Regrouping

Eek its been ages since I posted anything about progress on my challenge.

That might be because its slipped somewhat. I did quite well for the rest of January, but some February and March I’ve slipped rather a long way off target.

Do I’ve done a recalculation and now I need to do 4 miles a day. Which in theory is still do-able although recent performance suggests it might be quite hard. I’ll definitely be trying to catch up with some cycling when we get to summer.

I’ve learnt though that although I love a nice stroll on a sunny day I really truly am a fair weather walker. As soon as its cold or damp I can find a million better things to do than go for a bracing soggy walk.

I’m hoping now that we have Spring here I’ll be minded to go out more often and I’m also going to try a tactic of short walks round the block spaced out across the day. I’m sure in terms of fitness it probably not as good for you but in terms of regular fresh air away from my desk it might just be better.

And it could just get me back in the swing of it.

I hope so!

Every week is bacon week

Apparently this last week has been Bacon Week here in the UK. A chance to get to know some premium bacons.

In my house every week is bacon week, I love the stuff. Though I try not to go too mad.

Imagine my delight then when I received this from the kind people at Real Bacon:

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A large box with rather a lot of premium bacon in it for me to try. YUM.

I normally get my bacon either from the local farmers market or from a farm shop. But how could I resist free bacon and you know someone’s got to test this stuff for you.

There were 3 different premium dry cured unsmoked back bacon’s for me to try, 2 packs of each :D

All from outdoor bred (though not necessarily raised) pigs and also all air dried.

So to try we had:

Marks & Spencer Outdoor Bread Dry Cure Smoked Back: rubbed with cheshire rock salt and cured for 5 days before air drying for 14 days

Sainsburys Taste the Difference Dry Cure Unsmoked Back: cured with sea salt and air dried for 14 days to Jack Scaife of Keighly family recipe

Tesco Finest: cured for 17 days to Richard Woodall of Cumbria family recipe

In all cases we made bacon butties with the bacon and also tasted some straight from the pan (we dry fried).

Any good? 

Yes all were good and if I needed decent bacon and had run out of my stash from farmers markets I’d happily buy any of these. If I had a choice of the three I’d go for the Sainsbury which was not too salty and nicely bacony although it gave off some liquid when cooked it had the best taste. The M&S was more salty which took away rom the bacony-ness but if you like salt this is the one to go for. The Tesco was milder all round still a good bacon but a little bit less interesting.

In the interests of fairness I didn’t know which bacon I was being given on any of the occasions I sampled them.

So if you don’t have a good bacon producer you know of then these three make tasty alternatives. I’ll be sticking with my farmers market supplier but if I run out I now know there are some good alternatives at the supermarket

 

Gong Bao Chicken (for Shauna)

Last weekend end I tweeted that I was making Gong Bao chicken for dinner.

And how easy and tasty it is.

Here it is:

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It’s from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sichaun Cooking. I love it. 

You can find the recipe on Fuchsia’s site here.

And its for Shauna because she wanted to see a picture so just for you @MrsShaunaTate

PS we used cashews instead of peanuts because that’s what we had to hand.

Charlie Bigham is making my dinner

Back in October last year the lovely people at Charlie Bigham’s asked if I’d like Charlie to cook my dinner for me.

At first I thought they were going to send the man himself round to my house which seemed very exciting.

Actually they meant would I like to try some of his ready to cook meals.

And although I love to cook I have to confess sometimes I’m really naughty and I buy ready prepared stuff *SHOCK*.

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So I said yes and they sent me Thai Green Curry, Steak and Ale Pies and Lasagne.

We ate them doted through a week and bit.

Thats not a bit of each doted through a week and bit but one dish each time.

Were they easy?

YES

Were they tasty?

YES

Could you have passed them off as your own work like people did with M&S Chicken Kiev in the 1980s?

YES

Would I buy them again?

YES …… I already have (several times) and in fact Charlie’s made his very special Lasange for me tonight.

YUM

This deserves:

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Which means “I’d definitely be on the look out to pick one of these up and I’d make efforts to find out where it was sold. Its great value for money and ‘punches well above its weight’. Definitely need to have some to hand.” 

Because sometimes you need great tasting food with mimimal hassle.

Find out more about my rating system here.