Sunday lunch on a sunny day in Wiltshire

Last Sunday, with the sun shining on most places around the UK, moods were jovial and everyone felt that little bit shinier. However, with the sun and lovely weather, there is the usual British phenomenon accompanying it called the

‘Shirtless pasty-skin belly juggling event’

(coming to pretty much every town near you)

Anyhow, with the great weather, we decided that it was a good time to try out a chicken recipe from no other than the very precise, instruction-bearing Delia Smith herself. As I am in no way similar to Smithers, I have not included any measurements, instructions or methods below; only nice pictures of how I got from raw ingredients to finished product.

If you stumbled here wanting recipes, tough.

The raw ingredients

The ingredients for the sauce are tomato puree, wine, white wine vinegar, olive oil, onions and some herbs.

The herbs used were rosemary and bay leaves, or leaf in this case.

Smithers called for chopped ripe tomatoes, but our view was, raw tomatoes are better than no tomatoes, hence the pale pink, not very ripe tomatoes you see above. With the chicken browning in the pan, you add the tomatoes and all the items above into another pan, gently simmering until they become a sauce, and add the chicken to the sauce pan.

The cooked product

With alot of skill and effort, the raw ingredients transform to become this dish. With every superbly cooked dish, you need to have the extras, the other dishes, the bits that make the meal whole.

Bring on the lasagne. Fresh egg pasta layered with a vegetable mix, topped off with bechamel sauce and grated cheese, baked until bubbly.

Calling on the bacon roll, sometimes known as pigs in blankets. Little sausages wrapped in little bacon bits, grilled to perfection and eaten in one mouthful. Done to perfection by my bf’s mum, this was really tasty.

And a warm welcome to the roasted parsnips. Eaten by many but usually only one day in the year, these little guys make a perfect accompanying dish to pretty much anything. When roasted well, the crispy skin and sweet, creamy insides beat potatoes anytime.

As with most people, when you say you’re full, you don’t REALLY mean you’re full, do you. Sure you’re full, uh huh, you can’t eat another bite.

Until you see the cake for dessert.

Resistance? Bring it on. Cut yourself a slice and keep it, I’ll have the rest. Orange cake baked by my bf’s mum, another dish well received.