My new student is flying! Last week we made this amazing roast vegetable lasagne. I'd never made a roast vegetable lasagne so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but all went to plan and it was very tasty indeed. I'm a little worried I could be out of a job soon though, apart from putting together the recipe and a bit of advice on making sure the cheese sauce was smooth, she did the whole thing. Gonna have to do something really tricky next time or I'll be out! It could probably do with a bit more cheese, there wasn't quite enough saved for over the top, I like it  when you get a nice crispy cheesy topping. It still got 8 out of 10 Andy points, so a potential 9 I recon with this adjustment. Roast Vegetable Lasagne 4 cloves garlic, chopped Olive oil 1 red onion, cut into chunks and separated 1 aubergine, cut in half and sliced 3 courgettes, sliced 1 red and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced 15 mushrooms, sliced 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes, chopped 2tsp paprika 3 tbsp oregano Salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 lasagne sheets 8oz cheddar cheese, grated 2 oz butter 2 oz plain flour 1 pt milk nutmeg Pre-heat oven to 190°C, ...

Since leaving university Andy and his friends have met up once or twice a year in a gathering that has come to be known as "Harcourt" (named after the house/street they shared). Each year they take it in turns to organise the weekend, and this year it was Andy's turn, which meant I had the task of feeding this gruesome looking crew. Originally a strictly lads only affair the arrival of various small people has led to the invite being extended to wives, girlfriends and children. I'm pretty happy about this as although I've only known them for about 2 years rather than the 10 or more years they've known each other, it's a brilliant get together, always loads of fun, really nice to see how much of an effort they've made to stay in touch for all this time. Harcourt has become a definite highlight of the year for me. As we've not been working over the summer we've had a lot of time on our hands to organise things and after a brainstorming session at the pub we got a little over excited (drunk) and decided it should be a Hallowe'en themed fancy dress weekend, hired a clown and set ...

This is my favourite soup of the year so far! It has a really particular flavour, definite Asian influence, a bit sweet and tangy. YUM! It got given a 9 out of 10 from Andy! Woop! You have HAVE to try it. Let me know what you think. Squash, carrot and cardamon soup 1 oz butter 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 400g carrots peeled and chopped 400g squash peeled and chopped, I used a turban squash tabasco sauce 1 tbsp plain flour 1 1/4 pints of vegetable stock 1 tin of creamed coconut juice of one lime 8 cardamon pods Put the prepared squash into a roasting dish with a splash of olive oil to coat and shake over some tabasco to taste. Roast in the oven at 200C until you add to the soup later, but obviously if you're being a bit slow don't let it burn. You'll need to check about half way through and move it around a bit so it browns evenly. Melt the butter in a large soup pan, then add the onions. Cook gently for around 15 minutes or until the onions are soft, but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for a minute , then add the flour and cook for ...

When I was living in Manchester I wrote a series of posts called  Laura's Lesson's about cooking lessons I was giving to my housemate in exchange for piano lessons. It seems they have had some success, we went to visit Laura last weekend, and she cooked us a lovely meal, very tasty vegetable stew, with sweet potatoes and lots of coriander, yummy. I did take photos to show off my former student's achievements, but our camera has broken (sob!) and the photo is no more. One worrying thing Laura mentioned, apparently she was scared to cook for us! It seems we (well Andy) has got himself a reputation for rating meals, and she was worried her her meal would be judged. Hope this isn't putting other people off cooking for us! I promise we're not like some evil restaurant critics, coming round on the pretense of wanting to see much missed friends, then harshly judging your hospitality. Besides Andy gave the meal 8 out of 10, so you had nothing to worry about... erm. Anyway, given the clear success of the lessons I'm feeling more confident with my new student, who I like to call Erm (still can't quite bring myself to ...

Leanne has allowed me to guest post on her blog for which I thank her. This is probably due to the fact that I actually made dinner for the first time in a long time... So what did I make. Well the title above sums it up... Gnocchi. This is something I've never made before but probably eaten a couple of times in the past. However I didn't really know much about what was in it. Well it's actually pretty simple. Basically it's mashed potatoes and flour for the gnocchi and it's best served with a simple tomato sauce for which you just need an onion and some garlic. And luckily for us we have a lot of potatoes in the UK in October. Which is sort of why I chose to make this meal. It's actually based on a recipe from a book called the Boxing Clever Cookbook.  This was produced a few years ago by some of the people involved in the EarthShare CSA scheme. . No, this isn't something to do with the Child Support Agency. It's actually Community Supported Agriculture . This is a new-ish (well new in the UK at least) way of linking the community with the ...