james test

November 29, 2015 We were lucky enough to be invited to a friend's big Thanksgiving shindig on Sunday. She's an expat American and goes all out each year, with a massive meal and loads of lovely guests. To make catering for twenty-something people possible, Thanksgiving was potluck-style, with everyone chipping in side dishes, booze, sweets etc. Cindy claimed a dessert slot (post coming soon), so I settled for something savoury. Cindy pointed me in the direction of Heidi Swanson's veggie thanksgiving roundup and I picked out this super simple green bean salad. It's stupidly easy to make - five ingredients (including salt and oil!), a bit of chopping and 5-10 minutes of cooking and you're done. The recipe below is what you'd do if you were going to serve it up straight away. Because we were cooking it earlier and taking it to lunch, I didn't put the beans in the frying pan, but blanched them separately for a minute and then cooled them down, before combining...

May 31, 2015 Michael's away for his usual mid-winter conference. It's a good time to make recipes that he wouldn't like. This one, for example, is a savoury dish with pineapple in it - a complete dealbreaker for the other half of where's the beef? .  I actually had some organic tinned pineapple in the fridge, having resolutely bought it for my half of a pizza night. (Incidentally, I can definitely recommend the fancy organic tinned pineapple - it's much tangier and toothier than the usual supermarket stuff.) In fact, I had everything I wanted to adapt Heidi Swanson's pineapple rice recipe right at home. And it's definitely an adaptation. I wanted my pineapple chunky, not blended into the dressing, and I fried my garlic instead of leaving it raw. I'm no fan of raw onions either, and elected to replace the green onions and shallots with a sprinkling of fried shallots. All up, my recipe's more a fried rice than rice salad and that's the way I like ...