I have been supporting Crowd Farming since March, supporting small farms ( mostly in Spain) who otherwise would have had to ditch their crops. I have supported three such farmers so far and this is not being just Altruistic, but also to inspire myself. ( having seen that we are stockpiling again, this is me! Mangoes, Olive Oil and Lemons !)

Therefore I have bought 5 litres of organic artisan Olive Oil, 5 Kilos of Beautiful unwaxed Lemons ( all now preserved for future use or donated to other cooks and today 5 Kilos of Mangoes from Maria Martinez. I will put them all to ripen, some I will just eat when ready and others will become Mango Sorbet and will also probably try Mango Jam.

Meanwhile, I have a new freezer, but read that as Another Freezer. As I am definitely not going grocery shopping but enjoying experimenting more in the kitchen And with the probability of Covid restrictions looming, and with my current freezer space full to bursting, it was time to expand. My Utility room is small but Himself got out his saw and hammer and Brain to install the new appliance, Success!

Eldest daughter the willowy blonde has a weekly Movie night with her three kids, Alfie, ( born in Sydney 13), Tess ( born in New Delhi, 10, going on ??) and young Sam ( our Mexican, 5), they take it in turns to choose the movie, and not always harmoniously! Whilst in France this summer, we also took part. Going on from that we decided, that as we are not going to the movies as such, we too would have a Pizza Movie night.

I made Pizza and watched Parasite( Oscar winner), which I enjoyed but Himself did not!

We have had another Take Away! Our third in 6 Months, all of which the willowy Brunette has been able to share with us. The first a Michelin starred Indian, which led us to make Fish/ Prawn Moilee, the second a Mexican from a renowned visiting chef. It was a disaster and most went into the bin, and now our third.

It was created by the winner of Master Chef 2020, Thomas Frake. It arrived as scheduled beautifully packaged and was promptly refrigerated. Instructions were in an online video with Thomas himself and a printed version also available. Instructions were followed, a few additions were added ( I had only ordered for two several weeks ago) , wine was drunk and dinner eaten.

Our dinner consisted of:-

Monkfish Scampi served on a bed of Pickled Fennel with Tartare Sauce.

Rack of Hogget ( technically from a two year old Lamb) with a Broad Bean and Pea Purée, crispy Broad Bean Shells, Hasselback Potatoes , with Salsa Verde.

Dessert an Earl Grey Eclair with Butterscotch sauce.

I also ordered the cheese course.

Was fun to cook and eat and of course could have done it all anyway. But would never have thought of keeping the shells of the broad beans and using them as a crispy garnish. The Monkfish Scampi ( did you know that not so long ago, nobody wanted to eat Monkfish and it was passed off in the local chippy as fried scampi), it was delicious and actually would have been happy with just that for dinner.

In fact we saved dessert and the cheese for the following night.

So two days on, the cheese is still in the refrigerator but we have eaten the eclairs. We enjoyed all of the meal but felt for us at least the Earl Grey Crêpe was underwhelming, nice but not especially so but otherwise it was really good. Have never thought of using the shells from broad beans before, I usually just throw them away, but now here is a thought!

Well done Thomas!