At Home in the Kitchen

I love cooking with fresh ingredients and I love the feeling of putting together a really good meal. When I was commuting to London I tried to get home to cook at least a couple of days a week, but once it got to the weekend the kitchen was where I relaxed. Now that I will not be doing the same journey I can do more in the kitchen and experiment with more meals.

Spicing it up

I have always enjoyed cooking chilli and curry, especially the former, and I love the smell of the spices. Years ago my wife hit upon a mix of spices that was perfect for our curries. She wrote it down on a piece of paper and that piece of paper is still in our cupboard to refer to, having ensured that our meals have the right balance. The chilli was always made with packet spice mix until I found jars of chilli garlic sauce when we lived in Hong Kong. Since then nothing else will do.

Christmas Dinner

In the picture you will see a fairly normal Christmas Dinner from my kitchen. Turkey, whether a crown or a full bird, together with loads of side dishes for people to help themselves to. Actually, this isn’t my kitchen, it’s the kitchen of the holiday apartment we were in when we spent Christmas in Australia. Yes, even on holiday there was no chance of me missing the cooking of my favourite meal of the year. When we got married I asked Janet if there was anything she would like in terms of splitting up the household duties and she said she never wanted to cook dinner on Christmas Day. We have had 35 Christmas Days together and I have cooked every single Christmas Dinner. The feeling of happiness when I see everyone enjoying their food is indescribable.

My weaker areas

I can cook pretty much anything but I am nowhere near as good as my wife when it comes to baking so I leave that side to her. Everything I enjoy most about Christmas is taken care of before the big day as she bakes Christmas Cakes, makes mincemeat for her mince pies and makes Christmas Puddings. She is incredible at that side of the festive season and nothing shop bought will do. I absolutely refuse to eat anything other than her homemade delights and we haven’t bought a mince pie from the shop in well over 20 years!

No idea what I will be cooking this weekend but I bet it will be tasty!