Anyone bored of dinner posts yet?

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate cutting onions? They really affect me for some reason. The gas gets right into my eyes and stings and dries in equal proportions until tears are streaming down my face. So I read that lighting a candle can burn away the gas, and decided to try it last night. I was chopping shallots, which seem to be worse than normal onions, and at one stage I had all the onions gathered around the candle and lordkilljoy comes over and proclaims "hobo onions." The did resemble that - and they looked kind of cute too - two were resting against each other like lovers cuddling.



Anyway - cute an all as it was. Having a candle burning does not help with burning off gases. All it does is make a fire hazard in the kitchen (as later demonstrated by me when I set some kitchen towel on fire by accident). So yea. That was misadventure in cooking #1 last night. Misadventure #2 occurred soon after when I opened the pack of grape tomatoes (like cherry tomatoes, only more oblong). A happy little tomato looked up at me, covered in mould. Now, a lot of cooking following a recipe means that the times are set out exactly and you don't have time to run to the shop, or else at least one part (if not more) of the dish will be slightly (if not more) ruined. So I grabbed the tomatoes and picked out all the mouldy ones, while putting all the good ones aside to be thoroughly washed. Armed with hot water and an inkling that I'd read somewhere that food mould won't make you sick, I powered ahead with the dish and it turned out lovely in the end. And neither of us got sick. Yeay.


Pasta, grape tomatoes, courgette, shallots, capers and goats cheese. You would not believe how excited I was to be able to grate cheese onto my pasta. You can't go wrong with cheese and pasta.