3 months since the 1st wall came down

and all is great in Kitchen Nosh of Love! When I get round to it ,I will post some snazzy pictures! After 2-3 months of upheaval , dirt and constant people, we are now straight, gleaming and sparkling and ready for some major cooking action. I christened my new hob with a chicken soup fest last week , making nearly 10litres of the homely golden stuff! Im so abnormally excited by the sight of it all potted in the freezer, I can see me turning into a very annoying Nigella type! Its a real pleasure to cook in and finally be able to do some lovely home cooking, as we have lovely new equipment and amazing Anolon Meyer saucepans and pans. They DO make a huge difference in comparison to all my supermarket and cheapo shop bought, (Tescos!), ones Ive had for years, (yes I know, how shameful for a foodie)!!! Its been a great investment if we're to do some intense cooking this summer.

Writing about food on here when all we existed on was takeaways and simple fare didn't seem that interesting to report on, but now were all a flutter planning our very first dinner party in months next weekend ! Were seeking inspiration from the 3 star Chef recipe book from Gordon Ramsey & Thomas Keller of French Laundry, (which makes me think of the amazing Carol Blymire who has cooked her way through the whole book & blogged about it and I must see what her outcome was with what I fancy doing!), I wont say here what as one of our guests reads this and we want it to stay secret for now! How Im going to top Melon soup with basil oil, I dont know! I will report on it all after!

We're also going to great lengths to make our 10 yr wedding anniversary trip to New York in May an unforgettable foodie experience! At the moment we are so overwhelmed with choice we've only booked one night out of the 3! This being the very elegant and modern progressive food restaurant Eleven Madison Park , I will be sure to report back when we return, that's if he the mans doest get all humphy about me photographing everything in sight! Like London we can choose any style , atmosphere and type of food and Im so boggled with it all we've gone into inertia stage for now! I am however using the ever informative Chowhound (Manhattan Board), for real serious talk on where to go and have some experts pointing me in the right directions.

Yesterday I made my rich and dark warm spice beef hot pot and my little cupcake declared it the best thing I had ever made! Praise indeed from my extremely fussy eater! Its the recipe I first started this blog with , so its befitting of a new start in my new space! Its so amazing what a change of environment can do. Although it uses Agave nectar and Ive recently read some worrying news on that too good to be true ingredient. I will follow up with more on that very soon.

Tonight for the 1st time in weeks and weeks we are dining out together and trying a little restaurant in Islington called Sabor and from the menu it looks extremely promising.He the mans can have his favoured caipirinhas and I can hopefully be in ceviche heaven if its on the menu! Im actually getting fed up with eating the same style of food out, (modern British, Italian, French Brasserie...) and to have some new flavours from Brazil & Latin America will be a great change. It might even inspire some new menu ideas of our own.