Well today, I had to leave the house in huge Jackie O sunglasses and a wide brimmed floppy hat, to hide from the paparazzi and the autograph hunters. That’s all because I am now a celebrity chef! You may already have seen it for yourself, but in case you didn’t know, Caramel was featured as a guest chef by Jeanne, the creator of A Jeanne in the Kitchen.
Here is the link where you can see Jeanne’s post detailing my recent culinary escapade:
https://ajeanneinthekitchen.com/2019/08/23/we-have-a-new-guest-chef-mels-leek-greens-lasagne/
Jeanne is inviting anyone who would like to be featured as a guest chef to get in touch with her – but make sure you have sunglasses and a hat before becoming a celebrity chef – the paparazzi are a nightmare!!
You can make anything you like! I chose a dish I was make for friends – it was a hit, although one of the lads asked where was the meat. That was after he told me he didn’t mind eating vegetarian food for the evening.
Here was my choice:
Leek And Greens Lasagne – a BBC Good Food Recipe!
First of all. the recipe said to make the bechamel sauce. Here are the ingredients required:
50g butter
1 bay leaf
rosemary sprig, leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 leeks, finely sliced
40g plain flour
500ml milk
fresh nutmeg, for grating
75g cheddar, grated
30g parmesan, grated
And these were the instructions to make the sauce:
Next, it is time to make the leek and greens mixture that will make up most of the filling in the lasagne. Here are the ingredients needed:
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ green chilli, sliced
400g mixed green leaves, such as kale, chard and spinach, roughly chopped
100ml dry white wine
I love garlic, so I actually used four garlic cloves instead of two. I could not find chard when I went shopping, so I had to be content with kale and spinach. The wine I chose was a sauvignon blanc.
Here is the method to combine the leek and greens mixture:
Now, I would recommend turning on your oven to pre-heat it. My oven heats up very quickly, but if you have one of those ovens that takes ages to get going, maybe you should turn it on before you do any of the above 😉
So now we come to the important part – assembling the lasagne! Here are the rest of the ingredients that will be needed for the lasagne:
100g walnuts
280g jar preserved artichoke hearts in oil, drained
100g ricotta
6 dried lasagne sheets
Here some photographs that I took while assembling the lasagne:
And these are the steps the recipe described for assembling the lasagne:
- Oil a medium roasting tin (about 20cm square)
- Tip half the greens into the tin.
- Dot half the walnuts over the top, and nestle in a third of the artichoke hearts. Dot over half the ricotta.
- Remove the bay leaf from the leek bechamel and pour over a third of it.
- Top with three lasagne sheets to cover everything in a layer.
- Repeat the process
- Cover the top layer of lasagne sheets with the remaining bechamel and artichokes and then scatter over the remaining cheese.
Then of course we need to slip the lasagne into the oven and bake! In the meantime, you have the rest of that bottle of wine to keep you busy.
After 30-40 minutes, it should be golden and bubbling and looking delicious:
It will be scalding hot, so it needs to rest for a good ten minutes before you tuck into it.
For me a lasagne is not really complete without a salad and a hunk or garlic bread:
And of course, the rest of that wine!
Hmm. Why do a couple who are in love decide to have a baby and start a family? Why does someone decide to share the gift of life? I guess some may have their own reasons, but surely a father who wants to start a family is thinking of how wonderful life is and how much he wants to share of all it’s wonder with his child. How much beauty and delight there is. Surely he wants his child to enjoy being alive and to love our beautiful home planet.
If you have been blessed to have been immersed in an upbringing marked by unselfish love and happiness, and are used to thriving and feeling satisfied and purposeful and secure, the point of existence is not a troubling question. Life should be many many shades of wonderful. It is a beautiful gift. We have been given the perfect home. There is a huge array of satisfying purpose and exciting adventure available. There is endless opportunity to grow inside and develop beautiful qualities. There are beautiful people to forge friendships with and share all the pleasures of life with. That’s what we and our planet were designed for.
I am very well aware that many are deprived of what they should have – an upbringing within a safe and secure family life. It hurts to think how many may feel alone and lost and abandoned and let down. Too many are used and abused and robbed of their dignity and of their ability to enjoy life. It just breaks my heart.
For many today – life is just an existence. That has to change. Life will be exquisite and enthralling for everyone breathing. That is what the Giver had in mind – and I am sure he cares diddlysquat for those who have developed a system that crushes people’s sense of hope and enjoyment of the real life He had in mind for us.
Adelaide, Australia – I want to be with Goldfinch always. It was very hard to get on a plane and come back to London. I love him. Enough said.
I think reality. Yes, very much so.
All weapons have vanished. No guns, knives, nuclear weapons, military forces can be found. They have all disappeared into thin air without a trace.
An announcement has been made that now that all the corrupt and unjust elements of the world have disappeared, it is time for the event we have been longing for since Adam condemned the human race: tomorrow morning, the Resurrection will commence. You will be contacted with the date that your loved ones will be raised to life and invited to one of the newly constructed centres to welcome back and orientate your loved ones, and help to settle them into this wonderful world, where wickedness is a distant memory and we cannot remember the pain of the past.
Always listen to your Mum and Dad, they are two of the wisest and loveliest people on the planet
I am not particularly fussed about television…but I don’t think I would ever tire of seeing more and more episodes of the BBC’s The Blue Planet. As far as I concerned it should just keep on running all year round. The more we learn about and love our gorgeous planet and it’s creatures, the better. We should be doing a better job of caring for it.
Perhaps. I am a very caring person, so I would be very reluctant to risk harming or upsetting anyone. But I think I was probably involved in some tame practical jokes years ago. They would not have been my idea because I don’t have those ideas, but I probably did the deed.
The only thing I can remember right now is making a drink for a woman who came to visit my mum (she was up to no good I sensed – the woman, not my mum). I was very young, around four or five. That woman was saying nasty things about people. My mum is exquisitely lovely and mild and there was no nastiness about other people in our house. I knew there was something not nice about that woman. I could hear bad words and a meanness in her tone. I put milk, orange juice, tomato ketchup, butter, mouldy cheese I had found in my toy kitchen set, sugar, salt and mixed it all together and gave her the cup to drink. Mum was surprised when I remembered that visit many years later, and she explained who that woman was and why she was complaining about people.
Caramel 