Chicken sandwiches are a particular favourite of mine, thick cut bread, plenty of butter, some crisp lettuce, mayo and warm chicken. Tonight’s sandwich, although tasty doesn’t quite live up to that – no lettuce, no mayo. At least I have one of my mothers rasberry and blackberry tarts for afters.

My father brought us some raspberries from the garden earlier on so I’m planning something a little better for tomorrow…

I’m not in this for a book deal or a movie deal (though fame and fortune would be lovely) but I think I’ve missed the boat with that golden egg now.

We saw Julie/Julia last night, I’d wanted to see it for a long time. I hadn’t read the the book and had flirted with the blog. I didn’t really know who Julia Childs was until a friend in LA mentioned he’d bought her cook book from an eccentric little second hand bookstore in Pasadena (where she was from). His best explanation was; “she’s like an American Elizabeth David”. I was instantly sold.

When we got home, post film, we were up for a new regime. We both enjoy food (Liesel and I), a little too much to be honest. When we first got a house together we had a rule, all meals at the dinner table. Over the past few years that rule has been hugely broken. Dinner is usually in front of tv which makes cutting pork chops and steak a nightmare. We’ve got a lovely traditional pine kitchen table that came from my Great Grandparents farmhouse so we’ve no excuse. However, as usual it’s covered in crap, I’m sat there now and I can see – mail, leaflets, thumbed copies of the Guardian, a signed Gavin & Stacey photo, a 1970’s typewriter bought for £2 and an ashtray from St John (our first foray into Michelin stardom).

On our drive home last night we spotted a sign for a new car boot sale, we both agreed that we were due for a purge of our stuff but we also both agreed that we needed a new shelf to hold our cookbooks. We’ve got far too many, and far too many are either posh coffee table affairs that are occasionally pulled out to be savored but never used or cheap second hand copies that have been bought for value rather than quality. So, here comes the purge of the cookbooks – the plan is to start cooking from them! In all honesty if we were to cook from them every day for the rest of our lives I doubt we’d get through them all.

I should mention that we’re hardened dabblers in the world of cooking – we’ve raised our own animals, followed the ethos of nose to tail eating. We grow our own and occasionally forage, hunt and fish, but don’t worry we’re not evangelical, just enjoy ‘having a go’.

So here’s to a new start.