Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

I’m going to stay with my parents for the weekend so I wont be doing any cooking Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  My friend Mairead (the fountain of medical knowledge) came to visit on Thursday night so I was cooking for two.  However I also wanted to try to be organised for Monday and have something ready for lunch.  On top of that I wanted to make good use of the last of the fresh veg I had gotten from my friend’s garden.  So, I made a bolognese, veered slightly from the recipe to use everything and there was just enough left for a lunch portion which I popped in the freezer to be defrosted on Sunday night when I get back.

Soon after Lorraine started blogging I requested a spaghetti bolognese recipe as I had been kind of making it up as I went along before that.  I have used this recipe since and it is a fantastic dinner to cook for guests, especially if there’s a chance that they wont be on time as you can leave this simmer away for as long as you like as long as you keep adding some liquid.

I started as per the recipe and fried the celery, carrot and shallots (I didn’t have an onion) with a bay leaf and two rashers (I didn’t have any pancetta either).  Then I fried the mince and when that was done I added in the courgette, mushrooms and the peas.  From that point I followed the recipe again. Except for a slight adjustment, I couldn’t bare the thought of putting on dried pasta when I had gorgeous freshly dug potatoes just sitting there so I steamed them and we mashed them into the Bolegnese.  It was delicious but obviously not authentic at all!

All in all this week was a good exercise in cooking efficiently and planning meals that made the best use of the ingredients you buy or acquire. You need to plan quite well but also you need to be flexible with your recipes to a certain extent so that you’re not throwing out perfectly good food.