Home cooking

Today we had a walk into Stone.  It was the first for the Winter.  It was interesting to see the little changes.... a renovation complete... some new apartments being built... trees grown up.  We stopped for a hot drink at Costa; coffee for Mick and chai latte for me.  They had some festive coffee syrups in tiny bottles so I bought them to try.  The last few Christmases I've made up a spice mix... thanks Jen and Jude... to add to my coffee. 

We had our engine serviced this afternoon so that's another job to tick off our list.  Next will be the boat safety.  It's due in March so we'll get it sorted while we are in the marina.  I had a cup of tea with Diane on nb Ferndale

Now we're stopped for the Winter we've decided we're going to go back to cooking properly rather than buying lazy meals.  We won't be stumbling upon Marks and Spencers so often now so that will help!  We've become hooked on a marinated salmon fillet they sell at Marks.  You're supposed to bake them in the oven but we just drizzle a few drops of olive oil over each side and cook them in a frying pan with a couple of lime halves.  The juice from the lime once it's sizzled in the pan for a short while makes the most delicious dressing for a salad and that's how we eat the salmon - on a bed of salad leaves.  It's our favourite lunch.

We decided to have a go at making a similar marinade ourselves so this week we bought a couple of plain salmon fillets and I cut out the ingredients label from the last M&S packet we bought.  The ingredient list said demerara sugar, soy sauce, ginger puree, honey, salt, coriander, garlic puree, red chillies and lime zest.  So yesterday we made up a marinade from these ingredients and cooked the salmon up for lunch. It was pretty good but we think next time we will plan ahead so it can marinade overnight.

Tonight we made the Asian Lamb and Potato Curry that I'd put on the blog last year.  It bubbled away nicely on the Acorn stove.  Free cooking fuel!  I'm glad I took the time to blog about some of our favourite recipes.  We'll be able to make use of them this Winter.