Foodie treats!

Today, I was determined not to make the same mistakes as last week, i.e. getting up far too late, and not having a proper meal! Sophie and I watched yesterday's Saturday Morning Kitchen and enjoyed a coffee. I then prepared the vegetables for our spaghetti Bolognese, which I was making from scratch for a late lunch. Sophie had made a chocolate bread and butter pudding yesterday while I was at work so I was looking forward to both dishes!

Keith popped to the local shop to get the Sunday newspaper and a bag of carrots for me, and I blitzed the veggies in our blender - I used carrots, celery, two peppers onion and garlic. After adding the meat, tomatoes, red wine, beef stock and mixed herbs, I let it all simmer slowly for almost three hours.

As well as preparing the meal, we did several loads of laundry so we had a busy morning! By 3pm we were ready to eat because the aromas coming from the Bolognese sauce were enticing! Cooking it slowly definitely makes a difference and the sauce was rich and delicious. Sophie made garlic bread, I cooked a pan of tagliatelle and we were good to go! As a special treat, we 'd chosen a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape to go with the meal. One of our bottles was 15.5%! I thought that yeast died off at 15%?!

The bottle we chose was gorgeous and we really appreciated the wine, trying to make it last until the early evening. After we'd eaten and cleared away, Sophie sat in living room with Keith while I transcribed a few more months of my blog from 2015 onto a word document.

By 6pm we were ready to eat Sophie's rich bread and butter pudding served with cream. Phew! A very indulgent foodie day today, and definitely better than last Sunday!