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Another week has gone by, and we’ve spent another Thursday at the market. This week started with a bang with me spectacularly locking myself out of my house whilst signing for some post. I wasn’t even wearing shoes, just a dress, whose hemline was too north of the knee, to feel anything but freezing and ill prepared for the situation.
I have a tricky relationship with my postman at best. He has told me off for “neglecting” my post. I explained I work(ed) for a living. Sheesh. So, you can imagine how we both felt when the door slammed behind me with me standing in my porch with nothing on my feet, bare legs, no phone, no keys, no wallet, and I don’t know anyone’s number.
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No neighbours were in, I was well and truly stuck. Even if they were in, I am much shorter than the fences at either side of my garden. The postman, now transitioned from sworn enemy to personal hero, persuaded an elderly Caribbean neighbour two doors down of the severity of the situation and she allowed him to climb over her fence so that we could get at the one next to my garden. No small feat, the man is my height (= short). The relief when he opened the door and let me in, the poor guy was horribly stressed. I resumed my task of menu planning at the kitchen table whilst telling the twitterati my woes, wondering if it was too early to have a stiff drink to calm my nerves. It was.
Back to the task at hand! Prep was very busy this week as I changed the menu, so there was no blog post in advance. I was too busy standing in the center of a very hot kitchen wondering if I could possibly fall asleep on my feet, and how long for? I was feeling on the verge of a Rip van Winkle style coma following another extremely early start.
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I did really enjoy the prep this time though, it was nice to have the variety. As much as I love brown Irish soda bread, if I had to bake another loaf, there may have been a soda shaped hole in my kitchen window or I may have just hit myself over the head with one to make the pain end.
For once, we had good weather. Actual sunshine and lots of it. We also had the fabulous company of fellow blogger Kavey of KaveyEats, who had a wonderful selection of condiments, jam tarts, jellies, nuts and jam tarts. You can read more about it on Kavey’s blog.
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This week, I focussed on tarts, and quite by accident produced an entirely vegetarian range! All open, and savoury, with one exception, a sweet filo tart with blackberry, ricotta, mint & honey. All original recipes, I shall have to scrawl them down and share them. I enjoyed this little tart adventure with sweet foray, and will make more for next week. People seemed to like them too, and that is what this is all about after all!
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I made 4 types of savoury tarts and two types of rolls. I reverted to puff pastry this week, filling the rolls with spinach, ricotta and roast butternut squash and spiced burnt aubergine with chilli, ricotta and roast tomato. The tart fillings were roast beetroot, goats cheese & mint; roast pumpkin, spinach and gorgonzola; spiced burnt aubergine with ricotta, chilli, feta & parsley and roast tomato, courgette and parmesan. All washed down with one of my favourite proseccos from Bisol: Bisol Jeio.
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Not content with starting with a bang, I ensured that I finished with one also, with a spectacular fall in front of lots of people at the market whilst running to get some bread. The stunned stall holder, on the phone, stopped and said “Sorry, a girl has just gone flying through the air and is now lying on the ground. Are you ok?!”. I blame the cobbles. Others blame the prosecco.
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All’s well that ends well, everyone was so shocked all we could do was laugh, and somehow I managed to gather a couple of impressive bruises on my left shoulder and right knee. I literally landed with a thud.
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The verdict? We’re getting there, and I am still really enjoying it. I love making the food, and it’s great to meet readers, fellow bloggers & twitterers. Thanks to everyone that came and supported us.
We’ll be there weekly for the foreseeable future. Next week there’ll be more tarts, something sweet and one of my favourites – CHORIZO! Details as they evolve.
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Thanks so much for all of your support and I look forward to meeting more of you, and cooking lots more food. I love it!
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I'll stick with the cooking, I suck as a signwriter!
Tagged: Covent, Covent Garden, London, Market Stall, market stall, tarts Image may be NSFW.
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