Weekend Trip

When we got back home, we straightened ourselves out, put everything away and went out for supper. We have a diner and nightclub at the bottom of the road, Howl at the Moon and their food isn't bad at all. I wasn't very hungry so I just had some chicken wings, Matt, despite having had no lunch, only had a Rueben Sandwich plus French Fries. Quite filling, not that he ate all the fries and when he had finished put the plate well out of my reach. They do make good French Fries and I can't leave them alone.

Some of the best French Fries ever, were at the bowling alley we used to go to in Cambridge (next town) they were cooked from frozen in a machine, but they were wonderful. I would almost have liked to buy that machine when the alley closed down. I believe they never did sell it. My favourite fries used to be MacDonald's until I tried the ones at the bowling alley. Not that we eat in burger joints much, haven't really done so in years.

Talking of chicken, Gordon Ramsay was on Good Morning America today basically because he has written a coobook "Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food" which is about cooking really good food in a very short time. As he told Charlie Gibson, Gordon could cook the chicken dish he showed us in 15 minutes, it might take Charlie 25 minutes. It did look very good and as he said would have lots of child appeal. The segment wasn't long enough, but he had brought green beans which he said was essential and some mashed potatoes and finished off by making caramalised bananas by sprinkling them with sugar and then torching the sugar. If you want to read about it and get his recipe for quick Banana Split click here to read the article. I was disappointed he didn't give his lemon chicken recipe. As far as I recall, he put a little olive oil in a fry pan, chopped a bulb of garlic in half, skin and root included, then added seasoned chunks of chicken, still on the bone and sautéed them until they were golden brown. He then added some Soy sauce to the pan with quite a few thin slices of lemon and when that was fully absorbed and the lemon cooked, he added sherry vinegar to deglaze the pan then served it. But don't take my word for this, buy the book. If you don't know who he is; here he is known for his programme Hell's Kitchen. His language is foul, but from my experience with professional kitchens, language often is pretty raunchy. However, this morning he didn't use one cuss word, I was impressed. He apparently has 4 kids which I didn't know. He has several restaurants in England and used to be a soccer player. Matt doesn't have a lot of time for him, but I like him. He is a properly trained chef too which so many of the cooks we see today, are not.

I have just given you the source for one recipe and the information on another, so no more recipes today. Have a great one.