Up at 4am!

I've a had a busy few days lately but have had a chance to eat some nice food too. Over two days I made the most of some uncooked prawns and did myself a prawn, noodles and salad dish one day followed by a prawn omelette the following day with a side salad. I used quite a lot of chopped fresh ginger to fight a cold that seems to be persisting.

I went to bed really early last night and lay reading until I fell asleep. We are talking 8 o'clock in the evening. Being a huge Francophile I lost myself in the amusing pages of Karen Wheeler's book Tout Sweet borrowed from the library. Previous to that I had listened to BBC Radio online (listen again) on their piece about the French singer song writer Serge Gainsbourg.

I must have nodded off quite early and awoke at about 4am and, not being able to get back to sleep, got up and baked a loaf of bread (with fennel seeds) and a bulk load of French madeleine cakes, like you do. It was pitch black outside at 6am as the baking stint came to a close. I had a cup of Carte Noire coffee and dipped my cake into the hot coffee!!! Well worth getting up early for to get that almond essence rush! Yummy.

As I was about to go this morning to meet up with my friend Stephen my neighbour and sweet friend Jo invited me for a coffee at Delilah in Nottingham. It was a quick visit but as always, Jo was super company.

Tonight I am hitting my cold with lots of garlic, black pepper and onions in a pork stew. Mange bien!