176: Walnut and candied peel tartlets, p379

More pastry I didn't make and got out of a packet instead! :) Ah well, that's one thing I haven't mastered during this year...

I wasn't really looking forward to these too much, not being a fan of candied peel, but these were really rather yummy - like a nutty alternative to mince pies. The golden syrup and the candied peel melted together to make a chewy filling to the little tarts. Yum!

174: Inspiration for a lamb chop, p83, and 175: A carrot salad, p308

Oooh, I wasn't expecting this for the lamb chop recipe - only really properly realised it was a salad when I was reading through the rest of the recipe whilst the lamb was marinating. Just using soy and garlic for the marinade worked brilliantly, the lamb was lovely and tender and soaked it all up, and mixed with the spicy, hot, sour, sweet leaves, was delicious.

The carrot salad sounded like it would also be rather dull, but turned out to be really rather nice! Again, don't much like eating nuts raw but slightly toasted in a dry frying pan something happens to them which suddenly makes a big improvement... The dry peanuts, plus the lemon and walnut oil, stop the grated carrot making the salad end up a sodden orange lump. Not really enough for a main meal but a good side dish or maybe even a starter?

173: Roast partridge, p316

Gosh, partridge is gamey. This was a really strong tasting little creature - could only find the one (again in Sainsbury's, bizarre!) so had to do this recipe when T was out, hehehe. Not much fat on a partridge, so it dried out a bit on top (even with the bacon, which went quite dry), I'd have liked to have roasted it breast down but must try and follow the instructions for this challenge!

172: A deli sandwich, p167

I do find sandwiches dull, particularly ones I make, so tend to avoid... but this one was really really good! Oooh, I would have paid good money for it infact. But then anything with parma ham has to be good. Scrummy scrummy. Nice fresh ciabatta, a good handful of rocket, and sundried tomatoes - aaall good. I might have to make this on a regular basis...

171: Roast pork sandwiches, p286

Sainsbury's sells pork belly - who knew? I've been popping to the butcher, going into Waitrose, searching for the damned stuff - and then happen to go into a branch of Sainsbury's whilst on a shopping trip, off my normal beaten track, and there it is - not even on the butcher's counter! Hurrah!

It's tasty but not convinced I like it... it seems so wrong to eat so much fat...

Not the easiest recipe, although it seemed simple enough - the herby oniony mix smelt amazing (and tasted pretty good at the end) but didn't want to stick to the meat and, after halving the recipe, 'tucking' it around the meat didn't really work, I had to kind of squish it around one side of the piece of belly. It still started to burn a bit, even with stirring. But hey, how wrong can a roast piece of meat, sliced up and served hot in crusty rolls with a handful of leaves go?

170: An English cheese salad, p74

This sounded a bit dull and dreary but actually was really rather nice and worked well with the pork steaks, last weekend. Didn't have any Wensleydale and after the trauma of getting some Lincolnshire cheese a few weeks ago, I was a bit lazy and didn't try to hunt any down. We're also ending up with a fridge full of half used lumps of different types of cheese - some people's idea of heaven, but it's taking up a lot of space!! I'm not that keen on nuts normally but I do rather like what happens to them when toasted and incorporated into these yummy salads of Nigel's...

169: A herb butter for grilled chops, p24

Apologies for the lull - been a busy few weeks, but I have been chugging through the recipes, promise!

Lovely jubbly, easy peasy, most difficult bit is remembering to have the butter out on the side in the kitchen so that it's not too solid to mix up with the other ingredients. Lashings of flavour, and all the juices make a delicious sauce which stops the pork from being too dry... if like me you accidentally leave it under the grill for a bit too long... :)