Thanks to whoever suggested slow cooking silverside in a post last week I won't be cooking it any other way in future. It was firm enough to slice but soft enough to break up with a fork. Due to recent serious illness and allergies I now have a very restricted diet which includes no added salt, limited spices and no alliums. I basically live on boiled rice and poached chicken.

Silverside cooked in the slow cooker overnight in 1 litre of homemade beef stock, 250ml red wine, good glug of Worcestershire sauce, glug of light soy sauce. When beef was cooked I removed it and transferred the liquid to a pot. Tasted it and added a little shake of pepper then added cornflour to thicken. Mash was Dunbar Standard potatoes boiled in homemade vegetable stock, mashed with Ballyrashane butter. I also had sweetcorn but it was in a bowl on the side. Yes I really do like that amount of gravy and as it's a liquid counts towards my daily liquid intake. The gravy was so tasty (best I've made in months) I could have drunk it by the cup which I did for lunch served with home made wheaten bread today and the rest I'm going to freeze for Christmas dinner.

For the first time in almost a year I actually felt like I'd had a real meal.

Pork and marmite...

Pork and leek.

M&S custard creme spread between digestives and ginger nuts.

I'm genuinely bang in trouble.

Have you ever tasted something so disgusting, that five minutes later you go back for another try, just to confirm how disgusting it is?

Introducing banana chocolate fanta

I found it at a local newsagent that has a slightly cursed aura

It's bad. Really bad. I would describe it as tasting like an overripe banana you pulled out of a bin. Despite being full of sugar it tastes weirdly sour.

It has one of those flavours that is almost pleasant but not enough to avoid being utterly disgusting. I would describe it as a mix of fake banana, Dr Pepper, bad coca cola, Hershey's chocolate and a weird citrus tang.

Can I call it a cottage pie if there’s no mince? Not even sure if I can call it steak and ale if it’s brisket

Brisket slow cooked in ale, and a garlic and cheese mash

Forgot to get more pics of the process as I was battling taking care of my 6 month old while cooking this

Co-op ale selection wasn’t great so had to settle for old school bank’s

Can get a recipe together and pop it in the comments if anyone wants it

I got two reasonably big duck breasts on a yellow-sticker deal last night. Pan roasted both, ate one over the kitchen sink. The other, I saved for today’s lunch. Cucumber, shallot, tomato, spring onion, and mint tossed in a lime juice, fish sauce, and palm sugar dressing.

These were very nice. A good quality beef link sausage, with a little hint of sweetness from the buckfast.

Bought online from Rendall's butchers in Stirling.

No appropriate flair apologies - On the back of the cookies and the amazing cake. Let’s see….

Sorry for the zoom-in, but it looked too good not to.

Before the chip police arrive, yes... they're frozen.

Ever since my sister-in-law started working at a Polish shop and can get two fillet steaks for £10, I don't bother ordering steak in restaurants anymore. For that price, I'll happily commit the crime of serving frozen chips alongside it. Now I just need someone from the family to get a job in the fish market so I can get lobster at a decent price and complete the surf and turf dream. 😆

I know they don't look super good but it tasted nice.

Avocado, cherry toms and red onion on one, scrambled eggs (not my finest) and rocket on the other. Buttered toast of course.

Big mug of black coffee on the side.

I am in heaven

So I thought id go and get ahead of the game today and buy the Xmas ham. I was looking for something around 2kg but all that was available were smaller ones between 1-1.2kg. Decided actually that’s not too bad as I can stagger cooking them over the festive period rather than doing a big one and trying to consume it all before it dries out/goes off.

It did make me think though, I should probably mix up glazes. I usually just do an orange marmalade and mustard one with honey, but open to some new ideas if anyone has any?

We had 4 hour road trip. Night before leaving we had dominoes, and wanted to stop for some healthy or home made like food. Had a stop at cafeteria.
Presentation 5/10
Taste 8/10
Price 10/10

£2.50!!

My only complain that it wasn’t enough seasoning on potatoes, but then the owner brought us salt, pepper and even random packets of fajita seasoning !! Chicken was very fresh and tender

Mine was the sad half, obviously. You know what, it was pretty good. Not right, but pretty good.

Shout out to basil and spinach.

Mind blown

Only realised whist listening to off menu and Ed & James do an advert for it

Yellow-label chicken crown (£2.38). One half made a massive chicken and tarragon sandwich, the other half became a chicken Caesar salad, made completely from scratch.