Food glorious food!

It's Friday again! I can't believe how time flies the older you get. Noo's perception of time must be so different from mine. One week probably seems like forever to him, whereas for me, it is over in the blink of an eye.

It is a miserable day here in Sydney, cool and overcast with a stickiness to the air which suggests rain. It is 7.30am and Noo is sitting up eating Nutella on toast in a slow and steady manner which includes occasionally rubbing his Nutella covered fingers though his hair. I am starting with a delicious cup of black Campos coffee which is a smooth as velvet and gives me the jump start I need in the morning.

We have been out all day to the Museum of New South Wales to check out the dinosaurs (or 'Saus as Noo calls them), shopping around town (even though I am completely skint) and generally just enjoying walking around this city of ours.

Food glorious food

I've talked previously about my entire family's obsession with all that keeps us fuelled and satisfied (ie food), which is also pretty obvious from some of the pictures I've posted in the past (particularly see my birthday post). I'm sure a lot of us bandsters have foodie tendancies.

I have always loved to cook, except for some strange reason, I lost my cooking mojo after I moved back from London in 2008. I don't know if it was because I gave up drinking, or because of mostly living with my parents since then (I get an inferiority complex cooking for mum). I don't know. Even when I did have my own place for a short time before Noo was born I couldn't find the inspiration or the creativity within me to come up with the dishes I had done before.

You might ask why I just didn't use a recipe book. Well I did, but even looking through great cook books and online recipes, they didn't inspire me to put knife to chopping board. I'd eat good food if it was cooked for me by my family or if I went out, but generally I was a slack arse at home and had little interest in what I ate. I'd be happy with cheese slices and crackers if that was all that was in the fridge.

For the years preceding this gourmet rut cooking was a sort of relaxation technique for me. After working all day at the office I would drop by the supermarket on the way home to collect whatever I needed for dinner that night. After dropping my handbag on the floor and getting changed out of my suit, preparing the food would relax me and help me wind down for the evening. I loved it. And I was great at it. I cooked meals for one and dinner parties for 12 and canapes for 30. I cooked Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, French, whatever style food. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

While I was living in London and single I still had this ritual on most weekday evenings (not much eating was done on the weekends). While I was there I took a photo of every single meal I cooked using my mobile phone. I don't know where all those pictures are now. Probably most went the way of the phone (landfill) but I did find 38 of them which I have put into a collage using a nifty program called Shape Collage.

Cooking in London

How cool is that!

But like I said, in the last three years I've had a kind of cook's block - writer's block but with food. By having the band installed and starting this blog, I think the block is starting to lift. I'm back in the kitchen!

Clockwise from top left - haloumi, lentil and pumpkin salad; smoked chicken, orange, fennel and quinoa salad;
avocado and tuna spaghetti, crunchy tuna salad with pepitas and sunflower seeds

It is only early days yet but I'm getting there. It is incredibly hard to be motivated when I've got Noo to look after. He is so fussy with food that it makes it hard to cook up anything interesting that we can both share and who has the time or the energy to cook two dinners every night?

I've just got to take it step by step, meal by meal, and I'm sure before I know it I will be entertaining again.

Thank you again for reading. Thanks again to all my lovely followers and especially you cool chicks who always write lovely comments - I love every one of them.

Hope everyone out there has fantastic weekends.

V.