Back to Jamie Oliver again this time, for a recipe from his ‘Jamies America‘, which I haven’t done that many recipes from. Lisa really like sausage stew, but I thought this gave a nice twist to it so I thought I’d give it a go.

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This was very easy to put together, and it was very nice, although didn’t have a lot of depth for my taste – I’m not quite sure what I could do to improve that. I’ll definitely try it again, perhaps with a few more spices to give some depth.

A bit of a change of direction for this one. I was really just reading through my recipe books trying to get inspired, when I came across this recipe in Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie’s Kitchen’.

We don’t normally eat fillet steak, as we prefer ribeye – more taste basically, and poaching steak just sounds wrong somehow. A point Jamie addresses in the book Still, I decided to give it a go as it sounded quite nice. I did change one aspect and did normal potato mash rather than celeriac as Lisa isn’t keen.

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This was very nice. Not quite what I expected maybe. The steak didn’t take on as much of the liquid taste as I might have expected, but it certainly had more taste then fillet usually does (in my experience) and too much would probably have ruined it. I did cook this for a bit longer than I might have done normally, but Lisa really doesn’t like steak anything other than ‘well done’ so I had to make sure. This is actually one of the easiest recipes I’ve followed, and while it’s not going to replace ribeye in my favourites list, it’s a different take that I will definitely use in the future.

I’m trying to take part in Jamie Oliver’s ‘Pass It On’ movement, as seen on his new TV series – the Ministry of Food. I’m hoping to pass on the recipes to people at work, so I thought I’d better check that I could cook them myself

So, first of all, I decided to try one of the main recipes that featured on the TV programme.

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This was very nice. The thyme was a bit strong which makes me think I used a bit much. Lisa also did’t like the lemon juice squeezed on at the end, so I’ll skip that next time. This was very easy to make though, and I can see why Jamie used it as an example.

This is from ‘Cook with Jamie’. I’ve come across the recipe a few times but never quite got round to using it. Then Lisa asked if I could do something with butternut squash because she really likes it, and this gave me the opportunity to try it out…

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I’ve done this recipe a few times now, and it’s always nice. It can be a bit of a hassle pulling all the ingredients together, but I think it’s worth it

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More food, another Jamie Oliver Recipe (from Jamie’s Italy) , again, slightly adapted. The original recipe calls only for prawns, but I decided to use a seafood selection – prawns, mussels, squid – that sort of thing. Very quick and easy.

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This was very nice indeed, and one that I will definately make again. Maybe just with prawns so that Lisa can have some (she’s not keen on mussels or squid )

We got this nice lamb from Costco, so as usual I went to Jamie Oliver for a recipe.

We actually had two smallish racks, so I cooked them both and we had plenty left over to make sandwiches the next day.

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Overall, this was very nice, and not too much hassle. Lisa wasn’t keen on the thyme in the potatoes so I might miss them out next time.

Yet another Jamie Oliver recipe, that he did on his TV show the other day. It takes quite a while, but most of that is just oven time, so the prep is not that long really.

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Another Jamie Oliver recipe here, from ‘Happy Days’. I’ve no idea why I haven’t tried this one before, because it looks nice (and tastes nice) and is pretty easy.

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This was very nice, and pretty quick and easy to prepare. The only comment I would make is that I either messed up the amounts, or did something wrong with the sauce, because it was waaay too strong. Next time I would do it with about a quarter the amount of mustard.

Played football at Tweedbank last night and won both matches. We play one main match for about 90 minutes, then have a short ‘best of three’ at the end – we won both

However, Yetholm’s match today has been cancelled. It’s a bit of a shame, because I was quite looking forward to it. However, Coldstream are playing at home, so I may get to see them (which doesn’t happen very often). This is assuming that their match isn’t cancelled as well, of course. It also means that I get to watch the rugby – the Six Nations kicks off today, and England’s opening match is against Wales at Twickenham – should be a good one.

Saw Jamie Oliver making pasta the other night, and he did it really quickly. I like making my own pasta, but it can be a bit of a faff doing all the kneading etc. However Jamie just mixed everything up in the food processor and then whacked it through the pasta machine – bonus! Might try that soon.