Where does that hour go?

The official start of Brtitish Summer Time and we've been promised another barbeque summer apparently!  I won't hold my breath but have got a number of recipes I'd like to try over the greying coals of our barbeque so it's just a question of how soon I retrieve it from the shed.

A quiet week in culinary terms - Sunday heralded the return of Rob & Alice home from University so we celebrated with roast leg of lamb with lashings of gravy.  Sue has been rather critical of late about my gravy attempts, so I was determined to improve and sure enough, I resorted to taking a peep at Delia's method - the result was fantastic, even Sue agreed I was getting better!  Other dishes that have featured this week on the menu have been spicy lamb pasties made from the Sunday left overs, a Muscavado & Hazelnut tart (a la Woods).  I shared both of these with my Tuesday golf buddies, Simon and Gregor, during our round.  The verdict on both was favourable all though Gregor did turn a little red in the face when he took his second bite of the pastie and bit into a large portion of a red chilli!  The ubiquitous steak and chips were plated up on Wednesday night with what was left of the Muscavado tart for pudding and more Thai spring rolls and a red Thai chicken curry for Thursday supper. On Friday I thought I'd treat myself with a trip to Waitrose for some fish!  I was not dissapointed but left having spent 3 times what I wanted to - I'm a sucker for gadgets so bought a salad spinner and a new chopping board!  The griddled salmon on a bed of mixed leaf salad and baby spinnach with a spring onion salsa was delicious!
I shared this recipe on Saturday with two of my other golfing friends - the same ones who had been so sympathetic and supportive when I was made redundant.  Andy and Haydn seemed less than impressed - probaby because they don't have the first idea about cooking!  Their idea of a starter is cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick so it was no surprise that sauntering down the 15th fairway they started to extract the urine! "Is that your ball over there Dave, sitting on bad of wilted grass?"  Chirped Andy.  This was rapidly followed  by Haydn's utterance,  "Topped with dusting of mud".  Pearls before swine!
Matt & Jonny are coming for supper tonight so it's the traditional roast beef and Yorkshire puddings but definitely not Aunt Bessies!  I also have to admit that my fine dining this week led me to have a Big Mac whilst out shopping with Jonny - shocking I know, but it was his fault!