Monday night firsts

A few months ago the boy and I decided we needed more fresh veg in our lives and decided to sign up with Abel and Cole for regular veg box deliveries. As well as ensuring a healthy dose of vitamins, I think the best part has been all of the weird and wonderful vegetables they send us-some of which I have never heard of!

This week the delivery included a pettypan squash, which is a small summer squash resembling a flying saucer. I have to admit when I first saw it I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but after a bit of online research I felt inspired. My first thought was something along the lines of this but having no Parmesan or marinara sauce kinda put the end to that one!

Finally I settled on this – a medley of roasted veg (including the pettypan squash) on top of a bed of spicy cous cous.

Having never tried pettypan squash before I was pleasantly surprised. Roasting it have it a sweet edge, and it worked really well with the roasted carrots and peppers. It does go a little bit soft so you may want to keep an eye on it whilst it’s in the oven, but mixed with the other ingredients there is still plenty of texture.

I apologise but I did use a ready made cous-cous mix (I think the Ainsley Herriot ones are a good option) but it is a Monday night and it’s been a busy day at work!

This served me and the boy with minimal leftovers. The sweetcorn doesn’t technically go with the recipe but it needed eating.

Given the success of the pettypan I can’t wait to see what gets delivered next time 🙂

Roasted Pettypan, Carrots and Red Pepper with Spicy Cous-cous
one pettypan squash cut into chunks
one red pepper cut into chunks
6 carrots, peeled
2 garlic cloves
1tbsp olive oil
100g cous cous

– heat the oven to 180/200
– put squash, carrots and pepper in a roasting dish with the garlic and olive oil
– roast in over for approximately 45mins (or until the veg starts to go soft)
– meanwhile make your cous cous (follow instructions on pack)
– heap hot fluffy cous cous into bowls and top with the roasted veg
– serve and enjoy

Burgers,bacon,Mac an cheese- a match made in heaven?

So after an impromptu night of drinking on Friday there was no way I was in any mood to cook on Saturday, which gave me the perfect opportunity to visit one of my favourite haunts from law school -Spanky’s Van Dykes.

Spanky’s is a chilled out slightly alternative music venue, with a reputation for incredible burgers and fried chicken. Although I am hardly the best person to comment on the standards of music ( as my boyfriend would be quick to verify) I do love a good burger and the variety there is second to none. As well as a variety of suggested burgers (including a monster munch and emmental burger?!) they also have a whole host of toppings if you prefer to ‘make-your-own’. You can check out the complete menu here

Sadly they were out of monster munch on Saturday, and so I settled for designing my own perfect burger…after a long internal struggle over the traditional (blue cheese and bacon) vs the alternative or obscure (peanut butter and jam) I finally settled for the middle ground- 1/4 pounder topped with bacon and homemade mac n cheese. 

After a very reasonable wait time, my burger arrived…and I was not disappointed. Fat, creamy, melt in the mouth macaroni spilling out from a perfectly cooked, meaty burger,topped with hot crispy bacon….pure heaven!The only slight disappointment was the fries…these used to be skinny double cooked fries but appear to have been replaced with chunkier chips which reminded me of the type you get from a chip shop…nice but nothing special.

One thing I did love was the wide range of condiments: ketchup, mustard, mayo, 3 kinds of Tabasco, hot sauce (plus a few I can’t remember).

Overall this is a great venue with a wide variety of burgers to suit every taste. Add in a good range of beers( Sierra Nevada is usually available on draft) and you have a winning combination for a lazy Saturday afternoon.