And I wanted...I bought...I made

Bit of a funny week coming up with me being in a competition for Cuisine Cup Sunday so I need to practice my dishes - spiced salmon for the first round, and rack of lamb with garlic potatoes and a cognac sauce. So that's Saturday lunch and dinner! Am thinking as well I may buy some gammon and make ham for an easy supper Sunday and lunches in the week. Monday we are out to see the exquisitely tantalising Ferran Adria in conversation at Queen Elizabeth Hall - about which I am very excited. So dinner may well be a ham sandwich after. Tuesday I am thinking the chick pea dish we didn't have last week, Wednesday we are out but Thursday we are home and will have some pasta. Though I have a lovely nubbly celeraic in the fridge so perhaps it will be soup. Friday my brother arrives so we shall have bacon and eggs and toast and juice to combat jet lag for breakfast - I shall join him to be sociable, obviously. And then I think steak and salad for dinner followed by a selection of finest cheeses.

Borough was spectacularly cold Saturday morning - waaaaaaa! Wore a big coat but forgot my gloves - stupid stupid stupid. Started at the Ginger Pig and bought a lovely rack of lamb - the second in a week as well as the second one ever. When I cooked it Friday night the chops didn't come out evenly and I was worried it would spoil my presentation in the competition if I made it that far. So I asked the butcher if he knew a way to cut them and he was really sweet and showed me the rack and the way it was smaller at one end than the other and so would always cut unevenly. Obvious once you know. Then, greedy as ever, I asked him to cut me a large piece of smoked gammon from what was an enormous piece. He weighed it and it was nearly 3 kilos in weight and £30 - I must have blanched. He was quite happy to cut me another piece from a smaller gammon which was about £20 in money - and someone richer than me will no doubt have bought the other piece. So my total was £32 - and a stamp on my ginger pig loyalty card

Then to Booths for carrots, cucumber, lettuce, mint, spring onions, tomatoes, and green beans costing £6.50


Furness for fish - a thick central fillet of salmon for £4 exactly


Eggs from a well wrapped up Lizzie - £1.70 they have gone up


Spinach from Tony's - £1.50


Bread, milk and yoghurt from Neals Yard - £8.50


A jar of duck fat from the French market - £3


Cottage loaf and a chocolate brownie from Flour Power - £3


So I spent £60.20. Not bad. I already had some courgettes, parsnips, potatoes and a giant celeriac in the fridge from my foray at lunchtime on Thursday so plenty of veg. Also bought basil and tarragon, a large bunch of parsley and some tins of tomatoes and cannellini beans on Brixton Road