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.

Hotel food V home food !

Id like to say our Cyprus trip was a gourmet fest , but alas it was a bit hotel homogeneous and well just OK on the whole , with a few gems thrown in. I'm thinking it may be down to eating far to much buffet breakfasts and room service club sandwiches!

Due to the Euro everything cost at least 20% more than eating in London, it could also be due to the Hotel we stayed in though from what Ive heard. We tried various ways to keep everything better value , one by eating out the hotel more and also when in the hotel, sharing mains and ordering extras.

We also only had 2 meze's the whole holiday and I forgot to take pictures ,shame really as the one in the hotel at Vieux Village was quite lovely, but with 2 little busy girls in tow , I didn't get much of a chance to click! Oh and there was a 3rd that was Lebanese called Mandaloun which was quite tasty and has inspired some future experimentation this week with chicken livers and spices , but also consisted of lamb balls (I'm not as adventurous as Id like to be, say no more!!!!!!!!!!!!!). We had an amazing fish meal , again at one of the Hotels restaurants called Enalia,

with the most amazing spicy sweet Thai prawn coconut soup Ive ever eaten. We joked and said we needed to phone the bank manager to pay for one portion of fresh whole grilled fish , at £60 for one red snapper !!!!! I managed to get my fave sushi Ikura though at the Hotels Japanese restaurant Kojima!

Kojima at night

The pickle just would not eat properly away though and existed on cereal , bread and chips only and would refuse point blank anything better. I despaired for 10 days and had to look away! Its strange as cupcake was the same 3yrs ago in Cyprus also, so I wonder if its quite common for kids away from home? To this end we've been cooking non stop the last 48hr on our return, so that the girls would be able to eat some good home food.

Bread, bread and more bread

I was overjoyed this evening at her hearty scoffing of vegetables in my just made chicken soup. Two huge pots we made , no less!!! I think I may have linked to the traditional recipe somewhere in my previous posts. Ive just finished a HUGE bowl myself for dinner yum yum yum.

We also made our famed traditional Italian meat ragu yesterday. I cannot take any credit for its recipe , but Delia can here !!! Although I tend not to use the pancetta , or the pork or the liver and sub them for celery , carrots and if possible veal mince. In fact its almost doctored beyond the original! I also add in about 4 slugs of Agave syrup to balance the tomato acidity.

All I know is all my family both in this house and my parents, namely my little sister and her friends come flocking when they know its on offer! It has a deep unctuousness that makes you dip the spoon in the pot over and over , naughty naughty!!