I adore Lasagne. I know you must get tired of me saying that I adore things, but what can I say?  I put my hand up!  I am a foodie through and through and I like and adore lots of things!




When I moved over here I got to experience a more authentically Italian type of lasagne . . .  one layered with sauce (meat or otherwise), cheese and a rich bechamel sauce. Seriously tasty.


This vesion here today is a totally vegetarian version, consisting of a delicious tomato sauce, a rich bechamel, all layered with thawed frozen leaf spinach and cheese.  Do make sure you squeeze as much water from the spinach as you can so you don't water down your lasagne.


I call it Italian Flag Lasagne because it contains all the colours of the Italian Flag.  White, red and green!  The tomato sauce is a simple one.  Use a good Italian tomato for the best flavour.  There is no meat in this sauce, so you want to use a tomato that will really shine!


I also like to use full fat milk for the bechamel.  It adds a special depth of richness and flavour. This is lasagne and its supposed to be a treat.  You can use whatever cheese you want, but I always use Parmesan and Mozzarella, and today I added feta and some sharp cheddar.  The feta because it needed using up and the cheddar for the flavour. I find while it has great melting properties, Mozzarella doesn't really have much flavour.  But that's just me.  You may think something entirely different!

(1 cube is rougly the size of 2 ice cubes)
12 ounces of fresh lasagne sheets
85g freshly grated Parmesan Cheese (3 ounces)
170g grated mozarella or a mixture of mozarella, cheddar, fontina, etc. (6 ounces)
(In other words which cheese you are in the mood to eat, or what you have on hand)
butter to dot or additional Parmesan to sprinkle (optional)


For the sauce, place the oil in a saucepan and heat it til fairly warm.  Add the garlic and cook until it becomes quite fragrant.  Add the tomatoes and a good pinch of salt.  Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Cook for about 20 minutes or so until it resembled a sauce.  Add the basil and 1 cup of hot water towards the end of the cooking time.  Puree until smooth with a stick blender, or very carefully in a regular blender.  (You can either leave the garlic in, or remove it as you wish.)  Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt and some pepper if required.

To make the bechamel, melt the butter in a saucepan and then whisk in the flour.  Cook for several minutes over low heat and then slowly whisk in the warm milk.  Cook and stir until the sauce thickens and is smooth.  Season with salt, pepper and a bit of freshly grated nutmeg to taste.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes or so on low heat, until you have a very thick and smooth sauce.  Set aside.

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F.  Butter a deep 8 1/2 by 12 inch baking dish.  Drizzle the bottom with some of the bechamel.  Put a slightly overlapping layer of the lasagne sheets over the bechamel.  Dollop with some of the tomato sauce, spreading it out.  Dollop another two hefty spoonfuls of bechamel over top and then a layer of the cheeses. Add a layer of the spinach.  Add another layer of lasagne, and then repeat with the tomato, bechamel, cheese and spinach as before, and then again, repeating the layers one more time, finishing with a final layer of lasagne and a few tablespoons of tomato sauce and a good portion of bechamel.  You can sprinkle with some additional parmesan cheese if you desire, or dot with some butter.  Place in the heated oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until it is bubbling and golden brown on top.  Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.


A little more work than you want to put in for a weeknight supper, this is the perfect weekend or entertaining dish!  Add a salad and some crusty bread and you have a meal fit for a King! Buon Appetito!!!

I have oftimes toyed with the idea of becoming a Vegetarian. I could quite happily live on nothing but grains, fruit, legumes and veg with the exception of one thing . . . a good steak.  I would dearly miss having a good steak. A perfectly cooked steak is one of my many weaknesses! 


 I used to love to go to places like the Ponderosa and Bonanza steak houses back home, where you could get a steak perfectly cooked to your preference (mine is medium rare) along with your desired accompaniments. I would always have a baked potato, as well as mushrooms and onions.  It was always really good.  They knew how to cook steak.


Worst steak I have ever eaten was from a place called Buffalo Grill in France.  It is a chain of restaurants and Todd and I both had gastroenteritis the morning after, with the thing being in common that we had both had steaks for dinner there the night before.  Both medium rare.  Or at least they were supposed to be. 


They were so rare that they practically mooed when you stuck a fork in them. We ate them because we don't like to complain in restaurants and they were expensive.  I also have never trusted that the chef won't spit on my steak if I complain and return something, and so I just err on the side of caution and shut up and eat it.


This steak here today is perfectly pan grilled to medium rare, especially if you follow my directions and use a steak which is the exact thickness that I have described.  Nothing fancy needed, just salt and black pepper.  And a nice hot pan.



The chips are begun in the microwave which makes fast work of them, and then they are finished off in the pan juices from where you grilled your steak, which adds flavour and colour to them.  Easy peasy.


 Just look at that beautifully cooked piece of meat, golden brown and juicy  . . .  with that lovely sauce napped over the top of it . . . the colours and flavours are quite simply fabulous!


You really can't go wrong.  This sauce also goes very well with grilled chicken or fish.  It's herby and earthy from the parsley and slightly tart (I use Sherry Vinegar, but you could use a good red wine vinegar) . . . with just a hint of heat from the chili flakes.



Altogether this steak (small thick rib eyes) combined with the sauce and chips make for a beautiful supper.  All you need is perhaps a salad on the side.  I call this dinner . . . . the epitomy of perfection!! 

1/4 tsp crushed red chili flakes
Heat the remaining 2 TBS of oil in the skillet ove medium heat.  Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown all over and cooked through.  Serve the hot steaks on heated plates with the potatoes and some of the parsley sauce drizzled over top.  Delicious!


Look at those beautiful chips with all of that lovely colour and smattering of meat juices.  Oh boy, some good eating those are . . .  some good.  I hope you will give this a go!  Perhaps this weekend. Bon Appetit!

I love Iceberg Lettuce.  It has such a lovely benign flavour  . . .  not too sharp, not bitter . . .  just right.  I am afraid it gets a bad rap these days.  

I confess, I have had a love affair with Mexican food and flavours for a very long time.  My sister introduced me to nachos one time when we were visiting her. I had never tasted anything Mexican before.  She layered tortilla chips onto baking sheets and topped them with oodles of cheese, and peppers, spring onions, jalapenos, olives, etc. before baking them in the oven. It was love at first bite!



I remember one time I had made a huge batch of Turkey Enchiladas and froze a pan of them for supper at a future date.  My oldest boy had a friend to stay overnight, and I found the empty pan under the sofa bed the next morning.  They had indulged in them as a midnight snack, and I dare say they ate them frozen.  Yes, they are that good. But I digress  . . .


Another thing we really like in this house are Quesadillas.  They make for great appetisers, snacks and light lunches.


 Essentially they are tortillas that are filled with whatever is going, folded over and then grilled or baked to heat up the insides and crisp up the tortillas. You cut  them into wedges to serve and usually serve them with a dip of some sort.


Quesadillas are a great way to use up bits and bobs of things you have that, on their own, are not really enough to feed a family, but when you throw them all together, and then pop them into a quesadilla, well . . . you have something really tasty on in your hands that can feed a few more people than just one (unless you are a greedy gus)!!!


I had some leftover chicken from the weekend, but it wasn't enough to really feed both of us as a meal, it was only one grilled chicken breast.  I put my thinking cap on and came up with these. 


We both really love Artichoke Dip, and we both love Quesadillas and so I combined the two loves and came up with these easy, tasty bites of deliciousness! I chopped the chicken up and combined it with chopped tomatoes, spring onions, marinated artichokes and lime juice. 


I layered this mixture on some corn and flour soft tortillas that I had spread first with some herbed garlic cream cheese.  The cream cheese held everything in place, I sprinkled some pepper jack on top, folded the tortillas over and then baked them in a hot oven, until the cheese melted all scrummy yummy and everything was piping hot!  Alternately you could fry them in a skillet, lightly brushed with oil.



Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.  Butter a baking sheet.  Set aside.

Spread the herbed cream cheese evenly onto each tortilla, almost to the edges.  Mix together the chopped chicken, lime juice, salt, tomato, spring onion and chopped artichokes to combine well.  Spread this onto half of each tortilla over the cream cheese.  Sprinkle an equal amount of pepper jack cheese over each and fold the other half of the tortilla over top to cover completely, pressing down lightly to adhere.  Place onto the buttered baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the cheese has melted, the filling has heated through and the tortillas are turning golden at the edges.  remove from the oven and cut each tortilla into 4 wedges.  Serve hot with your favourite accompaniments.  We like salsa and sour cream with ours.



These went down a real treat as a light lunch with some sour cream and salsa on the side.  They also make great (but messy) appetizers!  Some good!   Buen Provecho!

I adore Miso Soup.  Its not something I had ever heard of when I was growing up and in fact it is only something which I have come to enjoy over the past couple of years.  Japanese in origin it is a usually composed of  a clear broth made using Miso paste and containing noodles and other bits and bobs that you love to eat.  The important parts are the broth and the noodles, after that pretty much anything goes.  I love the flavour of Miso.  Miso is a fermented Japanese soya food made using the special koji fermentation culture and different types of grains.  It usually comes in paste form.


The Yutaka range of authentic Japanese food products was introduced to the UK market in 1995. The growing range now includes ingredients for sushi, sauces, soups, rice, noodles and “easy to use” meal kits. Having been the first in the market, the brand continues to be the leading authentic Japanese range in 16 countries across Europe and the Middle East.

Tazaki Foods, the name behind the Yutaka brand, was the pioneer of Japanese food in the UK when the company opened the first Japanese restaurant in the country over 35 years ago. Since then we have been the leading supplier to the Japanese restaurants, hospitality industries and food manufacturers in the UK. It is these many years of experience in dealing with authentic, flavoursome food of the finest quality that goes into the development of every Yutaka product – demonstrating the Japanese meaning of Yutaka being “Good Harvest”.

Note - I was sent several packs of the Yutaka range of Ramen noodles for review, but was not required to post a positive review.  Any opinions are my own entirely.

This is really such a simple dish, and lives in many places.  Also known as Egg in the Hole, Egg with a Hat or Gashouse Egg, this is a simple and filling dish that pleases people on many levels.  Essentially it is fried egg toast . . .  the unsophisticated sister of French toast . . .  or the country cousin to that old city mouse.


As simple as it is however, it is also capable of bringing delight to those who sit down to enjoy its pleasures.  I like to dress it up a bit . . . sophisticate it a little . . .  with a few additions.


Perhaps that is what makes this the "gangster" cousin of Egg in a Hole.  It is just a simple addition of some garlic powder and some hot chili flakes . . . 


But it works beautifully.  You get a nice slice of fried bread, with a tasty runny egg fried into the middle of it and that toasty little round of fried bread that you can slip on top like a hat.


No wonder children love it so much  . . . and with these simple additions grown ups can fall in love with it all over again.  Of course . . .


 That buttery crisp bread . . . the slight whiff and taste of the garlic.  You could use real garlic, but I find that the powdered garlic works just fine and you don't have to worry about it burning.  Burnt garlic has a bitter quality that is not very nice . . . the hardest part is timing the cooking of it so that the egg stays runny.  Yum!


Butter your slice of bread on both sides.  Using a sharp 2 inch round cutter, stamp out a hole in the centre. Reserve the hole for a bit later.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Lay the slice of bread in the centre and add a tiny knob of butter into the centre.  Once it begins to foam, crack the egg into the hole, taking care not to break the yolk.  Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, garlic powder and chili.  Flip over carefuly when the egg has begun to set and the bread has turned goldenbrown.  Add the bread hole to the pan. Season all with more sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and crushed red chili. Continue to cook until golden on the other side, taking care not to over cook the egg.  You want it to still be runny.  It will only take a few minutes. Also flip the bread hole over when it has browned and brown the other side. Serve the egg toast accompanied with the toasted bread cut out.



 Comfort food can't get any simpler or tastier than this!  It makes a lovely hearty breakfast, or you can make it into a lovely simple supper by adding a few rashers of bacon and a salad on the side.  I can't think of anyone who would turn their nose up at this.  Simply multiply the quantities to serve more.  You only need one slice of bread and one egg per person.  Fresh eggs are the best.  Bon Appetit!