New Dishes and Kitchen Bits

No new recipes from me this week, cooking is still a bit hit and miss! I've been cooking a few new dishes but mostly old comforting favourites like Corned Beef Hash and am inbetween some tests to try and figure out my digestive system, which frankly I am at the point of wondering what on earth to eat and cook as everything seems to be an issue and as a result I am trying to go through the motions of meal planning in the hope I can stick to it! Its so frustrating as I love my food so am keeping faith that once these ghastly tests are out of the way I can eat 'normal' again!

Anyway enough of my moaning, one new dish, that I happily stumbled upon was this Italian Baked Eggs recipe. It was one of those completely unplanned meals, I'd been shopping on Sunday, popped in M&S to get some olives for a friend and being the recipe magnet I am picked up an in-store flyer, then saw they had a food app, which I subsequently downloaded it when I arrived home and within a few minutes saw this recipe and half an hour later it was on the table! I am not sponsored or affiliated to M&S in any way- it just all happened so seamlessly! As I had forgotten to actually buy or thaw anything for dinner too and realised I had all the ingredients it was poetry in motion!

We loved everything about this recipe - the only real changes was adding a spoonful of capers and omitting the basil (I didn't have any). I used good quality tinned tomatoes too - as its a fairly quick dish it definitely makes a difference. For the pesto I must admit I normally buy in a fairly cheap green one but stumbled across some forgotten Sacla Classic Pesto shot, which I was sent as a sample quite a while back - the pot size was the perfect amount for the recipe and the lovely Basil flavour made up for the missing basil! A definite keeper of a dish, the flavours all worked so well together though next time I will halve it - it made a lot of food! I had another portion cold for lunch and I wasn't sure if it would work cold but it still tasted good! Oh and best of all it cooks all in one pan!

As readers will know, I am a terrible magnet not just for recipe cards but cute kitchen stuff too - I have broken so many wine bottle stoppers and was delighted to find this super cute silicon flower bottle stopper! There was a couple of designs but I was good and only bought one, afterall leftover wine is a rare thing!

 This was a lesson dear reader. Do not make jam in the microwave in your soup container.

A new tea on my horizon is this beautifully presented Kenyan Earth from Williamson Tea. I received this close to Christmas but due to some health issues have only just sampled my first mug at the weekend! The tea container in itself is just so pretty, I love the elegant Elephant design and she sits happily now on top of the fridge, stuffed with my Kenyan Earth teabags. The tin tea mug is also super cute to enjoy it in! I am normally an English Breakfast drinker and this tea reminded me of it, though with a little extra body to get me going in the morning but without being overpowering. A very pleasant cuppa! I enjoyed it with a cheese and ham baguette, stuffed with my homemade green tomato chutney and it went very well!

Last but not least I am delighted to have a shiny new knob for my saucepan lid! It was my most used medium sized Meyer saucepan, that I bought somewhere close to 10 years ago - and was gutted when it finally gave up a few weeks back and fell apart in my hands - however I contacted their customer services in the vain hope of getting a replacement, as I really am not ready emotionally or financially to get a replacement pan and they sent me it for free! Yay to great customer service!