My earliest memory of Ossobuco is from when I was about 7 years old and having dinner at my best friend's house. She was also called Hanna, so I called her Yrkki just to avoid confusion, she didn't appreciate it much. I was very much in love with her morose and slightly hostile older brother who threatened to beat us up if we ever went into his (unhealthily clean) room or touched his vast collection of neatly stacked board games. But the romance never happened for us, even though I obediently never touched his board games. Me and his sister did sneak into his room and snooped whenever he was out, obviously. But he turned down all my marriage proposals in the most ungentlemanlike manner and with very little endeavour at civility (yes I have been watching Pride and Prejudice again) and I never learned why. I thought I was quite an eligible 7-year old with my good grades, blond plaits and cute dungarees.

So during one of many sleepovers we had this mouth watering and meltingly soft, wonderful meat dish. I think that time it might have been pork. I'm not sure if I ever had it again until I started cooking myself. The dish surprisingly never was part of my mother's very broad repertoire. Which makes me think I definitely must cook this for them the next time they come and visit.

My next rendezvouz with Ossobuco was inspired by my sister who was bragging about what brilliant Ossobuco she had made and how all good wives should make it for their husbands otherwise they were not such good wives. I already have the handicap of not having taken my husband's name, which puts me behind her in the good wife competition. Although of course it's not a competition and we are not at all competitive, but very supportive sisters. But just out of interest I immediately had to try if I could make an even more fantastic version.

So I have been making this both from lamb and veal quite a few times and everytime husband's reaction confirms that this is a great man dish. I was planning to maybe do this for Christmas or New Year, but couldn't find the cut, so the other day walking past the lovely butcher's C Lidgates in Holland Park I popped in and they had beautiful thick cuts of veal.

Here's another comforting wintry recipe, there will be lots of stews ahead, just warning y'all. (Too much Pioneer Woman lately, soz.) But this one is also quite elegant somehow. Probably the cider, adds elegance to any occasion.

You could make it even more elegant, by roasting the joint whole and then slicing and serving it with the sauce on the side, like my grandmother and mother, both formidable cooks and elegant ladies, would have done for a fine Sunday roast. But I felt a bit more edgy and modern, so I cut the roast in chunks. I may not be a crazy anarchist, and you will never find me living in a tent on Parliament Square with banderoles saying "Out with the old" or "One solution: Revolution", but at least I cut my joints the way I like.



I did feel a bit guilty chopping the beautiful topside roast.

Reindeer of course is impossible to come by in most parts of the world, but this recipe can be made with venison or other similar game meat. I don't know what that might be, kangaroo perhaps. Or even beef.

Reindeer is quite a unique taste, a lot stronger and more gamy than red deer or moose meat, but similarly dark and lean. It has a very elegant, strong taste that will work beautifully with just a simple salt and pepper seasoning, but it's nice to try something different. I love marinading meat anyway. It's one of my favourite things together with period drama and Christmas.

I did this recipe for husband and his boys the other weekend. I also did a Greek lamb stew in case the boys would be squeamish about eating reindeer. I think they have eaten reindeer at least in small doses before, but I wasn't sure if this would still be too much. I shouldn't have worried. The lamb was really nice as well, but the reindeer went down even better.

I think Finnish Lapland fingerling potatoes (Puikula PDO!!) or potato mash would be the best accompaniment to this dish. But I was a bit short on Lapland fingerling potatoes only available for the 42 minutes the Arctic summer lasts, and didn't feel like mash, so I made herby roast potatoes which were really nice.

Reindeer in creamy cider sauce

800g reindeer topside roast

Marinade:

1 cup apple cider
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
3 cloves of garlic

For the stew:
1 yellow onion, chopped
Game stock (or beef stock)
Fresh chopped parsley
Salt
Black pepper
Splash of single cream
2 heaped tbsp cream cheese (or sour cream)

Cut the meet in one inch pieces, mix all the marinade ingredients together and add the meat and the marinade to a plastic bag making sure the meat is covered all over with the marinade. Refrigerate overnight turning the bag a few times.

Take the meat out of the marinade and pat dry letting it come to room temperature. Keep the marinade.

Preheat oven to 190C.
Heat a lug of oil in a large ovenproof pan or dutch oven. Add the reindeer pieces in batches and fry on medium to high heat until nicely browned. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion and fry on low heat for few minutes. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper. Add the meat back into the pan and add the stock.

In a separate pan bring the marinade to boil, skim the foam from the top until you are left with a clear liquid. Sieve the liquid and add to the meat.

Cover and cook in the pre-heated oven for about 2 hours stirring every once in a while and adding water if necessary until the meat is soft. Add the cream and cream cheese, mix well. Cook for another few minutes and serve with your choice of healthy carbs and a fresh side salad.

My answer to the burning Catalan independence question is paella. We love paella in this household and this time I wanted to find a way to make it really healthy without compromising the taste. Not that paella is that unhealthy to begin with, but still wanted to see if I can pimp it up a bit with great ingredients and lots of veg and herbs for our fish Friday dinner last night.

This is what this awesome seafood bonanza looked like. And it tasted awesome.


And this is how husband repaid my lifesaving efforts the day after:

Fish and vegetables - what could be wrong with that, he says.

Actually I am all for giving yourself a break every once in a while. Or that's what I say to maintain a more relaxed and tolerant image. At least this time it was a very good plate of fish and chips. I know because on top of my tiny beetroot and goat cheese salad I had some space to try some of it.

This was the park cafe in St. James Park, but next time we will stay inside, just too many pigeons and pigeon poop everywhere it the outside area and kids feeding pigeons off the tables and wings flapping everywhere. Why their parents thought it is OK to feed pigeons in a restaurant I do not understand, but I understand that better than kicking pigeons which is another habit a lot of kids seem to have that their ignorant parents think is acceptable.

That's all I have on pigeons this time.


So this is what I did to the good old paella. To keep the glucose index lower than traditional paella for husbands diabetes I replaced the bomba rice with black venere rice, which is a whole grain and on top of it's better glucose profile apparently also has all kinds of antioxidants and other healthy stuff. It is the veritable blueberry of the rice family. And I upped the veg content to add lots of fibre to soak up some of the glucose and ensure slower release in the body.

I left out the chorizo which is full of salt and saturated fats, cooked the seafood by steaming it on top of the dish rather than frying it and of course used healthy rapeseed oil and was a bit careful with salt.

The end result was absolutely delicious, but the black rice has a different taste and texture, so it is a bit of a different experience from your traditional paella.

Black venere rice paella with lots of vegetables and seafood.

Serves 4-6

1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 fennel
1 bell pepper
Pinch of dried red pepper flakes (or fresh chilli)
1 tsp of turmeric
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
Pinch of saffron
Salt
Black pepper
1.5 cups of black rice
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 glass of white wine
Small bunch of parsley
Small bunch of dill
2.5-3 cups of low salt fish stock
Fresh or frozen peas
2 fillets of cod
2 fillets of redfish
250g mussels
250g squid rings
Fresh herbs or spring onion and lemon wedges

Chop all the vegetables and herbs. Heat oil in a paella pan. Add the onion and saute on low heat until the onion starts to soften, add the minced garlic and continue to cook. Add the spices and mix well. Add the chopped fennel and bell pepper.

Crank up the heat, add the rice and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon zest and juice and he wine. Let the wine evaporate a bit before adding the herbs and the stock. Reduce heat, cover and leave to simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the rice is almost done (check pack instructions). Stir every once in a while and add water if necessary

While the rice is cooking cut the fish fillets into quarters, season the fish and squid with salt and pepper and you can drizzle on a little rapeseed or olive oil and lemon juice. Clean the mussels well and throw away any that don't close when tapping the shell.

Once the rice is nearly done stir in the peas. Then add the seafood in the order of required cooking time pushing the fish pieces and mussels into the rice. I added the mussels and fish fillets first, let them steam on top of the paella with a lid on for 6-7 minutes until they were almost done, then added the squid for just 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle with some lemon juice, fresh herbs or chopped spring onion, add some lemon wedges on top and serve with a crisp salad.

I have to write about this. I have stayed quiet long enough. I can't keep it in anymore. You know "Something borrowed, something new"? The award winning (probs not) TV show where the brides bring a yellowed family heirloom wedding dress to be whitened and remade into an amazing modern unique piece and where they then choose between that and a new off-the-rack wedding dress. And they always have a sob story about that heirloom wedding dress that belonged to their mother who died saving orphaned puppies from being made into fur coats before the bride was born. Or it's a dress with lace made by greatgreatgrandnonna Giuseppina who lost her arms in a horse cart accident when she was a baby so had to make all that lace with her toes. And how much it would mean to them and their family if they wore the dress and then they all go for the something new and choose the same bloody strapless mermaid gown. It does my head in!


The other thing that has been stressing me out this week is being between notebooks - you know at work when your notebook is full and you need to start a new one and then lug them both around because so much irreplaceable wisdom has been doodled on the pages of the old notebook. Like this:





So it's been quite demanding. I'm sure you can see why I'm in desparate need of a holiday, so lucky then I am taking a few days off to visit parents and recharge.

I've been doing a bit of freezer clearing because my parents' annual moose has been delivered by the hunter dude and apparently about 150kg of meat is still after some initial distribution waiting in my parents several chest freezers. Coinicidentially (or not) I had this trip planned and will also coincidetally have quite a lot of space in my suitcase to bring back any random souveniers.

I decided to use my last portion of ground moose to make a wonderful warming soup for husband to heat while I'm gone. This was originally my mother's recipe or actually something she copied from a magazine ad for cream cheese.  I've modified it a bit and you can use any veg you have in hand. I think the key is ground meat, tomatoes and cream cheese. A super easy and tasty weeknight meal.

Ground moose or beef and vegetable soup with tomatoes and cream cheese (serves 4)

Oil
1 yellow onion
2 carrots
1 celery stalk
2-3 garlic cloves
2 potatoes
1 red or yellow bell pepper
300-400g ground beef (or venison)
400g can of tomatoes
1 can of water (or enough to cover everything)
beef stock pot (or a tbsp of game fond)
salt
black pepper
100 g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
fresh herbs

Chop all the veg and mince the garlic. Heat a tbsp of oil in a deep non-stick pan. Add the onion, celery and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes on medium heat, don't let the veg brown, although if that accidentally happens when you are simultaneously packing your suitcase, it won't ruin the soup.

Add the garlic and continue to saute for a few minutes. Add the ground beef and continue to cook breaking the meat down with a spatula until the meat is lightly browned. Add the potatoes, bell pepper, tomatoes, water, stock and seasoning. Bring to boil and leave to simmer on low heat until all the vegetables are cooked. Add water if necessary and add the cream cheese and mix well until cheese is incorporated. You can add some fresh herbs if you have any - I had some parsley ad basil.

Serve piping hot with fresh bread.

I was googling for recipes for this traditional Finnish almond caramel cake which I've known all my life. We call it Tosca cake, because we are very sophisticated like that. Operatically and classical musically. You know, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Pekka Kuusisto and Jean-Pekka Sibelius. No, not really. Just Jean.



Even our metal heads, many of them also called Pekka, are classically trained like the ubercool Apocalyptica who I am dragging poor husband to see next spring when they are playing Metallica on their cellos in Roayl Festival Hall.

But then, what did I see. Lots of links to Swedish Tosca cake. Did they have to steal this too. Was it not enough they took our meatballs and cinnamon buns. And Marimekko. Arja Saijonmaa we don't mind, they're welcome to her.

Anyway, we are used to this of course, the Swedes always getting the better deal, bluer eyes, longer legs and blonder hair, better pay and bigger cars, happier marriages and healthier coronary arteries, more internationally successful pop-bands, although some slightly less rock'n'roll than ours as helpfully demonstrated below.

The Herreys from Sweden - see what I'm saying - even their shoes are golden. Apparently diggiloodiggiley everyone is looking at them (a Finn's nightmare) as they dance with wings on their backs on the streets in their golden shoes while the heavens are opening and the whole world is smiling. I can't see that happenining to a Finn, much more likely to be hit in the head with an empty beer bottle and a dead pig while queueing for their antidepressants.

Apocalyptica - I quite like a man with long hair and a string instrument.And if someone's not wearing a shirt,  I'm not going to hold it against them. It's not like they have golden shoes and stuff.  BTW none of their songs contain words starting with "diggi".

Of course it's not a competition and we are brothers and all that and we do think the Swedes are awfully cute with their happy tunes and pastel colours.

So Tosca cake then, I wanted to make this for a charity bake sale at work. I don't always get my act together to participate, but this time it is in memory of a colleague, so I wanted to contribute. I made three of these Tosca cakes (I doubled the recipe and used slightly smaller pans than in the recipe. And I made a Finnish bundt with Christmas spices, I think it's high time we start to celebrate Christmas.

For both I made little tasting versions for husband because I don't want him to feel left out, and also I wanted him to be the judge as to whether they are good enough to burden my very lovely colleagues with. I don't want to eat a lot of cakes myself because I just bought a lovely pair of very tight trousers, which I very much would like to be able to wear without looking like a pig on two legs, which is what one of my brothers used to call me, the psychopath, so this is where a husband comes in handy. Not only does he eat the cakes, but also loves me as I am. I think he even loves me more if the pants are a bit on the tight side.

And I am not a thoroughly reliable baker, so it's important to include some quality assurance in the process, I remember producing a completely flat green buttermilk cake for my Dad's work bake sale once. I still don't understand how it could turn green. Not just  slighlty greenish but lurid fluorescent green.


The beauty of the Tosca cake is of course the gorgeous topping, which is added during the baking so it seeps into the cake and forms a fantastic shiny slightly crispy layer on top. The cake also freezes well. It was a huge success at the bake sale, all three gone in no time. The Christmas spiced bundt was fantastic too apparently.

I focused on the savoury stuff and got the biggest and baddest scotch egg I have ever had made by one of our lovely warehouse guys. It was made with a pickled egg inside, I love pickled eggs! The whole thing was the size of a large baby's head. Burb.

The egg inside is normal size so it gives you and idea of the amount of saausage surrounding it. Can you hear the egg screaming for help? Lemme out!

Finnish Tosca-cake (recipe from valio.fi)

As it's a Finnish recipe the measuments are metric.

Cake:
2 eggs
1 ½  dl sugar
2 ½  dl plain flour
1 ½  tsp baking powder
½  dl milk
150 g butter (melted)

Topping:
50 g butter
75 g flaked almonds
1 dl sugar
½  dl cream
1 tbsp plain flour

Butter a 22 cm loose base cake tin and cover the base with round piece of baking sheet.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they form a light foam. Mix the flour with baking powder, and mix the milk and melted butter and pour both in while lightly continuing to whisk
Pour into the cake tin. Bake in 175C for 25 minutes.

Add all the topping ingredients in a saucepan. Mix and let bubble slowly until the mix thickens a little. Take the cake from the oven and spread the topping on the cake.  Continue to bake in 200C for 10 minutes until the top is nice and light brown.

This very easy, healthy and absolutely delicious turkey taco soup was inspired by a lunch we had on the last day of our American road trip in the little San Francisco bay town Sausalito after thoroughly photographing the Golden Gate and ourselves from all angles and a drive around the Marin Headlands. Husband had had quite enough of my driving by then, so I was able to have a lovely fresh margarita. With my tequila I had a chicken taco soup which was really lovely with lots of vegetables, shredded chicken and those fantastic Cal-Mex flavours.

Our road trip was quite brilliant, but it was the first holiday of that kind for us so there were some hairy moments useful learnings that I thought I’d share so that anyone planning a similar adventure can avoid some of the pitfalls, disappointments and moments of tension we experienced.

10 top tips for an American road trip

1. Be aware of mobility incompatibilities between travelling companions, i.e if you are married to the world’s slowest moving particle and you’re of slightly impatient constitution, you might want to consider other holidaying formats. But whatever you do, do not rush him, because he will just shut down and pull into his shell much like the tortoise whose speed he successfully emulates and you will definitely not make it to the pool in your new fake tan at the swanky Las Vegas Casino.
2. If you agree with your travelling companions to take a hop-on hop-off open-top bus tour, make sure travelling companions understand that like the name suggests this includes open-top busses and hopping on and hopping off before you spend $200 on the tickets. 
3. If you are planning to visit Grand Canyon make sure the travelling companions know it is not Monument Valley or Antelope slot canyon, but just a “hole in the ground” to avoid disappointment amongst those of the group who clearly must have seen some bloody impressive holes in the ground not to be impressed by this one. 
4. If you get lost in Mojave desert… Actually, don’t get lost in Mojave desert. But if you do get lost in the mind blowingly large Mojave Desert, blame it on the husband for extra fun. When you are literally dying of starvation and husband is considering eating his own children and you finally find a grumpy, wizened man and you think he says 18 miles to next stop with food, it's actually 80. Miles.  
5. Steel yourself to the fact that public parking costs $20 pretty much anywhere in LA and don’t do a prolonged bitch about it every time to the parking attendants and your wife, because surprisingly none of them gives a shit. They all want to be on the beach photographing their toes for social media rather than in a garage discussing the unfairness of parking policies in large cities.
6. The squirrels up at Big Sur are really tame and cute and don't mind a bit of chilli in their pistachios.
7. Don't lock your children in the car at 40C temperatures. American cars have some kind of annoying alarm system which will set the horn blowing when the children start to bang on the doors from the inside. Very embarrassing.
8. Yucca Valley sounds exciting, but is not. Even the town residents with defeated looks on their melancholy faces admitted: “We’re a pretty boring town”.
9. If you want to walk from Fisherman's wharf to Golden Gate, take into account that the distance is about 94 miles.
10. Americans may occasionally come and talk to you even if you don't know them. They may even speak to you in a lift, sorry elevator. One extreme older lady came knocking at our car window to ask HOWDEEDOO, HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR SANTA FE? At first I thought it was the throat-biting and wall-climbing Gladys from the horror film Legion. But it wasn't. It was just someone who was thinking of buying a Hyundai Santa Fe and wanted to know what we thought of the car. So don't be frightened. All this effervescence is hard for us reserved Northern Europeans, but they are not dangerous or mentally ill. It must have to do with their fearless pioneering past.

This little feller has more balls than husband when it comes to spicy food

It's a magnificent hole in the ground but they really should build a gondola thingy to get you to the bottom.

Mojave Desert is a vast area with lots of sand and Joshua Trees and very little food or fuel

There are people with slight obsession with this bridge and  they seem to need to photograph it from all possible angles. Repeatedly saying to them "It's just a bridge" is not going to make any difference so you might as well just go with it.

Easy turkey taco soup (server 4-6)

Oil
400g boneless turkey breast cut into strips
Salt
Pepper
1 red onion
2 small carrots

Enjoy with a bottle of Corona or a Margarita.

This is an interesting little potato salad recipe. There are lots of different ways to make a delicious one. I like a simple warm new potato salad with just some dressing, spring onion and a sprinkling of dill and feta. This one's a bit more complicated as potato salads go. So not that complicated. But I had never thought of putting artichoke hearts in a potato salad until my blinkered eyes were opened by this blog post.

I love potatoes, that’s no secret. I even sang a potato song in the Finnish Liberal People’s Party Christmas do when I was about 5. My father the Liberal is nowadays more of a corservative stickler of dinosaurian proportions than a beacon of progress or a radical reformist, but his liberalism must be seen against the backdrop of 1970s Cold War as an enlightened man's fight against the Finlandization of the Finnish govenment marionetted by the Soviets. (Apologies for the unsolicited political tirade in the middle of an innocent potato post.) He was briefly active in local politics and as a dutiful politician’s daughter and a budding anti-Soviet campaigner I threw my talents onto the altar of freedom. The song went like this (sorry about the lack of rhyming in the translation, I just thought it might be a bit of a waste of effort as it's never going to be Shakespeare exactly, rhymes or no rhymes):

Potatoes are round
Potatoes are oval
Potatoes are the right and proper food.
When you put the potato in your mouth
It starts its long journey
Belly is the best place for it, innit?
Eating potatoes
Will grow our strengh
The little potato will help us grow big!
Hip hip hurrah, potato!

There was also a spellbinding hand choreography to go with it – you can check it here. (I did it a lot more athletically and precisely than this clueless bunch of potatoes. Although even I can see they are quite cute in their weird potato hats. I was also cute, no weird hat though, but a purple two-piece trouser suite!)

That was the height of my career both in politics and as a solo singer. I did go on to study classical singing and a less root veg related song repertoire in my teens for a few years until the teacher told me that my vocal cords would need surgical intervention. Encouraging.

New potato and artichoke salad (serves 4 as a side)

I had a bit of a mustard disaster but at least got rid of any unnessessary nasal hair. Note to anyone who has run out of Dijon mustard and wants to substitute: English mustard IS a lot hotter than Dijon. After some dilution action all was fine in the end.
500g new potatoes
Bunch of spring onion (original recipe says pickled onions)
Jar of marinated artichoke hearts in oil
20 green or black olives
Handful of capers (optional, but will add a nice zing particularly if not using pickled onions)
1/3 - 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
2 tbsp crème fraiche (optional)
1 tbsp of Dijon mustard
Generous handful of chopped fresh parsley and fresh chives
Salt
Pepper

Wash the potatoes and cook them in boiling salted water until they are just done. Use new potatoes with very thin skin, so there is no need to peel them.

While potatoes are cooking chop the spring onions and drain and chop the artichokes. You can also halve or slice the olives.

Prepare the dressing by mixing the mayonnaise, mustard, herbs and seasoning. Check the taste and adjust. I also added a couple of spoons of crème fraiche because I made the salad ahead and new that the potatoes would soak some of the dressing.

When the potatoes are done (fork goes in easily, but they are not breaking yet) cut them into whatever size you like and mix everything together. You can serve immediately while the potatoes are still warm or let it sit for a few hours in the fridge and serve cold.

Here's another easy, healthy weekday dinner. We were good boys and girls with husband today, he went to gym and I went for a run up and down the hills of Ealing. I made this sound maybe a bit like an Alpine ultra-marathon which husband was slightly dubious about not being able to think of any particularly steep hills around our area. Which is because he drives everywhere. But really it is quite hilly or does he think the streets are called Highview, Edgehill or Mount Avenue for nothing. What? No, they are called so, because they are designed for particularly fearless and hardy runners like me with legs and wills of iron.

Not the type who once they get to the top of the hill mountain stop there pretending they are looking at their runner's app  on the smart phone strapped to their arm for a quick check on distance / pace / vitals or something, but really are just stopping because otherwise they might actually die.

Afterwards while husband was showering I put together this quick soup. He's a thorough and slow showerer so usually that's not such a limiting factor in recipe choices, could manage a roast dinner in the time, but this soup is quite a favourite with us anyway. I modify it in many ways depending on what veg I have, but the four key ingredients that remain are chicken, dill, leak and lemon. White wine goes really well of course, but I omitted it today not for any particular health purpose, but actually just forgot.

Chicken, leak, dill and lemon soup (serves 4)

Oil
1 leek
4-5 of spring onions
Juice and zest of half a lemon
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill (I added in some parsley as well)
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
500g chicken (skinless and boneless thigh or breast)
1 cup of chicken stock
1/2 - 1 cup water
salt
1 level tsp lemon pepper
1 large courgette

Excellent Sunday - I was testing my new walking shoes. We did a 5k test walk yesterday, and today a 10k walk around the sunny Ealing stopping at the shops in Ealing Broadway on the way home. I found some much needed work attire. I used to be quite a keen shopper, but lately the focus has not really been there. I found two pairs of heels, nude and black, same style. I couldn't decide which colour to get, so I got both. They were quite cheap. And 3 really nice tops for work and some bits and pieces (camis, t-shirts etc). Oh, and the obligatory scarf. I love scarfs. I think my neck has become so accustomed to scarfs that I feel cold and vulnerable without one. Which is fab because once my neck becomes too wrinkly to see daylight it doesn't really matter because it never would anyway.

Back home I made husband a big pot of creamy salmon and cod chowder to keep him fed and warm while I'm gone for Monday and Tuesday in a meeting somewhere near Coventry in a place called Coombe Abbey. It looks lovely and I'll take my running gear in case there is time after the meeting for a quick run in fresh country air. It makes me think of Combe Magna and Marianne and Willoughby and the wonderful Colonel Brandon. Maybe it will start raining and I'll faint daintily while running on the moor (not sure if there is a moor there) and I'm not sweaty at all in my running pants but fresh and fragrant and Alan Rickman who's obviously not dead comes and sweeps me on his arms and so on.

I love Jane Austen (the actual books also, not just the films and Alan Rickman and Colin Firth). We watched the Jane Austen Book Club this weekend and husband pronounced it was the most boring film ever. Whenever something bad happened to someone he suspected someone else or FBI or CIA and I was trying to explain it's not that kind of a film, there is no FBI or CIA or MI6 there and the book clubbers aren't really probably trying to kill each other. I of course loved it.

Then husband watched the Hateful Eight, which I couldn't stomach. I hate Quentin Tarantino films. I think he must be mentally ill. So it looks like even if mostly dear husband and I have but one mind and one way of thinking it doesn't seem to stretch to motion picture arts.

I just realised this soup is very close to the traditional Finnish salmon soup which I make quite often, just more finely cut and mushy of texture. But ingredient and flavour wise very close. Yummy and comforting.

Salmon and cod chowder (serves 4)

Oil
1 leek
1 yellow onion
500 g potatoes
2 cups of fish stock
1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsp fresh chopped dill
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
zest and juice of a lemon
100g garden peas
140g can of corn
salt
lemon pepper
250g salmon
250g cod
2 heaped TBSP of creme fraiche

Debone your fish and remove any skin. Cube the fish and sprinkle with salt. Zest your lemon keeping the zest to one side. Juice the lemon and pour the juice on top of the fish.

Wash the leak. Chop the leak and onion. Peel potatoes and cut to small cubes. Heat oil in a pan. Add the leak and onion and sauté on medium heat until soft. Add the potatoes and continue cooking for a few minutes. Add the fish stock. Cover and cook on low to medium heat until potatoes are soft.

Add the milk and mash some of the soup with a potato masher, or you can use a hand blender. Leave about half of the soup unmashed. Add the herbs, lemon zest, corn and peas. Season with salt and lemon pepper. Cook for a few minutes and add the fish. Cook for a minute or two on gentle heat until the fish is done. Blend in the creme fraiche, check seasoning, sprinkle with fresh dill and serve with fresh bread.

Midweek has become a bit of a soup time for us. It’s my feeble try to support husband in his quest for a flatter tummy. I think a real man has a bit of a tummy that's lovely and comforting to hug, none of that silly six pack business. But he has ordered me not to give him lots of food late in the evening and since he rarely orders me around (wise man), I am trying to obey.

It's hard though because he is perfect feeding material. He loves his (my) food and is willing to break his own rules at the tiniest suggestion of a little plate of something homemade. If I bring him a small portion, he asks if I think he is a girl. Which of course I don't and rush to bring him more food.

Although he does use a lot of moisturiser. LOL.

But I must try to restrain myself. My own derriere could do with a bit of streamlining as well to be completely honest.

That brings me of something I have meant to share as great advice for husbands all over the world: Do no ask your wife why her thighs are bumpy. Just don't.

Unless you want to tell your wife she looks a bit too skinny, don't tell her anything weight related. Don't tell you like a bit of curve or that no one likes a bone bag. And that you like her just the way she is. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! It's about your wife and her inability to eat banoffee pie all day and be effortlessly skinny like Gwyneth Paltrow or Keira bloody Knightley.

Anyways,  just theoretically sharing some free marital advice there.

So here’s a healthy, but really tasty mushroom soup. It is super mushroomy particularly because I added some chanterelle fond and truffle oil. You can do without if you are after a milder mushroom taste. And if you have no issue with bulging bellies and rubenesque hips chuck in some more cream for God's sakes. Or sneak in some Stilton. Or goat cheese. Or both.

Mushroom soup with thyme and sour cream

1 large (or two small) yellow onions
600g mushrooms (I had brown and white chestnut)
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Salt
Black pepper
1 chicken stock pot (or veggie for veggies)
1-2 tbsp chanterelle fond (optional)
850 ml  water
1/2 tsp truffle oil
2-3 heaped tbsp of sour cream

Chop the onion roughly. Slice the mushroom and chop the herbs.

Heat oil in a non-stick deep lidded sauce pan. Add the onion, mushrooms, herbs and some salt (be careful with salt at this stage if you are going to use fond) and pepper. Cook gently until onions and mushroom are soft. Remove about a half cup of the mushroom at this stage and set aside.

Add the chicken stock pot, water and fond if using and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Blend with a hand blender until smooth, add water if the soup is too thick.

Add the truffle oil and sour cream. Check seasoning. Mix some of the preserved mushrooms into the soup, ladle into bowls and decorate with the rest of the preserved mushrooms and some fresh chopped parsley.

Here's a quick and super delicious chicken recipe that I made up last night. It's not exactly health food with the amount of cream and parmesan, but not as bad a a takeaway or a stop at a junk food joint which might have been an easy choice last night after our afternoon cinema trip.

Eventually we got home quite late. I didn't realise everyone and their mother would be going to cinema on Easter Sunday, but of course they were because the shops are not open and the weather is shite, so what else are you supposed to do. Craft farm animals out of lichen and pine cones?

So the viewing we'd aimed for at the local cinema was sold out apart from a couple of sad lonely seats in the front row which we or rather I (Husband and kids are unable to make these kinds of decisions, they would probably still be hovering in that queue trying to decide what to do) turned down because I remembered that the same film was on in an other cinema just around the corner starting in 20 minutes. Well it wasn't, and after a little discussion with the ticket guy about misleading websites and tapping on my phone to find the misleading website while husband was trying to tell me I didn't always have to try to prove I was right. What's that supposed to mean? Does he not know me at all? Of course I have to.

Anyway deciding to be magnanimous (found the website and it didn't have wrong info, must have checked another cinema) I decided to abandon the argument and look for and found another theatre  we could get to in time for the start.

Still all of this took some time so we were all simultaneously feeling slighty hungry and sick with all the popcorn and Coke, when we finally got home after London had fallen and the president of the United States had once again been saved by a Scotsman, God bless America, Commonwealth and Scotland, and Morgan Freeman, he really should run for president, the times he's played president and vice president.

So okey, I didn't completely come up with the recipe. I had read about this creamy sun-dried tomato chicken sauce earlier and then just kind of recreated it based on what I remembered was in it. No time for checking the recipe, just chop chop chop and fry and cook and bish bash bosh on the table.

Chicken and sundered tomato cream pasta sauce (serves 6)

Oil
1-1.2 kg skinless and boneless chicken thigh (or any other part you like to use)
1 small yellow onion
3 spring onions
2 garlic cloves
1 red pepper
12 sundried tomatoes in oil
red pepper flakes
1 bunch of fresh basil
1 tsp of dried (or 1tbsp fresh) oregano
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup of cream (I had single, but go double if you dare)
1/2 cup of parmesan
(1-2 tbsp butter 1-2 tbsp flour - optional for Beurre Manie)

Cut the chicken thighs into two or if they are big into three. You can leave them whole if you like the look better that way, but cutting them makes them cook quicker. Season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large pan and add the chicken pieces, you can do this in batches if you have time and your pan is not big enough. Once chicken is nice and brown all over (doesn't need to be cooked through at this stage) remove to a plate.

Chop the onion, red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Mince the garlic. Add the onions to the pan and sauté for a few minutes, add the garlic, red pepper and sun-dried tomatoes and continue cooking for a few minutes. Add the red pepper flakes, basil, chicken stock, cream and parmesan. Leave to cook on low heat. If your sauce looks thin you can either thicken if with plain flour or corn flour mixed to cold water before adding, or make a beurre manie by mixing equal amounts of soft butter and flour together and add to the sauce.

Leave to cook on low heat until the chicken is done - check the seasoning and serve with rice, potatoes or pasta of your choice and a fresh green salad.

My main event for Easter is always a slow cooked leg of lamb. This year we did this on Saturday, because we were going to be out on Sunday and I don't want to leave the lamb in the oven while we are out. I know you are supposed to pop the leg in the oven, then put on a colourful jumper and find some dogs from somewhere and go frolic on a frosty meadow with a large family to come back all rosy cheeked a few hours later to feast with those same people and dogs. I don't watch Jamie Oliver for nothing.

But I can't do it, I don't have any colourful jumpers or dogs, my small family would not frolic, Husband might, but the two teenagers would just slouch around the meadow fiddling with their smartphones looking bored and complaining because there was no WiFi. But mainly I just don't trust the lamb not to catch fire or do something else catastrophic on it's own. So I only make it on the days I am staying home or possibly just quickly popping in the corner shop.


I made my 4-7 hour leg of lamb ( 6 hours this time) with garlic, mint and rosemary. It was soft enough to serve with a spoon and maybe the best lamb I have had in my life. I served it with herb and garlic roast potatoes, a fresh minty chickpea, pomeganate and feta salad and garlic ciabatta. After a little break we finished the meal off with tea, my Easter cake, a Victoria sponge with vanilla icing and Daim chocolate chip cookies.

Chickpea and herb salad with feta and pomegranate

This is a lovely fresh and a bit different salad to serve as a side to any dish, but goes particularly well with lamb. The secret is to marinade the chickpeas ahead of time, so they soak all the flavours of the vinaigrette and herbs.


1 cup chickpeas (either soaked and boiled or canned)
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 garlic clove
3 spring onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1/3 - 1/2 cucumber
75g salad leaves (rocket, spinach etc)
Handful of crumbled feta (100g)
Seeds of half a pomegranate

Drain the chickpeas and put them in a bowl. Add the zest and juice of a lemon, a minced garlic clove, the chopped spring onions and herbs, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and leave to marinade for an hour or two,

Slice or halve the cherry tomatoes, cube the cucumber and mix with the salad leaves. Pour on top the chickpeas and mix so that the marinade also flavours the salad vegetables. Decorate with the pomegranate seeds and feta and toss lightly.

Thank God for Easter. It comes at the perfect time every year. Just when you're completely fed up with the spring / summer not arriving ever and having not seen the sun for 6 months, you get this one glorious weekend of colourful flowers, shiny chocolates and two extra days off work. Weather's still as shit as ever or often even worse, but you just unwrap another chocolate egg and laugh at the face of the rain and the wind.

For me this year it couldn't have come at a better time. The product that has consumed my life for the last couple of months is launched and it all went well apart from a couple of misses which were fixed last minute and which no one ever needs to find out about.

Thursday was an exciting day at work. The local BBC crew came to do a piece about the launch. Getting ready for work in the morning I asked husband if I looked nice. He slapped me on the bum (he's quite excited that I have put on some weight during the last couple of months not having enough time to exercise, so he might not have seen the wife a lot but when he has, there has been more of her to see) and said that I did look nice and maybe they'd give me my own show and I would become famous. I told him that it was somewhat unlikely and that he shouldn't hold his breath.

So the BBC guy turned up and did a little interview. Then one of our finance colleagues (bribed with chocolate) went to bed using the new product. She doesn't actually need a lot of persuading, she's our go-to person in these situations, an unfulfilled actress stuck in accounts receivable. Last time we did some filming we also had one of our warehouse lads in bed with her. We manufacture medical devices for sleep disordered breathing not sex toys. Just to clarify.

They then wanted to shoot some footage in the warehouse and all of a sudden it all went a bit off the rails. The BBC dude saw all the local football club paraphernalia in the warehouse. You can't not see it. It's everywhere, stickers on the trolleys and tape guns, newspaper clippings on the walls, one of the guys has a motorcycle helmet in the team design, there are tea mugs, scarfs, tattoos, you name it. Apparently the BBC guy had been asked to do a feature on crazy local football fans. Why, I do not know, but I'm glad our licence money goes to such good use. So anyway in no time the warehouse guys were all queuing to be interviewed in front of the wall covered with newspaper cuts about this 2nd league team which I'd never even heard about.

Soon they were telephoning around the building to find a fan of an other team to bring more "depth" to the piece and found a volunteer Swindon fan in customer services who came down to help out. He offered to put on his mankini, you know, Borat style. He had a choice of a pink or a leopard print one, as you do. We said no, please don't. Ever. He was then interviewed and also entered a bit of a staged banter session with the other guys over who's team was better. Because that's what men do. Apparently preferably in mankinis.

Me and my media trained colleague watched in awe as these guys completely stole our show and owned the camera as if that was all they'd ever done. We then tried to gently steer the budding Spielberg back to his original mission to film us and our amazing new innovation.

A fun and intense week, so now I'm happy in my kitchen for the rest of the week with lots of lovely Easter cooking planned. I started Easter prep with a batch of biscuits. Husband's kids are spending the weekend with us, so I can't be an evil step-mum and not bake biscuits for them. After all I promised that on my speech on our Wedding day. Dad remembers this and sent me some of mum's trusted biscuit recipes with a note saying "Bake biscuits for boys. Dad" He's a man on few words, but usually they are wise.

So I made these Daim biscuits. You know Daim, the fantastic Swedish crunchy butter and almond caramel covered with milk chocolate. You can buy it in most bigger supermarkets and definitely in IKEA, Scandinavian Kitchen and Ocado.

My biscuits look different from what mum used to make, I think I might have been a bit tight-fisted with my flour and oats. Anyway these are delish and I know it won't take long for the kids to eat through the batch.

Daim chocolate chip cookies (makes about 30 large ones)

200 g butter (room temperature)
200 ml sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tl vanilla paste or extract
400 ml flour
150 ml rolled oats (or 100 ml oat bran)
2 tsp baking powder
200-250 g Daim pieces (you can use the pieces and in the picture or chop a couple of bars)

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Mix the butter and sugar well until light. Add the egg, golden syrup and vanilla and mix well. Mix all the rest of the ingredients together and add to the dough. Blend until everything is incorporated. Take a generous tablespoon of the mix and form into a ball, then flatten it and place on a baking tray covered with non-stick grease-proof paper. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

The weekend started on Saturday morning with some light plumbing duty at the back garden. Two of the gutter drains were blocked and the water was overflowing to the stone patio. I also noticed the shed back wall had collapsed, but I decided to save that piece of information for a better day.

Husband is always in charge in these situations. On goes the kettle (?) and a pair of plastic gloves left over from his beard colouring kit. I assist by handing him tools, fetching things, obviously looking decorative and giving valuable advice which is always gratefully received and never does he tell me to go back in the house with my advice and close the door behind me.