Nastrovya!

Managed to get through the weekend without any slip-ups.

After eating at home on Friday night; experimental fish cakes; we headed up to Killer Queen's pad at the North Pole for a few drinks. AJT brought me some wonderful Polish Vodka from the Future so i was all set up for vodka lime sodas. They taste like diet mojitos. The lime is essential; otherwise it's very bland. Killer Queen had present shag-beast in tow, Marty, who seems to becoming a proper boyfriend. Lots of laughs were had by all till Killer Queen decided that although she didn't like spirits, voka was okay. We were home and in bed by 11.

On Saturday we got up early-ish and after a big omelette we headed off to the biggest shopping mall this side of the Past for a nose around. Managed to locate a decent health food store and found some buckwheat (soba) noodles. Not only that, I also got some whole buckwheat for me to experiment with. The main event was actually a South African / Portuguese restaurant that i wanted to try because they do basic grilled chicken and sides; sticky heaven for me! The food was pretty good and i had sides of sweet potato mash and some ratatouille. AJT was naughty (which he is allowed to be) and had some vanilla ice cream with toffee-chilli sauce. After lunch we saw Slumdog Millionaire. See it!

After getting home I spent a considerable amount of time making gallettes: savory buckwheat crepes. After about 3 goes i managed to get the heat and timing right. We had enough for a load of ersatz crespellli filled with meat, peppers and herbs and covered in a pomadoro sauce. The leftover batter went to cinnamon pancakes with berries and yogurt on Sunday morning.

Sunday was spent watching movies and getting the fridge contents ready for my week ahead. I made a pot-au-poulet for dinner giving me enough leftovers for about 4 meals. Luckily, i like chicken. It seems gone are the days of the scrawny organic free range chicken. The bird we bought (from a reputable food hall) was about 2.4kg; much bigger than i am used to buying from our local butcher. I am pleased to say that you do get what you pay for and the bird tasted amazing.