02.09.08: Asian fusion broth with rice noodles and grilled chicken

She is really patting herself on the back for finding this one: Jamie Oliver's fusion broth with dry-grilled chicken plus ginger, Chinese greens (bok choi), and rice noodles. Salad of pear, radish, and spinach, watercress etc. welcomed a celebrity cheese tonite: herbed feta from Spitalfields on Sunday, seasoned with a brined chili.

And check out those grill marks!

SHE SAYS: I knew we'd be having a few decadent meals this week and chose this as a lighter in-between. But the virtuous brothy bowl turned out to be a full-bodied flavour attraction that I would gladly make regularly in the colder months. (Serendipitously, it's quite cold out there tonite.) simply boiling ginger and garlic with top-notch boullion, and drizzling just a little light soy sauce over, made this so slurpworthy, and dry-frying the chicken added big, outdoorsy grilled taste - not easy to achieve on a tiny, indoor stove. The market feta lived up to expectations as salad star, more creamy than crumbly, with subtle, pleasingly metallic chili notes.

HE SAYS: Like a Thai noodle soup, this bowl of wonderfulness hit the spots that needed it most: rich savoury broth, generous chunks of grilled smokey meatness, unfussy plain noodles to surround the flavas and a chili, ginger and garlic kick to grab your attention. This was another summer winter warmer and I savoured every last bit, going back for seconds and thirds. The feta couldn't be better(ed) in the salad and we ate every last delish little bit of it.

26.05.08: Spinach pie and spelt pasta with fresh sauce

Stuffed! He spent the afternoon making spinach pie, packed between papery, buttery layers of filo with the aforementioned spinach, feta, ricotta and a touch of parmesan. She jumped into the fray with a ho-made sauce of fresh baby plum tomatoes, white wine, capers, a big handful of basil, some chopped garlic, prosciutto, onion, and portobello mushrooms - spooned over some semi-fresh spelt pasta bought at the Richmond market. The salad of cucumber, grapes and leaves was rebelliously simple.

HE SAYS: The wet bank holiday at least enabled me to spend some time making the spanakopita that I hadn't attempted in about a decade without any guilt about missing out on frolicking in the non-existent sun. I set aside 3 hours to leisurely put this baby to bed, and so glad I did as it's quite a production. After creating the spinach filling I noticed the ricotta that we'd frozen and defrosted was not looking like it should, i.e. looked like a puddle of water; I had to nip out and get an emergency ration quick smart. When all the filling was prepared, the buttering and layering of the filo dough went smoothly and cooking was a breeze.

The result was very tasty and decadent and will be a nice lunch for the rest of the week. Her pasta was also great, very fresh tasting. The tomatoes hit the perfect sweetness and the capers and dash of white wine added just enough tart and savoury tang needed to round out the overall flavour. The posh bacon, sorry, prosciutto, didn't hurt neither. Salad was very green looking due in part to the inclusion of some green grapes that were camouflaged to the eye but not to the tastebuds.

SHE SAYS: The spinach pie was extraordinarily rich and delish - it's meant for lunch this week, but it sneaked onto the dinner plate somehow (whistles and looks away). The pastry was perfectly crackly and buttery, the filling herby and moist. My sauce was no slouch, either - can anything with prosciutto in it not be tasty? But even aside from that cheat, the tomato sauce itself was sweet and yumsome. The pasta gets a cheerful thumbs up, despite being a little pricey. The cool green crunch of the salad made just the right counterpoint to all the luxurious flavours and textures.

08.04.08: Mustard chops, spinach and mash

She's keeping it simple: lamb chops marinated in mustard, olive oil, garlic and lemon a la Nigel Slater's Food Diaries; charlotte potatoes mashed with milk and marge, finished with slices of dark soy-basted portobello mushrooms (grilled a couple of nites ago 'just because'), and spinach shallow-boiled with a touch of nutmeg. The salad is the decadent bit tonite, with grapes, avo, and feta peeking thru the mixed rocket leaves.

HE SAYS: Definitely a Hungry-Man meal. Enjoyed the mustardy chops immensely, and the nutmeg in the spinach was a dee-licious surprise. Salad was elevated to greater tasty heights with the inclusion of the not-so-goaty feta and sweet, sweet grapes. Thumbs up all 'round!

SHE SAYS: 'Proper food' was the phrase that came to mind when I surveyed my plate this evening. Chops had just enough tangy singedness to the edges and were nice and pink inside - suppose the larger chops could have done with another couple minutes on each side, but it's better than being too tough. Spinach was light and suprisingly filling, needing nothing more than its nutmeg wink to satisfy. The hearty mash found a very decent partner in the mushroom slices, which had a nice gravy effect.

06.04.08: Spring prawn, tomato, and green bean stir-up

Something a little lighter for spring, even if it is snowing: She turned her hand to a slight adaptation of the 'pan-cooked giant prawns with mangetout, peas and butterbeans' from Jamie's Dinners, subbing fine green beans for the mangtout (snowpeas) and less-than-giant prawns, plus sneaking in a couple of slugs of white wine near the beginning The salad nudging in on the scene brought pear, grapes, Apetina feta cheese and mixed leaves to the party.

HE SAYS: A nice, lighter meal compared to recent dinners. Thought the inclusion of white wine was a genius stroke, as it proved the vital base note for the other flavours after simmering. The organic butterbeans had a very interesting and complex taste to them. Will have to try and include them in more recipes. The salad was greatly improved by the inclusion of my favourite feta (I'm very particular about my feta, anything remotely goaty makes me gag) - its saltiness and sharp flavour do it for me, baby.

SHE SAYS: Tasting as I went along, I wasn't sure this was going to be anything but a bland, soupy mess, but the lemon juice and parsely stirred in at the last minute really pulled it all together. Also, I thought this combination of stuff surely cried out for a few cloves of garlic, but I'm so glad I stayed my hand: the result was tangy and shrimpy, with a hint of bisque to it, and garlic would have disrupted the lightness of flavour with a taste too pungent. Felt rather virtuous to chomp down all those green veg as well, esp after last nite's brunchy extravaganza. Like Him, I enjoyed the intensely salty feta, but as you may already know I have a soft spot for goaty cheeses, too - bring on the feta in any form, sez I!