Simple, rustic food...

When M and I first lived together I was aghast at how many ingredients lurked in his kitchen cupboards. He was equally aghast at my lack of interest in anything remotely related to cooking. You could say we met each other half way (though I like to think he's simply come round to my way of thinking). Food can taste just as good with five or less ingredients. That's my general rule. It not only cuts down on time spent in the kitchen and expense but you taste what you're meant to taste. The exceptions are perhaps M's thai curry and his mushroom risotto. He throws in all sorts and they always taste pretty good to me.

I am still discouraging jars of this and packets of that when we go food shopping. My ideal fridge would be an incredibly paired down version of what we currently have but that's not possible with a family of four with their various quirks. J loves ketchup. E likes Mayo. M likes anything with a kick. I like things plain. J likes flavoured yoghurts, E likes entirely different choices of flavoured yoghurts. M likes yet another set of flavours (Black Cherry for instance). I like good old plain Yeo Valley or Greek. Are you getting a picture of how complicated our fridge looks? I have steered everyone towards the plain-yoghurt-goes-with-everything school of thought and even been successful for a few weeks and then somehow the flavoured stuff ends up back in the fridge.

This last week with J back at school and E busy with all sorts (except A Level revision!) I've managed to make simple, tasty lunches for myself. Plain or cheese omelettes, fruit with a dollop of yoghurt, enormous salads, soups. I've found a new way of preparing food that involves surrounding myself with everything I could possibly need and then sitting down to do the work. It makes sense to carry on with this long after my knee is back to normal.

I'm eagerly awaiting a new crochet square for the Last Dance in the Rain CAL to be released tomorrow. In the meantime Ella has spotted a granny square cowl on the cover of one of my magazines that she'd like me to make for her. One the one hand I'm over the moon that my crochet skills can be put to good use and on the other, ugh, millions of colour changes and ends to deal with. I didn't have anything remotely close in my stash so we've pondered over the colour charts and E has chosen a scheme that fits her taste. It'll be a more autumnal/winter result than the magazine version but with pale grey as a backdrop it might just work for colder summer evenings too.

Having completed the week 7 squares over the last six days and whilst waiting for a couple of balls of Drops Alpaca to arrive to finish my simple lightweight shawl I've also started another shawl! Ugh shawl is such a girly word. I prefer to call them triangular scarves. Anyway, this one is a warmer item, worked up pretty quickly in Aran weight yarn. It's one of those projects you spot and then realise you have just the yarn for it! I had a huge ball of light grey that is more than enough for the main colour. I'm just about to start introducing accent colours and then I will photograph it in progress. It's a pretty dull load of old trebles at the moment!