Food Coma

You know when eat something so good that it makes you wanna snuggle down for a nice, warm, cosy sleep? Let's just say that this week was full of naps.

In food news;
- I made pulled pork,
- I made some magical ketchup,
- It was Pancake Day!
- ICE CREAM!
- Home made ready meals,
- NAPS!

Shredded pork, pure and simple. Who doesn't love that in a sandwich? Pork is fantastic at the best of times but when you make a super sauce for it, you just cannot go wrong.

A fruity and tangy sauce which is just beautiful with pork. I've spread it inside a bacon sandwich, and liberally sploshed it on top of my shredded pork, but so far, my favourite use for it was a combination of the two.

Which is where Pancake Day comes in! This year, sweet pancakes didn't really take my fancy, and I needed to rustle something up for a late dinner. So we made wholemeal pancakes, threw on some pork and bacon (Double threat pancakes!), on went the sauce and then I (not-so-) delicately topped it with some asparagus spears. Meaty, filling, a little bit sweet - a great pancake, but when I think about it, nothing tops nearly half a jar of Nutella on a pancake! Naughty me.

So it was Valentine's Day this week. And myself and Sam have decided that we 'don't do' Valentine's Day. But the big softie couldn't help but take me to the cinema to see Wreck-It Ralph (honestly, if you love retro gaming, animations and a brilliant twist in your storylines, this really is a must-see!) and for a Ben & Jerry's 'Core' ice cream (ICE CREAM!) - If you could put diabetes into a cup, this would be it. But despite the slightly sicky feeling afterwards, my tastebuds definitely thanked me.

This week I also took a basic bechamel sauce and made something pretty simple, a little bit decadent but extremely tasty.

If I could give a fellow amateur cook a piece of advice, I'd tell them to make sure they can get a couple of good sauces in their kitchen repertoire. Basic sauces can be built upon to make a great meal. For example, a smokey Mac n' Cheese.

Okay. So it isn't technically mac n' cheese as it was made with penne but who's bothered?

- Boil up some pasta to packet instructions, drain and set aside.
- Make a bechamel sauce. (Butter and flour in equal parts to make a paste, and add milk. Easy. Just add flour or milk depending on how thick you want your sauce)
- Season well. Black pepper, paprika, granulated garlic (it's much stronger than fresh, so be careful!)
- Take your sauce off of the heat whilst you make yourself some breadcrumbs. (Or buy them, no one's judging you!)
- Mix your pasta and sauce, add anything else you want. We chopped and fried up some smoked bacon. I've said it before - cheese and bacon is a match made in heaven!
- Spoon your lovely, gloopy, pasta mix into an ovenproof dish and whack on more cheese and pop it in the oven for around 15 minutes, gas mark 6ish until breadcrumbs are golden and the cheese is bubbly.

Stick some leftovers in boxes and freeze. I've got some cool foil boxes that I put the mix in, sprinkled more breadcrumbs on and put them in the freezer. Good tasty ready meals and no horse anywhere. Whack it in the oven for half an hour, gas mark 6 (Maybe?) In the foil tin, couldn't get much easier!

Try it and see what you think.