Week of Food!

Last Wednesday (2nd January), when Ben went back to work and I still had a few days before my placement started up again, I decided that I would have a week of experimenting with food. 

It's been going quite well, this whole not-starving-myself-or-my-husband thing. Before this week we hadn't had a single meal that was inedible (except the dropped pizzas... ok, so we'd had a single meal that was inedible...). 

Unfortunately this week (in which I was going to be a total genius and make food fit for a King) pushed that total up to two. But before I'm judged harshly for this I want a chance to explain myself. So here goes: Harriet's 'Week of Food'. 

Monday. The previously mentioned pasta with homemade parsley and hazelnut pesto. A basic but interesting experiment using our juicer device from the hand-mixer we have. A roaring success. 

Harriet 1 : Food 0 

Tuesday. Chicken and Chorizo Paella as pictured above. It ended up more like a risotto than a paella as I just didn't have the patience to wait until it had reduced sufficiently. I had a hungry husband floating around the kitchen drawn in by the sights and smells. Who could blame him? I suppose really this has to be a draw... it tasted good but I 'scored an own goal' (Ben's going to be impressed by the football reference) due to my impatience. 

Harriet 2 : Food 1

Wednesday. I feel like I have to justify this one. I was experimenting with things that are quick and easy to do as well as things that actually constitute a good meal. Would you believe it? My husband is actually in love with this dish and has mentioned it about five-million times since last Wednesday. It's kind of embarrassing actually. It's just sausage and leek hash. The only thing that I can think is that Ben's mother obviously never fed him such garbage so it's a guilty luxury like that box of chicken nuggets you just couldn't resist dropping into McDonald's for on the way home... (cough*neverdonethat*cough). Ben loves anything with sausages so I have a feeling we'll be eating this again. Though, for my sake, less often than he'd like! 

Harriet 3 : Food 1

Thursday. We fed the missionaries on Thursday and I was pretty stressed about it. When people come over it's always nice to have a comfortable go-to meal. I usually go for something like lasagne: hearty, I can make decent portions and everyone likes it. Instead I made Beef Paprikash - a goulash-type thing. It actually worked really well as I just put a load of tortilla chips on the table to mop up the sauce (we had rice too). It was really easy to make. 100% success. 

Harriet 4 : Food 1

Friday. That fateful day. It was all going so very well up until this point. My downfall: Chipotle Chicken and black bean chilli. Now, Ben is very good and understanding when I make mess-ups with anything. I have a theory that when patience was being given out we got there late and they only had one portion left. Obviously, I stood aside and let him take it. I'm such a good person. Anyway, so when we were eating this meal he made all sorts of comments about how, actually, it tasted very good. It probably did... in the way that a hedgehog might taste very good but that doesn't make it any easier to eat it. I usually brave the curry runny-nose situation in order to eat something I think is particularly tasty but unfortunately this meal broke me. I kept mixing in more and more soured cream in a vain attempt to make it palatable. We managed enough mouthfuls to not starve and then we had to abandon it. 

Harriet 4 : Food 2 

Saturday. Wisely, I returned to the simple stuff involving sausages. Nothing could be more of a retreat than eating Bangers and Beans in a pan. 

Sunday. Ultimate retreat. Eat at Mummy's house. 

HOWEVER!! 

This week I have cooked two dishes that worked out beautifully. One, we fed to the missionaries on Thursday and is probably my favourite meal that I have ever dished up! It was Creamy tarragon chicken bake and though it took some stress to cook something we'd not cooked before for company, it was well worth it and even looked great (my weakest point is making food look good!) ... the second was Ben's preference: Chicken and Broccoli pasta bake. 

I now have a food folder and it's rapidly expanding (though admittedly the majority of things are from BBC good food) - it's great! I can't even tell you how excited I am about it. This week, I even made cookies! 

Thanks to everyone who is encouraging me and giving me the means by which to accomplish my goals! :)

I'm turning into a Domestic Goddess after all!