16.12.08: Chickpeas with cumin and sherry

Wearied by a ridiculous pre-xmas work sched, she turned to our fave chickpea recipe for ease and comfort, topping it off by boiling an egg and placing it neatly on top, next to the dollop of ho-made harissa. A pear, avo and mulled wine spiced beetroot salad saddled up for the ride.

SHE SAYS: A pretty good batch, if I do say so myself. Sometimes I let the cumin seeds cook a little too long, but this time they were perfectly toasty, without that slight bitter taste of blackening. I'm liking the holiday beetroot with its heavy-on-the-allspice m.o., and vote to make it our exclusive beetroot add-on for the season.

HE SAYS: The homemade harissa and boiled egg do a perfect job of elevating the flavas of this dish beyond what you would expect, adding an exotic saltiness and creamalicious element to the proceedings. The mix of the avo, pear and limited-edition beetroot satisfied all my salad fixin' tasty requirements too.

08.11.08: Boiled egg, miso and cuppa

After hours upon hours of travel we arrived back in London early in the morning, totally jet-lagged. We slept slept thru the entire day after which She proceeded to conjure up this late night snack/dinner at 2am (US time). The meal for Her consisted of miso soup with glass noodles and spinach with a side of boiled eggs sans soldiers and a freshly brewed cup of tea. For Him, a Marmite bagel with boiled egg was on the menu (not pictured) plus sips of Her soup and his own cup of cha.

HE SAYS: Ooooh, that tea tasted good. Oh, and the egg and Marmite combo is only second to the grilled cheese and Marmite option in my pantheon of delicious midnight munchy food. I helped Her finish the soup and noodles and it was also tasty, in fact, what with the Marmite and miso I nearly went into umami diabetic shock.

SHE SAYS: I pretty much sank into that soup, still feeling really fragile, and dipping into the egg with a teaspoon, sprinkling salt along the way, seemed pure plain-food heaven. Glass noodles are not ideal in miso, but they filled the role of life-giving starch nicely. This meal gave me just enough energy to stumble back to bed for a few more hours!