The chef/chefess is tired!

Look at that - home made farfalle!

We have been so busy! I am sooo tired.

I am still chuckling over 'Can I give them back yet?' which makes people look at me on the train.  In particular I found myself chuckling at stories of the 'post-natal' period and in particular those first few nights in hospital when your partner gets sent home at 8pm leaving you there with a new baby, no sleep, no idea what you are doing, and highly likely, quite unhelpful night staff (well, in my case they were unhelpful, quite is being too polite!).  The description in the book was so apt - 'your partner gets sent home at 8pm to drink champagne, have some sleep and congratulate themselves on their amazing virility'.  Ha ha, so true.

And then I think about the following morning when I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for visiting hours to start....and the appointed hour came...and no visitor to relieve me and let me go and have a shower!  I forgot that it was a Bank Holiday and I'd asked him to go and get some supplies!  I remember watching the woman opposite me, on baby number 3, who merrily put a dummy in, swaddled her baby and wandered off for a few hours to 'go get some faaagggsss'.  There I was, wondering - can I leave her? What happens if I leave her? Will someone take her? I must not leave her.  Where is my husband? Where has my brain gone?

Then Arty was born. I went to have a shower and didn't wait for any visitors.  Poor Arty.

Anyway, I digress.  Peter and I have been very busy on the Jamie O Naked Chef challenge front.  Firstly, Peter made a Chicken and Ginger broth from the left over chicken (with noodles, ginger, chilli and other such lovely things).  It was very easy, very quick and very very yummy.  So strongly recommended for a mid-week meal! Yum yum.

Then we moved on - this time to seared scallops with crispy bacon and puy lentils.  What can I say? I've never cooked with scallops before so this was all a novelty.  The lentils were great (and went well with sausages later in the week!) and the scallops only took a few moments to cook.  Now then, the picture perhaps doesn't do it justice, and I'm sure Jamie O would be shocked, but it was really really yummy and really really easy!

Look - it's steaming hot it's so fresh!

And finally, we made pasta.  Why did make more pasta? Well, mainly because we have embarked on a vegetable box trial so we now have some vegetables to use up - namely courgettes, green cauliflower, fennel and other things such as cherry tomatoes (all gone), red peppers (think I might stuff these) etc etc.

So, we made some pasta (see the farfalle above) and made the tagliatelle with courgette, lemon and basil.

Hence, we are shattered.  Too much cooking.

But have had some culture too - a trip to see the Gruffalo live at the theatre which was great (despite the calls/screams for 'I want to see the Gruffalo again mummy') and today I had a meeting in an office with a great view over London.  Just a shame that as with the rest of the summer so far, the weather was basically pants.

Here is the Shard on your left and the wheel below.