“Hey mambo, mambo Italiano hey, hey mambo mambo Italiano
Go go go you mixed up Siciliano
All you Calabrese do the mambo like-a crazy”

• Calimari with Tomatoes and Wine
• Woodsman’s Chicken
• Herb Frittata with Goat’s Curd
• Noodles with Zucchini Blossoms and Saffron Sauce
• No Knead Spelt Pizza with Soppressata and Potatoes
• Pasta Strips with Slow Cooked Goat Sauce

So, this is proving a pretty solid choice.  Yay me!  Well, really yay Silvia!  But you know, I write a blog and it doesn’t get much more totally self obsessed than that so I guess yay me is valid.

 Six Week Challenges – Update

I am still  on my 6 weeks of no alcohol although I did take last weekend off!  Saturday night we were having lobster – OH. MY. WORD.  So good!!!!  And there was no way on God’s green earth that I was not having a glass of sparkling with that!  And Sunday we went out for a Valentine’s Day dinner to our favourite local Greek restaurant.  And again – it would have been churlish not to have a glass of vino!  But on the whole it is going well . I haven’t really missed it.  I also haven’t felt many of the supposed benefits – weight loss, sleeping better, greater productivity etc.

I have been struggling with the daily meditation.  I don’t think I have found the perfect time to do it.  In the mornings I am usually too rushed and if i try to do it at night I fall asleep.  Two places it did feel “right” were one day I did it as soon as I got home from work so it was a bit of a chance to decompress.  The other was one morning when I had parked m car at the station, i just stayed in it and did my ten minutes there.

My new one, started February 15th is a flexibility challenge.  Every day  I will do a short workout designed to improve my flexibility.  I am using the program from Fitivity.  I have only done a couple  so far and they have been fine but a bit boring.  I’m sure they will get more challenging as I progress!

I have been thinking of more that I can do over the next few weeks /months:

• No processed food
• No sugar
• Yoga everyday
• No Candy crush
• Journalling everyday

Are all on the list.

Reading

Room – Emma Donoghue

I have had this book on my To Be Read shelf for YEARS.  And finally now I have taken the plunge and have started it – simply because I want to have read it before I see the film.  I am probably 2/3 of the way through and I think it is very well written.  There are certain parts that I have found quite confronting and other parts that have annoyed me but once I start reading it I find it difficult to put down.  I am still having some problems with starting picking it up and starting it each day though…..

The Apologist – Jay Rayner

This is my current audiobook.  Marc Bassett is a merciless restaurant critic.  One day a chef commits suicide by roasting himself in his bread oven,  leaving Bassett’s review taped to the outside.  And so begins his career as the apologist.

I am not very far along with this but I am enjoying it so far.

Watching

My Kitchen Rules

I can’t help myself. I am utterly addicted to this.  And the commentary on Flawless Vision.

Listening

I Know What You’ll Read This Summer Podcast.

I have only listened to one episode of this but they hated Girl on The Train almost as much as I did so it’s definitely worth another listen.

Room 101

From time to time I’ve decided to list a few pet peeves on here.  Things that I would like to see banished to Room 101.  Starting with:

Gluten Free Everything

When you label your bread, cakes and cookies gluten free you are doing a good service for those people who cannot tolerate gluten.  When you label products that would never have contained gluten in  a pink fit “Gluten Free” you are indulging in a cynical marketing ploy.  STOP IT.  I swear I saw water labelled gluten free recently.  It made me want to break things.

Quinoa

Has no one else noticed how bad this smells as it is cooking.  I made some the other day and the smell of it made me gag.  I”m never cooking it again.

Cooked.com

I took out an annual subscription for cooked.com.  This, for those of you who may not have heard of it is kind of like a netflix for cookbooks.  Does anyone else have one of these?  Do you find it useful?  how long have you had it.  Does it help you to choose which cookbooks to buy or do you not buy them anymore?  I have not actually cooked anything from the site yet.  I guess I’d better start!  Stay tuned!

Kitchen Nightmares

I had one kitchen nightmare this week.  I was all set to make Vitello Tonnato for bookclub only it was a new style “healthy” VT.  So, instead of that gorgeous tuna mayonnaise, my tonnato was made out of tofu, anchovies and parmesan cheese.  And it was rank!  I have never been one to complain about the smell of parmesan cheese.  I remember even in primary school when people would say “Yuck, it smells like sick”, I always thought they were nuts.  This abomination of a tonnato not only smelt like but tasted like vomit.  It was so bad I couldn’t even give it to the dogs.

Now though, I am craving a proper  old school Italiano Vitello Tonnato.  It’s a shame Silvia’s book does not have a recipe.  However, The A-Z of Cooking does.  There will be 1970’s Vitello Tonnato on here very soon.  I just have to allow the memory of the horror that was that tofu tonnato to subside a little!

What Silvia’s book does have is this recipe for Pizza Rustica con Bietola.  I am obsessed by those words.  I keep repeating them in an increasingly bad Italian accent!  If you would also like to become obsessed with this lovely tart here is the recipe:

This week I am looking forward to cooking…nothing. Because I have been really busy and not done a single bit of menu planning.  However, we have a new Tasty Reads book so I might crack this open and give something a whirl.

Oh and this is is my new favourite you-tube.  I have watched it about a million times since I found it.

What was the best thing you’ve made this week?  What are you looking forward to cooking?  Have you read anything interesting? I would love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful week!

Happy cooking.