or deep fried I ate way too much.

17th January: I was in need of something simple and quick here, so it ended up being sausages and hot chips. I also added some caramelised onions to jazz it up and feel less lazy.

18th January: some pan fried fish fillets and a couple of home made pizzas made for another simple dinner. No cookbooks were even looked at. I was feeling over it by now.

19th January: day off, with dinner at my brother in laws place. Thanks guys for the excellent BBQ, Niss’ always-yummy potato bake, and crunchy salads. Plus I have to say I loved dessert: Niss brought out mini pavlova bases plus lots of pavlova toppings (cream, custard, fruit, coulis, chocolate), and everyone could make their own pav with their choice of topping. I got so stuck into it that any thought of photos went out the window.

20th January: another day off where I had the luxury of enjoying someone else’s cooking.

So there you have it. Three solid days of effort, then a couple of easy days. I am planning on finishing big this final week, but I have no idea with what.

See you next time, Ana.

P.S. You may have noticed the (very slight) change of name to the blog. I have also changed the address so it’s easier to find. I am planning some more changes for the one year mark in May. If there is anything you would like to see go or stay I would love to hear from you.